Stephen's So-Called Emo Life!

Baltimore Comic Con Report

2010-09-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, Jermaine and I along with our buddies Frank and Adrian headed up to Charm City for Baltimore Comic Con. Our adventures started before we even got there. We stopped into Richmond Comix for a moment before making our way to Stories Comics on Forest Hill Ave. in Richmond.

This place was a gold mine and gets highest regards from all of us! They have a ton of out of print trades and hardcovers for cover price and their back issue pricing policy was that if it didn't't have a sticker it was cover price or if it was less than a dollar cover it was a buck. Even bette, they were have a 25% off EVERYTHING sale all weekend. I personally grabbed the Comicology Kingdom Come Companion, a first printing Wonder Woman Hiketeia hardcover, a first printing Selina's Big Score hardcover, the first three issues of the Titans/Legion of Super Heroes crossover and the last issue that I needed of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.

For dinner, Adrian and Frank found a stop from the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the Village Cafe on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The calzones were awesome! We rolled into Baltimore around 9:00 and bummed around the Inner Harbor before grabbing a late bite at Pratt Street Ale House.

The show floor was too crazy to remember everything. We lunched across the street in the Gallery food court where I had my second Big Mac ever. Dinner was Phillip's Seafood buffet where I gorged on crab legs and Jermaine chugged down a massive margarita. Breakfast Sunday morning was crappy Subway and lunch on our way out of town was Red Hot and Blue, a barbecue joint in Laurel, MD that we had hit up 2 years earlier.

I did pick some stuff up at the show as well. Frank and I were trying to get as many signatures as possible on our Wednesday Comics hardcovers. Even though I'd already gotten Brian Stelfreeze's scratch at HeroesCon, I asked him to do a quick Catwoman retouch and this is what I got:

Late Saturday afternoon I was talking to my old friend Mark Morales and in between defending the Yankees, I picked up this incredible Secret Invasion splash page for an amazing deal:

I asked Mark if he could get Leinil Yu to add Derek Jeter to the whole piece, but it was a no go.

Frank and I waited for about an hour for Paul Pope and he did not disappoint. He found something to talk about with everyone that stepped in front of him and he did this great Adam Strange sketch:

After a brief visit with our pal Smitty (Brian Smith) and the rest of the Stuff of Legend crew, it was time to head home. Now I'm just counting the days till NYCC in October!

Bought/Thought for 8.25.10: Baltimore Comic Con Edition

2010-08-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

AVENGERS #4 - anyone that says they don't like John Romita Jr. obviously hasn't seen this page yet:

SECRET WARRIORS #19 - after reading all of those Tales of Suspense stories earlier this summer, it really hit me how terrible what happened to Clay Quartermain and Gabe Jones was. I think there are only supposed to be like 9 more issues of this book. Then we NEED to see an omnibus!

FANTASTIC FOUR #582 - for people that have said that none of these stories are connected, well, Hickman's FF is all about family, the dynamic and what these characters still mean to each other after 40 years of publication and across time and space. That's EXACTLY what you're getting and it is awesome!

WONDER WOMAN #602 - I've heard mixed reviews about the new direction for the title and in Regarding: Comics! #50 over at Acme Comics.com I said that the changes probably wouldn't last for more than a year, but I'm really enjoying it, as much as I have since Heinberg's launch of volume 3.

BLACK WIDOW #5 - couldn't get the passages from the Oral History of the Avengers from Avengers #4 out of my head:

TONY STARK: Natasha. No, that is something that any man in the world gets forgiven for. She's the Black Widow. She was put on this planet to turn men into sniveling piles of goo.

I'm now at a turning point with this series, not sure if I want to see where things go after Acuna and Liu depart, but I'll be around for the HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD crossover, so they've got me for at least a little while longer.

It's an extraordinarily slow day at the office, so I took some time to give thought to a couple of things that I never actually bought.

X-MEN: CURSE OF THE MUTANTS: STORM & GAMBIT #1 - wasn't gonna read it except for the fact that it had Chris Bachalo art. Wouldn't you know it, it ended up having my favorite panel of the week thus far!

X-MEN: CURSE OF THE MUTANTS: BLADE #1 - wasn't excited about this at all because I thought it was gonna be a mini-series and I was cringing at the thought of one more $3.99 mini tying into a story I was already buying. But it turned out to only be a one-shot and it DID have Tim Green art, a guy I first noticed when he did the Agent Brand story in the SECRET INVASION: WHO DO YOU TRUST ONE-SHOT. This didn't end up being too bad a'tall.

NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT #1 - gave this a look because it was Ian's pick of the week, so it would definitely come up on the podcast, and for Ariel Olivetti's artwork. The addition of the underwater vampire (new to me) didn't peak my interest, but Olivetti's coloring sure did, in particular on the blood as it mixed with the water. I'll definitely come back for #2.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #75 - ever wonder what DC is talking about in their editorial column on the last page. Well, 2 weeks ago it was this book, and while the description didn't say anything that made me want to read the main story (no offense to Levitz, Ordway, or the Legion), the roster of folks participating the back-ups was enough to turn my head and make me pick up my first issue since the Sam Loeb tribute in #26. A follow up to IT'S A BIRD by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen. Cosplay fun at Comic Con by Billy Tucci. Supergirl and Batgirl by Adam Hughes. Red Robin and Superboy getting girl advice from Batman and Superman, respectively. A revisiting of the pint-sized hero story from around Superman/Batman #51 drawn by Rafael Albuquerque. A great comparison of Krypto the Super Dog and Ace the Bat Hound by Duncan Rouleau. Maeby wasn't impressed:

A Calvin and Hobbs-style Lex Luthor and Joker story by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo that's unlike anything you've ever seen from them. A future Superman and Batman with Damian and Conner by David Finch (a preview of things to come in BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT perhaps?). A really personally story from Pete Tomasi that was drawn by Gene Ha. Did I just convince myself that this book I didn't even get is my pick of the week?

ULTIMATE MYSTERY #2 - I really enjoy how this is coming together and I think Rafa Sandoval deserves a really huge project next.

HERCULES: PRINCE OF POWER #4 - a great ending and the teenage girl in me is really happy to see Amadeus back with the Gorgon. I'm actually got miss this one next month while we wait on Chaos War to start.

BATMAN #702 - makes me wait go back a re-read FINAL CRISIS or just read Batman RIP for the first time.

SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #6 - for months, this has been the book that everyone asks if they missed it coming out in the first place/ said they saw it was supposed to be coming out that week according to DC Comics.com despite the fact that we had no evidence to back that up including our invoice/ asked if the trade was coming out soon even though the story hadn't finished yet/ etc. Other noteworthy series of this distinction include CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORM, FLASH: REBIRTH, FINAL CRISIS, THE TWELVE, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #609 - no offense to any of the creators, but I made the point on Wednesday that I think it would be a stronger format for all characters in question if Black Widow's solo series existed only as back-ups in Captain America. It would get a higher readership and the flagship creative team of Majorie Liu and Daniel Acuña would be perceived to stick around longer if their initial 5 issue arc was broken up over 20 or 15 issues of Cap.

THOR #613 - Hela is the new Wrecking Crew/ Absorbing Man of the Marvel Universe, that character that every creator decides is the gold standard for a whoopin' to test a hero's mettle. She was recently all over New Mutants as part of Utopia and again later in Siege, she's in this Thor story, she's working over X-Factor.

X-FACTOR #208 - solid as always.

Location:The Shop

8-Bit Art

2010-08-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Messed around with 8-bit art today:

Imposter's Daughter: A True Memoir

2010-08-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

I spent a reclusive Sunday afternoon with the dog and IMPOSTER'S DAUGHTER. I read it on Ian's recommendation (and a certain degree of insistence, as he had me go back into the store after dinner to retrieve the book after I forget it when we closed up). Good call.

I sat down to begin reading last night and got really turned off in the first couple pages. The pictures weren't doing anything to push the story beyond saving the author, Laurie Sandell, the drudgery of writing out descriptions, leaving the captions over almost even panel to do the heavy lifting. I had the same problem with WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW by Brian Feis. From a fanboy perspective, it comes off at first glance like the graphic novel format is a bit of a cheat, not leaning on the strength of the sequential art.

I closed up after about 20 pages then immediately picked up again to see what the "reading guide" in the back had to say. The recommended graphic novel list included BLANKETS by Craig Thompson (one of my favorite books of all time) and MAUS by Art Spiegelman (a book I'd analyzed to no end in my modern American literature class). This suggestion caused me to do a double-take on my opinions and think back on how I would have felt about them or if I would have even finished reading those two books that I really enjoyed had I been as prejudiced from the get-go. So I flipped back to the beginning and forged on.

Glad I did. By the time the book reaches its climax I was completely pulled in. Sandell's art had become incredibly charming (though even this took a step back when I read the acknowledgments only to find that she didn't color it [Paige Pooler did ]).

In thinking about it, Sandell's art and storytelling choices came from a much different place, one of imagination and broadening of boundaries, and the typically love of Kirby and Batman that are so common in the industry.

