Oh my God, MARSHALL ROGERS has passed away.

In the mid to late 70's, you remember, at the tailend of that "garbage decade" you've been reading so much about, a group of artists came up through the ranks that would go on to make a definite mark in the world of American mainstream comics. Mike Golden, Trevor Von Eeden, Craig Russell, Frank Miller, and others. Right up there with those talents was Rogers, whose work I first saw in back-up features in Detective (this was immediately prior to his outstanding stint on Batman in that title, with Steve Englehart and Terry Austin), -Green Arrow stories, unless I'm mistaken- and the one which I recall most vividly was also the first appearance of a character that has gone on to bigger and better things in the DCU: The Calculator. Of course, he had his super-suit with the numerical keypad on his chest, typical silly 70's stuff. But Rogers' style caught my eye- at first, it looked awkward and stiff, and let's face it, it often could be- but it was also witty and cleverly composed, with a Simonsonesque use of onomatopoeia. The main thing about his art was that to this day I can't really spot an influence. Ditko, perhaps, maybe A little Infantino or Neal Adams but nowhere near as graceful or as immediate, I just don't know. Either way, I was intrigued and continued to buy anything I saw his work appear in, including the cover you see above: Amazing World of DC Comics #16, an acquisition on one of my infrequent teenage Nashville trips (to the Great Escape down there, that rarest of rare things in 1978, a comics shop) which depicted a host of Golden Age characters in Rogers' inimitable style. I especially loved the way he drew the Sandman, with an honest-to-goodness functional-looking gas mask.

Eventually, as the Eighties progressed, he did less and less for DC and did a lot of work for Eclipse Comics, including the original run of Coyote in Eclipse Monthly and this:



Rogers' own Cap'n Quick and a Foozle, another Monthly alumnus and a lighthearted and surreal adventure story that was completely charming...but not popular enough to get it published past three issues. I've always considered it the best thing he ever did, Detective notwithstanding.

Not long after the Eclipse stuff, he had another short stint at Marvel (he had done some early Deadly Hands of Kung Fu-type stuff then), one effort being a pretty good run on Doctor Strange, in which he got to exercise his predilection for Ditkoesque dimensional backgrounds.

In recent years, his work has been scarce- there was the depressing attempt to resuscitate his (and Englehart's) Detective glory years, Dark Detective, which showed that he hadn't progressed a bit over the last two decades as far as facility or innovation went, or perhaps he was just making an extra buck...either way, the stale, lifeless art and convoluted, dull script just didn't cut it. But that didn't mean that I wouldn't have checked out anything else he did afterwards, just in case.

Even though he was older than me by about ten years, he was one of those artists that I always thought of as being one of "my generation" of comics artists; it makes me very sad to learn of his passing. RIP, Mr. Rogers.

Here's his Wiki entry; and here's a fan site with a good checklist and timeline, and about a million popups.

Did y'all know about this?


But seriously, folks- I'm working on reviews right now, hope to have most of them posted by tonight. The above image came from one of those free Marvel flyer/promo type things that you see next to the cash register or whatnot, you've probably seen it already. DCBS stuck it in my comics shipment. When I got around to glancing at it, one thing jumped out at me- now, I'm no Dr. Scott, but looking at where the bullet seems to have entered and exited, apparently between the neck and the shoulder blade area- this isn't a fatal injury, now is it? Isn't it a bit too far over to hit a jugular vein, for example? I didn't buy Captain America 25, so I have no idea if this is taken from that comic...but it struck me as a bit odd, y'know.



One other thing I wanted to mention was this- Scott Chantler's excellent Northwest Passage is going to get the annotated deluxe package treatment! Now, ordinarily, the "deluxe package" designation also stands for "Johnny B Can't Afford", but the $19.95 price tag is cheap enough even for me...so I may just add it to the ol' DCBS order when it's solicited. Especially considering that I never got an actual copy of #3; I got a black and white preview that I reviewed it from, and somehow missed the solicitation. C'est la vie- I'm gonna order it from Oni one of these days...

Hello, everybody!

I'm not going to apologize, much, for the lack of posting because it's nothing new lately. It's been a very busy week. I have a new job coming up, one which promises to be less stressful (I hope), and I'm also hoping that it means that I won't be as drained in the evening and that will result in more posting! We shall see, I guess.

Anyways, in lieu of any actual comics, movies, TV or music writing, I just thought I'd post a cover and hope that all of you will consider picking this up (I believe it came out this week or last). Now, that said, I probably won't be getting it myself- I still have the original comics that are reprinted in this volume- but I can assure you that this is a smartly written and sharply illustrated set of adaptations of some of the wittiest fantasy fiction ever: Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Mouser stories. Pencilled by Mike Mignola just before he grew into his now-familiar Hellboy style, and inked by 50's SF comics icon Al Williamson (at first an odd choice, or so I thought back then, but he adds an interesting sheen to Mignola's work), they do a fine job of bringing Nehwon to life. I suppose it must have been fun for Howard Chaykin, who pencilled several issues of the last attempt to being Lieber's characters to comics (DC's Sword of Sorcery, remember, one of those garbage 70's comics you've heard about lately), and was a great choice because his style on his own projects was as witty and cynical as Lieber could often be in his novels.

Anyway, buy it. I'll have new reviews coming sooner rather than later. By the way, how d'ya like the new feature cover image on the sidebar? Love David Bawidamann's work, but I had gotten kinda tired of that image. Ganked the new one from the always interesting Datajunkie.

Good night!

THE BACARDI SHOW NEW COMICS REVUE!

Better late than never, the BSNCR is the venue by which I take the opportunity, unsolicited, to opine in regards to various works of sequential fiction I have perused in the interval since the last time I inflicted said opinions upon one and all, or to be specific, the period from approximately 22 February to 9 March, some of which may even still be on sale at finer comics selling establishments worldwide if you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be.



100 BULLETS #81
S: Brian Azzarello; A: Eduardo Risso. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

The Standard Review: Another well-done issue what will engage the already engaged, baffle the uninitiated, and even baffle the initiated upon occasion. I think I'll just cut and paste this review for the next 19 issues. Nice scene in a jazz club with Agent Graves and Dizzy Cordova this time out. Azzarello may do a lot of annoying things with his writing, but he is usually always right on the money when it comes to writing about music, especially Jazz. Maybe he missed his calling. A-

ALTER EGO 64
S/A: Various. (TwoMorrows, $6.95)

I can't really give this a fair review yet, because I haven't finished reading the darn thing! It's freaking loaded with text and illustrations, and I can only digest it in short bursts! Anyway, I really wish I could afford to pick up all of TwoMorrows' fine publications, but as with the Comics Journal, I just don't feel like I can afford it. With ordinary single floppy pamphlet comics inching towards that $5 mark, though, I might have to rethink my position. Don't know about the Journal, though- seeing all my Blogosphere acquaintances represented in their august pages, and not me, causes me to experience extreme jealousy. But I digress. Back to the matter at hand, Alter Ego. Ego is a throwback to a time that I can barely remember, when the first nascent stirrings of organized fandom first began to manifest itself through people like Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas and so forth, and grade-school age me was mostly blissfully unaware of this sort of thing (seeing certain names in letter columns kinda gave me a clue, however) until 1973 when I became a regular reader of the late, lamented Monster Times, which gave a fair amount of column space to comics and the people who create them as well as idolize them. A few years later, I met (or re-acquainted myself, it's a long story) Dave Puckett, who did know about, as well as corresponded with, many of the leading lights of what passed for Fandom (with a capital letter) in the early-mid 1970's. He told me about the fanzines that people like Thomas (and others, whose names escape me) created (Thomas' was named Alter Ego, and that's where the title comes from- it's a continuation of sorts) and self-published back in the halcyon days of the early-mid 60's. And short story long, that's exactly what Alter Ego remains: a very backwards-looking cornucopia of all things Golden and Silver Aged, just the sort of thing that everyone loved reading about back in those dim and distant pre-Internet days, when mimeographed sheets led to the Comics Buyers Guide and the Nostalgia nee Comics Journal and so forth. This one's a really Marvel Family-heavy issue, with big articles on the various creators, some well-known and others not-so, and overviews of many of the characters. Judging from some of the back issue covers, I believe this is not exactly a new direction- in fact, unless I'm mistaken it's normal for half the magazine to be given over to the Fawcett Collectors of America. Problem is, not being the world's biggest Marvel Family fan (even though that Jeff Smith revamp is aces) my interest comes and goes, but it's all (or at least as much as I've read, anyway) quite thorough and of course respectfully done. There's also a spotlight feature on Golden Age artist Martin Filchock and the comics company for which he toiled, Centaur Comics, both of which I had never heard of but the generous examples of the content of this company's comics provided are very enjoyable. Not so enjoyable is one of those Photoshop-manipulated photo essays in which someone paints Golden Age heroine's costumes on pictures of 40's and 50's starlets like Greer Garson and Marlene Dietrich; the back cover has a group shot in color. Interesting enough idea, but I've always found these Photoshopped images unsatisfactory and even sometimes grotesque; they rarely, if ever, look natural and call attention away from whatever cleverness might be there by the sheer artifice of it. Oh well- that's a small quibble, and by and large I can recommend this magazine to anyone interested in the often unsung creators and imprints who blazed the trail for the Mark Millars and Michael Turners we have now, for better or worse. Grade, an incomplete A-.

