"Let's just say that me and Super-Hip, we go back."

Above is a page from dead-comic-walking Doom Patrol #20. The Patrol, due to the machinations of the powers that be at Oolong Island, their former base, as well as the hissable Thayer Jost aka Mr. Somebody, have been evicted from their home.

They need transportation back to civilization, and Cliff Steele calls in a favor. And as you can see above, that favor is none other than JBS mascot Tadwallader Jutefruice, aka Super-Hip! You know, the fellow flying in the header at the top of this very blog.

Since this is such a momentous occasion, merely the first in-continuity appearance of Tad's alter-ego since, appropriately enough, the Mento-Elastigirl wedding in the later days of the first DP series, and I wanted to share it so much with everyone...well, I couldn't wait to get the comic and scan it, or download it, so I ganked it from CBR's preview, where I read it first. You all probably know how much I'm in the tank for this comic in the first place...and dropping Super-Hip, even older, fat Elvis-style Super-Hip...well, I for one was completely geeked by it.

Best of all, since Giffen is doing some of the best writing of his career right now, and dare I say in particular on this comic- he has done an unsurprisingly great job of reintroducing him. Many writers, especially those who perpetuate the sour tone that has become de rigeur at DC these days, would have made him a pathetic figure. Pill junkie, perhaps. What if it had been James Robinson? J.T. Krul? Shudder. But Giffen gives us an older Tad, like I said Fat Elvis or Wayne Newton style, living large in Vegas- perfectly logical and very gratifying for someone like me, who loves the character mostly because, well, I thought he was really neat and cool back in 1966.

My friend Jason (@jason1749) Last Name Unknown on Twitter said "Jeez, Giffen's writing that book directly at you now, isn't he?" and given that the sales figures for DP are so low, that may be true- I may be the only one still reading at this point!

Regardless, I thought that this was just far-out, fab, gear and groovy and wanted to share.

Oh, and DC? I beg of you- next time you need cannon fodder for your big multi-issue line-wide crossover doom-and-gloom event, please forget Giffen has done this, OK? Thanks.

"Your bodies will be unlovely..."

A two-page scene from Druid #3, Warren Ellis' sequel-of-sorts to his Hellstorm run in the mid-'90s. I was totally taken by surprise at the cultist's reaction to Ludgate's demand, and I still remember laughing out loud when I read it. Who says Ellis can't do teh funny?

Sight unseen.

Apropos of nothing, and mostly because I want to get something up here, I just wanted to state for the record that I like this eye-grabbing cover, which wraps itself around the latest Doug Moench-Kelley Jones Batman opus, entitled Batman Unseen...although I think there is some confusion about whether it's supposed to be Batman: Unseen or Batman: The Unseen. Regardless, this is a damn exciting Kelley Jones illo, I do believe- of course, he's always been capable of providing dynamic images in his rubbery post-Wrightson/post-"Ghastly" Graham Ingels/post-Frazetta fashion, and he once more delivers the good here as we see Bats swooping down on a, well, an unseen foe, escorted by a remarkably organized bat posse. Now, I bought (and still own) almost all of their early-mid 90's collaboration on the Batman proper title, and mostly enjoyed them all; Jones' exaggerations would often liven up some awfully staid, but still readable, Moench scripts. That said, I remember feeling that the duo had peaked towards the end of that run, and nothing I've seen since has caused me to think any differently...so I probably won't be buying this. But I do like this cover, and wanted to share.

Trouble Waiting to Happen.

I don't usually repost press notices here when I get them, but I thought I could make an exception with this...

Comic Book Galaxy Expands in Tenth Year with New Group Blog TROUBLE WITH COMICS

(The Comics Internet) -- Now in its tenth year of pushing comix forward, Comic Book Galaxy has had as few as one and as many as two dozen contributors at any given time in its history. As it rolls into its tenth year, the Galaxy is expanding once again with the creation of the new group blog TROUBLE WITH COMICS.

Comic Book Galaxy publisher Alan David Doane says in his post introducing the new blog that "[Trouble with Comics] grew out of conversations with my good friend and partner in thoughtcrime Chris Allen, as I was assembling my recent eBook, Conversations with ADD. I had to dig into the Galaxy's deepest, hidden recesses to find some of the material for the eBook, and Chris helped me pound it all into shape. As we worked together on all that, I think we both realized just how much we missed feeling the rush we got from the most exciting times we had together (and sometimes separately) on Comic Book Galaxy. With that in mind, we started talking to good writers we knew, some who wrote for Comic Book Galaxy in the past, some who are new faces around the Galaxy Clubhouse but who nonetheless agree with our stated goal of 'pushing comix forward.'"

Edited by Galaxy veterans Alan David Doane and Christopher Allen, the mix of contributing writers to TROUBLE WITH COMICS includes returning Comic Book alumni Johnny Bacardi, d. emerson eddy, Mick Martin, Marc Sobel and Diana Tamblyn, as well as writers new to Comic Book Galaxy like Alex Ness, Matt Springer, and David Wynne.

TROUBLE WITH COMICS will include regular reviews and features, as well as interviews, profiles, previews and more. Among the features currently on the blog is the first in a new series of Five Questions interviews by Alan David Doane, this one featuring comics writer Ron Marz.

You can read TROUBLE WITH COMICS by going to www.comicbookgalaxy.com/troublewithcomics/ and subscribe to its RSS feed at http://www.comicbookgalaxy.com/troublewithcomics/atom.xml .


And that's the way it is. I know, I know, I hear you saying "But JB, you can't even maintain a regular posting schedule on your OWN blog, how you gonna contribute to this?" And that's a good question. I'm thinking and hoping the great talent assembled there will prod and inspire me. I do have one longish post in the works, one which I've been asked to do by more than one person, so there's that...and plans are afoot for theme weeks and that sort of thing, which I think I could take part in as well. Regardless, I think ADD and the rest are OK with my irregular posting, so we'll see how it works out.



Guess you can call me "Trouble Man" for now...

Guess ants won't be a problem.

I was going through my Google Reader feed, and noticed a post in which someone waxed enthusiastic about this cover for the new Adventure Comics #2. And that's fine, it's a romantic image, well drawn by promising newcomer Francis Manapul. I can see why this person liked it; it evokes the classic-for-some Superman-flying-with-Lois scene from the first Superman flick, and I always appreciate a comic book cover that employs understatement rather than the usual hysterics.

Problem is, I also look at this cover and wonder exactly what practical purpose having one's picnic thirty feet in the air, on the back of your super-dog no less, would serve. Seems like you'd always be having to fly down to the ground to get this or that, and if you should drop your napkin, well, better have a few more handy! I'm sure this Kon-El character would have anticipated it, because, well, he's super and all that. Poor Krypto will, I'm sure, be begging for scraps, and that could cause some tension-mounting plunging-to-the-ground situations as he scrambles to get them. I'm sure he'll get impatient and be glad when his master gets done pitching woo as he munches on his tunafish sandwich, and heaven help them if he spies a cat on the ground below! Maybe it's just because my soul is a shriveled-up little black thing that resembles a raisin, who knows...but this scenario just looks odd and impractical to me.

