R.I.P. Dick Giordano.

For those who may be unaware, the artist and editor Dick Giordano died yesterday. Giordano was one of the most important figures in comics in the 60's through the 80's, first at Charlton Comics and later at DC. For a quite thorough career overview, I'll refer you to Tom Spurgeon's typically eloquent bio/obit; Mark Evanier's is, as usual, well done too.

For me personally, it's hard for me to recall when I first became aware of his work...I just didn't buy or read very many Charltons in the 60's, so I figure it had to be in an issue of Batman or Detective, where he inked Neal Adams (I think Giordano was arguably Adams' most sympathetic delineator) or perhaps some of the Len Wein/Dick Dillin circa 1972-73 issues of Justice League which he inked over Dillin's pencils. Perhaps the first time I saw his full art was in the Human Target series he did with Wein, which appeared as a back feature in Action Comics at about this time. I couldn't care less about the Bates/Swan stodgy (but admittedly weird and all-over-the-place) Superman stories, but the Target feature was something I didn't see too much in comics in the day- a TV-style action thriller which played to Giordano's strengths- he was firmly in the late 50's-early 60's advertising art-inspired tradition rather that one which lent itself well to superheroics (although his inking work was fine on these endeavors). I've seen a lot of it over the years, but I'm not sure if he ever did better work on his own. I've posted a couple of pages from one such story, in Action #423. This is the art I think of when I think of Giordano. Oh, and as an editor, he was the man who gave Bob Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden the green light to do Thriller, so I owe him for that. He also was the one who had some pages of the original art that he had inked in that series (#'s 5 and 6), which enabled Von Eeden to help me acquire a page for my own collection. That's my absurdly tiny connection to the man.



He was definitely one of the greats of the field, and he'll be, already is, I'd imagine, be missed.

My Movie Year, Part 3.

Continuing my look back on the films I watched via various venues in 2009.

*- viewed in theater.

JULY
X-Files: I Want to Believe
* Up
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Wanted
Dodge City
Sex and the City
Thunder Road
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Coraline
The Most Dangerous Game
Green Lantern: First Flight

There was a time, my friends, when I was a big fan of the X-Files TV series. Witty and fresh, with an appealing pair of leads and a gnarly mystery lurking in the background, it was appointment TV for me in the mid-late 90's. Then, a funny thing happened about four seasons and one feature film in; I first realized that the one-off episodes with monsters and freaks and stuff were a lot more satisfying and just plain fun than the episodes that supposedly advanced the increasingly-becoming-more-obscure alien abduction/invasion storyline that was ostensibly the spine of the entire show. Finally, in 1999 sometime it occurred to me that the writers didn't really have an ending in mind, and they were dangling all these -shocking!- revelations in front of us viewers like a carrot in front of a horse...and I bailed. I no longer cared what happened to Mulder's sister, or how Scully got impregnated by aliens, or what the fuck was up with the Smoking Man, or any of that. I stopped watching and never looked back. By then, it all began to fray at the edges anyway as it barreled into confusion and tedium; David Duchovny left, only making cameo appearances, and new agents were introduced, Tara Kings all of them. The show was mercifully killed in 2002. Then, in 2005, for some reason, someone thought a sequel/update feature film was a good idea, even though only the hardcore X-Files junkies cared...and I Want to Believe was the result. Wisely eschewing the whole dead-end alien conspiracy theory crap, it was back in the "paranormal investigators" mode, and honestly, I didn't think it was all that bad. It felt padded and overlong, but it was good, after all that time, seeing Mulder and Scully again, and Billy Connolly was interesting as a pedophile psychic priest. It had the misfortune of coming out the week after Dark Knight premiered, which sure didn't help the box office...so even though there has been some discussion of a third feature film, it sure seems like we've seen the end of the franchise as we know it, for now, anyway. Mrs. B and I went to see Up on the Fourth of July; it's a tremendously entertaining flick that 1), played terribly on my fear of heights; and 2) moved me to tears at least twice thanks to a couple of highly emotional flashbacks. Heck of a good movie, but I don't know if I'm ever going to watch it again! The third Mummy flick was that rarest of rare things, a third sequel that was actually more fun than its predecessor. Of course, it helps that it starred Brendan Fraser, and was partially set in Tibet. Wanted was another comic book based film that was hamstrung by the arbitrary and mostly unnecessary changes they made to the source material. Still, it had some decent effects and action sequences, and the cast was good. Dodge City, another classic Western that aired on TCM; I am always up for an Errol Flynn pic, especially when Olivia De Havilland plays opposite. I pretty much ignored Sex and the City when it aired on HBO as a regular series; just wasn't my Voutton bag, baby. This is another one I sat and watched on a slow afternoon; the sight of Kim Cattrall naked save for a bare-minimum sushi covering was a plus, but everything else was kinda dull. Thunder Road featured Bob and Jim Mitchum as shine-running brothers; it was a fun and diverting little Fifties flick. I liked the first Narnia movie just fine, as I did the book when I read it as a kid. Somehow, I never got around to reading the sequels. This one wasn't particularly memorable, even though most of the original's cast returned. Still, if they ever put out Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I'll probably check it out too. Coraline was visually beautiful, but the script, adapted from Neil Gaiman's book, held few surprises and was more than a little cloying. Most Dangerous Game was another TCM viewing; it starred the stunning Fay Wray as one of a group of people who have the misfortune of shipwrecking on a remote island and being hunted as game by the nutjob occupant. It's a familiar story, but this was one of the first attempts to film it. Finally, First Flight was an animated Green Lantern movie, which gave us an account of how Hal Jordan of Earth came to get the power of the Power Ring, and join the outer-space peacekeeping Green Lantern Corps. It had its moments, and I didn't think it was terrible, but it didn't blow me away either.

