"I hammer war"

Hey, I know that guy! In issue #1 of the comic Fall of Cthulu: Godwar from Boom! Studios, fresh on the stands this week, there is a brief interview with pal Ian about his new position as an editor for the company -- complete with photo! Very cool, Ian. Congrats once again! Guess they haven't discovered you can't read yet. (Oops!)


Here's a scan of the full page. I'm sure Ian was very pleased to have been included on the same page as a tribute to the late comics retailer Rory Root, whom Ian (and I) regarded with great esteem.


Here's Ian's bit on its own. Click to biggie size so you can read the interview, and admire what a dashing young devil Mr. Brill is.


And click here if you'd like to read the tribute to Rory at full size.

COMICS: Wed. 12/8/04

I bought four comics. Two days later, I've still only read three of them. I'm slow.

She-Hulk: I love this comic. I prefer when Bobillo draws it -- something about that baby-faced She-Hulk, and his other non-traditional depictions of Marvel characters, really gives me a kick. But the writing is consistently entertaining no matter who's doing the art. I like the effort that goes into the minor characters. For example, I have to imagine no one has ever given as much thought to Titania as Dan Slott does this issue.

Powers: Nothing really happened this issue, did it? A lot of treading water. A lot of talk talk talk about whether it's right for heroes to challenge the law and use their powers openly. Then some nobody in a costume died, probably killed by a cop. Which might've been interesting, if they had actually dealt with it in this issue, instead of cliffhanging it. Pretty boring overall.

Punisher: I was a couple pages in, and one panel with Frank's face made me think, that looks like Bill Reinhold art. Which is unusual for me; I'm hardly an expert on artistic styles. But I was right, he's the inker. I had a little late '80s flashback, to when Reinhold was doing the art for Mike Baron's Punisher. As well as Baron's Badger. Those were the days. I wish Mike Baron were still writing comics. I mean, mainstream comics that have a future, not the ultra-obscure titles for mini-mini publishers that he seems to release once a year, which then disappear after the first issue (Faro Korbit, anyone?). In fact, he appears to have released a new book last month, The Detonator, which I've never even heard of. (It was scheduled for November, anyway; maybe it's not actually out yet.) And he's talking about a Badger revival for mid-2005. New issues of Grimjack and Badger scheduled for next year? Heaven!!

What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, Punisher. Pretty good issue.

Fables: Haven't read it.

Also picked up (but haven't read) the first TPB of Ed Brubaker's Catwoman. I'd been resisting this, because I bought the first couple-three issues when they first came out, then decided to drop the title. But Ian's enthusiasm for Brubaker's Sleeper recently got me to pick up the first trade of that series, and I really enjoyed it, so now I'm on a mini-Brubaker kick, I guess. Next up: Gotham Central.

Linkblogging

I'm falling back on the old standby that I've actually never used before. Here's a few other blogs that I enjoy.

Associated Comics and Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, California, and Outlying Environs: the four people I know in real life, under the umbrella title invented by Mike, and listed at the top of my link section to the right. Recently, Ian has been deconstructing Chaykin, when he's not posting covers of bizarre and obscure motorcycle-themed comics; Corey continues to astound me with how many more bad movies he's seen than I have, including the Pat Morita crapfest Timemaster; Dorian has been making friends and raising the ire of the squares and the clueless with posts that dare to deflate both comics creators and comics fanboys; and Mike has been continuing his slow but inevitable domination of the blogging community, and soon, the world.

I dig Ken Lowery Presents: Ringwood, because Ken is so angry, he makes me look well-adjusted. Re: Hal Jordan's return: "Holy fucking god, has there ever been such a non-issue in the history of the world? It's pathetic, it's sad, we all know it, WE'RE MOVING ON NOW."

H & Mag's The Comic Treadmill has good, in-depth reviews of comics, and also is currently featuring a poll ("Who is the Identity Crisis killer?") in which one of the choices is "ACAPCWOVCCAOE". (We're losing to "Yoko Ono".)

Scott at Polite Dissent often investigates medical scenarios in comics for their real-life veracity, and also posts kooky nostalgia-related items on Mad Mod, or Wormy (remember Wormy, from Dragon magazine? You do? NEERRRRRRD!!! Oh, wait, so do I).

David Welsh at Precocious Curmudgeon doesn't watch as much TV as I do, but he tries. He also feels an appropriate level of horrified disbelief towards the John Byrne forum. And he will not be, as he recently suggested, the last comics-type blogger in the world to read Scott Pilgrim. I will.

