New Comics!

Alright...I'm a little late but better late than never right?

As with all of my comic talk I'll premise by saying that I talk about old comics too since I was in Scotland for a year and let them pile up. I buy a few new ones here and there and supplement them with arcs of titles I've kept running.

Green Lantern #s 7 and 8-
These were a last ditch attempt to test if I was to continue reading this series. Besides the treatment of Hector Hammond and Coast (Ghost) City's rebuilding I have found this new series to be uneventful, boring and pedestrian.

Now, I loves me some Geoff Johns but he struck out here. His attempt at bringing back the Neal Adams glory days of Lantern and Green Arrow by further ripping off an Alan Moore story sealed the deal.

Green Lantern is a character whose very premise allows for limitless possibility of storytelling but to rip off two different stories and pass them off as something new, clever and cute is downright blasphemous.

No more I says! But next issue has Batman using a power ring so I may have that one as my final issue. Someone out there tell me if it's worth it.

The New Avengers #s 11-13-
Oddly enough, I went into this arc (the Ronin arc from a while back) not wanting to like it.

It had a few strikes against it: 1) I already found out who Ronin is and 2) I know what Bendis did to Alpha Flight in a later issue.

But what can I say, I loved it. His grasp of dialogue between these characters (particularly Spider-man, a character I don't really like) is very tight. Makes me wish I'd been reading Ultimate Spider-Man. Although I won't be playing catch-up on them anytime soon.

Finch on the art chores is impressive (although I'm a little bored with the whole early 90s Image art look). His action scenes are things of beauty. Particularly the ninja assault on Avengers Tower.

Ninjas, Hydra, Silver Samurai? Check! Me likey.

All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder-
This was also the last time I was planning on buying this series. I have found Miller's take on Batman as an abusive and outlandish sounding asshole has turned me off. This issue, however, rescued this book from being wiped from my pull list.

Black Canary was very cool even though that jump kick drawing used on the cover and in the issue is way overused by Jim Lee. See: any issue of X-Men where he drew Psylocke or any issue of WildCATS where he drew Zealot. Christ! He even used it on Batman!

Evolve Jim!

Otherwise, I'm in for the new issue where we see Miller's Superman. I hope he's the fascist he was in Dark Knight.

Desolation Jones #5-
No complaints whatsoever. Although the art in this issue made me wish I read Promethea. JH Williams III has some really cool panel layouts going on here.

We see the desolation test in this issue which is a little different from what I expected.

Pick this comic up people! Its premise: LA is a prison city for spies put out to pasture. Jones is a British spy nutter who is on a quest to retrieve Hitler's homemade porno tape.

Awesome.

Teen Titans #32-
Johns is redeeming himself. I love this book.

I'm not a fan of Tony Daniel's artwork so call me pleasantly surprised to discover it is actually drawn by Todd Nauck despite Daniel getting billed on the cover. I'm not really a Todd Nauck fan either though.

Teen Titans is one of the books I'll be following with DC's One Year Later. Mostly for the upcoming inclusion of Titans East and the continued appearances of Doom Patrol. Johns, I'm sure with the help of Grant Morrison, is working on amalgamating the messed-up continuity problems with Doom Patrol and despite being a confusing read for anybody new to the series (or those who haven't heard of the Doom Patrol before) I loved it.

Cassie's character (the silent archer) is wonderful. She isn't over the top like Green Arrow or even too broody like Arsenal. And the arrow she used on Superboy Prime (don't ask) in this issue? Beautiful.

All-Star Superman #2-
There have only been two issues released and this is already one of the best comic series ever published in my opinion. Morrison captures what it must be like to have godlike powers through simple toss out dialogue.

I truly look forward to each issue.

Quitely is an amazing artist.

I believe I'm reading really fun pre-Crisis Superman comics with updated art. This makes me happy. I can't wait for Morrison's upcoming Batman work.

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More comic stuff later!

Yeah yeah yeah...

So I posted and promised new stuff over the next few days and disappeared for 5 days. So what? I'm busy, tired and not feeling well.

Long story short:

-Court thing came and went on Monday. Little surprise: nothing was resolved.
-Started the new job on Tuesday. It's only 2 days a week but I've been there every day this week (and paid for it) as a sub. This means some strange amalgam of a 0.4 contract paycheck and a bunch of days paid as a TOC (a lower wage) may mean that since I won't be so taxable as a full time employee I may walk with a whopping paycheck this month. Which would be nice. I'll talk more about the job when I feel I have a grip on what I'm doing. Flying. Seat. Pants.
-Cade has been sleeping very little, much to the chagrin of his parents. He seems to be sleeping all day today which may mean that I'll be up all night with him. Little bugger.
-New comics, maybe even later tonight.

