Since I fucked up my end of the deal with this Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation Week, I present you with Warren Ellis' Ruins with my deepest apologies. Its all kinds of wonderful.

Ruins # 1

Ruins # 2

Do you remember when I was all "Yo dwags, keep an eye out for Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation week, its gonna be tight!"? Yeah, well, the 24th is here and not only did I get my dates wrong, I totally and completely unprepared, so, uh.....peep this shit!

- A brief little bit about Bill Mantlo's Hulk # 312 which was supposedly plagarized from BWS along with some pages from his work-in-progress Monster

- El Unofficial Barry Windsor-Smith blog En Espanol!

Right now, my life is in a chaotic upheaval involving prepping the new demos for my band's show tomorrow, helping The Girlfriend move, and setting up a production meeting that we're having this sunday for the movie I'm working on. Do you care? Yeah, probably not. I was hoping on kicking this thing off with Machine Man action, but that might have to wait until tomorrow. If not Tomorrow, well.....thursday? Until then, marvel and drool at the buxom angel with steel wings!


Now just imagine Poison's "Ride The Wind" is rocking out and this angel is up on your shit. Here, here are lyrics to help set the mood.

Hearts of fire
Streets of stone
Modern warriors
Saddle iron horses of chrome

Taste the wild
Lick the wind
Like something they never saw before
Their jaws dropping to the floor
Steel made of soul and sin

Rebels born without a care
And the day he listens
Only to fly where eagles dare
And the night she whispers

Chorus:
Ride the wind
Never coming back until i touch the midnight sun
Ride the wind
Never coming back again
Ride the wind
Never coming back until i touch the midnight sun

Painted flesh
Loyalty
Humble pride
Just as far as the eye can see

Stories told
Two old friends
Of battle scars and lonely bars
And nights the rain wouldn't end

Here's to withered eyes wearing gypsy smiles
And the day he listens
Here's to lovely ladies and a million miles
And the night she whispers

Chorus

Ride the wind
I'm still the bravest soul in sin,
Burning till the night is done.

Solo

Of all the truths and lies
And stories of riders in the sky
They say only the bravest try
Where eagles and angels dare to fly

Man, I hope that cd is still in my car..

I am so damn jealous right now. Chris does a post about the Marvel Roleplaying Game over at 2 Guys Buying Comics and who else, but Jeff Grubb, the guy who designed the game, comes over and comments. Not only does he comment, he even says he's been lurking there for a month! Chris didn't even play the Marvel Roleplaying Game, but some Ultimate/Diet version of it. No one reading this gives two damns, but Jeff Grubb is awesome. Why? Because he give this little nerdy kid a means to explore his imagination like nobody else could. Say what you want about roleplaying games, but just remember that you're here because you read comics and comics are for nerds. You want to get all tough guy about comics, take that wanna-be macho shit to Listen To Us, We're Right where the usage of idiotic acronyms reign supreme. Here, we talk about the New Warriors, Racist X-men, G.I. Joes, Faux molestations by Silver Age comics, Alan Moore's John Ratsatine, Barry Windsor-Smith, and the gat damn Starman.

Today we're going to talk about the Marvel Super Hero Roleplaying game. Right now, I'm sitting in an office that over looks Oxnard, CA, of all places. In the desk next to me are the printouts for every source book, character guide, and adventure supplement for the Marvel Super Hero Roleplaying. I haven't rolled a ten sided dice and consulted my Judge's Screen in over ten years, and still there is a part of me that begs for the time and place for when I can put aside my foolish notions of being a "mature adult" and play again. When I was growing up comics were these little magazines in which the covers exploded from the stands at you with action, drama, excitement and humor. Inside, it only got better. With the Marvel Super Hero Roleplaying game, I had every opportunity to create my own super hero story with whoever the hell I wanted. Curious to see who would win in a fight against Thor and Silver Surfer? Roll some dice and find out. (Silver Surfer. Sorry, but he's got the Power Cosmic.) If the Masters Of Evil attacked the X-men, could they take them, or would the Avengers need to come in and clean house? (Yay right, the Masters Of Evil are puss.) Even though all these scenarios are a bit campy and ill-thought out, they allowed for kids like myself to use the one of the only things we could call our own: imagination. While writers and artists created new and exhilirating worlds on paper, Jeff Grubb gave us the chance to ours on our table tops and in our heads. Even though the level of story telling may never have been all that deep or complex, we did get a chance to knock some heads while talking smack like only kids can do.