Whew! July was probably my heaviest movie watching month for some reason.

AUGUST
Punisher: War Zone
Transporter 3
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
The Big Heat
Max Payne

War Zone was very violent and over-the-top, and was ridiculous fun because of it. I think I preferred Thomas Jane in its predecessor, but Ray Stevenson looked a bit more like Tim Bradstreet's comics covers. Speaking of over the top and silly, Jason Statham (whom I will apparently watch in anything) returned with another Transporter sequel; it was also good fun, especially if you didn't pay too much attention to the script. My grandson, who was very much into the latest Star Trek film, noticed we had STVI on VHS, and wanted to watch it. I've always thought it was one of the best of the Shatner/Nimoy flicks, and Nevan liked it too. The Big Heat was a Fritz Lang noir classic, with Glenn Ford as a driven cop determined to take down a crime syndicate boss. Being able to see movies like this is just one reason why I love TCM so much. Finally, Max Payne was a clumsy attempt to mix the supernatural and cop drama genres; it was pretty bad.

SEPTEMBER
Southland Tales
* Inglourious Basterds

For some reason, as summer made its way into fall, I didn't watch too many movies, especially in September. Part of the reason was that I held on to Southland Tales for several weeks, hoping to get in the mood to finish it and failing. It was a mess, despite an interesting cast. Maybe someday I'll get around to finishing it, but it won't be anytime soon. I did go out and see Basterds, Tarantino's latest, a sly and clever attempt by the movie junkie auteur to demonstrate how film can change and reflect our perceptions of the world around us, all dressed up in Dirty Dozen clothing. Great cast, especially Christoph Waltz as Lanza, the hissable, yet devious and crafty "Jew Hunter", and Brad Pitt, channeling Clark Gable as a Sgt. York-type who heads a group that hunts Nazis. For a far better examination of this film than I can provide, I refer you to Todd Alcott.

I will conclude soon with October through December!

My Movie Year, part 2.

Resuming my look back on the films I watched via various venues in 2009.

*- viewed in theater.

APRIL
Kung Fu Panda
Daywatch
Quantum of Solace
Grey Gardens (HBO, 2009)
In the Valley of Elah
The Kingdom
The Spirit
Journey to the Center of the Earth (3D)

I found Panda to be a hugely (pun only slightly intended) entertaining martial arts adventure romp that featured some excellent character and background design, as well as several outstanding action setpieces. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. 2006's Day Watch was the sequel to 2004's Night Watch; both are highly imaginative, if somewhat chaotic and disjointed, films about a struggle between groups of supernatural beings, separated into "Light" versus "Darkness" camps. I don't know if there are plans for more, but if they make any, I will watch them. Quantum, the second Daniel Craig Bond film, didn't impress quite as much as its predecessor Casino Royale did, but was still entertaining although the action-thriller mindset these flicks are crafted with becomes tiresome after a while. Still, I like Craig and I like his take on 007. Gardens, HBO's take on the life of the Big Edie and Little Edie Beale, was very well acted by Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange (I thought Lange was better, but so far Drew has gotten most of the accolades) and kept me interested throughout; I was unfamiliar with their story, and I hadn't seen the 1975 documentary that made them notorious/famous for a while. Elah was one of a multitude of well-meaning but dramatically inert films that came out in the wake of the Iraq conflict; Tommy Lee Jones is low-key and very good, but on the whole the movie wasn't particularly memorable. The Kingdom, another Middle East conflict flick, was the opposite of low-key, taking an action-thriller stance that was often ludicrous. It was diverting, and I didn't get bored, but I don't recommend it. I finally caved and watched Frank Miller's wretched Spirit; it was every bit as excessive, condescending and sour as I expected. Won't do that again. Finally, Brendan Fraser is back doing his lovable lug schtick in yet another take on Verne's novel; it was no classic but did a credible job of creating an epic atmosphere with lots of CGI effects and I liked it OK, but I'm inclined to like Fraser. It originally played in theatres in 3D; I wonder if that made it more of an immersive experience...

