All Hallows Eve

I wasn’t expecting to dress up this year but boredom got the best of me.  You see, we were going to meet up with another family and go trick or treating.  I start getting the kids ready for a 6pm departure at about 4:30pm.  It doesn’t take that long to get them ready contrary to what every Sunday morning church departure has taught me.  At 5:30pm we make the call to see if the other family is ready and they tell us 6:30.

 

I had an hour surrounded by face paint and an imagination.  The easiest thing, I think, is a zombie.  15 minutes later, I am done with make up and bored again.  In my mind, I associate Black Lantern’s with zombies.  Not a huge leap and I wonder what the black lantern symbol is.  I check it out on google and my first thought is that I could draw that pretty easily.  So 20 minutes later I am standing there with a black lantern symbol on the chest of my black leather jacket. 

Of course no one knew that I was a black lantern.  I did get compliments on my face paint though.  One person asked what the symbol on my chest was but didn’t know what a black lantern was and probably didn’t know what a green lantern was either. 

"The blackest night falls from the skies,
The darkness grows, as all light dies,
We crave your hearts and your demise,
By my black hand— the dead shall rise!" –Black Lantern Creed

Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer

I am going to have to say that I didn't like this movie.  Some spoilers may follow.  They have officially bastardized the marvel universe.  They are just going to do whatever they want with the characters and show no respect to the medium that made these characters famous.  Worse yet, they are insulting comic book fans by saying that the comic writing sucked too bad to be made into a movie as is.

This movie was a total heroes rip off.  You had a sylar character that has every power and can't be killed.  Wolverine is basically just a claire with claws.  Silverfox is a mrs. patrelli, stryker is an evil HRG.  Attention writers of Wolverine.  Heroes sucks!

Somehow the weapon x program was run by the U.S. Military all along and it was never revealed in the comic.  Also, Emma Frost and Silver Fox are sisters.  Who would have guessed.  Gambit can make cards levitate as well as charge them.  Deadpool is a freak of nature science experiment gone wrong that shouldn't be able to bend his arms. 

Somehow they managed to screw up an essential part of the movie that they got almost right almost ten years ago; the claws.  The special effects for the claws are horrid in this movie. 

I just can't get behind this movie as a comic fan. 

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The Uncanny X-Flus

In a world that hates and fears them, these mutant strains are doing there best to stop the brotherhood of white blood cells.  This group led by mad professor X started off as normal flu viruses but their mutations manifested at puberty.  The team consist of Cyclops, a one eyed foe that spreads sheep flu,  Univ. of Phoenix, who spread the bird flu, Iceman, who only spread a common cold (this weakens the brotherhood of white blood cells), Beast, who spreads any number of animal flus, and finally of Angel, who spreads the biblical plagues. 

Comming this summer, the Uncanny X-Flus get a new member.  Meet poor razorback who was cast out by society and now spreads an airborn swine flu.  Will he be the key that finally gives the X-Flus the edge over the Brotherhood of White Blood Cells?  Pick up issue #162 to find out. 

Alkaseltzer

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Comics for Sale

So in an effort to remove the imposing stack of boxes from the closet in the room that we are giving to my oldest, and in an effort to cut down on the amount of stuff we have, I am selling off a large portion of my comics.  I am still keeping some (original wolverine min, wolvie #1, etc), but the rest are going to be sold either as a large lot or broken down by title and sold that way. 

If you have any holes in comic collection from the 90's that need filling, let me know.  I may have the book you are looking for. 

The wife said I have to sell my Vampirella books regardless.

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Free Comic Book Day May 2nd 2009

Free Comic Book Day May 2nd 2009

http://grantalias.vox.com/library/pos...

It's that time again for the best day of the year, Free Comic Book Day. There's a good selection of titles this year for ever taste and age range. But remember parents if you're not sure if it's appropriate for little Johnny or Suzy ask the comic book guy. The variety and quantity of titles will...

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The Culling

We are rearranging some things in our house and it looks like there won't be limitless storage for my library or my comic book collection.  I have gone through and seperated all of the books that I want to keep.  Any book that I thought a friend would enjoy, I gave to them.  I will try and sell the rest of the books on Amazon or Craigslist.  I now have a little over 50% of the original pile.  My comics are a different story.  It will take a long time to go through them and then it is silly to remove books to sell because the current comic market isn't so hot.  I will probably want to keep anything worth any money anyways.  I will have to sell them in lots for cheap. 