Really, isn't that what super hero comics are all about?

A little message from the disco dancing mutant diva, Dazzler...


You are now officially in love.

The streets of Marvel New York be dangerous. Its bad enough that there's your usual sort of criminals that are there to mug, rape, rob, steal, kill, and abuse you. Add totally heinous super villians with names like "The Beetle" and "Stilt-Man" to the picture and walking to the bodega down the street seems like suicide. Let's give thanks and praise to the cocktail of Gamma Omega Alpha Mutagenic whatever-you-want-to-call-it and tragic loss that is the gateway drug to the addiction of vengeance and justice. Had not Peter Parker been both bitten and indirectly responsible for the death of his Uncle Ben, half the populace of New York would be dead right now. If Matt Murdock was not accidentally blinded with some glowing goop that enhanced ALL! HIS! OTHER! SENSES!, would he be able to keep the streets of Hell's Kitchen safe by punishing all criminals everywhere to make up for the death of his father? If the X-men had not been both blessed and cursed with the X-factor that gives them their mutant powers, could they still appeal to the whiny little cry baby liberal in all of us by championing the rights of the oppressed as well as they do now? It is these events that play out like a Shakespearean tragedy that allow for us to say "Hey. If I was present when that lab experiment went wrong, giving me super human strength and the ability to grow quills, it would be no problem for me to combine those newfound powers along with my sarcastic wit to rock-a-shock a criminals face in." All you need is the proper motivation and you are officially Punch-You-With-A-Fist-Full-Of-Quills-Man.

Someone rub some toxic waste on my balls!

Unfortunately, toxic waste is expensive and hard to find, radioactive spiders work under the mysterious influence of spider-totems(...whatever...), and empowerment by gamma bomb explosion has already been taken. Unless you're a mutant(which back in the 90's--!, because this is a New Warriors post, everyone was) you're S.O.L. There's only so many ways a guy can get the power of flight and with power hogs like Ms. Marvel/Warbird/Binary/Cry me a river about Rogue stealing your powers Carol Danvers and Hank Pym, you'll be lucky if you get your hands on some Linguistics.

Enter The Urban Vigilante.

Batman started the whole fad. The Punisher kicked it up a notch. Night Thrasher did it while riding a skateboard. With his parents gunned down violently, it was only a manner of time before Dwayne Taylor felt the urge to take matters into his own hand. Without the aid of super powers, Dwayne got his edge from elsewhere. Dwayne got it from Street Knowledge.

Taking a cue from the O.G. black super hero, Night Thrasher came correct. Sporting greyish-purple pants, brown boots, a black long sleeve turtle neck(with the sleeves rolled up), mother-fuggin' yellow suspenders, and a gat damn cross earing, Dwayne Taylor was pimpin'. Say what you want about the get up, but if you remember back to 1990, you were just months away from wearing your jordache jeans backwards and still trying to convince your friends that Bell Biv Devoe was da bomb. Not Dwayne Taylor! He was cutting edge and kicking ass, two things that the New Warriors excelled at. Before the magnesium flares, ninja caltrops, wrist blade, and heelflips, Night Thrasher was sneaking around on rooftops and catwalks, busting the faces of thugs everywhere. Korean gangs called him "Chan Park Kwoon So Kichi Dak" which was fake-Korean for "crap, I'm gonna get my chest kicked in" guy.

Like any War On Crime, you're gonna need soldiers. Batman has Alfred and Robin. The Punisher turned to Microchip. Night Thrasher had the brother and sister combo of Midnight's Fire and Silhouette. Cue various different snorts and giggles from the Peanuts gallery. Say what you will, but these two kids will mess you up. Midnight's Fire is all super strong and fast and Silhouette, well......all that tragedy is like an aphrodisiac and Sil and Thrash be getting it on like dogs in heat. However, the happiness is short lived.

