The OFFICIAL cartoonist of LiveJournal

not really talking?

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:13:51 GMT

$5 Ft. Lg.

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:28:52 GMT

Batman: The Joker's Last Laugh TP
Although nobody really cares about my opinion, The Joker should be used far more sparingly than DC has in recent years. He's a character whose current incarnation as a Hannibal Lechter-style mass murderer is somewhat irreconcilable with the fact that he's allowed to skate on his crimes time and time again.

Keeping that in mind... wow. Wow, I can't believe DC is collecting this god awful crossover event in a trade, even with The Dark Knight on its way to theaters. In this fifth week event, The Joker finds out he has an inoperable tumor that will kill him and in response to facing the fact of his own mortality, he goes on a crime spree, infecting tons of the DCU's villains with Joker venom, creating lots and lots of Joker-fied baddies. I'm sure this is yet another needless collection preparing for the onslaught of movie-made fans who will be looking for some kind of Dark Knight tie-in... but man, I hope they don't check this one out first.

The Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs #1
I remember liking the Frog Brothers, the geeky slayers from the Joel Schumacher vampire flick. They hung out in a comic book store, f'r Pete's sake! However... you know when would have been a good time to do a sequel to The Lost Boys? 1989.

Nevertheless, the powers that be in Hollywood have decided to press forward with a Lost Boys sequel and this book ties in.

Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1
Marvel had to do this mini featuring the FF in light of having their superstar team of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch on the proper Fantastic Four series. I've been hearing/reading a lot of muttering and grumbling from the fan community about this; many feel that Marvel's going backwards with this... that the main series should service continuity, while Hitch and Millar should be doing their story in a series separate from the proper FF title.

Me? I like the way Marvel's got it set up now. Years from now, I'm willing to bet more people are interested in reading the Millar/Hitch FF run than they would be in some brief Secret Invasion interlude.

All New Iron Manual
This is probably a boring book full of Iron Man armor specs, but I like this one-shot's title.

Also, new Walking Dead and Young Liars!

who is boba shanks

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:42:28 GMT

This happened at The Earth Collectable Toy Mall, an awesome Cincinnati based vintage toy store whose brick & mortar location is closin' up shop in favor of an internet-only business model. This is a shame since the store is freakin' genius... but understandable considering I've been in there around ten times and never bought anything.

There's nothin' coming out this week that I can muster up any interest writing about in DVD releases! Sorry, eight people who read my movie ramblings.

mail

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:05:19 GMT

A few months ago, I mentioned I was interested in reading Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash and reader thomtoffner got in touch to let me know he had bought and read the mini-series, was done with it, and would I like him to send it to me?

Of course I said yes and in turn, I sent him some stuff (should be there by the end of the week, man!)

This whole exchange was so fun that I thought I'd extend it out to everybody else readin' here. Comics, paperbacks, CDs, DVDs, whatever... if you read/listened/watched something marginally cool and are finished with that stuff, drop me an e-mail (journalcomics@hotmail.com OR a direct message over LJ) and maybe we can work out a trade through the mail. I've got tons of cool stuff sitting around in my garage that I could send and... hey, mail is fun!

friday fives on saturday

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:02:51 GMT

1.If you knew that you had only one day left to live, what would you do for the 24 hours? Take the day off of work. Hang out with Ellen and Elliot. Ride one of the roller coasters at King’s Island. Draw some comics. Eat barbecue for dinner. See a movie. Get ice cream. Have “relations” with Ellen. Go to sleep!

2. Do you think that life has meaning?
Yes.

3. What was your favourite childhood toy/object, or some of your favourites?
I was an action figure enthusiast. I enjoyed He-Man figures, then those got phased out for Ninja Turtles, which gave way to X-Men… which then lead to Kenner’s Aliens figures. I wasn’t picky about mish-mashing all my figurines into one epic crossover play battle though- TMNT vs. Xenomorphs!

4. When you clasp your hands, do you put your right thumb over your left thumb, or your left thumb over your right thumb?
Left over right.

5. If you had to teach the most ignorant person on earth the most difficult thing you have ever learned, how would you go about doing it?
Flashcards and visual aids.

