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

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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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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Book Reviews

Caves of Steel (Robot City)

Isaac Asimov

Really good book that mixes the genres of mystery and science fiction.  This book takes place in the far future and the Earth is at its limits.  Man now lives in a completely enclosed eco system, in caves of steel you might say. Due to population, jobs are scarce and robots are feared for taking what little jobs there are.  Centuries ago people migrated to space, but due to eradication of disease and hence no immunities, migration was stopped.  Some "spacers" came back and live in a city right outside of New York, and one them was murdered.  Elijah, a New York plain clothes police detective, is partnered with R. Daneel, a robot from space town, to solve this murder. 

This book explores racism and classism as well as popultion management and robotics.  It is a quick and easy read.  I have never sought out who-dun-its, so I can't really say how it measures up there.  Asimov doesn't disappoint.

 

Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction

Mike Mignola

This was pretty good.  Hellboy is mainly an action adventure comic full of wit and sarcasm with a touch of x-files thrown in for suspense.  I really like the artistic stylings of this book.  The story isn't ground breaking but is very entertaining.  You just can't help but cheer for Hellboy.

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Snake Eyes Declassified

G.I. Joe - Snake Eyes: Declassified (G.I. Joe)

Brandon Jerwa

Picked this up at the biblioteche this weekend and have already finished it.  It was a one sitting deal.  Excellent story.  I never read the comic growing up and fondly yet vaguely remember the cartoon.  I loved me some Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow though.  I liked Jinx too.  This book tells all about Snake Eye's history up until his first mission as a Joe. 

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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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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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Vox Hunt: Comical

Book: Show us a great comic book.

Freshmen Volume 1 (Freshmen)

Hugh Sterbakov

Freshman was pretty good.  Some of the humor was rather sophmoric.  For that reason I wouldn't suggest this book for Juniors.  Seth Green, senior writer  of Robot Chicken, is co-creator. 

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Vox Hunt: Comical

Book: Show us a great comic book.

Battle Chasers: A Gathering of Heroes

Joe Madureira

Although very late and prematurely ended, it was very good.

 

Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos

Jim Starlin

Read this weekend. 

 

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