Gabbity-Gabbity-Gab: Got Around To It: Jeff’s Reviews of 5/24 Books.

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 31, 2006

Categories: Reviews

So, did anyone catch Art School Confidential yet? Edi and I caught it on Sunday and thought I would talk about it in a non-spoilery way before gabbing on last week’s books. ASC is a weird little film and, frankly, I don’t think it’s at all successful in what it tries to do. But what’s interesting about it is that everything that makes it a failure as a movie would’ve made it successful as a graphic novel (particularly a Dan Clowes graphic novel). As you probably know from any slight interest in the film, ASC follows freshman Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) as he enters Strathmore Art Academy and learns that neither unremitting ambition nor sizeable talent is going to help…  Read More…

A Very Long Post: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 29, 2006

Categories: Uncategorized

…than the Allemany Flea Market. Edi and I went with our pals Rob and Rachel Ginsberg today, as we’ve been telling each other forever we would. The idea is that maybe Rob and I would team up to sell some over our copious amounts of crap and split the cost of renting a table together, and this would be our chance to research the market and see how it shaped up. That was what we were supposed to do. What we actually did, of course, was pounce on any box of comics we could find and rifle through, holding up particularly unappetizing examples to each other. Which is how I found issues #2-5 of Captain America by Rob Liefeld and…  Read More…

Arriving 6/1

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Posted by: admin on May 28, 2006

Categories: Shipping Lists

Remember that this week comics arrive on THURSDAY, not Wednesday, due to Memorial Day. If you go into your Local COmics SHop on Wed looking for new comics, be warned they will likely laugh and point thier fingers and you, and mock you once you are out of sight. 52 WEEK #4 ABC A TO Z TOP 10 AND TEAMS ACTION COMICS #839 AGE OF BRONZE #23 ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z #5 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #532 ANGEL SPOTLIGHT GUNN ONE SHOT APOCALYPSE NERD #3 ARMY OF DARKNESS #7 ARTESIA BESIEGED #1 (OF 6) BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #206 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #0 BETTY #156 BOMB QUEEN #4 (OF 4) BOOKS OF DOOM #6 (OF 6)…  Read More…

Spoilers Ahoy!

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on

Categories: Uncategorized

Spoiler the First: Please remember that because of the holiday weekend, CE (and other fine comic stores everywhere) will be getting new comics in on Thursday, not Wednesday. Spoiler the Second: Unless someone in DC’s marketing is being super-crafty, Batwoman’s secret identity is spoiled in this story in the NY Times today which concerns itself with the concentrated effort on the part of DC to create (and Marvel to spotlight) more superheroes of color and sexual orientation. I was actually just thrilled to see the new Blue Beetle below the fold on the front page of the A&E section. Spoiler the Third: I’m on vacation this week, which means that while, yeah, I probably will do reviews, I probably won’t…  Read More…

I’m not dead…

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on May 26, 2006

Categories: Uncategorized

…I’m just sick. Which is very annoying, because it means I’ve not picked up Scott Pilgrim 3 yet, nor had a chance to bitch about Moon Knight #2 from last week or say that 52 #2 was better than #1. Someone who is healthy, however, is Brian, who’s got a new Tilting at Windmills up at Newsarama, so go and read that while conducting magical ceremonies to make me healthier.

Hibbs does 5/17

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Posted by: admin on May 24, 2006

Categories: Reviews

Huh, it looks like it’s just me this week, as late as I am in posting. Just wrapped TILTING AT WINDMILLS, and Ben and Tzipora are still at the park, so let’s see how much I can get written… 52 WEEK 2: Yeah, character piece. Or pieces, whatever. Liked this issue quite a bit, esp. the Morrow and Magnus scene (Lester says Morrison, I say Waid), and it moved right along, doing exactly what a weekly comic should do. My problems were all in the art — a) that’s such the wrong angle for Ralph’s nose to wiggle, and, anyway, it’s kind of out of tone to do that at your wife’s grave, b) that crappy paste up job on…  Read More…