MAY
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Brian Wilson- That Lucky Old Sun
* Star Trek
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Fred Claus
Bride Wars

I liked, didn't love, Ang Lee's Hulk plus I've never really been a fan of the character, not even as a kid, so I wasn't particularly interested in the do-over remake with Ed Norton. This one emphasized action over the family psychodrama that hamstrung its predecessor, a wise approach I think, and featured a more interesting cast overall. Still nothing to write home about, but I give the newer one a slight edge. Lucky Old Sun was a documentary about the making of Wilson's 2008 solo album of the same name; as I am in the bag for all things Beach Boy, I had to screen it. Wilson is a slightly pitiful, but still fascinating, fella...especially when he's working in the studio, where he suddenly becomes focused and aware like you just don't expect when you see him interact with interviewers and people outside the studio. Saw the new Trek in the theater with my son and his son...I liked the cast, that updated the old very nicely, and the nonstop action was exciting. That said, I could have lived without all the time travel bullshit, apparently conceived in order to provide a way to get Nimoy his cameo, and there are more than a few inconsistencies in a script that expects us to believe that the Grand Canyon is a short drive away from Iowa. Fred Claus had some good actors flailing away in a silly script, pretty much what you'd expect. Sometimes you watch stuff just because there's nothing else on and you don't want to get up and go outside, y'know? Which also kinda explains why I subjected myself to the horrible Bride Wars, too. I blame my daughter; she was home watching it, I was probably sitting there doing something on the laptop, and watched it too. Any movie that can cause me to be repulsed by both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson probably should never have been made.

JUNE
Stagecoach
Rocknrolla
Space Chimps
Captain Beefheart: Under Review
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in the 60's
Tropic Thunder
Citizen Kane
Bolt
Spellbound
Repo! The Genetic Opera

Stagecoach is, of course, the venerable old John Wayne/John Ford oater; it's definitely a classic and made a star of Wayne. Rocknrolla, a Guy Ritchie effort, was much, much better than his previous film Revolver, but only sporadically recaptured the spark that made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch so good. Chimps? Well, I guess it was a slow day or something because I recall very little about watching it. I must not have hated it, I guess...I rented a couple of documentaries from Netflix about similar subjects: Captain Beefheart (aka Don Van Vliet) and his childhood buddy Frank Zappa, both of which went on to make some strange and wonderful music. I know the stories behind each pretty well, but I still will watch anything I can get my hands on about not only them but many artists whose work fascinates me- you never know when you'll see a performance clip or interview excerpt that you haven't seen before. A lot of fine people praised Thunder upon its release; I found it occasionally amusing but not particularly wow- inspiring. Tom Cruise's manic film exec was memorable. Kane is one of my all-time favorite films, perhaps the favorite, and I watch it at least once a year. Bolt was a real surprise, entertaining and clever throughout, and I even got a little something in my eye at the end. Or something like that. Spellbound- another classic Hitchcock film. I will always watch a Hitchcock movie if nothing else is on, he's a favorite filmmaker of mine. Finally, another surprise: I found the Gothed-up and bloody Repo! to be a hoot and a half, with some imaginative concepts and scenes, and some not-bad music as well. Wrote a bit more about it here (scroll down a bit).

Coming eventually, July through September!

A brief announcement.

Hey! I fully intend to get back to My Movie Year pretty soon, so fear not, assuming you were wondering. Just wanted to let you know, if you're reading this and have missed my opinions on comics, that I have been asked to review comics for the pop culture-focused site Popdose.com, and I did indeed accept with the utmost humility. My first review column has gone live today, and I wanted to let you know.

I've been reading Popdose for some time now, and there are a lot of very talented writers there, especially when it comes to music. They've had little, if any, comics-related writing, however, and that's the niche I will strive to fill. All I can do is hope I don't drag down the overall quality too much! I may eventually get back to reviewing here as well, but for now I think my comics reviewing will be found there, as well as the occasional Trouble With Comics post as time permits.

Which is not to say I'm done with comics over here...I've got a few ideas that I hope to take a stab at eventually. Stay tuned!

My Movie Year, part 1.

In the year 2009, I decided just for the heck of it to maintain a movie diary. When I'd watch a film in its entirety, I'd write it down in a spiral notebook, noting if I saw it on cable, Turner Classic Movies, home video (DVD, usually from Netflix) or in the theater. I thought it would make good blogfodder. Let's put that theory to the test, shall we?

*-viewed in theater

JANUARY

Burn After Reading
Neverwhere (TV)
The Apartment
The Golden Compass
Death Race (2008)
* Wall-E

Burn was an amusing Coen Bros. farce with a good cast, but it never really achieved liftoff. I really enjoyed the novelization, as well as the Vertigo comics adaptation, of Neverwhere, but I had not seen the original British TV production. It was enjoyable enough, done on the cheap but the cast was committed and it was fine. Still prefer the comic. The Apartment was the Best Picture Oscar winner for the year I was born, but I had not seen it until catching it on TCM. It's an excellent, often hilarious, pic with good perfs by Jack Lemmon and the smokin' hot Shirley MacLaine. Compass had its moments, and the effects were good, but it moved at a snail's pace, as if it was struggling with its heavy ambitions. Hard to beat the cast. Death Race was cast well, too- any flick with both Ian McShane and Jason Statham has an advantage already. But this souped-up remake was no patch on the much-lower-budgeted original. Finally, Wall-E was another triumph for Pixar, questionable science aside, and is especially affecting early on.

