powered by ODEO

Dialogue by Roy Thomas • Art by Herb Trimpe
From The Incredible Hulk #124.
For the record, here's some numbers statistics according to The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe:

The Rhino has a height of 6'5" and weighs 710 lbs.
The Leader has a height of 5'4" and weighs 140 lbs.

Methinks that this panel's some dodgy perspective, to say the very least.

Guys?

I'm with SpellCheck.



XO,
Kevin.

Here's how to read Batman/The Spirit in two easy steps.

1. Ignore the clumsy dialogue (yes, I get it's a homage, but it's a poorly-executed one) and captions like this (which is unfortunately the very first thing in the story):

   "Some stories are meant to be told over and over...
   
   ...others, for obvious reasons, are kept secret and known only to those who were there...
   
   This, then would be one of those that up until now have remained...untold."

2. Treat it like the most gorgeous storyboard ever.

---

I really came to enjoy Guy Gardener: Collateral Damage after realizing that its original title was Reuben Flagg Gets A Magical Goddamn Wishing Ring, You Commie Bastards. Some hardcore Green Lantern fan needs to update me: is this portrayal of G'Nort remotely accurate? All I've known is the Justice League International version of the character, which is, you know, a decade-and-a-half out of date.

---

Catching up with Batman in 52? Yeah, didn't enjoy that. In fact, I really kind of hated it. The math works as follows: Unnecessary Nightwing Exposure + Stupid Ten-Eyed Men Demon Killers Helping Batman Work Through His Issues = Rage-Induced Priapism.

---

The latest issue of The ACME Novelty Library could have cost twice as much and I'd not have blinked at all when handing over my shekels. Goddamn, what a beautiful thing this is. Part of me (a very, very nerdy, design fetishist part) really wants Ware to re-release the similarly-laid-out, non-Jimmy Corrigan material from earlier issues in the same hardcover format.

JKrach: You've seen the NBC "You'll know when to laugh" promos?
BeaucoupKevin:Yeah.
JKrach: For a big 3 network, that's a sea change.
BeaucoupKevin: Wasn't SCRUBS their first to drop it?
JKrach: Yes.
BeaucoupKevin: I'm trying to think of an earlier one for NBC.
BeaucoupKevin: Unless you count LA LAW
JKrach: Ha!
BeaucoupKevin: I like LA LAW.
BeaucoupKevin: Without it, no David Kelley.
JKrach: And yeah, all his shows since have been iterations on his LA LAW, haven't they? Except maybe BOSTON PUBLIC.
BeaucoupKevin: And that's a Workplace Dramedy.
JKrach: Even PICKET FENCES had extensive courtroom scenes.
BeaucoupKevin: PICKET FENCES seemed to be BUILT for those scenes.
BeaucoupKevin: I wonder if that's on DVD. I never saw more than a couple episodes.
JKrach: Netflix doesn't have it.
JKrach: I remember enjoying some of the early stuff especially. Young Don Cheadle!
BeaucoupKevin: YOUNG DON CHEADLE's a show I'm pitching to the CW for a Summer pickup.
JKrach: All about him practicing accents while having multiple affairs and, I dunno, solving crimes?
BeaucoupKevin: Solving crimes and staying out of jail for a crime he didn't commit.
JKrach: In high school.
BeaucoupKevin: I figure we can get a solid 13-episode commitment if Keenan drops 120 lbs.
JKrach: You want Keenan Ivory Wayans. To play Young Don Cheadle. Though he's six years older.
BeaucoupKevin: No, Keenan THOMPSON.
JKrach: D'OH.
BeaucoupKevin: Christ, all black people are the SAME TO YOU.
JKrach: ALL BLACK PEOPLE NAMED KEENAN
BeaucoupKevin: ALL BLACK PEOPLE NAMED KEENAN THAT ARE COMEDIANS
JKrach: (I forgot Thompson existed. *sob*)
BeaucoupKevin: Jane Doe weighs on on the Keenan thing:

JaneDoeIM: nooooo! i love keenan the way he is! just say that cheedle lost the weight as he got older. jeez!
JaneDoeIM: everyone loves a fat black detective anyway.
JaneDoeIM: see: that dude in "die hard" and the urkel tv show.

Superman II has long been held up by many as the best of the series, no doubt because it finally gave viewers the chance to see Superman in actual combat instead of the stunts and shenanigans he spent the first movie performing. Outside of the combat and the masterful performance of Terence Stamp as General Zod, however, there are notable flaws in the movie as originally presented: camp humor frequently is played up to the detriment of characters and stupid new superpowers¹ are created as needed by the plot. Richard Donner's always hated the way the movie turned out after he was fired from the proceedings and Warner Brothers decided to let him get the chance to make it his way.

Donner's excised all of replacement Richard Lester's contributions and created a slightly more serious movie that's leaner while managing to provide fans with long, loving glimpses of what might have been had he had the chance to actually finish the job he started at the time. Gone is the opening sequence featuring Lois Lane doing spectacularly stupid things to get closer to terrorists threatening the Eiffel Tower, replaced with a montage that recaps the first film and directly links Superman's diversion of a missle to the release of the three Phantom Zone criminals. Now, the first glimpse of Lois and Clark takes place at the Daily Planet, where a sequence right out of the Silver Age occurs: Lois draws a suit, glasses, and hat on a photograph on Superman, makes the Clark Kent Connection, and promptly jumps out of a window to prove he's Superman². Whether this is less appalling than riding the underside of an elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower in order to chat with crazed people with guns is up to you, but I certainly found it more entertaining. While I'm ambivalent about the need for this particular change, there's also the inclusion of Marlon Brando's Jor-El, taking Lara's place in the script and filling the movie with more of the father/son relationship that Donner³ feels is essential to the mythology. How the Floating Head Of Jor-El can answer questions and interact with Superman is something that could do with a bit of explanation, but Kryptonian technology as presented in the movies has always smacked a bit of magic.

Less successful is the use of Lois/Clark-honeymoon-expose footage from a (very good) screen test, replacing the horrible, horrible bit where Superman (as Clark) catches a case of The Stupid And Clumsy and falls into a fireplace. While this new scene is certainly more sensible in how it handles Superman's big reveal to Lois, it has dialogue from an earlier draft of the script that comes close to making no sense at all in the context of the movie as a whole. There's also the matter of the denoument. Viewers lose the idiocy of "repair-o-vision" being used on the Washington Monument, but it's replaced with a rerun of the first film's ending, complete with footage of things going backwards, a dramatically unsatisfying choice. Perhaps most surprisingly, Donner has chosen to include Clark Kent's return to the diner where he was beaten by the trucker, making Superman look supremely petty in a way I've never liked. I understand the need to tie up that one cinematic loose end (it's at this diner Superman discovers the existence of Zod and Pals), but I wonder if there couldn't have been a way to edit it where Superman's not just wailing on some local asshole for the sake of closure.

In getting a chance to remove all of Lester's contributions to the followup to his original Superman movie, Richard Donner may have created the perfect Silver Age superhero movie, complete with strange logic and an overused resolution named "Time Travel." Its value ranks higher on the "curiousity" scale than as a piece to be judged on its own merits. The changes are a bit too glaring on occasion, and the movie never quite finds the balance it seems Donner wanted to achieve.

---

¹Superman threw his symbol! I still think that's about the stupidest thing ever done with the character, and I've read a lot of Silver Age Superman books and own the first appearance of Terra-Man.

²You can view videos of this (and some of the other changes) here.

³And now, Singer.

Hey, kids! This week's Nitroglycerin is currently up on the BOOM! Studios website and will soon be up on Birdie's WebComicsNation page in a larger format. Follow the fairly obvious clues, decode the dialogue, be the first mail it to me at beaucoupkevin[AT]gmail(DOT)com, and get a copy of What Were They Thinking: Monster Mash-Up that I've scribbled my name on. Or I can just send you the comic without said autograph - that's up to you. I may find other valuable BOOM!-related prizes around the house that I can include in the prize package. Hooray! Prizes!

No, you can't enter this contest if your name is Benjamin Birdie, who drew himself baking in the strip whereas I was indulging in healthy bourbon abuse. Tsk.

UPDATE:
Shane Bailey won, but I'm not going to ruin anyone's fun by posting the contents until next week. I think it's a fun little exercise.

Dammit, It's "Spider-Man."

SPIDER DASH MAN. Done in this manner to differentiate him from Superman when you people do your silly news stories about "Bang! Pow! Comics Aren't Just For Kids."

Not Spiderman.

Gah.

1. "Moving On Up" by M-People. Big, cheesy handbag house. Heather Small's got a fantastic voice, though, and Mike Pickering and the rest do what they do very well. I love the swoop on the chorus. This is the version that came from Deconstruction compilation or another. My god, I did love Deconstruction Records back when.
   
   
2. "Sun in the Morning" by Saint Etienne. This is from their last album, Tales from the Turnpike House, which I keep forgetting I love as much as I do. This tune merges the band's restrained British pop aesthetic with some seriously Pet Sounds treatment on the background vocals. Sarah Cracknell is the singer I write songs for in my head, including "Kevin, I'm Madly In Love With You."
   
   
3. "A Pretty Girl Is Like..." by The Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt is one of my four favorite songwriters. This is pure Tinpan Alley, and it's about what a pretty girl is like. If you don't own 69 Love Songs, go buy it. I'll wait.
   
   
4. "Fugitive" (Richard X Extended Mix) by Pet Shop Boys. This song (so far) only appears on Fundamentalism, the extra CD included with some versions of their latest album. Go check out what superfan Wayne Studer says. He speaks smart. (For the record, I go with the second, equally depressing interpretation.)
   