AMERICAN VIRGIN 12
S: Steven T. Seagle; A: Becky Cloonan, Jim Rugg. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

Well, this time we start out with an orgy scene that's neither as amusing or as titillating as it probably should be, but at least it does have a point and advances the plot, such as it is, and what it is is Adam continuing his search for his One True Love...and his interaction with his dysfunctional Bakker-esque family and the various satellites he's encountered have piqued my admittedly tenuous interest. After flirting with dropping the book I'm now inclined to hang around for a while and see if Seagle has a resolution or anything in mind, besides continued employment. Becky Cloonan's art still remains the main attraction, although DC seems to be conducting inker tryouts on an issue-by-issue basis- this time out, we get Street Angel's Rugg, and the result is nothing like you'd expect. B+

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 1
S: Mark Waid; A: George Perez, Bob Wiacek. (DC, $2.99)

Well, well, what have we here? A comic so old-school, so 1977, so unlike anything that's currently appearing in the rank and file DC titles of today, that at first I thought they must be putting us on, or sending something up. Or both. How in the world did this get past DC Editorial? Oh, yeah, the names in the credit box. DC's second attempt to revive its venerable Batman team-up vehicle since the cancellation of the long-running original works because it has a couple of fellows with respect for the concept and the chops to see it through; I've always thought Waid was a solid scripter with a nice sense of history, and of course Perez has always been able to successfully handle various superhero characters of all sorts in addition to being a solid craftsman with years of experience. This issue, the first of what I'm assuming is a multi-issue opening storyline, has a decent enough mystery at its base: cosmic policeman Green lantern finds a dead body floating in outer space, contacts Batman since he's the detective type, and discovers that Bats has an identical corpse which had just unexpectedly appeared in the Batcave. Waid smartly blends the worlds of the two disparate superguys- of all of Batman's teamups, he would seem to be less suited to interact with DC's cosmic panoply, and that was often borne out back in the halcyon Haneyverse days. But in just the first chapter, we get Batman's milieu, detective work, then abruptly it shifts into patented GL-style sci-fi adventure as the real culprits, a couple of gaming aliens, set some sort of yellow giant creature on the heroes to see who wins first. After this, the trail leads to Las Vegas (it makes sense, trust me), where we get some good character work as both Bruce Wayne and Hal Jordan get an opportunity to shine in a well-done casino scene with some amusing dialogue. Waid also takes the opportunity to give us the villainess he created during his JSA run, Roulette, whom I've never really been able to care for because I could never buy her whole setup. Doesn't matter, because she's here in a supporting role only and is played against type. Perez, for his part, still wants to clutter every single panel up with oodles of detail, and it's more of a distraction than it should be- plus, he really needs to update his clothing swipe file when it comes to evening wear in Sin City. But his figures manage to avoid the mannequin stiffness that marred his JLA/Avengers efforts, and he keeps the story moving along at a rapid clip, which is exactly what it needs. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, which is to say that I expected to not at all, and it's in large part because (to reiterate) the creators respect, rather than seek to appear more clever than, the Maggin/Bates/Wein/Conway/Haney/Aparo/Dillin days of yore and I think that makes all the difference. Sometimes heroes with tragic flaws and events of grave import just become tiresome, if that's all we get. Too much of anything is never a good thing. I hope this lesson isn't lost on the braintrust at National Periodical, because what this opening chapter, slight as it may be, lacks in gravity it makes up in sheer entertainment value. I hadn't planned on becoming a regular buyer, but I definitely think I want to read next issue and go from there. Who knows, maybe I'll even write a letter suggesting team-ups...! B+

CATWOMAN 64
S: Wil Pfiefer; A: David and Alvaro Lopez. (DC, $2.99)

The low-key approach of the last few issues gives way to a slightly higher concept, as Selena heads to Metropolis and attempts to steal something from Lex Luthor to get Junior Catwoman Holly's name cleared by DC's resident anti-Oracle, the Calculator. Typically good characterization from Pfiefer, a strength of his since the Finals days, a typically gorgeous cover from Adam Hughes, and improving art from penciller Lopez (inker Lopez's line is always outstanding) equals a comic that more people should be reading, if you ask me, because I honestly can't see how this character could be written any better. A-

DAREDEVIL 94
S: Ed Brubaker; A: Lee Weeks, Steven Guadiano. (Marvel, 299 cents)

Not necessarily a fill-in issue, since Brubaker's on board, but it feels like one anyway as we get a look at the Matt/Milla relationship that features as much one-hand-against-forehead/one-on-heaving-breast melodrama as I've seen in a Marvel comic since they phased out their romance line in the mid-70's. Necessary from a characterization standpoint (I suppose) if Milla's going to be around for a while, but still kind of a slog. Nice to see a new Romita Sr. cover, too, but the predomination of purple in the coloring was a mistake. Also, the murky, glum interior coloring looks like it was done by someone that is sight-impaired as well. I've seen better from that particular colorist. B-

DMZ 16
S: Brian Wood, A: Riccardo Burchielli. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

Y'know, this is a good comic. Smart, topical, and very well illustrated. Just the thing to hand to one of those skeptical people who think that illustrated sequential fiction is all about Spider-Man and Batman. So why can't I think of anything particularly noteworthy to say about it on a monthly basis? I am caught up in the story, have come to buy the premise (which was my biggest hurdle to clear), and while it's never the first book I read when my shipment arrives, it's far from the last. What keeps DMZ, in my opinion the best thing Wood has done since Couscous Express, from being one of "those titles" I look forward to (a sadly ever-shrinking number, for sure) is probably the fact that it is, like other books that I enjoy such as 100 Bullets, Daredevil, Powers, and the late lamented Lucifer, consistently consistent in its consistent quality, and I can't really find anything particularly relevant to complain about or to bestow excessive praise upon, either. That said, a little humor here and there to alleviate all the earnest sincerity might help. B+

DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH 5
S: Brian Vaughan; A: Marcos Martin. (Marvel, $2.99)

As satisfying a resolution as one could hope for, no doubt about it. Vaughan has done a great thing here: stripped away a lot of bullshit that other writers have accumulated around this character since the last really good incarnation (I think Englehart, although some could make a case for Roger Stern and Warren Ellis got off to a good start but didn't stay), and gave us a Stephen Strange that we can root for (I loved ass-kicking Strange, going all Count Dante in this issue's big climactic fight) and empathize with, rather than the distant, stuffy token magic guy in the Marvel U. Vaughan did more for the often-misunderstood Wong-Strange relationship than just about anybody has, and also has actually given him a really interesting love interest in the Night Nurse. Will wonders never cease! It will be interesting to see if future Doc Strange stories build from this, or if it will be back to the same old same old when a lesser talent decides he wants to do something with the character. Hopefully, it will be in the cards for Martin to do the character again; his rendition, a throwback to the skinny early-Ditko Doc, was appropriate given the reimagining that was being done, and he has a really nice sense of dramatics and pacing in his layout style, as anyone who bought Batgirl: Year One already knew. A

GIANT ROBOT WARRIORS
S: Stuart Moore; A: Ryan Kelly. (AiT/PlanetLar, $12.95)