*****
The Comics Reporter's Five For Friday #119 -- Name Five Characters From Comics Whose Blogs You'd Read

1. Jubilee circa 1992
2. Foggy Nelson
3. Jack Herriman (the main character in Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark's excellent Scene of the Crime mini-series from Vertigo)
4. Stinky (although I'd probably just make fun of it for being stupid)
5. Doctor Doom

I'm at my in-laws (or soon to be in-laws) this weekend, so no sketchbook scans today. To the one person who looks at those entries, I apologize.

tradition

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:56:12 GMT

lair

Wed, 07 May 2008 23:40:55 GMT

weighin' the scales

Tue, 06 May 2008 23:49:44 GMT

Action Comics Annual #11
This annual wraps up the long-delayed storyline written by Geoff Johns and Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner and illustrated by Adam Kubert that was meant to re-launch Action Comics about two years ago. I think this book is a real shame in that I quite enjoyed the first issue of the Johns/Donner/Kubert team, but the book soon became delayed to the point of insanity. I've lost all interest in finding out how this story wraps up. It's a shame- I think if there had a been a little more consistency, this could have been huge.

JLA Presents Aztek The Ultimate Man TP
I loved this comic when it was first came out- something of a dry run in the modern DC Universe for Grant Morrison, the writer produced ten skewed issues of a technological Aztec superhero learning the ropes of the game. What I most remember liking about this book is the way Morrison introduced crazy imaginative ideas almost casually into the book as well as his deft use of guest stars. His Batman two-parter (included here) is a terrific take on the Dark Knight and The Joker.

Anyway, I have all these issues in floppy copies, but it's a terrifically imaginative book that I heartily recommend.

Man With No Name #1 I think a book about the nameless cowboy portrayed by Clint Eastwood in so many spaghetti westerns could be pretty interesting although it seems to me that DC's already publishing this book and they call it Jonah Hex. Still, there's something to be said for the original.

Strangest thing about this comic- the publisher is offering a Arthur Suydam ZOMBIE variant of the Man with No Name. Why? How? For what reason?

Invincible Iron Man #1
Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas
New Iron Man books. I never really liked Iron Man growing up beyond his being a team player on The Avengers, but the movie looks like it's going to be swell (haven't seen it yet) and hopefully at least a couple of people who enjoyed the flick will be turned on to an Iron Man comic. Of the two, I'd probably push Viva Las Vegas on 'em since it seems like that one leads directly out of the IM movie and is written by director Jon Favreau with art from Adi Granov, the guy who designed the Iron Man suit in the movie.

dad bends the rules

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:36:12 GMT

"murder" means elliot gets to rip up old newspapers and make messy confetti all over the living room.

There's a really important one in here this week-
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
This is a big release for me. Normally I write about these movies but I don't actually BUY the movies I write about... but this one rates a purchase. You will not find a bigger fan of Mystery Science Theater than myself- I grew up on the show, from Season One back when you could only see it on The Comedy Channel, and in the years between then and now my love for MST3K has only grown. It's one of those shows that really rewards the viewer for being smart while at the same time not making you feel like an idiot if you don't catch everything the writers are laying down. The show was a huge part of my identity growing up (as pathetic as that sounds) and it's exciting to be able to own MST3K: The Movie for the first time ever.

Y'see, previous to this week, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie was impossible to own for the casual Mystie as it's been out of print since it first came INTO print on DVD. In their theatrical outing, Mike Nelson and the robots riff on the Universal Studios classic This Island Earth... a higher calibar movie than they usually rip on. Because the movie was from Universal and the movie was NOT made by Universal, all sorts of legal problems precluded MST3K: TM from being re-released until now.

While I'm fond of this movie and I'm excited to own it... I will say that if I'm trying to turn a new person on to MST3K, I wouldn't recommend this flick. It's just as funny as a good episode of the series of course, but it has its problems. It's quite short, for one. Secondly, the movie that they make fun of is actually kind of good. I know I'm being a real armchair critic here but I always thought that picking This Island Earth was something of a mistake for the show's big screen debut. I always secretly hoped they would tackle the kind of all bad movies, Plan 9 from Outer Space... but that was not to be. The DVD has zero bonus features, which is a shame as it's pretty widely known amongst fans of the show that there were all sorts of deleted scenes that didn't make it into the final cut.

Still, this is a must-own for me.