Reviews coming. Coming at a snail's pace, but they're coming just the same.

Five for Sunday, or Inspiration Often Strikes Late, If At All.

From time to time, I like to participate in Tom Spurgeon's "Five for Friday" series over at the Comics Reporter, which you should all know intimately. If for some strange reason you don't, suffice it to say he calls the tune, and we all dance to it by naming five things which fit the established criteria. I always see the Reader feed on Friday night, usually about 7 or 8 PM CST, and to be frank (or David, or Bob, or...never mind), sometimes I just can't think of anything and am often too tired to make the effort because I am old and feeble.

Anyway, the latest one, which went up today, was themed "Name Your 5 Favorite Funny (And Not-So-Funny) Animals." I was unable to get it up, metaphorically speaking, in time for the deadline of midnight Friday night...but I did think of some and now I will share them with you, including one I've meant to spotlight for a long time.

First of all, a disclaimer- and I realize to some, this may be heresy...but I have never really been a big fan of funny animal comics. Just didn't interest me much as a kid, and that didn't change when I theoretically grew up. I mean sure, I had plenty of funny animal comics- Gold Key Disney Donald Ducks and Mickey Mouses, and liked Pogo and so forth, had a handful of old Howard the Duck comics (although I was not the fan of this character that many were/are) as well as many, many cartoons and films featuring a host of animals, both funny and not-so- but I was never really enticed to buy/watch (or continue to buy/watch on a regular basis) simply because there were anthropomorphic characters. Now, when I came up with this list (and this disclaimer has gone on for a lot longer than I wanted it to), I thought I would name some I didn't see on the others' entries over at Tom's...so rest assured I appreciate and like, nay, even love in some cases the likes of Hobbes, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Ray Smuckles, and so on, even if I don't especially embrace the genre, if that's what you want to call it.

Shall we begin?



1. Fox and the Crow
I don't know, this may technically count as two, but hey- this is not official, it's on my blog, and I'll dance if I want to. Fox and Crow were a DC funny animal title that began in 1952, and ended sometime in late 1967 or early 1968, taken over and replaced by Stanley and His Monster. I have often (well, not really all THAT often) thought that Kevin Smith's butchery of Stanley was brought on because he was a closet Fox & Crow fan. I remember owning a few of the F&C books, with and without Stanley (although more with) as a kid, and I was amused by them...hence their inclusion.



2. Dirty Duck
By Bobby London. One of the best things about the comics section of the National Lampoon. Kinda overlooked and forgotten these days, and that's a shame- I wonder if there's a collection in the offing someday? Should be.



3. Harvard-Harvard
Bob Hope's talking Dachshund, from the Super-Hip days of his comic that I'm always going on about. Pic courtesy of Magic Carpet Burn.




4. The cast of Puppy Action!

OK, now here's an obscure one for ya. Back in 1990, one issue, and one issue alone, of this black and white indie comic came and went, lost in the shuffle of the thousand and one black-and-white funny animal comics of the day. I myself would have never noticed it if not for one Suzanne Boggs Feinstein, who worked at the Great Escape nee Pac-Rat's at the time, and thought it was very funny- and suggested I might find it so as well. And y'know what? I did. It's a fast-paced and amusing, if a tad dated, satire of corporate business, with the boss dog decked out in a crown, and all the usual office types scheming and cutting up behind his back (and in front of him, sometimes). This sort of thing has been done to death by now, and the last story is a type that's been done even more, a satire of Nerd/Geeks at a comics/SF convention, but it predated Office Space as well as Dorkin's Eltingville Club, so that much is going for it, at least. This comic is so forgotten that it doesn't even have an entry on the Grand Comic Database, nor is there one in the Comic Book Database either. Pearlstein went on to develop the animated Sniz & Fondue, which aired as part of Nickelodeon's Ka-Blam! show later in the 90's. What he's done since is unknown to me, certainly a look at his IMDb profile doesn't yield much. Anyway, so you can get a taste, I've scanned two pages- check 'em out below:



And finally...



5. The Talking Fish from Timespirits

This one's a natural, since the plight of Steve Perry has me thinking a lot about this title. This character was perhaps the closest thing that Cusick and Doot had to an arch enemy; he shows up during two different story arcs and causes trouble in both. Speaking of Perry, I hope you all have considered sending something along to help him out. I haven't been able to just yet, but I'm working on something.

"Pictures don't interest me any longer..."

Here's the explanation I promised yesterday about Rita Farr and her film career, as I continue to read old issues of My Greatest Adventure, which eventually became Doom Patrol.

In my last post, I expressed my long-held conviction that when it came to my perception of the team of "fabulous freaks", that I could never really buy the shape-shifting Ms. Farr as one of them, since her appearance wasn't disfigured and she seemed to be able to remain normal in appearance anytime she wanted. I also wondered why she couldn't have continued her film career, which seemed to be doing well when we first met her. I understood that scandal sometimes derailed film careers in the late 50's and early 60's, the approximate time period these stories were conceived in, and speculated that the only thing she should have to worry about would be an unscrupulous producer or director who would be looking to exploit her new abilities. I had the feeling this would have to be dealt with at some point, but couldn't recall any instances, and hadn't read a lot of the original team's 60's exploits so it was possible that this came up, but I didn't know about it.

And sure enough, I was right! In a way. In My Greatest Adventure #85, we're given a scenario which deals with Rita's former occupation and at least answers the question of why she couldn't resume her film career when she wasn't out fighting the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.

We join the DP after they've made a successful rescue at sea, although Rita kinda went off-program to resolve the situation:






The Chief and the others persuade her to take the film offer, reasoning that it will help the public perception of the DP if she shows that they're not just a bunch of freaks. The Chief, as he so often does, (and unbeknownst to the others) has ulterior motives. Interestingly, Rita initially refuses because she apparently prefers the thrills of fighting weird menaces with the Patrol to fighting off casting couch directors, it seems, and says so in no uncertain terms. I do wonder where her income comes from now. Still, she gives in.

On the set, here's how it goes:






She is initially set to appear as the wife in an Incredible Shrinking Man type flick, the lead injures himself (or DOES he?) and at Rita's suggestion, they switch her role with the male lead's, in order to exploit, I mean take advantage of, her shrinking ability. Anyway, soon, Rita finds out that the Chief set this all up in order to keep her out of harm's way while the men deal with a dangerous underground mission. Why this is that much more dangerous than the other incredible menaces the trio has faced before isn't really explained to anybody's (well, not mine anyway) satisfaction...but I guess good old fashioned chivalrous early 60s sexism is as good a reason as we can find. Anyway, Rita's a bit pissed, but not so pissed that she doesn't come to the rescue when the boys find themselves in a jam:



With Rita's aid, the DP deals with the threat, basically (as they're described in the story) "living nuclear reactors" that are mobile and heading for the Earth's surface.