And the truth in advertising award goes to....AiT/PlanetLar! This is indeed an account of Giant Robot Warriors, and the people who put them together- and as is so often the case from the House that Lar Built, it's a fast-paced high-concept action film on paper. First published back in the dim and distant days of 2003, it's being re-presented now partly because (I'm assuming here, only Uncle Lar knows for sure) of artist Kelly's elevated profile these days via Local and other projects, and because the political climate is a tad more conducive to this sort of thing. Plus, it's a quality work, and deserves another chance to find its audience. Moore, who's a better writer than he gets credit for, keeps everything moving along at a brisk clip with some snappy dialogue and a disinclination to stop and ponder all the ramifications of the events. I wish his political satire had a bit sharper edge, but it's acceptable as is and for some twisted reason I liked the depiction of the Bush-like President (who is, of course, not what he seems) as a deranged Clint Eastwood type who stands tall even when missiles are whizzing by his head. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to our real Pres (well, perhaps the deranged part) but this version stands out by its deviation from the standard portrayal. Kelly's art is a lot looser and more cartoonish here than what I'm accustomed to, but it has a vitality and energy that doesn't always manifest itself in his more accomplished current output. The brand spankin' new wraparound cover points out the difference between Kelly then and Kelly now. Its political satire roots keep GRW from becoming another Transformer-esque fanboy wank, and if you're looking for a solid "popcorn GN" you could do much worse than to check this out. B-

HELLBLAZER 229
S: Mike Carey; A: John Paul Leon. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

Now THIS is more like it. I don't know whether this is an inventory script that was put into play to give Andy Diggle more time to get some issues under his belt, but after the mess of the last dozen issues or so it reads like the Second Coming of Alan effing Moore- and the first time we've seen the "real" John Constantine in what seems like years. I had thought Carey's run sorta ran out of steam before it was over, but Carey at his most uninspired was infinitely better than Denise Mina. Also, another big advantage this issue's script has is the outstanding art of John Paul Leon- Leo Manco, this is how to do loose and dark. Boy, do I wish Leon could be the regular artist. Anyway, fill-in or not, this is the best Conjob story I've read in ages and hopefully the beginning of a good run with Diggle and (sigh) Manco. A-

HERO SQUARED 5
S: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis; A: Joe Abraham. (Boom! Studios, $3.99)

Well, my first inclination (now that I'm reviewing on my own dime) is to say that a lot of this is static and talky, just like bad Aaron Sorkin. However, G & D do manage to work in a number of rapid-fire and amusing quips, and I am still interested in where all this is leading, so I enjoy even as I am annoyed. Abraham, for his part, is beginning to do a curious art-style morph into Jill Thompson, not a bad destination as far as I'm concerned. Kinda telling: I never got #4, and I didn't even notice until I saw where #5 came out. B+

IMMORTAL IRON FIST 3
S: Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction; A: David Aja, Travel Foreman, Derek Fridolfs, Russ Heath. (Marvel, $2.99)

Pretty much a status quo plot consolidation and gradual advancement issue, and a low-key and static one at that, as once more Danny Rand deals with the hostile Hydra takeover problem as well as the existence of another Iron Fist wielder, who he seems to be on a collision course with and indeed meets at the end of this very issue, complete with Sterankoesque visuals by Aja, who does a great job on the interiors but gets tripped up with his figure work on covers- ol' IF looks like his waist and hips are at least a foot longer than they should be...and unless he just has a secret yen to draw Plastic Man he needs to work on that a bit. And of course, always a treat to see new art from the great Russ Heath, here represented on one of the flashback sequences. B+

JACK STAFF 13
S/A: Paul Grist. (Image, $3.50)

I suppose it just must be one of those unwritten rules- eventually nearly every creator has to do a "Mirror, Mirror"-style story, in which everything that we know is WRONG! All topsy-turvy, you know. And this is apparently Grist's. But not to worry- would that all topsy-turvydom be as witty and brilliantly drawn as Mr. Grist's. Too bad about Mr. Bramble, though. A

LOCAL 8
S: Brian Wood; A: Ryan Kelly. (Oni Press, $2.99)

If I didn't know better, I'd say that certain creators are trying their best to resuscitate the dormant Romance comics genre- first the latest Daredevil, and now this, which only needs a Nick Cardy or John Romita Sr. cover depicting ever-dislikeable Megan with one hand held up to her weeping eyes and thinking "This man is everything I could want- but I want to be with HIM!". Nicely illustrated as always by Kelly, but I really wish I could get the gist of what Wood is trying to do with this character in particular and this book as a whole. I thought it was one thing once, but it's morphed into the ongoing Chronicles of Crazy Megan, and it's just not as interesting as it was when it started. Aaah, ta hell with it. Somehow I don't think I'm in the target demographic, which is what I suspect Demo stood for all along, and I guess I just don't geddit. C+

POWERS 23
S: Brian Michael Bendis; A: Michael Avon Oeming. (Marvel/Icon, $2.95)

I like the plot behind this arc, and as always Oeming's art is top notch, but while this issue was certainly as intense as usual, it's accompanied by convolution...and for the first time since this particular arc started, I'm worried that it's going to devolve into a shambles before it's through. Maybe it's time to wind this one up and move on? B+

SPIRIT 3
S: Darwyn Cooke; A: Cooke, J.Bone. ($2.99)

In which Cooke gives us his version of the Spirit's origin, and does a damn fine job of it- at least as good as the revised version Eisner himself did for the Harvey Spirit #1. And of course the art is first-rate, with another of Cooke's signature two-page spreads and a neat New Frontier-esque sketchy rendering of Denny Colt's pre-Spirit days. I was hoping that Cooke would get in gear after a slow start, and that seems to be what he's doing. Hope this sells well enough to see how far he can take it. A

STRANGE GIRL 14
S: Rick Remender; A: Nick Stakal. (Image, $3.50)

The Girl's Dante's Inferno-inspired trip continues, with a lot of soft-softcore titillation and more recieved tropes about affairs in the Infernal Realm making up the majority of it. Despite being well-drawn-if-sketchy-and-sloppy, this really has nothing going for it at all and it's quite a letdown to recall that I once had high hopes for this title. C-

WARHAMMER 40,000: DAMNATION CRUSADE 2
S: Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton; A: Greg Boychuck. (Boom!, $2.99)

I dunno- this is obviously done with a lot of craft and a modicum of thought, but this turgid mix of giant robots, ultra-violence, and religion just doesn't yank my crank. As I said after reading #1, if I was one of the legion of Warhammer video game players, I might be more favorably disposed, but I'm not, so I'm not. It would probably look pretty good in between Ranxerox and, oh, Barbarella in one of those old issues of Heavy Metal, though. C-

BEST IN SHOW: Doctor Strange: The Oath. Again, great ending to a great mini. Hope for more from that team.

DOGS OF THE WEEK(S): Strange Girl, by virtue of being even slighter than Warhammer 40,000, if you can believe that.



DONE! DONE! Ha ha ha HAAAA...DONE! Whee! Oh. Wait. I got new comics last Friday, so I'm still behind. Thanks for your patience, and hopefully I'll get them up sooner rather than later.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from "Pat" Lane and the JBS!

RIP Arnold Drake.

It's 10:47 PM CST, and I'm only now sitting down at the computer to check out the 'Net, and I'm greeted with this sad news. Please forgive me, because I'm going to ramble a bit. Now, you all know that as Tegan is with Aquaman, and Mike Sterling is with Swamp Thing, and so on, so am I with Drake creation Super-Hip. Whom Evanier didn't mention. For shame. Anyway, you may be wondering how come I've posted this X-Men cover, of all things, and not yet another Adventures of Bob Hope piece, or even an old Doom Patrol? Well, I'll tell ya.

Above is X-Men #49, cover-dated October 1968, purchased for or by me when I was eight years old. Back then, since all I had was the occasional couple of bucks from my parents a week allowance, it was not uncommon for me to go several months at a time without buying issues of a certain title, even though I may like the title in question. Only so much money, you know. And I liked but didn't love, X-Men, so it had been a few months since I had picked up a copy. I knew what had been going on because I had friends who had some of the prior issues (W.T. Stinson in particular- hey, W.T.!)...and I knew the X-Men had lost Professor X and had split up. The issues immediately preceding this one had the original team engaging in solo or duo efforts, and I guess sales didn't exactly skyrocket because in this very issue, they began to put the band back together again, so to speak, and also began to feature some snazzy Steranko covers (unless I'm mistaken, he did the interiors for #50). OK, here's the point- Mr. Drake was the scripter who had essayed the fragmented X-Men tales, as well as this particular issue, and I distinctly remember being a bit surprised that DC guy Drake was now writing for Marvel. Plus, his writing style, or "voice" if you will, seemed kinda stiff and clumsy, especially considering the established Stan Lee/Roy Thomas style that was so prevalent in those days. I had no idea about the office politics that had led to Drake moving on from National, in those pre-Internet days. Not long after this issue (his last was #54, according to the GCD), Drake moved on to other projects and Thomas came back, joining with Neal Adams to usher in a brief but stellar period on the Mutants that I still maintain was the high point of any X-book I've ever read, and that goes for the Claremont/Byrne stuff, too. Anyway, though his stint on the original X-title has been mostly forgotten, I think, looking back now on it, there was a lot of charm and vitality to those stories, and it's not really Drake's fault that they were overshadowed by what came next.

