7 posts tagged “comics reviews”

Our secret love's no secret anymore! Unless you've been living inside a giant vagina-like opening in space, you know that the big bad in Geoff Johns' magnum opus Blackest Night, currently coming out from DC, is that reject from Skeletor's family reunion picture, Nekron, Lord of the Unliving. And if you read Tales of the Green Lantern Corps 1-3 back in 1981 like I did, you saw it coming a mile away.

What you may have missed, like I did the first time, was that Nekron is a big, fat, flaming Queen of the Night!  I discovered this when I let him take over my latest contribution to the Queer Eye on Comics column over at the Prism Comics site. He may be a terrifying master of all the deceased souls of the universe, but he can still camp it up with the best of them!

After you read Nekron's little piece, you can find links to my (other) QEoC offerings right here. Toodle-loo!

You can shoot them with Omega Beams, disintegrate them with a giant machine meant to consume the multiverse, even blow them up with a good, old fashioned booby-trapped World War II plane... but they still come back for more! Ever wonder why so many dead comic book characters just refuse to stay dead?

Turns out they've all got a serious jones to out-do the Big Guy. You know the guy... wonderful... counselor... the Prince of Peace. That's right: Jesus H. Christ.  They all saw the way he came back into continuity after a mere three-day absence, and ever since, they've been trying to one-up him.

But how does the Last Son of YHWH feel about it all?  Having granted me an exclusive interview just in time for the big anniversary of his greatest performance EV-ER, I have explained it all in my latest offering for the Queer Eye on Comics series over at the Prism Comics site, which was so great, they had to publish it in two parts.

As ever, you can find a complete listing of my increasingly hilarious offerings to this now FIVE YEAR OLD continuous column right here on this blog.  If you're into that sort of thing. And let's face it -- you are. You might claim to be here for the recipes, but we know better, don't we?  Mm hm.  We do.

Happy Easter!

This emphasis on Christmas has given me an idea for a new adventure in writing for the Queer Eye on Comics column over at Prism Comics dot Org!  The editors there will rue the day they mentioned the words "How would you like to try to make people laugh with ham-handed jokes about comic books and penises and stuff!  With a holiday twist!"

At least... I think that's how it went down. Maybe I'm not remembering entirely correctly.

Boner. Boner. Boner. Boner. 

Yep... still funny.

I am a big fan of podcasts, and they are my constant companion on my walk to and from work, while puttering in the kitchen and while trying to tame that wild, fly-away hair that won’t behave.  Since I am also an avid consumer of comic books (yes… the kind you’re thinking of), it stands to reason that I would really love a podcast about comics.

Enter: Comic Geek Speak!  Now, with the nerd set constantly angling to get in on the latest tech trends, you can bet that there is no shortage of podcasts (both video and audio) about that other geek passion, comics. CGS, though, was – I think we can say – one of the earliest entries into this field. They are very unpolished, unedited and unscripted podcasts that routinely run nearly an hour or more.  And far from “podfading” once the initial bloom is off the rose, these prolific guys broadcasting from (literally) a basement in Wyomissing, PA, consistently put out, like, 2 and 3 episodes a week… and sometimes more!  They've already reached well over 500 episodes, and have spawned their own CON.  That’s hardcore, dude.

Part of what makes their podcast so fun (aside from feeling like you’re just another one of the gang listening in on a conversation about the latest DMZ trade or what’s in the new Previews, or which is better: Trek or Wars**) is their message boards.

I have never really got into message boards, but these guys on the show talk up their Forum so much, I had to check it out, and I have been really enjoying reading, posting, and getting to know these folks. I’ve had distant friends before that I didn’t really know face to face, so that is nothing new, but this is the first message board I’ve ever managed to enjoy.