A bust is underway. The fuzz show up. Midnight's Fire makes a hard decision about killing a cop. Dwayne stops him. Silhouette gets shot all the 'eff up in the ensuing melee.


Silhouette gets wacked while some punk calls her "baby." That's cold. Blaming Night Thrasher for his sister's death, Midnight's Fire lets the fury fly.


You see that? That shit's for life. Pay attention because there's going to be a quiz on this later.

Present day, someone's been killing folks in Korea Town again. Well, who could it be? One flashback later, Dwayne is on the case.


Not even Batman could solve a crime that fast. Now that you have your very own super hero team, let's take it to the streets and show them how its done. But first, let's have an interlude!


Hey, that's the company that was accidentally responsible for that whole Terrax debacle last issue. What are they up to? And who is this guy that's a real mad thinker? Vague....

And we're back. Trying to find some perps to beat up, the New Warriors give us a lesson in how to draw out some thugs.

Light the place up--!



Wait for the bad guys to show up--!

Stand in awe at the Bad Guy's fashion sense--!



Freak out when his friends come with A.I.M weaponry--!



Remember how I said that the streets of Marvel New York are dangerous? You can't spell "dangerous" without the word "dang" and that's what the New Warriors are thinking right now when they see these stolen A.I.M. guns. Speaking of A.I.M., they should change their name. Advanced Idea Mechanics just doesn't sound sinister enough. Advanced Idea Mechanics conjures up the idea that they are all about curing cancer and terraforming Mars to make it hospitable for the elderly. No, they should be called W.A.R. Weapons Are Radical, because that's all they do. They make weapons. And this case is no exception. However, when you're going up against the likes of KID NOVA! FIRESTAR! MARVEL BOY! SPEEDBALL! and NAMORITA! you're pretty much screwed, dude.



What about Night Thrasher? What's he up to? He's getting the crap kicked out of him, that's what he's up to! Have no fear, true believers! Just when its about to get real ugly, Night Thrasher summons up some of that Shakespearean tragedy that we talked about earlier to get the upper hand. See, Midnight's Fire's tragedy ain't nothing compared to Night Thrasher's tragedy. Sure, Midnight's Fire's sister was killed, blah blah blah, but Thrash lost his parents AND Midnight's Fire's sister who he was giving it to. You're sad for Night Thrasher right now. Its ok though, homeboy will come through.


With that inner turmoil comes the berzerker rage. Unleashing an armada of attack all over Midnight's Fire's face, your sadness is now turning into worry. Will Night Thrasher do it? Will he cross the line of no return? Will he think the unthinkable? Right when all hope is lost and Thrasher is about to do the deed, in comes Silhouette. Wait a second! Isn't she dead? No. Not dead. Crippled.


Snapping to his senses, Night Thrasher realizes the error in his ways. Dwayne's ashamed that he almost came this close to becoming the scum that he has vowed his life to fight. No matter how bad the crime is, you can't just go around killing everyone. There's a due process. We have laws. And even when though those laws allow for the dregs of society to slip through the cracks, we have super heroes like the New Warriors here to pick up the slack. You can't just KILL people because they wronged you. Take his ass to jail!

Still......there is that matter of Street Justice that must be attended to.

The important thing to remember about Street Justice is that it goes back to the days of Mesopotamia. You know, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, all that good stuff? Now that Night Thrasher has Midnight's Fire right where he wants him, what is going to do next? See, I told you there was going to be a test..



Oh, snap! Game over, man. Your thuggish ruggish days are done. Not only do the folks in Korea Town that were paying you to protect them think that you're a punk ass biz-natch, but you look all stupid, too. Maybe you can call up Madame Hydra and you two can talk about what's the best cover up to use for a messed up scar like that. If only this was the 80's, you could probably get a job as an extra in an action movie like Commando or Rambo where you play "paramilitary drug lord goon # 3". Nope. Its the 90's and the last good action movie that came out was in 1988 called Above The Law. With some luck, maybe Mario Van Pebbles' will have a straight-to-video movie that you can cameo in.......nerd.