From checking out her blog afterwords, it looks like she had a real blast at Comic-Con (Imposter's Daughter was nominated for the best reality-based Eisner [I had no idea]) and is really enjoying exploring the rest that the medium has to offer.

Two thumbs up. Go get it in the indie section.

Location:The Cave

Scott Pilgrim Trivia Contest

2010-08-13T09:04:00.001-07:00

Running a little contest in conjunction with my usual Acme First Look over at Acme Comics.com using trivia that was originally intended for the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World premiere at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas last night. E-mail me with your answers at stephen@acmecomics.com. The first person to answer everything correctly will get a nice little prize!

1. What brand of bass does Scott Pilgrim play?

2. What famous artist wrote the majority of the original songs for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World?

3. What infamous Toronto club is the scene for one of the fights in Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness?

4. What band helped Sex Bob-mob defeat Todd Ingram in vol. 3?

5. What's the Konami code?

6. Name 3 power-ups you can acquire in Super Mario Bros. 3?

7. Who were the 4 original bosses in Street Fighter II?

8. What food does Scott say he could eat all day, oblivious to the fact that it would make him fat?

9. In Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness, the drummer from the Clash at Demonhead punches Knives so hard that what happens?

10. What's the name of the actress whose visage attacks Scott, Ramona and Wallace in the 2006 Free Scott Pilgrim special and reprinted in the 2008 Scott Pilgrim Color special?

Location:Battleground Ave,Greensboro,United States

Bought/Thought for 8.11.10: Scott Pilgrim Buzz Edition

2010-08-13T05:22:00.000-07:00

THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER #3 - this is everything that is great about superhero comics. I loved Chris's Ant Man/ Giant Man redesign on the helmet. And it thrills me to see everything that he and Roger Langridge have in store for their own ideal Marvel Universe now that the Oym's have stopped by and Stark has been mentioned.

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #13 - I mentioned to ajermaine that the cover did nothing for me, but the twist on the classic Spidey villain got me, the death was truly shocking and the last page was inspiring.

ZATANNA #4 - really disappointed that I didn't see Stephane Roux's artwork on this one (and I mean no offense to Chad Harden there). Inconsistency of the main creative team was what drove me away from GOTHAM CITY SIRENS and STREETS OF GOTHAM, so I hate to see those same doubts creeping into my head after just 4 issues on a book with one of my favorite DC characters.

X-MEN #2 - dang, man, do I REALLY like vampires?

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #29 - still not really digging the Hammer side of the story, but the scene where Pepper and Tony literally lit up the room made it all worth while.

DAYTRIPPER #9 - I lost a breath at the end of this issue, holding nothing in as I flipped to the front just to make sure it really wasn't the last issue of the series. There it was: 9 of 10. But that's how tight this thing was. I took the gasp they recommend in the last line and I was too afraid to let it out.

X-FORCE: SEX AND VIOLENCE #2 - lots of fun as a concept, and at the same time it's everyone that's wrong with comics that aren't written to be accessible by people of all ages. I've read a lot of Marvel Max titles that were more tame than this one.

STEVE ROGERS SUPER SOLDIER #2 - Dale Eaglesham is drawing some crazy small hands on Steve Rogers's crazy big arms. I'm still enjoying this one just as much as I am Captain America.

THANOS IMPERATIVE#3 - the content felt very much like the fourth issue of a sixth issue mini, but otherwise it remains a solid book.

BUZZARD #3 - not a bad quick mini, but I don't think I'm gonna follow Billy the Kid into his own book.

BPRD HELL ON EARTH NEW WORLD #1 - is Abe a bigger jerk to his friends than Hellboy ever was? More than any plot points, I was really surprised that they rebooted the ongoing numbering on BPRD that no one paid much attention to anyway.

STRANGE SCIENCE FANTASY #2 - better than #1.

Location:Home

COMIC-CON DAY 2010: Day 2

2010-07-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

We wrapped up last night with a delicious dinner at PHIL'S BBQ with Gregg Schigiel, Jacob Chabot and Erik Larsen.

Today we took a lot more pictures with our digital camera and a lot more videos, both of which we can't upload until we get home, so for now our iPhone shots will have to do!

Carly with her giant Doctor Who bag:

A giant Frankenberry figure:

Carly with a giant exo-suit from Avatar:

My mini shepard's pie from FIELDS for lunch:

My Spaceboy sketch by Gabriel Bá:

Time to run back to the show and get some last minute networking in tonight before dinner and the Eisners!!!

Location:Still the Lobby

Spirit of Comics Well-Wishes from the cast of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD!!!