   
5. "The Golden Horn" by Count Basie and his Orchestra. From the agreeable bit of froth, Basie Meets Bond. Completely inessential, but there's something about that big-ish band soundtrack jazz sound I just love.
   
   
6. "Recovery" by Curve. Ah, the remnants of the shoegazer sound, when Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia were kind of stretching out, gathering different bits and pieces of whatever genre they thought they could use. Curve is caput, which may be for the best considering the overall weakness of their material from Gift onwards.
   
   
7. "Babylon Medicine" by Roots Manuva. Roots Manuva is my favorite rapper. Lots of heavy, heavy dub influence in this, and I love Manuva's "pick it up / put it down" delivery.
   
   
8. "Spacehopper" by A Positive Life. Speaking of dub, this is some great, great, great ambient dub work music. I wonder how much Enigma paid these guys for that big ol' sample from "The Calling."
   
   
9. "Dark Center of the Universe" by Modest Mouse. Yes, I jumped on their bandwagon in 2004 and you know what? I think they're fantastic. Can't beat a chorus that includes the phrase "I'm pretty damn sure that anyone can easily, equally fuck you over."
   
   
10. "Sit Down, Stand Up (Snakes And Ladders)" by Radiohead. I get into this argument about once a month: I think their newer material is far, far more interesting than "Creep." No, I don't care if you can't sing along with it on MIKE or FRANK or whatever your local giant-hard-drive-on-shuffle radio station is called.
    
    
11. "Interzone" (RCA Demo Version) by Joy Division. Spiky, punky, near-perfect. It's from the band's first attempt to record for a label. It didn't go that well, but the few bits that remain from those sessions are very nice indeed.
    
    
12. "Redemption Song" by Moodswings. I will defend to the death my love of this Ibiza-sunset version of Bob Marley's biggest song. Poor Moodswings - they came off as a gimmick act thanks to this and "Spiritual High," but their production really was top-notch.

Bonus Music Links

• The Torontoist talks about cover versions
  
  
• There's a new Joy Division documentary on DVD
  
  
• Make your own New Age Music at work
  
  
• Erasure's producer is blogging the recording of the new album
  
  
• eMusic has a spotlight article on Underworld

Diamond Shipping list, complete.
My picks, below.

Dark Horse Comics

AUG060036 GOON WICKED INCLINATIONS VOL 5 TPB (MR) $14.95

I love The Goon. The idea of a working-class Hellboy appeals to me on a basic, perhaps genetic level. It doesn't hurt that I think Powell's one of the best artists doing sequential work right now and Frankie is my Platonic ideal of a sidekick.

DC Comics

SEP060191 BATMAN #659 $2.99

Not by Morrison. Ostrander and Mandrake, though? That's an acceptable substitute.

SEP060190 BATMAN THE SPIRIT $4.99

I will buy this and love it, despite my suspicions that Jeph Loeb's writing will make my head explode. That Darwyn Cooke/J. Bone art is just too lovely.

SEP060228 GUY GARDNER COLLATERAL DAMAGE #1 (OF 2) $5.99

Chaykin, Gardner, G'nort. Questions?

JUL060188 RUSH CITY #3 (OF 6) $2.99

Included only so I can link to this review.

Image Comics

MAR061821 ART OF BRIAN BOLLAND HC $49.99

I really want this. Just putting that out there.

Also: it's very late, isn't it? Or was it solicited early?

Marvel Comics

SEP062179 AVENGERS GALACTIC STORM VOL 2 TP $29.99

I enjoyed the first one thoroughly because it managed to tell a coherent story featuring superheroes having huge adventures (in space, even!) without insulting me too badly. This Marvel story has an element that is seemingly difficult for the publisher to replicate now: entertainment value.

SEP062186 ESSENTIAL MAN-THING VOL 1 TP $16.99

I kind of hope I didn't order this because it's turning out to be one of those weeks.

SEP062119 NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #10 $2.99

I saw the ending of this comic coming by page 4 or 5. That did not stop me from having my head explode with glee over the entire thing. Forbush Man's powers, when used, allow Immonen get to stretch his artistic wings a bit. The Captain Marvel section in particular is done a lovely style I'd like to see him use again.

SEP062129 ONSLAUGHT REBORN #1 (OF 5) $2.99

I looked at the preview copy of this in the shop. There was one panel that showed Ben Grimm's back that I said "isn't that bad - reminds me a bit of Wieringo." I was roundly (and rightly) mocked for even trying to praise the art that much.

SEP062183 PUNISHER MAX VOL 6 BARRACUDA TP (MR) $15.99

I'm really eager to get into this, as a lot of people I know that read the monthly said this was one of Ennis's stronger stories in a series that's well-regarded, even if there's a medically dodgy bit. (SPOILERS!)

Other Companies

AUG063267 ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY VOL 17 HC (MR) $16.95

Oof. I'm sure it'll be worth it, as the last one was just a thing of utter beauty, but $17 is a bit something, innit?

OCT063401 ACTION PHILOSOPHERS VOL 1 GIANT SIZED THING TP (O/A) $6.95

If you've not, do.

SEP063296 CASTLE WAITING VOL II #3 $3.95

Don't get me wrong - I'm buying and really enjoying this in issue form, but I just want the second damned hardcover now.

SEP063869 LED ZEPPELIN IV HC $16.95

I'd rather undergo knee surgery without anesthetics than listen to this record, but this sounds like the perfect gift for some lucky classic rock fan:

The music contained in Led Zeppelin IV is part of the soundtrack to a generation. Released in 1971, it rocks, stomps, glides, and shimmers as it covers all the bases the band had mastered: heavy blues, barroom rock and roll, mandolin-driven folk, epic Tolkien-infused mysticism, acoustic Americana, and more. Certified gold one week after its release, the album went to #2 on the U.S. charts and #1 in the U.K. It remained on U.S. charts for 259 weeks. To this day there is confusion about what is the actual title of the album and the use of the mysterious symbols. Barney Hoskyns pierces those veils and more as he tells the fascinating story of the evocative set that cemented Led Zeppelin's standing as the biggest, baddest, loudest band in the world-and that remains today the apex of their art.

Why this is listed with the comics is beyond me, because Hoskyns, as far as I know, is only a writer and no artist is mentioned anywhere. There's also Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs by Jan Reid, which tells the Derek and the Dominos story.

SEP063340 PERFECT STORM #1 $2.99

[INSERT GEORGE CLOONEY / MARK WAHLBERG JOKE HERE]

AUG063139 TALENT #4 (OF 4) $3.99

You know, I get freebies of this from the publisher and I'm going to still end up buying it because, dammit, I want to know what happens tout suite.

PvP: The Animated Series is going to debut February 1, 2007. Unlike the strip site, users are going to have to pay subscribe to the animated material - $20 buys you the first season of 5-6 minute animated episodes. This is an interesting gamble for Kurtz - his audience has gotten material with these characters at no cost for years, and I'm curious to see if they'll switch to a pay model for an in-motion version of the strip.



It looks fairly slick and the voice work is certainly professional (I think they nailed Brent,) but I'm going to wait for the inevitable DVD release, much like I do with Adult Swim programs. I'm part of the old guard in this way; if I spend money on entertainment, I want a physical product. Emusic skates by with a clause that allows companies that offer non-DRM'd, high-quality MP3s that I can do whatever I want with to get special dispensation.

In list form, because that's how I sketch out my notes more and more lately.

1. I really love the format in some of the early stories presented in the Showcase Presents: The Unknown Soldier collection that came out this week. There's an opening splash, sometimes using photos as a backdrop, that effectively brings you up to speed on the story...

   The lives of ten thousand fighting men sit in the hands of this one man...as he floats down over Nazi-occupied Holland.

   ...and after that, a double-page spread that gets right into the action of the piece. It's not like any other war comic from the period and those stories start with with an immediacy that's gripping. I wonder how much of that is Haney and how much is Kubert, but I really love the idea of just diving in. They had twelve pages, and by god, they were going to use them.
   
   
2. Warren Ellis's Stormwatch is a near-perfect superhero comic template. Introduce threat, use team, add character bits that build from issue to issue, get stories done quickly. Most of his run consists of single issue or two-issue arcs, and I really like the compactness of the format. He's carried over a streamlined version of this to Nextwave, where format greatly informs how his plots work. Most of the first parts end with the Nextwave team meeting their enemy face to face for the first time after engaged in combat with lesser minions, and the second part consists entirely of brutal combat.
   
   
3. Story is almost nonexistent in Nextwave, using the McKee or Rogers definition of the term. In fact, when given the chance to learn lessons or experience personal growth, the characters specifically shun such actions. This is a very, very tricky thing to pull off. Outside of Nextwave, the only title this can really work with is Ennis's Punisher book on the MAX imprint, as his version of Frank Castle is an engine of destruction more than a man. Both titles mentioned are comic in their own way, the latter operating with a blackly funny streak that's buried most of the time.
   
   
4. Ennis's deliberate pacing in his series is a very distinct thing compared to people working with arcs of a similar length. While his first issues are almost entirely setup, they're information-dense to the point where the rest of the story can domino from that point perfectly. The best example of this is the brilliant, brutal Up Is Down And Black Is White, where Castle doesn't discover the awful, awful thing that Nicky Cavella does until the last page of the first issue and the rest of the arc is his cold disassembly of Cavella's organization.
   
