Monthly Archive for September, 2010

Week of September 27th

Published on September 27, 2010 in Comics, Reviews-comics, Shop Crap and Wrestling. 0 Comments

I don’t normally sing the praises of Wizard magazine and I’m not going to today either.  However, I am going to point out that one of the cup’s own is featured in this week’s issue.  Tia is in it for her costuming exploits.  Thank you Tia for improving Wizard by far more than 100 fold.

DC Changes…

Lots of news has been coming out of New York over the weekend about changes at DC.  Everything from partial moves of some staff to “layoffs” and promotions.  Probably the biggest news is that Wildstorm will no longer be an imprint, but now part of DC entertainment and sold under the DC logo and brand.

Some on line were lamenting it’s loss.  It really isn’t as big as you might think, just a change of partial trade dress.  The writing was on the wall when Jim Lee came to DC from Image and was slowly worked into the hierarchy of the parent company and then last year added as one of the company’s chief executives.

It is important to point out thought that Wildstorm has given us some great books while under the DC umbrella, but acting somewhat independently.  All of the ABC stuff, which includes a lot by Alan Moore that never would have been able to be published on a large scale mainstream format without that buffer.  Several books like Ex Machina that just seemed right under Wildstorm and wouldn’t have really fit under Vertigo.  So, goodbye Wildstorm, please keep up the good work.

But the rest, the layoffs and the promotions and the move, what does all this mean?  Well, the layoffs are described as jobs being moved to California.  It is common practice to list these as lost jobs, though comic “news” circles are saying nearly every person effected is being offered the chance to relocate.  Most of these jobs are not related to the basic publication and creation of the comics wing of DC.  Much of it is such areas as DC direct and multi-media areas of the company.  And like I said, most will result in promotions and a few additions.

There was much said about a possible relocation of the full DC company to the West Coast, but, for now, that appears unlikely due to what Bleedingcool.com is saying is because of the massive amounts of records and comic content they have in New York.  Cost and Time being the main reasons for not moving the whole thing.  Amazing that on a much bigger scale others deal with the fear and concern of moving a big comic collection too.

SO, what does all this mean for you the comic lover and purchaser?  Like I said last year when the first rumblings of the Warner Bros. shake up of DC started, you will not see much.  It will take another year and you might start to see some changes in some books as there are changes in Editors.  New faces like to make changes, but with few books being published month to month (it is more like six months or more that things are planned out) it’ll take awhile to see alterations.  This is one of the biggest differences in DC and Marvel.  Structured organized change vs. seat of their pants micro management.

However, it is rumored that some of the changes, promotions and movement, are coming from Vertigo.  Possibly cuts, possibly just movement, but either way altering the current exemplary flow of one of the most consistent productions of quality in the industry is not good.  Though, I don’t blame DC for wanting in some way to get that spark of quality into more of their mainstream books.  How good was that latest issue of Unwritten vs. well, is Power Girl still being published after Winick took it over?

Thor #615…

This is part review, part continued rant against issue 614.

Amazingly good is all I can keep saying when I see the cover for 615 and remembering the read from last week.  What a difference a month makes.  The terrible, wretched foul taste of the money grabbing shortsightedness of 614, with its bad art, bad story and editorial gaffes is nowhere to be seen in 615.

Matt Fraction is on as writer and Pascal Ferry is now on art chores.  The book, though staying true to continuity developed over the last couple years, is off in a new direction and looks to be dealing with the continuity, but not letting it drag it into the mire that can plague superhero books.  Thor will be having a big bad bold new villain here shortly too and there will be plenty of fighting and smashing coming, but in this one issue Fraction pushed the characters of Thor and his alter ego Donald Blake further then they have seen since JMS was on the book over a year ago (certainly more than Secret Civil Siege – the supposedly Thor universe based mini.)

Because 614 was so bad a bunch of people dropped it.  Do not blame you one bit.  You might consider picking it back up.  I’ll have more issues in on Wednesday.

