Everybody in the Comics Blogosphereiverse is doing what all good Comics Blogosphereiversers do- going through the recently posted DC Comics solicits for April. So, maverick that I am, I'm gonna go through Image's! Then I'll go through DC's.

First thing that caught my eye was the latest from Courtney Crumrin's Ted Naifeh, DEATH JR.. Looks like he's channeling his inner Mignola on the cover illo, which I've helpfully posted above for your perusal. Written by someone named Gary Whitta, it's the story of the son of the Grim Reaper, who must get teased a lot at school since his pop got "melvined" by Bill and Ted. Anyway, looks like fun and Naifeh art is always worth the price of admission. I need to scare up, no pun intended, a copy of How Loathsome one of these days.

Nominee for the 2005 Bite Club award for corniest title pun goes to Mike Baron's new NIGHT CLUB. Actually, the synopsis sounds kinda interesting, but I can't buy everything, y'know.

ZOMBIE KING #O is by Frank Cho, done apparently in between redrawing Shanna. It will be well-drawn, I'm sure, but other than that all bets are off.

THE ART OF GREG HORN is a $25 trade collection of art by the modern-day Boris Vallejo. Horn's cover work for Marvel has, for the most part, struck me as stiff, boring, overrendered and about as sexy as Britney's discarded silicone bags. Still, for those who like, here's some more.

Under the "Image Central" banner, as opposed to the "Image Left" or "Image Right" or even "Image Catty-corner" banner, we find

THE ATHEIST #2, which is by Phil Hester and my old buddy from Hitman, John McCrea. I think I signed up for this last month; it sounds interesting.

After initially being prepared to ignore it completely, suddenly I'm in the mood to check out BATTLE HYMN, issue #5 of which is coming out in April. Don't know why, exactly, the Roy Thomasisms in the synopsis kinda make me wince. Sometimes the hunch area of my brain works in mysterious ways. Guess I'll check out a copy of #1 when it comes out, if it hasn't already and I missed it. Maybe it's because it's written by B. Clay Moore, and I love Hawaiian Dick so much (and I don't even know anyone from the 50th state, so get your mind out of the gutter) that I'm willing to take a flyer on whatever he does.

THE EXPATRIATE #3 is another Clay Moore joint, but it looks a lot more interesting than Battle Hymn. The synopses so far make it sound like a 24-ish exercise, lots of shooting and running and skullduggery and guys in suit coats and sunglasses.

Woo-hoo! New JACK STAFF (#9)! Always cause for rejoicing on Bacardiworld. I'm really beginning to wish that Paul Grist would kinda move away from the whole WWII Freedom Fighters thing, which he's been preoccupied with since the very beginning. Happy to see that Tom Tom the Robot Man is gonna play a big part in this issue.

Look! They're publishing a comic about the adventures of the MORA family, the pater of which coached the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts (lifetime playoff record: 0-6) and is best known for funny press conferences in which he loses his temper (and says stuff like "diddley-poo"), and the son of which is the rookie head coach of my beloved Atlanta Falcons, and...huh? What? It's not? Oh, diddley-poo.


On that note, this concludes my trip through Image's April solicits. There will now be a short intermission before the main feature, DC's April list.

A few comics-news items, while I have a lull in the old workflow:

Via Newsarama, Steve Rude's Nexus will soon be collected! For some weird reason, I passed on Nexus back in the 80s, despite admiring Rude's art, and while I've picked up the odd one-shot or mini since the original run stopped, I've never bothered to try to get anything remotely resembling a set. I might just have to sell some blood or something and get these collections.

Dynamic Forces, a retailer whose expensive wares I never partake of, has a contest on their site in which you can win a signed piece of Jae Lee art. I like Jae Lee art, so I entered. As far as I can tell, they're not charging anything, so what da fug. Contest ends Friday.

I found that on today's Lying in the Gutters, which also is sporting the pre-Marvel cleanup, uncensored Frank Cho pages for the upcoming Shanna the She Devil mini. Good stuff, and I'm strongly considering getting this.

Also via Newsarama: Free Comic Book Day is May 7, and they provide some cover samples. I see Owly, and a Flight primer among those shown.

Here and there around the Blogosphereiverse:

Dr. Scott at Polite Dissent is getting in on the Comics Blogosphere online contest mania, he's giving away a copy of a book with which I am totally unfamilar: Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty. I totally missed this retro/futuristic GN when it came out, but since I have an abiding interest in the turn-of-the-century Russia and all things turn-of-the-century Russian like art, social structure, literature, the whole Czar Nicholas/Rasputin/Anastasia thing, along with the Russian Constructivism art style...my curiosity is piqued.

Bill Sherman is bullet pointing, and mentions one of my all-time favorite movies: The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

Chris Butcher, who shows a Johanna Draper-Carlson-like predilection not to link to me, also goes over the upcoming Free Comic Book Day selections, with interesting commentary.

Tom the Dog recaps the Golden Globes in not one but two separate posts. Yours truly watched the Globes for a while, until Carnivale came on, then flipped back over to watch the end. The highlights for me were Ian McShane winning Best Actor, TV Series - Drama, for his role as Al Swearengen in Deadwood. I was hoping he'd say something like "It's about time you f*cking c*cks*ckers gave me an award", but alas I was disappointed, and Jamie Foxx's alternately touching and funny acceptance speech. Oh yeah, and the Shat won a Globe too! Brilliant!

Oh well, they've just dropped more ads in my lap, so I guess I'd better wind this up. More later, maybe.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

"Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity."

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I meant to post something like this earlier today, but almost forgot until reminded by Tegan's really nice tribute over at her place. In honor of the Reverend Doctor, with thanks to Laura G.

Boy, I've been prolific today, haven't I? Anyway, as is my wont this time every week, and just in case you care, here's what I can expect to get Wednesday, funnybook-wise, brought to you by the new Diamond shipping list:

BPRD: THE DEAD #3
LUCIFER #58
PLASTIC MAN #14
TRIGGER #2
WANTED #6
DAREDEVIL #69
POWERS #8

And, possibly,

LOVE FIGHTS Vol. 2 TPB

And that, as the Pig says, is all, folks!

Kind of a slow day here at the Snooze, so I've been passing the time laughing my ass off at Progressive Boink's "Rating the Lesbians" archive, in which the writers take lesbian kiss scenes from movies and TV and go all MST3K on them. Fricking hilarious. You should go check it out, the comments are priceless.

JOHNNY B HEART NETFLIX part 2


GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING ****1/2
Speculative fiction based on the famous Vermeer painting, starring the current Hollywood "It" girl, Scarlett Johansson, who bears a spooky resemblance to the young lady in the actual painting itself. Colin Firth is Vermeer, who is shown to be only interested in his art, but whose no-nonsense, all-business mother-in-law peddles his talents to his patron, a man named Van Ruijven, whose money is needed for the family to survive. Johansson plays Griet, a young girl who comes to work as a servant in the Vermeer household and soon becomes an inspiration and helper to the painter, and a source of irritation for his jealous and possessive wife. This is a bit slow-moving sometimes, but I suppose the fascination I have with films about painters (Pollack, Frida) overrules all because I liked this one a lot. The sets and period detail were first-rate, director Peter Webber does an excellent job of crafting this like a painting itself, with moody, contrasty lighting and rich, bold color when needed, and the performances were all excellent, with Judy Parfitt as the Mom-in-law and Johansson standing out. I loved the scenes in which Webber recreates some of Vanmeer's paintings with real-life actors, Griet helps Vanmeer mix his paints, and the realistic depictions of the bustling kitchen. Someday someone is going to make a movie about painters and paintings that doesn't make me want to dig my brushes out again, but this ain't that.

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE ***1/2
The second of the P.T. Anderson films I viewed back-to-back, Punch-Drunk Love is most notable for the understated, but deceptively good, performance of Adam Sandler as Barry Egan, a shy, awkward man with anger management issues who works in a designer toilet-plunger warehouse. Complicating things is his ongoing battle with phone sex scammers (he called a 1-900 line one evening, just to talk more than anything) and a compulsion to take advantage of Healthy Choice soup's frequent flyer minutes promotional gimmick. When one of his sisters introduces him to Lena, played by Emily Watson, his life begins to change for the better- if he could just get rid of the phone-sex goons. As quirky romantic comedies go, this one's pretty good- never going for the obvious laugh when one can be sneaked in sideways. The soundtrack also features Harry Nilsson's "He Needs Me", from the out-of-print Popeye soundtrack, which is the only place to find this song.