Teeth
Horror movies have become a bit too brutal for me in the past couple of years- I can't even watch a trailer for the Saw movies without my testicles shrinking up into my pelvis and wanting to suck my thumb. However, I've heard good things about Teeth, the vagina dentata by way of teen horror flick, and I wouldn't be opposed to squirming my way through this one.

Twister: Special Edition
I remember watching Twister when it came out in theaters, but I defy anyone to prove to me that the movie isn't totally retarded and not worth watching on the small scren. I hate movies where the bad guy is "weather" and Twister's CGI tornados just don't hold up past the movie's original release. I don't know what makes this release so special (probably a Blu-Ray disc?) but I'm avoiding this one.

currently

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:49:30 GMT

I forgot The Comics Reporter's Five For Friday #118 -- Name Five Locales From Comics You Like That Are not A) A Character's Primary Residence, B) Their Traditional Headquarters

1. The Barrelhaven (Bone)
2. B & J's Collector's Emporium (Hate)
3. Radu's (Green Lantern)
4. Planet Krypton restaurant (Kingdom Come)
5. That hollowed-out robot that The Thunderbolts were going to use as a base but never did. I'm not going to pull my comics out, but it's from the first couple of issues where Hawkeye joined the team. (Thunderbolts)

Sketchbook Saturday

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:45:03 GMT

Free Comic Book Day ended up being kind of stupid- the store I went to had a "One Comic Per Person" limit and they didn't even have the Gyro Gearloose comic! They gave Elliot a Tiny Titans though.

Friday Five

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:47:56 GMT

1. What types of board games do you like to play, if any?
We like a whole bunch. Ellen and I play Scrabble pretty routinely but it's a frustrating game with E. as she takes forever and a day to make her moves and I get bored waiting for her. Even though Scrabble is as much a strategy game as it is a game of vocabulary, I'll freely admit that it's the word aspect of the game that gets me... which explains why I'm routinely beaten soundly by any and all comers.

I played a lot of Scattergories in Brooklyn with Melissa and Brad, usually under the influence of something or other.

I have a board game called Marry, Date, or Dump? that I bought for like $3 bucks at a Kay-Bee Toys outlet store and while it's pretty weak sauce, I played that a lot when I was living in Brooklyn, especially when I was on a date with a girl. It was a funny/stupid way to break the ice.

2. How often do you play board games?
I would say we play board games about twice a month, give or take. Some months we might play more than twice... some months less.

3. What is your absolutely favorite game?
Boggle. During my first year of teaching in Brooklyn, my teacher friends and I went through a Boggle craze wherein we spent ever lunch break playing the game. I like Boggle better than Scrabble because the constraints your under are a lot more challenging... and you learn the little tricks much quicker.

4. Describe your Monopoly strategy.
My Monopoly strategy is to stay as far away from the game as possible as I hate Monopoly. Again, Monopoly's a strategy game. I can barely think past tomorrow... let alone twenty minutes from now when I'll be landing on St. Charles Place.

5. Do you feel that board games are becoming obsolete with the rise in computer and video gaming?
I think there will always be a need for physical board games, for all the same reasons that movie theaters will never die. People need stuff to do when they're going out on dates.
****************************************

So for the first time ever, I'm going to Free Comic Book Day tomorrow. Although I'm a regular comic book reader/patron, I've never been to a FCBD because I always viewed it as a marketing strategy aimed at bringing new readers into a comics shop rather than plying already established readers with books... but I've always been interested in the hoopla and there looks to be a couple of good free books I'd be interested in getting. Depending on what my store has, I'm lookin' to pick up Tiny Titans, Hellboy, and Gyro Gearloose.

vacation, all i ever wanted

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:42:11 GMT

Barring a lightening bolt of inspiration, I'm not going to be doing any comics this week. There's no real reason behind this impromptu vacation besides my not banking any strips during the week and laziness precluding me from cranking some out today.

...anyhoo, see you back here next week. In the meantime, I already wrote up my comic & DVD release blurbs for this week, so I'll post those tonight. I know you impulse shoppers would be lost without 'em.

The Golden Compass
I have a weird relationship to the source material this movie is based on. While I enjoyed The Golden Compass on my own run-through of the book... I came to absolutely hate the book during my time as a middle school teacher in Brooklyn. At the beginning of the year, we would get a certain allotment of free books from the city and for some reason, we would get box after box of The Golden Compass, regardless of the fact that the book is like three or four reading levels above what even the brightest of my students could read in the sixth grade.