3XW This Friday!!…

Friday, Friday, Friday… Pro Wrestling at the Des Moines Social Club.  Some of the scheduled matches include a World Heavyweight Title defense against the winner of the over the top rope Battle Royal which will take place in the same night.  Also, a Tag Team Title defense by the Gentleman’s Club against The Horn Dogs.  I have a feeling it might be time for a new set of Tag Champions.

The supposed undercard is as good or better than the main events.  The contract of Ring of Honor stand out Mike Sydal is on the line as Brian Ash faces Zach Thompson in the continuing teacher versus student grudge match.  If Zach wins, his old tag team partner can return to 3XW.

And probably the match of the night, certainly in my eyes, The Main Event a two out of three falls, third and final meeting between Mark Sterling and The Rebel Jeremy Wyatt.  This has the potential to be one of those matches that is talked about for years to come.  Do you notice how NO ONE in the upper echelons of WWE or the like ever goes more than about 20 minutes in a match?  They can’t do it.  Their stamina, their “conditioning,” their bulk… whatever, none just go out and wrestle anymore.  The days of a Ric Flair/Harley Race hour long draw are over.  Why is Ric Flair the greatest of all the times?  Dude wrestled hour long matches five or six days a week for years!!  That is what this Sterling/Wyatt match reminds me of, a Flair/Race old school grudge match.  Neither went really did anything to each other, they just “don’t like each other” and are going to settle it in the squared circle.  Old school, classic pro-wrestling.  Thank you 3XW, exactly what I need.

And you would love it too.  Pre-sale tickets are at the shop right now.  $12 for adults and $6 for kids 10 and under (and let me tell you, kids LOVE it.)  I’ll see you there.

Kubb of Kryptonite…

Two events full of Viking fun for you.  This Wednesday at 5:00 there will be an impromptu learn to play event.  Juice will be doing a story on the Iowa Tournament which is now scheduled to take place outside the shop on October 23rd.  Sign up for the tournament is only $5.00 and all Cup regulars are encouraged to come and kick some ass.

What is Kubb you ask?  Well, legend has it, this very fun yard game has its roots in Viking conquest and was used as a game to unwind after a raiding party was complete and much alcohol was consumed.  The point of the game is to knock down your opponents kubbs, little wood blocks that supposedly were heads during Viking times, with other longer thinner wood pieces which might have been bones at one time.

No heads or bones, and probably far less violence in our version, but still a hell of a lot of fun.

Learn to play, this Wednesday, September 29th 5:00

Tournament, October 23rd starts mid morning

Blackest Night Sale Extended…

Due to a technical  error (my stupidity) we are extending out the Blackest Night Hard Cover sale for another full week.

For the next two weeks we will be blowing out our Blackest Night Hardcovers still left in stock.  This is how it will go; the three main title ones (Main book Blackest Night, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps) will be 20% off.  The rest are 50% off.  Yes, 50%.  So, if you got one and wanted another, but didn’t want to pay crazy prices, now they aren’t so crazy (or maybe they are.)

Also, if one sells out from our stock, and I can get a reorder, I will honor the deal as long as you pre-pay.

The Week of September 20th

Published on September 20, 2010 in Comics, Movies, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

Something I found on the Net…

Last week there was a post on Bleeding Cool.com about A Comic Shop in Orlando boycotting variant covers of comics.  Here is a link to the video on their site www.acomicshop.com in it one of the shop’s owners goes on a rant about never carrying, ordering and supporting variant covers to comics again.  It is an interesting theory on comic retailing.

I had the privilege to sit in on a workshop held at the C2E2 convention in Chicago last year by one of the other owners of the shop on Facebook and social media.  It was well done and had a lot of interesting ideas, especially for one such as myself who is not a friend of technology.  This shop in Orlando certainly is.