MYSTIC RIVER***
Last year's Clint Eastwood Oscar shoo-in finally aired on HBO, so I sat and watched it. It simply screamed SIGNIFICANT DRAMA through and through, and perhaps it's just my contrary nature but I was kinda underwhelmed by it all. You probably know the story but I'll recap it for ya anyway: Childhood pals Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins grow up scarred by the abduction and abuse of Robbins' Dave; Penn becomes a Sopranos-type local mob boss who has served time, Bacon becomes a police detective, and Robbins somehow manages to get married and father a son, but is unemployed and broke. Things come to a head when Penn's daughter is found murdered in the park and all signs point to Robbins as the killer. The performances were uneven; Sean Penn overacted when he wasn't underacting and just couldn't seem to find a middle ground, Tim Robbins was good but he kept making me think of Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man; Laurence Fishburne was so low-key he barely registered, and out of all the leads I'd say that Kevin Bacon, of all people, was best because he wasn't trying so hard and came across as the most natural. Even Marcia Gay Harden, who's usually always money, was shaky and overwrought playing Robbins', well, shaky and overwrought wife. This was kinda set up as a murder mystery, and we see Bacon & Fishburne going through the motions of solving the case, but the solution just sorta happens and there's no suspense. Yeah, I know- the real suspense was supposed to be in the events between Penn and Robbins and all that childhood buddies stuff, and while I appreciated the Shakespearean-tragedy-type twist at the end you never really get the feeling that Robbins' Dave character was any sort of a match for Penn's thugs, or any indication that Penn even liked Dave all that much, so there's no resonance. Mystic River was involving enough, but I don't really have any big desire to see it again anytime soon.

NO GOOD DEED**1/2
Out in theatres on Sept. 12, 2003, and straight to video two months later, this Bob Rafelson-directed wannabe noir squanders two great leads, Samuel L. Jackson and JB Show favorite Milla Jovovich with a dull and improbable bank-heist story with a high "Oh, come on" quotient. Still, if you ...admire... Milla as much as I do, she looks great and even has a shower scene. Samuel L. plays a police detective who is an amateur cellist. He's preparing to leave for a fantasy cellist camp (with Yo-Yo Ma as a teacher) when he's asked by a friend to search for her missing daughter. He reluctantly agrees, and sets out with the missing girls picture in hand to canvas the neighborhood in which she was last seen. One slight problem- one of the houses in the neighborhood is serving as the command center for the heist gang. They overpower Jackson, worried that he might be on to them, and leave him tied to a chair in the house with Milla watching over him as they go to knock off the bank. Jackson gives his standard exasperated tough-guy role, and someone named Stellan Skarsgard makes an impression as the prissy leader of the heist gang with some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard for this type of film. Worth watching once if you see it on cable, I suppose, but I wouldn't go out of my way if I were you.

More later...stay tuned for JOHNNY B HEART NETFLIX part THREE!

What weird misc. thing are you? Bunny/Pancake I have no idea what you are.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Words fail me. As usual.

I've been trying to keep my quotes above updated on a semi-regular basis; today I posted one from the late Susan Sontag, who I read about a lot on other blogs, especially Teresa's In Sequence. Why Sontag? We share(d) a birthday, which was yesterday.

That Alan David Doane; he sure loves him some Street Angel! In fact, he's gots so much mad love for Jesse Sanchez's exploits that he's got a sweet little contest type thing going on, and you, yes you, should enter. All you gotta do is click on the image above and you will get all the need-to-know.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of January 12!

100 BULLETS 57
Satisfying conclusion to the excellent "Wylie Runs The Voodoo Down" arc, in which we find out what Mr. Tymes was so pissed-off about, and why he had Agent Sheppard tied to a chair for the last five issues. All the plot threads are tied up very nicely, we get a revealing look at what it takes to be a Minuteman, which I'm sure will be a factor down the road, and while I admit that little of this will make sense to new readers, at least one thing is always constant: the amazing art of Eduardo Risso, who just doesn't get enough attention for how good it is. A

ULTIMATES 2 2
Well, Giant-Man and the Hulk used to share a comic, y'know, back in the dim and distant days of a Marvel that today's "House of Ideas" bears absolutely no resemblance to, so I guess it's fitting that this Ultimate Hank Pym and Bruce Banner should strike up a fatalistic friendship. Again, Millar doesn't seem to have a fresh or original idea in his head (how many times have we had a "trial of the Hulk" in the last 40 years?), but he writes dramatics and snappy dialogue so well that it doesn't matter one bit. Another highlight this time out was the Captain America/Thor confrontation in the disco, and what I assume is our first look at Ultimate Captain Britain, in a cool undersea showcase for Iron Man with some funny dialogue from Jarvis. I'm firmly convinced that none of this would have half the gravity it does if not for Bryan Hitch's solid, realistic art- he subtly enhances the goings-on and makes Millar's scripts twice as good as they really are. A

FABLES 33
We've been inching along, apparently in-between arcs, for several issues now, and this is more of the same: somewhat under-the-radar mystery is solved (and the resolution is kinda sad, in a way), other old plot threads are tied up and new ones begun, more Willingham cleverness as he once more twists his source material around, and then we find out that a "new story begins" next issue. Huh? This has been a story? Oh well, at least it's been an interesting, if ill-defined one. As always, I'm still not wild about the Buckingham/Leialoha art, but Buckingham does sneak in one clever idea: he draws one of Snow White's kids to look like Eddie Munster. A-

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 1
This umpteenth reworking of the venerable 30th century super-kid team is fine as far as it goes; Waid doesn't neglect what makes the LSH readable in the first place- character interaction. Not fight scenes, or sci-fi trappings, but plain ol' dialogue between the principals. I must confess to not really getting the power structure he's set up here- why is the United Planets (bear with me here, if you're unfamiliar with the Legion) at odds with the Science Police, and why do they covertly support the apparently renegade (the SP doesn't like 'em, anyway) Legion? I suppose all will be revealed eventually, but not understanding the new 30th C pecking order was a major annoyance. The art this time is by Barry Kitson, whose work isn't terrible, (especially the pencil sketches I've seen of his character designs, which are 100% looser and more dynamic than his finished art) but whose style is (in my eyes, anyway) stiff, bland and unexciting, very late-70s/early 80s in its approach. I'm surprised he's not drawing Vertigo books. OK, OK, once more I'm intrigued with this new Legion, and I guess I'll hang around for a while to see what happens. But as long as Kitson's on art, I can't ever see me giving this any higher than a B+.

GOTHAM CENTRAL 27
As a showcase for Josie Mac, this works just fine. Even though she's allowed to be disagreeable and smart-assed, she comes across as likeable and I hope they can develop her character further. As a goodbye to the Catwoman character and the cast he created from Ed Brubaker, it's somewhat less successful, since we really don't get much of a showcase for either her or Slam Bradley. As an action-thriller, not too hot. As a showcase for the art of Jason Alexander, it's a failure- his awkward, splotchy art distracts the reader rather than compliments the story. And maybe he should have looked at a couple of Darwyn Cooke or Cam Stewart issues before trying to draw Bradley. C+

ANGELTOWN 3
Gary Phillips just doesn't seem to know what he's trying to give us- is it a mystery, or just a straight-ahead crime thriller, or some sort of social satire, or all/none of the above? His dialogue is still clunky, his characters so ill-defined that you can't tell them apart without a scorecard, and there's precious little crime, or thrills, or mystery for that matter. All we can do is patiently follow along as the principal character, PI Hollis, and the mysterious badass babe ploddingly hunt down the NBA player who has been involved in some sort of nasty business in El Lay. We don't get enough pieces of the puzzle for this to be a functional mystery, and we precious little insight into any of them, so we don't really care about any of these people. Maybe I'm missing something here, but so far this is a damn poor excuse for a story and a waste of Shawn Martinbrough's estimable illustrative talent. C-

MIA: Love Fights Vol. 2 TPB. It didn't ship to my shop. Ship-shop! Hee. Anyway, hopefully it will come in soon.

Another stellar James Jean cover for a book I'll never buy, Marvel's Amazing Fantasy #7. This is the redesigned Scorpion.

You can get the skinny, the straight dope, the 4-1-1 about all this from Newsarama. Not to veer into Fanboy Rampage!! territory, but the reaction of many of the posters is puzzling, to me, anyway. This is a hell of a nice illustration- who cares about the old established Scorpion character or all that twaddle?

Found at Comics Reporter, a ten minute teaser for the Will Eisner documentary. I can't wait to see this.

Hey, look there! It's JOHNNY B's FEARFUL, I MEAN FEARLESS NFL PLAYOFF PIGSKIN PROGNOSTICATIONS!

Boy, did I stink on ice last weekend. Between Seattle's butterfingered receivers (why, oh why didn't they go to Jerry Rice more?), Brett Favre's troubling inclination to go berserk when faced with adversity, and the incredibly asinine, knuckleheaded, fuckwitted (and about a dozen other adjectives) playcalling of Marty (there is NO "WIN" in Marty) Schottenheimer and his coaching staff, I went a putrid 1-3. Feh. Bad thing is, I don't know if I can do any better this weekend either, because I felt last week's game were easier to call than this week's games! But I started this, and I'm gonna see it through- so here goes.

First, the usual disclaimer, more relevant now than ever.

These picks are FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. I'm not betting illegally with these, and NEITHER SHOULD YOU...and I take no responsibility if you lose your house.