There, updated.

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In closing I thought I'd post a few links:

-The fine folks at Angry Alien have created abridged 30 second versions of all of your favourite classic movies, starring who other than animated bunnies. They're fucking hilarious. Here's one of my faves: The Exorcist.

Night of the Living Dead and The Shining are also notable hilarious horror adaptations. Spend a few minutes going through them.

-Finally, this brought tears to my eye in some strange real-life Radio meets Rudy life story. View the video here. I may be softening up in my old age but it is an awesome story.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Yes, folks. It has been a year of comics, movies, music and inanity from me.

A lot has happened in this last year: moving back to Surrey from Scotland, moving to Port Alberni from Surrey, starting teaching, and...oh yeah...a little thing like having a son. I've also made some great friends over this blogyear all because of blogs. Who'da thunk it?

Speaking of that son, I've got some time to cuddle so I'll bid adieu after letting you know that I'll be back over the next few days with new comic reviews (!), court/legal news on Monday and an upcoming job!

Thanks to everybody who has read, commented and lurked on this blog over the past year.

Here's to another year!

Still, more themes of me via interweb quizzes...

...I'm usually portrayed as the animalic, hairy guy (Wolverine, Werewolf, etc.) and here goes another:

Your results:
You are Worf

Worf 70% Uhura 60% Deanna Troi 55% Will Riker 50% Jean-Luc Picard 45% Chekov 40% Spock 39% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 35% Mr. Scott 35% Data 31% Mr. Sulu 30% Beverly Crusher 25% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25% James T. Kirk (Captain) 25% Geordi LaForge 20%

You are trained in the art of combat and are usually intimidating.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

Happy Valentines Comics!

Check out my eBay Comics Auction Extravaganza!

It is sure to be updated with more new and old stuff throughout the week.

If you would prefer to buy or trade privately contact me and let me know.

Boo!

Don't take parenting advice from this fella but this might be my favourite online video ever.

A quick thought...

if Canadian media isn't showing the cartoons of Muhammed so as not to offend anybody then why does no one remove Ashlee Simpson from my television?

Uzumaki

Back in October I won a contest (well, 2 actually) at Dark, But Shining and I told Sam, the incredibly nice fella who put this particular contest on, that I would review my winnings. Here goes:

I should preface this by saying that my experience of manga is woefully inadequate. I enjoy Domu and Akira but that is like saying that you know everything about American comics by reading X-Men and Superman.

The farthest I've delved into Horror Manga is Oninbo and the Bugs from Hell by Hideshi Hino. Again, this is like saying I like horror movies because I've seen Scream once. I didn't really like it.

I'm a little averse to japanese comics due to the incredible bulk of them. There are just a lot of them to choose from. When Uzumaki crossed my path. All that hanged.

This is one of the best horror comics I have ever read. Junji Ito is a brilliant horror artist. He uses dark space as well as Mike Mignola does, maybe better than Mignola. The art is intricate and innocent yet creepy.

It's not the art that really grabbed me. It is the episodic yet thematic story thread. A coastal town in Japan begins to have odd occurrences. More specifically, it is cursed by - as the tortured male lead Kirie says - by the spiral. Uzumaki, is Japanese for "spiral" by the way.

His father is the first afflicted by this curse. Obsession bounds him as he collects spiral imagery until he is found dead in one of the most beautifully horrific death imags I have every seen.

The story continues in successive chapters by outlining the next object of spiral obsession. Kirie, and his girlfriend the main character Shuichi, investigate each strange happening. Of course each of them ends badly with the ashs of a cremated body taking the form of a spiral in the air above the town before being deposited in a lake.

The story is what grabbed me the most because I find manga storylines, in English, to be very poor. The dialogue is pedestrian and the plot serves to show terrible thing after terrible thing. Not here, my friends.

Here, there is a sense of creeping dread that builds and builds. It is Lovecraftian in every sense of the word. The dialogue is tolerable. It is well adapted into English. The best I've seen yet.

My one complaint is that it is not an insular story and I now have to pick up volumes 2 and 3...damn you Costello!*

*And thank you sir!