   
5. Modern storytelling dictates that the reader wants more information and "depth" to begin with, but using the first issue to tell the first 10-20% of a story actually goes back to the 12-page story format Haney and Kubert used on The Unknown Soldier. Inside the rest of the story, there may have been brief flashbacks to flesh out incidents a bit more, but the formula was adhered to pretty rigidly, to good results. Working with a set structure really succeeded for them, unlike most of the Gardner Fox JLA stories from roughly the same period, where the prefab structure became formula in the worst sense of the word.

Dave Cockrum
November 11, 1943 - November 26, 2006

And that, I think, was the handle, that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Filling oneself up with quality liquor and watching Midnight Cowboy, bits of Sam Peckinpah movies, and then Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas before thinking about the idea of an America depleted by a second space race in the mid 21^st century?

Seriously full of potential. Notes are being made. Even if nothing comes of it, what an exercise this is proving to be.

1. Where is the rest of Mister Fantastic? (Do not say "the trunk.")
   
   
2. What is Iceman's slide resting on?
   
   
3. Who the fuck at Marvel or Dodge thought it was appropriate to have the man who murdered Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy after impregnating her and creating Goblin super-babies and then training those super-babies to hate Spider-Man a whole lot serve as the endorser of the Dodge Caliber, starting at $14,135?

From Amazing Adventures (Volume 2) #1

It's in the current Previews, so I guess I can talk about it now. Andrew Cosby plots, I script. The artist is TBC, but considering BOOM!'s track record on the graphic end of things, I'm about 99.995% sure the readers are sure to enjoy their work. Here's the solicitation:

When the world's biggest action movie star discovers someone's trying to kill him, he has to keep his adoring public in the dark about the fact that he's the world's biggest wimp. So he hires a bodyguard - a Cover Girl who kicks ass and cleans up well for movie premieres! In the vein of Lethal Weapon comes an action-comedy that flips all the gender stereotypes on its head...

It's going to be fun. The Diamond Order Code is DEC63425. Here's the cover by Rafael Albuquerque, who just completely rocks.

From the Marvel Holiday Special digest that
came out this week. Art by Reilly Brown.

Right-click to download "Be Thankful For What You Got" by Massive Attack. Have a good holiday. We'll be back tomorrow.

From Avengers #88,
Written by Roy Thomas and Harlan Ellison.
Pencilled by Sal Buscema.

(Thor may want to check out this resource.)

For those who might be just joining me:

My name's Kevin Church. I write comics and graphic novels, among other things. Some are currently available, others going to be published soon and many more are in various states of disrepair. Publishers interested in the last category may contact me. I have one comic floating around on the internet for free:

NITROGLYCERIN: A promotional webstrip I do for BOOM! Studios with Benjamin Birdie, viewable below the fold. This strip is also available in a large format, with archives. It was updated today, and features a monkey.

You can also see more of my work with Birdie in the AGREEABLE COMICS sampler. There are plans to do more with AGREEABLE COMICS in the very near future. There is a mailing list you can join to find out more.

I recently had my first major comics solo work appear in WHAT WERE THEY THINKING: MONSTER MASH-UP. I also have a story appearing in the upcoming CTHULHU TALES: THE RISING one shot. There are other projects that I can not discuss until paperwork is signed, so do not ask.

I'm guest of honour at Comicazi tonight, and on most other Wednesdays. You can also frequently spot me propping up the bar at The Burren in the early evenings and on the weekends.

These are the places you can find me on the internet. There's a fair few of them, too:

WhiskeyAndFailure.com = I present my favorites of the photos I've taken.

http://www.myspace.com/beaucoupkevin/ = I add anyone, me, unless they're a shit local band, a pornspambot, or someone I have no connection with at all.

http://www.flickr.com/people/beaucoupkevin/ = Where I store all of my photos worth storing. My friends-and-contacts list there is usually full of interesting stuff, as I know many people who are better with a camera than I.

I do use IM and can be found on AIM and YIM as beaucoupkevin. I can also be reached via email - beaucoupkevin @ gmail(dot)com.

Done with apologies to Warren Ellis.

"Explanation" here.

• I posted this on Metafilter, but check out the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie: Part One | Part Two. For a movie that was never supposed to be released, it sure did have a lot of advertising, trailers, and finalized special effects.
  
  
• I love donut robots because they are robots that make donuts. Here's a picture of another donut robot.
  
  
• Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Captured Koala
  
  
• Aaron Sorkin just used Pahrump, NV as a location for Studio 60 and I got a little pissed at John Goodman being used to play a typical backwoods judge that got redemption just before the last c-break.
  
  I got over it when that bastion of legalized prostitution decided to shit on the First Amendment. Fuck you, Pahrump, NV. Without those Mexicans whose rights you've decided to surpress, you'd be the podunk dive in the middle of the desert that Sorkin depicted instead of the strip-mall paid-sex hell that you've turned out to be.
  
  
• Chris Ware makes variant covers cool.
  
  
• Pal Munson starts his regular column about Milestone Comics for Bahlactus.com. While you're there, check out the latest Comicazi podcast, where they insist on calling creators by their first name and make my teeth grind continuously during the entire thing. Seriously, "Brad"? "Grant"? I'm going to insist you guys start calling me "Church" to break your bad habits.
  
  
• Ellipsis is completely addictive.
  
  
• Madman Gargantua! Madman Gargantua!! Madman Gargantua!!!.
  
  
• Ex-Russian Spy May Have Radioactive Poisoning. Experts expect new Marvel villain to join Warren Ellis's Thunderbolts by issue seven.
  
  
• I can't pick a favorite line from this brilliant Civil War remix. Points deducted for using the hated MS Comic Sans font, even if I suspect there was irony involved.
  
  
• Finally, here's Michael Richards apologizing on Letterman for completely losing his shit and dropping the "n-word" at the Laugh Factory. This strikes me as much more authentic than Mel Gibson's polished performance on 20/20. Richards looks completely shattered by the experience and the self-loathing is palpable.

The synthesis of comics and education is one of those perfect things when done properly. Biologist Jay Hosler's Clan Apis as well as the completely flawless Action Philosophers rank among my favorite comics, and Scott McCloud's longform, metatextual Understanding Comics is rightly held aloft as an example of what you can do with the medium. Maybe this is why I so thoroughly enjoy Larry Gonick's Cartoon History series. Where others have conquered the world of bees or explained how to read the comic you're reading, Gonick goes for the gusto and gives you the history of the damned universe to start with before saying "OK, you know, I'll get a little less macro - let's talk about the history of the modern world."

I hate Gonick a little bit for doing it so well. The Cartoon History Of The Modern World, Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution begins, as the unwieldy title indicates, with the Aztecs just before Columbus showed up and ends with the creation of the document that forms the backbone of the American government. Along the way, Gonick manages to touch on The Reformation, the creation of the Sikh and the beginning of modern science and philosophy among other topics. Thankfully dropping the whole "time travel" device that plagued his earlier books, Gonick focuses on the people behind the events and only provides his authorial voice to clarify and narrate instead of using it as its own character. His art, as always, is a cartoonish treat that recalls Sergio Aragones as well as European artists such as Uderzo.

The Cartoon History Of The Modern World, Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution is a near-perfect refresher course for adults who feel that they've replaced their historic knowledge with useless Buffy and Star Trek as well as a more-than-decent general history book for kids in high school. Its only flaw is that some subjects seem to get little more than a cursory glance; the section on Galileo could have easily been its own volume. I suspect this is more personal prejudice than anything else - some subjects are going to interest some readers more. Thankfully, there's an exhaustive bibliography in the back.

This book's hitting stores in January of next year, but you can already view sample pages and more at Gonick's website. In the meantime, you should probably seek out his earlier books; they're all worthy of consideration.

A copy of this book was provided by Harper Collins for the purposes of review.

Hey, Aaron Sorkin:

I know I kind of kicked Studio 60 around a bit, but you nailed this one. Thank you for dropping a lot of the agonizing pretense that made me dislike the show and making the characters work as characters, not as props that espouse your political/social beliefs. This is the show I got hints at during the pilot.

By the way, you should send a bottle of scotch to Warren Ellis, who convinced me to check this out.

K.I.T,
Kevin.

PS> Thank you for Lucy Davis. It's nice having her back.

Before Black Friday, before Thanksgiving,
there will be new comics on the shelves

Here are some you may want to buy.

Previews

OCT060006 PREVIEWS ADULT VOL XVI #12 PI
OCT060002 PREVIEWS VOL XVI #12 PI
OCT060004 PREVIEWS VOL XVI CONSUMER ORDER FORM #12 PI

For those of us who can't bother to go through the online solicitations anymore, this is pretty essential. I was amazed at how light my order last time around was, come to think of it.

DC Comics

SEP060219 BLUE BEETLE #9 $2.99

The sagging flame of interest in this got fanned a bit by the last two issues, where some puzzle pieces were placed and you got to spend quite a lot of time with Jaime just being what he is: a kid. I dug it.

SEP060293 BOYS #5 (MR) $2.99

I dig this, too, for entirely different reasons. Mostly because I'm a sick, sad old man with a built-in grudge against the Teen Titans, unless they're written by Bob Haney.

AUG060224 SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER VOL 1 TP $16.99

Another week, another unread black and white reprint volume added to my bookshelf. Jesus, when am I going to stop?!?

AUG060297 SWAMP THING VOL 9 INFERNAL TRIANGLES TP (MR) $19.99

Rick Veitch, Jamie Delano, and Stephen Bissette wrote these stories, and this volume features "Distant Cousins" from Swamp Thing Annual #3, "featuring the all-ape adventures of the DCU's most famous anthropoids." How can I avoid this?

