In the past...

Uatu watched.

In the future...

... it will finally be possible to give 110%.

I imagine after a great catastrophe, when society was being rebuilt, the only media that remained were sports broadcasts and reality shows. They just assumed that's how percentages worked.

Because I haven't done one of these in a while...

Via Ragnell:

Thank you, Geoff Johns.

For putting Pig-Pen in the new JSA.

The mysterious second assailant.

After I pasted a timely link to the cover of Swing With Scooter #1 into an IM session with my disco-buddy, he pointed out the lower-right corner:


Kenny, huh? Short for Kenneth? And he seems to know an awful lot about frequencies.

Does this mean William Tager was a disturbed Swing With Scooter fan? (Not that I'm implying anything about fans of that work.) Or was Scooter himself the other assailant?

We may never know.

(Also worth noting, Joe Orlando, the artist on several Swing With Scooter issues, went on to edit the original Swamp Thing series at DC. Swamp Thing. Coincidence? I think not.)

In which I notice another thing.

Comics fella Warren Ellis:


Musician Warren Ellis:

(See it in action.)

Conclusion: Every Warren Ellis will at some point sport a totally awesome beard.

Therefore: I am going to change my name.

In which I notice a thing.

Get Fuzzy's Chubby Huggs:


is a family-friendly Bueno Excellente:


(Hey, 100th post! While on hiatus, no less!)

Why I love comics, part 2.

Swamp Thing #73, Veitch & Alcala

Could this be my last post ever?!?

In case the hiatus wasn't obvious, it's official now.

I've been spending my time doing my best to emulate the great comic book artists of my generation.

That's right—I've been playing a lot of video games.

I'm sorry, that joke was facile and based on lies.

Wait, what's that?

Earl?

You wanted to say something?


Oh. Well, there you have it. Thanks, Earl.

(Edit: Okay, I've used up all the good games for now. Back to comics!)

The year-ish in review-ish.

I see all sorts of people have been doing year-end wrap-ups with all kinds of crazy categories and whatnot. Well, I've been busy! That Rick Olney meltdown thread isn't going to read itself, you know!

In order to catch up, I got a few books out of the library and have read approximately the first quarter of each of them. With that knowledge under my belt, I can confidently hand out the following awards:

Most Awkward Book of the Year:

Premillennial Maakies: The First Five Years, by Tony Millionaire. At 12.25" by 4.75", this long, slender hardcover is the Bob Barker's Microphone of comic strip collections. I tried reading it in bed, and it made my elbows hurt. This book was also a shoo-in for the Most Unwieldy Book of the Year award before I realized that was redundant. Favorite strips so far: main strip, p. 34, mini-strip, p. 53. Look them up in your own copy!

Most Mental Book of the Year:

Abraxas and the Earthman, by Rick Veitch. I don't know if it's possible for mushrooms to drop acid, but if it were, this book is what it would be like if a peyote cactus ate those mushrooms and washed them down with a large bottle of Robotussin. Better than Star Trek IV!





Most Narrowly-Focused Comics-Related Publication of the Year:

Writing for Comics with Peter David, by Peter David. Ignoring Soulsearchers, David has only co-written 27 stories in his entire career, according to the GCD. Will one lucky reader of this book get to co-write number 28? I mean, the early parts are interesting, and I assume the parts about writing with Peter David come later, but that just doesn't seem like it would be very useful.

The Things I Get For My Birthday

There was a card:


Anyone know whose Spidey that is? I'm inclined to guess Bagley because of the ass and because he's the only Spidey artist whose work I've actually read.


I thought the point of these puzzles was some sort of memory and observation test. But I guess it also works as a 'telling the difference between two things, both of which you can see' test.

Maybe I'm just not the intended audience.

Anyway, even better than that?

Goddamn Batman Chuck Taylors.

That was probably the best birthday present I've ever bought myself, even if I do have too many shoes.

Today's fantasy novel comics reference.