So that's why I have chosen the above cover to commemorate Mr. Drake's passing; it's an idiosyncratic memory but it's mine all the same.

Besides, I never was much of a fan of those old Doom Patrol stories when I was a kid (don't know why, I read them now and kinda like), and I couldn't find an appropriate page of the faculty and students of Benedict Arnold High School to post either, so there it is.

Rest easy, Mr. Drake.

It's four AM and thanks to a combination of restless pets, falling asleep in the living room only to wake an hour later (I have difficulty going back to sleep when I'm awakened abruptly), and two movies on TCM I wanted to see, here I am.

The movies? I Bury the Living, a pretty cool 50's horror flick (with no monsters!) that starred Richard (Paladin, Have Gun Will Travel) Boone as the head of a cemetery committee. In his office at the cemetery, there's a big honkin' map (see pic above) which shows all the plots, and which features a system by which white pins are placed in plots belonging to living people, and black pins are placed in plots that are, shall we say, permanently occupied. By chance, he discovers that by placing a black pin in the plot of a living person, that person soon dies, and vice versa! Needless to say, this becomes a distressing situation, though never fear- it's not quite what it seems. Shot on a modest budget complete with day-for-night scenes, and saddled with a script that you wish was just a little sharper, it nevertheless evokes a nicely morbid mood and is very engrossing. Features Theo (Rance Mohammitz, 200 Motels, later Warner/Reprise artist) Bikel adopting a dreadful approximation of a Scottish brogue as the graveyard's caretaker. Bikel's music has never really been my cup o'tea, but I just think it's cool that he used to be on WBR, and got listed often on those $2 Loss Leaders they used to sell. Anyway, I first saw it back in 1973 or '74 on Channel 4 Nashville's Creature Features, so there's also that nice nostalgia buzz as well.

The second flick was new to me- I'd heard of it, but never had the opportunity to view it before. It says Dead Men Walk was made in 1943, but it looks like it could have been made 15 years earlier- everything looked cheap, creaky and dated...and this gave it a creepy mood that a bigger budget wouldn't have been able to approach. Funny how that works. Walk is pretty much a no-frills horror movie made in the waning days of the 30's horror boom- George Zucco, usually seen as a priest of the Mummy or a mad doctor or whatnot stars as twin brothers, one an upstanding doctor in a small town and the other a Satanist who is killed by his brother (for reasons unknown, it happened before the events of the film) but comes back to life as a vampire and swears vengeance on his twin, as well as his daughter. It pretty much proceeds in tried-and-true Dracula fashion after that, as Evil George, aided by hunchbacked assistant Zolar (Dwight Frye, who died not long after this as made), puts the bite on the daughter and intends to make her his thrall. There's a pretty good synopsis at the IMDb link above, including a mention of the creepy monologue at the beginning of the movie featuring the superimposed, lowlighted face of uncredited Forrest Taylor, which sets a suitably eerie tone. The rest of the movie doesn't quite live up, but it had a certain surreal atmosphere and was well worth viewing, especially if you're, oh, unable to sleep like your humble correspondent!

In other news from hither and yon, I see where Brad Delp, singer for the sporadic 70's group Boston, has died. Much to my surprise, I see where many around the Blogosphere are mourning his passing, but I won't join them. Nothing against Delp, who was a fine person I'm sure, and yes, it's sad that he died...but I could never stand that band's music, so I don't quite have the same attachment that many do. To me, it was always grotesquely slick, intermittently tuneful (yes, even catchy, but that doesn't equate good) edge-free corporate rock (in fact, one of the first of the corporate rock bands) that always served as fuel for numerous rage-filled "X can't get arrested in America or on the charts, but frigging BOSTON and the like are HUGE" diatribes. I saw Boston in 1976, part of a triple bill that also featured Manfred Mann's Earth Band (touring on "Blinded by the Light", and the main reason I was there) and pre-Steve Perry Journey, and I wish I could say that I remember it vividly but I don't, and that's only partly because of casual drug abuse. I wasn't impressed then, and it didn't get any better as that debut album and its followup became ubitiquous on radio and in my friends' record collections. So I'm sorry for the loss of the man, but I'm not inclined to mourn the memory of the group.

Back to TV, I watched two episodes of 30 Rock Thursday evening, because I'd read a lot of positive word of mouth by a lot of people whose opinions I respect. And what did I think? Well, I was disappointed. The humor was a lot broader and more farcical than I expected, often just plain ol' silly as opposed to witty or clever. I will say this, though- Alec Baldwin is indeed very good, often eliciting more chuckles by simply reacting to the insanity than contributing, and the first episode, which featured Nathan Lane as a scam-running long-lost brother, got really good when a booze-swilling and loud-mouthed Molly Shannon, of all people, joined in as one of a group of his siblings. Biggest annoyance was Tracy Morgan's "Tracy Jordan", whose eccentric character is supposed to be "wacky" or "edgy", I suppose, but just struck me as "goofy" and "irritating" and made me want to channel surf until his scenes were over. And honestly, I didn't really find many reasons to empathize, sympathize, relate to, like, or even root for, Tina Fey's Liz Lemon character- who seems to be the center around which the show revolves. Maybe I just didn't screen the right episodes, who knows, but she never seemed to have a consistent stance, an internal logic, in her portrayal- manic, petty one time, warm and approachable another, scatterbrained and silly another, and so on. And this is coming from someone who likes Dirt, where nobody is likeable. Oh well, it was enjoyable enough, and I'll probably watch it again next week, if it airs. I think it's got a hiatus coming up. We'll see.

It's now 5 AM, I'm actually yawning a little, and things seem to have settled down so I think I'll stop now and try to get some shuteye. Good morning to ye.


Cross-posted from the LJ.

Holy crap! Stephen DeStefano, still the definitive Jingle Belle artist for my money (sorry, J.Bone) has a blog! And to no one's surprise, it's full of great sketches and stuff.

And lo and behold, here's the new blog of Cliff (Dr. Thirteen) Chiang!

Now more than ever, I need to revamp my frigging blogroll. Wish I could import my Bloglines blogroll over here. Wish I could afford my own website, and get off the Blogger teat. I wish, I wish, I wish.


Scanning covers and writing reviews now, so hopefully more later.

Beware- post about not posting dead ahead!

Assuming you care, comics reviews are coming. I promise. The day job just leaves me drained mentally at the end of the day, and makes it difficult for me to compose anything that requires effort, and believe it or not, my widdle capsule reviews do extract that particular toll.

When they do finally come, they'll replace this post. Thanks for your patience, and don't forget to tip your waitress.



Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, as far as I'm concerned Captain America "died" thirty years ago. And if you think he's gonna stay dead, I've got some choice back issue comics I'd love to sell you. As I recall, the Robinson Starman got under way by having the Starman at the time shot dead by a sniper. I won't hold my breath expecting this obvious attempt to reboot Cap to approach that level, though.

And this is a hella-sweet cover. Love the expression on Marvel's face. Just the right amount of expressiveness, enabled by Smith's (for lack of a better word) cartoonish style.

At some point over the last few weeks, MSN posted Robert Christgau's latest Consumer Guide. You can go right here to read it. Not quite sure if I like the new format; it's a lot more difficult to navigate than his old Voice page. But given the choice between this and nothing, it's fine.

One album he reviews is that new Lily Allen, which has provoked my curiousity. I downloaded a couple of cuts, and liked them just fine. Don't know if I'm ready for a whole album's worth of it, though.


Anyway, I hoped to do comics reviews this weekend, but 'twas not to be. Hopefully I'll have them before the week is through. And unfortunately, my LCS didn't have Hero Squared #5. Oh well, I'll get it one of these days...

This is old news, I know, but I just wanted to express my wish for the recovery and good health of Super-Hip! creator Arnold Drake, who has been battling pneumonia and other illnesses lately.