One of the posters started a “Ten Trades in Thirty Days” challenge thread this week. It spun out of a “30 Movies in 30 Days” challenge some friends had been into. Since reading 30 trade paperbacks (often the collected, soft cover edition of runs of individual comics, or “floppies") would be hard to do in a six months let alone one, he reduced it to ten and threw out these guidelines:

• The Graphic novel/trade must be at least 40 pages.
• 5 Graphic novel/trades you have never read
• 5 Graphic novel/trades must be non-superhero comics.
• Post the list here 

He later gave us a framework for quick reviews to share of what we were reading to share on the thread. I was up for the challenge, and I thought I’d share the list, and the eventual resulting mini-reviews here.  Here is my list:

KEY:
* Never read before (5)
^ Non-superhero book (5)

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, vol. 1: The Long Way Home

and

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, vol. 2: No Future For You

I just started re-reading the Buffy series from the individual issues, so I am counting these as 2 trades. I am realizing all over again how awesome it is. Despite the lack of capes, cowls and throwable tiaras, I don’t think we can call this a non-superhero book. I mean fight scenes, flying, even masks? Come on.

3. DMZ vol. 1: On the Ground*^

This book has caused the biggest rift among two of the Comic Geek Speak hosts since the infamous “Which is better: Superman I or Superman II?” incident. How can I call myself a true fan of CGS and not weigh in on this important controversy?

4. Essex County vol 2: Ghost Stories*^

I have heard about this series, like, every day now for a week. Jesus wants me to read this book! James proprietor of my LCS, Isotope, suggested starting with volume 2. He said it is better and the story isn’t so very sequential. This was a rather controversial bit of advice according to the reaction it got on the boards. Ah well…pass the Kleenex, I hear this one is a tear jerker.

5. Ex Machina vol. 6: Power Down*

I have been reading all the trades of this series, and really loving them. I also consider this a superhero book, though a decidedly different one. Plus… Tony Harris. Awesome!

6. Exterminators vol. 4: Crossfire and Collateral*^

I can’t say exactly why, but I really do like this series. It’s weird and freaky and just a leeeeetle bit magic. Plus I like the idea of humans as just another vermin infesting the Earth. Despite our relative cleanliness, I think we might just be. I’ve been holding on to this trade for months now, so this is the time to finally get to it.

7. JLA/Avengers

I have the individual issues close at hand and have only really flipped through them here and there over the years since they came out. One of those flip-throughs was when CGS hosts Peter and Murd did their AWESOME Footnotes episode on these books. To say those episodes were exhaustively detailed is putting it mildly.  For example, there was one episode JUST FOR THE COVER OF NUMBER THREE ALONE. That’s the kind of anal retentiveness…er, I mean attention to detail I can whole heartedly support. 

8. Marvels

I like that the two real superhero trades I’ve chosen are both by Kurt Busiek. He is a huge favorite of mine. I love remembering how I and others reacted at the time to the Alex Ross painted art. Remember that in 1994, he had only done some Terminator comic and a book cover or two. It was mind-blowing, and the story was pure gold. Can’t wait to re-read it!

9. Presidential Material: Barack Obama / John McCain*^

This is a fun thing I picked up today: IDW has apparently published two biography comics called “Presidential Material,” one starring Obama, and one starring McCain. This collected edition I have has both in one as a flip book. I hope it has something good to make fun of!

10. Serenity: Better Days*^

I missed out (as usual) on Firefly when it was on TV originally, but have since watched the whole series and the movie and loved it heaps. I have been waiting for this trade to come out of the recent mini, and now here it is!

 

Now… I guess I’d better get reading. Of course naturally all I want to do NOW is watch Battlestar Galactica on TV….

**It's Trek. And everyone knows it.  In your face, Deemer!

So, Basie, the local 7-year-old whose comic I reviewed a while back to much notable acclaim over at prismcomics.org, has finally gone totally pro: he had his own in-store appearance at my LCS, Isotope Comics Lounge.

James Sime, Isotope's mad monk, was the first to champion this budding writer/artist's career, famous as the place is for its wide selection of 'zines, mini-comics, and self-published manifestos. Months ago, I picked up Basie's first offering, The Masked Mutant #1, and wrote what I thought was a not unfunny piece: treating two comics made by kids who could barely write their own names as though they were breakout talents up for the Eisners. Not that I don't know anyone like that, of course....