2010-07-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

If these don't upload properly, look for them on YouTube. Search for "acme spirit of comics Scott pilgrim"!

Location:The Hotel Lobby with Free WiFi

COMIC-CON 2010: Day 1

2010-07-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

You're going to notice a pattern in the goings on of Carly and mine's first day of SDCC2010.

The 15 story SCOTT PILGRIM VS. COMIC-CON add attached to the side of the Hilton with the convention center in the foreground:

Me with the best Ramona and Roxy in line for the SCOTT PILGRIM VS. COMIC-CON EXHIBIT:

The Scott Pilgrim grease truck, serving up FREE garlic bread, Scott's favorite food ("Bread makes you fat?"):

The layout of the Scott Pilgrim exhibit:

Me playing a demo of the SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD video game, out August 10th:

A giant character map:

The crowd from upstairs:

The shirt they give you just for showing up:

My custom shirt of Scott's drawing of Ramona's hair from the movie:

Carly's custom Sex Bob-omb shirt:

How are they exclusive?

Figures at the Mezco booth:

Plushies at the Mezco booth:

And exclusive band from the Oni booth:

We DID manage to see SOME other stuff:

Venture Bros. Figures, including the upcoming Hank and Dr. Girlfriend and Phantom Limb and Doctor Orpheus series for next year:

Me with a giant Green Lantern power battery:

An upcoming Snookie bobble head:

The "set" of AMC's Walking Dead:

Carly with Jewel from the enormous Marko Djurdjevic mural on the back of the Marvel booth:

Much more to come tonight!

Indie Inclination

2010-07-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

The last couple of week's I've been far more eager to read the indie books in my stack first. I'm not saying it's a slight against the mainstream books, just more excited about something different.

CASANOVA - I talked at length about it last week!

KING CITY - at this point you're probably better off trade waiting it, but figure out how it's going to fit on your shelf ahead of time.

SCARLET - I had no expectations for this one. Not low, just no. I hadn't seen any of the preview art and I had no idea what the story was, so I just enjoyed the ride and was really blown away. I also got the David Lafuente cover pictured above thinking that no one else would want to give it a happy home at the price we'd need to put on it.

PARKER: MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE RELUDE - a preview to this October's THE OUTFIT, which itself is the sequel to THE HUNTER, which came out a year ago this week. I know it's adapted work and not exclusively from the mind of Darwyn, but he still came up with the best title page ever!

CHEW #12 - the relationship between Tony Chu and Amelia Mintz is probably my favorite in comics right now.

DAYTRIPPER #8 - the magic of this series is that every issue makes me believe that there's hope for Bras and this one was no exception. I thought that since it focused on his wife and son more than him that perhaps this time THEY would die. Nope.

STUFF OF LEGEND: THE JUNGLE #1 - Smitty and crew did an awesome job and this one. It's got the same effect as MOUSE GUARD (as well as the same format) in that it comes out semi-infequently, though still on schedule, and no matter how long it's gone the writers are able to remind you of everything you love about the characters and put them right back in peril in 22 pages.

STRANGE SCIENCE FANTASY #1 - this was the disappointment of the bunch in that I thought it would be more retro and fun than straight-laced and singular.

SIXTH GUN #2 - from Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt and Oni Press. I was hooked by the Free Comic Book Day premiere and really wanted to check out #2. The hitch: 18 out of our 20 copies were misprinted! Guess I'll have to wait a little longer for some paranormal, ol' West goodness.

Location:The Underground

Moustacheo'ed Me

2010-07-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

People liked it so much the last time I shaved right before HeroesCon:

I decided to have some more fun as I prepped for SDCC next week:

Location:The Barber Shop

Other Stuff I Bought/Thought About for 7.14.10

2010-07-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

There's pictures further down, I swear.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #12 - this was a great issue, but I can only feel that it would have been better is Chameleon hadn't just done something very similar in AMAZING a few months ago (placing the blame on Amazing, not Bendis).

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #28 - I love that Fraction's whole tapestry is coming together now after a few years. Ezekial Stane (going back to THE ORDER), hooking up with Hill in "Most Wanted", everything.

BATMAN #701 - guess I better go back and read "R.I.P". I was extremely anti-that story when I came out because I thought it was ludicrous that DC would kill Batman right before DARK KNIGHT came out. Little did I know that they wouldn't really kill him (yet) and Dark Knight wouldn't really be a Batman movie.

X-MEN: SECOND COMING #2 - pleased with the way the story wrapped. I might even want to try GENERATION HOPE or whatever it ends up being called in hopes, pun intended, of another NEW X-MEN (ACADEMY X) type title. I'll also be looking into Marjorie Liu's X-23. The real shocker were Esad Ribic's pencils. More!