Woody at The Sock Drawer often seems to be the only other comics fan aside from myself who also watches football. He's got a plethora of reviews of fan films around the web, and he ends each post with an unattributed quotation, so trivia buffs, try to be the first to comment with who said it and where.

I'm linking Ken C's Revoltin' Developments because he asked me to in his last post. Okay, that, and his current "Battle of..." between Tomb of Dracula #1 from 1972 and Tomb of Dracula #1 from 2004 is truly inspired.

Bill Sherman of Pop Culture Gadabout was the first person that I didn't personally know to link to this blog, so he's aces right from the get-go. His excellent reviews of various pop culture items were a partial inspiration for me to finally start a pop culture blog of my own. His recent anecdote about the behavior of Republican women at one Border's bookstore will make you grit your teeth, assuming you're not Republican yourself.

...Like Augie De Blieck, Jr. is. He has at times made his conservative leanings (which I strongly disagree with) known on his blog, Various and Sundry, and yet I still visit regularly. Why? Because it's a good blog, with insightful TV and DVD reviews and interesting links, and his politics don't change that one way or the other. He rarely mentions his politics (and has in fact recently established a separate blog to contain all political entries), but when he does bring them up, he retains his good nature and humor (as opposed to a certain other insanely hateful diatribe of a blog which I won't name here -- but its initials are Apologies Demanded).

There are many other blogs I read regularly (just look to the right), but that's plenty for now, I think. And please be reassured, even if you don't see my site's name on your referrer list, it's only because I'm visiting you via Comic Weblog Updates.

TV: Jon Stewart on Crossfire

On Friday, Jon Stewart was the guest on CNN's alleged news debate program, Crossfire, hosted by Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala. And Stewart went apeshit on them.

Here's a transcript (thanks to Ian for the link). Oh, I wish all of you would read it, whether you be left, right, or totally apathetic in your politics. Because Stewart takes them to task. Stewart isn't mounting a partisan attack. He is genuinely outraged at Crossfire (and by extension, other non-hard-hitting news shows) that act as tools of the politicians of either side, parroting their party lines and press releases, rather than engaging in genuine, honest debate.

"It's hurting America," he tells them, and he's not wrong.

If you've seen the video (and there are plenty of places to download it already), it's just amazing how worked up Stewart gets. Because the Crossfire guys do exactly what he's accusing them of: they refuse to engage him in the debate. They refuse to step out of the "theater" Stewart says they're performing (STEWART: Now, this is theater. It's obvious. How old are you? CARLSON: Thirty-five. STEWART: And you wear a bow tie.... So this is theater.), and answer him in an honest fashion. They want him to play nice, and make jokes, and he's having none of it: "I'm not going to be your monkey."

Some more sample quotes:

STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery....
CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?
[...]
STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?

STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.
CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.
STEWART: You need to go to one.

And, when it's become clear Stewart is deadly sincere in his anger and outrage, and Carlson is on the defense:

CARLSON: What's it like to have dinner with you? It must be excruciating. Do you like lecture people like this or do you come over to their house and sit and lecture them; they're not doing the right thing, that they're missing their opportunities, evading their responsibilities?
STEWART: If I think they are.
CARLSON: I wouldn't want to eat with you, man. That's horrible.
STEWART: I know. And you won't.

Carlson's idea of turning the tables on Stewart is to point out how soft Stewart's interview with John Kerry was. Which, #1, is jealousy, plain and simple; Kerry won't come on Crossfire. And #2, is pure bullshit. As Stewart says:

You know, it's interesting to hear you talk about my responsibility... and maybe this explains quite a bit... is that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity.... But my point is this. If your idea of confronting me is that I don't ask hard-hitting enough news questions, we're in bad shape, fellas.

It's amazing to watch as Stewart becomes the most uncomfortable one on the show, as he comes to realize that he just can't get them to honestly address his questions, much like they can't get politicians to honestly answer their questions. (But, unlike him, they never even try, is his point.) He goes from humorous but aggressive, to genuinely angry, to a rueful resignation. He keeps trying, but he knows he won't get anything out of them: "Why can't we just talk -- please, I beg of you guys, please." And he finally just snaps at Carlson as they're going to commercial, "You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show." No, seriously, he actually says that. Yikes.

It's pure unstaged drama. It's one of the most contentious interviews I've ever witnessed. It's a fascinating, depressingly revealing, television moment. Jon Stewart: the fake anchor as the voice of reason.