Legendary Marvel inker Joe Sinnott, too.

Presenting...my new Last.FM "recently played tracks" sidebar thingy! I may go the "Personal station" route eventually, but for now this will be it. I've been on Last since December, my profile here (with a picture that makes me look like a real smartass), but am only now beginning to mess around with it. I know, I know, it's too big, but I couldn't get it any smaller in the section where you're supposed to be able to edit the template. I'm sure there's a way, but I don't know what it is yet. Anybody? Bueller?

Doesn't look like it's going to update all that frequently, either. May turn out to be more trouble than it's worth...

Links, anyone?
First, via Datajunkie comes some 50's Science Fiction illustration work from Mad's Don Martin and some late 60's work from Vaughn Bode (Cheech Wizard).

Here's the Joe Kelly interview that everyone else has linked to. Don't buy and couldn't care less about his run on Supergirl, not really feeling the need for positive female superhero role models (although I certainly don't begrudge actual teenage girls any where they can find them- not in this book, for sure), but I liked his work on Justice Leagueand Justice League Elite with Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen.

What's a "Spurtyn Duyvil", you may ask? Get your mind out of the gutter- it was a supernatural beastie that caused a lot of trouble for Cusack the Tuscarora and Doot of the Wawenoc in the second and third issues of Timespirits . Please forgive the self-reference there- info about this series is impossible to find online. I wish I had time to create a really good Timespirits webpage...! Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because Steve Bissette, who has become the go-to guy on the Intarwub for information about the upcoming 'Spirits trade collection, since he's a friend of the creators and will write the introduction, has posted a sketch he did of that monster, and I think you should go see it. Whew, what a sentence.

And speaking of self-reference, here's something I, me, mine did: I lost my scans_daily cherry the other day, posting some pages ganked from John Findlay's Tex Arcana just to see what kind of reaction I'd get. Not much, as it turned out. Le sigh. One person commenting on my LJ icon, and another who observed that the Tex's narrator, the EC-goes-West "Ol' Claim Jumper" (His dyin wuz painful, and he deserved it"), looked like John Astin. That is true, but I guess nobody cares unless it's snarky Batman or manga. Which doesn't mean I won't post something else one of these days, heh heh.

Oh well, that's all I have for now.

Just in case you care...

Here's my upcoming DCBS shipment, which should find itself upon my doorstep Friday afternoon.

LOCAL #8
POWERS #23
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #3
CATWOMAN #64
SPIRIT #3
DMZ #16
JACK STAFF #13
STRANGE GIRL #14
100 BULLETS #81
HELLBLAZER #229
DAREDEVIL #94
DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH #5

A couple of months ago, I decided to drop Local, so #9 will be my last, I guess. That was before I realized that it is a 12 issue series. Now, I'm reconsidering, but as with American Virgin, I guess I'll get the last three at my LCS.

And I thought last issue was my final Strange Girl! Looks like I have one more, an epilogue if you will.

Nice to know that I already have my review of 100 Bullets written.

And, any week with a new Jack Staff and Paul Grist, is a good comics week. Also looking forward to/sad to see the final issue of Doctor Strange: The Oath; and as usual I'm looking forward to The Spirit, Catwoman, Powers, (which has been on the upswing although it's really beginning to feel stretched) and of course Daredevil. Plus, we get an issue of Hellblazer that isn't by Denise Mina! First in what seems like a couple of eternities!

I already have Brave and the Bold #1 and Alter Ego #64 (Free! Gotta love free), which I will review next time.

My friends at Boom! have cut me off, looks like, because I have received no new comp of the Boom! title I like the most, Hero Squared, #5 of which came out today. Guess they don't like me no more. Cry me a river, I know. However, yesterday I received a copy of a Boom! title that I am less enthusiastic about, Warhammer 40,000: Damnation Crusade #2, so go figure. Hopefully, they'll have a copy for sale at my LCS, never a given when it comes to indie books, and I'll pick it up in addition to the aforementioned American Virgin #12.

I'm beginning to wish I'd ordered the 52 trade; DCBS had it for $10. Then again, it's 52. Do I really want that? Even at a discount?

Oh, and as you know, I managed to avoid picking up Civil War...but everybody and their comics-blogging uncle has put their two cents' worth in about the ending, so here's mine: It doesn't sound all that out-of-character for Cap to stand down because of the danger to those around him and his allies. But the bigger picture, the ramifications of Cap's action and what it means both as plot event and as allegory, is far more problematic. Besides, you know that this is just all stage-setting for the next big event, right?

Remember Flytrap by Sara Ryan and Steve Lieber? Well, the sequel is now online, at Ryan's website, this time with art by Ron Chan. And it's as good as its predecessor. Go look!

Happy belated blogaversary to the mighty mighty Neilalien, who celebrated seven years of doing so on Sunday!

Today would have been GEORGE HARRISON's 64th birthday. RIP, George.

For a list of my favorite Harrisongs (that should probably be longer) and a cool pic of Nelson Wilbury from about 1975, go here.

Here's Wally Wood, from 1978, which is about the time I had my legendary (well, to me, anyway) correspondence with the storied creator. Found at Bhob Stewart's sparsely updated but always readable blog Potrzebie, which features jazz clips interspersed with Wood-themed covers and art and excerpts from the book he has written titled Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood, available from TwoMorrows Publishing.

Well, whaddaya know! We get five more issues, looks like!

If only this had happened to Chase...

By the way, just wanted to mention that if you haven't been reading Leia Weathington's Bold Riley and the Witch in the Wild at Girlamatic.com, well you should be, that's all.

THE BACARDI SHOW NEW COMICS REVUE!
In which I opine in regards to various works of sequential fiction I have perused in the interval since the last time I inflicted my opinions upon one and all, or to be specific, from approximately 11 to 21 February, some of which may even still be on sale at finer comics selling establishments worldwide if you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be.



ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE BOOK TWO 2
S: Kurt Busiek; A: Brent Anderson. (DC/Wildstorm, $2.99)

This comic just isn't working for me, hasn't for several years now actually, but I suppose I'm just too much of a cockeyed optimist to drop the series entirely. Kevin Church would be so disapproving of me, I know. A big reason, I believe, why I continue to get this is because it seems to be the work that Busiek cares the most about; he's a talented scripter who too often rises to the level of whatever corporate junk he's assigned to write by the Big Two, and the promise of getting to read something he's invested in is too tempting to resist. Sometimes, he's clever and inventive, as with the big Eternity/Galactus-style guy in this issue who just stood there in the heavens so long that the people down below got used to him, nicknaming him "Joe". Other times, he can be melodramatic and earnestly dull, as if he has so much reverence for the Good Old Days of Comics as writ by Englehart, Thomas, Bates, Wein, and so on that he must imitate as slavishly and as faithfully as he possibly can...and this causes his pastiches to come across as second-rate imitations of other first-rate imitations, and there lies the rub. Anyway, one thing is constant- I can't stand the third-rate BucklerAdamsisms of Anderson, and I've enjoyed what I've enjoyed from this series in spite of rather than because of, nine times out of ten. Guess I'll stick around for the next two, just in case something happens. Of such feeble hopes are addictions born. B-

CASANOVA 7
S: Matt Fraction; A: Gabriel Ba. (Image, $1.99)

One of many concluding issues that I seem to have obtained this two-week period, and as usual with Fraction and this book it's convoluted as hell...but the one constant has been the fun vibe he's striven to get across: fun for him to write, and presumably fun for the reader as well. I've been begrudging, preferring a little more clarity than Fraction is apparently willing or able to commit to, but taken as a whole, these 7 issues so far have been a wild, kaleidoscopic thrill ride- perhaps the nearest thing to vintage Steranko S.H.I.E.L.D. since the Jaunty One took his brush and got into magazine publishing...or at least as close as we're likely to get this side of Grant Morrison. And of course, the contributions of Ba have been invaluable; this series would be a totally different creature without his input for sure, which is why Fraction goes out of his way to spend at least three text pages per issue to point that out. I am on record as wishing, every time out, that this wasn't such a chore to parse; but hey- nothing worthwhile was ever acheived without a little effort. And so it goes. B+

FELL 7
S: Warren Ellis; A: Ben Templesmith. (Image, $1.99)

Okay, wait. What happened to Richard Fell, the low-key, thoughtful guy I've been reading about in the previous six issues? He's been replaced by a short-tempered, not-too-bright fellow who gets schooled by a slick defense lawyer, with this issue serving as almost the diametric opposite of #5's excellent interrogation room sequence. I'm sure there's method to Warren's madness- I'm sure he didn't forget who he was writing during the longer-than-usual delay between issues- trying to establish character depth or dimension or something like that, but it took me right out of the story. None of which, of course, is Templesmith's fault, he's as expressive in his Baker-meets-Sinkiewicz style as always. Will the real Rich Fell please stand up? B

JONAH HEX 16
S: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti; A: Phil Noto. (DC, $2.99)

I've always thought that Phil Noto's art worked much better when he stuck to single illustrations- movie posters, covers, you know. As a sequential storyteller, he has left much to be desired, tending towards skimpy inks and static composition. However, I'm pleased to report he's gotten much better since the last time I saw a comic with his interiors; there's still the occasional stiff-as-a-board pose from time to time, but he's really improved with the mechanics of layout and such. All in the service of a story which gives us a female counterpart of sorts to Hex, and the promise of a part two which I hope is livelier than part one. B+

KORGI Book One
S/A: Christopher Slade. (Top Shelf, $10. Reviewed from PDF preview.)