Sterling/other ST nerds: is this the end of Veitch's material? I know about the Jesus issue - is this where it was supposed to take place?

Image

SEP061810 CASANOVA #6 (MR) $1.99

Fraction, you know, he gets it. He gets it and I like the way he gets it. The end.

SEP061817 GODLAND #14 $2.99

I just reread the first two trades on the bus to and from NYC, so my brain is primed for more Truth from the Source. What an insanely good series.

SEP061826 PIRATES OF CONEY ISLAND #2 (OF 8) $2.99

Joe Rice didn't like this; I did. We are still friends, though: he gave me 5 Cool Points. Of course, Cronin is not recognizing them, since he's some sort of Cool Points Dictator.

Marvel Comics

SEP062104 DAREDEVIL #91 $2.99

You know, I'm enjoying this, but I think I'm just going to switch to trades and get the story wholesale. A bit of my enjoyment is nullified by the pacing, and I'm saying that as someone who bought singles through the Bendis run.

SEP062185 ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL 3 TP $16.99

I love, love, love this material. Love it. More than I love you. I'm sorry, baby. See also: previous comment about Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier.

SEP062166 NEW X-MEN OMNIBUS HC $99.99

Despite the fact I have the three large-format hardcovers, I find this vaguely tempting. Ah, well - it's too unwieldy to carry and I quite like the fact I can, theoretically, choose to drop a volume of the original hardcovers into my courier bag for travel.

JUL061988 PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #1 CW $2.99

I really, really hope some unsuspecting fanboy is sold Casanova as an adjunct to this by a smart retailer and they discover pure joy in its pages. Hell, I'm looking forward to seeing Fraction do old-school Punisher mayhem, and I'm a huge fan of the Ennis material. There's room in my book for many iterations of The Punisher, including Super Disco Hibachi Frank Castle: Demon Fighter!

Other Comics Companies

JUN063270 BUCKAROO BANZAI #3 (OF 3) $3.50

As someone who loved the movie and ancillary material more than anybody should, I have to say that with the fanboy glee at a new Banzai Industries product gone, this product is pretty shoddy. Bad call on my part and I'm sorry if I directed anyone to purchase it.

JUL063106 DONT GO WHERE I CANT FOLLOW GN (MR) $17.95

It's sure to be compelling, but what a hard thing this will be to read. I love Nilsen's work, mostly because of how casually he exposes raw nerves on the reader's part. Part of me wonders at the whole "exploitation of a loved one and the artist's relationship therein" aspect, but then a lot of "high art" involves some sort of suffering on the part of the artist.

SEP063299 HANK KETCHAMS COMPLETE DENNIS THE MENACE 1955-1956 HC $24.95

This series proves that the original Dennis material is about a million times better than what I was exposed to as a kid. Several times I have found myself paraplectic with laughter, wondering when the good lord would just smite me so the pain in my sides would stop.

SEP063629 JOHN WOOS SEVEN BROTHERS #2 $2.99

I liked the first well enough to give it one more issue. That's my complete review.

SEP063469 KHAN #1 (O/A) $2.95

Mentioned only so I could include this link.

JUL062985 PLANETARY BRIGADE ORIGINS NEW SCHOOL CVR #1 (OF 3) $3.99
JUL062984 PLANETARY BRIGADE ORIGINS OLD SCHOOL CVR #1 (OF 3) $3.99

PROMOTIONAL BIT FOLLOWS:
Please consider buying this comic. Benjamin Birdie and I have a nice little half-page gag strip in the back that is sure to make you chuckle if you are a fan of such things. As I mentioned in the Newsarama interview, it's based on the old Jack Schiff educational comics that DC used to put in its books and I think it's pretty darn funny, mostly because Birdie pulls off everything I ask him to do about a million times better than I script.

Production Snafu: it didn't get placed for whatever reason. Issues #2 and 3 will have it, though. Buy it anyway, because it's funny and Julia Bax draws the heck out of it.

SEP063164 SIMPSONS WINTER WINGDING #1 $4.99

Simpsons holiday comics by the usual people who do these things. Yes, I'm pals with some of the people at Bongo, but they really do exceed their mandate on a frequent basis and produce quite a lot of entertaining Simpsons-related material.

SEP063673 WILL EISNERS CONTRACT WITH GOD SC $16.95
SEP063675 WILL EISNERS DROPSIE AVENUE SC $16.95
SEP063674 WILL EISNERS LIFE FORCE SC $16.95

I got these a week ago and they're beautiful, as I mentioned.

Art by Marie Severin.

(It would go on like this for about ten pages, Hulk would
win, and then they would have Hostess™ Pies.)

From Hulk #131,
Written by Roy Thomas.
Art by Herb Trimpe and John Severin.

That's right, Validus, they really do! We've got brilliant images from old friends of this site as well as from a few new people. View the Gallery!
Artist Name: Andrew Weiss.
Artist Website: Armagideon Time.

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Artist Name: Betsy.
Artist Website: She's got a LiveJournal.

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Artist Name: Bill D.
Artist Website: Trusty Plinko Stick.

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Artist Name: Bully.
Artist Website: Bully Says: Comics Oughtta Be Fun!

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Artist Name: Dwayne, "The Canoe Guy."
Artist Website: Matching Dragoons.

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Artist Name: Gordon.
Artist Website: Blog This, Pal!

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Artist Name: Mark Hale.
Artist Website: Chaosmonkey's Abysmal Pit.

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Artist Name: Jon Cormier.
Artist Website: Hypnoray.

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Artist Name: Dave Lartigue.
Artist Website: Dave Ex Machina.

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Artist Name: Maggie Osterberg.
Artist Website: Mediawench.com.

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Artist Name: Jeffrey Munson.
Artist Website: He doesn't have one, the bum.

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Artist Name: Philip Looney.
Artist Website: Poptown!

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Artist Name: "Sin Ro."
Artist Website: A Bitter View.

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Artist Name: "Sausaletus Rex."
Artist Website: The Cult of Evolution.

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Artist Name: Mike Sterling.
Artist Website: Progressive Ruin.

From Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #146,
reprinted in
Jimmy Olsen Adventures by Jack Kirby Volume 2

• I've been meaning to link to K Thor Jensen's upcoming Red Eye, Black Eye for a while now. It looks to be a witty, insightful autobiographical piece that manages to avoid the pitfalls of the genre. Plus: Jensen's one of "us," so I'm always about showing some love.
  
  
• I somehow stumbled across Niki Smith's site and really like her sequential work. I hope to see more from her in the future.
  
  
• Wizard interviewed Howard Chaykin and managed to talk about Gil Kane instead of "Hey, so you like drawing big titties, huh?"
  
  
• Dennis The Menace meets Fight Club: Part One | Part Two
  
  
• Panel One is Alexander Danner's experiment with the conventions of the medium. It's funnier than it sounds.
  
  
• I got copies of American Splendor #s3 and 4 from DC a couple of weeks ago and haven't reviewed them. Thankfully, Tom Spurgeon did.
  
  
• John Porcellino's 10 Records That Changed His Life.
  
  
• Commentor Sausaletus Rex wrote a damned good piece on the Sunk Cost fallacy and how it applies to creative people. He goes into detail, but the gist is thus: writers, artists, editors - cut your losses when you can.
  
  
• 33 minutes of Charles Mingus playing for French TV.
  
  
• I am totally jealous of this Royal Tenenbaums sketchbook. I've half-considered starting a Pet Shop Boys one a few times, just because I'd love something different from artists I like.
  
  
• Chris Yates's photostrips are always pretty funny, but this poker one from his archives had me LOLing and OMGing. OK, maybe not the latter.
  
  
• I love Jen Wang's drawings of Airline Safety Instructions as Dance Moves. I love them fiercely.

Here's David Blaine screwing with people. Yes, it's a spoof. No, it's probably NSFW when it comes to language used.

Remember to participate in the Validus is always flipping out event so you can have your own Photoshop/MS Paint/Illustrator/etc creation on this page, Sunday! Here's two more I whipped up:

Scan courtesy of Munson, who managed to buy
the damned Golden Age comic this appeared in
before me. Damn you, Munson. Damn you.

We are living at the beginning of a new golden age of classic comic strip reprints, it seems, and this latest salvo from Fantagraphics is among the best of the lot. This first volume collecting E.C. Segar's Popeye material in Thimble Theater covers the years 1928-1930 in a way that allows them to use the book's tall format to great effect: each page features a week of the Daily strips, with the Sunday strips (which carried their own storyline) occupying the back section. It's hard to find enough superlatives to describe this presentation - Popeye is a long-neglected comic strip icon and this unique-looking deluxe volume is what the character deserves. Now, about starting a proper Terry And The Pirates reprint project, along with getting the complete Sky Masters into my hands...

Kim Deitch's hallucinogenic tale of a crashed alien ship, its discovery by a 7-year-old boy named Al Ledicker, and the carnival that springs up around it has always been one of the harder things to collect from the creator of The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, as it was scattered through multiple magazines and comics. This collection of stories covers a broad swathe of Americana from the late 19th century until the end of the 20th, and Deitch's retro-creepy-cute art is perfect for the subjects at hand. If you don't mind a dash of murder, a drop or two of incest, and tragic tales of flying pigs, then picking this up would probably be in your best interest.

Copies of these books were provided by Fantagraphics for the purposes of review.

Hey, Kids! Make Your Own!
Speech Balloon Validus | Thought Bubble Validus | Just Plain Validus
Once you're done, leave a comment with the location or email your work to beaucoupkevin@gmail.com. I'll hold a grand exhibition on Sunday!