At story's end, Rita gets in a little jab at the Chief, but all's well that ends well, apparently:



I wonder if this wasn't one of the Beard Hunter's favorite classic DP tales...?

So anyways, it seems as if Rita is sticking with the DP not because she's ashamed or shunned, but because she a) craves the kick only fighting monsters and supervillains can bring, and b) fears being exploited by Hollywood suits. Works for me, I guess. If I run across anything else noteworthy as I continue to read old DP stories, I'll pass it on!

"I didn't win a swimming gold medal at the Olympics for doing the dog paddle"

Above you see the character known by many of you, I'm sure, as Elasti-Woman, alias Rita Farr and charter member of the Doom Patrol. She features prominently in the first issue of yet another attempt by DC to perpetuate the license, this time brought to you by writer Keith Giffen and artists Matthew Clark plus the eponymously named "Livesay" on inks (shouldn't you have at least accomplished something noteworthy, a la Cher, Nilsson, Kirby, Garbo or Bowie, before you can expect to be addressed by one name only?). DOOM PATROL Vol. 5 #1: as relaunches go, it's about par for the course for recent DP revivals; Giffen by now is an old hand at this sort of thing, and they display the requisite angst expected of all DC properties right now, and in the case of the DP, that means lots of self-pity and surly attitudes. Not a lot of bwah-ha-ha here. It reminds of the short-lived and disappointing Suicide Squad revamp Giffen spearheaded a few years ago, especially when we're treated, right off the bat, to a mission gone all squirrely and the death of one teammate and the abandonment of her partner at the scene, as the original 3 (because after all, that's all we're supposed to care about, right? Not the lame-o members introduced in failed revivals) make their escape. The rest of the story is taken up by the standard "meet the principles through the eyes of a "normal" person" scenario, as a priest counselor volunteer talks to each member in turn, and then the requisite cliffhanger for the next issue. We also meet what I assume is another leftover character from a previous run, a diminutive young lady called "Bumblebee"- a character I was passing familiar with, especially her animated incarnation, and who has apparently hooked up with the DP as of 52 due to being stuck at tiny size, counting on the Chief to solve her problem. Lotsa luck with that; Niles Caulder is of course every bit as sociopathic as he's ever been (maybe not late Morrison and Pollock run sociopathic, but almost). The way DC operates right now, and since she's a) obscure and b) likeable, I give her six issues tops before she's raped and eviscerated, maybe not in that order. Anyway, nothing groundbreaking at all, but it's reasonably well done, surliness and all. Clark and Livesay's art isn't bad either; sometimes the figure drawings are stiff and awkward, sometimes (as with Rita above) not so; hopefully they'll loosen up a bit before they're is done or the book is canned, whichever comes first. A most atypical Metal Men backup feature rounds out the book; it's slight but since it's by Giffen/DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire (outstanding as always), it is (don't tell Didio, whose bland Metal Men in Wednesday Comics is very weak beer in comparison) a fun read, evoking, unsurprisingly, the old bwah-ha-ha Justice League as well as a gentle tweak of Lee/Kirby's Fantastic Four monster Tomazooma, the Living Totem. It's almost as if someone wasn't paying attention and they snuck a lighthearted superhero tale by the editors- wonder how long before we get the expected rape and evisceration? I give this issue a B+, and even though I've never been the biggest fan of the DP (except for the atypical Grant Morrison run, as well as the last few issues of Rachel Pollack's), I might follow along for a few issues to see where it goes.

Anyway, reviewing this issue isn't the only thing I wanted to do here; something else occurred to me as I was reading it, and it's something I've noticed before when reading the old reprints (I only bought maybe one or two issues of DP as a child in the 60s)...and it has to do with the Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman character. Below, here's a look at her introduction, along with her origin:

Of course, click to make them biggerer for the easier readin'. Now, that's a pretty standard origin for the second wave of DC superheroes back then; "underground chemical vapors" weren't all that more far-fetched than the "Orb of Ra", white dwarf stars, or a scratch from a magical black diamond. Here's the thing that's always bugged me about this character, though- as far as I can tell, she has no real reason to adopt that "Oh, woe is me, I'm a pitiful freak who is shunned by humanity" stance, especially when compared to her teammates. Cliff Steele's brain was placed in a robot body, Larry Trainor is covered in bandages to keep the negative energy being form getting out of his body. Caulder is in his wheelchair. But Rita...well, she grows and shrinks and stretches a la Plastic Man, Elongated Man, and Mr. Fantastic. Otherwise, she looks perfectly normal and can remain so. In the sequence above, she claims to be unable to control her power, and the implied suggestion is that the Chief can help her learn to harness her ability...but a few panels later, a bomb threat conveniently pops up, and she helps the DP eliminate the threat by shrinking and entering the bomb, defusing it. No other mention is made (and bear in mind I haven't read all the subsequent adventures, it may have popped up again later) of her inability to control her size changing and limb stretching, and she seems perfectly capable of controlling it in both that episode, as well as the first battle with General Immortus later on. She says that she had to hide out of "shame and fear" after her "accident", and it's implied that she was being shunned by Hollywood. Now, I realize this was the early 60's, and in those days a career could be easily derailed by a report of scandal- when I broached this subject on Twitter a while back, I was reminded by Johanna Carlson of Robert Mitchum's pot bust and an affair that Ingrid Bergman had, that set back their careers for a good long while. This may be true, but it seems like something like Rita's "affliction" is different from getting caught in an illegal or immoral (by 50's-60's standards) act; I'd think that as long as Rita could remain at normal height and limb length, and be able to control this, that she would only have to worry about ruthless producers who'd wish to exploit her abilities. If she couldn't, as she said in her origin story, then that would be a problem and she would be perceived as freakish and shunned. But since she's shown every sign (at least in what I've read) of being able to exercise control, shrinking and growing and stretching at will, I just don't see it. She looks the same, which is why I've never been able to buy her as a "freak" and whatever angst she's displayed has always rung false, especially in the new series, which takes place in the modern-day DCU, a place where the extraordinary is commonplace and super-beings of all varieties are everywhere. Which doesn't make her any less cool when she's slamming helicopters around, but in all other aspects I have a hard time staying interested and feeling that she belongs- which must have been a problem with other writers, since only über-nostalgist Byrne could be troubled to bring her back after she died at the end of the original series. All this said, I do kinda like the character, although I'm mostly indifferent to the whole non-Morrison Patrol in general; she has a nasty, prickly temperament which sets her a part a little bit sometimes.