PITTSBURGH over The New York Jets. The Jets were damn lucky, despite Schottenheimer's best efforts to the contrary, to escape SD with a victory. They've overacheived to get this far, and I believe it stops here.

ATLANTA over St. Louis. As always with my Falcons, for them to win it comes down to this: the defense has to make stops and be solid. No 87-yard pass plays to Torry Holt thanks to busted coverages. And they need to be able to control the clock on the ground, with Dunn, Duckett and Vick. And Vick needs to be able to complete a decent amount of passes to keep them from going three-and-out. The Rams have been a lot better the last month or so, and they looked scarily efficient against the Seahawks last weekend, but I'm gonna go with my boys. If Vick's got any magic left, hopefully he can use some of it today.

PHILADELPHIA over Minnesota. Even though the Vikings have been better lately as well, I think the Eagles have enough, despite their long layoff, to win a close one. If you're betting, you might want to put a little on the Vikes to cover the spread.

INDIANAPOLIS over New England. The game of the week, although all of them promise to be good ones. I picked the Colts to go all the way at the beginning of the season, and Manning and Co. just seem to be in an unreal groove right now, which I think will still be effective against a depleted Patriots defense. They won't blow the Pats out, and it may come down to a figgie from big-mouth kicker Mike Vanderjagt, but I think the Colts will finally get over this hurdle.

Sure, I can do PR here at the Show!

Sir Larry Young sent me an email with a link to this Pulse story, which details how well AiT/Planetlar and Robert Kirkman have done via online retailer Khepri.com, and says:

"A privately-owned online retailer KICKS ASS distributing our books, so much so that the BEST-SELLING trade paperback of 2004 for him is CHANNEL ZERO, which is seven years old.

Is there any greater proof that the North American comic book audience is split into monthlies, and trade paperbacks?"

Kudos to Mr. Young (and Mr. Brian Wood) for this excellent showing. Perhaps, among other things, this shows that this sort of online merchant appeals to a more discriminatory clientele, who can say.

In a related subject, they have the top comics and graphic novels data for 2004 over at Newsarama, and of course it's heavily slanted towards the Big Two, with Dark Horse making a surprisingly strong showing. This list comes from Diamond, so it's more representative of a wider sample of vendors.

I draw no conclusions by posting this; as I said a long time ago, I like the graphic novel format for what it represents: an opportunity to read one story (or story arc) in one sitting, with better-than-average production values and perhaps, in some cases, an opportunity to have the same writer and artist for the entire project. On the other hand, as someone who's been reading single floppy pamphlets since his preschool years, I have a sentimental attachment of sorts to that format, and would hate to see it go away all together. I kinda like getting regualr installments, or chapters, of stories- it's comparable to the difference of watching, say Deadwood every week, or getting the DVD box and watching it all in one sitting (except, of course, it takes less time...!). It's difficult for me to afford to jam a trade in with my weekly purchases, because adding $10-$20 dollars to my already fairly high total is just too costly for me right now. And if I were to take the plunge and go trades-only, there are books that I enjoy right now that may not ever get collected due to low sales (Monolith comes to mind here), and then I'd be forced to buy singles anyway or do without. And since there's no guarantee that titles will be collected in an affordable format, what I'm forced into is buying singles, and perhaps the occasional trade when my comics shop has sales on, mostly to pick up on series I've missed out on (I started Kane, Fables and Hellboy this way, for example), or when something comes out that I just can't do without like Selina's Big Score. I've been fortunate in that I've received a lot of GN's through the generosity of people like Young, which I probably wouldn't have picked up otherwise because of expense. I could see myself perhaps switching over to more trades if I follow through with canceling my pull list at my shop and going with Discount Comic Book Service; I could perhaps afford to get more GN's and collections and less floppies. Who the heck knows.

Anyway, that's all I got; discuss among yourselves.

M.E. Russell over at CulturePulp takes on Gallagher. Made me laugh, it did. He also reviews Elektra, which I already had my doubts about.

There's a 10 page preview of Frank Cho's Shanna The She-Devil over at PopCultureShock.com. It's very nicely drawn and colored, par for the course for Mr. Cho, and I actually laughed at the joke on the last page. I hadn't planned to get this, as I'm not really a fan of Cho's nicely drawn but labored pseudo-Bloom County strip Liberty Meadows, but I'm beginning to reconsider. Click on the cover at left to check it out.

In other comics-related news, I see, via The Beat, where DC has axed Human Target and Bloodhound. Didn't read the latter; I've never been that impressed with Dan Jolley's writing, and Leonard Kirk's art doesn't excite me much either. I thought if I ever got the chance to get a run cheap, I might consider it, just to read...but either way, it's gone. Now, Target I bought regularly up until just a month or so ago, so if you're looking for someone to blame, I guess I'll do as much as anyone. But seriously- I tried really hard, but Milligan just never really could make me believe in or care about the character or his storylines, so I bade it a not so tearful adieu. That leaves The Losers as one of DC's worst selling titles still ongoing, and frankly, that worries me. Oh well. Que sera sera.

Update, 1-14:
Heidi is now reporting that The Losers seems to be safe for now. Andy Diggle says it seems to be selling better in trades than in singles, and a third trade has been scheduled. (Lurr from Futurama voice here) This pleases me.

My Favorite Spirits, Day 7



I conclude my week-long tribute to the late great Will Eisner with a page from the story that Warren titled "Two Lives", which combined the humor that Eisner could do so well with another innovative storytelling approach. "Lives" is the tale of two men, one a henpecked husband, another a convict, who both escape from their prisons and meet by chance, then strike up a "Prince and the Pauper" type bargain, which, of course, doesn't work out exactly as planned for either one. Gotta love those names: Carboy T. Gretch (looks like an anagram, doesn't it?), the jailbird, and Cranfranz Quayle.

R.I.P., Mr. Eisner, and thanks.

Found at ADD's:




That sounds pretty high...I'm Johnny Effing Bacardi, man...!

Check back later for the final Spirit page...

The newest offering from AiT/PlanetLar is Proof of Concept, which is a collection of story pitches, teasers if you will, all written by publisher Larry Young and illustrated by an assortment of artists, none of which are exactly household names- yet. For a few months there, Young would post a script sample on a the Comics World News website, and invite all comers to draw it. He would then pick the best renditions and promised to publish them, and here's the result. Not exactly a scenario which inspires a lot of anticipation, because tryout books are usually hit-or-miss at best; but this is one of the most enjoyable reads of the young year.

One reason why is that these are pretty damn good high-concept story ideas. When it comes to pitching scripts, Larry Young is the Randy Johnson of comics writing (but he's better behaved with the press). The stories run the gamut from sci-fi to Serling-ish fantasy to broad social satire, no pun intended, and none of them are dull. The artists mostly do a fine job with the material, some better than others. I'll run each story down one at a time:

"Hemogoblin", the lead story, is probably my favorite. Nicely drawn by one Damian Couceiro, whose style reminds me of Michael Lark (a lot) and Chris Sprouse (a little), and the concept has a smartly futuristic Omega Man-ish feel.

"Zombie Dinosaur" is next, and features one of those head-smacking "Why didn't I think of that" premises: dinosaurs revived as zombies. It's action-thriller sci-fi fun, and reminiscent of an early issue of Planetary. The art, by Stephen Sanders and inked by Jeff Johns is a little stiff, and Sanders/Johns do better by the dinos that the people, but it was passable overall. I could easily see this as a big-budget film.

"The Camera" is a Serling-esque tale of a group of kids who discover a space warp or a dimensional portal or something, which looks exactly like a good-size black circle floating in the air. Like Young says in the introduction, Quantum Leap meets Stand By Me, and I might add "The Sea of Holes sequence from Yellow Submarine" to the tagline. I wasn't so crazy about Paul Tucker's art; it's sloppy and crude, and often badly proportioned. Of course, I guess that's his style or his point- it's certainly got that Indie ethos, but it just didn't push the right buttons in my head.

"For The Time Being" could be Star Trek (or, again, Quantum Leap) as written by H.G. Wells. This was the first script I remember reading after I became aware of Young's CWN column; I actually considered giving it a shot myself, but as usual, I decided not to. Just as well, because Jeff Johns does a nice job of visualizing a demanding cosmic-themed script. Sometimes his compositions look a bit awkward, and I'm not 100% sure the art deco touches need to be there, but I hope to see more from that guy.

"Emancipating Lincoln" puts us right back in Twilight Zone territory as we are introduced to a planet populated by clones of Abraham Lincoln. Living as close as I do to Lincoln's birthplace, I suppose that makes my part of Kentucky holy land! Anyway, everything is fine on Abeworld when someone discovers a five dollar bill with the Great Emancipator's mug on it, and the mystery is afoot! It's a goofy idea, but it's done with a straight face, which completely gets it across. Artist John Flynn does a fine job; his style is harsh and angular, with a lot of choppy fat ink lines. Reminds me a bit of Becky Cloonan's work, it does.