When I did the shipping list on Monday, I stupidly forgot to tell you people that the final part of Jack Kirby's Captain America is out this week in trade paperback at the slightly gasp-inducing price of $29.95. It's still cheaper than the issues and the pages look great, so I don't mind that much. This is what the cover looks like:Tell me that's not the most badass thing on the shelves this week and I will call you a liar and possibly mentally defective.

---

About Civil War: one "Oh my god that's awesome!" inducing page and its followup involving one particular player finally entering the fray in a way that makes sense does not make up for 20 other pages of wildly out-of-character moments featuring everyone else. Marvel, Marvel, Marvel: you're determined to make me dislike just about everyone you guys put into costumes anymore, aren't you?

---

The latest Back Issue features articles on: The Defenders, Howard The Duck, Marvel Assistant Editor's Month, the (thankfully) unmade She-Hulk movie starring Brigitte Neilsen, and the career of Don Newton. It's sort of like I Love The 70s from VH-1, but without annoying hosts and with stuff that's actually way cooler than McDonald's ads or Lite Brite.

---

Are you reading Jack Staff? If not, you're missing panels like this:
That's Alan Moore, tripping balls after consuming roasted demon flesh. There's also some nice thread-weaving handled in this issue with a climactic battle so epic they used in the inside front and back covers as story pages. Great comic, not least because it features a Nazi ubermensch getting a severe beatdown.

B'wana Beast: he fucks up Gorillas!
B'wana Beast: he was in two issues of Showcase and was like the Aquaman of the Jungle!
B'wana Beast: created by Bob Haney and Mike Sekowsky!
B'wana Beast: showed up in Grant Morrison's Animal Man!

And that's about all I know about him.

Links:
A chronology of all of his appearances. | Lethargic Lad writes about him. | Somebody has a series proposal for the character. | He was on JLU in an episode entitled "This Little Piggy."

You are given a choice. You may view the latest installment of Nitroglycerin in two locations, one of which allows you to see the strip in super-sized glory, where you may savor Benjamin Birdie's art in detail. A warning, though - your eyeballs may burst from the overwhelming glory of his portraiture of the Elder God:

• BOOM! Studios homepage.
  
• Birdie's Webcomics Nation page.

Birdie and I have discussed new, exciting things that will develop as they develop, so stick around for that.

Here's a review of What Were They Thinking?!?: Monster Mash-Up that came in a bit later than the rest:

What they wound up with was one of the silliest things that has come off the press in months. [...] I say again, Boom! Studios has given us one of the best books of the year. Now, if they just don't fall victim to the dreaded ego machine maybe they can last longer then Valiant, CrossGen or some of the others.

Cheers To: W.W. Norton and designer Paul Buckley, for the gorgeous new paperback editions of Eisner's novels. It's nice to see an up-to-date design that doesn't attempt to emulate Chip Kidd (whose work I very much like.)


Jeers To: The new Dick Tracy reprints. I'd go off on the subject, but you should just read Butcher's take on the matter. While I'm exceedingly happy that Dick Tracy is getting a high-quality reprint series (it's one of my all-time favorite strips) I just wish that there'd been a little more effort made on the part of everyone involved.

• Photos from my trip to New York. Not featured: Birdie's wife, who would murder me for putting photos online. She's better than he deserves.
  
  
• The soundtrack to Neil Tennant's life, courtesy of Betsy. I'm always half-tempted to put together something like this, but there's not much to my life.
  
  
• He may be in the midst of a divorce, but a WWE reviewer says that K-Fed is a musical genius. I always trust sports entertainment concerns to keep me abreast of musical happenings.
  
  
• Here's an interview with Jack Kirby, on YouTube. It's from the now-deleted The Masters Of Comic Book Art video. Someone should put that out again.
  
  
• Find out about Japanese knife-throwing. It may save your life one day.
  
  
• Have I mentioned that excellent artist Chris Weston is blogging before? If not, hey, he's blogging.
  
  
• Finally, awesome Knuckle Tattoos.

Shipping list.
Cheesecake.
Jellybean.
Boom!

Dark Horse

SEP060014 ESCAPISTS #5 (OF 6) $2.99

Still enjoyable, and I like how they've managed to make the real-world menace of lawyers more terrifying than anything else The Escapist fights. Probably my favorite Brian K. Vaughan work, mostly for its neatness: it's done in six, that's it.

DC Comics

JUL060153 ABSOLUTE DC THE NEW FRONTIER HC $75.00

I recently got this and it's the closest DC has come to my Platonic ideal of what an Absolute edition should be. There's a plethora of annotations and sketches in the back end and the additional story pages seamlessly expand the entire affair and clarify a few smaller point. Brilliant, breathtaking superhero comics that remind me why I love the Silver Age.

AUG060245 DEVIL DOES EXIST VOL 8 $9.99
AUG060247 KAMIKAZE KAITO JEANNE VOL 6 $9.99
AUG060249 OMUKAE DESU VOL 2 $9.99

Screw this late-to-the-bandwagon manga crap! Watch awesome new anime instead!

AUG060185 SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL VOL 5 TP $19.99

I think this is the end of the Byrne Superman material. I kind of have an affection for these comics, even if they aren't actually that exciting. They're just competent, readable superhero material. Plus, there's a lot of Jerry Ordway art, and I love his Superman, even with that weird chin.

Image

APR061789 JACK STAFF #12 $3.50

Two in the same year? It's official: Paul Grist has beat Frank Miller and Jim Lee's combined comics productivity in 2006.

JUL061688 JOSS WHEDON IS MY MASTER NOW T/S LG $16.99
JUL061687 JOSS WHEDON IS MY MASTER NOW T/S MED $16.99
JUL061686 JOSS WHEDON IS MY MASTER NOW T/S SM $16.99
JUL061689 JOSS WHEDON IS MY MASTER NOW T/S XL $16.99
JUL061690 JOSS WHEDON IS MY MASTER NOW T/S XXL $17.99

If you are the sort of person that would buy this shirt, please do so. It will enable my stormtroopers to find you and execute you for declaring that a fair-to-middling TV writer is your master.

AUG061747 WATERLOO SUNSET TP $17.99

The solicitation says:

WATERLOO SUNSET is a maze of mysteries... Beware of too easy assumptions. They will perish, as truths are laid bare.

Thirty years ago London's heart was stripped of what a modern city needs -- food, water, power, medicine, transport, communications, security... The wreck survived.

Now a stranger arrives, bearing an urgent message. In days the destinies of London and of Earth will change.

Did anyone read this and/or like it? It sounds vaguely intruiging.

Marvel Comics

OCT051954 DAREDEVIL FATHER #6 (OF 6) $2.99

Ha. Ha-ha. Ha.

No wonder Marvel's Civil War was allowed to slip so far: the EiC can barely finish a six-issue mini in two and a half years.

SEP062181 FURY PEACEMAKER TP $17.99

I think I ordered this, even though I bought the issues. I'm a bit of an Ennis fan, even if this Nick Fury story read almost exactly like an extended version of one of his War Stories comics. Very little makes the thing read like it's about Nick Fury: Future Super Badass. I'd have also liked a few Howling Commandos thrown in, too. Still, it's very enjoyable, taut, and full of Nazi-killing.

Other Companies

JUN063111 LUBA THREE DAUGHTERS TP $16.95

My copy arrived the other day, absolutely destroyed by a UPS person who must have been savagely retarded and enamored with the idea of carrying around wet paper. I should have another soon enough, but I figure this is evidence enough that UPS, when they're not charging far too much to ship things, is coming up with new ways to mess with me.

MAY062816 TRON #2 $3.50

Wow, this took forever to come out. Huh.

Congratulations! You've gotten a comic book published! Now, before you go out into the world and look at reviews from various websites, there are a few things you should know about the comics blogosphere and the various review sites that are out there on the internet. It's not all going to be tea and cupcakes: you will get at least a few negative reviews about your first work. Here's a basic list of things to keep in mind when you encounter a negative review.

1. Your LiveJournal "friends list" does not necessarily reflect the taste of the general reading public. Many creators like yourself find that water seeks its own level and they generally congregate around people with similar ideas and tastes. Sadly, this oftentimes warps the perceptions of the writer or artist and they find themselves wondering why somebody disliked or criticized their work when all their friends said it was brilliant. Realizing that people outside of your immediate circle can have valid opinions is an important first step that is absolutely necessary for any creator hoping to become a comics professional.
   
   
2. When a reviewer does not like your work and criticizes it for faults, do not immediately assume they are a moron. The internet is, indeed, full of ill-informed people who spout complete claptrap at the drop of the proverbial hat, but take a few moments to read the review in full. Do they, in fact, make critical points that are worth consideration? If so, there are a number of reasons they may consider your work to be flawed and it is often worth your time to at least make note of them. You may wish to look at other reviews the person has put online as reference.
   
   
3. A reviewer may not necessarily like your work, but most likely still "gets it." Many times, a creator immediately assumes that their work was not properly received because the reviewer did not have the require brainpower to understand what was presented. In fact, if the creator has been sent a copy of your work by your publisher, it is likely that your publisher realizes that they may well be able to give it the thought needed. They may not blatantly state they understand the subtle nuance in your use of the rose, but it's probably they noticed it and didn't feel it worthy of comment.
   
   
4. The fact that a reviewer doesn't make comics themselves does not automatically negate their comments about your work. In much the same way that mechanics don't need to understand the physics behind how a car works but can see if the fan belt has slipped off, reviewers can look at a completed work and dissect it in a way that provides the perspective needed by a creator and audience: the reader's. Consider that some film critics like Pauline Kael were revered by filmmakers because of their insightful commentary.
   