One cool thing about her character, though, and one which ties directly in to this blog, is this scene, from her wedding in issue #104 of the original series:

It was at her wedding that the Official Mascot of the Johnny Bacardi Show, that none other than Super-Hip! (bottom right- he kinda stands out a bit in that company) made his only appearance in a DC comic outside of his own Adventures of Bob Hope series. Groovy, baby! This was Arnold Drake having some fun with his creations, I'd think.

ETA: As so often is the case, once I got farther into the run of the early Doom Patrol, I came across a story that addresses some of the complaints I noted above, most notably why Rita couldn't continue to lead her normal life. I'll do a separate post about it at some future date.

Reviews coming soon, I hope- comics, incl. Mike Dawson's Ace-Face collection, Green Lantern-First Flight, and Cliff Meth's Billboards short-story collection.

Looking into the future, week of July 13

Yes, it's time to indulge myself in that time-honored blog filler tradition, Comics I'll Be Getting When My DCBS Box Arrives on Friday!

SOLOMON KANE TP VOL 01: CASTLE OF THE DEVIL: Yep, I've already read this very good miniseries via, shall we say, "alternative" means, but now I can put my money where my mouth is and get a hell of sweet Mignola cover in the process.

THE BOYS #32: More wacky hijinks with those rascally super-guys.

WITCHFINDER: IN THE SERVICE OF ANGELS #1: Edward Grey, a nineteenth-century occult investigator who was previously introduced in some older Hellboy short story or another, gets a spotlight here. Mignola writes, someone named Ben Stenbeck (who apparently illo'd B.P.R.D.: The Ectoplasmic Man, which I apparently didn't pick up) draws. Sometimes these Mignola spinoffs are kinda fun. Sometimes they go straight up their own ass, like some recent B.P.R.D. minis.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #2: People continue to rave, I remain skeptical. I still think Morrison's recycling his own recycled ideas these days, and needs to take a break...but he and Quitely mesh so well together it's hard to resist.

INCOGNITO #5: More super-people being cruel to each other, but it's better than that. Isn't it?

SCALPED #30: More not-so-super people being cruel to each other, and it's excellent.

AGENTS OF ATLAS #7
AGENTS OF ATLAS #8: What the hell? This is weekly?

B.P.R.D.: 1947 #1: I loved 1946, thought it was one of the best of last year. Then Dysart came out with the earnest but dull Unknown Soldier, and suddenly I wasn't so interested anymore. Still, this is a direct continuation, and while I doubt the more glib style of the Moon-Ba tag team will bring the same vibe that Paul Azaceta did to its predecessor, I still look forward to reading it.

FABLES #86: Fairy-tale characters, being cruel to each other. But it's better than that, mostly. Fafhrd and the Mouser are still rotting zombies, too.

WEDNESDAY COMICS #1
WEDNESDAY COMICS #2: Heh- I'm getting two at once! Most of what I've seen from this (and there's been plenty, along with a lot of discussion) has looked really nice. Hope the format won't be a pain in the ass to store. And, like Jog, I hope that this doesn't begin to come across as a bunch of inventory stories, refurbished for novelty value.

Also, I'll be reviewing
THE MIGHTY #6
FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: RUN #3
And probably a couple of others that I'm forgetting about. Cheers, and Happy Bastille Day!

Various and sundry.

For the Red Wolf overview, go here. Sorry about the curve. I'll try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum in the future.

Yeah, I know, it's been another week without posts here at the Show. Just can't quite seem to get into that routine for various reasons. But I have been watching, reading, and listening to a lot of stuff, and I thought "Hey, why not do one of those long posts which touch on a number of subjects!" And since I still haven't totally abandoned the notion that this is not just a comics blog, I'll just go from one thing to another and try not to lose everybody in the process. OK? Here we go.

MUSIC:

Two birthdays I totally whiffed on in the previous weeks were those of:






















RINGO STARR, who turned 69 years old back on Tuesday, July 7. How ironic is it that now, with two Beatles dead and the other survivor looking more and more haggard with every passing year, that the perpetually-ill-as-a-child and oldest of the four looks and acts as vital and lively as he did at least a decade ago? I did a favorite Ringo songs list a few years ago, and I don't think it's changed much today. In the past week, I've seen a few articles and blog posts defending Mr. Starkey's artistry, decrying how little respect he's gotten and taking pains to point out how good a drummer he really was. Thing is, I've known this for a long time, and not because I'm a drummer (I'm not) or even a Beatle fan (which of course I am, very much so)...but because it's plain as day and perfectly obvious to anyone who knows anything at all about music and drumming. I can't recall too many instances of seeing people put down or belittle Ringo's ability in print, but when I do, I automatically discount that opinion, chalking it up to plain' ol' ignorance or contrarianism. Now, ol' Ringo hasn't exactly endeared himself to people with his recent request for people not to send him stuff to autograph, citing being too busy as a reason. Hey, yeah, that's pretty cranky-sounding, but you know, as much pleasure as he's given people for over 40 years now, I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt. As always, we have no idea what he and his mates have been through. Here's Ringo's website, in case you're curious.

Also:






















Good old BRIAN WILSON (shown here in 1976, from a Rolling Stone shoot I do believe) celebrated his 67th back on June 20. I think he's one of the great genius composers of the 20th Century, but I may be a tad biased since I'm such a fan of the Beach Boys and Brian's solo work. Back in 2003, I wrote this, and I think much of it applies six years later. Here's a list of my favorite Beach Boys songs, which I might change here and there now but probably not. I got his most recent release That Lucky Old Sun back during Christmas, and found it very good- a bit uneven quality-wise, perhaps, but it always sounded committed and his band is excellent. The track "Good Kind of Love" belongs right up there with his best, featuring some wonderful chord changes and a strong melody, as well as a charming, open-hearted sentiment that makes it a winner. The concurrent documentary DVD is also well worth a look; I rented it from Netflix a while back and found it very interesting as it showed us Brian and the Wondermints working on the album, as well as playing it live in the studio.

As far as any other music stuff goes, I listen to a constant stream of tunes all week long, all month long; nothing right now is jumping up and down, begging me to hold forth about it. I did enjoy listening to Hothouse Flowers' Home the other day; while it's got a very early 90's production sound, it isn't as egregious as some records I've heard from this period and boasts many great songs.

If you follow me on Twitter, I post comments on music I listen to fairly often. No plans to resurrect the Off the Record blog; I've been considering reposting the entries here and deleting it. Problem with that is I'd lose my comments, and I have a couple I want to save. Who knows.