COMICS: Wed. 8/4/04

I'm late on this week's comics reviews, but I have a valid excuse: I was absolutely overwhelmed with the sheer volume of new comics I purchased this week. I truly went overboard. I mean, here's the list:

1) Y: The Last Man

Oh, I guess that's it. So really, I have no excuse, and I'm just a lazy bastard.

Here's my review:

I liked it. Naked butts are funny. The end.

Okay, wait, I've got one or two other thoughts. Number one is, of course, what a great ending it was. After 25 issues, it's about damn time we saw what Beth was up to in Australia! Now, I just hope they don't drop her for another 25 issues. I get the feeling the next arc will feature Beth in a big way, though Dorian, for one, does not -- he tells me that solicitation info for the next issues indicates it's more adventures with Yorick, this time in San Francisco. Well, Vaughan can switch back and forth from Yorick to Beth, can't he?

Also, I get the feeling a lot of people were a little unhappy with this two-part story, but I enjoyed it, both for Yorick reaching a big milestone (the last man on Earth finally gets laid! Geez, Abe Vigoda would've gotten lucky before this guy), the shots Vaughan (via Beth #2) took at the Left Behind books in part one, and just the overall feel that this was a breather between bigger stories. It was a fine change of pace -- but I'm ready for something big to happen next.

Other stuff I bought:

Ultimate X-Men: The New Mutants TPB, which I haven't read yet. It's Bendis, I had to get it. It's a sickness.

PvP at large, which I have read, and which had me laughing out loud many times. Kurtz has a great cartooning style (although I noticed in this book that some of his lines look a little rough-edged, possibly due to transferring the strips from computer to print; I don't know for sure if he does all his art directly on the computer, but I kind of assume he does, which unfortunately results in a little pixellation-blur in the printing process), and the jokes are funnier for the characters' facial expressions (sometimes just a raised eyebrow works) and well-developed personalities.

The New Frontier, issues 4 and 5. I'd gotten the first and second issues because of all the wild praise they were getting, and I wasn't blown away. I dropped the book, but then Ian and Corey were raving about it at the store on Wednesday, so I decided to give it another shot -- no copies of #3 were to be found, though. I read #4 last night, and liked it better than the first two, but still, I'm not feeling the overwhelming love for it everyone else is. Maybe when I get all six, I'll appreciate it more. This is a lot of money I'm investing in a hunch (that I will gain appreciation for it); I mean, it's seven damn bucks a pop! I am looking forward to reading #5 tonight, because I know Hal Jordan is finally getting his Green Lantern ring, and I've heard all about the Wonder Woman/Invisible Jet sequence, which sounds really cool.

It's all so self-referential, I just can't stand it

Now that I'm actually getting a certain amount of regular traffic at this site (it's still double digits, but it's high double digits, baby!), I need to be more diligent in my updating. Maybe a little something in the morning, just anything to let people know I still exist (like this post), followed by something with a little more thought behind it when I've got the time.

Let me take a moment to acknowledge the fine bloggers who have linked to me in the past couple days (such as Jog - The Blog, Polite Dissent, and Blog THIS, Pal!), or, even better, have actually mentioned me specifically in a post (like Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog, Ringwood Ragefuck or The Comic Treadmill, which I almost forgot about because, for some reason, that link doesn't appear in a Technorati search of my web address -- almost forgot, but didn't, because it was such a swell mention).

And that's not even mentioning Progressive Ruin, by good ol' Mikey Sterling, who is the founder and patron saint of the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers Of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs (or ACAPCWOVCCAOE, which, hilariously enough, he actually pronounced as a word at the comic shop on Wednesday-- I had to admire the obvious effort he had put into developing and memorizing the pronunciation). He's always willing to throw me some of his outrageously voluminous web traffic by mentioning me in a post. The other fellas in that group, Dorian, Ian, and Corey, are always more than worth checking out as well (as long as I'm in name-drop mode).

In summary: thanks, all, for stopping by. A regular comics post will follow soon.

TRAILER TRASH

Mr. 3000: What struck me most about the trailer for this Bernie Mac baseball "comedy" was not how stunningly unfunny it looks to be, nor what a step down this is career-wise for Angela Bassett, but that it's stolen a gimmick directly from the Bad News Bears. Bernie Mac, at first base, has concealed the ball in his glove, and when the baserunner takes a big leadoff, Bernie tags him out. That is a direct steal from one of the Bad News Bears films (I think it was The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, but it's been a while.) That's just sad. Also, any movie that still thinks it's funny to make Tom Arnold/Roseanne jokes should be taken behind the barn and shot like Old Yeller.