FEBRUARY

Appaloosa
Sahara (1943)
The Bank Job
Fool's Gold
Dead Like Me- Life After Death
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins
Collision Course
Shine a Light

Appaloosa was a pretty good western buddy drama, featuring good perfs from the always reliable Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. Also featuring Renee Zellweger at her most squinty and annoying. I liked the desert war drama Sahara; I have a weakness for old Bogie movies. What can I say. Watched Fool's Gold on a slow day, if I recall; it's mostly terrible- Matthew McConaughey's character was interesting, and Kate Hudson's cute as usual, but the uneasy mix of rom-com and Raiders of the Lost Ark-style adventure just didn't gel. It was no Romancing the Stone, that's for sure. Bank Job is a not-bad Jason Statham heist movie; I enjoyed it quite a bit. The long-awaited straight-to-video Dead Like Me sequel was a dud, missing Mandy Patinkin sorely and saddled with a script that had very little of the magic of the sadly missed Showtime series, despite bringing back some of the original cast. Spiderwick was yet another attempt to strike Potter gold; it was OK, with good effects, but didn't really cach fire. Roscoe Jenkins gave us Martin Lawrence as a talk-show host who returns home for a family reunion. Lots of Hollywood life lessons were learned, but it was sporadically amusing. Curiosity, nothing more, led me to view Collison Course, a truly awful Beverly Hills Cop-style buddy pic that paired Pat Morita and Jay Leno (!) as a smartass Detroit cop who has to work with a Japanese policeman (guess who played what). It was done much better (well, not much better) in the Rush Hour series, or the Sean Connery/Wesley Snipes actioner Rising Sun. Fiascos like that are one reason why Leno went back to standup, and then late-night talk shows, and now the current mess on NBC. Shine a Light was a Rolling Stones concert film, directed with flair by Martin Scorcese a la the Band's Last Waltz. The Stones are in good form, and the guest stars aren't bad either- Christina Aguilera was surprisingly good.

MARCH

The Hurricane
That Hagan Girl
Willie Dynamite
Taking Chance
Fort Apache
Blue Hawaii
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Iron Man
The Mindscape of Alan Moore
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
* Watchmen
Leatherheads
Lou Reed's Berlin Live at St. Anne's Warehouse

Lotta movies this month, as I was off work for a few days with the flu. Hurricane was a pretty good 1930's disaster flick of sorts; a tale of a young sailor's strugle with authority and oppression on a South Pacific island that climaxes with the titular calamity, done with pretty good effects for 1937. That Hagan Girl is the notorious soaper that starred Ronald Reagan as an older man involved with a grownup (but still portrayed as a teen) Shirley Temple, who is the victim of rumors and innuendo in a small town due to her questionable parentage. Is Ronnie her dad? Is it squicky until the reveal at the end? Yep to one and no to the other. Dynamite was a blaxploitation flick from the mid-70s that aired on TCM's Underground series; low budget and poorly acted, it was still fun. Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon as a volunteer military escort officer who accompanies the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps back to his hometown, was an unexpected pleasure- it features an outstanding perf by Bacon, as well as nuanced, deliberate direction that really evokes mood. It may have been the best film I saw in 2009, and I highly recommend it. Fort Apache, a classic western, Blue Hawaii, not one of Elvis' best, were two more flicks I screened on TCM as I fought the influenza. I wasn't expecting to like Sarah Marshall all that much, but the cast was good, the script was often very funny, and the finale, in which one character stages his long-in-the-works mock-serious puppet vampire saga, was incredible- it made the movie as far as I was concerned. I also came away liking Russell Brand in his role as well, surprising because I really couldn't stand him when I saw him hosting something, probably the video awards, on MTV. Rented Iron Man for Mrs. B; I saw it in '08 in the theater but she hadn't seen it. Mindscape was a fair-to-middling Alan Moore interview/biodoc that kept my attention, mostly, but the Man himself is not an engaging interview subject, with his doleful demeanor. The Brain That Wouldn't Die was a flick I came to like watching it as a kid on the Big Show on Nashville Channel 5 in the 60s and 70s; usually the really bloody parts were edited out but I distinctly remember one glorious late 60s afternoon when they slipped up and showed it uncut; the poor lab assistant who had his arm ripped off by the pinhead geek monster in the locked room was probably my first exposure to filmed gore. It's one of those low-budget, poorly acted and ludicrously written but still highly enjoyable b-movies of the 50s that I'll always have a soft spot for. You may be familiar with Watchmen; one thing I'll always remember about it was that I threw out a rod in my engine as I drove to see it one weekend afternoon. My truck was in the shop for a month, as I had a new engine put in. I think it was a mostly pretty good attempt at filming something that is probably unfilmable; I'd give it a B+ if I was rating it. Leatherheads was a laugh-free "comedy", wasting George Clooney in an excruciatingly bad take on pro football in the early 1900's. Ol' Squinty, Renee Zellwegger, is in it too, trying to channel Kate Hepburn and failing completely. I closed out the month with the DVD of Lou Reed's return to his ambitious and often depressing 1973 album Berlin; as a fan of the album, I was curious to see how he'd treat it (he's been ambivalent towards it in the past, but there's always been an air of "unfinished business" surrounding it), and I'm pleased to report that he and his band performed it very well. Well worth checking out if you're a fan of Uncle Lou.