OK, here we have what seems to be a textless story, by a former Disney animator, about a young girl who lives in a fairy-tale fantasy world of some sort and her cute doggy, a Welsh Corgi- hence the title. In the course of the tale, they come across a hill that has a buried flying saucer sticking out the top, and run afoul of some huge spiders and the really big ogre who commands them. Oh, did I mention that the cute dog breathes fire? Without really knowing the full story about this, the most immediate thing that I found impressive was the meticulously rendered artwork, as you can see in the relatively simplistic example at right. In the preview, there are pages that are stunning in their intricacy, reminding me a lot of John Findlay's beloved-by-me-anyway Tex Arcana work...but much of this looks unfinished, as if it's ready for coloring and lettering but not ready for print. For art lovers first and foremost, caveat emptor everyone else. B+

THE LEADING MAN 5
S: B. Clay Moore; A: Jeremy Haun. (Oni, $3.50)

Solid finale to this miniseries slash TV series pitch, as the title character manages to extricate himself from the sticky situation he got himself into with panache, leading to the requisite explosive ending. Snappy dialogue, always a Moore hallmark, makes this a lot more fun than it would have been in other, less skilled hands. Haun's art, for his part, has begun to remind me of Jock's Losers work, and that's a compliment. If you're looking for a fun little action-thriller type comics buzz, and you haven't been along for the ride to this point, I'm sure the trade will be appearing any day now...and you should check it out. Yes, you. A-

MANHUNTER 28
S: Mark Andreyko; A: Javier Pina, Brad Walker, Robin Riggs. (DC, $2.99)

The character stuff, as usual, carries the day- the Chase subplot is chugging along nicely, and the back-and-forth between Wonder Woman, Blue Beetle, and Kate Spencer is very good. The obligatory Batman cameo is good, too. The pencil art is still as relentlessly ordinary as ever- tells the story, no muss, no fuss. This malaise even extends to the cover- Kevin Nowlan, usually a very good illustrator, has proven once and for all that there are no novel ways to illustrate Batman's cape anymore. Here, he looks like he's pissed at Alfred for putting too much starch in it and leaving it hanging on the clothesline. B+

MIDNIGHTER 4
S: Garth Ennis; A: Peter Snejbjerg, Karl Story. (DC/Wildstorm, $2.99)

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Garth gotta write war comics. He's the Robert Kanigher of the modern age of comics, no doubt. This time out, Midnighty skulks around the waning days of the Third Reich looking for the soon-to-kill-himself Hitler, and gets involved with some Hitler Youth in amusing fashion. Actually, not a bad read, and nicely dialogued, something at which Garth has always been a dab hand. And since it's apparently impossible for Chris Sprouse to do a sustained run of an ongoing series, better Snejbjerg (the man whose name I hate to typye) than last issue's Joe Phillips- at least Snejbjerg has something that resembles a style, and he does a wonderful job here, helped by Story. As usual, quite readable. A-

NEXTWAVE, AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. 12
S: Warren Ellis; A: Stuart Immomen. (Marvel, $2.99)

It's a bit of a cliche, to bust out this Neil Young song lyric- but I think it sums up the demise of this title better than just about anything: "It's better to burn out than it is to rust". And for sure, if this madcap little series had been a smashing success, a lot to ask (apparently) from the Great Unwashed of Comics Fandom , then I could see the day when Ellis and Immonen would get tired of making with the bwahhaha and move on. Hard to sustain, you know. Which would necessitate a replacement, and heaven only knows who that would be- so like the Beatles and Barry Sanders, it's good to go out while on top of its collective game. And make no mistake, Ellis and Immonen had reached that point- the last few issues have been absolutely funny and inspired weirdness, the likes of which only perhaps Grant Morrison can top, and the funny has never been his strong suit. If Marvel was smart they'd sell plush baby M.O.D.O.K. toys. Of course, if Marvel was smart, this wouldn't be a dead book. A

STORMWATCH: PHD 4
S: Christos Gage; A: Doug Mahnke. (DC/Wildstorm, $2.99)

Second straight excellent cover in a row from Doug Mahnke- one which probably speaks to my inner Goth fetishist, I suppose, but ya can't deny it's nicely composed as well. And unlike last time out, the story contained within is engaging even though the female PHD contingent is subjected to that even-now hoary cliche of the Ladies' Night Out, with the requisite complications. But Gage is getting a good handle on his cast, and the character stuff works really well- and he's come up with a really interesting hook for his new sorcerer's apprentice character Black Betty (whoa! bam-a-lam!), a secret I won't spoil but it could be a fine plotline if Gage chooses to go that route. A-

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED 5
S: David Lapham, Brian Azzarello; A: Eric Battle, Prentiss Rollins, Cliff Chiang. (DC, $3.99)

Status quo: extremely skippable Spectre story, and worth picking up only for the Dr. Thirteen feature, which just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I would never in a million years have considered Chiang an appropriate artist for all these shenanigans, but as staid and controlled as his style is, he still can bring a lot of dynamism to bear and that makes the difference. At the risk of sounding churlish, I hope they never collect it; I don't want to think I exposed myself to these awful Spectres for nothing! C+

BEST IN SHOW: Nextwave. So long, we hardly knew ye.

DOG OF THE WEEK(S): Tales of the Unexpected. Despite the Doc Thirteen story.

Just so you don't think I've died or something- and I am in the middle of writing comics reviews- here's a couple of crossposted LJ entries:



Meant to post this weeks ago- Harry Nilsson on the cover of Time magazine! Ian Anderson, too! Click to see it all biggerer.

Well, Studio 60 certainly turned out to be a disaster after a strong start, but I've found myself getting into something else lately: FX's Dirt ! At first it's because Ian Hart, who played John Lennon superbly in Backbeat, was in it and I wanted to see what sort of paces they were putting him through. And he's good, of course, in an odd role but I found myself amused by the sheer trashiness of the show, as befits the subject matter I suppose- nobody in this thing has any redeeming qualities whatsoever, except Hart's faithful photog, and he's such a nutjob that it's really hard to tell where he's coming from when he's being nice. Hell, when your most personable character is a drunk ex-newspaperman played by Pee Wee Herman, and the most sympathetic one starts puking worms at odd times, you know something very skewed is going on. It's pretty racy for a non-pay cable network show, too; lotsa bare buttocks and we even see dildos and a fetish mask under a character's bed in tonight's episode.

I think what I like the most is that making these characters likeable doesn't really seem to be a priority- I can't speak for anyone else, but nine times out of ten I have little patience for films and TV that have nothing but unpleasant people doing and saying unpleasant things to each other; it gets wearisome trying to work up any sympathy or empathy. But these characters are unpleasant with relish, and while I suppose it's splitting hairs I find myself fascinated by all the wallowing, in spite of my better judgement, and have suddenly found myself really interested in where this is all going- as opposed to Studio 60, which squandered a good cast (even the horribly miscast Sarah Paulsen, whom I've liked in other shows) desperately bending over backwards to give the increasingly disinterested audiences something to relate to. FX being the smallish network it is, apparently wants to be liked on its own terms with this show, and ta heck with ya if you don't. I don't think ratings have been that great, but then again I don't know what constitutes "great" for a network like FX anyway. I'm sure we'll at least get to see the season finale on March 27, which promises (in tried-and-true tabloid style) a kiss between star Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston. And if the episodes I've watched are any indication, betcha there will be tongue, too!

