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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Just cuz'





The Iron Man-Tony Stark doodle/sketch blog has been updated! Only one week late on catching this! Yay!

Go read about some mini-comics that you and I should both be reading! Someone wanna give me a copy of Class Of 2006: Real Quotes From Real Students from Jury Rigged Comics as either a belated Christmas Present or Early Birthday? Just pick a reason, I'm cool with either or.

The one artist that I currently wish I could emulate right now is Nick Derington. Next month, it will probably be Hugo Pratt. Or Sal Buscema. Ima little slutty like that.

Go to Cartoon Brew, watch this video of Uly Meyer drawing, than just kind of hang out and see what else is going.

So, Dave Sim is like this weird guy who has written all kinds of messed up things that I will probably never get around to reading, but Dave Sim reading magazines like the TCJ and Comic Book Artist and then writing about it....I read and liked. Dead on about The Comics Journal, that Canadian mysognist is.

Podcasts! Do you like? Me, too. iFanboy.com and Ink Studs. One is for the "Jon Hex" inside of you and the other is for your inner-Spurge.

This is where I get off



"Ha! In your face, stupid New Avengers fan! You thought it was Iron Fisting Agent Of Shield Daredeviling Man, but you were wrong! It was a whiny emo ninja chick that's deaf! Can you say plot twist?! Cause that's just what happened!"

Sorry. I just read that preview right now and found myself a little dumbfounded over Brian Michael Bendis's need to drag his messageboard ranting into the pages of the New Avengers. Carry on.

Monday, January 29, 2007

A little something that makes you both happy and sad at the same time...

Happy! :)

Finding a random copy of Hiroaki Samura's Blade Of The Immortal: Food one shot on the bookshelf in my living room.

Sad... :(

The same issue of Blade Of The Immortal was damaged to all holy Hell. Haven't you roommates ever heard of a bag and board?

Getting your roommates to read comics. What an interesting task. Not that I feel the need to force comics on other people, its just that I enjoy them so much that I only wish to share them with the world at large. So far, the only luck I have had in that department at the current house I am living at is with Roadstrips, a travel anthology comic. Jim, the resident beer drinking, dirt bike riding, half coyote-dog owning housemate read a little bit of it on the can and commented on how he enjoyed it. Other than that, graphical novellas get no love.

Is your house like this? Do the ones in your house that leave copious amounts of dirty dishes and drink your alcohol without asking also spurn comics?

Ahh. If the way you treat Blade Of The Immortal is any indication of your disrespect towards the artform, I don't WANT you reading my comics anyway!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Diamond 1, Boob War 0

Did I ever tell you that someone made a comic book using my roommate as a template for the main character? Its called Nightmare Girl and you can check it out right here at NightmareGirl.com. Its Boob War through and through.

Last night, she asked my friend Ryan and I if we knew what Diamond was. We explained to her that Diamond was pretty much the one and only distribution company that supplied everything comic related to comic shops all over the nation. Intrigued by her question, we asked here why she was in interested in Diamond.

"They won't carry Nightmare Girl because they said that both the writing and art aren't good enough."

Huh. Although Nightmare Girl is not necessarily my cup of tea per se, there is definitely a niche market out there for books like it. Just take a look at the likes of Lady Death, Vampirella, and Tarot comics. What's to keep Diamond from adding Nightmare Girl to the ranks of such esteemed alumni? Are we left to assume that where Nightmare Girl artist Duvall Stowers fails, the work of Jim Balent meets the Gold Standard of cheesecake comics that Diamond has set in place? Is it even fair to maintain some kind of standard for a small branch of the comic book medium that by the very nature of its subject matter disregards things like "good taste" and "decency"? Now, I am not condemning books like Lady Death or Nightmare Girl for being tasteless. To do so, would certainly miss the point. Its safe to say that a book like Nightmare Girl is catering to a specific audience that openly embraces the cheesecake nature of the art. Interestingly enough, the comic book exploits of a female character like Ms. Marvel can be equally full of gratuity and vapid storytelling as some of the aforementioned books. The main difference being that a book like Ms. Marvel has Marvel Comics on its side. With that, comes some kind of respect that dignifies the purchase of Ms. Marvel over Lady Death. Don't ask me how, but for some strange reason it just does. As for Nightmare Girl? If there was a time machine available, I would instruct my roommate to jump in it and turn that dial back until it reads 1994.

When I look at a book like Lady Death on the shelf, I can not help but think that its merely just a hold over from an era where variant covers depicting male super heroes have been transformed into buxom females by Rob Liefeld sold well. A move like that today on a super hero comic SHOULD get you laughed off of the racks. (Fear not, readers. If anything, we still have the female version of male heroes to satisfy that need.) Despite the fact that the 90s are for the most part over, there are people out there that still continue to buy Lady Death and Tarot. As long as there is the threat of an ample bosom ready to burst open the bikini that fights to hold them in, there are fans that threaten to compromise ad space in Previews when they open and read a Jim Balent book. And there is a large contingent of people out there that are more than happy to hear the news of Diamond's decision towards a book like Nightmare Girl as well.