AVENGERS ACADEMY #2 - I had a feeling that Finesse would be my favorite character.

GORILLA-MAN #1 - fun stuff, but this totally could have been another story in ATLAS if that great book was allowed to go longer than 5 issues. Better that Parker gets the Agents to us any way we can than not at all, I suppose.

THANOS IMPERATIVE #2 - the splash of Galactus and the Celestials joining the fight right after Silver Surfer blasted through that Cancerverse monsters head illicited serval several audible "dangs!". Even the fleet of the Galactic Empire has joined the fight!

PANEL OF THE WEEK!!!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #637 - I swung back and forth on this issue a couple of times. GLAD - to see the end of the "Grim Hunt". ANNOYED - that it took as many artists as it did to get the job done. Yeah, I was THAT guy for a minute. SATISFIED - with the way the issue was going. HORRIFIED - when Spidey ripped Sasha Kravenoff's face off. SATISFIED - with the ending and Araña's new costume. DISGUSTED - with the wholesale slaughter in the first epilogue. BOOSTED by the promise of O.M.IT. DIGGING - Martin's layouts for the Spidey Sunday. PUT OFF - again, by the very last page.

Just realized that I slashed X-FORCE from my list too soon and forgot to pick up SEX AND VIOLENCE #1. These kinds of mistakes won't be made once the Comixology app is back up and running.

Location:The Mainstream

Decoding Cass

2010-07-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

This week saw the re-release of Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá's CASANOVA, now in FULL COLOR!!! When I think about it, this is probably one of my favorite series of all time, though I would never venture so far as to say I love it as much as Raph does.

In the first issue there's a prolonged scene of dialogue where Cass, our anti-hero, chats with a damsel in French. One of the tenants of the series is that the creators don't talk down to their readers (Fraction points out in the backmatter that he was struck with this notion when reading Howard Chaykin's AMERICAN FLAGG for the first time), so there's no translation. Like with BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM, I'll serve as your Rosetta Stone with no thanks to Grammy Mattinson and the 3 years of French I took in high school.

PAGE 17

PANEL 4

GIRL: Oh, thank you god...

CASANOVA: Come on!

PANEL 5

CASANOVA: What's happening?

GIRL: It's horrible --the American sex zombies are everywhere. They attack the men and ravage all of the women--

CASANOVA: --Pardon me-- but would you like wine?

PANEL 6

GIRL: Sure. I am French, eh?

PAGE 18

PANEL 1

GIRL: If you pull me from this horror, I will cook for you for the rest of my life...without clothes, whatever...

PANEL 2

CASANOVA: God in the @$$!

PANEL 3

CASANOVA: Oh, crap.

PANEL 4

CASANOVA: What did you say? I don't understand English. A French woman just offered to cook for me, and I can't imagine what else. What's happening?

Yeah, I had to double check "God in the @$$", too.

Location:Casa de Ewing

Kyle Baker Kick

2010-07-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

As will occasionally happen, I've become infatuated with an artist's entire body of work, however temporarily only time will tell. Sometimes it sticks permanently like with Darwyn Cooke and Mike Allred and other times it's more of a passing interest like with Tim Sale.

The latest gorging has been for Kyle Baker material. I got most of his PLASTIC MAN run at HeroesCon out of dollar boxes which kicked things off (see "Fun with Plastic Man!). I re-read his Hawkman story in WEDNESDAY COMICS. I ripped through his interview in DRAW magazine last weekend in the car. This weekend I read WHY IT HATE SATURN. I'm gonna try to get through TRUTH and THE BAKERS tonight. SPECIAL FORCES and NAT TURNER with come a bit later.

I breezed through Why I Hate Saturn almost out of defiance of Baker's own statement that most people would say that they've read the graphic novel to sound cool without having actually done so on the assumption that no one else had read it either.

The biggest help in encompassing a creators whole career when I go on binges like this has been the MODERN MASTERS series from TwoMorrows Publishing (based here in NC [how does Tim Sale not have one !?]).You get great context for the creator's work and a good sense of progression for their process. It might seem daunting to get into a 100 page interview about ANYONE, but Eric Nolen-Weathington's conversational tone keeps things moving and I guarantee that any volume you open will have something you've never seen before no matter how well you think you know a particular creator.

Location:U.S. 220,Greensboro,United States

All-Ages Means for ALL Ages

2010-07-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

In prep for the all-ages fun sure to be delivered this week in THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER #1 by Roger Langridge, Chris Samnee and Matt Wilson, I've been spending my 4th of July weekend enjoying some other great titles that are fun for kids and adults alike, such as BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM by Mike Kunkel, Art Baltazar, Franco, Byron Vaughns and Stephen DeStefano (I haven't made it to the Mike Norton stuff yet).