Finally, the only complete story as well as the only one which has seen print before, "The Bod", about a young wannabe starlet who achieves Hollywood fame after becoming invisible. We get some topical circa 2001 references, the young lady finds out that the price she pays for her fame brings her more trouble than she bargained for, and we get a somewhat ambivalent ending, in that we're not sure what our heroine's future will be like, or that of her sister. The story trips a lot of my disbelief suspension alarms- I'm not so sure that someone of her celebrity status would ever have appeared on the Springer show or Judge Judy, but as satire it works OK. Artwise, it's fine- John Heebink has that very clean, very mainstream-friendly Jerry Ordway-ish style and I'm surprised that he isn't working for the Big Two right now.

Each story has a framing sequence, drawn by Kieron Dwyer, which features Young on the phone with his lawyer, discussing each of these story ideas, and those sequences are tons of fun. The more I see of Dwyer's art, the more I like.

So, as Young asks, which ones do I want to see more of? I wanna see more "Hemogoblin", could live with more "Zombie Dinosaur" or "Time Being", and could take or leave the rest. Really, my biggest complaint is that except for "The Bod", all the stories end abruptly, and leave the reader hanging! Aw, I kid. While not exactly what you could call a completely satisfying reading experience, it's a testament to the enthusiasm and creativity of Larry Young, and a nice introduction to the likes of Couceiro and Johns (whom I think we'll hear more from). For the most part, I enjoyed Proof of Concept, and I think you will too- if you don't mind plunking down the $13 for a collection of excerpts. At least they're engaging excerpts.

Via Newsarama, a preview of Flight #2, which promises to be better than the first issue- which was pretty damn good. It's got new work from the amazing Vera Brosgol, Jen Wang, Clio Chiang, and more. Sold!

It's contest mania! The latest online giveaway is courtesy of the Ferret Press/PANEL people, and I'll let writer/publisher Dara Naraghi take it from here:

Basically, we're going to give away a different set of free comics via the blog each month in 2005. To start with, I'm offering the "STRAGEHAVEN: ARCADIA" trade, by Gary Spencer Millidge, which reprints the first 6 issues of his series. To enter, readers just have to e-mail us and in 50 words or less answer this question: "What was your first experience with "independent" comics (if any), and why would you like to read Strangehaven?"

Here's the link.

Maybe I should host a contest one of these days. If only I had something to give away! Besides my money, that is...

My Favorite Spirits, Day 6



Continuing my week-long tribute to the late, great Will Eisner.

Meet Plaster...Plaster of Paris, the Toast of Montmartre. Eisner sets his action in a grid of panels which suggest posters on a wall on a French café. He also provides us with a primer on how to draw folds in drapery and clothing. In this tale, the Spirit gets mixed up with hoodlums in Paree, and encounters the gang leader's girlfriend with the unlikely nom de plumé. It's a little melodramatic, all things considered, but Eisner lays on the atmosphere and this opening sequence is very striking. A favorite of Neil Gaiman, according to this post on his journal. Did the Spirit escape? You'll have to read it for yourself! From the Harvey Spirit#2; don't know which Warren/Kitchen Sink reprint it appeared in.

JOHNNY B HEART NETFLIX, PART ONE

Still subscribing to Netflix, thankyouverymuch, and lately I've watched a gaggle (clutch? school? pride?) of films or recent vintage , with one notable exception. Here they be. Five star rating system.

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK ***
Continuation of David Twohy's not-bad sci-fi actioner Pitch Black, starring Vin Diesel as the title character, who was established as an technology-enhanced convict in the first film, but is bumped up into some sort of über-warrior this time out, complete with manifest destiny and everything. Of course, and this is to his credit, Diesel plays him the same exact way he did in the first flick: dour, hypercapable and sullen, with no sense of humor. He doesn't so much as choose to lead the free universe against the evil menace, it's more like he gets pissed off at being inconvenienced. I don't know exactly what to think about this- this was obviously crafted with a lot of care and imagination, and a lot more money than its predecessor, which makes the CGI and matte effects very impressive. I wish they'd spent a little more time developing the story; it's epic enough, I suppose, and there are a lot of somewhat interesting characters but a lot of it doesn't make sense. For example, the prison planet Crematoria (ouch, what a dumb name) has its hellish prison under the surface- up top it's so close to the sun and its rotation is such that the surface gets cooked by intense sunlight on a frequent basis. But, despite the apparent complete lack of any sort of vegetation whatsoever, the atmosphere is breathable! In fact, the control center of the prison surfaces at regular intervals and opens vents which allow fresh air to rush into the underground prison. At one point, the escaping Riddick and his motley crew take advantage of this and make a mad dash across the planet's surface to the spaceships which are docked on the other side of a mountain range, and have to outrun the advancing intense sunlight which is at their backs. While up in the mountains, they actually have to stop climbing, in the light which is already hot enough to disintegrate a couple of the unlucky prisoners...but the air is not superheated and the have no trouble breathing. Science quibbles aside, if you're a fan of this sort of intergalactic quest-type film, there's much to like about Chronicles...the evil empire (called "Necromongers") are sufficiently repulsive, there is a nice tie-in with Pitch Black in the form of Keith David's holy man Imam, not to mention Riddick's young admirer Jack (now named Kyra) and played with an appealing mix of sass and verve by a cutie named Alexa Davalos. The requisite slumming distinguished actor/actress is Dame Judi Densch, who plays some sort of emissary from a planet of ghost witches or somesuch. It's kinda pretentious, overblown and often dumb, but I liked it a lot better than either of Lucas's Star Wars prequels, so there ya go.

ORGY OF THE DEAD **
It will probably come as no big surprise to anyone that I am a bit of a fan of the work of Edward D. Wood, Jr.; ever since seeing a picture or two from his Plan 9 From Outer Space in Famous Monsters as a kid, then getting to see both it and its companion in awfulness Bride of the Monster once or twice on Channel 5 (Nashville)'s the Big Show in the 70s, I have taken every opportunity I could get to experience the weird-assed spawn of this man's feverish imagination. The Rudolph Grey book Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. was required reading for me, along with Weldon's Psychotronic books, which cited his films, and the Burton semi-biopic. I think what I came away admiring about him, even as I laugh and shake my head at the amateurishness of his output, is how much commitment he had to his craft and how much he burned with the need to be involved in movies. If only I had that kind of fire inside me, who knows- I might be drawing comics somewhere. Anyway, all this personal junk aside, Orgy was one of the two or three Wood films I hadn't seen, and make no mistake- it's bad. Ludicrously bad. Wood didn't direct this one (Stephen Apostolof was the man behind the camera), he only assisted and wrote the alleged screenplay- and it's full of his hilariously ponderous pronouncements. His old buddy Criswell is here, looking liquored up and obviously reading from cue cards, but he's the only one from the Mighty Wood Players that turns up. Basically what this is is a nudie flick, the sort they used to show in Burlesque theatres back in the early-mid 60s, with Wood's typically ham-handed horrorshow ideas shoehorned in. Criswell is the "Emperor of the Dead", who presides over what I suppose is nightly nude dancing in a graveyard in order to pass judgement on "lost souls". At his side is Elvira lookalike Fawn Silver and two guys dressed up in awful-looking mummy and wolfman costumes. They get to provide comic relief. The strippers come out one at a time, and each one dances to a theme, based on the crimes they committed in life: one loved gold above all else, so Cris has gold coins poured over her head by two strapping slave men in striped shorts, then she gets dunked in a boiling pot (actually, they lay her behind it, and it's obvious) and emerges covered head-to-toe in gold paint, just like Shirley Eaton (Apostolof says in an interview included on the disc that the James Bond film indeed was the inspiration for this sequence) in Goldfinger. A Hawaiian girl threw herself into a volcano, so she does a fire dance. You get the picture. A writer and his shrewish girlfriend are out driving around at night looking for this cemetary (to get ideas for his stories, he says), have an accident, and when they come to are discovered by the monsters, tied to posts, and forced to watch the strippers being "judged". Funniest line (out of many contenders) has the boyfriend saying, "They wouldn't dare put both of us in the same grave, would they?"; to which the girlfriend replies, "I hope not, I hate you". You'll want to fast forward past the strippers' routines; they're (mostly) attractive but they dance like they're on Thorazine- and savor the wretched bad acting and ludicrous dialogue as only our Eddie could write. Orgy is worth it for Wood buffs and connoisseurs of bad cinema, but everyone else should just stay away.

MAGNOLIA ****
After Boogie Nights, which I liked a lot, I had kinda gotten behind with my P.T. Anderson film viewing. Here's what he followed that film with, and I remember it getting mostly good reviews upon its release, but I think its length, lack of a distinctive concept, and the fact that it didn't come on any cable networks that I subscribed to at the time meant that I'm only just now getting around to viewing it. It's a sprawling film, with multiple storylines that only really converge at the end. It's chock full of good perfomances, from Anderson regulars such as Julianne Moore, the great William Macy, and Phillip Seymour Hoffmann, not to mention Tom Cruise as a motivational speaker/huckster who has parental issues with dying dad Jason Robards. The movie's not wildly inventive, nor is it directed with a lot of spark, and the big even which connects all the characters is just plain silly...but my attention rarely strayed and I was very interested in where it was all going. It didn't seem as long as its 3-hour running time would have you think. The movie doesn't end as much as it just expires, and leaves you hanging just a little, but overall I liked Magnolia because while I might not have been as impressed with the destination as I had hoped, I enjoyed the trip.

