Da da da daaaaa, da da da da daaaaa: Graeme is still sick, and sick of Countdown.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on October 31, 2007

Categories: Reviews

So, now that Countdown has reached its halfway point, with the release of COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #26 this week – Hey, new title to remind people that there’s a point to all of this, and that point has Grant Morrison and JG Jones involved! – it’s probably time to look back on the last six months and look at what we’ve learned from the experience so far. Namely, Countdown? Kind of a mess. The main thing, I guess, is that DC learned none of the right lessons from 52. Well, that’s probably not true from DC’s point of view, I guess; they learned that weekly books could sell, for one thing. But almost everything else that was right about…  Read More…

I Dismember Halloween: Douglas jumps the gun on 10/31

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

Since I’d thoroughly enjoyed 52, and especially the storyline that involved Renée Montoya and the Question, Greg Rucka was kind enough to pass along some photocopies of the first two issues of 52 AFTERMATH: THE CRIME BIBLE: THE FIVE BOOKS OF BLOOD. (I may have the title wrong: some sources say “Lessons” rather than “Books,” and I haven’t seen a finished copy yet.) The first one, drawn by Tom Mandrake, comes out today; despite the fact that she’s not mentioned anywhere in its tripartite title, this is the new Montoya/Question story, and it’s really satisfying to see Rucka writing her again. For those of you who didn’t follow 52, one of the odder additions it made to the DC universe…  Read More…

The (Lack of) Shock of The New: Graeme finishes off 10/24

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

I’m still sick. Have mercy. CASANOVA #10: The first Casanova issue that hasn’t come together for me, and the problem is that it feels as if half of the story is missing – After a great set-up, the fall of Dr. Toppogrosso feels entirely unsatisfying; he’s an evil man who specializes in playing mind games on unsuspecting victims, but he falls for Zephyr’s pretty unsophisticated seduction remarkably easily. It’s a shame, because the rest of the issue – including the set-up, but especially the subplots – crackles with the same wit and energy of the rest of the series, and I think my eyes are finally getting used to the bold blue coloring. Sadly, a low Okay. The cover is…  Read More…

Arriving 10/31/07

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Posted by: admin on October 30, 2007

Categories: Shipping Lists

Hope you like things related to COUNTDOWN! 52 AFTERMATH THE FOUR HORSEMEN #3 (OF 6) A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #68 (A) ACTION COMICS #858 (NOTE PRICE) AMERICAN VIRGIN #20 ANITA BLAKE VH FIRST DEATH #2 (OF 2) ANNIHILATION CONQUEST QUASAR #4 (OF 4) APOCALYPSE NERD #6 (OF 6) ARMY OF DARKNESS FROM ASHES #3 BATMAN #670 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #179 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #80 BIFF BAM POW #1 (RES) BONDS #2 (OF 3) CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #38 COUNTDOWN LORD HAVOK AND THE EXTREMISTS #1 (OF 6) COUNTDOWN TO ADVENTURE #3 (OF 8) COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 26 COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #2 (OF 8) CRIME BIBLE THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #1 (OF 5) CROSSING MIDNIGHT #12…  Read More…

From Back in the Day…

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on

Categories: Uncategorized

“There is arguably no piece of the American Zeitgeist that was more dadaist, more bleak and more intimately allegorical than Schulz’s Peanuts.” Catching the tail end of last night’s American Masters on Schulz (and all the essays surrounding the recent biography) made me think of the tribute I wrote for the CEO newsletter back in 2000. It’s brief, but seems very much in synch with the current appraisal of Sparky’s impact.

Johanna Catches Up…

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

Trying something new… quick takes, to break my block. The Flash #233 — A writer as experienced as Mark Waid should know not to write stories picking at the scabs of superhero conventions. No good will come of examining the fraying fabric “realistically”. As soon as the Justice League says “we’ve come for the kids”, I laughed. The people who hung out with Mia and Wonder Girl and Robin are trying to tell a real parent how to raise his babies? Flash points this out to them, along with a grim message of potential death for the young ones (because Sim forbid that having powers could be FUN), and they all back down. Watching the Justice League stand around like…  Read More…

Primed for disaster: Graeme talks with Authority from 10/24

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on October 29, 2007

Categories: Reviews

So, on Thursday, my boss comes into work and she’s dying of what looks to be the worst cold known to humanity. We all yell at her that she should go home, that she’s going to make the rest of us sick, and she says that she’ll stay in her office the whole day. Friday, she comes in again, still sick. We all yell at her again, tell her that she’s going to make us all sick, and she goes to hide in her office for the whole day again. Today, I am dying of the worst cold known to humanity. Thanks a lot, boss. Shall we get to comics, instead? Unlike Diana, I don’t really think that THE AUTHORITY:…  Read More…

