I'm going to APE!

I need to go. If there ever was a time to mosy on out of town for a weekend, it is now. If there ever was a good place to go, it would San Francisco for the Alternative Press Expo.

Anyone else going? Maybe someone that's local? If so, you wanna hang out? Maybe let me sleep over and keep you up late with my extensive knowledge of the Wildstorm Universe?

I want to go to this SOOO bad and it would be awesome to meet up with some new people along the way. If you want to bring some sunshine to this redhead's life, please email me at spencercarnage@gmail.com and we can work some shit.

First 3 beers are on me!

The Agony Of A Pull-List

Taking a page from Jason's blog, I have decided to do my own little break down of what goes into putting together a pull-list. Unlike the Jason, the process itself is a bit grueling. A lot of the titles that I used to pull have recently fallen out of favor with me. And the ones I do like are either being put out bi-annually or on the cusp of being wrapped up. There is also the waiting-for-trade factor. I could never justify to myself that purchasing a movie 15 minutes at a time is a smart thing to do, therefore, why do the same for comic books?

With that being said, here's a little insight into what I am going to pulling and why.

MUST-HAVES

• All Star Superman: Morrison and Quietly can do no wrong. Expect that whole lateness thing. We can overlook that aspect of things.


• Astonishing X-men: We are, what...two issues away from finishing this up? Its beyond good, but its nostalgia wank off material through and through. But dayum...... that Cassidy dude can illustrate something fierce!


• Astro City: I finally read the first three trades this past summer. All I can say is phenomonal. Dark Age is slowly making its way out and the issue I read has still got me interested in it. Kurt Busiek is completely ruly.


• Doctor Frankenstein: High concept all the way. Not as funny as Shaolin Cowboy, but the action is definitely there. At one point, Frank beats up a werewolf and all her pups in a sequence that was quite well done. This might be wrapped, on hiatus, taking forever, I don't remember.


• Iron Fist: The best book to come out from Marvel last year. Finally, we have an Iron Fist comic to be proud of. Fighting off the agents of Hydra, both as Danny Rand the entrepreneur and Iron Fist, the Fist on Knonshu. Great stuff.


• New Warriors: I have to get this. If anything, just to give me a reason to further show the world the only redeeming thing to come out of comics in '91 and '92 was New Warriors vol 1., #s 1 through 25.


• Nova: Nova's my dawg! What?!


• Planetary: Only one issue to go, right? Nevermind that its turned into a slow burn. Nevermind that lackluster ending. Nevermind that it Hailey's Comet has been spotted 3 times since the last issue hit the stands. Its Planetary. If you do not know what that really means, Warren Ellis hates you. More than he already did.


• Shaolin Cowboy: Its awesome cubed. Geof Darrow is just bedazzling. That's right. I said it: bedazzling. The talent of his art combined with his humor will blow your mind. And not some Chris Sims' "Batman punching a dog" blow your mind, but jive-talking demons trying to rustle up on the Shaolin Cowboy while he is being pursued by a baby with bloody hands that keeps saying "mine!" over and over again kind of blow your mind. You have to read it to love it. It also has a talking horse. Or maybe he's a mule. Either way, talking horses/mules are the new monkey. I think its on hiatus, but when it was going, it was bi- or tri-monthly. Something aggravating like that.


• Stray Bullets: Nevermind that it only comes out once a year. David Lapham will always rule and this book, as weird as it can get sometimes, is worth the wait. This is one of the books that I will buy monthly and then randomly pick up a TPB so I can reread it in a convenient manner. Thanks to that consumer strategy, David Lapham can afford to get cheese with that hamburger.


• Wintermen: Hey, look! Its another semi-annual-if-you're-lucky comic book! Wintermen. Boy, do I love this comic. Trying to sum it up for those who most likely have not read it yet is hard. Ex-Cold War Russian Superhumans turned quasi-policemen/criminals, walking what's left of the Soviet beat. One issue, our protagonist is sent to Brooklyn to track down a superhuman child that was kidnapped by radioactive organ dealers, another issue its business as usual for some crooked cops trying to get by in Mother Russia. John Paul Leon's(Earth X) line heavy, photo-realistic art style is perfect for Brian Lewis's script. The dialogue reads as close to Russian-translated-into English as you can get it. None of what I just said probably made any sense, unless you have read and liked Wintermen. If so, then you too know the pain that is enjoying something so much, even if you don't really know what you just read.