The first two issues features a bunch of coded messages that I took the liberty of working through Saturday night (this is what I do for kicks [at least while I'm sick]).

Page One
SHAZAM: Go forth, young Billy. Take the magic subway to the Rock of Eternity.
BILLY: Are you sure you mean me?

Page Two
BILLY: Are these for Halloween?
SHAZAM: Beware of the Seven Deadly Evils of man...pride, envy, greed, hatred, selfishness, laziness, and injustice.

Page Three
CAPTAIN MARVEL: Say "CHEEEEEEEEEEESE!"
MARY MARVEL: I'm so much faster than him.
CAPTAIN MARVEL: Never fear. Captain Marvel's here...to stay!

And at the end, a preview of issue #2:

Billy learns that there is a new kid at school. Theo Adam has been magically brought back from banishment, however he's completely forgotten the magic word that can change him into Black Adam. Even if it means joining Billy's school, chasing him everywhere around Fawcett City, and generally causing mayhem. Unable to change for fear of giving Theo the word, Billy and Mary escape and find refuge in the Wizard at the Rock of Eternity. They are shocked to hear the story of how the Wizard chose Theo Adam many years ago and had to banish him after giving him the magic of Shazam. They are equally shocked to learn a surprise about the 7 Deadly Evils.

Sadly, this probably took me an hour to convert.

Sorry about the orientation!

Location:The Couch

Vamps and Derby

2010-06-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

Without really meaning to, I've been taking in an inordinate amount of material featuring vampires and roller derby.

Carly was extremely interested in getting caught up on True Blood in time for season 3's premiere and I wanted to be able to go watch the show at the Carousel on Sunday nights after seeing how much fun everyone had with Lost during the finale. If I knew what was going on, that would only make it better, right?

I had to trudge my way through season 1 again for the same reasons that I hated it the first time: Bill and Sookie. I think they're pretty awful. But by the time I got around to Jessica's introduction and the full reality that is Jason Stackhouse I was pretty much sold. I really dug season 2, not for any specific reason. More because it looks like they've opened up an entire mystical world to play in. It's the same appeal that I, ZOMBIE is holding for me right now. Well, that and Mike Allred.

Vamps have been popping up all over the place for me. They were in Plastic Man (Edwina's dad), they're going to be in X-Men (which is prompting me to drop all my X-books except Uncanny), and I stumbled into NEW MOON because Kelsey and Carly were watching it when Adam and I got back to the house one night.

Roller Derby started working its way into my waking consciousness back in October when WHIP IT came out, it wasn't a perfect movie by any means (I accredit a lot of this to it being Drew Barrymore's directorial debut), but there aren't a lot of movies with that kind of empowering message for girls and the trailer was awesome. I bought it on DVD not too long ago and it's become my go-to feel good flick.

When I was at Raph's last week we needed something to be on in the background while we hung out waiting for my parents to pick us up and I put on BLOOD ON THE FLAT TRACK: THE RISE OF THE RAT CITY ROLLERGIRLS. Before long I was getting more and more sucked into the doc.

Just this week I read the brand new JAM! TALES FROM THE WORLD OF ROLLER DERBY. I was more inspired to show my support for my pals Evan "Doc" Shaner (www.evanshaner.com) (his first published work!) and Chris Schweizer (www.curiousoldlibrary.com) than an overwhelming desire for more derby material. But oddly enough I started to see my limited understanding of the sport coming together. The anthology was co-sponsored by the Woman's Flat Track Derby Association, of which the Rat City Rollergirls are a part.

I think a trip to Raleigh will be in order for a bout of the Carolina Rollergirls. Sunday, July 11th, noon at the Skate Ranch! The Debutante Brawlers vs. the Trauma Queens!

Location:The Wheelhouse

My Imperfect iOS4 Review

2010-06-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've had two weird hang-ups so far.

1) The first night that I downloaded the new os the iPod app kept crashing. I was out of the house when I first noticed, but when I got home and synced it to the computer it took care of the problem.

2) The iPod app doesn't recognize the duration of podcasts and won't let me search the episode I'm listening to. This became a bit of a problem when I was half way through a 2 hour podcast and while syncing, the episode rewound to the beginning, giving me no choice other than to listen to the first hour over again.

Like I said, minor problems and I'm sure they'll be worked out shortly.