More to come.

I'll try to get today's Spirit page up later on today, didn't have time to scan one last night.

However, over at Wayne Bruce's Heroes & Villains, he reminded me of something which I haven't seen in a good long while: The 1987 Spirit TV movie. I actually taped it back then, and just might still have it although I haven't looked. It starred Sam (Flash Gordon) Jones as Denny Colt, and Nana Visitor (Lt. Kira from Deep Space Nine) as Ellen Dolan. It wasn't a total disaster, if I recall correctly, but was doomed from the start by a low budget, with TV movie production values, the decision to film it in the present day, and a smidgen of camp in the script. I tried to find a picture of it on the Web, but had no luck.

Bruce also points us to an article on CBR dealing with the proposed Spirit theatrical film, which is still in development. They're going to try, apparently, to take a Batman: The Animated Series-style "timeless setting" approach- not exactly 2000s, but not the 40's either. I won't get my hopes up.

Here's an earlier piece on the film at Superherohype.com.

Oh, by the way, on the subject of a Spirit film, I indulged myself in a bit of speculating the other day: what if they had made a film based on Eisner's greatest creation back in the actual 40s? Wouldn't my Forties inamorata Priscilla Lane have made a smashingly perfect Ellen Dolan? Take a look at the pic towards the bottom of the links bar at right, go to the site it links to, and tell me I'm wrong!

As I contemplate a change in my comic buying habits, why don't we see what will be in my holds folder per the new Diamond shipping list...

100 BULLETS #57
ANGELTOWN #3
FABLES #33
GOTHAM CENTRAL #27
ULTIMATES 2 #2
LOVE FIGHTS VOL 2 TP

Lookin' like I was gonna get off light until that Love Fights trade popped up there! I may put off that purchase till later. Plus, Legion of Super Heroes 1 is supposed to be there as well.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of January 5!

THE QUESTION 3
I'm reading a lot of bitching about how Rick Veitch is somehow "ruining" this character by deviating from the original Steve Ditko concept, but I just don't see it. I read those Ditko stories, I don't think this is all that different from what the Sturdy One did all those years ago, it's just been tweaked a bit. If anything, Alan Moore has disrespected the character more with his re-imagining him as the bugfuck crazy Rorschach. I like what Veitch is setting up here, nodding to Ditko's Randian leanings with the Luthor Science Spire plotline, while showing us the Question getting down and dirty, rooting out criminals in the Metropolis underground and trying to find out what's going on. I'm even anticipating Superman butting in next issue- I'm not sure if Veitch has written Superman before, but I'm curious about how the man who wrote Maximortal will handle him. Veitch has even replaced the one thing that was annoying me, the Ginsburg-ian poetry interludes, with a more down-to-earth inner monologue this time out. Still, I might not be as engaged by this if not for the outstanding art of Tommy Lee Edwards, whose just-loose-enough style is a joy to scan, with its dynamic figure poses and perspectives. I wonder of the guy who tried to buy the "fireworks" at the Metropolis pawn shop was drawn to look like The Losers' Jensen on purpose... A-

FLAMING CARROT 1 (33)
This seems a little tentative; Bob Burden's art looks very rushed and sloppy (not that Bob was ever exactly meticulous in the first place) and it doesn't have the free-flowing insanity of Burden's 80's best- but hey, whaddaya want? It's been a while, and even the greats get rusty! There's still plenty of funny stuff, with singing zombies and baloney guns, and the Carrot is still a mack daddy pimp. If he can maintain the commitment and we get another longish run, I have no doubt that we will get some absurdist gems before he's finished. Note to letterer Roxanne Starr: "obnoxious" doesn't begin with "A". B+

JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE 7
Now that the JSA has moved on, we continue the "Elite goes undercover to bust interdimensional drug dealers" storyline, and it's OK I suppose, but the most interesting thing going on as far as I'm concerned is the further developments in the Manitou Raven (obviously Kelly really likes this character)/Green Arrow/Raven's wife Dawn triangle, and as always the Mahnke/Nguyen art. B

BREACH 1
The goodwill engendered with me by Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez's nice art job on Batgirl Year One led me to pick this up, but here their work seems uninspired and bland (despite that beautiful Lopez inking line) and this is essentially an equally uninspired rehash of Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan and Captain Atom's origin stories. Whether or not this will get better remains to be seen; Harras' past work gives me no reason to think he's capable of it. I'll give it a chance, though, because I want to see if the art will lift it up. Stay tuned. C+

MIA: Legion of Super-Heroes 1; supposed to be on back order and come in late last week.

I have been remiss in not mentioning Tegan's contest; she's giving a copy of Colonia: Islands and Anomalies, by Jeff Nicholson, away to the person who send her the best "micro-essay" (my favorite kind) on why/how comic books are good for use as educational tools. So go already, click on the link and check it out!

Some good news, via Near Mint Heroes: The WB, of all people, is considering picking up Dead Like Me!

Given the WB's track record, this may not be as good as it appears; but you never know. It could be worse; it could be Fox!

My Favorite Spirits Day 5

Took yesterday off, so here's day 5 on day 6.

Here we have a page from another of my fave Spirit stories, titled (by Warren) "10 Seconds". The ten seconds the title refers to is the span of time in which the events of this story take place. Small-timer Freddy, thought of as a "good boy" in the neighborhood because he looks after his family (I'm assuming his mother, because if he's married or has kids it's never mentioned and not that important anyway), is sick of being a broke nobody, and decides to rob the neighborhood candy shop, run by a genial fellow named Max. In the page above, he's just shot and killed the proprietor when a couple unexpectedly comes in jus as he finishes emptying the till. As the reader, there's already an undercurrent of tension because while Freddy has done a terrible thing, no doubt, Will Eisner has still smartly set him up as a somewhat sympathetic character, emphasizing early on his inner conflict and desperation. As the couple prattles on, Freddy attempts to fill their order, just trying to pacify them until he can get out when the girlfriend leans over the counter, and discovers Max's body- time absolutely stands still in this panel- and her scream propels Freddy out of the store. The feeling of panic that Eisner conveys in that four panel sequence is very palpable, and Freddy's troubles are just beginning. "10 Seconds" is, I believe, one of Eisner's very best Spirit stories, even though the Spirit doesn't even play a major role until the very end. It's got irony, pathos, drama, and excitement- in short, another typical late 40's Will Eisner Spirit.

It's a cold, gloomy, grey, soggy Saturday, and here are a few things I've had circulating in me brain:

Dorian (aka "Pal") over at Postmodern Barney has a well done piece about why a V For Vendetta film isn't going to work, and I agree with him. I think you just might, too. I just finished watching The Punisher this morning, so maybe I'm even more receptive to that message than usual...

Y'know, I've never read V For Vendetta. I remember when it came out in the 80s, but wasn't impressed by the art so I declined to pick it up. Maybe someday I'll get around to checking it out, because I've never heard anything bad about it.

I was fairly excited about the prospect of Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely doing Superman, but like Alan David Doane am less than enthusiatic about the announcement of Frank Miller and Jim Lee doing Batman. Sure, Dark Knight Returns was brilliant, although I still think it's a bit overrated by many. Plus, it was written by Miller, fresh off Daredevil, and still committed to writing good comics. Dark Knight Strikes Back was a sloppy, cynical, offputting mess, done by a creator who has lost what little regard or respect he may have ever had for his source material. Make no mistake- he's working in comics again because he's had little success in Hollywood, and he doesn't seem to be happy about it. Lee's work, while showing impressive craft (even though he is surprisingly laid-back in his work habits) is perpetually stuck in the late 80's; his hypermuscled Batman looks bloated and awkward, and more than a little quaint when compared to renditions by the likes of Mazzuchelli, Sean Phillips and Cooke. I think I'll pass on that All-Star project.

I won a copy of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Lost At Sea on eBay, and am in the process of reading it right this very minute. When I'm not typing, that is. As always, I'll say more when I'm finished.

It got kinda slow at work yesterday, so I decided to do something I'd been meaning to do for a while now: make out a complete month's order at Discount Comic Book Service, then compare it to what I would pay at my comics shop. My month's worth of comics, including bags and boards, at Great Escape would total $103.76. The total of my order at DCBS, with the weekly shipping option ($8 extra) and bags/boards: $75.78. That's a significant difference. I must ponder this further, but I'm getting tired of no discount and driving across town on Wednesday after I get off work, which is more of a hassle than you'd think. Back when I had my fairly rewarding, moderately well-paying job that was very close to my shop, it was great. Now that I have the low-paying, unrewarding job that's on the other side of town, it's kinda inconvenient. Stay tuned.