Mind, I'm not saying that a sixth grader COULDN'T read The Golden Compass... what I am saying is that at the beginning of the year, none of my students could. Yet they would pick the book up all the time and be absolutely stymied by it. It's a tough thing for a teacher. I would have loved to have my students reading The Golden Compass but at the same time... they couldn't read it. It's no use to carry around a book so advanced if they weren't going to be able to read it. I had to put the breaks on their interest and steer them toward a book that was at their reading level, at least for the time being.

Hm. None of that has anything to do with this movie, which I'm anxious to check out. Pullman has a knack for writing action sequences and I'd like to see how they play themselves out on the big screen. I'm also excited to see Sam Elliot as Lee Scoresby, a perfect bit of casting if there ever was one.

The Classic Caballeros Collection
I have to tell you, I was very impressed with the history and behind the scenes machinations that went on which brought these cartoons to life for Walt Disney Studios. I recently read Disney's biography and I had no idea the hows and whys of making these 'toons had anything to do with government funding or ambassadorship but you learn something new everyday. As a kid, I couldn't ever really tolerate The Three Caballeros but if anybody's interested in the story, check out my GoodReads profile and read Walt Disney- The Triumph of American Imagination.

and

DC Universe Zero
I usually fall for these loss leader books hook, line, and sinker... even if half the time they just end up leading directly into gigundo crossover events meant to siphon money I normally wouldn't have spent if I hadn't bought the cheap-o lead-in comic in the first place.

Speed Racer/Racer X: Origins TPB
I've never been a big Speed Racer fan outside of the theme song... but the 1999 mini-series collected here was pretty damn terrific. Artist/writer Tommy Yune provided an origin for every aspect of the Speed Racer continuity, from the origins of the Mach 5 to how Spritle got his awful awful name. With the new movie coming out, it's great that IDW is re-releasing this mini, pairing it with the Racer X follow-up. Didn't read that one, but on the strength of the first series alone, this rates a recommendation.

Wizard #200
NOT a comic but a comics magazine, I thought I'd take a second and point out that while Wizard: The Guide to Comics is now more Wizard: A Guide to Comics that Wishes it was Maxim, the magazine really was an important part of my growth as a comics reader. I started buying Wizard right around the time I started reading comics and I loved it probably as much as I loved the comics themselves. While it was never going to be The Comics Journal, Wizard had some decently in-depth interviews during its early period and I poured over every issue time and time again... embarrassingly, there was a point in my life where I put my Wizards on a bookshelf, spine facing outward so as to show everybody how many I had.

Yeah, Wizard fanned the flames of questionable collectability that ultimately burned the direct market so badly... but they didn't start people buying a case of Bloodstryke #1's (RUB THE BLOOD!). Idiotic people were already doing that. And yes, Wizard has always favored the superheroes... but as someone who liked and continues to like that kind of stuff, it was nice to see my interests reflected in a mass media magazine.

That's not to say Wizard's very good or you should be reading it... I'm just mulling some memories here.

Sketchbook Saturday

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:14:08 GMT

I used to really like The Comic Critic when I was in college; it was published in one of Buffalo's local free papers.

Friday five

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:33:57 GMT

What's harder to live without, chocolate or alchohol?
Definitely chocolate. I'm a social drinker but I'm ravenous for all things chocolate.

Does the colour yellow remind you of anything?
Big Bird.

Who most annoyed you last week?
In general, the school where I work. Specifically, on student in my afternoon classes who really should have been kicked out months ago. He's way more interested in disrupting classes and his classmates than he ever has been in his education.

Do you have a cutesy romantic nickname for your partner (or previous partners)?
No.

What is your favourite Stephen King movie?
I've always really liked the mini-series adaptation of The Stand that aired on ABC in 1994. The Sci-Fi Channel reran it this weekend. I still think that's one of the best adaptations of King novel... and certainly, The Stand isn't the easiest of his books to adapt for any medium. If The Stand didn't count because it was a TV movie and not a proper film, I'd have to change my answer to the 1980 version of The Shining. You know... the good one.

just whaling around

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:19:35 GMT

Note to whoever it was that gave us this shirt: Even though it makes no sense, we love it.

greasy cici's

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:53:36 GMT

I hadn't heard of Cici's before I moved to Ohio, but that's probably because I come from New York: The Land of Pizza that Doesn't Give You the Hershey Squirts.