There are many more pluses than minuses. I need to teach myself to use the multi-tasking trick rather than closing out of every app I'm using. Have the customizable home screen and lock screen means I don't have to choose between the Aubrey Plaza/Julie Powers and Anna Kendrick/Stacy Pilgrim promo pics anymore. The folders mean even more games and less worrying about the design sense of certain app icons.

When is the iPad version coming along and how long until I go ahead and get myself an iPhone 4G?

EDIT - one more minor imperfection and this one falls on me, but I had to log into my voicemail for the first time today and I didn't remember my password because I hadn't had to use it in a year. Credit does go to the help line for making it extremely easy to reset. Hey, it's better than when I applied for a debit card and forgot the PIN before it showed up in the mail.

Location:The Office

Wednesday Comics - Revisited

2010-06-23T11:28:00.001-07:00

The night before leaving on my trip I had some pre-travel jitters and having plowed through all of my new books the night before to avoid lugging singles with me on the trip, I hunkered down with my WEDNESDAY COMICS hardcover until the wee hours of the morning.

I fell in love with this thing the moment News & Record graphic novel reviewer J. Brian Ewing brought his preview copy into the store. While DC has a tendency to make some questionable decisions when it comes to formatting collected editions, they did this one just right and with good reason. Though it seemed to be somewhat panned in its original release due to price point vs. quality of printing ($3.99 on newsprint) and some lackluster stories, the make-or-break of the experiment always seemed to lie in how it would be reprinted, if at all.

They did it right.

Before you even open the book, the cover is perfect, highlighting every character in glossy on a matte background. The introductory pages give you a great sense of the spirit of the project. Bonus materials. The unpublished bumper Plastic Man and Creeper stories. Just the overall quality of the printing on the glossy interior pages as opposed to the original broadsheets, namely for Lee Bermejo's SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN. And everything reads better with the stories placed in order sequentially rather than the initial one-page per week format.

Never before have I seen a single book have a con floor buzzing the way this slab did at HeroesCon 2010. At every table I went to, creators ask to see my copy and flipped through the oversized pages with wonder and joy. Some shared a longing to own pieces of original art and some just wanted to know where they could get a copy for their very own.

But in a more private sense, here are some of the things that I enjoyed all over again or for the first time in the opening half of the tome.

BATMAN by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso - I wasn't wowed by Batman the first time through. I felt that the layouts in particular were pretty bland. Doing what seemed like a regular comics page on a giant scale didn't do much for me and it caused me to lose interest in the narrative. Reading it together at once made me understand the connections between characters that I didn't care to make before.

KAMANDI by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook - I think that mores than any other, this was the most talked about story during the original run and I poured over it just like everyone else. If I heard Mark Morales correctly at HeroesCon, someone bought all of Ryan Sook's original art off of him and was re-selling it for $40,000 a page! Looking into it now, pages 7 and 10 are for sale at Heroes Comic Books.com. They're 19.5" x 25" each (HUGE!) and the prices are "please inquire". I think I'll be left wondering. I also didn't realize originally that Shin Tun was Washington, DC.

SUPERMAN by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo - easily the most panned around the shop when they were coming out, and really interesting that this w the strip DC decided to put forward in USA Today to appeal to the masses. I suppose people would connect better with Superman than they would with Kamandi or Metamorpho no matter what the discrepancy in narrative quality. I said in the message board thread the very first day Wednesday Comics was announced that I didn't think Bermejo's art would work on newsprint, and I still think i was right. But it pops on the glossy stuff. The story still reads pretty low, but I does have a strong energy and weight to the fight scenes once you can really see what's going on.

DEADMAN by Dave Bullock - no offense to Dave, but the main feeling I was felt with after his strip was wondering heat Darwyn Cooke would have done with a crack at this format. I know he's knee deep in doing Parker, but this seemed right up his alley, no continuity, expansive format, edited by Mark Chiarello (who also oversaw THE SPIRIT, NEW FRONTIER, and SOLO).

GREEN LANTERN by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quiñones - there ended up being a nice symmetry that slipped by me between the current story with the alien invasion and the flashback story with Hal and Dill. "One riot, one Ranger." = "One invasion, one Lantern."

METAMORPHO by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred - Good to see Gaiman come back to Element Girl, which was one of my favorite stories from SANDMAN. The Metamorpho fan club was both twisted and fun. "Kids, if you synthesis a new element you can win a free trip to the set of the Metamorpho TV show." I guess James Cameron and Tony Stark will have front row seats! The snakes and ladders inset as a plot device was brilliant. And the above spread is probably one of the best splashes in comics history.