MOVIES:

I haven't done any movie reviews in ages; probably not since I saw Dark Knight Returns. Back in January, I thought it might be interesting to keep a movie diary, writing it down every time I watch a film in its entirety (or finish watching a film I had started previously). Believe it or not, I have faithfully done this to this day! That said, I don't really want to go back and write about each of them, even though I haven't ruled out posting the list at the end of the year. Recent flicks I've seen that made an impression, though, were Up, yet another excellent Pixar effort which I enjoyed very much, despite the constant aerial action that had my acrophobia going nuts, making me twist in my seat. It also featured a couple of flashback sequences that were so moving that they could wring tears from a stone. Had me awfully misty, for sure. On a completely different note, I was tremendously entertained by the over-the-top theatricality of Repo! The Genetic Opera, a musical about a bleak future in which mass organ failure has led to the creation of a market for organ transplants and a company which makes the possible- for a price- and if you can't pay, they send the black-hazmat-suited Repo Man after you to get the organs back. Forcibly. As in cut them out of you in the alley. It's an obvious attempt to create a cult-movie like Rocky Horror, with a noteworthy cast: Anthony Stewart (Giles from Buffy) Head, singing again; Alexa Vega of Spy Kids, veteran actor Paul (Mira's dad) Sorvino, celebrity scourge Paris Hilton (whose newly transplanted face falls off at one point), and Sarah Brightman as well as Skinny Puppy's "Ogre". One of the co-writers, Terrance Zdunich, makes an impression as a shady whitefaced character named Grave Robber; he gets one of the best songs, an ode to an addictive drug which makes the surgeries less painful called Zydrate. He reminds me a bit of Joel Grey's master of ceremonies in Cabaret. The visuals are very much in that NiN/Marilyn Manson video/Tim Burton aesthetic style, and the whole thing gets across via its sheer chutzpah. Its director helmed a couple of the Saw flicks, which of course I am determined to miss at all costs. Reviews were awful, but I wound up kinda digging it.

TV:

Not much of note right now; Earlier this year I had gotten interested in NBC's low-rated Kings, a thougthful reimagining of the Biblical story of David and King Saul. which featured a typically outstanding turn by Ian McShane. When ratings were poor, they put the show on hiatus and aired them late last month and early July, on Saturday nights when no one watches. I'm sorry to say that I missed the most recent episode myself, but will look to see it on Hulu as soon as possible. I think there are a couple more left before it's gone for good- I might consider getting the DVD set so I can watch it in its entirety. Also, at about the same time Kings initially aired, I developed an attraction to Joss Whedon's latest, Dollhouse. After a tentative start, I think it really got in gear towards the end and thankfully has been renewed for another season; the limitations of the concept itself, the adjustable morality brought to bear, and the limitations on the acting ability of star Eliza Dushku give me pause, but it works in spite of everything. TNT's Leverage is another show I watched intermittently earlier this year; it's new season premiere is coming up soon. Another show I like quite a lot is HBO's Entourage; its new season premieres tonight.

And finally, COMICS.

The writer John Ostrander, whose run in the 90s and early Aughts on The Spectre is, in my opinion, one of the best things to come from DC in that period, has been battling glaucoma- and needs help with the expenses that insurance won't pay for. We've all been there, I know. The Hero Initiative is trying to help; go here for more information and if you can I hope you can join in.

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern? OK, sure. I liked him in Smokin' Aces, even though he was probably the most restrained member of the diverse cast. I might be more worked up about it if I was a GL fan, but I've never been listed in that number.

Go here for a couple of great Powerhouse Pepper stories by Basil Wolverton. You won't regret it.

Go here for an amusing Little Lulu satire by Howard Cruse. We don't see much Cruse these days, and that's a shame.

Tom Spurgeon has been killing it with his Sunday interviews lately; today's is with Peter Bagge, and is well worth your time as always.



Anyway, that's about it. I'm slowly but surely reading Clifford Meth's collection of short stories Billboards, but it takes me forever to read prose novels these days (I've been reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon for going on three years now) so I'm way behind on getting it done so I can review it as promised. I will finish it eventually, and I'll be sure to let you all know what I think.

As always, more later, hopefully sooner rather than. And as always, thanks for your patience.

Living in the Future. Sort of.

I first started this two days ago, when my DCBS shipment actually was in the future. However, I have once more procrastinated long enough to where the blog title actually no longer applies. I'm too lazy to think of another, though, so it stays.

Anyway, since I'm all caught up on comics reviews, mostly, here's another one of those "comics I'm gonna be getting today and reviewing eventually" posts that I know everyone loves so much.

INCOGNITO #4: Maybe you can resist the charms of Brubaker and Phillips, but I cannot.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #14: More vampire-fighting thrills in this lame duck comic which I expect will have one or two more nifty twists before it's done.

WASTELAND TP BOOK 4: DOG TRIBE: I've been buying this in trades after getting the first one gratis from Oni. I wish I liked it more than I did, but I'm interested enough, obviously, to keep buying. As post-apocalyptic Mad Max style thrillers go, you could do worse.

MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE #6: FInal issue of this mostly-enjoyable series. I like the concept, I like the characters, I hope enough trades sell so we can see more.

HELLBLAZER #256: I wish everything in life was as consistent and reliable as this title.

POWER GIRL #2: I hope there's a little more fun this time out, but by the solicits and reviews I've seen that doesn't seem to be the case. If you can't have fun with PG, then why bother? Bring Terra back for more shopping!

EMPOWERED TP VOL. 5: I'd buy this for the art alone, but I must admit I'm surprised that Warren's been able to wring as much story out of the mostly one-note setup as he has.

THUNDERBOLTS #133: My monthly Yelena fix.

DETECTIVE COMICS #854: The advance art I've seen from this is incredible; this could be the series that cements J.H. Williams III's place in the comics art firmament. Now, if only DC would let Rucka bring Cameron Chase into the storyline. And let D.C. Johnson write it.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #1: My newfound obsession with Poison Ivy is put to the test here; the preview looks like a dreary affair, with artist Guillem March demonstrating that as an interior illustrator, he makes a really good cover artist.

HEROGASM #2: C'mon and wallow in the muck with your Master of Ceremonies, Garth Ennis!

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #14: The ongoing saga of Stark's flight from Normie Osborn, as well as the further tribulations of Pepper Potts and Maria Hill. This plays like a weekly TV series, and that's no coincidence.

PHONOGRAM 2: THE SINGLES CLUB #3: Now that Gillen and McKelvie have my attention, will they keep it? We'll see...

MADAME XANADU #12: More gaw-jus Kaluta art, and more (I'd imagine) girl-on-girl action, for those who like such things.

DAREDEVIL #119: This will be a somber affair as always, I'd imagine. Ain't no sunshine in DD's world.

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #130: More laffs and thrills from the best comic you're probably not reading.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #28: I just read #27 the other night; this is part two of the marking-time issues by Jerry Ordway. Ordway bores me, but the first part was OK.

And that's about it! Now, if only UPS does its part...

A few items of note.

ITEM! Yesterday, I got the opportunity to read an advance PDF of the first issue of Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber's new creator-owned series from Image, Underground. Here's how Image describes it in the solicitations:

Park Ranger and avid caver Wesley Fischer is on a one-woman mission to stop Stillwater Cave from being turned into a tourist trap, but public opinion is not on her side. When locals begin blasting in the cave, Wes and a fellow ranger investigate – and a confrontation spirals into a deadly chase deep under the Kentucky mountains!