So… their rant on variants.  In the piece for their podcast, they expound on the evils and disease of, as I would call it, ultra collectors or compete-estes, those collectors that must have everything!  I agree with a lot of what they say, industry wise, but can’t go so far as to bash the collectors.  I leave the video for you.  Variants are not good for several reasons.  Here are my thoughts:

A.  They could be hurting the industry irrevocably.

They prop up sales on books that shouldn’t have them.  If Avengers sucks, but has extra books ordered to get a variant to sell on e-bay for the cost of the extra books ordered, hmmmmm, how truly accurate are the nation numbers on comic book sales?  Let’s look at this for a second.  If even the smaller books like Zatanna or Legion of Super Heroes have them – say 1 in 10 – and a shop would normally only order eight or nine, but decides to add an extra copy to get the variant and this happens over two to three thousand shops… I think you see where I’m going here.  Those are not readers, those are inflated “sales,” but NOT in shops.

So, If the numbers are skewed, probably rather badly on some books, what does this mean?  I think it could mean the entire industry is on very thin stilts, propped up over rushing, rising waters.  This concerns me more than anything in the industry currently.

B. Do any other industries do this?  Think for a minute… I can’t think of anything like this in the cousins of comics, book, music or film industries.  Sure there are the special editions of music or DVDs, but most of that is a one or the other and doesn’t really inflate sales, just adds to it.  I could be wrong on this, but I just don’t see other industries doing this sort of thing (except collector toy markets.)  If comics want to be more like books and desperately want to be excepted by them, should we be trying to make ourselves more or less freak-ish?

C. Are we in the nineties again?  It really is like this stupid industry doesn’t get it.  Let us review, Chrome, die-cut, speculator market caused one company to go bankrupt and squashed a lot of independents… just over ten years ago!  Idiots!  Learn from your own history and you’ll see variant covers are not a good thing.

D. They create a have and have not in the industry and the financial situation that follows.  It is an elitist atmosphere that benefits few.  This is one of the points that I sort of agree with and sort of don’t agree with the guys from Florida.  I kind of like comic art.  Different sketches, alternate art, someone other than the guy who normally draws the book you are reading taking a shot with its characters… these are good things.  So, the theory behind variant covers is sound, in theory, but when they start needing to charge more and more for them, well, someone needs to pay that.  Someone does and that is probably money that should have been spent somewhere else in the industry.  Get it?  A $10 variant doesn’t seem bad, but that could have been three other books.  Three other books that might have been enjoyed and continued with the next month – i.e. more sales.  Now do you get it?

Variants… all this from a hypocrite.  We sell them online (and a few in the shop.)  Can’t help it, we like the extra flow of money we make from E-bay sales.  Hell, I wish we made more to sell and more to make money on.  Ah, but what I should say is I wish I had better variants to sell.  Marvel has taken to having a Variant theme of the month.  It really started with the Zombie alteration variants from a few years back, and then on to Monkey variants and now even Vampire variants.  Some do better than others, but by and large the Super Hero Squad variants are crap.  Hey, in two months, it is Tron variants… yep, someday, Mickey Mouse variants can’t be too far off.

So, what does an industry do?  Well, hope to Zeus that my fears aren’t real.  I don’t think they are as bad as they could be.  I think the fears of digital and big box store take over are far worse, but if you really hate variants and how the industry is run… check out a company with no variants.  Publishing like Vertigo and some independents really should be the norm for the entire industry, but hey, who wants good comics, I’d much rather have another Deadpool variant cover, right?

Check below for what variants we are selling on E-bay this week…. Oh, sad.

Blackest Night Hardcover Sale…

For the next two weeks we will be blowing out our Blackest Night Hardcovers still left in stock.  This is how it will go; the three main title ones (Main book Blackest Night, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps) will be 20% off.  The rest are 50% off.  Yes, 50%.  So, if you got one and wanted another, but didn’t want to pay crazy prices, now they aren’t so crazy (or maybe they are.)

Also, if one sells out from our stock, and I can get a reorder, I will honor the deal as long as you pre-pay.  Can’t beat that, now can you?