• X-men: Best X-book on the stands. I know, its crazy, but it is. Carey and crew have made me care about a bunch of X-men that I pretty much wrote off a long time ago. Even Cable! He has brought the mutant baby from the future back to his roots which is a dude with a bunch fo guns that also happens to be a mutant. That's okay with me. And Bachalo? Your confuso-vision art styles is giving me wood. Like that one scene when Northstar super-speed pummeled the Astonishing X-men? Fan-tast-ick. Let's just hope that this summer's X-crossover doesn't blow this whole thing for all of us.

MAYBES

• Captain America: This is a solid book. But then they killed Steve Rogers. Things will be interesting, but I have this feeling that owning the trade will better choice.


• Countdown: With Paul Dini, this could be really good. I didn't pick up 52, but I always read the weekly column over at Newsarama.


• Daredevil: Another great book that screams "Buy The Trade!" at me. I loved the Prison arc, but I felt that it was written for the trade. If that's the case, why bother with single issues?


• New Avengers: As much as I say I hate this book and what's it done to my sleeping habits, I still continue to pick it up. When I go a month or two without it, I feel like I finally beat Athlete's Foot. Then I see it and I get that itch again.....
  
  Brian Michael Bendis has some really good ideas floating around this book. Its the execution that's lacking. Punching and blasting has been replaced with quiping and blabbering. The past few issues have been a little better in that department, but we are dealing with this Ronin crap. Bendis comes up with a half-way decent idea but ends up shooting himself in the foot. Bringing the Sentry into the Marvel U.? Not a bad idea. Just make sure you get rid of him for when the ninjas show up. Introduce a mysterious ninja-Avenger and have everybody guessing? Why not. Its comics. Dumb things are SUPPOSED to happen like that. Let's try and refrain from the whole "She's a he!" for obvious reasons. Resolve this Xorn thing once and for all? Not a bad idea, but good luck. Wait, what did I just read? Its fan-fiction in the worst way. Reading it, I tend to find myself wanting to either rewrite it myself or at least explain certain things that should have been explained. If there was a way that Bendis could read this without using his message board as the gauge of whether or not its good, we might be okay. I want to like it, but he's making it so hard.


• World War Hulk: Romita rules and Pak has been more than decent on some of the stuff I have read. But is a crossover, which will probably force into making some Get Your World War Hulk On jokes....and that's not so good, now is it.

Having typed all of that, I am coming up with one conclusion: superhero comics just ain't what they used to be. Its such a commitment that hardly pays off as much as I pay out. And the ones that do pay off, make me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit forever and are probably further away from super hero comics that your average spandex book.

Have superhero comics abandoned me or have I abandoned superhero comics? Or am I just reading the wrong comics? Is possible that I choose the wrong side and that I might be much happier in a shared universe with multiple earths and youthful wards? Should I stop posing in front of the mirror in tights and start gazing down in that there inny/outy navel of mine? Is turning Japanese the answer? Can Manga help me hug it out with this adolescent power fantasy that hides inside of me? Should I even bother with a pull list? If I can't even commit to a monthly pull, how could I possibly commit myself to other aspects of my life? Will I die alone, with only a bunch of long boxes filled with incomplete runs of my favorite comics to my name?

If there was a soundtrack to my life, it would be playing Soul Asylum's Runaway Train on continuous loop right about now....

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here no there

Can you help me remember how to smile
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life's mystery seems so faded.....

Why I Want To Read World War Hulk

SPENCER-HULK SMASH!!!!!!


TALK-SPLODE: 0!!! FANBOY RAMPAGE: 1!!!


PUNY STARK!!! WHOSE SIDE SPENCER-HULK ON?!?!? CAPTAIN AMERICA'S SIDE!!! THAT'S WHO!!! HOW DARE YOU RAPE SPENCER-HULK'S CHILDHOOD!?!?!?


SPENCER-HULK UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WERE TOO INVOLVED IN COMPLICATED X-CONTINUITY TO TAKE PART IN SPENCER-HULK BEING SENT TO SPACE, PROFESSOR X!!! SPENCER-HULK JUST NOT LIKE MUTIES!!! BLAME WOLVERINE!!!