Didja see that word "Kentucky"? As a lifelong resident of the Bluegrass State, that kinda got my attention. You don't see comics that take place in my neck of the woods very often. Actually, I seem to recall discussing the idea for a story set here a year or two (perhaps) ago with Parker via email, but eventually forgot about it. I suppose this must be the end result of that line of thought! Anyway, this locale is kinda close to home for me; I don't really live near the mountains (that's East, I'm South Central), but I do certainly live right in the middle of cave country- Mammoth Cave National Park is only about 15 minutes away from my doorstep. Heck, the town in which I live has "Cave" in it, named for the good-sized cave ("Hidden River Cave", aka "Horse Cave") right on Main Street as well as the American Cave Museum and Karst Center that serves a lot of ecological causes as well as doing pretty good tourist business. Plus, there are lots of big and small caves all around here, some connected even, so while I am far from knowledgable about them I do know a thing or two, and I find the whole story setup very interesting. It highlights a very topical conflict when it comes to caves, that is the age-old commerce vs. conservation argument, and does so unobtrusively within the context of the story. Characterization is strong, as is to be expected from Parker, and while it sometimes reads (like so many comics stories do these days) like a movie/TV series pitch, it can be enjoyed on its own terms as a sequential narrative. The small-town versimilitude is good; there's a strong Native American presence in Parker's small town of Marion that I don't really see around here where I live, but I can't speak for the mountains of Eastern Kentucky; I'm sure there was a lot of migration north from Tennessee and North Carolina, so it's not a problem. I've posted a couple of pages above, the second one is a great example of Lieber's solid art- the cave scenes feature excellent blackspotting, and he's as good with the action scenes as he is the small-town diner ones. I'm thinking that this is going to be a series that people should be reading. Here's an interview with the creators at Newsarama. Underground is supposed to hit the stands in August.

ITEM! As you may know if you've read my blog for any length of time, one of my all-time favorite comics series is Elaine Lee and Mike Kaluta's Starstruck. Having first been smitten way back in the early-mid 80's via the serialization in Heavy Metal magazine, then continuing to follow when it was collected into one of the Marvel Graphic Novel series, which led to the 6-issue Epic Comics series, then the Galactic Girl Guides features that appeared in Rocketeer Adventure Magazine...as well as the abortive revival attempt by Dark Horse Comics in the 90's...well, let's just say that I pretty much had given up hope that it would ever see the light of day again, Lee having phased herself out of comics writing and Kaluta concentrating on covers and illustration work, and oh yeah, the little matter of being unable to find a publisher willing to commit the money. Fortunately for all of us, IDW stepped up to the plate and will soon be reissuing Starstruck once more, this time expanded from the original art by Kaluta and featuring lavish color by Lee Moyer, and unless I'm mistaken, it will finally move beyond where the Epic #6 left off. It all sounds too good to be true! Anyway, the hype machine has slowly gotten into gear, and Newsarama posted part one of an interview with the creators today, and it's fascinating stuff to me. Starstruck is right up there with Thriller, Chase, Timespirits, Gemini Blood, and all those other books that I tend to obsess over, and with Moyer's colors adding a new dimension to Kaluta's always-brilliant finished art, it looks gorgeous. And of course, Lee's dense, layered, yet humorous and exciting script, with its multitudes of fascinating characters, gets the showcase it deserves here, looks like. I'm as excited about this as I have been anything comics-related in a long time.

ITEM! This may come as a surprise to you, since I know that everyone (well besides Dirk Deppey) looks upon me as a grand old man of comics, who has seen and read just about everything, but I have never owned, nor read in reprints, the 70's Spider-Man story which detailed the death of Gwen Stacy at the hands of the Green Goblin, and the subsequent payback Pete enacted. I just wasn't buying Spidey at the time (I would have been 11-12), having loved the Ditko years, as well as the early Romita Sr. stuff as well...but by the time Gil Kane and Gerry Conway came along I had long stopped reading. So, when Comics Should Be Good at CBR spotlighted that legendary, but unseen-by-me sequence from AS-M #122 as one of their "Year of Cool Comic Book Moments" series, well, I was gobsmacked, as British comics writers tell us our friends across the pond say, to see that the screenwriters of the first Spider-Man film pretty much used this same ending, which (and I hope I don't spoil; I think I'm the last person to read this) sees Pete inadvertently cause the death of the Goblin at the pointed ends of his glider. I though the film's scriptwriters made that ending up! Just shows to go ya, I guess- I don't know everything! You can see the rest of the sequence by clicking on the link above; reading it now, I am struck by how odd Kane's pencils look with the heavy Romita inks. Also, Conway's scripting is tres pretentious, at least to me; his attempts at amplifying the drama of the scene via narration are as hamfisted and leaden. But pretty much all Marvel comics read like this then; this is the voice, I believe, that young writers were encouraged to write in at the time at the House that Jack (and Steve and yes, Stan) Built; imitative of Roy Thomas, who had pretty much taken the writer/editor torch from Unca Stan by the early 70's. I recall liking his Daredevil and the Black Widow series, which came out at about this time, but little else- and I am finding that when I do reread his stuff now, it's going down a bit better than it did, say, in the late 70's to early 90's for me, a period in which I unfairly dismissed him as a hack of the highest (lowest?) order.

ITEM! I'm all out of items for now! Reviews, which should get me caught up once and for all (till the next DCBS box shows up, that is), will be forthcoming.

Thank You and Bad Afternoon.

As I slowly, but surely, do comics reviews (12 capsules done, 28 more to go...), I thought it might be neat to put this up for all to see, having recently...acquired...a set of scanned issues of that comics series that I tend to run on about,Thriller.

Of course, one of the issues included in this set was the last one, #12. And in those dim and distant days, comics used to have these things called "letters pages", in which people just like you and me could sit down at a typewriter and bang out a missive of condemnation or praise or just plain weirdness. As I was growing up, I did a fair amount of said letter writing, desiring to get my opinions out there, and this was the only game in town for that sort of thing. These days, we have blogs for that but like I said, this was a long time ago, 1984 (beware the savage lore) as a matter of fact. Young David Allen Jones, every bit of 24 years of age, in the prime of his life and infatuated with that weird-ass Thriller comic that DC had been putting out, was nevertheless quite dismayed by recent events involving his beloved book, seeing original creators Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden suddenly bail on the series that they had (by all appearances, not a half-year ago) sought to hitch their respective wagons to stardom on, with very little in the way of explanation...and they were replaced by Bill Dubay, whose previous work had mostly been in service of Jim Warren, and the even-then-legendary artist Alex Nino, also a Warren vet but also branching out into other endeavors- and if DC had drawn names at random out of a hat (and I'm not sure they didn't do this), they couldn't have come up with two less likely people to continue the series, especially in the unique style which had captivated young Dave (and precious few others, it seems) so.