I seriously need a bigger house with a room for just my stuff. 

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Sandman: The Dolls House and others

The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House

Neil Gaiman

This was a very good read and is a fine example of why people love Sandman and Neil Gaiman.  Gaiman has a love for mythologies and it shows very well in this book.  I kept getting flash forwards of American Gods while reading this. 

 

Batman: The Long Halloween

Jeph Loeb

Two crime families struggle for control of Gotham.  Harvey Dent is going after the Roman with Jim Gordon and the Batman.   People keep turning up dead on holidays with the custom murder weapon and decorations for the appropriate holiday.  This book has a lot of the elements of The Dark Knight movie.  It is cleared that the inspiration for the movie was this graphic novel, even if this story centers on Holiday and only features the Joker and the movie is a Joker movie.  I believe in Harvey Dent.

 

Babymouse #2: Our Hero (Babymouse)

Jennifer Holm

Ashli has been getting these Babymouse books from the library.  They are really cute and fun.  I should sue the Holms because it is clear to me that Babymouse is just an anomorphic representation of Ashli. 

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A Halloween Education

Friday night, my family made our weekly pilgrimage to the Wal-Mart.  Immediately our senses were overwhelmed with the plethora of items that we never knew that we needed, or that my wife never knew that we needed.  As she is looking through clothing for herself and the girls, and I am standing around completely bored, I recommend that we take our children to the Halloween section.  15 minutes later we are back with two Wonder Woman costumes in tow. 

What good are new costumes if you don't give them a test drive?  So, the girls put the costumes on immediately upon returning home.  Ashli, of course, wanted to know more about Wonder Woman.  I told her that she was Queen of the Amazons.  I then had to explain what an Amazon was and then about the Greek gods and goddesses (especially Athena).  Living in Nashville, the next leap was to the Parthenon and how we have a scale replica downtown.  I also told her that Nashville is the Athens of the South (due to the large number of universities in the area).  She wanted to go to the Parthenon to see it, and, of course, she wanted to go in costume.  I told her it might be weird this far from Halloween, but then relented.

So, Saturday we went to the Parthenon.  Saw some awesome Koi paintings, some other artwork, and a 40+ foot tall statue of Athena.  The person working the ticket counter was glad to have two Wonder Women in the building and told Ashli about the 7 ton doors that only she, Wonder Woman, could move.  You could tell that some people completely understood why Wonder Woman was at the Parthenon, others just thought they were cute.

Later that day, I stopped by the comic shop to grab a few things.  Ashli woke up, and went inside with me, in costume.  The guy working the counter commented on the costume and told him the story of the Parthenon and he loved it.  He said that was the coolest story he has ever heard. 

The lesson here is that even Halloween costumes can be educational.

Wonder Women

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Astonishingly Good!

Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1

Joss Whedon

So, I finally got around to reading this one.  Let me preface this by saying that I enjoyed Firefly and Serenity.  I have seen a few episodes of Buffy, but never got into it.  I have seen an episode of Angel and was not impressed in the least. 

Astonishing X-Men is awesome.  I don't say this in a I worship everything that Whedon does way.  I say it in I love the characters of the X-Men and this book really shows off those characters well.  The astonishing team is made up of Cyclops, Emma (sleeping with Scott no less, Jean is in one of her dead phases), Beast, Logan, Kitty, and a suprising addition of a character that was previously dead (the comic actually makes fun of itself for this).  The dialogue is witty and full of flavor.  One example would be when the various X-Men are verifying someone is who they say he is:

Scott: How can we be sure it is him?

Emma:  I read his mind.

Beast:  I ran a DNA test.

Logan:  I smelled him.

Beast:  I did that too.

Needless to say, I will be looking for the rest of the series in TPB form and may even start picking it up on a monthly basis.