One Door Opens: Diana sees some Firsts and Lasts, 10/24

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

Well, it’s been an interesting week: some new beginnings, and a somewhat unfortunate ending. Let’s get right to it, shall we? I’m hard-pressed to find a more radical transformation this week than SHE-HULK #22: with Dan Slott’s departure (he’d be writing Spider-Man right now if Joe Quesada’s shock collar still worked), Peter David takes the book in a completely different direction. That’s to be expected, of course – David and Slott have very different senses of humor, with the former leaning more towards quips and puns while the latter works better with goofy, cartoon-esque scenarios – but I didn’t expect to become so interested in the story. It may just be that David has more experience in the field, but…  Read More…

My Life is Choked with Comics #12 – Judex

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on

Categories: Reviews

Let me start this one off with a question. Why does Batman laugh so much in All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder? There’s a number of possible, more-or-less mutually inexclusive answers. First, maybe writer Frank Miller is completely fucking nuts, and simply has no control over what his fingers are doing anymore, which, naturally, is why he’s been entrusted with creative roles on expensive movie projects. Or maybe he’s trying to tell jokes. I’d say about half of them make me smile. Alternatively, perhaps Batman’s cackle is an authorial one, just barely masking Miller’s sneer toward a readership he holds in low regard, even as he scoops up their cash. Just recently, in an interview with The Comics…  Read More…

The A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words Department

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Uncategorized

Since Hibbs is having trouble posting this….

The Happy Place

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on October 26, 2007

Categories: Uncategorized

I was a little surprised how much I enjoyed Disneyland, actually. It probably was seeing it through the four year old’s eyes, of course. A bitter old man like me? I’m generally cynical about those kinds of affairs, but Ben just was full of joy and wonder of the whole thing, that all of that cynicism kind of washes off. We went down on Wednesday night, catching the “last flight in” — well, from Oakland to John Wayne, at least. I think I’ve decided to never EVER catch a flight from SFO again, if there’s an equivalent flight from Oakland, because Oakland is such a teeny little airport. We get to Oakland, via public transportation (of which the only kind…  Read More…

Another head hangs lowly: Graeme goes XXX from 10/24.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

The quickest review of CRAWL SPACE: XXXOMBIES #1 that you need: Remember “Planet Terror” from Grindhouse? Imagine that starring the cast of Boogie Nights, and that’s just what this comic is like. The slightly less quick review: Surprisingly, it doesn’t suck. I’m not sure if that sounds like damning with faint praise or not, but man, I’m really sick of zombie books at this point (Marvel Zombies 2 review aside. And even there, I was really surprised by the fact that that didn’t suck, either. Maybe I was just reading bad zombie books?), and despite the creative team attached to this book, I was pretty much assuming that this would be a pretty average 22-or-so pages with little to recommend…  Read More…

Abhay Likes Sean Phillips’s Covers for Vinyl Underground, But…

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Posted by: Abhay Khosla on

Categories: Reviews

This is a negative review of Vinyl Underground #1, a new “ongoing” series from DC Vertigo: Why does DC-Vertigo think that I give a flying fuck about London? Does London have New York City in it somewhere? No? Then, I don’t really care about London. Right this second, you have a plane ticket to anywhere: would you really go to London? It’s not even near my Top 5, and I have family there. Madrid. Rome. Lisbon. Reykjavik. Svenborgia. Athens. Amsterdam– does London have hash bars? No? See you in Amsterdam, boring Vertigo comic. And that’s just Western Europe! Vinyl Underground #1 pretends to be about London so– just on some fundamental level, I’m not really sympathetic with the series’ stated…  Read More…

It’s Not Easy Being… Aw, you know the rest: Graeme gets hard on the Corps from 10/24.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on October 25, 2007

Categories: Reviews

After being one of the summer’s more interesting crossovers, GREEN LANTERN CORPS #17 continues the “Sinestro Corps” storyline’s slow slide into chaos. Unlike the last issue of Green Lantern, where things happened in such a way as to be far less dramatic than you’d have hoped for, this issue sees very little happen at all. Sure, there’s an attempt to have everything feel filled with urgency and drama, but it’s all fairly obviously playing for time, and little plot advancement occurring (In fact, beyond the new Ion being revealed, I don’t think any plot advancement happens at all). Part of this may be due to the delay in Green Lantern #25 that’s just been announced, but I’m wondering how much…  Read More…

I Liked the Hand in the Lower Right Corner of the Cover: Jog with a 10/24 quick one

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on

Categories: Reviews

Sometimes I read a comic, and I just feel like writing about it immediately. And what’s the internet good for if not instant gratification? Foolkiller #1 (of 5): Well, this is a piece of work. While nominally a MAX revival of the Steve Gerber vigilante genre critique, it mostly reads like something that dropped out of an alternate dimension where EC’s crime and horror comics thrived and mutated into market-ruling decadence. It’s got a desperate crook narrator, a nasty sense of humor, and plenty of grotesque yet distinctly cheesy ironic fates in store for immoral souls. It’s dizzyingly lurid. Nate McBride is a former NFL defensive lineman turned collections heavy for a diabolical online poker operation. He thought he could…  Read More…

What If Graeme Managed To Read Some Comics From 10/24?