SPENCER-HULK MAN ENOUGH TO DANCE WITH 'NOTHER MAN!!! SPENCER-HULK SEXUALLY SECURE!!!


BAH!!! SPENCER-HULK GET ALL HIS NEWS ONLINE!!!



REGISTER THIS, STUPID POST CIVIL WAR MARVEL U!!!

SPENCER-HULK SMASH!!!!!!!!!

You guys and gals get off easy today

I had this huge, idiotic rant all ripe and ready and decided against being that guy. Instead, you get a link or five:

• Techno Tuesdays. I love this guy's humor. And look at that; he ain't such a bad artist neither.


• Go buy stuff at Meathaus's sale. Start with Meathaus Issue 8: Headgames, continue with some Gongwanadon, and finish up with whatever else strikes your fancy.


• Idolator's Top 30 songs for Guitar Hero III. I pretty much agree with most of their list. It has Megadeth's "Holy Wars" at # 2, with Prince, Living Colour, and Guns N' Roses in the top ten as well. They also forgot to include Slayer's "War Ensemble" and Refused's "New Noise" but that's okay.


• Don't ever spend any amount of time skipping around the Marvel Database or UncannyX-men.net. For reasons I will not discuss here, I did just that. What's wrong with me?


• Of Course, Yeah! favorite Earth 2 Leigh is back, but I'm convinced he has been replaced with a version from other alternate earth. I haven't figured out which one that is, though.


• Another, newer favorite of mine, Jason, just hooked me up with some linkage, so I'm going to do the same. By declaring that I will be stealing his recent Anatomy of a Pull-List post as my own some time in very near future. Thanks, Jason!

Go on! Leave me alone already!

The results are in!

It is official. I have become Internet Famous.

No, not because I harped some dude's comic strip for my own. And not because I have such great taste in comics and can blog with the best them. Though those are all great things, they are not what it takes to become Internet Famous. The road to becoming internet famous is a tricky one. It involves lots of comment spamming, bloggable ass kissing, and linking, linking and more linking. Oh, let us not forget, a strong passion for the baddest dude to ever bring a skateboard to super hero fight. Ever.


Wikipedia has cited my Night Thrasher = Badical as a reference for the entry on the character. Yes, you read correct.

Wika.

Pedia.

Loves.

Spencer Carnage.

I think I'm going to head on over to the Girl-Wonder.org and use my newfound celebrity to see if any nerdy chicks wanna cyber with me. Ciao.

The Complete Terry And The Pirates

From the Beat:

Celebrating the centennial of Milton Caniff ’s birth, IDW Publishing will publish a fully authorized six-book series collecting the entirety of Caniff ’s groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages will be reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips.

No cartoonist has so heavily influenced his medium as has Milton Caniff, and no comic strip has had more imitators than Terry and the Pirates. He is considered the great American novelist of the comics medium.

It comes with a hefty price tag of $49.99. That is a lot of comics right there. I have read a wee bit in the Comics Strip book, however, I am not entirely sure if I am $49.99 ready. There are those Steve Canyon books that I could start with. If Steve Canyon turns out to be good, maybe I can re-consider this "No Selling Internal Organs On The Black Market To Fund My Comic Reading Habits" policy.

Related: An essay by Milton Caniff from Comic Strips

At the end of this post, there will be a test

Captain America is sad. Why?

A.) Spider-woman suffers from severe Scoliosis
B.) Spider-woman is bulemic
C.) The wings on his head are small and therefore unmanly
D.) His left eye is closer to his nose than the right eye
E.) Correct anatomy and composition is skill that is not necessary to become a fan-favorite comic book artist
F.) He is dead
G.) All of the above

No cheating!

Wizard World Los Angeles

I did not attend. I would have liked to, but decided against it for fear of attacking whichever panelist were attending the Marvel panel while screaming "Whose side are YOU on?!? I'm with the Marvel readers, what about you!?!!?" That and spending way too much money on crap that I probably do not need. I didn't even get a chance to go to that party at Melt Comics on Friday night which I blame on a combination of friends that lagged, LA Traffic, and Super Bust-A-Move. But one of these years, I am going to make it to one of these funny book cons. Instead of attending the WWLA X-men panel on saturday night, I got drunk at a dive bar in Ventura and had the fortunate pleasure of watching some guy pull a gun out and shoot it at the ground in order to keep his would-be attackers from attacking him. Breaking Marvel's no-smoking a policy, I just exhaled and said "Did that just happen?" Yes, Spencer, it did. Huh.