I watched the season premiere of Alias last Wednesday night, just like I said I would, and I'm afraid most of my initial objections still apply. I just wish they didn't feel like they had to stack up plot twist after plot twist on top of red herring on top of family-related angst...well, you get the point. I like the Sydney character, and Jen Garner is good in the role. The cast is fine, and most of them play interesting enough characters. It's got Carl ("John Parker" from Buckaroo Banzai) Lumbly in it, for gosh sakes. The fight on the train was well done and reminded me of many great films set on trains, like From Russia With Love and many Hitchcock pictures. I liked the little guy with the Leno chin who provides a little helpful comedy relief. I wish that I had a better idea about what had happened over the last two seasons, because much of the dramatic tension in the episodes hinged on things that had happened previously, especially the deal with Sydney's parents and sister and the boyfriend. Things were referred to, but little detail was given. I thought it was overlong at two hours- my attention began to wander about 1 hour and 15 minutes in. Will I watch it again? Yeah, probably. Especially if they continue to air the TV spots with Lenny Kravitz music. I'll most likely even borrow the DVDs from my friend the Bacardi Show Political Correspondent and get caught up. I'll know more next Wednesday.

A lot of fine bloggers like to print up the more unusual search engine referrals that they get. I get my share, I suppose, but many of them are variations on Bacardi this and Bacardi that, not that surprising. But there's one search referral that I can usually count on getting at least twice a day, and that's for a picture of the young British soul singer Joss Stone! After doing my own image search, I can see why- the picture I used to accompany this post comes up first on Altavista.com. People, I snagged that shot from VH1.com! Go there once in a while, willya? Aw, I kid. I'm happy to have readers, no matter why they stop by. I've heard two cuts from Joss's latest CD, by the way and I'm not terribly impressed with either of them- one's a jittery kinda half-assed uptempo thing with no melody, and the other's a tepid ballady Aretha ripoff. I liked a few cuts on her debut, but these two remind me of the cuts I didn't like.

Finally, BSBdG's go out today to


David Bowie, 58 today. I'm still digging Heathen very much, and I have his latest, Reality, coming in the mail. Also, the King, known to us mere mortals as Elvis Aron Presley, who would have been 70. And yes, Fred Hembeck, BSBdG's to Soupy Sales, as well.

That's all for now- comics reviews later, plus a paragraph or two about the seven-count 'em, seven! films I've watched in the last week or so.

My Favorite Spirits, Day 4



Eisner does High Noon, liberally mixed with Lost Horizon in this story from Harvey's Spirit #2. He proves that he's just as comfortable doing Hollywood-style westerns as he is urban drama in this tale of a small town (called "Boot Camp") high in the mountains, which serves as the hideout for a group of desperadoes led by one Sam Chaparral, who brought them there over a hundred years ago. Tired of living there and of Sam, who's kept them there all those years by threats and intimidation, they organize and "dry-gulch" him (send him out into the desert without water or food), so they can escape- but Sam staggers into a nearby town at the foot of the mountains and is nursed back to health by the son of Chaparral's old partner, Laredo Trent, who hopes to find out where Sam hid the gold bullion they stole so long ago. Upon his recovery, Chaparral shoots Trent for his trouble, but doesn't know that while he was out Trent wired the Spirit in Central City- and the Spirit arrives just in time to hear his last words, which tell the whole story as well as where to find the town. Armed with Laredo's six-guns (the only thing that can kill Chaparral, or so he says), the Spirit rides into the mountains to bring the killer to justice.

I'm not always a real big fan of westerns, and the ones I do like tend to have something a bit odd or different about them- and this story certainly qualifies!

The Playoffs are now here, so it's time once again for JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PIGSKIN PROGNOSTICATIONS- PLAYOFF EDITION!!

Wild-card round begins Saturday, so here goes nuttin. First, the standard disclaimer: These picks are FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. I'm not betting illegally with these, and NEITHER SHOULD YOU...and I take no responsibility if you lose your house.

Saturday's games:

SAN DIEGO over the NY Jets- The Chargers' surprising season will continue one more week. The Jets look feeble on offense, as does Chad Pennington.

SEATTLE over St. Louis- The Rams seem to be in the Seahawks' head after sweeping them this year, but my gut feeling tells me that the up-an-down Hawks will muster up enough to beat the Rams, who are kinda up-and-down themselves.

Sunday's games:

INDIANAPOLIS over Denver- the Colts were just doing the ol' rope-a-dope on the Broncos last weekend. Manning should have a big day.

GREEN BAY over Minnesota- The Packers are, in their own way, as inconsistent as the Vikings...but this is at Lambeau, hardly the house of horrors it used to be (thanks in part to my Falcons, hee hee) but I don't think the Vikes' defense can keep Favre down- especially if it's close.

Last week: 10-6. FINAL REGULAR SEASON PICKS RECORD: 157-99, .638.

Fantasy, I won the game for 5th place. A hollow victory, indeed!

My Favorite Spirits Day 3



Above is a great example of what Harvey Kurtzman referred to once as the "Eisnershpritz", that is, Eisner's everpresent rain showers and thunderstorms that often appeared in his stories. All the better to create mood and atmosphere, my dear. Anyway, this is the first page from the story Warren titled "Lorelei Rox", in which the Spirit mixes it up with a gangster who just happened to marry a siren, as in a Homer-style straight outta Greek mythology-type siren, and was using her to waylay truckers on the highway and steal their payloads. This was another story reprinted in one of those Harvey Spirits, and this opening scene made a deep impression on me, especially the "click, clack" footsteps approaching Commissioner Dolan's office.

Catch-up time again!

Here's some recent and not-so-recent books I've read lately, and I really, really meant to write about many of them sooner- but plans happen when you're busy making other lives, or something like that. Anyway, time for me to redress that grievous oversight.

SPAGHETTI WESTERN by Scott Morse (Oni Press)
We're only 6 days into 2005, and I've already found one 2004 title I forgot to include in my "Best of '04" list. I've been somewhat disappointed in Morse's work for DC lately, his fill-ins on Plastic Man and his one-shot Batman book were not all that memorable...but left to his own devices, he does much better by me, and this book is proof of that. It's a rectangular-format book, one page equaling one panel giving it a "widescreen" effect, fitting because this is a movie homage at its foundation. Two men, one dressed like Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter or any Leone film you'd care to name and the other, elderly and terminally ill sidekick, attempt to rob a Savings and Loan using six-guns and horses. What happens next blends Dog Day Afternoon with Bronco Billy, and Morse's unusual style, all done in sepia tones, brings out the best in the story. I thought Spaghetti Western was great, if a little short, and should have been in my year-end list. Mea culpa.

THE TOMB by Nunzio DiFillpis, Christina Weir and Christopher Mitten (Oni Press)
Not to overdo the movie comparisons here, but what this is is Raiders of the Lost Ark meets The Mummy meets The Haunting as would-be franchise character and female Indiana Jones Jessica Parrish is hired to investigate a house, owned by an archaeologist and full of Egyptian relics- not to mention death traps- in which several people have disappeared. Also along for the ride is a character named Max who is the publisher of a tabloid-type newspaper; apparently writers DiFillipis and Weir intend for these two to be a Nick-and-Nora or Steed-and-Emma-style pair, and they allude somewhere in the introduction to having written other adventures featuring them. Anyway, throwing these kind of characters in a haunted-house scenario is a bit different from the usual Lara Croft-style exploits, and the story moves along at a pretty good clip, rarely straining credibility. I wasn't as crazy about Mitten's art- he has a style which is an unremarkable amalgam of about a dozen popular mid-80's and 90's artists, and doesn't do anything distinctive with any of them; but neither does he do anything that looks egregiously terrible either- no awkward anatomy or impossible perspective, so while I found his style completely unexciting it didn't hinder me from reading the story so no harm, no foul. All in all, I found The Tomb a diverting time-waster; I kinda liked that Parrish character and wouldn't mind reading further tales about her and Max. As long as I could get them free or borrow them from friends.

THE BLACK FOREST by Todd Livingston, Robert Tinnell, and Neil Vokes
Fables readers may recall that recently, Bill Willingham did a two-part WWII story which pitted his Bigby Wolf character against the Nazis and a Frankenstein monster of sorts, and almost immediately was called upon to acknowledge that someone had recently beaten him to the conceptual punch- and this is what did it. Written by Livingston and Tinnell, a couple of TV and Movie screenwriters, and illustrated by Vokes, this is another riff on those old Universal Studios monster-jam flicks like House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, or Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein in which the classic monsters (or their archetypes, anyway) get together for sanguine hijinx. Throw in intrepid US soldiers who have joined the French Air Force (the US hadn't gotten involved in the Great War yet), an British expert on the supernatural prone to narcolepsy, and just to be different, set it in WWI Germany instead of the WWII-era stuff we're used to, and you get a ripping good adventure yarn with many clever touches, marred script-wise only by the odd choice to make the nominal hero of the piece an annoyingly immature eager-beaver type. Had a hard time warming to him. No complaints about the art- Vokes has a lively style, kinda reminiscent of Leave It To Chance's Paul Smith or Bruce Timm, and I swear I thought I saw traces of Ernie (Richie Rich, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld) Colon in there, too. He smothers everything in layer after layer of black ink and wash gloom, appropriate in creating the dark, oppressive mood needed to balance his cartoonish figures. Black Forest was a lot of fun to read and nicely done, and I hope the creators follow it up someday.