When all is said and done, the New Warriors are a bit concerned. Leader guy just went psycho. Nova is still all pissed about being tossed off a building. He had an ongoing series way before Night Thrasher was a gleam in Fabian Nicenza's eyes. Its time for some words!


Doooooood. The guy who is in charge is also the loose cannon on the team? Fraaaaaaag. And that's why they're the Heroes For The 90's--!

Respect!

I'm just going to come out and say it. The 1st 25 issues of the New Warriors is two clicks short of amazing. Fabian Nicienza & Mark Bagley making straight up good super hero fun that quite frankly never gets the respect that it deserves. And that's why we're here. I'm going to school your asses in New Warriors 101 and show you why they're the "HEROES FOR THE 90'S--!"

Today's lesson?

How To Start A Super Hero Team In One Issue.

I'm hoping that you're taking notes, Mr. Bendis. Let's begin.



Take one pissed off guy in a snazzy suit--!



Next, you find some washed up never-was super heroes and...

Threaten their personal lives--!



Throw them off a building to activate their latent powers--!



And go through the Avengers' trash--!




Then you take a spin on the Pick-Us-A-Villian-To-Fight wheel--!



Count on a completely random characters to show up such as...

An Atlantean Princess--!



And the last Marvel character that Ditko ever created--!



Fight, fight, fight--!--!--!





WIN--!




Let the parents clean up the mess--!



Seal the deal with a "Woah, Bundy"--!




Instant Super Hero Team For The 90's--!




Next, we'll have a lesson in street knowledge involving stolen A.I.M. weaponry. Break for recess.

For those of you who are underwhelmed by the ALL NEW! MAJOR! CHANGES! WOW! for Hulk as he punch, kicks, pokes, gouges, and greco-roman style wrestles his way across the Cosmos in the 14 part Planet Hulk storyline, rest easy tonight. You are not alone.

The Funnie Pages, March 10th, 2006.

The week in comic book blogging comedy...

Jamawalk over at Mylar prompts us to the join the most exclusive of clubs out there...The Rob Liefeld Fan Club!:

What they shoulda done is had each "fan" send in a picture of their feet in addition to the entry fee. That way Rob could see what they look like and, god willing, someday learn how to draw one.

Chris from 2 Guys Buying Comics and Jake from Ye Olde Comic Booke Blogge show us what Marvel Previews In Hell would look like:

WOLVERINE/SPIDER-MAN: OVEREXPOSURE #5 (of 8)
Written by PAUL JENKINS
Pencils & Cover by JIM LEE

James Howlett has been many things --- samurai, secret agent, X-Man, software reseller, administrative assistant, driving instructor, plot device. But his job as a one-hour-photo developer proves to be his most challenging yet, when Daily Bugle shutterbug Peter Parker "swings" by for help with a tricky roll of film! Petey's no slouch with a negative, but Logan's the Best At What He Does --- something's gotta give! The most overprinted miniseries of the year rolls along!
32 PGS./Rated T+ SUGGESTED FOR TEENS AND UP ...$2.99

Dave Campbell risks judgement from The Inter-Planetary Supreme Court for crimes against comic books. The defendant? You're "ironic" love for Power Man and Iron Fist:

Allow me to engage in a little bit of comic sacrilege: I have never been a big fan of Power Man and Iron Fist.

“Sweet Christmas!” you say, gasping. “But they’re so retro! Not only do I dig Power Man and Iron Fist, but I ‘get’ them in that ironic way that makes me cool.”

BeaucoupKevin gives the fans what they want

The Invincible Super Blog helps us to overcome the long, cold winter of waiting for an issue of Warren Ellis's Iron Man that we probably don't want to read anyways:

But now, Tony's sober, and when Stane blows up a couple of his friends for kicks, Tony decides that he's had enough... and he goes to the basement.

See, when other super-heroes like, say, your Ultimate Spider-Man types go to the basement for an hour, they're going to come out with puffy eyes and an empty box of Kleenex. But when Tony Stark goes to the basement, he's coming out with a brand new pair of Nuclear-Powered Underpants.