Arriving 5/24

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Shipping Lists

Pretty big week this week, with lots and lots of hero comics. Plus, some little book called SCOTT PILGRIM. Might have to look into that one… 2000 AD #1486 2000 AD #1487 52 WEEK #3 AMERICAN WAY #4 (OF 8) ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #11 ANNIHILATION RONAN #2 (OF 4) ARCHIE #566 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #170 AVENGERS & POWER PACK ASSEMBLE #2 (OF 4) BATMAN #653 BIRDS OF PREY #94 BLACK PANTHER #16 BLUE BEETLE #3 BUCKAROO BANZAI #1 (OF 3) CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #21 CATWOMAN #55 CHECKMATE #2 CHICANOS #7 CONAN BOOK OF THOTH #3 (OF 4) CRISIS AFTERMATH THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN #4 (OF 6) DAREDEVIL #85 ETERNALS SKETCHBOOK EXILES #81 FANTASTIC FOUR A DEATH IN THEFAMILY FUTURAMA…  Read More…

The Pilgrim Dilemma (and other things unrelated to Jeff’s reviews of 05/17 Books…)

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Posted by: admin on May 23, 2006

Categories: Reviews

Sorry, 52: this week’s release of Scott Pilgrim Vol. 3 is the first book in a long while that would make me hurry to the shop on a Wednesday. In fact, only the dread logic of “the sooner I read Vol. 3 of Scott Pilgrim, the longer I have to wait for Vol. 4″ is keeping me from showing up before the store opens on Wednesday and filching my copy. (Hmmm. “Filching.” That’s another word deviant sex practices have ruined forever. Edi and I are rewatching Season Two of Arrested Development (which even on a second viewing is astonishingly funny) and the writers may have included every gay innuendo in the English language except “filching.” With luck, that’s in season…  Read More…

52 week 1 (via Hibbs) & shipping this week

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Posted by: admin on May 17, 2006

Categories: Reviews , Shipping Lists

52 WEEK 1: Well, I’ll be the odd man out on this one. Perhaps I’m just able to compartmentalize my thinking a little more than Jeff or Graeme, but (except for the first two pages, where they kind of force the point) I was able to divorce my brain from INFINITE CRISIS pretty easily and look at this comic on its own merits. The first thing I like was the “re-compressed” story-telling — there’s a lot of characters in here, and a lot of things going on, and I thought this was agreeably dense. I also liked the “heroic structure” — we have 2 characters that have bottomed out (Montoya, Ralph), a hero who lost his way (Booster), an anti-hero…  Read More…

Crab & Crab Again: Jeff’s Reviews of 05/10 Books…

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Posted by: admin on May 14, 2006

Categories: Reviews

Yeah, sorry, I just don’t know what it is, but I haven’t been too crazy with the comic book love lately and I don’t know why that it is. Part of it is probably “kid in the candy store” syndrome. By the time Hibbs came in yesterday (around 2:00), I’d already read all the new books I’d wanted, and even thought there was some pretty decent stuff, yet when he asked me about the week’s books, I was all…. “Meh.” Two things that aren’t meh: Guitar Hero, which generous reader and snark king Mojo was kind enough to lend to me, and Wheeler’s awesome list of Marvel’s 50 Best Characters (link cribbed from Spurge). The former is a game for…  Read More…

51 Weeks To Get Better: Graeme reviews that 52 book no-one’s talking about.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on May 13, 2006

Categories: Reviews

By now, everyone knows the pitch for 52, right? It’s a world without Superman, a world without Batman, a world without Wonder Woman… but not a world without heroes. But here’s something else that it’s a world without: Introductions. This might be somewhere where my inner DC fanboy counts against me, but I felt as if all of the main characters in this issue, with the exceptions of Booster Gold and Black Adam, didn’t get anything close to a proper introduction here, being reduced to stock roles (Steel is the responsible hero, Montoya the self-destructive ex-cop, Ralph Dibny the suicidal grieving widower) with vague dialogue that alludes to past storylines and series without properly explaining them – This might be…  Read More…

INFINITE CRISIS #7, a review

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Posted by: admin on May 8, 2006

Categories: Reviews

INFINITE CRISIS #7: Otherwise known as: The Issue That Outstayed It’s Welcome. I read IC #7, and thought, “Holy cow, that was bad!” That didn’t seem like it could be right, so an hour later, I read it again. Same thing. Then I decided to read #1-6 again, to see where it went off the rails — and, no, I liked those issues to greater or lesser extents. And it made me understand I didn’t like #7 because the main story should have STOPPED at the end of #6, leaving this just for wrapup and explanation. In some ways this issue is perfectly encapsulated by the double page spread on pages 2 & 3 — everyone is sort of just…  Read More…

Never underestimate the lure of bitching pointlessly: Graeme’s review of two books from 5/3.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