TEEN TITANS by Eddie Berganza and Sean "Cheeks" Galloway - I've been a big Cheeks fan since Carly showed me his stuff on Deviant Art like 5 years ago and I bought the Kate Corrigan and Liz Sherman Hellboy Animated busts just to get a hold of his designs. I'm also going to buy SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN to check out his style. The self-referencing of Wednesday was a nice touch and reminded me of the "Once More With Feeling" musical episode of Buffy ("Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday."). Sean's Wonder Girl re-design with the hoodie and sweat pants was awesome. The most curious thing was the switches in narrators (7 times in 12 pages and one page without any exposition at all). With Berganza's experience as an editor I would have expected different. This also seems to be the only story "set" in DC continuity, at least that's what I surmised based on the comment about Doctor Light's death during FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS. Cheeks did the above Blue Beetle sketch in the back of my hardcover. I hope it becomes the first of many.

STRANGE ADVENTURES by Paul Pope - this was my favorite strip during the original release. I forgot about Doctor Fate's cameo. I'm not usually one to praise the beauty of women in comics, but Pope's Alanna was pretty gorgeous, and that's coming after I was downright disturbed by some of the women he drew in the PULPHOPE art book from Ad House.

A review of the second half should be up later in the week!

Location:Howell, NJ

Fun with Plastic Man!

2010-06-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite panels from Kyle Baker's run on Plastic Man:

The only thing I like better than baseball humor in comics is Yankees humor. Probably my favorite line in an Andy Diggle comic was when the Secret Warriors were hiding out under the new Yankee Stadium and they commented that it cost what it did and took as long as it did to build because of the S.H.I.E.L.D. additions.

Probably several years ahead of its time.

Location:Store before opening

T-Shirt Designs

2010-06-15T20:13:00.001-07:00

Made a lot of progress today on making the Acme Bats shirt a reality!

Location:The Sweatshop

Travelin' Reading

2010-06-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to head to New Jersey this weekend, and by getting ready I mean laying in bed, blogging and reading Thor. Somehow my suit for my cousin's wedding ended up in the dog's bed last night. But a big part of my trip planning is always deciding what to bring to read, which almost always becomes decidedly too much.

I've been known to fill up the entire storage compartment built to fit the captain's chairs in my mom's van with oversized hardcovers. I was still in my anti-collected editions phase when we drove to Florida for a cruise four years ago so I brought along an entire short box full of Ex Machina and New X-Men back issues. On planes it's tough to reach below your seat and into you bag and into the box in your bag and take all the books you've already read out and put the one you just read on the bottom so you can read the one on top and then put the box in the bag and the bag back under the seat. And the refreshment cart hits you in the elbow.

On the quick four day turn around I'm trying to be thrifty:

Fantastic Four John Byrne Visionaries vol. 3
Thor by Jurgens and Romita Jr. vol. 3
JLA Deluxe Edition #3

I also downloaded my first iBook right before HeroesCon, but haven't even "cracked (opened?)" it yet. I figure it will come in handy since we're driving through the night Thursday and everyone always complains when I've got a flashlight going while they're trying to sleep. Ah, backlight.

Location:Home

The Acme Bats

2010-06-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Every time I drive by the Greensboro Arboretum off Wendover Ave. and see the lights shining on the ball fields I wish I was out there playing. I wonder if I could hit a homer off the perfect pitch. I picture myself making a Jeter-esque leaping throw to complete the put-out.

I've tried to instill the same dreams in my friends, starting with humor. I built us up to them as underdogs, belonging to a sandlot, only squaring off against other teams when we showed up on their fields and challenged them, resorting to " You play ball like a girl," if and when necessary. Little leagues, churches, we'd be equal-opportunity ball players.

Tonight I actually looked up what leagues in town are available to folks like us, people with little athletic ability or years away from the game. We got us a name. We got us a logo. Now we just need something like 12 other players.

This fall, play ball!

Location:Summerland

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World THE GAME!!!

2010-06-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

K.O.!

So, I just bought an X-Box to ensure I'll be able to play this as soon as it comes out!

Here's the game play demo from E3! http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-scott-pilgrim/101185

Location:U.S. 220,Greensboro,United States

Rocking Out

2010-06-12T00:16:00.000-07:00

Did some re-arranging tonight, most notably taking the other 2 doors off my closet to make room for more comics. As a result, my guitars were no longer hidden from the world and I found the perfect place for the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World poster that I've had laying around since Free Comic Book Day.

And to all of the Rock Band nay-sayers out there, I played along with an entire album for the first time in forever tonight because I couldn't get American Idiot out of my head, so the desire to play an actual instrument after playing the game can go both ways.

Location:Greensboro, NC