Exorcist: The Beginning: This one's tough to judge. The original Exorcist is an enduring horror classic, but its two sequels were for shit. And this new prequel has quite a troubled history: Renny Harlin is the third director attached to the film; John Frankenheimer quit the film a month before his death, and Paul Schrader was fired after completing the film -- the producers apparently hated his version, and hired Harlin to reshoot it with more action and violence. The DVD extras should be interesting -- they could just have one two-hour long deleted scene. Maybe I'll rent that DVD one day, but I think I'll be avoiding this in the theaters.

Blade: Trinity: This looks really dumb. But the first two Blade movies also looked really dumb, and they were both highly entertaining. This movie has the added bonus of seeing goofball Ryan Reynolds (of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place) and whiny little powderpuff Jessica Biel act like super-tough vampire hunters, which is just inherently funny to me. Plus: Parker Posey as a vampire. Nuff said. I'm there. And special note for Ian: Patton Oswalt's in this thing. Could it get any better??

Nicotina: This film is trying to capitalize on the buzz from every Latin indie film of the past five years. From the producers of Amores Perros! With one of the actors from Y Tu Mamá También! And if you squint a little, it kind of looks like City of God! According to IMDb, though, unlike those films, this is supposed to be a comedy, which I didn't really get from the trailer. Looked like just another crime film to me. Not interested.

A Dirty Shame: This could be great, or it could be a train wreck -- and considering it's John Waters directing, it might be both. Waters is returning to his perverted beginnings as a filmmaker in a big way with this NC-17 rated film. I was shocked by the stuff they showed in the trailer, which only hints at the deeply twisted depravity waiting in the real thing. I can't wait. No matter what, I am seeing this film. On a sidenote: Selma Blair is one of the stars. She also was in Storytelling. Now, I don't know if she's the only actress ever to appear in two NC-17 films, but if she's not, I bet you could count them all on the fingers of one hand. I just find that interesting.

Bloggin' about bloggin'

I need to update my links list. But it's so damn tedious.

Firstly, I need to create a sub-category, as Mike has done, for the Associated Comics and Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA and Outlying Environs (aka Dudes I Know in Real Life), which include Dorian, Corey, and Ian.

Speaking of Ian, his entries about his experiences at the SD Comic Con have been linked to by Mark Evanier's News from me and Heidi MacDonald's The Beat, which is pretty frickin' cool. I'm so jealous. Not only does he make the Con pilgrimage, but he's also getting linked all over the place for it. (Not as jealous of the links as Mike was [insert smiley face here], because I've actually had the distinction of being name-checked in Mark Evanier's blog, too, back before I had a blog to link to. If you click that link, I'm the only Tom mentioned on the page... and yes, that's my real last name. No jokes, damn your eyes!)

I also have to note which of my blog links are represented on the Comic Weblog Updates page, and which are not. I've been neglecting visiting those blogs which don't appear on the Update page, and that's just wrong.

Also also, I must take up Milo George's generous offer of amnesty from SquirrelNation (even though I think my position as Pope of the Holy Squirrel Empire may trump his secular rank of General), and add The Unofficial John Westmoreland Memorial Tribute Webring to my links, while I still can.

If only Blogger had an easier method of adding links than having to alter the template for my entire blog. Frankly, it's more trouble for me to change the links than it is for me to just bitch about it like this.

COMICS: Wed. 6/30/04

Went to my friendly neighborhood comics shop Wednesday and wound up hanging out with employees Mike, Dorian, and Chris, as well as fellow comics fiends Corey and Ian, for a good hour and a half. Good times. One of our conversation topics was about our Irish chins, all of which (but Corey's) are oh-so-cleverly concealed behind facial hair. Chris, who isn't Irish, felt left out, but we all decided that half Mexican plus half Jewish equals Irish, and that seemed to cheer the lad right up.

Anyway. Only three new comics today, a light and inexpensive load for me, but I collected a bundle of back issues as well, and wound up putting a serious hurt on my bank account after all. Hooray?

• Batman: Harley and Ivy
  Part 3 of a 3-part mini. Another funny issue from Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, featuring Harley and Ivy's misadventures in Hollywood. Very reminiscent of the work the two did on the Batman cartoon -- but with a more adult slant. Which I think must be confusing parents and kids alike. A cursory glance reveals the same cartoony art style found in the children's comic Batman Adventures, but a closer look reveals:
  

  Lingerie shot. Lingerie shot. Panty shot. Panty shot. Bra shot. Ass shot. Panties around ankles shot. Shower shot. Shower shot. Shower shot. Panty shot. Partial bare boob shot. Panty shot. Panty shot. Towel shot.