That's right.

Nuclear-Powered Underpants. No man can stand against their fury.

Mark Fossen makes me feel dumb for not going to the comic shop this week:

Another Friday, another installment of Bovine Ultraviolence.

"Cut the crap, Johns":

8. Enough with the veneration of Golden Age Lois. Some of us, you know, have actually read the stories she appears and know full well that she was a vicious emasculating witch. I will believe a man can fly; I will not believe that Lois's poop don't stink.

Let's not forget, Lana Lang is a total bitch as well

Enjoy your weekend!

Friday is here and already I'm bracing for another weekend-less weekend. Tonight is my friend Sam's art show, The Matterhorn. He's the fellow in which the ages of 19 to 22, we hung out doing stuff like skateboarding, starting up crappy bands, thrift store shopping, arguing about vegetarian lifestyles, and listening to an assortment of hardcore, emo, and indie rock records. Now that I'm a few months shy from turning 27, our time is spent drinking beers(Sam's a lightweight) and talking about his new movie that I'm going to sell my left pectoral muscle to produce. A sidenote on the subject of movies, some of Sam's art shows up in Art School Confidential, which earns me some kind of scene points if only for the sole fact that there pictures on some digital camera out there some where with Sam and I innocently naked on it. The art show should be fun as there's been promises of powdered donuts and PBR. And its in Silverlake which means there will be hipsters of plenty to amuse and frustrate me while The Girlfriend gets rowdy drunk in a way that makes me both love and hate her at the same time. Its ok, because she's solely responsible for me having a copy of DC Universe: The Worlds Of Alan Moore. She tried to get me the Artic Monkeys and I was like, woah.

You can look at more of Sam's artwork here.

Saturday promises me a day off, but I won't be surprised if work tries to call me so I can "open title" and "be there for the team, bro." And once that finishes up, there are bathrooms to be cleaned, clothes to be laundered, and The Girlfriend to entertain. I hope to get started on the New Warriors blogging thing that I promised myself that no one in Samhain is going to give two shits about. And let's not forget Barry Windsor Smith Appreciation Week! And what is that you ask? That's a good question, little Billy! Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation Week is where we come together and give our love and thanks to the God that is known as Barry Windsor-Smith! A master of the craft, BWS(that's we call him) doesn't get as much credit as he deserves, so we have decided that we are going to dedicate the last week of March, Saturday to Friday, the 25th to the 31st, to praising the glory that his and his alone. What YOU can do is pick up BWS comic.......read it......AND BLOG ABOUT IT! You don't have to do it all week long, but hell, one post should do the trick!

So, uh....yeah. BWS Appreciation Week. Its gonna be hooting and hollering. I got me some Machine Man action, two volumes of BWS: Storyteller, along with Rune sprinkled in here and there. There's other stuff, too. I'm really, really, really, really hoping for Earth-2 Leigh comedic insanity involving Weapon X, but I'll take a photoshopped Uncanny X-men cover, too.

Whatevs.

Sunday's up in the air, which means I'll have to check with The Girlfriend and see what she's got scheduled. I'm hoping get at least 8 hours dedicated to Sam's movie and see Haram play the Alpine in Ventura, but that's probably all just wishful thinking.

Its a damn shame when you're looking through a dollar bin and you see things like Kirby's Captain Victory # 2 and Moore's 1963 sitting there next to issues of Brigade, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, and Spider-man comics with Ben Reilly on the cover. A damn shame indeed. To nurture the crying boy inside of me, I purchased Cromartie High # 5, and really.........what IS up with that Naruto on Freddie's face?

As Marvel and DC fall all over themselves to try and snatch every last cent in every super hero comic book fans' wallets, everything starts to look a lot like a circus. The ring master enters the center stage and promises us things of which we have never seen before. Acrobats fly over our heads, performing gravity defying stunts, eliciting a round of well deserved applause. A man swallows a sword whole, bears dance while wearing funny hats, jugglers toss flaming pins to and fro, and clowns just run around making asses of themselves. As this spectacle unfolds in front of us, the ring master is there to reassure us of the miracle that we are a witness to.