Thankfully in my absence, my fellow Marvelites were there to pick up the slack and ask the hard questions for all of us.

"When Scarlet Witch said no more mutants, does that mean no more future mutants?"

Let's hope so. That over-populated mutant community was really pissing me off. Try to keep it manageable!

"Will we ever find out who Lalya Miller's parents are?"

I am, like all of us, on pins and needles waiting to see what's up with THAT mystery.

"How can there still be a school with so few mutants?"

And can a mutant still major in Cable's Closed Fist philosophy with a minor in Blackbird Piloting?

"Will Wolverine Origins ever be good?"

Seems like somebody is reading a different Wolverine Origins than I am.

"Anything on X-Force?"

Specifically with Rob Liefeld attached. And Cable. And Shatterstar. If you could bring Gideon & Stryfe back, that would be AWESOME.

"Is Jean Grey actually dead or are you going to 'pull a Colossus'?"

And do we have to suffer through anymore of those Phoenix Emosong minis?

"What's going on with Gambit?"

If he comes back, will he still say 'Mon Ami' a hella bunches? And will he get all creepy with a young X-men like he did with the age regressed Storm?

"What was the reasoning behind making Wolverine's son completely evil, and what's up with his haircut?"

Its like I was sitting in the audience and asking the questions myself! But I wasn't! That's the magic of comic books!

"Are you guys going to be doing anything with Sunspot?"

And Gideon? He has a green ponytail and wears metal on his arm! And runs a foundation!

”Are you going to bring back Jean Grey as the Phoenix? It's getting a little tiring that she keeps dying and getting brought back."

Seriously! I mean, how many times can she rise from the ashes and make Scott doubt his love?! Give the guy a break already!

Well met, my fine fellow Marvel fans. You did a great job in voicing the concerns that all of us X-men fans currently face when reading about our favorite mutants. However, you missed out some important questions that I still need answers to.

When will Storm get her mohawk back?
Can we get more Nanny and Orphan Maker action soon?
How exactly will you go about breaking Professor X's legs THIS time?
Is Wolverine still the best there is at what he does?
And is what he does still not very pretty?
Who would win in a fight between Wolverine and Thanos?
What about Thanos when he has the Infinity Gauntlet and Wolverine is in the middle of a "berzerker" rage?
Will Wolverine ever say "Berzerker Barrage!" and "Real Claw!" in the comic while eviscerating his enemies like he does in the Marvel vs. Capcom video game?
Can we get a Marvel vs. Capcom comic book already?
Any chance of seeing a Lockheed & Lockjaw cross-over anytime soon?
And can we please, please, please....get more X-men-lounging-by-the-pool action? Pretty pretty please?

Please feel free to leave your answers in the comments, Mr. Schmidt. Thank you.

Booze 'n Comics

I think I should be attending this tonight. Yes. Yes, I should.

I'm breaking free, baby!

Comics. Let's just say that them pesky funny books and I are not getting along so well right now. Some might be quick to point out the reasons for that being that I am spending too much time with super heroes. And by reading this blog, you probably might be right in thinking that. But guess what? You are wrong, my friend(s)! Over the past few months, I have read Miss, The Clouds Above, Exterminators Vol. 2, BWS Storyteller: Freebooters, Jonah Hex Vol. 1, the complete Fables collection, and the first couple issues of Vol 1. of the Essential Tomb Of Dracula. There was a few super hero trades in the mix, namely the Daredevil Visionaires that Frank Miller did, along with a Spider-man: Round Robin. A year ago, that would have taken place over the course of two weeks. These days, I'm lucky if I hit those numbers in two months.

Regardless, I am a bit burnt out on comics right now. So I'm not reading them. You heard me. No comics.* For really reals. At least not until I read me a book or two. You remember books, right? The bastard step-brother of the Graphic Novel? They have a picture on the cover, but that's it? Yes. Those things. To start it off, I am finally going to finish Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay which I have been slowly making my way through for the past two years. I know, its ridiculous because it is such a damn good book, that no matter how much I enjoy it, I also find myself putting it down so I can finish that New Excalibur trade I just bought the week before. Imagine that? Comics made me not want to read! Preposterous!