  And so forth and so on. There's a reason this book isn't approved by the Comics Code Authority. It's very naughty, in an innocent way, if that makes sense. Good clean dirty fun.


• Invincible
  My favorite new series of the past year (or so) continues to satisfy. In the aftermath of last issue's brutal battle between father and son, an important new government agent character is introduced, Mark learns more about what his father did for a living, new relationships are formed, both inside and outside the superhero world, and Mark's got a new job. Which, after being so utterly betrayed by his father, seems like a foolish thing to jump into as blindly as he does, but hey, the kid's still learning. Robert Kirkman has quickly become one of my favorite writers, and Ryan Ottley continues to impress with his sharp, clean artwork. Invincible is one of my five current favorites.


• The Punisher
  After the amazing previous storyline, in which longtime Punisher ally Micro met his shocking, extremely graphic end at the hands (well, shotgun) of the Punisher himself, this new story feels like a muddled let-down. Something about the IRA and pirates on the East River and some old guy who cuts up people real good and a bomb expert who's missing nine-tenths of his face and a dreadlocked, gold-toothed gangster and oh, I just stopped caring. Maybe I was just tired when I read this issue, but it stopped making sense around page three. Too much plot getting in the way of the action, as Joe Bob would say.


• She-Hulk
  I've been hearing a lot of good things about this title -- "It's not what you'd expect!" -- so I finally broke down and bought the first four issues. (Corey was pleased that both I and Ian were buying it.) And it's a good fun book. The artwork is nice -- although, in some action sequences (such as the one with MODOK in outer space), it's a little hard to tell what's going on -- and the writing is clever and humorous. The book's about She-Hulk, after she's screwed up her life with excessive partying (losing her job and getting kicked out of the Avengers mansion in the process), getting hired by a prestigious law firm that handles supernormal clients -- but the catch is, they don't want She-Hulk, they want her non-powered alter ego, Jessica Walters. I have minor complaints about She-Hulk's/Jen's seeming inability to stand up for herself, whether it be against the Avengers or her bitchy new co-worker, and I think it's a little unlikely the Avengers would've gone straight to kicking her out of the mansion without having a talk with her first, but hey, you gotta get the plot and conflict somehow. And like I said, minor complaints. I've heard the book's in danger of cancellation. Which just figures, now that I've finally started liking it.

I also picked up Ex Machina (by Brian K. Vaughan, writer of Y: The Last Man -- another of my current favorites) and Astonishing X-Men, both of which I forgot to get last week. I've got nothing to add about them that hasn't been said already. (Oh, and also, I haven't read them yet.)

And on Corey's recommendation, I got an issue of Brit, by Invincible writer Kirkman, but I didn't read it yet, either. Possible follow-up post later today.

As always, blame Ian

So this is my blog. Blame Ian. In order to comment at his excellent new comics blog, Brill Building (which, technically, is non-capitalized -- "brill building" -- but I'm far too anal to let that sit), I had to register here at Blogger.com. And then I figured, as long as I'm already registered....

You know what I like? Probably not, is my guess. Lots of stuff, is the short answer. Long answer is what I plan to post here. All my flavorite TV, movies, books, comics, music, video games, and miscellaneous additional crap that falls under that semi-dignified descriptor "Pop Culture." It's a much more respectable term than "Stuff I Can Enjoy Without Having To Get Off My Fat Ass," which, while possibly more accurate, won't move as many plush toys.

Ideally, I'll post every day. But as this world is less than ideal, let's chuck that idea out the damn door tout de suite. Less ambitiously, I'd like to post every weekday, with specific days set aside for different aspects of the Culture we call Pop: Mondays for movies, Tuesdays for TV, Wednesdays for books, Thursday for comics, and Friday, potpourri. (For example.) Realistically, I'll post whenever I damn well please. Hell, this may be my first and last post right here. If I don't make my every-weekday schedule, well, as the Dread Pirate Roberts once said, "Get used to disappointment."

Oh, also, I hate a lot of stuff. Lots of stuff. Lots and lots and lots of stuff. Lots. I plan on posting about some of that, too. Because, after all, it's often the most negative reviews that prove the most memorable. And funniest. But I'll try to keep it to a tolerable minimum of blackest, vilest vitriol. If I can.