I really should be outside and enjoying the sunshine, but there’s so much bile in my heart and two big books to write about, this week… CIVIL WAR #1: I admit it, I think I may be genetically disposed to disliking this book – The pre-release hype advertising it as something “important” beyond a superhero crossover, the subtitle “A Marvel Comics Event In Seven Parts”, my general dislike for Mark Millar’s writing… the idea of me enjoying this was somewhat of a distant hope. And yet, somehow, it still feels like a letdown. The basic idea behind the series – Regular Americans turn on superheroes after a disaster, and force government to draft legislation requiring heroes to become government agents…  Read More…

Free Comic Books! I have read! For your education! Before you pick them up! Tomorrow! On Free Comic Book Day!

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on May 5, 2006

Categories: Reviews

So, yeah, X-MEN / RUNAWAYS? It’s kind of Eh, which is both surprising and depressing. I’m a big fan of Brian K. Vaughan normally, but due to stagefright, deadline or editorial edict, he somehow managed to write a lead story for this book that’s devoid of any of his usual wit or even anything resembling an interesting plot: The Runaways meet the X-Men, they fight, and then they don’t. The end. It’s a waste of a lot of good characters and a potentially interesting situation, not to mention Skottie Young’s cartoony art. The other features in the book – a new Franklin Richards strip, a preview of the new Marvel Adventures: The Avengers book, and a recap of Ultimate Spider-Man…  Read More…

Guest Review: UNAUTHORIZED AND PROUD OF IT

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

Not that I’m going to do this very often, (but I thought once was ok) here’s a guest P/review of a new film, reviewed by Peter Wong, author of the “Lost in Pictopia” column that runs in ONOMATOPOEIA. A longer version will appear in the next issue of CEO. -B UNAUTHORIZED AND PROUD OF IT: TODD LOREN’S ROCK ‘N’ ROLL COMICS–(D: Ilko Davidov)–Boy wunderkind Todd Loren created Revolutionary Comics as a medium for melding his love of both rock and roll and comic books. Yet what would have been in theory a dream marriage of disreputable cultures turned into a nightmare…and Loren and the Revolutionary Comics staff thrived on it. Davidov’s documentary does a solid job of portraying how this…  Read More…

Arriving 5/3

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Posted by: admin on May 3, 2006

Categories: Shipping Lists

Yet another sick week here — this time it wasn’t me though, it was Ben. Poor little guy. It started last Tuesday when something in his jaw swelled up like a golfball (“bacterial infection of the salivary gland” was the Dr’s best guess — though he was scared it could be Mumps, despite Ben being immunized). There is nothing in the universe — NOTHING — worse than a sick kid. Someone who is normally vivacious, and curious and loving and enthusiastic suddenly just sitting there like a lump, moaning in pain, where’s there’s virtually nothing you can actually DO for them. It REALLY stinks. Well, we put Ben on antibiotics, and wouldn’t you know it, though it was very effective…  Read More…

Pantalons sans Robotieres: Jeff’s Reviews of 4/26 Books…

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Posted by: admin on May 2, 2006

Categories: Reviews

Here’s a question for the Savage Commenteers: can a man who’s sucked at every other rhythm game to date find happiness with Guitar Hero? Or will it just be a waste of cash and flashy peripheral controller space? Discuss. And in non-maybe-it’s-finally-time-to-hang-up-my-PS2 news: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #531: Like many of JMS’s machinations, I find the idea kinda interesting, and the execution lousy. If you buy into the conceit behind the Spider-Man movie, Peter is particularly vulnerable to the influence of a father figure, and Tony Stark could be filling that bill so much that Spidey can’t see he’s being led around by the webs. But that’s not what I’m getting from what I read; that’s what I get when I set…  Read More…

Robot Pants: Graeme’s reviews of the 4/26 books.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on May 1, 2006

Categories: Reviews

With absolutely no proof whatsoever, I would like to blame Brian Hibbs for the fact that I spent the last week sick on the couch and feeling sorry for myself. There is almost no way that Bri could’ve made me sick – What with him being sick for the last week or so, I hadn’t even seen him for a couple of weeks – but lack of reason has never stopped me before… AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #531: The Road to Civil War is, apparently, not lined with good intentions, but mediocre comic books. The first of J. Michael Straczynski’s two lead-ins to Marvel’s big crossover event this week, this is another example of the creators being much more excited about their…  Read More…