OK, I'll stop the cutesy third person stuff now.

Anyway, I was quite dismayed by what I saw after reading Thriller #9, and sat down at the typewriter at my in-laws' office (mine was busted) to compose what would be my last appearance in a lettercol (short for letter column, another fannish name), well, probably ever. I still remember sitting in the empty office (it was on Saturday, I think) and batting that thing out. Anyway, and I think you've figured this out by now, you will see that letter, in its entirety, above. It features a less jaded me, I think, as well as a more naive one, and certainly not one who is as, shall we say, knowledgeable about the way things go in the comics biz these days. Remember, we didn't have access to the people who made the funnybooks in 1984 like we do now...even at 24, these men were distant and mysterious, and I wouldn't have dreamed that 18 years later, I would go on to contact, and even dare I say befriend, both of the men responsible for the creation of the comic I cared about so deeply and grabbed my even-then fading imagination so hard. When I reread this thing now, I am alternately proud and cringing inside- I make some truly dumb assumptions and sound like the kind of geek we all make fun of now mercilessly in others. Still, I think I made my point- this new team was nowhere near a patch on what we had been given before- and hey! I got a letter printed in what was left of my favorite comic series of the 1980's! The beer offer still stands, by the way.

So here it is, make of it what you will. Of course, click to embiggen.

Oh, and yes, this scan acquisitioning is part of my long-delayed commitment to revamping my Thriller webpage; to get it off Angelfire with its myriads of popups, and add a lot of the neat stuff I've gotten from both Trevor and Bob since it went live back in 2002. I'm taking a crash course in Dreamweaver at this very minute, and despite the fact that I will soon lose my laptop, and thusly will have less Web time until I get a new one, I hope to get started with the reconstruction this Fall, maybe later this Summer even. These scans will help immensely, keeping me from having to dig out and rescan my copies. Keep watching the skies!

This, that, and the ever popular other thing.

I've been on a pretty good roll as far as blogging goes lately; I want to keep it going but only have about five comics reviews done out of about fifty, so I thought I'd just post some miscellaneous stuff here, all in one place-like. Much of this has been posted already on my Tumblog (Tumblelog? Whatever- link in sidebar at right), but since I am dubious that others follow me both here and there at least on a regular basis, I thought I'd post some things I've also posted over there. Hope you don't mind.



First, here's a utterly charming little Wolverine illo done by the talented Maris Wicks for the (I assume) latest Project: Rooftop redesign contest. Wolvie toasting marshmallows on his claws is effing brilliant. People reblogged the hell out of this one, much to my surprise...



Let alone the fact that this ad, one of 15 Sexist Vintage Ads collected by a website called Oddee.com, uses my realworld name, amusing me greatly...but women used to douche with LYSOL? Are you KIDDING ME?



The cover for Green Lantern #23, by the great Gil Kane. Boy, this cover won't go down as one of his career highlights. Awful staging and perspective- GL looks like he's falling from a great height, and looks flat and one-dimensional in that window; it looks like Tattooed Man's plane is shooting at a poster. T-Man's Popeye "costume" is uninspired and lame, too- one of the few times a 70's super-suit upgrade actually improved a early Silver Age character. Don't get me wrong, I love Kane's work, and am but a small dog nipping at his mighty heel...but he was not on top of his game for this one.



Here's a page from a Hellboy story that artist Pete Von Sholly did recently, and posted it on his blog along with an account of his unsuccessful efforts to get this picked up by Dark Horse comics. This kinda blows my mind- Von Sholly's no hack or greenhorn; he's an accomplished storyboard artist with a deft painting style and a wicked sense of humor (his story's title? "Drag Me to Hellboy", heh heh) to boot. Why DH would pass on this, especially in light of some of the stuff that passed muster back in the Hellboy: Weird Tales days, is beyond me.




One of the most bad-ass covers I've seen lately, from Smash Comics #3. What a kickass robot! I keep hearing Thin Lizzy when I see this one.



Back on Memorial Day (Monday, at least, my day off), I kinda found myself killing time by hunting up images of good old Poison Ivy, from the popular Batman comic books, and posting them on my Tumblr. This is the image that got me started, by someone named weshoyot on DeviantArt. Love that leafy bikini bottom.

Oh well, it's getting late so I'll wind this up. More stuff coming.

"Would anybody like a sourball?"

As promised, here's the last of the posts bringing you some neat stuff I found in the pages of Castle of Frankenstein #12, which amped up the comics coverage in what had been a mostly film-oriented publication. Below is a longish 1967 interview with Stan Lee, in what proved to be the waning days of what we think of now as the classic Marvel period, with Lee scripting and Kirby/Ditko/Heck etc . on art. It's amusing how often Stan keeps getting interrupted by phone calls or Sol Brodsky. A lot of space is spent discussing the semi-animated Marvel Super-Heroes TV series, which had been airing in the year previous. Click to embiggen, hopefully big enough to read on your monitor:



ETA: Tom Spurgeon reminded me (thanks, Tom!) that I had meant to mention that this interview was conducted by Ted White. The ol' memory, she ain't what it used to be.

There's something going on here...Mr. Jones.

I've got a few things in the pipeline, but haven't had a lot of time to get them written up- but as a sign that I'm not back on hiatus, here's a little visual that I put up on the ol' Tumblog (link at right) the other day, which reinforces my long held belief that Bob Oksner used the late Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, at left, as the inspiration for Official JBS Mascot Super-Hip!, at right.

More later, hopefully.

Ima gunna get noo comiks!

I'm working on a Confessions, I swear, just not very fast. But while you breathlessly await my opinions on comics you forgot about two weeks ago, I will appraise you of my NEXT shipment of comics, due on Friday!

HELLBLAZER #253

COURTNEY CRUMRIN VOL 04: MONSTROUS HOLIDAY- As far as I'm concerned, Naifeh's been golden on Courtney. Hopefully this won't be the one that breaks the string.

UMBRELLA ACADEMY: DALLAS #5
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #127

TOP 10 SPECIAL #1- I'm a little unsure what to make of this; is it supposed to continue #4, which closed with several unresolved storylines? Or will it be a completely unrelated story or series of same? I ask because I've seen no solicitation for #5 yet, and I really hope they finish this series before the decade is over...

DAREDEVIL #117- I don't think they could have chosen a better writer than Diggle for this book after Brubaker's done depressing us all; I base this on the evidence of his Green Arrow: Year One mini, which was a pretty good little James Bond-flavored superhero tale, without any overt superheroics.

MADAME XANADU #9- Five will get you ten that Madame X will end up pissed off, and the Phantom Stranger will be a dick.

UNKNOWN SOLDIER #6- My last issue. I just don't really care, sorry to say.

I also fully intend to check out PDFs of

THE INCREDIBLES #1- I sure as hell wouldn't buy five copies, but that panoramic Oeming cover is suhweet.