Well, there Basie was... bent over the drafting table James sets up for these occasions, surrounded by adoring fans, signing autographs, doing sketches, and showing off his portfolio, his original paintings, and a whole painted cityscape made of re-purposed milk cartons, mailing tubes, and even a Tinker Toy container. Folks in Artist's Alley in San Diego next weekend take note: any booth with a home-made city complete with tiny cars becomes 85-90% awesomer automatically. Fact of life.

Basie's parents were there too, and heaped mountains of undeserved praise on me for writing the review, which they said they had gotten MUCH pleasure out of sharing with friends and family. His dad even had a copy of the review printed in what I joked was Basie's "press kit." The delighted gleam in his eye made me feel badly that Masked Mutant #1 had to share my column with another kid-made comic. Maybe Wizard will finally go to press with that Basie retrospective I hear they have in the works, and thereby right that wrong once and for all.

While perusing his portfolio (I am not making that bit up: the kid ACtually had a full-on portfolio), I saw a comic starring a ninja. In a cringe-worthy misspelling moment shred by us adults, we noted he spelled it "N-i-g-u-s." Maybe he uses Jesse Helms' old dictionary? On one page, the ninja is recovering from battle injuries in that ever-popular comics device, the hi-tech tank of bubbly water -- usually a "micro-nutrient bath" or somesuch -- meant to heal anything from acute radiation poisoning to elective surgery scars caused by installing that Adamantium skeleton you always wanted.

I told Basie that this reminded me of The Vision, a synthezoid character in Marvel's Avengers, who was always getting destroyed and ending up in the aforementioned tank. It now occurs to me that we never once used the term "synthezoid" when talking to Basie, preferring the much more generic "robot." Were we somehow afraid that word might corrupt his innocent brain? I suppose it's best to leave the sensitive discussions to his parents. Like the correct spelling of "ninja."

At any rate, I found a reference pic or two in the shop and asked Basie if he'd do a drawing of The Vision in a bubbly tank for me, encouraging him to illustrate extensive damage where appropriate. What he turned out was the absolute greatest: there hangs Mr. Scarlet Witch, a few body parts floating loose in the tank, eyes closed and dreaming synthezoid dreams. The undisputed highlight, though, was that Basie even thought to include The Vision's yellow cape in the scene, hanging on a conveniently placed hook right on the side of the tank.

Please forgive me if I get a bit dramatic, but I can scarcely convey what joy it brings a fanboy like me when he sees a kid like Basie not only NOT forget Vision's cape, but also include it in a place where it won't get ruined by stubborn micro-nutrient stains. That, my friends, gives me great hope for no less than the future of the Geek Race as a whole. Excelsior!

Basie, I hope you had as good a time as I did today! As for you James, score another one for The shop and your unbesmirched rep as the dude living on the bleeding edge of coolness. Isotope Comics Lounge: They won't get micro-nutrients all over your cape.

Unless that's what you're into. This is San Francisco, after all.

I've gone and done it again... I've written another semi-humorous gem for the Queer Eye On Comics feature over at Prism Comics' website. This time, not content to poke fun at questionable crap like Cage and Rob Leifeld's vast body of work, I take on a little book called Action Comics #1. It stars some crazy guy who... get this... wears his underwear on the OUTSIDE of his pants!  And his undies are RED!  That spells comedy gold.

The article is due to go up tomorrow, but you can get a sneaky preview here.  For more of my work in this regard (say you need something to get you to sleep and can't find your copy of War and Peace), see my post celebrating four years of writing for the series.  And they said it couldn't be done!

Or... did they say it shouldn't be done?  I can never remember.

Leave the pans at the neighbor's; the kids in the sink... my latest masterpiece for the Queer Eye on Comics coulmn for Prism Comics is going to be posted soon. For the sneakiest of previews, peep dis.

In other comics news, a brand new comics shop has opened up in Hayes Valley... practically on my way home from work. Isotope used to be located in the hinterland of SF's Outer Sunset, but now they've moved to what is quickly becoming one of the coolest neighborhoods in town. It's a great great store, and looks amazing. The staff there is incredible and really go out of their way for the customers. I highly reccommend a visit.

Because of this, I have already bought my first bunch of comics in almost a year, and have read some great stuff. Now readers of my blog might actually discover what my real taste in comics is. Hint: it's not Ninja #1.