Now that the War is over, I am getting back to my civilian life. Starting with Kavalier & Clay. I am going to finish this fine book. After that? Well, you tell me. Suggest me a book. Any book. I'm leaning towards Fortress Of Solitude or You Don't Love Me by Jonathan Lethem, but I am open to more suggestions. And they don't even have to be semi-comic book related like Chabon and Lethem's works are.

Suggest a book for me!

* I will still be reading the Comic Strips book I have which is really still comics, even if its just a book about comics. And if Wintermen comes out with a new issue, I'll read that, too. Also, I might go WWLA this year, so that means I'll have to buy comics which tends to force me to read them. Just don't quote me on that "no comics!" bit and we should be fine.

Some days you just have to take a break...

Would you believe me if I said that Mighty Avengers # 1 was so bad that it caused me to NOT blog for a few days? Because it did, for reasons including, but not limited to:

1. Whatshisface isn't all that good unless he's drawing biggums and booties. His monsters are neat, but other than that, yawn!


2. That new SHIELD Iron-Carrier. Ug meet Lee! Are they really trying to do that? First you have to ruin Spider-man's costume and now one of the most awesomest flying bases ever? Really, Mr. Stark? I imagine you signing on to SHIELD meant they had to change the colors on that bird logo to Gold and Red, huh.


3. Bendis's hella lame use of thought balloons. Its like taking his "realistic" dialogue to the next level. Instead of having to read the spoken "ums...", "well, uhs...", and "(wows.)", I get to peer into the mind of Carol Danvers as she THINKS them! Shoot me now!


4. Sultron 2.ooooooh...this gives me a weird feeling that sometime in the very near future I am going to be turned on by a female Egghead.

Its like they don't want me to buy comics sometimes!

What's up with the blog?

• I was all intent to keep my live blogging of Jerry Robinson's excellent The Comics coming at ya on the weekly day basis. Honestly, I was. I still plan to as there is way too much stuff in there that I need to share with everyone, like Alex Raymond's Secret Agent X-9, Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka, the woman's increasing contribution to comic strips as both characters and creators, and those wonderful essays by creators such as Charles Schultz, Chic Young, Hal Foster, and Walt Kelly that are sprinkled throughout the book. They are all coming. I just need to make some time and sit myself down in front of a scanner.
  
  And as of this weekend, I am back to buying comic books on a semi-regular basis so expect an idiotic thought or two on things like muscles and spandex.


• The Forbidden Planet blog has a little bit about the comic adaptation for William Gibson's Neuromancer which was put out by Epic Comics back in the eighties. I absolutely love William Gibson. I first read Neuromancer in 9th grade and have read pretty much everything he has done. The scans are not the best, but here they are.


• After a week or so, I see that I am still on Dick's enemy list. Surprisingly enough, my little rant about kids and continuity somehow failed to make his itinerary of things to "HATE" on. Maybe I should comment further on Civil War? Think that will get him to stomp his feet? Like maybe if I said that the problem with Civil War is Mark Millar's inability to stray away from the overuse of splash pages lead to precious amounts of screen time for character development being left on the cutting room floor. Because really, less character development/explanation and more splash pages CAPTAIN AMERICA FREERIDING THEM F-16 SONS OF BITCHES THROUGH SHIELD HEADQUARTERS is exactly what makes a damn good comic book.
  
  A friend of mine that had the chance to read some of the Civil War scripts early last summer told me how Mark Millar would state something to the effect of "Oi! This Splash page will fetch ye' a fine 'mount of quid! Wot, wot!" Its very gracious for the artist he works with, giving them scripts with one and two page splashs that they can turn around and sell for trillions of dollars. Unfortunately, we seem to have found ourselves with the MOST! IMPORTANT! MARVEL! STORY! EVER! that has left out any possibility at being a decent story so we could have some more Where's Waldo-ish two page spreads.
  
  Now that I got rant out of the way, I can make good on this newfound "enemy" status, because damn it, son, I NEED THOSE HITS.