Coming eventually, April through June.

The JBS Personal Best of the Decade 2000-2009.

Since we have reached the end of another ten year period (and yes, I know the Decade of the Aughts proper technically encompasses the years 2001-2010), I'm feeling the itch to issue forth with another list, this time putting out there for the record my favorite comics series of that period, i.e. the comics that rocked my world in that space of time, as remembered through the filter of time.

As always, the usual disclaimers: this is not intended to be a definitive best-of the decade list. It's limited to series, one-shots, GNs, etc. that I read in the past 10 years. There are a great many excellent (I'm sure) comics that I did not read in that decade, for various reasons, and regardless of their perceived merit, I won't include them here. No webcomics, either- that's a separate list on Planet Dave. I'm going to omit trade collections and reprint series as well, which is why you won't see Showcase Presents: Bat Lash, Bambi and Her Pink Gun, or Starstruck here, to name a few.

Since we're talking 10 years here, I think I'll extend the list to a nice, even 20 titles. I realize I may be contradicting myself here- over the years I may not have rated these titles as highly as others. But with the laws of hindsight and revisionist thinking fully in effect, I simply regard a few of these with more affection (for lack of a better word) than I may have previously. These will be in alphabetical order, to show lack of favoritism. Of course, merely being on the list shows favoritism, but you know what I mean. And just for shits and giggles, I'll post them in cover gallery format without a capsule description. Also, bear in mind that I started blogging in 2002, and while I tried to go back and research what was released in 2000- September 2002, I may have forgotten or overlooked something. It's easier to collate the information when you have it all in writing, as I do from October 2002 to date. I've got a lot on the list below, and I'll bet I'll be thinking of others I've forgotten for another 10 years at least. OK. Enough blather, let's go:

HONORABLE MENTIONS: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen V2, Asterios Polyp, Underground, Aqua Leung, Top 10, B.P.R.D.: 1946, Nocturnals: Carnival of Beasts, Batman: Year 100, Beasts of Burden, DC: The New Frontier, Empowered, Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, Freddie & Me, Planetary, Sleeper Seasons 1-2, Criminal Seasons 1-3, Batgirl: Year One, Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin, Captain Britain & MI-13, Same Difference and Other Stories, Dr. 13: Architecture and Morality, Hawaiian Dick series, The Legend of Wild Man Fischer, Ursula, Courtney Crumrin series, Black Metal V1, Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil, Peculia and the Groon Grove Monsters, Scurvy Dogs, Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Owly.


I also feel I should cite certain titles that may not always have been among the very best in any particular month in which they were released, but over the decade were consistently very, very good, and I bought them on a regular basis throughout. To wit:

100 Bullets, John Constantine: Hellblazer, Gotham Central, Lucifer, Daredevil, Meat Cake, Love & Rockets (incl. New Stories and Penny Century), Catwoman, Fables, Incredible Hercules, Guardians of the Galaxy, Invincible Iron Fist/Immortal Weapons, Invincible Iron Man, X-Statix, Hero Squared.


And now that this is out of my system, I will resume hiatizing. Hope everyone has a happy 2010.

The JBS Personal Best of 2009.

Or, to be more accurate, the works of sequential fiction from which I derived the most pleasure in the past calendar year, gleaned from the various Spinner Rack Junkie columns I've inflicted upon you in the last 11 months.

As always, this is a highly subjective, entirely personal list; in no way is it intended to be comprehensive or any sort of guide for the unwary consumer looking for enlightenment. There are many, many excellent works that I have not read, for a number of reasons. You won't find too many critical darlings here- no Ganges, no Footnotes in Gaza, no manga (haven't read a single thing from ol' Nippon this year), no Pim and Francie, no The Hunter. I'm sure they're awesome, but I haven't read 'em. Maybe someday, but not in 2-double aught-9, so they're not on the list. No webcomics, either, though I do read 'em and love many. I don't own any of the physical printed collections, so I don't put 'em up here.

So anyway, here they are, 12 total, because most people do 10 and I like to be different, in alphabetical order so I can avoid the appearance of ranking one over the other.