   
5. Do not respond to a review or comment about your work in anything but a positive manner. When you add a comment to a blog that has reviewed your work, you have to remember that it's not only the reviewer that sees your words, but the site's audience. They may only have 20 visitors a day, but some comics blogs see thousands of readers. Be polite, thank them for their time, and if they liked your work, thank them for their kind words. This should be the end of your commentary about the review. Engaging reviewers in a war of worlds never reflects well on the creator and remember the old marketing adage: people are three to ten times more likely to spread a negative impression than a positive one. Each time you make a statement in public concerning your work, you are engaging in marketing for yourself and your work. Do not endanger your fledgling career because of hubris.
   
   
6. Marketing yourself and your work includes your personal blog and website. Avoid making negative comments about reviewers; they will find out about them and use them as fuel for a potential conflagration your fledgling career may not be able to escape from. You will also want to note that attacking your critics only gives them the opportunity to dismiss further work from you and makes for a contentious relationship with your publisher. Everything you do and say reflects not only on you, but the company that publishes your work. Nobody wants to work with a Negative Nancy, and you probably don't want to be considered one.
   
   
7. You are not your comic. Even if they said that your work was subpar, that shouldn't be considered a reflection on you unless they blatantly insult you as a person. Take all commentary, good and bad, in stride and keep it separate from your ego if possible. It may be a good idea to speak to your friends about this if they end up commenting on your behalf. An overzealous friend can turn into your worst enemy if they insult the wrong person.

By following these basic tenets, you can find yourself growing as a comics creator. Besides, if you've had some negative reviews, you may learn something from them and be able to turn those critics' frowns upside down!

Shaun Manning from Newsarama and I talk about comics and, in particular, BOOM! Studios.

NRAMA: You also mentioned having a story in Cthulhu Tales: The Rising. Now, Cthulhu doesn't seem like one given to comedy. What can you tell us about your story in that book?

KC: My Cthulhu Tales story isn't comedic, actually. I wanted to branch out a bit and ended up contributing a straight horror monologue to the book. My pal Josh Krach helped me out a bit when I was first trying to put it together by equating comedy and horror. They both involve a punchline, just one involves laughter and the other involves screams and agony.

My story's called "The Art of Noises" and it's about the secret history of 20th century music and how everyone's favorite Lovecraft creation fits into the whole thing. I got the title from a famous essay by Luigi Russolo, who designed these beautiful noise generators in the first part of the last century, and the germ of the story came from Mahler's Third Symphony, which has a key structure that was radically different from anyone else's work at the time.

Wow, could that sound more pretentious?

Go read it here. There's also some art by Abraham that, indeed, shows he drew the hell out of it.

...we're back.

I stayed intentionally off-the-grid and tried to do some thinking and writing while in New York. Several projects are going on that I can't quite talk about yet, but they're way-neat and keen. Possibly spiffy.

I'll have photos up later, I'm sure.

What happened while I was gone?

Image from Will Eisner's New York.

I'll probably do one of these with eMusic links and stuff next week, but here's what hitting "Shuffle" on Mother Box coughed up.

1. "Tragedy (For You)" by Front 242
   Brilliant, thrashing, stomping industrial from Belgium's most fearsome-sounding band. I can go for a year or two without hearing it and the second I do, I go into full on "kicking stuff over" mode and want to have it on repeat for hours.
   
2. "King of Snake" (Ashley Beedle's Save Our Discos Mix) by Underworld
   A dancefloor-friendlier version of the thrashing tune that formed the core of Beaucoup Fish. It's actually pretty close to the original for long stretches, but does a few very memorable drop-outs are used for explosive effect and the pianos are a bit more forward in the mix. Hearing this on a loud sound system is pure pleasure. Underworld is my favorite band, even if I don't blab about them very much.
   
3. "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz.
   A funky number from Demon Days that builds perfectly. Starts off reminding me of a technofied version of many of the tunes from the Blue Note Breaks series before introducing the choir - all songs are improved by 20% with addition of a choir, by the way - and then the beats and rapping. Pimprolling music.
   
4. "Downtown" by the JAMMs.
   Take "Downtown" by Petula Clark. Add scouse rapping that's awesome in its horribleness. Bring in a gospel choir (again with the choirs) to tell us that Jesus Christ was born today. Shake until you get one of the best pop songs ever. Denying its brilliance will get you marched off to reeducation facilities.
   
5. "Missing You" by Pete Namlook and Hubertus Held.
   This is from The Ambient Cookbook Volume 2 from FAX records, Namlook's own label. Atmospheric, spacy-synth ambient music. It's also known as "Sequential" by Sequenchill, but that name's way, way too punny to get by with existing in my book. I tend to like almost everything put out by FAX, mostly because Namlook's involved in almost every project and he's damn near genius. There is some wanky guitar noodling in this, but it's actually fairly decent for that sort of thing.
   
6. "Since I Lost My Baby" by Derrick Harriot and Chosen Few.
   I really love the Trojan Soulful Reggae box set, even if it's basically just a giant Motown tribute album. This song, originally done by The Temptations, is perfect for this sort of a thing - jaunty bassline and a vocal melody that's infectious. Almost good enough to make me drink a Red Stripe. I said almost.
   
7. "Can You Feel It" by Original Concept.
   I got this from one of those 80s underground hip-hop collections that was all the rage in the mid-90s. Sample-tastic , scratch filled, and full of massive 808 kicks. I like it because it reminds me of what I enjoy about most of Coldcut's music without their more-than-occasional misfires. They're better tastemakers and innovators than actual musicians, I think.
   
8. "Matamanda" by Spacer.
   I always forget I have this album on Mother Box. Better-than-middling electronic that snatches from house, ambient, and trance equally. The drums on this are really excellent - there's a loop of snares over a beefed-up kick and a real jazzy feel surrounds the whole thing. It'd be good for a slow-motion chase scene. Not that there is such a thing.
   
9. "Shuffle Boil" (Retake) by Thelonious Monk.
   There's some quite-good playing on this by everyone involved, especially Charlie Rouse on the sax. It's from It's Monk's Time, one of the records he put on Columbia. That's all I have to say about this song besides the fact that Monk always knew when to stop playing and let the song do its thing for a bit.
   
10. "Diane" by Charles Mingus.
    Oh, I do love Mingus Dynasty so very much. It's a little batshit crazy, a lot funky, and there's some arrangements that make my jaw drop - literally. At 2:30, the song makes this shift that's dizzying. Mingus is still going to be ahead of everyone else in the 25th century, when cochlear implants generate fractal music to match our personal taste.
    
11. "Interzone" by Joy Division.
    This version's actually when they were called Warsaw and I think it was Andrew at Armagideon Time that got me this. It's very punk and spiky. It's interesting to hear the band before Martin Hannett got his hands on them.
    
12. "Rain" by The Seatbelts.
    God, this is awful. I should delete it. In fact, I just did. Yeesh.

She was a sloppy bass player in crap punk bands. She's got a hair-trigger temper and is sexually aggressive, frequently to the point of seeming-insanity. She was Latina with an different-from-the-norm sexuality long before Renee Montoya was outed and her relationship with best friend and lover Maggie Chascarrillo is tempestuous and fascinating. Her stories are told by one of the medium's best artists and readers can track her growth as a person over multiple decades instead of the stasis so many characters are held in.

Comic Book Girlfriend #3 is Esperanza Leticia Glass, aka Hopey from Love and Rockets.

Related
Number One | Number Two

There's a reason for that.
It sucks.

From the official site:

Wednesday evening (November 8th) Pet Shop Boys can be seen performing "West End girls" on "Dancing With The Stars - The Results Show" on ABC TV between 8 and 9 pm (Eastern Time). This show is one of the most popular on American TV, attracting some 20 million viewers.

On Friday, November 10th, Pet Shop Boys will be performing a song from Fundamental on "The Late, Late Show" which is broadcast nationally at 12.35 am (Eastern Time) on CBS TV.

I think it's fantastic they're getting to do the one song that American radio stations act like is their entire catalog on the Dancing With The Stars. I'd certainly hate to see them do a new-ish song, or even a song that's not beaten to death.

(Hell, get Kelly Clarkson to do the Dusty bit on "What have I done to deserve this?" and that's all the corporate synergy the suits need.)

From Justice League of America #74

I wonder how many of you immediately skip all this text when you see "Promotional" in the title or the giant graphic? Maybe I'm talking smack about your mothers here. Man. Anyway, the latest Nitroglycerin, which made me cackle a bit as I penned it, is available at the usual sites:

• BOOM! Studios, just below the fold.
  
• Birdie's Webcomics Nation page, where it is super-sized.

I should say the book we're promoting this week, Pirate Tales, is dead good. Johanna Stokes and Julia Bax provided what was my favorite story (and one that Ragnell and Kalinara should read), but Rogers also handled himself quite well in a story that builds to one of the best "F$&K YEAH!" moments I've come across in a while. Hell, even the not-best of this particular book stands proudly. Good work from the mothership.

After that Harry Knowles entry, I should be nice to you people.

• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron novels and comics. I just picked up the second omnibus for the Dark Horse comics and there's so much nerditry dripping from the pages that I can wallow for quite a while.
  
• The blue and white signs for the London Underground. Such a pleasing typeface and general design.
  
• Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" from Live At The Village Vanguard - Again!. It seems like he loses it completely for a good ten minute stretch, moving in and out of the melody with these tiny snatches before bringing it home. It's the jazz equivalent of the chariot race in Ben Hur, but with better drumming.
  
• Speaking of the man, Ashley Kahn's The House That Trane Built is a fascinating look at the rise of Impulse Records, one of my all-time favorite labels. Great anecdotes and lots of mid-century advertising that makes me weak in the knees from a design perspective.
  
• Jazz in the autumn. Hard bop is the perfect music for walking around with leaves whipping around you.
  
• Maakies. I've always sort of admired the strip, but getting a chance to wallow in it with a copy of Premillennial Maakies has put me into a fugue state where I am in constant need of more. I'm rather happy that a recent shipment of books to Chez Beaucoup included just that very thing.
  
• Freezepop! They have a new mix of their seminal "Get Ready To Rokk" in the new Guitar Hero game and are playing in Montreal this weekend, so you Quebecois best be prepared. Here are some videos: "Freezepop Forever" | "Tenisu No Boifurendo" | "Parlez-vous Freezepop".
  
• The word Quebecois. It is a glorious thing.
  
• Nude magazine. It declares itself "The UK's best guide to the counter culture and beyond," but I just really like the writing an awful lot. My favorite portion is the ongoing feature "Adventures In Stereo," which you can read online as well as in print.

Read this tripe from Harry Knowles real fast.

Comment below if you agree that he's a shitstain in the underpants of humanity and purging our planet of his moronic dribblings would put us a long way towards making things right in the world. Not commenting is equivalent to siding with him and you'll be among the first batch against the wall when the revolution comes.

Boy this week's
Diamond shipping list is paltry
for me. Whatever shall I do?

Oh, right. Save money for
my trip to New York this weekend.
That's it!


DC Comics

SEP060309 DMZ #13 (MR) $2.99

The beginning of the "Public Works" storyline, where Wood gets away from establishing Matty's character and moving him to a certain place and starts using and the post-war New York as a springboard for deeper storylines. I'm actually fairly excited about this.

Image

AUG061774 PHONOGRAM #3 (MR) $3.50

I love it, and you should too. Fantastic comic that tickles the music nerd side of my brain quite nicely while managing to put across fairly complex ideas about magic. There's a preview up at phonogramcomic.com.

Marvel Comics

SEP062099 BULLET POINTS #1 (OF 5) $2.99

Alternate Marvel history with a heavy focus on World War II? Tommy Lee Edwards? John Workman letters? Sign me--oh. Straczynski.

Whoops. Sorry about that.

Other Companies

AUG063286 ACTION PHILOSOPHERS ITS ALL GREEK TO YOU $2.95

If you're not reading this, you're not as smart as you could be! Hell, even Chris Sims likes this educational comic, and he's what the comics industry calls "low-hanging fruit" when it comes to easy sales involving, say, punching and/or kicking.

SEP063017 EMO BOY VOL 1 NOBODY CARES TP (JUN068284) $13.95

Huh? This was on last week's list, too.

SEP063018 REX LIBRIS #6 $2.95

It's a comic about a librarian who travels through space and time to retrieve books. It's funny, dense, and frequently features unlikely abuses of physics. It's pretty much required reading, as far as I'm concerned.

AUG062949 URSA MINORS #3 $2.95

I've actually not read issue 2 yet, which Neil Kleid assures me is an improvement over the first, which I was left rather cool towards. As I like Neil an awful lot as a person (and creator,) I will probably re-evaluate when I get the second and third issues together.

JUL062943 WARREN ELLIS BLACK GAS 2 #1 $3.99

Honestly, I loved the horror movie ending the first series had and would have been happy if it'd just left us hanging, but enough interesting ideas were put forth about the zombism that I'll pick this up, too.

From Black Panther by Jack Kirby Volume 2.

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Unrelated, most likely petty:
This is very professional on the part of Ms,Shatia Hamilton. Saying a reviewer smokes crack is certainly the sort of thing that comics companies like to see their creators do.

(That would be sarcasm, by the way.)

You know, I really wish Vertigo would stop teaming Steven Seagle up with artists whose work I really like. It happened with the too-goth-for-its-own-good revamp of House of Secrets and it's recurring with the unpleasant, shallow American Virgin, where Becky Cloonan gets lured away from finishing East Coast Rising by a steady pagerate and not having to script herself.

Bah.

This story of an abstinence-promoting youth minister who's corrupted and experiences a fall from grace has a tremendous amount of potential, especially with America leaning the way it is, but the high-minded unpleasantness of protagonist Adam Chamberlain reaches points where empathy is impossible. This means, of course, that it's hard for a reader to care about what happens, when it happens to such a schmuck. Not even a sudden trip to Africa kept me interested and I finished this book in the same way I'd rip off a bandage: as quickly as possible and while checking to see if I'd done any further damage to myself.

Lovely art, mind. Becky Cloonan deserves better.

A copy of this book was provided by DC Comics for the purposes of review. More information is available at the Vertigo website.

I wanted questions, you people asked 'em! The winner's at the bottom.

Munson:

Kevin, I have but one question for you, but it is in Six parts. Part the First, Who are the five people, living or dead, that you would like to invite to a dinner to share ideas and ask questions of? Second verse, not the same as the first, what would be your opening question to each person? Thirdly, would you videotape this dinner meeting for sale on the internet, and what would it cost? Fourthly, who would win in a battle of brawn versus brawn, Rocky Balboa or Jackie Chan? And Fifthly(is that even a word??), who would win in a battle of wits, Homer Simpson or Bender? And Finally, When will I ever finish writing my first column for Bahlactus? (last one is purely rhetorical and I thought it would just make you chuckle) I eagerly await the responses, and that is the second awesome picture that you have taken of Jess and I, I thank you and will hire you as my personal paparazzi when I become famous.

Munson, you are a son of a bitch and I have no idea what I see in you. However, I indulge you because you are a friend and I may need to borrow whiskey funds from you in the future.

Part the first: Grant Morrison, Jack Kirby, John Coltrane, Will Eisner, and the grandfather I never knew on my dad's side.

The second: "Are you sitting comfortably?"

The Third: I would videotape this meeting, but not put it for sale - I'd make it available for free through Google Video and YouTube as well as downloadable .movs and .mpgs on my site.

The Fourth: Going with both of them in their prime, Jackie Chan. Hell, going with Rocky in his prime versus Jackie now, it's still Jackie Chan. The man can move.

The Fifth: Sometimes, Homer surprises me with his sudden insight into things, especially before they started Peter Griffinizing him and making him into more of a bully. I daresay his years at the nuclear power plant may have imparted some sort of mystic knowledge of the electrical arts he may not know he possesses. However, Bender is a vicious son of a bitch and has access to strange future technology. I'm giving Bender the win, but only after much struggle. Bongo Comics has, FYI, done two crossovers between the series with a fair amount of success.

The Final Part: Do it ASAP, for God's sake. The man's been in the hospital and can't do everything himself!

Alice:

When will you find me a houseboy? That Roel fella sounds promising.

I keep looking, and I daresay that you're right about Roel's prospects. I'll contact you separately concerning arrangements for deporting my friend to Portland and setting him up with appropriate house-scrubbing and drink-preparing gear.

Sims:

The ship's going down and you only have enough time to pull one of us out from underneath the wreckage. Me or Campbell?

Campbell gave me a present the other day, so he wins for the time being. Also: you represent a future threat, and I already know where I stand with Dave. Sorry, old chum.

Novice:

Jeff, of COURSE Bender would win in a battle of wits! Bender wins against almost anyone!

Hey, answer questions on your own site, there!

And the winner is...Roel Torres for the utter emo-ness of his question and as an apology for the fact that I'm about to sell him into slavery to Alice. I'll stick that copy of Billy Hazelnuts in your box at the shop!

Scotto asks:

Which book (text, drawn, whatever) in the last five years has impressed you the most?

Oh, could you make this a bit harder? Wow. It's been a really good time for media that's extremely friendly to my tastes. I'm going to cheat and give you two books, ok? OK.

• Bareback by the Tomato collective of designers is stunning and wildly inspirational. One of the best side effects of being a fan of Underworld is getting these beautifully designed packages from them with work from Tomato. It's a bit like being a Pet Shop Boys nerd and getting the Mark Farrow dosage regularly.
  
• Locas by Jaime Hernandez. Yes, Gilbert's Palomar may be technically more proficient, but something about Jaime's art just speaks to me on a base level - it's so clean and beautiful. Seeing a decade and a half of burgeoning comics talent in a single volume is overwhelming.

Boba Ferret wonders:

Is the New X-Men Omnibus (out in Dec) totally awesome or kinda awesome?

It's only going to be kinda awesome, because you can get the three individual oversized hardcovers for around $20 each and not have to strain your back quite so much.

David Campbell in two parts:

How do people on the CSI shows get any work done in their underlit labs? I mean, seriously - how can you identify the type of fiber under a victim's fingernails when your lab is mood-lit by a couple of blue 40-watt bulbs and a lava lamp?

And who shows up at a grisly crime scene in a white silk pant suit?

It looks good. People in shoddily-written crime dramas from Bruckheimer. Next.

Julian does two as well:

How many?

There are four lights.

And another one: do you think this will turn out to be a better century than the previous?

I certainly hope so, but humanity is going to have to wake up to the damage they're doing. With increasing intolerence between people, casual environmental holocaust, the overfishing of the oceans, and our petrochemical consumption being as high as it is, it's going to be very difficult for people to make it to the end of the century without an eye-opening incident or complete sea change in the way people, especially in the west, consume and waste things.