DOPE FIENDS OF THE ZOMBIE CAFÉ by Sean Frost and Rafer Roberts (Hula Cat Comics)
A mini-comic sent to me by Wendi Strang-Frost waaaaay back in the dim and distant days of September, and I swear I meant to write about it sooner, really I did, but things just kept gettin' in the way. Anyways, what we have here is an affectionate tribute/homage/pisstake on old cautionary films like Reefer Madness and Cocaine Fiends, merged with 50's drive-in grade-z monster movies. Wow- two cult genres in one! And it's mostly fun and fast paced, if a little heavy-handed. I wish I could be as positive about the art, which is really crude and amateurish, even for a mini-comic. Still, it didn't keep me from enjoying the idea behind the story, so all was not lost. A fun read, and thanks to Wendi for sending it my way.

TALES FROM THE BULLY PULPIT by Benito Cereno and Graeme MacDonald (Image)
Oooh-kay. Teddy Roosevelt and the ghost of Thomas Edison battling Nazis and martians across time and space. Well, why the hell not? After Street Angel, Scurvy Dogs, and the one-two combo of Grant Morrison's Seaguy and The Filth (wait- he was trying to be more or less serious with that one, right?), not to mention the recent return of the Flaming Carrot- there was a real wave of absurdist adventure and humor going along there for a while, and this wacky tale (released late last Summer, unless I'm mistaken) fits right in there. Pretty good for the most part, although I kinda began to lose patience with all the twists and turns the script took, plus I tend to have a low tolerance for time travel stories anyway. The art was certainly unusual, all sharp angles and thick black outlines- not a style I particularly love, but it was OK. Of course, the most obvious comparison to make here is the Bill and Ted films, but it's a little better than a cheap imitation. It's kinda pricey at $6.95, too. I borrowed the copy I read, but others might want to keep an eye on the quarter boxes.

Thanks to my most esteemed fellow Stupid Llama, Mik Cary, for the loan of several of these comics. I'll return them soon, I promise.

My Favorite Spirits, Day 2



Scanned straight outta Harvey Spirit #1, here's the opening splash for the story which was later titled "Visitor". The story dealt with the Spirit investigating a bank robbery and getting mixed up with "agents from Mars", in the person of one Miss Cosmek (drawn to resemble Katherine Hepburn) and her leader, whom you don't see until the dryly humorous ending. But in between you get a great mix of detective story, comedy and dramatics...Miss Cosmek doesn't want to go back to Mars, y'see, and the scene in which the Spirit discovers missing gangster "Combo" Nathan in her lair is surprisingly tense. As if you couldn't tell, "Visitor" is one of my absolute favorite Eisner Spirit stories. I forget which Warren/Kitchen Sink magazines it appeared in (don't have them anymore, dammit), but it is also in The Spirit Casebook, which might be a little easier to locate.

I took this from the Harvey comic because it doesn't have the hand-lettered title ("Visitor") which was stuck on the title-less splashes by the Warren people in the 70's. I'm sure it was done for easier identification and so they could list each reprinted story on the contents page that was in every issue, but they just don't look good pasted on those often-gorgeous splash pages. Even though it looks like Eisner lettered those himself, that's long been a pet peeve of mine. The old-school comic book coloring on this particular page leaves a little to be desired (the Spirit's mask- greenish?), but it's how I first saw it.

I think as a tribute to The Man, I'll post one favorite Eisner image a day here for a week. Today's is from the Spirit Archive #13- I'm not sure about its original publication date. Of course, it's the splash from the first P'Gell story, which introduced Eisner's favorite Spirit femme fatale. I love how he rendered "The Spirit" in that middle Eastern style. Of course, it's very influenced by films like Casablanca. I'm not sure which Hollywood actress served as the model for P'Gell; my guess is Bette Davis perhaps. I also love the effect he got on the city showing through the curtains, which appears to be zip-a-tone (did it even exist in the 40's?) or wash. Eisner (or an assistant) was still inking with a fatter line back then, unlike the kinda scratchy, thinner line he used with increasing frequency as the years went by...which didn't make his work any less stellar (in fact, many of my favorite Spirit stories are those latter ones), but that earlier style looks a bit more pleasing to my eye. Whoever did the coloring for this Archive edition did a nice job- everything's bright in the right places. Of course, bear in mind that I had only seen it in B & W previously, in the Warren magazine that reprinted it, and I haven't seen the original Sunday section.

Hey, how about some TV notes!


Season two of HBO's Carnivale begins this Sunday night. Looking forward to it, since I realy liked season one. Hopefully, no sharks will be jumped. Season one is available on DVD, but it's sporting a ghastly high price tag.

Also, I think I'll check out tonight's season four premiere of Alias. It's that damned Lenny Kravitz song in that TV commercial, it's so catchy and so right for that clip that I can't help myself. Anyway, I watched most of season one, when I wasn't watching football on Sunday evening, and wasn't especially impressed- there was too much convoluted baiting and switching and red herrings, which in sufficient numbers just irritate me and make me lose interest- so I didn't watch seasons two and three. I just hope I can figure out who's who and what's what quickly enough.

From Newsarama comes some sad news indeed: Will Eisner passed away yesterday evening, January 3rd.

Of all the comics I've read over the last four decades, there were few that I loved more than Eisner's Spirit stories. I posted something over at Newsarama; I'll reprint it here:

The first time I ever encountered Eisner's work was in 1966, when I was 6 years old and picked up a copy of Harvey's Spirit #1. Twisted my head right off, it did- here was a new way of telling stories, and it didn't look a damn thing like Kirby, Ditko, Curt Swan or Murphy Anderson. Of course, I had no idea at the time that these were 15-something year old reprints- all I knew was that these stories looked good. When Warren began its reprint magazine in the 70s, I was right there, hungry to read more of these great stories and these great characters. Even though I sold a great deal of my original collection, I held on to those two Harvey reprint issues, and I wouldn't sell 'em for anything.

Will Eisner was one of the absolute greats in the Comics Pantheon, up there with any other person you'd care to name. Thanks for the Spirit, and all your other great work, Mr. Eisner, and rest in peace.

A sad day for anybody who's ever loved the art of storytelling.

THE JOHNNY B SHOW BEST OF 2004, CONT.: MUSIC

Once again, here's the problem I have with my attempts to do "best of" lists...thanks to the lack of disposable income, not to mention Mac OSX (can't get iTunes, y'know) on my part, I don't get to pick up on a lot of the latest sounds until they're not so latest anymore. Sometimes it isn't until the NEXT year that I get a copy of LAST year's best records. So, this disclaimer is to state that these are the best (hell, actually these are ALL) of the 2004 releases that made the journey from the ether into my auditory canals, and if I didn't hear 'em, I can't list em, which simply makes this a very idiosyncratic little collection. So mote it be. Here ya go. Ranked 1 to 5 stars.

THE BEST
1. BRIAN WILSON: SMILE *****
Even if you know or care nothing for the Beach Boys and/or their history, you gotta admit that this is one gloriously whimsical collection of songs, full of more imagination and tunefulness than 95% of what passes for music these days. And then if you consider all that Wilson has been through, plus the personal demons that this music has to summon up (this applies, to a lesser extent, to lyricist Van Dyke Parks as well), it becomes downright inspirational. In 5 years, when somebody assembles a list of the best of the Aughts, I'll be surprised if this one's not on there somewhere.

2. PATTY GRIFFIN-IMPOSSIBLE DREAM ****1/2
Another excellent set of folk/country tunes from singer-songwriter Griffin. Not a happy fun listen because most of the songs deal with heartbreak and angst, but every cut is solid melodically and the production provides each with consistently inventive and interesting textures. She reclaims her own "Top Of The World" from the Dixie Chicks, nimbly inhabits atypical genres in "Kite" and "Rowing Song", and saves the transcendent "Mother of God" for the end- and that's just a few of the highlights. A very strong follow-up to her 2002 effort 1000 Kisses- Griffin is an artist worthy of more attention, for sure.

3. MATTHEW SWEET-LIVING THINGS ****
Speaking of Parks, here he is guesting and playing a host of instruments, and throwing in so much steel drum that I thought I was listening to his own 1975 album Clang of the Yankee Reaper or one of his Nilsson collaborations. Sweet had this one come out at roughly the same time as his 2002 Japan-only effort Kimi Ga Suki, and while I think that right now I kinda prefer Kimi, a real concise rock-pop record, I do believe that this one will grow on me a lot...it's got a more varied palette. Otherwise, this is pretty strong Sweet music; favoring acoustic over electric, with his usual trademark harmony blends- and its adventurousness is contagious after a while. "In My Tree" sounds like a great lost Carpenters song, and I love the driving bass/keys riff in "Dandelion". It might have made an interesting twofer with its predecessor.