• Last night my friend and I were discussing the death of Captain America over dinner. In our somewhat stunned, exaggerated reactions to the shocking event, my girlfriend gave us some sound advice on how to deal with such tragedy that I now extend to my dear friends on the internet:
  

  "Oh god! You boys are so stu-pid! You're crying over Captain freakin' America, a fictional character! You KNOW he is going to come back! I mean, come on!!"

  
  It helps if you read it with the same kind of inflection that a girl from The Hills or Laguna Beach would use.
  
  But enough about my significant other. What about yours? Did s/he console you with flowers? Insult you with stupid remarks? Let you buy one extra book at the comic shop because you were sad that Captain America was all shot up?
  
  How have you spent the past few days mourning the loss of an American Legend?
  

Here we go again....

Convuluted, confusing continuity is killing our chances at getting new readers! How in the world will we ever jump on if Marvel and DC will not sit still for one damn moment!?

Excuse me while I breath a sigh of slight annoyance. I absolutely love Heidi's blog, along with a lot of the people that share the same opinions that she has, however I beg to differ on at least one point: Continuity-driven comics are not the problem.

The problem is getting kids to pick up comics. Once we figure out which magic bullet that is, continuity will not be a road block. If anything, it will sell more comics, just like it does now for the established fan base. If kids want it enough, they will wade through an ocean of back issues to get the stories they want to read. And they will enjoy doing so. If the mainstream super hero comics ever manage to find themselves on the kids' radar, floppies and graphic novels will fly off of the shelf, with continuity driving a significant portion of those sales.

Have you looked a child's room lately? Most, if not all, are littered with toys that all most likely share a common brand and/or theme. My nephew went crazy over Thomas The Tank Engine and did everything in his power to let everyone in our family know that when it comes time to buy him something, buy him Thomas The Tank Engine. Kids are completists. My best friend's daughter needs to have anything and everything with Disney's Princesses on it. If she was old enough to read and there was a comic book for the Disney Princess characters, she would have it already along with every back issue and trade that she could convince her parents to buy for her. Instead of the Disney Princesses comic, she has books. Kids want to have each and every thing of whatever it is they are obsessed with. If that obsession turned to Civil War, you can bet your sweet ass they would get every tie-in they could. What they could not get, they would read right off of the rack. I know I did.

Another similiar argument I hear alot on the internet is how the movie version and comic book version do not completely match up. Its an interesting argument, but one I disagree with completely. The first comic book I read was a GI Joe comic. I was eight years old and completely in love with the cartoon and the toys. The thought of reading the GI Joe comic book never crossed my mind until my 6 year old friend and neighbor asked for me to help him read it. After reading that issue, I started collecting the comic on the regular basis. At no point did the fact that the comic book and the cartoon did not completely match up hinder my ability to enjoy it. I might have asked myself "where's Cobra La from the cartoon? How come the Cobra Commander/Fred storyline in the comic isn't discussed on TV? And what about those space monsters and the black pyramid?" at least once, but that was a one time thing only. Maybe I was some kind of freak occurence in the realm of kids that read comics back in the 80s, but I doubt it. Any disconnect between the comics themselves and their TV and/or movie versions will probably do little to dissuaded a determined child. If kids want it, they will get it. In the long run, they will probably enjoy the comic book much more because it does not have to undergo the same creation-by-commitee problems that plague other forms of media.

Using the complaint "the continuity is too complicated" and "this media version does not match up with this media version" when describing the problems with getting kids to read comic books are completely off base and do nothing but show how completely out of touch you are. Passing off your bias towards super hero comics that exist in a shared universe as the reason why kids are not buying comic books is not an accurate assessment of the situation.

In my opinion, the main problem that the Big Two face in regards to continuity is not that they are a slave to it, but the fact that they are doing such a piss poor job at making it work. Continuity should never trump a good story. However, if you feel the need to play with Stan's toys, please understand that its a borrowed toy that you have to share with not only other creators but with the readers, too. The reason why Fabian Nicenza's Cable & Deadpool and The New Thunderbolts CW tie-in issues were so well received from both new and old readers was because Nicenza understands the nature of his job as work-for-hire at Marvel Comics, allowing for him to manuever his way around editorially interference and still tell the story he wants to tell. Continuity, if used currently, can only enrich the reading experience. I imagine that all that continuity that comes with Dragonball Z (this generation's Akira) does nothing but sell more volumes of Dragonball Z as the kids struggle to learn about their beloved Goku and his great, big extended family.