Dave Lartigue:

Which two comics artists would you make fight each other in an arena for your amusement?

Johnny Ryan and Evan Dorkin. Oh, yes. That would be excellent.

Roel, tragically, wonders:

Why am I having problems getting a date? The dating scene really confuses the hell out of me. It's a little scary and fucked-up. How do you meet girls and ask them out without coming across as desperate and/or sketchy? It's something I've been struggling with.

I have no idea why you're having problems getting a date. You're one of the funniest, most charming people I know and any woman that went out on a date with you is guaranteed good conversation at the very least. I wonder if part of your problem is a lack of self-confidence. As to how you ask a girl out: get them drunk. Or have them be drunk when they've met you a few times before and finally get their number. That's what worked for me with Kristin.

I also wonder, after seeing how so many people act, if maybe you're too smart for most potential partners. It's not a guy thing and a girl thing - it's smart versus...not quite as smart.

Betsy, who I'm considering a restraining order against:

Will you hold these two wires while I attach the other ends to this high-voltage battery?

No. Don't you have some Pet Shop Boys slashfic to write?

Bully has two as well. He's greedy.

What did you wanna be when you grew up? And what do you daily that you never would have imagined yourself doing as an adult when you were a kid?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. Finding out how little they're paid and the amount of crap they have to put up with put me off quite a bit by the middle of my freshman year on college. I admire the hell out of Joe Rice for doing what he does - the patience of a saint is what that man has, and his enthusiasm and love for the kids makes me sometimes reconsider that path.

The second one is pretty odd: taking the subway. It's just part of my routine now and when I was a kid, well, golly, that was for people in the big city! There's also that whole "internet," which I got my first glimpses of with GOPHER when I was 10 or 11.

Garth!

If you could own only one page of Jack Kirby original art, which page would it be and why?"

"Let me be Scott Free - and find myself!" Oh, man, I'd love that Mister Miracle page right there. That or the opening splash to Fantastic Four #51.

Benaaaaari, whoa-oh! Cantare, oh oh oh oh!

Did Jack Kirby ever draw Wolverine?

Part of me really wants to say "Yes," because I vaguely remember a sketch or something in an issue of The Jack Kirby Collector, but that may have been a hallucination of some kind.

It's 10:02 as I write this - any other questions before 11:59PM tonight are eligible for a chance at the prize, which is a free copy of Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire. (Yes, I have two and can give one away. Shut up.)

Pal Dave is having a contest where you can win an excellent-sounding minicomic.

Pal Bahlactus (who better get well soon) has posted the latest Comicazi podcast, where he interviews Jonathan Hickman, whose Nightly News came out this week. A few people I know have compared this to Brian Wood's earlier work, which I can think of as a compliment.

This thing's light on content today - I picked up two weeks' worth of books last night and stayed out a bit late. Ask me a question. Whoever asks before 23:59EDT gets an answer here tonight or tomorrow. It'll be fun. Maybe I'll dig up a prize for the best one.

Not that I'm promising anything.

...Myrna Loy or Rosalind Russell saying Lois's lines and this becomes just about the sexiest thing ever.
From Superman Confidential #1 by
Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale.

• U2 attempting to beat New Order at total "Best Of" compilations. See also: Depeche Mode.
  
  
• Speaking of Depeche Mode, the new-ish live DVD set has great sound, but the editing and visual effects get a bit thick. I put it on and keep the TV turned off, if that tells you anything.
  
  
• Pet Shop Boys Concrete: in Concert at the Mermaid Theater is now available. Recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for Radio 2, it's a great show with guests like Robbie Williams and Rufus Wainwright.
  
  
• PopJustice has released their Truth About Pop survey. An excerpt: 35% of you would rather rim Justin Hawkins than listen to the second Darkness album.
  
  
• This Blondie/Beatles mashup by DJ Lobsterdust is one of the best I've heard.
  
  
• Kevin Federline is a waste of stem cells and he apparently can't even sell tickets in New York.
  
  
• Amazon is telling me it will be four to six weeks before I get my copy of the Breaking and Entering soundtrack, which features music by Underworld and Gabriel Yared. Bah.
  
  
• Dorian was kind enough to send me this link to photos from Scissor Sisters' Halloween show. Ana looks crazy hot as the Bride of Frankenstein. (Which annoys me, because the character is actually the bride of Frankenstein's monster, dammit.)
  
  
• Cory Doctorow posts about eMusic changing its subscription plans, makes an analogy to AOL that doesn't bear scrutiny, as eMusic pays artists for each track downloaded and an unlimited model for all users would most likely cripple the company financially. That is, of course, if they still wanted to pay artists for their work instead of pulling an AllOfMP3. While I'm not happy that new users are going to get boned, Doctorow's view of how the internet should work sometimes seems downright loony to me.
  
  Also: get the lower rate when you join through the link on my sidebar before November 21st! Get 25 free tracks when you sign up and then cancel if you want! (But you won't want to!)
  
  Also-er: I get 75 tracks a month for $19.99, which is certainly more than the "40 max" Doctorow states eMusic offers.
  
  Also-est: I get a commission when you sign up through the link. Help me buy booze.

Question: somebody commented a while back about wanting to see "my picks" on eMusic. Is this the sort of thing any more of you would care about, or was this just a single raving lunatic, barking in the wind?

The first day of a new month sees a still-in-its-wrapped edition of Nitroglycerin awaiting your eyeballs. You can view it "below the fold" at the BOOM! Studios site as well as in supersized glory over at Birdie's Webcomics Nation page. While I'm linking you to my collaborator's site, go check out The Kings Of Pop. By linking to it, I hope I'm instilling some terror in the guy so he starts working on it again real soon - it's one of my favorite ideas ever and I demand more of it.

---

Even though Halloween has passed, I wanted to remind you people that I have a fairly-decent creepy horror story in the forthcoming Cthulhu Tales: The Rising. You can order it with the Diamond Code of OCT063248. I think orders have been turned in, but letting your retailer know that you want it can only help.

---

That is, you know, if you want it. I don't want to seem too high-pressure here. I'm just saying that you might want it. If you like horror. Heck, even if you don't like horror or me, it's drawn by Joe Abraham, who rocks the pen-and-ink like few others.

---

Here's some reviews of What Were They Thinking: Monster Mashup:

Steven Grant:

Mocking rewritings of old (to all intents and purposes ownerless) comics stories. Joe Casey massages an old Steve Ditko tale of a frogman encountering an undersea race into a tale of sexual obsession, while Keith Giffen, Johanna Stokes and other Boom! regulars similarly molest other monster tales by mostly unknown artists. But while the concept of comedy rewriting old stories really paid off in the first WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!! what they seem to be thinking in this one is that the concept was funny enough that they didn't have to worry about making the writing itself funny. And the concept is good, but the execution's listless.

Don MacPherson:

This one-shot is just as entertaining as the previous WWTT books, but there's a problem: it's too much like those previous books. The writers' methods for these storytelling/comedy experiments remain the same, and as a result, once one has read several of these books, the experience becomes redundant. For those who have never checked out a WWTT book, I can recommend this one-shot as a light, goofy diversion, especially for those who have an interest in the history and craft of comics. As for those of us who have read previous offerings in this vein, the joke is starting to wear a little thin.

Caleb Mozzocco:

Nothing tickles the funny bones of the quartet of writers quite like gay sex it would seem, as most of the book is devoted to making homoerotic undertones in the art explicit in the new words. [...] WWTH:MMU should fit nicely into your Bwa-Ha-Ha collection.

Kert McAfee:

This might be the funniest book I've read this year. Like art, humor is a subjective form of entertainment, but if you read this book without guffawing, giggling, chuckling or at least sniggering a tiny bit just once, I submit that you have no soul.

Some Guy at AICN:

Sure, some may call it juvenile, lowbrow, and somewhat offensive, but to me, all of those words translate to fun when read in the right light. Giffen and some of BOOM!'s top writers go out of their way to breathe new comedic life into these ancient stories from comic book history.

Mark Fossen:

I have some vague inkling Kevin Church was involved in the creation of What Were They Thinking?!: Monster Mash-Up #1. Not sure where I read that, however. I haven't read any of these mashups before, thinking they were ponies that knew but a single trick. What I now realize it that it's a pretty funny trick. The "weird sexual subtext" button gets punched one too many times, but then there are tales like Johanna Stokes' "Hats Off" which is a dense riff on identity, appearance, and chapeaus. It's utterly mad, and manages to eke out a life of its own that doesn't rely on nudgenudgewinkwink for all it's content. Church's "Flipper_Boy_47" is also a delight, a note-perfect livejournal entry by an emo fishboy that pretty accurately translates Beaucoupkevin(dot)com to the printed page. Now it's just whetted my appetite for the nigh-inevitable What Were They Thinking?!: All-Star Blogger Edition.

---

Bostonites and Somervillians that shop at my preferred retailer, please note: Comicazi has moved. What was once at 380 Highland Avenue has now moved to 407 Highland, just across from the Bank of America. The new space is sort of narrow and a bit smaller, but there's a massive area in the back they're planning on building into. It's going to be a gorgeous shop when it's all said and done.

---

Finally, the Best pirate ever.

A couple of things to note about this:

• At one point, DC was moving enough comics (in this case, House of Mystery #196) to that ever-elusive "girls" demographic that a full-page ad for a Kenner manicure set was not blinked at.
  
• This was a lot more enjoyable than the last issue of Teen Titans I peeked at.

Also: go read about the Max Rebo Band in far too much detail. (Hat Tip to thebitterguy.)