4. LOVE ANGEL MUSIC BABY-GWEN STEFANI ***1/2
Best Madonna album I've heard since Bedtime Stories. Aw, I kid- it's the presence of Nellee Hooper, one of no less that five producers here, that made me think of that disc. This is a catchy, fun pop-rock record on which Ms. Stefani sings her pretty ass off throughout while the likes of Hooper, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Linda Perry provide her with scads of aural texture. I liked this album just fine, but I swear if she'd worked the "Harajuku Girls" into one more song I was gonna snap my disc in half!

5. GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BAD NEWS-MODEST MOUSE ***1/2
I was afraid I was going to need years of therapy to get that song "Float On" out of constant rotation in my brain player. Nothing else is as catchy as "Float", but this is a solid album of skewed pop, and I think it will reward future listens. These guys have been around for ten years, I understand, but this is the first time I've heard them. Boy, I'm right there on the cutting edge tip, huh!

THE REST, WITH 1-5 STAR RANKINGS
Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster- Various Artists ***1/2
Village Gorilla Head-Tommy Stinson ***1/2 (thanks, Mik Cary)
From A Basement On The Hill - Elliott Smith **
Genius Loves Company-Ray Charles ***
Liars-Todd Rundgren ***
All That We Let In-Indigo Girls ***
Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon-Various Artists ***
Various Artists- Power of Soul: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix **1/2
Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra- Friends 3 ***

"Your past is important but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future"- Tony Campolo.

Time now to look into my immediate future, as far as Wednesday anyway, via the new Diamond shipping list!

BREACH #1 Game time decision here- I liked the art team on Batgirl Year 1, but don't trust Bob Harras' writing skills.
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #7
QUESTION #3
LEGION of SUPER-HEROES #1 My comics shop sold out last week, and they're supposed to be getting me a copy from one of the other stores.
...and last, but certainly not least...
FLAMING CARROT #1!

In case you were wondering, I got some cool stuff for Christmas, thanks for askin'! Here's the list:

BOOKS
The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 1 & 2
Inside the Yellow Submarine by Dr. Robert (that's his real name, apparently) Hieronimus

DVD's
Yellow Submarine
Hellboy: Director's Cut

CD's
Patty Griffin-The Impossible Dream
Matthew Sweet-Living Things and Kimi Ga Suki
Various artists-Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster
Mick Ronson-Just Like This

Plus the usual boring stuff like clothes. Some of this stuff I'll most likely write more about later.

Via Cognitive Dissonance, I am delighted to see that there is going to be a comic featuring characters from one of my all-time top 3 favorite movies, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across The Eighth Dimension! Hopefully it will be better than the wretched movie adaptation that Marvel crapped out back in the mid-80s. While usually comics adaptations of film and TV properties are a dodgy propositions at best, one thing that gives me hope is that Buckaroo's creator and the film's scriptwriter, Earl MacRauch himself, will be writing the comic!

Moonstone Comics, I salute you. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined.

I see over at Mike Sterling's that Frank Kelly Freas has passed on. Above is his pic, along with a couple fo his most well-known illustrations. While I've never really considered myself a fan, I've always been interested in and appreciated that whole painted art paperback/pulp/comics cover scene, and he was one of the best.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of December 29!

ADAM STRANGE 4
Was this really the best of the week? Um...not quite- but it was the single issue that stayed with me the longest after I had read my stack. The grand space opera continues as Strange encounters the mostly-forgotten 80s space-opera team the Omega Men, and we get a few more pieces to the puzzle of what happened to Adam's adopted planet. Script/dialogue: fine, although I don't really think that cosmic is Andy Diggle's forté. Art, also fine, even though I'm beginning to wonder if Pascal Ferry knows how to draw a human figure that's not coiled, tense, and ready for action; plus this whole thing is colored way too dark for my taste. I know, most of the action takes place on a dark, deserted space station or somesuch, but geez- do we have to be as much in the dark as the characters are? A-

DAISY KUTTER: THE LAST TRAIN 4
Daisy winds up taking on the mastermind behind the train heist who hired her in the first place, and it's nicely done (with a tense-enough showdown at the climax)...but it kinda felt anti-climactic somehow. Guess it's just me- plus I'm willing to admit that it might read better collected, as I'm sure it will be soon, and I can wholeheartedly recommend to those of you who've been wondering. A-

WARLOCK 4
What the-?!? Writer Greg Pak takes an abrupt left turn and gives us an ending which I sure as hell didn't see coming, and I'm not sure I'm all that crazy about- but like I said about Street Angel's Jim Rugg a while back, if you're going to confound audience expectations, then for God's sake don't be half-assed about it! I'm not 100% sure that he might not have been better off leaving well enough alone, since the back-and-forth between Warlock and Janie Chen was one of the things that I liked the most about #'s 1-3...but the ending works well enough, and I really wish that this series could have gone on a bit longer. A-.

CONCRETE: THE HUMAN DILEMMA 1
For a little while there I began to wonder whether or not this was a comic book or a philosophy/social sciences lecture, but Concrete as a series and Paul Chadwick as a writer has always been talky anyway, so it's cool I guess. It's been so long since the last miniseries that I suppose I forgot. Anyways, if you're not a fan and pick this up wondering what the buzz was all about, you might not get converted right away but give it time. For those of us who've been a fan since way back when, it's a welcome return for this solid, if a little preachy sometimes, sci-fi series. B+

JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER 203
John's demonic "love" children continue to make trouble for him, but he acquires a mysterious ally of sorts. That's it in a nutshell, and it's more compelling for me to read than it is for me to summarize for you, honest. Not-bad, not-good job by Leo Manco on art- apparently he's lost whatever it was that made his mid-90's work so special. B+

MONOLITH 11
The underrated Pete Snejbjerg takes over on art for the last two-parter, in which Alice gets herself kidnapped and prepares to be sold into slavery, and the Monolith has to find her. Even though it's a bit uncomfortable seeing Alice bound and shot up with smack, further perpetuating the violence against women that seems to be all the rage at DC these days, and I do mean "rage", still, it's not too excessive and I suppose if she wasn't in serious peril then we wouldn't have much of a story, would we? Anyway, since this is the penultimate issue, everything is condensed and is way too rushed- it would have been nice to have had an issue or two to drag out the mystery of Alice's whereabouts, and it would have made it more dramatic when the 'Lith comes to the rescue. Or maybe we would have had more violent interludes, who knows. B

THE WALKING DEAD 14
OK, the people in the prison building turned out to be cons left there by the catastrophe, who have survived, even though the facility is lousy with zombies. Fair enough. Then we get a weird incident at the end which really strains credibility, and lots and lots and LOTS of talk all the way from beginning to end- I think Kirkman gets paid by the word. Anyway, with this issue I think I'll bid a fond adieu to our embattled survivors; I hope they make it through OK. I just don't really care anymore- between this and Y: The Last Man, which I supported for about nine issues, I guess my interest in post-apocalyptic scenario fiction just isn't what it used to be.B-

I've been too lazy this weekend to write comics reviews so far, but I'm working on them. In the meantime, here's a curiosity: while looking through some old pictures at my Mom's house over the holidays, I came across the above- apparently a snapshot I made of four comics that I owned when I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 or so. Heck, I wish I still had that blue Conan and that issue of Luke Cage, Hero For Hire! Anyway, just thought I'd share. I have no idea why I made that picture all those years ago.

JOHNNY B'S FEARLESS NFL PIGSKIN PROGNOSTICATIONS!
(Final regular season edition...)

The last week of the regular season is always the most difficult to pick...even more so than the first. You've got teams who are already in their playoff slot, and don't want to risk getting their stars hurt, you've got situations where it means more to one team than another, you've got games where both teams are playing out the string- it just makes for a lot of unpredictability. But I don't call these "fearless" picks for nothing, so once more into the breach, dear friends:

BALTIMORE over Miami
BUFFALO over Pittsburgh
CAROLINA over New Orleans
GREEN BAY over Chicago
HOUSTON over Cleveland
NEW ENGLAND over San Francisco
CINCINNATI over Philadelphia
ST.LOUIS over the NY JETS (they made a statement last week, alright..."We SUCK")
TENNESSEE over Detroit
MINNESOTA over Washington
ARIZONA over Tampa Bay
INDIANAPOLIS over Denver
OAKLAND over Jacksonville
SAN DIEGO over Kansas City
NY GIANTS over Dallas

and the one I'm sure some of you have been waiting for...


here it comes...

SEATTLE over Atlanta. The Seahawks have more to play for, and yes, I'm aware that I've picked the Falcons to lose 3 out of the last 4 weeks.

Last week: 10-6. Not great, but better than last week. Season to date: 147-93, .613.

Fantasy: I won 70-63 in the consolation bracket of the playoffs. I play tomorrow for 5th place. Feh.