If only these crossovers were as entertaining as a real circus, we wouldn't be subject to the depressing level of negative intercourse of comic book bloggers at large. As much as I have(and will) complain about these earnest attempts at grand story telling that are anything but, today is different. Today I bring you a cross over that is worth its weight in gold and so much more. Please forgive me if someone has posted this recently, but I just couldn't help myself.

Courtesy of Alan Moore, Gene Ha, & Company...

THE SECRET CRISIS WAR CROSSOVER THING!!!



[ Click for maximum hilarity ]

Having just read the 2nd Top Ten trade, turning that page to the full spread of the Secret Crisis War Crossover thing and seeing the word "Galactapuss" in print warmed this cold, dead heart of mine. Oh, am I glad that I waited until March of 2006 to read this wonderful, wonderful book. Fuck reading Infinite Crisis tie-ins and watching Civil War trailers. Smax is next followed by the George Lucas remastered version of DC Universes: The Worlds Of Alan Moore and a very satisifying rereading of Top Ten: 49ers.

Look! Its Bat-mouse and John Ratsatine!

Oh, I could kiss that weird magic wielding comic writing limey bastard right now...

As always, the face of the Robot Apocalypse is staring down at us. Sure, there are Spider-Slayers, which they "say" are going to be "used" for "space exploration", ie "World Domination." Recently, they unveiled the BigDog for use on the front lines to carry gear to troops. With its ability to hold up to 120lbs and move along at 3.3 miles per hour, I see a walking bazooka covered with fur just waiting to happen. No one is going to suspect Fido, that's for damn sure. They already have helicopter robots equipped with machine guns. What's next? Attack sharks? Robot Destructo Tanks?

Thankfully, the Japanese are a nation of nerds and instead of creating robots of mass destruction, they are creating robots for your aiport secretarial needs.

The very famous Japanese manga Gingatetsudo 999 or Galaxy Express 999 (on the same level as Captain Harlock (Albator)) featured Me-Teru as a hero, and here she is as a robotic receptionist at the airport of Kita-Kyushu (the home town of the manga-ka of this series, Matsumoto-San). this Me-Teru robot measures 1m70 and can respond to 200 airport releated questions.

[via Engadget.com]

How long do you think it'll be before an employee from Kita-Kyushu will be busted for Crimes Against Robo-Nature?

The trip to Earth-2 last night was a smashing good time. Walking in, I couldn't help but to stop and take a whiff of the new comic smell. Hanging out with Darron is always a pleasure. His wife is still pregnant and he just had a nice little vacation up to San Francisco. They were sold out of Tales Designed To Thrizzle # 2, leaving me to get all Natasha Romanov and buy it some where else. As for what I purchased, it was all Marvel with the exception of Solo and Infinite Crisis # 5. I know, I know, I'm a Marvel Zombie, but how am I supposed to stay relevant in today's world of internet blogging if I'm not all bent out of shape about DC's big ol' cross-over? It has its moments, but overall its a big pile of doo doo that makes me glad that I'm a Marvel guy. Don't get me wrong, Marvel has its crap moments, too, but its nice that I don't have to worry about a Golden-Age Captain America showing up, spouting totally inane reasons for destroying the universe. "We must destroy Earth-616 so that Bucky may live!" Uh huh. I also walked out with a copy of Rick Vietch's Brat Pack(at half price!) and the 2nd Top Ten trade. Considering it might be a few more weeks, I figured I'd get something meaty for the duration.

Last night Ryan and I came up with a name for our production company which is comic related and *gasp* taken from DC comics. See? I'm not a COMPLETE asshole.

Blogger-related frustrations:
If I ever had a nemesis, it would be Blogger's ability to place photos in your post that fug up your sidebar like crazy...