Cheers to a lot of CDs comin' out that I want! In the past few months we got new music from Ray Davies and The Magnetic Fields... and in the next few months I get Weezer? Neil Diamond? Flight of the Conchords? Awesome.

Jeers to needing the money to buy those CDs.

Cheers to Monday night television for being so horrendously, hilariously awful: One Tree Hill at 9 and The Bachelor at 10? It's a sarcastic armchair commentator's dream come true!

Jeers to that new E-Trade commercial where the baby talks to you about buying stocks and then throws up.

Seriously? We're showing vomit in commercials now?

(A special Jeers to me for embedding that commercial, since essentially by doing that I've given ETrade s'more advertising for free... but fucking come on. Babies vomiting?)

Cheers to Nick Hornby's Slam for taking a tired YA plot (teenage pregnancy) and telling a story about it from a new perspective (Slam comes form the boy's P.O.V. rather than the girl's)

Jeers to the time travel stuff in Slam. I mean... maybe not Jeers, but I'm not sure the book needs it. It's strong on its own.

put it in a box

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:41:58 GMT

...so here's the thing. I hate this comic. Didn't come out good. Still... even though I didn't like it, I was bored enough at a staff meeting to ink it, which means that I knew inevitably I was going to unleash its' badness on the world at large. Unfortunately, today is that day.

Glamourpuss #1
Dave Sim's new comic. I went through a period when I was in middle/high school where I faithfully bought every issue of Cerebus that hit the stands, even though I never understood word one of what was going on in the story. It seemed like a year's worth of issues where Cerebus was floating around on an asteroid and nothing much was happening. I didn't get much out of those comics, but I have enjoyed Sim's work in the past. I always loved Jaka's Story, for example.

Helen Killer #1
The premise for this sounds so stupid that I'm sure the creators are going to be able to sell it to Hollywood for a million dollars and never have to work again. Helen Keller is reimagined as a high-tech government assassin. Amazing.

I don't know how interested I am in this book, for which the premise is some kind of prose-style fashion magazine, but Sim returning to monthly comics is a big deal.

Countdown to Final Crisis #1
I can't say as I give a crap about Countdown. Where as I followed DC's last weekly comic event, 52 had a reasonably structured story with characters that were if not well-defined, then at least easy to follow in their individual story arcs. Countdown flailed around so badly that I'm not even entirely sure what the point of the comic was... if it was indeed, intended to have a point in the same way that 52 did.

That being said, Countdown hasn't dampened my interest in these types of books. Even if DC is only 1 for 2 when it comes to its weekly experiment, I am very interested in their next whack at this type of comic, especially considering its pedigree.

Batman 675
...and here begins the big "Batman: R.I.P" storyarc that DC has been quietly hyping up for the past six months. The title implies that Batman's going to be pushing up daisies by its conclusion. I think we all know is a steamin' load of crap. Even the Internet has been going apeshit, sayin' that Batman is going to croak and become one of the New Gods which sounds like a load of retarded crap.

Considering how much I loved Grant Morrison's take on Batman during his JLA run, I've been oddly uninterested in his run on the Dark Knight's solo title. The delays in the first handful of issues... the all-text Joker issue... by the time Batman started coming out on a regular basis, I had moved on.

Daredevil: Hell to Pay, Vol. 2 TPB
While Ed Brubaker's Captain America seems to get all the ink these days, I've enjoying his take on Daredevil for the past few years. I didn't expect to like Brubaker on DD as much as I do; I was a gigantic fan of what Bendis and Maleev did with the character on their lengthy run and although the team of Brubaker and Lark produced one of my favorite Vertigo series ever (Scene of the Crime: A Little Piece of Goodnight), I didn't expect to make the transition so easily. I don't read Daredevil month-to-month, but I do pick up the trades reliably. With my tiny hobby budget being what it is, that's quite a compliment.