ASTERIOS POLYP, the long awaited GN by David Mazzuchelli, is such an audacious burst of creativity that one hates to take shots at it- the protagonist isn't terribly likable (although he does improve), quite often the art reminded me of Chester Gould meets Hank Ketcham (a far cry from the MillerTothisms of his Batman: Year One days, for sure) or reading certain chapters of Understanding Comics, plus there's a strong Lifetime Movie of the Week vibe to its basic story - but no matter. The narrative as a whole becomes absolutely engrossing, with the creator taking opportunity to hold forth about a great many philosophical and esoteric notions, and I appreciated the uncynical tone of the ending, even though it's another of those ambiguous types that drive me up the wall. This one, though, kinda depends on your perspective, one of the themes of the story as a whole. Mazzuchelli's unorthodox art gymnastics take on a definite bravura, and it's exciting to see what kind of daredevil (no pun intended) leap he takes next. It may be a bit, just a bit, overrated- but it's still worth your time, I think.



BEASTS OF BURDEN: Evan Dorkin playing it (mostly) straight, and Jill Thompson turning in some absolutely stunning watercolor art in service of one of the odder story ideas in recent memory- talking animal (well, talking among themselves) occult detectives. No Scooby-Doo Mysteries here, though- this is on the level, and after a tentative first issue we got two back-to-back excellent, often moving supernatural adventures. I may be jumping the gun by including this since I have yet to read #4, but I've no doubt it will be right there with the others.



CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13: Paul Cornell's Anglo-centric superhero saga went out on a gonzo high note, as the team faced off with a very vicious and very overconfident Dracula, with assistance of a kind from Dr. Doom, and it was (as so often the case) well-written and illustrated enough to not sell enough copies to avoid cancellation. What a shame, and yet another example of how some radical rethinking needs to be done if the market won't support this sort of comics.



EMPOWERED: Adam Warren's gorgeously illustrated R-rated superhero exploitative cheesecake satire has been good since issue one, but was represented in 2009 with its best issue yet, as well as a nicely done one-shot at years' end.



HELLBOY: THE WILD HUNT: I know, what with all the various spinoffs and side projects under the BPRD/Hellboy banner, it's beginning to get a little confusing. That said, this particular branch, even though there was a long delay in the middle of the run, was never less than clever scriptwise (with Mike Mignola taking the opportunity to add to H.B.'s mythos a bit) and illustrated in excellent fashion by one of Mignola's best collaborators (besides Corben and Guy Davis), the underrated Duncan Fegredo. Best Hellboy adventure since last year's Crooked Man, the only one in recent memory that was better. Plus, a couple of issues featured Gary Gianni's Monster Men series, always great.



POTTER'S FIELD: STONE COLD: Under-the-radar one-shot from Boom! that I enjoyed very much when I read it earlier this year. Interesting premise (that TV, not surprisingly, co-opted via the Christian Slater vehicle The Forgotten) and excellent art by favorite Paul Azaceta. Hope there will be more.



SANDMAN: THE DREAM HUNTERS: Anytime we get this much new Craig Russell art, especially in the service of the sort of things that Neil Gaiman cooks up, it's a good thing. This was a masterful re-presentation.



SCALPED: If ever a series deserved the tag "grim and gritty", I guess it's this one...even though the term has taken on a pejorative tone in the last decade or so. This gripping account of crime, pride, greed and desperation in a Native American reservation has been consistently excellent all year long.



SCOTT PILGRIM V5: SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE UNIVERSE: I suppose it points to the fact that 2009 just didn't send me a lot of comics that blew me away that I include this very well done but somewhat forward-looking chapter in this list. All the stuff that makes O'Malley's protagonists so endearing and yet so frustrating are here again, and that makes it good enough for me...but "good enough" really shouldn't be on this list.



STARSTRUCK: I hoped for years that Elaine Lee and Mike Kaluta could somehow get around to giving us more of the inventive, clever, densely detailed world that I fell in love with back in the mid-80s, but eventually I had to face facts and give up. I am pleased to report that the unlikely did indeed come to pass, and it looks beautiful thanks to the colors by Lee Moyer. Sometimes, I suppose, you can come home again.



UNDERGROUND: Down to earth (no pun intended- well, maybe a little pun intended) saga of park rangers vs. greedy locals, written with satisfying verisimilitude by Jeff Parker and drawn for maximum tension by Steve Lieber, who's never done better work that I've seen, anyway.



WINTERMEN WINTER SPECIAL: Long-awaited finale to the outstanding, albeit indifferently presented, Soviet supersoldiers miniseries by Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon. Despite more editorial and company interference than any five series should have had imposed on it, what did come out in fits and starts was always engrossing and often flat out brilliant.

Honorable mentions: Showcase Presents: Bat Lash (I did not buy this, but I do still have the originals, which are not diminished by the lesser mid-70's reprints included in this long-overdue collection.); B.P.R.D: 1947, Greatest Hits, Incredible Hercules, Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire, Fables, Criminal: Sinners, Sir Edward Gray, Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels, Marvel Divas, The Mighty, Guardians of the Galaxy, Madame Xanadu, Phonogram: The Singles Club, Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil, Invincible Iron Man, Incognito, Immortal Weapons, Umbrella Academy: Dallas, 100 Bullets, Jack Staff, The Boys, Terra, Sub-Mariner: The Depths, Power Girl, Detective Comics feat. Batwoman, Agents of Atlas, Doom Patrol (V5).