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on October 24, 2007

Categories: Reviews

Maybe it was just me, but the old “What If…?” series always seemed better in theory than reality. I mean, sure, the idea of alternative worlds where major Marvel events have gone in the other direction seems like a great idea, but – as anyone who’s bought those What If Classic reprints has no doubt realized by now – it quickly ended up as “What If That That Second Last Panel Of Daredevil #38 Had Happened Differently?” with every story either ending in essentially the same way as the original – as if to prove the existence of some kind of cosmic Marvel fate – or with everyone dying. You never quite got exactly what you wanted, with the exception…  Read More…

The focused totality of my psychic powers: Graeme finishes off 10/17.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on October 23, 2007

Categories: Reviews

If it’s Tuesday*, it’s the last minute round-up of other things that I’ve read this past week. Not everything that I’ve read, of course, because I don’t think anyone wants to know the fruit of my “I must read lots of Claremont X-Men from when I was a kid” labors but, you know. Thank heaven for small mercies, and all that. Still – Hey kids! Comics! COUNTDOWN #28: And now, almost halfway into the entire series, comes the first “I didn’t see that coming” moment of the entire thing (A fact not helped by the fact that so much of the series to this date was revealed in advertisements, solicitations or interviews ahead of time). It wasn’t even something I…  Read More…

arriving 10/24/07

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Posted by: admin on

Categories: Shipping Lists

I totally suck at getting reviews done — in my own defense, I have to get the order form due this week (a week early) because I’m out of town in mid-week, doing the Disneyland trip with Ben. ( I mean, look how late I’m getting this up this week!) Speaking of which: looking at a map, it appears that the SoCal fires are nowhere near Disneyland, but who can really tell from a map? Are we flying into a fire zone, or are there going to be problems with smoke or haze? Also also: Can anyone tell me anything about taxis from the park? Our flight is 7:50 Thursday, so I want to be at the airport at 7pm….  Read More…

When is Self-Promotion Not Self-Promotion? Jeff and the Second Season of Sam & Max.

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Posted by: admin on October 22, 2007

Categories: Uncategorized

I am appallingly bad at self-promotion–saying something that sounds even remotely boastful makes me feel like an utter a-hole.  Accordingly, I suppose I should feel grateful for the circumstances surrounding the first episode of Sam & Max’s second season, Ice Station Santa, premiering on Gametap just a few weeks from now: I worked on the dialogues for the first episode (along with the talented and terrifyingly young Ian Dallas) but can’t honestly tell you how much of my material made it in. Telltale has released three gameplay videos, excerpts of scenes for which I did the early drafts, and the percentage of the material I recognize as mine runs anywhere from 30% to 80%. For a panoply of reasons, this…  Read More…

Picture Book: Graeme considers timeliness, avenging from 10/17

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

Is it completely shitty and cheap to make some kind of “MIGHTY AVENGERS #5? I didn’t know they still published that book!” joke? I mean, okay, it’s been three months since the release of the last issue – which was itself a month late – but does that excuse making such a lazy joke about a late book? Of course, things would be different if there was anything about the book that excused such a delay, such as it being, you know, good. I think that’s the oddest thing about the delays in publishing for this particular title, because you can’t really see where the hold-up is. Frank Cho’s art is nice enough – his dismissive Hank Pym is particularly…  Read More…

Tigra would be jealous: Graeme gets brave, and bold, from 10/17.

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Reviews

As the most open fan of all-female wrestling in the world of comic professionals, somehow you just know that George Perez didn’t need to have his arm twisted in order to draw THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #7, which has a high concept straight from Chris Claremont in his prime: Power Girl is possessed and Wonder Woman has to fight her! Thankfully for the readers, Perez manages to stay away from outright exploitation in his artwork, and Mark Waid takes that high concept and uses it to build an exciting, non-pandering, oneshot. Just as in the previous issues of this series, Waid’s writing is pretty much a masterclass in superhero writing. Ignoring the pitch-perfect four-page opening to this issue, which…  Read More…