RIP BOB OKSNER, who has died earlier this evening. As always, Mark Evanier has the information.

Of course, among the multitudes of characters Oksner drew for DC in the Sixties was Super-Hip!, the official JBS mascot, so there was no way I was going to let his passing go unremarked upon. As a kid growing up, I certainly picked up my share of DC humor comics, and it seemed like Oksner drew 75% of them- his angular, manic humor style really made a deep impression on young, impressionable me, not only in the Adventures of Bob Hopes I read with Tad Jutefruice's alter ego in them, but on the Stanley and His Monster and Angel and the Ape features as well, and there were so many others. As the years went by, though, I soon became interested in other artists' work, and DC stopped doing the kinds of books Oksner drew best, so I kinda forgot about him for a long time- in fact, until 2002 and the beginnings of this blog, when I had found an old beat-up copy of Bob Hope #105 and renewed acquaintances. As a theoretical grownup, I found him to be a much better illustrator than I had remembered, and boy, could Mr. Oksner draw the ladies. According to Evanier, he didn't draw much in the latter years of his life after he retired in 1986, and that's a shame. Anyway, I'm sure he'll soon be setting up to sketch Angel O'Days for a long time now.

I now interrupt the cricket concerto this blog has become lately to keep a promise- that is, the one where I said I'd let you know if I heard more about the Timespirits collection.

Over at Steve Bissette's MyRant blog, about halfway down the post he mentions the upcoming Megacon in Orlando, Fla., and specifically goes on to say that 'Spirits co-creator and scripter Steve Perry will be in attendance, and posts two made-by-unknown-hands promo images for the collection- one of which I have ganked, as you can see above. He also goes on to say that he has just written the introduction for the collection, still scheduled to come from Image at some future date. Looking forward to that, and if you go and meet Mr. Perry, tell him Johnny B says hi. Hopefully, he won't look at you like you just ate a bug.


And now for something completely different: You can go here to see a trailer for the still-unfinished documentary Will Eisner: The Spirit of an Artistic Pioneer. Ugh, what a title- but the trailer is good stuff.

Haven't posted a "Life and Loves of Lisa St. Clair" cover in ages, so here you go. I gotta get some of those one of these days. Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day, from all of me to all of you.

THE BACARDI SHOW NEW COMICS REVUE!
In which I opine in regards to various works of sequential fiction I have perused in the interval since the last time I inflicted my opinions upon one and all, or to be specific, from approximately 28 January to 10 February, some of which may even still be on sale at finer comics selling establishments worldwide if you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be.



100 BULLETS 80
S: Brian Azzarello; A: Eduardo Risso. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

The Standard Review: Another well-done issue what will engage the already engaged, baffle the uninitiated, and even baffle the initiated upon occasion. I think I'll just cut and paste this review for the next 20 issues. Oh, and one of those surprising deaths I mentioned last time turned out not to be. A-

ABRAXAS AND THE EARTHMAN
S/A: Rick Veitch. (King Hell, $16.95)

And now, kids, a blast from the past, from waaaaay back in 1981. Think Salvador Dali and Carlos Castaneda collaborating with Herman Melville on Moby Dick, and you get the general gist of this, one of Veitch's earliest script/art efforts. I was fortunate enough to be buying Epic Illustrated, Marvel's attempt to horn in on the Heavy Metal market, when this was initially serialized and it blew 21-year-old me away. Subsequent readings kept revealing the little details and clever touches that Veitch had worked in, and I have long regarded it as one of my favorite works of sequential fiction, to get all pretentious about it. Veitch has seen fit to rerelease it in a shiny, handsome new self-published volume, and I'm happy to say that even with all the somewhat dated new-agey doors-of-consciousness underpinnings, it still works as a surreal nightmare scenario, with many of Melville's (and Veitch's, for that matter) concerns still intact. For this volume, Rick has given us some text pages that shed light on what was going on in the industry and with him personally as he concieved Abraxas, and while some annotation would have been really nice, it's an interesting read just the same. Veitch's ace in the hole, as it so often is, is his underrated art; it's capable of stunning complexity and expressiveness, even though sometimes his figure drawing looks a little stiff. This was done at about the same time as his adaptation of the ill-fated Spielberg/Belushi/Aykroyd film 1941, and as with that effort, he uses collage all over the place to great effect. And the vivid coloring is top-notch. Twenty-six years on, this has lost very little of its luster for sure. A

AMERICAN VIRGIN 11
S: Steven Seagle; A: Becky Cloonan. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

I had dropped this, but #10 intrigued me enough to give it one more chance (and resign myself to paying full price again for the next few issues, until I can order it from DCBS again)...and while I wish I could say I was captivated it's really more of the same, as Adam continues to work out his obsession with who he regards as his girlfriend, recently deceased, while dealing with the press and resuming his ministry in Miami, where he gets involved with judging a Miss Teen Miami Beach contest. The character stuff works pretty well, even though I still don't buy the glossing over of the negative publicity that one would think would accompany his previous escapade. Chameleon-with-a-pencil Cloonan goes it solo this issue, sans inkers or Christine Norrie, and her art looks more streamlined and less rough-hewn than the last time I remember seeing her on her own. Oh well, still top-notch...in fact, she remains the one consistent pleasure of this inconsistent title. B-

BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK 6
S/A: Matt Wagner. (DC, $2.99)

No big surprises as Bats dispatches of the vampire cult in short order, and loses his girlfriend in the process. Maybe that would have had more resonance if we didn't already know that Miss Madison doesn't figure in any significant way in his subsequent career anyway. So, kinda anticlimactic- and as a whole, this mini wasn't quite as entertaining as its pulp-fiction predecessor, Monster Men. Second acts rarely reach the same heights, we all know that, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. Wagner's art, with its fat, clumsy inkline and awful rendition of Madison, was professional enough, but hard to like even though the covers were solid. I also found myself wondering, like another internet pundit whose name I forget and whose opinion I read later, why every rich family in Gotham City except the Waynes are predisposed towards being lunatic murdering psychopaths with a whole crew of skeletons in every closet of the crumbling mansions they all live in. Oh well- I appreciate all efforts to return Batman to his less cluttered and more crude roots, but they need to have a bit more panache and wit than this for me to stand up and applaud. B-. Entire series: B.

CRIMINAL 4
S: Ed Brubaker; A: Sean Phillips. (Marvel/Icon, $2.99)

Boy, for such a smart cookie, Leo sure does some dumb things, doesn't he? Oh well, a smart cookie would have avoided his life if at all possible...but a comic book titled Decent, Law-Abiding Citizen just wouldn't have the same oomph, now would it? Anyway, all seriousness aside, another solid issue as things get more and more complicated for Leo and Greta, and didn't I tell ya that Ivan would kick the bucket? That's the only obvious thing so far, and one reason why this is such a good read. As always, Phillips proves himself a master of light and shadow as he works the script for all the tension and mood he can muster. A

DAREDEVIL 93
S: Ed Brubaker; A: Michael Lark, Steven Gaudiano. (Marvel, $2.99)

As about a succinct a wrap-up as one could hope for, I guess, especially if one was wishing for Brubaker and Co. to move on and do something different with this character, who has been mired in the eternal Kingpin/Bullseye/Elektra/Karen Page/blahblahBLAH loop for what seems like over 20 years. So, for that reason if nothing else, I appreciated this issue's events. And you gotta admit, that final confrontation between Matt and Wilson Fisk was riveting reading, with a satisfying and logical resolution. It helps that Ed is so in sync with Lark And Gaudiano- in the hands of lesser artists that confrontation wouldn't have had half of its impact. A-

DMZ 15
S: Brian Wood; A: Riccardo Burchielli. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)
Our boy Matty gets a little too involved with a suicide bomber, if not the action that he's been selected to participate in, and kinda causes things to get a lot more complicated with the terrorist cell he's infiltrated. Another strong chapter in the ongoing arc, but Burchielli needs to work on his staging a little- there's a panel on the next to last page which presumably shows someone getting smacked by another (trying hard not to spoil here, folks!), but the angles of the open hand and the reaction to the blow just don't look right, and to me it wasn't apparent what had happened at first glance. Hey, I know I'm nitpicking. If that's the biggest flaw I could find, then that says something, right? B+

DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH 4
S: Brian Vaughan; A: Marcos Martin. (Marvel, $2.99)

It's like someone made a checklist of all the things you never see Doc do, and then instructed Vaughan to work them into the story- cursing, firing a gun...but to everyone's credit, everything works and works very well. This time out, we get the backstory of the mysterious adversary that has been causing all the trouble- and Vaughan does two smart things: first, he gives us an "is he is or is he ain't lying" origin story...and leaves us hanging; and second, he presents the cancer cure macguffin in a different light, which raises the stakes and actually portrays the badguy in a more reasonable, even positive light than Doc himself, who comes across as a bit arrogant and naive. Not exactly a textbook method for reintroducing a classic character (one which is almost universally beloved by most comics fans, and one that both Marvel and selfsame fans would love to see in new ongoing adventures, especially by a top-quality creative team) to a presumably new audience, and I commend BKV for doing it. A

FABLES 57
S: Bill Willingham; A: Mike Allred. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

Always nice to see this much new Allred art in one place, and he's in fine form here with only a wee bit of unfamiliarity with the established character likenesses (I'm thinking Pinocchio here, chiefly) marring the proceedings. And that's a minor quibble, believe me- Buckingham's pugnacious 'Noke was extremely incongruous when compared with the Disney version, not to mention the original novel. Script-wise, more gradual plot advancement as Snow White and Bigby Wolf, kids (constantly referred to with the wince-inducing nickname "Hellions") in tow, travel to the Great White North to meet with Bigby's estranged dad, the North Wind, and try to find out where he stands in the conflict with the Adversary...but soon the kids get into trouble as they hunt in the woods, providing the cliffhanger. Another above-average issue. A-

HELLBLAZER 228
S: Denise Mina; A: Leo Manco. (DC/Vertigo, $2.99)

England lost, in case you were wondering. Okay, now bring on Andy Diggle, please. Ms. Mina, best of luck with your writing career in the future, but please don't script any more titles I read regularly. I'll provide a list if it will help. D

SHAZAM AND THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL 1
S/A: Jeff Smith. (DC, $5.99; reviewed from comp copy.)

I never acquired a taste for the opus by which Mr. Smith made his career and reputation, Bone, but I could always tell that he had a lot of the right stuff to be a superior storyteller- and he proves that here. This is the first attempted revival of the venerable former Fawcett properties that has impressed me since the 1974 SHAZAM! series, and it certainly seems like Mr. Smith has done his homework, managing the apparently nigh-impossible task of writing these originally-lighthearted-and-simple-in-tone characters in an entertaining fashion, something which has eluded three decades' worth of talents. Wisely eschewing all the leaden and depressing baggage of modern DC Comics continuity, he gives us a tweaked but still-logical update of the classic origin and compliments it with nicely colored and satisfyingly expressive art. That said, I didn't know either man, but somehow I doubt that C.C. Beck or Otto Binder would approve of the extravagant price point, nor would they smile upon the pointless and arbitrary time-shifting jumping-around technique that Smith uses in telling his story, an unnecessary and needlessly showoffish modern technique that really has no place when dealing with these characters. Hardly a deal-breaker, though. It remains to be seen if he can sustain this great first step, but as far as I'm concerned, I think he will. A

UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS 7
S: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti; A: Daniel Acuna. (DC, $2.99)

Regrettable collar and all, the 90's Ray returns to good effect in one of those "f*ck yeah!" moments you've read about as this protracted saga rambles on to its presumed resolution. Even though I get a bit weary at how repetitious the bones of the plot are, this is still pretty good superheroing as far as I concerned, for what that's worth. Problem is, it looked for a while there about three issues ago that it would be even better than that, and that's a disappointment. However, if Graymiotti were to do an Uncle Sam series, I'd be first in line to pick it up, especially if Acuma drew it- great 3/4 panel on the next to last page, with Sam telling it like it is while standing next to the Washington Monument. More moments like that one, that's what I want. B+

That's it for this time out! Next comics shipment should be the end of this week.

BEST IN SHOW: Abraxas and the Earthman, for standing the test of time. Shazam! and, as always, Criminal are right up there with it.

DOG OF THE WEEK(S): Hellblazer, hopefully for the last time.

Well, hello there!

Been a trying last couple of weeks, so no time for blog, Dr. Jones.

I've seen a few movies (none in theatres, alas), read a few floppy single pamphlets (and one collection), and have been mulling over a good old fashioned music post, perhaps with the emphasis on the oeuvre of a particular artist whose biography I finished reading a month or so ago, and if we're lucky at least some of these will get written about soon.

So I guess I'm just saying that I'll be maintaining radio silence a bit longer, until Saturday at least- I at least need to get my comics reviews done. For me, if nobody else.

So ta-ta and chin-chin for now, and when you least expect it, I'll be back.

Via Pop Candy comes a heads-up about a film that I've been looking forward to: Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida)'s Across the Universe, which appears to be a coming-of-age love story set in the mid-60's, surely a snooze-fest description if I've ever heard one...and even worse, the Beatles music that's at its core brings up uncomfortable memories of Sgt Pepper's the film- but that's not reckoning with Taymor's marvelous imagination. Here's the new trailer. At first, it looks kinda dire and dreary, Hair-like even, but just wait until the last thirty seconds or so and then we see the sort of thing which has made Taymor one of my favorite filmmakers after only two movies. Guess we'll find out in September!

Yeah, I got rid of the HammerLocke stuff for now. Just didn't look right stuck there without the writing. Sorry.

Hey, why not go check out this interview at Mr.Media.com with Mark Tatulli, who does the comic strip Lio, that just finished its tryout run in the Louisville Courier-Journal a week or so ago. My opinion? Well, since you asked, it was OK, better than the usual run-of-the-mill comic strip fare these days. Often surreal, sometimes absurd, sometimes cutesy. Wouldn't break my heart to see it be chosen as the strip to replace the daily Fox Trot in the C-J.

Ordinarily, I post this sort of thing on the LJ...but I think this belongs here:



Someone has taken it upon him/herself to post entire segments of the obscure Harry Nilsson/Ringo Starr horror movie slash comedy Son of Dracula on YouTube! This one features one of my favorite scenes from the film- Harry as Count Downe, the titular Son, putting the bite on some glam-rock loving young girl (after having already sampled her boyfriend!)...and pausing to put the tone arm back on the record which had been playing before he interrupted their evening- "Chariot Choogle" by T.Rex! And if you look closely at the murky picture, you can see that there's a T.Rex Wax Co. (Marc Bolan's vanity label) on the record! Squee!

I own a (probably recorded off TV) VHS copy of this film, which has never seen a legitimate DVD or even VHS release. I had wanted to see it for years but had never had the chance until I ran across the tape in a catalog belonging to a movie seller that specialized in kung fu flicks and foreign porn. I wish I could say it was worth the trouble, but really (as I'm sure you realized if you watched all six minutes of this clip) it's a wretched bad film, low-budget and poorly acted, with an incoherent script and worthwhile only for little Nilsson (and T.Rex)-fan tidbits such as the above, or an opportunity to see Harry (as the Count) perform with a pickup group of all-star musicians.

Another YouTube Nilsson bounty is the unreleased (and unseen by me) 1972-era documentary Did Somebody Drop His Mouse?, which someone saw fit to post in segments as well! Here's part one of five. Mouse assays the creation of the wonderful Son of Schmilsson album, and features the great Klaus Voorman, Ringo of course, Peter Frampton, producer Richard Perry, and others, along with some goofy narration and really bad film quality, unsurprising since it's supposed to be an unfinished film. I'd post one of the segments here, but I fear I've already tried your patience for embedded videos enough for one evening.

100 BULLETS #80
DMZ #15
FABLES #57
HELLBLAZER #228
DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH #4
CRIMINAL #4
BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK #6
UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #7
DAREDEVIL #93
ABRAXAS AND THE EARTHMAN TP

This is my next DCBS shipment, coming (hopefully) tomorrow. I know, many of you have already read some of these...that's the price I pay for bi-weekly shipping, I guess. Looking forward to rereading Abraxas without having to dig out my Epic Illustrateds over at my Mom's. In an upstairs closet, not her basement.

I still haven't ruled out picking up the new American Virgin at my LCS; that last issue was just good enough to make me reconsider my dropping it. I'm also mulling over picking up Wisdom #2, if they still have a copy. I just liked the title when I paged through it a week or so ago.

That's all I got tonight.