If Marvel was smart, they would have put those Ultimates and Iron Man cartoons on the Cartoon Network. Watching Ultimate Captain America beat the hell out of some bad guys was exactly what I and every other kid I knew growing up would have loved to do on a friday night. As a few bloggers can atest to, the Marvel and DC cartoons of the 90s helped get them into comics. GI Joe is what did it for me. I am almost positive that a good number of manga bloggers can point to the japanese animation cartoons from the late 90's and early 00's as to what helped them make the leap.

At some point, the kids will come back. Give them time. It may not be this huge exodus that people are clamoring for, but they will come. Once they are hooked, they will swim circles around things like continuity. There is a CGI movie with Ninja Turtles right around the corner. Whoever has the comic book license for that property would be very smart to give away free copies of a newly launched TMNT to every child that comes through those doors because if there is one thing that little kids love its god damn ninjas and CGI characters.

Do you think this 'A' stands for __________?!?!

Oooh. Now this seems a little exciting. It was about time someone offed that "old bird." Now the thing about death in super hero comics is that blah blah blah things never change, etc., etc., leaving us with the one important question:

Who gonna be the next guy to fight for our freedoms?! Let us take a look and see what the future may hold...

Punisher as Captain America
This is a no-brainer. I certainly do not expect any kind of lasting change in direction for the Punisher, however there is at least a story arc or two in the works. Throw in the fact that Fraction and Brubaker hold the Comic Book Highschool award for "Two Creators Most Likely To Spoon With Each Other In A Crowded San Diego Hotel Room" and its an absolute guarantee. It probably wouldn't be half bad, either.

The US Agent as Captain America
Its been done before so why not do it again? With Mr. Walker up in Canada as the US Agent, keeping tabs on them damn mounties, it probably safe to say that he will stay out of this one. And really, that is just old ground that we do not need to revisit.

The Winter Solder as Captain America
Another interesting possibility. It would help the Winter Soldier on his path of redemption as well as tap into the legacy aspect of his character. I personally feel it would be too soon as we are just getting to know this new Bucky. He will probably stay as the Winter Soldier for the time being.

The Falcon As Captain America
This would be so bitchin' wicked awesome kick ass hella duper cool because a black Captain America would rule so much for so many reasons that may or may not include a gazillion message boarders wigging the hell out over it. Please, Marvel. If anything, make Falcon Captain America. If there is one guy that would stand up and make sure the legacy of Captain America got handled like it properly should be handled, its the Falcon. Did I mention that he's like this with birds? Suit that dude up, put a bald eagle on this shoulder and drop his ass into the Red Skull's lair and you quite possibly have the best super hero comic book of 2007.

I am so not kidding about this one.

On a somewhat related note...

While perusing that issue of New Avengers where Luke Cage kicks that ninja girl in the hoo hoo, I noticed a panel where this new Ronin character talks to Echo(who is OMG! SPOILERS! deaf) while wearing his or her mouthless Ronin mask. Um.....how exactly does that happen? Its a nit picky thing, but when you make a point of showing Peter Parker pulling his mask up because Ms. Lopez is all deafness, how you expect me to believe that Ronin does not need to do the same? Its reasons like this that make me loss sleep at night, Mr. Brian Michael Bendissssssssss!

Links For You To Click!

I haven't had the chance to get any scans done this past weekend, therefore I'll pass on some links for you to enjoy.

• Isotope, the best comic shop I've never been to, has an eight page preview of Italian cartoonist Gipi's painted Garage Band graphic novel from First Second books. The scans are not the best, but its enough to get me interested. As someone who has played in a garage band in one form or another for the past 9 years, this will definitely get a review from me. If anything, just to dispel the myth that playing in a band does NOT guarantee you copious access to girls' private parts.


• His name is Joseph Bergin, the 3rd and his comics are hilarious. 1 to 4 panel gags that just burst with creative wit and style. Even when Bergin's on a bad day, he's good. If you hate stupid Livejournal, you can see some of his other stuff at his website.


• Today's Inspiration is a great illustration blog focusing on art from the 40's and 50's, that is worth a look.