Comic book related news:
Today is my foray back into the comic book-a-rifficness that is Earth-2 Comics in Van Nuys and I must say that I'm a bit excited, considering its a been a month. See, 2006 came along and kicked me in my comic book nuts, along with a few other not-so-nice places. So, I took a step back. I became modest with my comic book intake and decided to re-evaluate the way I read comics as well as the way I spend money on comics. After a month or so, nothing has really changed, except for how much I spend. I'll be buying crappy New Avengers and Mr. Miracle and be all "curse you, stupid comics!" to the skies above. Astonishing X-men will be on my pull list and I'll get all miffed when it doesn't come out as quick as I want it to. The Starman trades will stare at me, enticing me to buy while I grunt through gritted teeth about the lack of their ability to wow me with that last arc in Space. Animal Man will look at me all sad and sullen, wondering why oh why must you spend your cash on those inferior comics when the goodness is here, baby, right here!

Withouth the weekly trip to the comic shop, its like I got a part of my life back. All the Crisis Civil War crap is just a siren's song, calling me into the foggy mists, saying "hey, this route is that much safer and faster and look, boobs!" when I know slow and steady will win the race everytime. Its really weird, but not too long ago, I was ready to stop reading comic books and comic blogs altogether and search out something new. Turns out, all I need was a nice little break.

But damn it, I'm coming back, and Darron, you better have stocked up on that licorice.

Non-comic book related news:
I, along with Secret Wars drummer extraordinaire Ryan Adams, have taken upon ourselves the awful, thankless task of trying to produce our friend Sam's movie, which under our care, should be a complete and total disaster. Boshe moi. Although I don't know exactly what "produce my movie" really means, I'm sure it should be gut wrenching, considering all the other things going on in my life like the soon-to-be hectic work schedule, thee ever increasing consumption of my life that is the band, and The Girlfriend. Oh, and the blog. Can't forget about that. Expect to hear frequent updates as we try to our best to deal with this beast, along with pleas to send donations to a paypal account and buy whatever crap we try to hawk on ebay in our feeble means to raise as much money as possible.

The movie's called Miss May. Its gonna be the Commando for the class of 2007, but you know, without guns or governors.

Do you know what is so great about March? Well, besides being the first month of the Roman Calendar as while as having the only holiday that combines pinching and getting drunk, it also home to.....

Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation Week!

Yes, that's right! Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation Week, which takes place during the final week of March, Saturday to Friday, the 25th to the 31st. Everyone who is anyone in comic book blogging must pay their respects the creative works of the British artist at least once for BWS's unforgetable and groundbreaking work in the field of comics. Whether it was launching the original Conan The Barbarian with Roy Thomas, writing and illustrating Weapon X in the pages of Marvel Comics Presents, or exploring his own creations(along with paying homage to the work of Jack Kirby) in the over-sized Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller, BWS's work is nothing short of brilliant. BWS was simply thee best at adding a real sense of beauty and grace to the world of swords, super powers and science fiction.

And what should we expect from "Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation week?" Well, what I would like to see, in no particular order:

- BeaucoupKevin doing a Genius Cover Sunday of BWS covers

- Chris Sims having his mind blown

- Earth-2 Leigh photoshopping something hilarious and wacky with the pages of Weapon X about Wolverine getting a sex change

- David Campbell finding a good BWS fuck yeah moment

- Comics Should Be Good digging up some urban legend about BWS being the reincarnated soul of Aflons Mucha

- Dorian showcasing the homoeroticism from the Young Gods.

- Mike doing some post about a conversation he had with a fellow employee when Wildstorm Rising came out with the BWS bookends

- Jake doing some mash up of Olsen: Red Viking and Conan The Barbarian

- 2 Guys Buying Comics blogging about his hatred for which ever issue of New Avengers came in March because he got drunk and forget the whole thing

- Jog doing a very comprehensive run down of Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller

Etc, etc. Considering that its a week long event, I don't expect a post a day about BWS for the whole week. One post is enough for you to keep your blogging license. The only thing that I ask that everyone do is buy one BWS comic that you haven't read before(unless you're a lucky SOB and own everything he's ever done) and review it. And for all you a-holes out there that feel you're too good for BWS, well, may God have mercy on your soul.

So mark your calendars because from March 25th to March 31st, its Barry Windsor-Smith Appreciation Week!