Ronnie’s Reviews…

DMZ #57  Brian Wood & Cliff Chiang
This issue continues Brian Wood’s tradition of one-shots studying somewhat minor characters right after a major event.  Last issue was about the self-made Chinatown warlord Wilson, this issue on past character Amina, the former brainwashed almost suicide bomber.  It picks up during the lastest U.S. military bombing raid of New York City.

(Editor’s Note – The series takes place in a future torn apart by a new civil war in a broken United States.  Much more political commentary in its narrative than Sci-fi.  It is in an alternate future… or maybe not so alternate.)

Amina discovers an abandoned infant in the rubble outside her apartment/bunker and rescues it.  The next number of pages fill us in on her current history since we last saw her, and highlights choices that had to be made in her context, which would be an ethical struggle in ours.  In NYC during the second American civil war, everything is changed, and Wood’s characters have to adapt in every way.  This is one of this authors major strengths, his characterizations.   We get to know Amina well, although it seems like her story didn’t have enough pages to really finish.  This woman has been through crap that would break you and me, and this child may be her chance at redemption.
The art is handled by Cliff Chiang, who I believe is new to this series, and it is passable.  Very Vertigo-ish, but I feel it may be to clean for this kind of story.  Still, it isn’t distracting.  Ricardo Burchielli is the usual series artist, and he fits like a glove.  Brian Wood does most of the covers himself,  which is similar to his old awesome series Channel Zero.  The story flows well, but could have really benefited from 10 or more extra pages.  This series continues to kick my butt.
For fans of Scalped, war stories, and people that like good comics.  4.5 Stars

Unwritten #17 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.
this issue was Choose Your Own Adventure!  Seriously!  And they nailed it.  It is titled The Many Lives Of Lizzie Henam, which should tell you what it is about.  If you are not reading this series, go ahead and try this anyways, it was a ton of fun.
If you are not familiar with the choose you own adventure format, it usually goes something like this, at the end of a page, there are two or more options for you to choose to continue the story.  You choose the corresponding page/choice, and continue until that story ends.  Then you start over and try again.  For this particular issue of Unwritten, it work very well because the title Lizzie character is unsure of her actual identity, which is a major theme throughout the series.  The reader gets to basically choose which of her histories we will use.  It took me at least an hour to get through all the various storylines, which is pretty sweet for a 2.99 book. Also, the pages are setup horizontal and most split in two, which gives you double the pages to work with at that price.
I would love to see more of this format in this series, and in comics in general.  I read a lot of these styled books as a kid and loved them, but never considered how well it would work in an “adult” comic book.  Someone do this!  Please!
For fans of Fables, those who outgrew Harry Potter, and people that like good comics.  5 stars.

(Editor’s Note – This really is as good as Ronnie says.  One of the top books of the year.)
Machete by Robert Rodriguez
This ain’t a comic review!  This is a Movie review!
Full disclosure – I watch like six movies a year, so I may be a terrible candidate to review them. And Danny Trejo is my father.  (Editor’s Note – we are unable to authenticate this, but Ronnie wouldn’t lie, right?)
Machete stars Trejo as an ex-federale living in the US after being betrayed by powerful people down south.  He moves to Texas to hideout, and is then betrayed and almost killed by very powerful people there too!  Trejo decides to unravel the huge border crossing conspiracy with the help of some friends;  Michelle Rodriguez,  (possibly) the fabled heroin of an underground resistance group, Cheech Marin, a shotgun toting priest,  Lindsay Lohan, the daughter of one of the corrupt higher-ups, Jessica Alba, the change of heart border agent, lots of Mexican day laborers (and one whiteboy cholo) and an army of lowriders, big guns and as you might guess lots and lots of machetes!

They face rightwing racist Arizona/Tea Party style senators, minutemen-wannabe militias, and Steven Segal as a mexican drug kingpin, possibly his greatest role yet.
The movie is all sex and violence, and incredibly fun.  I’ve waited my whole like to see an army of lowriders take on an army of wingnut militia men!