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More Reviews-I am a Machine

Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition)

Bridge to Terabithia-  I watched this to basically check it out and see if it was appropriate for my kids.  I don't think it is.  There is no questionable content, but the movie is just too grown up.  I haven't read the book but knew the basic plot.  The previews made me think it was going to be way off and maybe a kid friendly movie. The previews are wrong.  I think a 10 or 11 year old would probably be the youngest I would expose this movie to.  The concepts are just too big.  Ashli, however, has stated that she saw this at a friends house and that she didn't like it.

 

 

 

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth-  This movie was so close to being a kid's movie.  Well, except for the whole World War II military movie that was included in the film.  The movie was beautiful both visually and conceptually.  The parts were well acted (what do I know, they were speaking spanish), and well cast.  The Captain has by far the scarriest scene in the movie (the wine bottle).  The story itself was spooky yet beautiful.  It is hard to explain.  You, like Ophelia, don't know whether you should trust the faun or not.  This movie is so close to being great for kids of younger ages and would be fine if about 4-5 scenes were edited out.  I was really impressed with this movie.

 

 

 

Batman: City of Crime

Batman: City of Crime- This book exemplifies what I like about Batman.  The story shows how human and vulnerable he is while at the same time showing how his intellect and discipline make up for his vulnerabilities.  You spend most of the book just wondering what is going on and at the end you are kind of let down by the climax.  I am not sure if I just didn't understand a few things or if I somehow skipped a page that explained it all.  But, I have reached a point in life where not knowing is sometimes okay, and this is one of those times.  This was a really fun read.

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I Need Help!

I am looking for a stand alone comic book title that is published monthly.  I don't want a title with a large back issue catalog.  One to two years is okay but any more than that is too much.  I want it to be well written.  I can deal with quirky art, but would prefer good artwork as well.  I would also prefer something widely available as I would love to support my local comic shop. 

Anyone have any suggestions?

Things I have liked in the past:

Generation X- about the first 20 issues

Spawn- the first few years

Battlechasers

Supergirl- the Linda Danvers run

Evil Ernie

Marvel Zombies

Age of Apokolips

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Two Good Finds

The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale

Art Spiegelman

Wow, this survivor's tale of the Aushowitz prison camp is extremely poignant.  Spiegelman creates a cartoon representation of what his father went through without trivilizing the events.  He depicts the Jewish people as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Americans are dogs, and so on.  As a survivor's tale it works, but Spiegelman adds another layer.  He didn't understand his dad and fleshes this out in the pages.  He depicts all the arguements and fights that they had between interviews.  This book is a journey of the author to fully understand his father.  To do that he had to understand Aushowitz; to do that he had to understand how his father survived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chickenhare

Chris Grine

Changing moods, Chickenhare is a lot lighter.  The artwork is beautiful in its simplistic manner and the story is great.  The book follows Chickenhare and his friend Abe (the bearded turtle) as they try to escape from the taxedermist.  Along they way the meet a unique cast of characters.  Grine writes the story almost as a teaser to what the story could be and this book leaves you wanting to understand the characters more.  Can't wait for the follow up.

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QotD: An Embarrassing Hobby

What was the most embarrassing hobby you've ever had? 
Submitted by Billie Fable.

Why would I do something that I was embarrassed of.  Embarrassmnet would also indicate that I care what other people think.  I don't.

I would only do hobbies that I enjoy.  If I am having fun, then who cares what other people think.  If they are so close minded as to not garner enjoyment from an activity because they see it as beneath them, then that is their loss. 

I try to grow Bonsai- it is very relaxing and my only embarrassment would be that I suck at it.

I enjoy scifi books/movies-  I can laugh at the cheesiness of the cheesy ones and revel in the imaginativeness of the good ones. 

I collect comic books-  My reading comprehension and vocobulary grew imensly due to this.  Technically I don't really add to the collection any more but I still have the collection, does that make me an inactive collector.

I play VS System TCG (trading card game)-  It is a TCG based on the heroes and villians of the Marvel and DC universes.  I play everyday at lunch with a couple of co workers.  I try to go to local tournaments and compete.  it is very fun and requires a lot of strategy. 

 

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Little DC Fans

I grew up reading Marvel comics.  The X books being my favorite.  Sure I picked up some other titles from other companies, but I was a Marvel man.  The other companies were inferior in their product (or so I believed).  Then I got married and stopped reading comics.  I still got my fix with the awesome Marvel movies though. 