Modern Masters: Mike Allred
I've extolled the virtues of the TwoMorrows excellent ongoing series before- lengthy, in-depth interviews with comic book artists as to their perspective on the major events of their careers. I pick these up whenever I can and whenever the subject interests me. I find that the Modern Masters books that are the best are the books which feature writer/artists rather than artists that stay completely behind the drawing table, and Mike Allred fits that bill entirely. I was a huge fan of Madman Comics back in the day and his run on X-Force was surprisingly intone with the X-books of the early '00's. If I see this at my LCS, I'm scoopin' it up... and if I don't, I'm ordering it.

someday they'll have adventures

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:07:11 GMT

Cloverfield
Couldn't work up much interest in this Godzilla retread. People seemed to dig it and I'm certainly interested in at least seeing it on DVD, but I've never been a huge Godzilla fan and this flick just kind of glories in those movies albeit with a handheld/reality twist.

Friday Night Lights: Season Two
Gotta say... I'm the last fucking guy who expected to like Friday Night Lights, and I LOVE Friday Night Lights. It's the heir apparent to My So-Called Life; if you loved that show, you'll love this one... even though it's about jocks. S.2 of FNL took sort of a strange turn early on wherein the producers seemingly tried to juice up the ratings by featuring Adrianne Palicki's Tyra walking around in a bikini and involving Tyra and good natured nerd Landry in an accidental murder. Fans of FNL didn't really go for the stunt; I think the actors made the awkward plot work believably to the point where I could forgive the weirdness of it.

NBC reached some kind of agreement with DirecTV which will make Season Three of Friday Night Lights a reality, which is very nice- I don't expect it will ever really set the world on fire as a series, but it's solid entertainment.

stand up comic

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:51:18 GMT

Mark Waid to write Spider-Man : For one story, at least. There was a time when there would have been nothing I'd have liked better than Waid on Spidey. I was a big follower of his run on The Flash until it sort of imploded with the Chain Lightning story... and I still think the guy has a gift for a character like this. Marvel's doing a great job of keeping a rotating stable of writers on ASM while sprinkling in guys to write smaller arcs.

Power Girl ongoing series : Don't really care for the character and I think it's one of those situations where a company is dictating "This is what the fans want!" when it may not be so... I can't think of anybody who flat-out loves Power Girl. Still, Amanda Conner artwork!

Marvel Apes : I really can't see people caring about this one. Marvel Zombies, yeah... I get it. It was a play on the old insult lobbed at fans who bought all of Marvel's comics regardless of intrinsic merit or value. Does anyone call anyone a "Marvel ape" though? I don't think so. I suppose it could be entertaining, but not for me.

Robert Kirkman & Cory Walker re-team on Marvel's Destroyer : The fluke success of the previously mentioned Marvel Zombies aside, it seems like none of Kirkman's Marvel work has gone over like gangbusters. This is a shame because I've enjoyed everything the guy's done for the company, especially his 25 issues of Marvel Team-Up. Walker too has grown with leaps and bounds as an artist since his initial stint on Invincible, making this the comics announcement I'm most likely to follow up on with my comic buying dollars.

Marvel's adapting Orson Scott Card's Ender series of books as comics : I read & enjoyed Ender's Game but found the rest of the books not to my liking. I'm unconvinced that these adaptations are the ticket to getting new fans in the doors of comic shops, but I can't deny that the care and precision that these titles are given really allow for some terrific looking books.

Honestly, there's probably a ton of better, non-mainstream comics news... but that's been all I can find. Most of the comic book news related sites seem to be under the impression that I want to watch YouTube videos of these news stories- they're totally mistaken on that point.

Sketchbook Saturday

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:38:51 GMT

I've been in a Nintendo mood with my sketches, but I totally couldn't remember what anyone in The Legend of Zelda looks like. Link has a mullet though.

musical friday five

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:58:20 GMT

...if I hurry, this will be the first Friday Five to be posted on Friday in awhile.

1. How often do you listen to music?
A lot less since I started getting into listening to podcasts and audiobooks on my commute to and from work, but I would say I listen to music every other day.

2. Do you ever listen to the radio? What is your favorite station?
I don't listen to any radio stations in Cincinnati besides 91.7 WVXU, and that's my favorite. I love Jean Cochran.

3. How do you find new songs, albums, or artists to listen to?
Music reviews in magazines at Borders sometimes... more often, I just pick shit up from the library. A lot of times I'll hear music in movies and that'll lead me to something.