THE MUPPET SHOW #1- The preview I saw today shows that Roger Landgridge is a very skilled cartoonist; he brings a deft line and a nicely humorous feel to his depiction of the cast. The script, though, remains true to the spirit of the TV show, which I watched a lot as a teen; that said, I didn't always find the antics of the Muppets all that funny. For every joke that made me laugh out loud, there were four that just made me smile. Same for the feature films, although I like some more than others. Heriticism, I know.

HERO SQUARED: LOVE AND DEATH #2

and

POTTER'S FIELD #1- this came out last week, I know. It's Paul Azaceta on art, which will always get a look from me.

Finally, a trip to the comics shop (or an email to Ralph's Comics Corner) will be in order to get

YELENA BELOVA AND THE THUNDERBOLTS #130- OK, I know, but as far as I'm concerned it is.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #24- glad to read that the cancellation rumors were just that; I myself think it's gotten better since Swierczynski's tentative first arc, and deserves the chance to find an audience.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #12- I'll be reviewing the last issue if I can ever get my post done.

And that's about it!

So.

Kinda been under the weather, and haven't really run across anything (well, other than that scans_daily mess) that has inspired me to write, even if I felt like it. So, hey- here's a Space Cabby page from Mystery in Space #27 for you to look at until I get around to blogging again.

Apocalypse Nerd! Or Alas, Poor scans_daily. I knew it well.

Alas and alack, the scans_daily LJ community has been TOS'd, as the parlance goes, "suspended" as in when a TV show goes on "indefinite hiatus"...which means it's g-o-n-e gone.

As you may or may not know, scans_daily was a place where people often not-so-judiciously posted scans of comics panels and pages, then invited all comers to comment at will. Sometimes, posters unwisely posted entire issues or stories, although this was against the rules, and in most cases these posts were deleted or revised. It started out as a "slash-friendly" place where snarky comments were encouraged, but after a year or two, it eventually morphed into a place where there were some serious discussions (and yes, still some less-serious snark) about some of the greatest (and not-so-great) comics ever published. I myself posted (I think) scans five times over there; once, I wanted to get people interested in Tex Arcana; another, someone had asked about Chaykin's Sword of Sorcery featuring Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser. I think I posted that Grandenetti Warren story which I posted here as well, and of course, most recently (just last week!) those Helfer/Baker Shadow pages, which I will repost here eventually. So while I was far from a regular, I did dip my toe in those waters, and note that many of these are no longer in print.

For many of my peers in the Blogosphereiverse, this news has been received with unabashed joy and delight, as if Christmas for them has come early. These nerds are THIEVES , they say, who wrapped themselves in a cloak of fair use righteousness and actually had the temerity to suggest that THEY have actually GENERATED sales of comics from the samplers they provided! Some were indeed bandwidth thieves, and on this I agree with them, because in this age of free image hosts there's no excuse for hotlinking. Some apparently feel like they've been slighted there personally, or haven't been treated with the respect and admiration they deserve when posting or commenting there. Some, I'm sure, are motivated by genuine concern for all the lost revenue that the Big Two have been cheated out of, because as we all know we should always have AOL/TimeWarner and Marvel's best interests in mind when it comes to matters of money. Some, perhaps, are concerned with the huge revenue hit their local comics shops may have sustained because of the apparent multitudes reading comics for free via s_d. I've also seen instances where some have complained of that most awful of awful things, "THE SPOILER", apparently unable to finesse LJ's complicated "LJ-cut" function, which a good 90% of all s_d posts utilized and is designed to prevent the unwary reader seeing scans or text unless they click on a link. Seems s_d was apparently rife with them, although in my infrequent stops I recall usually seeing clear spoiler notices- and why are you checking out a post featuring a comic which you want to read, and are prepared to buy, but haven't yet, especially knowing going in about s_d's rep, and you're that concerned about your reading experience being ruined? Oh well- these are only my impressions, based on the comments, blog posts, and Twits I've read since the extinction level event hit.

Typically, I see both sides here. Yes, it is, in the strictest sense, illegal- and as Steve Ditko would tell you, these scum don't deserve have access to inflict their ill-gotten gains on the honest, hard-working, fair-using bloggers and internet readers out there. Me, I think by and large, s_d was harmless- or at least way down the list of harmful things threatening comics these days. You see, as I've copped to more than once here, sometimes I avail myself of the sites which offer scans of new comics for download- sometimes, if I want to check out a title I'm on the fence about, or if I get interested in one but not to the point where I want to buy it (and believe me, if not for the downloads, I wouldn't buy it otherwise), or sometimes in the interest of having a current title to review on PopSyndicate or here, because I get my comics every other week. Many publishers, like Boom!, make PDFs available for reviewers to DL, and while there is a difference, it's not a great one I don't think. Sometimes, I want to post a page or panel from a comic I've read recently, but frankly, my scanner is buried under a pile of junk in out junk room, aka "office", so it's easier and more convenient for me to DL it. So call me a scofflaw if you will, but know that more often as not I delete these files when I either receive them via DCBS, or get done reviewing them, and in the case of titles like Greatest Hits, Captain Britain and the MI-13, Age of the Sentry, or Incredible Hercules- to name a few- I go out and buy them, pay actual cash mon-nay for them, either from my LCS, the eBay, or even the most excellent Ralph's Comics Corner, whom I recommend highly. Shit, doing this has cost me more money in the long run than I've cost DC, Marvel, or others, that's for sure. Now, true, for every one of me there is probably five that don't, but somehow I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way, and I can believe people when they say that they have been inspired to start picking up this or that title because they read pages from it on s_d. I'm not so cynical that I am prepared to scoff at that just yet.

I, for one, will miss s_d, and I hope they're able to regroup and start anew somewhere else. There were times I got pissed off at the snarkmeisters there, especially when they'd start in on something that meant something to me such as War of the Worlds feat. Killraven and the like, but there were also times when someone would post something that I missed in the 80's or 90's- a hilarious X-Men parody by Kyle Baker that was posted comes to mind- and that made it worth having in my LJ-friends queue. Nobody ever really gave me any shit over there, even though I often went looking for a fight to defend something I liked; and there were some cool people that were knowledgable about comics as well. Many of the disparagers and critics have blogs, and many of these blogs regularly feature pages or panels that allow them to demonstrate to all the readers how clever and amusing they are, as well as how mighty their Photoshop skills are, and to be honest, if there's a difference, to me it's a fine line. Sure, many of the scans posted there may have been illegally downloaded, but how can you be sure which ones were and which ones weren't? Sure, you can be skeptical, but you can't always know for sure. Unless you're conviced you have the sanctimonious high ground, something which I try to avoid.

Either way, this is my two cents worth. And know that I will go to my grave and not be affected one iota either way by the disappearance of s_d in my personal life, it was at least a handy resource to have, and something to read when there wasn't anything better to be found.

ETA: I like Gail Simone's response here, on her CBR forum.