• Brian + Spider-man Toys = Ha!


• Best. Post. Ever. Really, though. Suck it up and get back to posting, already!


• And here's some music for you to listen to: SOUND Team and fields. Their websites are a mite bit atrocious, but the jams are gooooooooood. SOUND Team has this semi-80s vocal vibe going on that really hits the right spots for me. Kind of like Oingo Boing/Bauhaus-ish, but with a little bit of grizzle to it. Listen to "Born To Please" and hopefully it will move you in the right places. As for fields, that's some straight wuss rock. Jangly folk guitars combined with drum machines, keys, male and female vocals and tales of sad, sad woe made me fall in love. "Brittlesticks" should bring the wuss right out of you.

Updating might be a bit sporadic the next few days for various boring reasons. Try not to jump off any cliffs or anything.

Zip!

Gilbert Seldes, author of The Seven Lively Arts, called Krazy Kat the most amusing, fantastic, and satisfactory work of art produced in America. It was a strip of pure fantasy; the lush language was insane poetry. The ourageous love-hate tragic-farce took place on a surrealistic stage of sparse Western landscape: abstract cathedrallike mountains and mysterious vegetation, ever-changing and evolving, disappearing or suddenly springing from the void. Coconino County's basic characters were a cat (Krazy Kat), a mouse (Ignatz), and a cop (Offisa B. Pupp), and the basic props: a brick (from Kelly's Exclusive Brick Yard) and a jail. Ignatz was a mouse with a mission: to "Krease that Kat's bean with a brick." Offisa Pupp, Krazy's unrequited lover, regularly tossed Ignatz behind bars, despite the fact that to Krazy Kat each brick from the "li'l ainjil" was a missle of love. It could have been the eternal triangle except for Ignatz, the anarchist and cynic.
George Herriman created this classic comic in 1911, and it died with him in 1944. Krazy Kat never gained a large syndicated list of newspapers. Its appeal was apparently too intellectual. Among the Kat's avid collectors were the poet e. e. cummings and Woodrow Wilson, who refused to miss a single episode.

- Jerry Robinson, The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art, 1974

By Milton Caniff

One day recently I drove past a house in which I had lived when I was ten--the site of my personal Ancient city where, years ago, I had built a metropolis along a dry gulch which edged the isolated dwelling in Redlands, California. My buildings were packing boxes of all sizes; the street vehicles and railway equipment were made from smaller cardboard containers, such as butter boxes. The nearby arroyos and canyons were choice hunting country, which my friends and I combed for used shotgun shells. The heavy caliber casings became men and the smaller gauges served as girls and women. The brass ends enabled the shells to stand upright.

Every activity in my city wa fully manned and ready for whatever the plot line of the Saturday and Sunday story called for. My hero was a bold venturer named Tom Martin (a nonethnic label--editorial caution came early!). There I would act out the villians and the good guys and plot devices against the sinister elements.

Drawing Steve Canyon stirs up recollections of the city I built long ago. The full-time catalyst of my resident company is Steve Canyon himself. In time, he taken unto himself a wife (following a goodly string of chicks in many parts of the world) and altered his life-style to conform to the accepted standards of home-delivered newspapers. When I move the focus to Poteet Canyon (Steve's onetime ward and kissin' cousin), another level of everyday life opens to the reader's eye. She is a newspaper reporter, a Libber, and a member of the singles' world so often in the news of the day. Leighton Olson (son of Steve's wife, Summer, by an earlier marriage) leads me in that turbulent area of the college set whose members work so hard at being identified by conformity.

After myriad devices to hold circulation in the competitive newspapers of the past, the hang-'em-on-the-cliff story cartoons are the only remains of the technique which sought to force the reader to come back the next day to learn what happened to the characters he has come to love or hate.

In a real sense we involve the reader as much as an audience participation show in the theater or on television. Our reader loyalty is less overt, but has a longer life expectancy. People never forget the first cartoon which broke through their consciousness.

My task is to combine the pleasures of yesterday with expectations of tomorrow and serve it up as the ten-cent black-and-white special available today. On Sunday, of course, there is color--for a slightly higher price.

- Milton Caniff, The Comics: An Illustrated History Of Comic Strip Art, 1974

Captain And The Kids

Captain And The Kids by Rudolph Dirks, 1938