My kindergardener is learning to read now and comics are naturally something that I am using to encourage a love of reading.  I read the Bone TPB to her and she even reviewed it.  Naturally to familiarize her with the characters I have shown her comic book cartoons.  This is where the divide starts.

What comic book cartoons are currently on the air?  Teen Titans is running on CN.  WB, or whatever it is called now, have Batman, Legion of Superheroes, and Krypto: The Superdog.  Not suprisingly (WB and DC are in cahoots), all of these shows are DC properties.  It is hard to find the older Marvel stuff from the 90's on TV.  We have an X-Men tape and some of the old Fantastic Four stuff, but much less than what is available for DC.

The logical next step would be movies.  The Marvel machine keeps churning out movies and DC is almost kind of stagnant there.  The X-Men movies are a little too adult for a 6 y/o though, and this is double for most other properties as well.  The Fantastic Four movie was horrible.  The only one she can see is Spiderman and even that has its scary parts. 

The result of all of this is that my daughters can name obscure DC characters and will miss iconic Marvel ones.  I now pick up copies of the Teen Titans Go! comic for Ashli to practice reading.  Marvel needs to get back in the cartooning game if it wants to capture the hearts and minds of the next generation of comic book fans. 

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A Little Disturbed

 

3

So I was reading the original X-Men comics.  The first two issues are a complete waste.  They are basically an introduction to mutants and the X-Men's mutant powers.  The writing is some of the worst I have ever seen and the characters personalities are all cliches or rip offs of other characters.  Issue #3 is where it all starts to change, but it is also the location of one of the most unsettling scenes in X-Men history.  Professor X, in a thought bubble, states that he is in love with Jean.  He also states that it he can not confess because of his role as leader of the X-Men, and, oh yeah, he is in a wheel chair.  So, it is okay for a headmaster in his 30-40s to pursue a relationship with a 15 year old girl just so long as he is not in a wheel chair or a leader of a superhuman team that the girl is part of. 

Tonight on Dateline we have our 1 billionth installment of "To Catch a Predator."  Some of these will suprise you.  For

Pc_xavier

instance, the headmaster of a school for gifted youngsters who is shy about his disability but wants to meet our 15 year old decoy.  And check out this excerpt from the chatroom:

ProfXXX:  I will show you my special powers if you show me yours.

 

And then comes the backlash.

On 20/20 tonight, we will talk to Jubilation Lee and Kitty Pride about their abuse.  "He made me dress up in a costume and called me Jubilee."

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Why Don't Black Books Sell?

BLADE9403

The guys over at Silver Bullet Comics asked some comic creators a couple of really good questions

1. Why are there not more comics featuring minority characters?

2.  Why don't "black books" sell?

Most of the guys that answered stated the obvious.  They said that comics are written by white males and are read by white males. 

Maybe asking the creators was dumb.  If you want to find out why the consumer isn't buying something you don't ask the people producing the product, you ask the people not buying it.

I don't read "black books" for the same reason I don't watch "black movies."  They are poorly written and full of stereotypes.  They get a pass on quality because they are "black entertainment."  Not to say that there are not some good that comes with the bad.  But for every Harlem there are twenty Undercover Brothers.  Shock humor and drug references seem to be a cancer that is eating "black entertainment" from the inside.  I imagine that the books that do this don't sell well amongst black people as well as whites.  I think it is also harder for me to identify with black characters.  A well written character can overcome this by letting you experience all parts of the characters life and you feel like you went through it too. 

I think books are doing a good job of putting more minority characters in.  I mean I grew up loving Jubilee.  Do I like her because I have an affinity for Asian women or do I like Asian women because of Jubilee.  The X-Men in general have always done a decent job of being inclusive. 

I don't think you should write a character as a black character.  You should write a good character and race doesn't matter.  Look at Blade and Spawn, both great characters that happen to be black.  You could interchange the races of these characters with other races and it would not change the fact that they were good books.  Is the world ready for a black superheroe of the caliber of Superman?  If it is written well, then of course we are ready.