4. When was the last time you bought a CD? A digital music file?
The last time I bought a CD was last month, I bought the new Ray Davies album Working Man's Cafe. The last time I bought a digital file, it was Loudon Wainwright's last album that had a bunch of songs from Knocked Up on it.

5. Do you think any of the technologies and distribution methods mentioned above will still be around in ten years? Why or why not?
Yeah, sure, they'll all still be around... why not?

If there's a comic book Five for Friday, I'll post that tomorrow along with some sketches.

teaching at my school feels like being a...

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:31:41 GMT

I didn't get a chance to make this one all toned. Sue me!

i hate this process

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:19:48 GMT

I thought I'd start posting some "Cheers and Jeers". The idea for Cheers and Jeers was something that I came up with entirely myself with no help from anyone or any publication in print either now or ever. 100% my idea.

Cheers to the idea of sequels... but waiting a long time to make them. For some reason this week, I got hit with these two articles: Keanu Reeves leaves door open for a third Bill and Ted movie and Judd Apatow says he'd like to make another Anchorman movie with Will Ferrell 30 years from now

I like the idea of giving audiences a ton of breathing room between sequels... especially sequels that people aren't exactly chomping at the bit to see in theaters RIGHT NOW. I can't even decide which of those two movies I'd like to see more, but I'm leaning toward Bill & Ted 3. Honestly, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is way more awesome than it's rep would lead you to believe.

Jeers to trying to rewatch The Lord of the Rings movies. Seriously, how can anybody sit down and watch these movies a second time? They're so effing long! I really enjoyed the first LotR flick and liked the second and third, but damn. I tried to watch 'em this weekend and I couldn't get more than a half an hour into 'em before I had to call it quits. I salute the folks who can make it through all three in a day.

Cheers to my in-laws and extended family for working together to give Ellen a piano! She's so freakin' happy with it!

Jeers to my school slapping an extra four days of school onto the year- instead of being finished in May, I now have to go all the way to June 6th. While a far cry from how long I needed to be in school back in Brooklyn, it's somewhat demoralizing. Plus, Ellen and I had plans to go to her 10 year high school reunion on June 6th.

Cheers to the audiobook version of The Golden Compass I've been listening to lately.

Jeers to the confusing title mix-up with the books- I had no idea until last night that The Golden Compass was originally Northern Lights in the UK. Why you gotta be changin' book titles all the time, American publishers? (Although for the record, The Golden Compass is a MUCH better title than Northern Lights. Northern Lights sounds like the name of a gay bar in Buffalo, New York).

we have no money

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:35:54 GMT

Powers Annual #1
At the rate that the series seems to come out these days, regular issues of Powers are kind of like annuals... but snarkiness aside, this book bucks some of the trends that usually go hand-in-hand with the idea of annuals in that it's produced by the creative team that churns out the monthly (ha) book... even moreso actually, as penciller Michael Avon Oeming contributes some of the writing here.

Brave & The Bold #12
Apparently The Brave and the Bold has been hemorrhaging readers since it's 100 K debut, and I'm about to become one of 'em. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be dropping B&B as of this issue. It's one of the five comics I have on my pull list at my LCS, but I'll be the guy to admit that the draw for the series was Mark Waid AND George Perez... and Perez has been gone since last issue. I like Jerry Ordway's pencils, but not enough to keep on keepin' on. It's a solid book, but I'm looking for places to trim my pull list and I think B&B is gone.

Noble Causes Archives TPB Vol 1
I've been hearing very good things about writer Jay Faerber's superhero-by-way-of The Kennedys ongoing series, but I've never been in the position to sample it. This trade seemingly collects a wealth of Noble Causes material (NOBLE CAUSES FIRST IMPRESSIONS, NOBLE CAUSES #1-4, NOBLE CAUSES: FAMILY SECRETS #1-4, NOBLE CAUSES: DISTANT RELATIVES #1-4, and the NOBLE CAUSES ongoing series #1-12) for under $20 bucks. Looks like a good value for your dollar!

The Complete Peanuts: 1967-1968
One of the best newspaper strips ever, one of the best reprint collections ever... I completely wore myself out on buying this by the second volume. They're great but I just got tired of 'em! I feel bad every time I look at my bookshelf- having the entire Peanuts collection in one place would be amazing, but I just don't feel the inclination. Don't let my ambivelence stop you though!