Just in case you're interested...

I'm going to extend this posting break here, perhaps at least until the end of the year. The stars, planets, humors, vapors, and all other sorts of esoterica in my personal life are just not conducive to me being a regular blogger right now. Plus, I'm just a bit burned out on the whole thing. I can't see a single damn thing that I bring to the party anymore that you can't get in better, cleverer fashion in a multitude of places. I don't want to go away completely, but I just can't see me contributing anything much here right now...and while I hate it like sin, I don't want to be just putting bullshit up here (well, more so than usual) for the sake of putting something up.

That said, unless ADD tells me to stop, I do intend to keep contributing infrequently to Trouble with Comics, so there's that if for some sad reason you just can't make it without my musings on books of the comical variety. I'll probably still do the Five for Friday at the Comics Reporter, whenever I can think of answers to the relevant topic in time to get them to him. And, sure, I'm still on Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook, so it's not like I'm going away for good, as pleasurable as that may sound to some. Oh, and I'm going to continue to put NFL predictions up on the LJ as well.

So anyway, be good, and be good to each other, have a happy holiday season, and sayonara for now, at least as far as the Johnny Bacardi Show goes.

Pumpkin Pie.

I guess that title is in poor taste, no pun intended, but I couldn't think of anything else more appropriate to go with this nice Autumnal picture of a young Marilyn Monroe, sitting in her sincere pumpkin patch.

Just wanted to get something up here, to show that I'm not dead or anything. Not much time or energy for blogging lately, and I hope that changes soon...I'm more behinder than ever, reviews-wise, and I'm behind on some stuff I'm writing for Trouble With Comics for Alan Moore month as well. Anyway, just checking in to let you know that I'm not done just yet.

Picture taken from this very nice Marilyn pics post at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

CONFESSIONS OF A SPINNER RACK JUNKIE.

Please be upstanding for another CONFESSIONS OF A SPINNER RACK JUNKIE, in which I opine in shortish fashion about comics that I have bought and/or received and/or read in the interval between October 16th and 28th, 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.

And, yeah, once more I'm way behind, so please bear with me as I look at comics you read and most likely forgot about three weeks ago...

BATMAN AND ROBIN #5: Looks like Grant's just giving us a more genteel version of Miller's ludicrous Spillane-with-Tourette's All-Star Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder, and the more I read, the more squalid the whole thing seems. I know he can do better, and I know he knows that, too. Not helping: artist Philip Tan, who gives us not one but two absolutely incomprehensible action scenes. My interest is hanging by a thread, and only the promise of Grant's Squire drawn by Cam Stewart, coming eventually, is keeping me around. C-

THE BOYS #35: The sad/weird backstory of likeable Boy "Mother's Milk" takes center stage this time out, and it's typically Ennisian, with smirks riding shotgun with pathos. As always with this title, for them that likes, here's more. B+

B.P.R.D.: 1947 #4: Continues to flow along nicely thanks to the Moon/Ba art, but the story feels like it climaxed last issue. Hopefully Dysart and Mignola have something extraordinary in mind for the ending. A-

CRIMINAL: SINNERS #1: Wait, aren't all criminals sinners by definition? Anyway, Tracy returns, and is once more placed between the proverbial rock and the proverbial hard place. All your favorite noir tropes are once again present and accounted for, and those who seek to wallow will find this a most acceptable trough, especially as it's once more illustrated with aplomb by Sean Phillips. A-

DAREDEVIL #501: The first issue of the Diggle era reads pretty much like the last eleventy-hundred from Bendis and Brubaker, which is not necessarily a bad thing- consistency does have its virtues. As you probably know, the new wrinkle is that DD is leading longtime pain-in-the-necks the Hand, but we don't wanna get too crazy out of line so he is of course all angry and angsty about everything, just like Miller Christ didst intend. Lotsa good character work, especially with the supporting cast, and a decent enough plotline that while it doesn't break any new ground, at least moodwise, at least shows that Diggle will keep the dramatics compelling and I guess that will keep me buying for a while longer. I recall liking artist Roberto De La Torre on Thunderbolts; he told the story well enough, and his style, while derivative, at least had some personality. I'm pleased to report he brings that to bear here. B+

FABLES #89: Most of this issue deals with Bufkin the flying monkey, left behind in the old Fabletown digs and faced with the threat of not only Aladdin's old genie, but the Baba Yaga as well. It's almost impossible to describe the events in this comic without sounding nuts, you know. Also, more with Frau Totenkinder, now all young and hot and stuff, as she tries to find out more about the threat of the Dark Man. Lots of stuff going on; this title is as engrossing right now as it's ever been, and it's been pretty good before. Artist Mark Buckingham once more saves most of his creativity for his nifty panel borders, and does everything else as well as he needs to- he's always reliable. A-

GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE #3: OK, I'm buying this now for Aaron's take on Daimon Hellstorm, so naturally only has a cameo in this issue. Even so, this one's still got a lot of fast-paced action, as the bickering brother Riders battle an old Marvel Monsters-age baddie whose schtick it is to possess inanimate objects like cars and bulldozers and such, as well as one of the House of Ideas' less-inspired ones, Big Wheel. It's the sort of left turn that would ordinarily be offputting, but Aaron makes it work. The action scenes pop thanks to a god job by Roland Boschi and Dan Brown. More drive-in movie-style fun. B+

HELLBOY: THE WILD HUNT #7: The lead story keeps on keepin' on, gearing up to what should be an appropriately apocalyptic finale. As always, Mike Mignola is Hellboy's best writer, and Duncan Fregredo is the next best thing to Mr. M himself on art. What I've been enjoying the most, though, and forgetting to mention is the backups- first, the return of Gary Gianni's quirky and bizarre MonsterMen (or Corpus Monstrum, or whatever the hell he's calling it these days), which I've missed, and this issue's not-as-good-but-still-pretty-good Henry Hood spotlight, which ties in with the Witchfinder series running concurrently. Whew, it is to make the head spin, keeping up with all this... A

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #136: Maybe the best comic I've read this year, certainly the funniest. Exhibit A for the jury:

Now I can cross "Seeing Hercules dressed like Thor giving a tittie twister to Thor dressed like Hercules while they're battling" off my bucket list. A

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #19: Somewhat anticlimactic resolution to an arc that was pretty good as a whole; your satisfaction depends a lot on whether you think Osborn would care all that much about being seen beating the crap out of a defenseless Tony Stark on worldwide TV. Me, I'm a bit skeptical- would Dubya or Cheney have had the same scruples? Anyway, the literal ending itself was pretty interesting, and I think I'll follow along a while longer to see what happens. B+

LIBERTY COMICS: A CBLDF BENEFIT BOOK #2: Just like last time, we get several somewhat heavy-handed and obvious stories, mostly of the barbed satire stripe, apparently OK because it's done by some outstanding creators such as Paul Pope, whose "Loverman" finally sees print, Brian Wood, who dusts off the Channel Zero concept, Paul Grist, more Apocalypstix by Ray Fawkes and Cam Stewart, and others, all for a good cause- it's great art showcase. I'm down with the cause, and the propaganda this time is slightly better than last time, but I prefer subtlety. Character flaw on my part, I suppose. B

SCALPED #32: Things are rapidly coming to a head, it seems, for both Dash and Chief Red Crow...and about the only thing I can predict is that the resolution will most likely be very bloody, and I'm pretty sure nobody will learn any damn life lessons. Once again, consistently consistent in its constant excellence. A

STARSTRUCK #2: It's difficult for me to be impartial about this series, so I guess I won't even try. As excellent now as it was 20 plus years ago, and the added scenes are providing clarity- I don't recall if the whole Mary Medea boards the spaceship to go to war in the aftermath of the botched Bajar spy mission scene was in the B&W Dark Horse reprint series, but it read as unfamilar to me, and made her motivations clearer. The dialogue is great, the helter-skelter script construction is still fun, Kaluta's art was never better and has rarely been better since, and the new coloring continues to kick ass. Perhaps I'll find something to nitpick eventually- the Galactic Girl Guides backups still strike me as somewhat trivial- but for now I'm completely in the bag. A

STRANGE TALES #2: Indie artists slumming once again, or so the attitude of most of these stories would have you believe; still, some are having fun and that gets this across just fine. Best of show, Jacob Chabot's amusing "Lookin' Good, Mr. Grimm" which carries the Thing's resemblance to chia pets to its logical conclusion and reminds us that hig-spirited humor was always a big part of the old FF formula; others which impress are Jim Rugg's long-shelved Brother Voodoo story, Matt Kindt, doing his Super Spy thing with the Black Widow, Jhonen Vazquez's cutesy MODOK, and Tony Millionaire's goofy Bob Burden-esque Iron Man tale. Less impressive is Pete Bagge's long-delayed Hulk, which only reinforces my own held belief that when it comes to the Bradleys or the Beach Boys, Bagge is golden. Everything else, not so much. B+

WITCHFINDER: IN THE SERVICE OF ANGELS #4: Continues to be an entertaining smorgasbord of cultists, ghosts, demons, and Mignola's ever-spreading Hellboy mythology, ably brought to moody life by Ben Stenbeck. A-


As always, sorry about being so late with these. More coming soon.

I had Seven Seconds to say...

Today's Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting goes out to writer ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, 53 years young today. Above, a small cover gallery of the many series he's had a hand in over the years. There seems to be one exception, though, and I just can't quite seem to put my finger on which one it is. Oh well, I'm sure it will come to me.

It also happens to be the birthday of the great JIM STERANKO, and Guy Fawkes Day as well! (Boy, wouldn't a Steranko-illustrated, Fleming-scripted issue of Thriller have been something to see?)