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Who Watches The Watchers

 

Watchmen

Alan Moore

Watchmen is a comic epic.  Alan Moore creates a world straight from the crime pulps of the 30's and 40's and makes the hero's that police it outlaws.  If you want bright shiny colors and heroes that save the day with a smile and a handshake, you may want to look elsewhere.   Watchmen is dark, the heroes do not have superhuman powers (except for one), and they are not afraid to kill the bad guys, be they henchmen, thugs, or masterminds. 

The story takes place in New York City in the year of our Lord, 1985.  In the late 30's vigilante justice sprung up, inspired by comic books, to take back the streets.  As the first wave was calling it quits, a second generation came forth inspired by the first.  By 1977 public outcry forced the government to take action and make vigilante justice illegal.  New York is a cesspool of crime and corruption.  Poeple stand by and watch as neighbors are raped and killed in front of them.  Drug use, child pornography, and gangs run rampant.  The police are impotent, it is time for the heroes to make another stand. 

This story is a dystopia.  Whatever could go wrong, has and is continuing to do so.  There is no Superman, no perfect boy scout to light the way.  The heroes are flawed and some are even mentally unstable.  They are not noble and they are not kind.  This story is Dark.  Not recommended for anyone under 14.  They wouldn't really get it and it is too graphic and dark anyways.

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Crisis on Infinite Earths

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Marv Wolfman

In 1985 Detective Comics(DC) set forth to make their titles more reader friendly. To do this, they wanted to get all of their characters into one universe and have a set origin story. To do this, DC had to destroy the other universes and either move or destroy the characters from those universes.

Superman, for example, existed in multiple universes. His history and origin were different in each. This lead itself to confusion amongst a new reader who would pick up a few Superman titles and see the inconsistencies. Crisis, as it is now commonly referred to, solved all of that. DC recreated their universe of superheroes in such a way that the definitive origins had to be told still. Crisis was a giant reset button.

I was eight years old when this came out. By the time I was reading comics the after shocks of crisis had settled down. All the magazines would refer to it as when DC got straightened out. I had never read it. That is until I picked it up at the library a couple of weeks ago collected in trade paper back(TPB) format.

I am pretty unfamiliar with DC continuum. I grew up on marvel stuff and only picked through some DC titles. This TPB was great though. It was reader friendly for people just stepping in. You could see the epicness of the project. It was a compelling story. It was also the beginning of cross title crossovers. Best of all, it was for the fans. Sure it made money, but it was ultimately for the fans.

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VS

 

Vs

 

Marvel

Dc

So I picked up something at a game store on Saturday.  It is called VS, and it is a trading card game.  Some will be familiar with Magic:  The Gathering and most with Pokemon and Yugio.  This game allows you to team up comic book characters and pit them against others.  You can stick with team affiliations or not.  For example, you could have an X-Men deck and you could play a Brotherhood of evil mutants deck, or you could have an X-Men deck and play against a JLA deck.  You could also mix characters.  You could put Batman in a deck with magneto, or mix Spiderman into a superman deck. 

If you are in TN you should check out Next Level Games for more information or tournaments.  They also carry Magic, Pokemon, Yugio, and other card games as well as comics. 

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Super Heroes

Thanks to Damien for the inspiration.

Superheroes, what would they be like if they existed?  Do comics and movies really represent human nature?  I don't think they do.

If people with superpowers were to exist they would cross the spectrum of personalities.  There would be the odd noble person and the odd super villian, but most people would exploit their powers for their own gains.  To be fair, comics and movies have explored this with some detail, but they have a tendency to show way to many characters from the extremes of the spectrum.  There would be a Bell curve, and Bell curves dictate that the majority would fall in the center.

If I could fly, I would.  I don't know if this would cause me to fight crime or save lives.  It would just give me the ability to fly. 

If I were super strong, I would make my money in sports.  Being superstrong does not make me bulletproof or anything like that.  If I had the opportunity to do something great, sure, but I would not go looking for trouble.

If I could turn invisable, I would at some point in time venture into a girl's locker room.  Hey, I am being honest.  I would also be the best ever super spy.  Or possibly make money on the stock market.

Most men are pragmatist, and if they woke up one day with superhuman abilities they would continue being pragmatist and use their abilities to their own advantages.  It is the human condition that everyone would do something unethical at some point with their powers.  We are not from Krypton.

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