Their banners flared and flapped, a pageant of color: red ox and golden mountain, purple unicorn and bantam rooster, brindled boar and badger, a silver ferret and a juggler in motley, stars and sunbursts, peacock and panther, chevron and dagger, black hood and blue beetle and green arrow.

-- A Clash of Kings, p. 417, George R. R. Martin

Two Panels.

In which I fall in love with Joe Casey (or possibly Brian Holguin):

(from Mr. Majestic)

It's too bad that's out of print.

In addition to the overall excellence and the similarities to Casey's Wildcats, it also made me much more anxious to read Gødland*.

* A Gødland bit my sister...

Hey Freddy...

Which upcoming Marvel MAX comic book about a mutant character created by Warren Ellis are you most looking forward to?

Why does Superman hate America?

Shame on you, The CW!

As I watched last night's Smallville, I was glad to see that the liberal, bed-wetting pansy of a "superhero" known as the Green Arrow was finally being portrayed correctly, which is to say, as a villain.

His stealing from the super-rich to give to charities, I thought, was a fine allegory for the crushing tax burden the super-rich must endure, only to have those monies be used for foolish things like "social programs" and "roads."

Though Clark Kent initially fought this foul brigand, he eventually came to sympathize with the filthy communist!

Do the writers of this show forget the great Revolutionary War-era slogan, "No taxation [...]"?

Surely the letters CW must stand for Civil War, because that's what their perpetuation of these evil socialist ideas will surely lead to.

Also, Lex & Clark OTP 4eva! XD

An actual entry.

Last night, I decided I wanted to spoil Civil War #4 for myself (if it's possible to spoil a book I don't read, that is). The first place I went was the YABS forum on CBR, where I thought I might find some discussion of it.

It was also the last place I looked, and I didn't even get to see any spoilers. Why? Because the J-Bolt thread has gone crazy-go-nuts!

Three months ago, which was about 3 months after I forgot all about it, activity resumed. Soon after, OMAR popped up to defend Mr. Bolt.

That went on for a while, as it tends to do.

Then...

After a month and a half of that...

J-BOLT APPEARS.

Sure, I spoiled it, but nobody was going to read all 90 pages anyway, right? I recommend it, though. My favorite part so far is his grim-'n'-gritty "don't get offended, PLEASE, LADIES!" pitch. (I'm only on 227—sorry, page 227—at the moment, so there might be further, even more awesome developments since then.)

_____

And of course I haven't neglected the library.

They got in volumes 4 and 5 of Cromartie High School, which made me squeal with delight. I also got the first 3 volumes of Yotsuba&!, which was all kinds of adorable and strange. I'm sure there's all sorts of Yotsuba's dad/Jumbo yaoi out there, but I have yet to look for it. For some reason.

They've been getting a lot of recent graphic novels too, like Deogratias, The Lost Colony, Can't Get No, and the much-anticipated Sloth. I enjoyed the latter two in a Donnie Darko way, by which I mean I liked them, but I'm pretty sure I need someone smarter than me to explain them. I also got Tony Millionaire's twisted and brilliant Billy Hazelnuts, which I read the first chapter of while walking home. Yet another reason I don't drive...

More lazy Flickr-blogging.

SHAZAM!

Edit: While I'm at it, I bit into a piece of bone in a sausage yesterday. I would like the people who made that sausage to please cease and desist linking[...]. I do not need, nor want, your sausages.

(Why do all the greatest things on the comics blogohypercube always happen (or in this case, climax) in the Wednesday-to-Friday-ish period when I'm not reading anything?)

Sweden loves Jack Kirby

No, I don't know who Svag is.

Re: The Events of Ultimate Spider-Man #99

Dear Messrs. Bendis and Bagley,

MORE CLONECEST PLS!

IT = T3H H4WT

LIKE THIS:


K THX BYE

--Leigh

An interlude.

I know this isn't comics-related, but I thought maybe one or two of the three of you might have played Magic at some point.

If so, do you know how to judge a card's grade? I imagine it's a lot like comics, and I just found my Mox Pearl while looking through my things:

(Click for full image.)

Anyone?