Over the past few months, I have witnessed my roommate's reaction when she first saw some of the art for the first time, having posters printed up, and eventually holding the finished product in her hands. It was exciting to see her tell everyone about the comic that she was going to be starring in. The adolescent power fantasy that most comic book fans wish for was a real for her and sitting right there on our coffee table. Its safe to say that the breast enlargement the creators gave her was something that she could do without. (Especially since I have recently overheard her arguing with another friend against women getting breast implants.) She probably assumed the increased bust line was an attribute that all female heroines had to possess in order to survive on the racks, much like the muscles their male counterparts needed to defeat a super-villian. Unfortunately, it appears as if that same bra size could have very well been one of the reasons for the book's defeat at the hands of Diamond.

I helped put into perspective for my roommate the uphill battle that Nightmare Girl is going to be facing. Off of the top of my head, I threw out the name of Cold Cut with the advisory that I was unfamiliar with what kind of titles they distribute, thinking they might have a chance there. Taking into consideration the traits that Nightmare Girl exudes, there really was only one piece of semi-worthy advice I could give her:

"Wear something skimpy and hit those convention floors. From what I hear, they are absolutely CRAWLING with potential fans for this kind of stuff."

In the face of Diamond's decision, that might be this book's only chance.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Let's take five..

Egads. If you thought reading Civil War was bad, trying pouring over the comics just so you could write some really bad jokes over photoshopped images of Captain America and Tony Stark. Do we really have to wait until February 21st for this thing to end? Thank god for The Immortal Iron Fist. If you are not reading that book than we are not cyber-friends.

Real quick aside from all this Civil War nonsense:

James Sime over at The Isotope Lounge has announced the Fifth Annual Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics are accepting submissions up until midnight, March 15th. Look towards 2008 for Spencer D. Carnage to come in and win this shit. I would gladly enter into this year's contest, however I don't think I have enough time to complete the totally radical comic that I just plotted out. Its going to be a hugely insane battle between the forces of comic books and computers, with a cameo from the eBay website. If you look down now you will notice that you are sitting on the edge of your seat.

Mr. Paul Pope blogs about the monstrous task that Chris Pitzer and himself are currently undergoing to get Pulphope out. Having just read the Pulphope ashcan, I am extremely excited to be reading this. I have not had the chance to pick up the new FF anniversay issue that he contributed to. That just came out last week, right? While the minutes whittle away towards Pulphope's release, kill a few of them reading an 8 page Batman story Pope did some time ago in Gotham Knights # 3.

And Babel and The Wire are tre stupendous. If you have seen neither, please do. Pan's Labrynth is good, too, but not so much like the others. And 24 is looking like its turned into 90's X-men. Color me non-surprised when a future version of Jack Bauer shows up as the mastermind of every bad thing that's happened in the 24-verse since its inception.

Get Your Civil War On # 8

(click to read in all its two color glory)




NEXT: The Punisher War Journal 2.0!

PREVIOUS: Get Your Civil War On # 7

Monday, January 15, 2007

Get Your Civil War On - Delayed!

We appreciate everyone's response to Get Your Civil War On over the past few days. We are almost at the finishing line and we just can not wait until we show you all how these things pan out. And let me tell you: you have never SEEN anything like this. Once this is done, the Of Course, Yeah! Marvel U will changed. For-ever. Unfortunately, we are running into some delays with our artist. He strained his hand playing Zelda on his new Nintendo Wii which has forced us to push the release date back. Unfortunately this delay doesn't just affect Get Your Civil War On. The release dates of Punisher War Blog, The New Thunderbolts: Justice Through Nippleclamps, and Civil War: Hack and Slash have been pushed back as well.

We thought about bringing in fill in artists, however we do not want to damage the artistic vision of the story, especially one that is as important as this. Just imagine if they replaced the artist on Penny Arcade, PVP and Dinosaur Comics? At one point or another these webcomics suffered a hiatus due to unforseen complications, forcing their creators to delay publication. If the Penny Arcade had to resort to using Alien Loves Predator for fill in, its safe to say that the overall quality of the webcomic would have suffered. We're looking at the long term picture here and we ask that you all be patient. Get Your Civil War On has been an amazing story for us here at Of Course, Yeah! and know that when the next issue comes out, you will absolutely forget the fact that you waited several days to read it.

With that being said, we are proud to announce two new series spinning out from the events of Get Your Civil War On. The first one we would like to announce is House Of Forever Yesterday! We don't want to go into too many details, but we do want to say this: The Scarlet Witch is back. And so is Mark Bagley. If there were two things that we here at Of Course, Yeah! were looking forwarded to the most its Wanda and Mark. We're anticipating that House Of Forever Yesterday will be a huge hit amongest the fans. If not for the delays on Get Your Civil War On, the House Of Forever Yesterday would not have been possible. The second new title to spin out of Get Your Civil War On that we would like to announce is.....Get Your Secret Wars On! Taking you back to the days of the Beyonder, Tony and Steve discuss all the huge changes that happened in the legendary Secret Wars I & II....over the phone! Its going to be great. The fans have been clamoring for the return of Beyonder for awhile and we here at Of Course, Yeah! have replied by doing just that.

Its an exciting time here at the Blog Of Idiocy! Stay tuned and you will not be disappointed! Excelsior!

Monday, January 08, 2007

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Get Your Civil War On

With apologies to David Rees...

GET YOUR CIVIL WAR ON ! ! !

(click on the pictures to make them bigger)





NEXT: Cap calls out Tony for jacking all the good heroes.