It is NOT, as some people claim, an incitement to race war or anti-white/border/amerika.  Stop listening to Glenn Beck.  His politics relate to the real world as much this movie’s does.  They both made millions TO ENTERTAIN YOU!  Yep, Glenn Beck is an ultra wealthy entertainer who happened to find his big role, just like Adam West did.  He is not, however, in any way a political or economic analyst, and neither is Robert Rodriguez.
This movie delivers exactly what you expect, but bigger and better with more intestine swinging action than you could ever want.  It may have ran a little long, and Lohan and Alba put in terrible performances, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I saw it with my partner in crime and a bunch of cheering Mexican teenagers (and some idiot who brought a 5 or 6 year old kid!)  I walked out of the theater with a big smile on my face.  Can’t wait for the hinted at sequels and the soon to be released prequel comics.  This may be the Billy Jack of the Twitter generation.  5 stars.

Quick note about wrestling…

I’ll have more next week, but 3XW’s Halloween Horror is a week from Friday and we have pre-sale tickets at the shop now!  I’ll be there, will you?

The Week of September 13

Published on September 13, 2010 in Censorship, Matt's stupid ramblings and Reviews-comics. 0 Comments

Ever have one of those weekends where you felt like the sickly kid at the window while all the rest of the neighborhood was outside playing?  Yeah, well, I’ll be cheering when the first hard frost kills off all these stinking plants that are trying to kill me.  Bring on the cold!!

Speaking of cold…

Last chance for Hockey Jerseys…

I am putting in an order for Hockey Jerseys this week (Tuesday or Wednesday.)  Let me know asap or hold your peace.

Two up-coming events…

I am helping out my friend and fellow small business owner Nate of ZZZ Records, who will be celebrating 10 years of business this coming Saturday by letting you all know about their anniversary party at the Vaudeville Mews.  There are a bunch of local bands performing including Dresden Style, The Jerkles and Cleo’s Apartment.  The doors open at 9:30 and the shin-dig goes until 2:00am.  Cover is $10, however if you head down to ZZZ you can get a non-ticket/ticket that gets you in the door for only $5!

Go support a fellow comrade in arms.  10 years is a long time for any business, especially a small one.

3XWrestling has another show coming on October 1st, Halloween Horror!  A few more people went along to the last event and are planning on returning.  I’ll obviously have more in the next couple weeks, but it is something to consider for a good night out.  We have pre-sale tickets at discount available now.

Frank Cho is awesome…

I was wandering around the internet and found my way to apesandbabes.com, Frank Cho’s blogspace.  Cho is a fantastic artist, a great creator and I’ve been told a wonderful person.  Recently he was in Paris and has started making hints about some possible creator owned work over there.  Why in France or Europe?  Cho says “because there is not censorship.”  I’m not going to continue.  Consider my silence agreement and irritation with SO MANY PEOPLE and GROUPS.

(sigh)…. Thor?!?…

Anyone who actually READ Thor #614 should have found a terrible screw up.  Towards the end of the book there is a scene where, someone, maybe Heimdall, enters the throne room where King Balder has a piece of paper laid out in front of him.  On this paper is written “Scan of Map of Asgard?”  Yep, I kid you not!  Want to see it (and not spend money on it try BleedingCool.com.

Now the art in the issue by Doug Braithwaite is not his normal solid work, but rather sloppy simple pencils over color (done by three different people).  The book as a whole and, obviously, specific when talking about the map looks and feels rushed… and did I say sloppy, oh, I did, well, I will again…. Sloppy.

I showed my wife and she said, and I quote, “that is just dumb.  Who put this out…. OH, MARVEL!!”  I think that says a lot.  I guess what I have a problem with is the new publishing mindset of our illustrious kings.  It isn’t that something so, I’ll say it again, sloppy makes it through multiple editors and eyes and stop gaps, but it is the overall thought that this was entire issue was in any way quality.

Thor has a major motion picture coming out next year and though there are a dozen different versions of J Michael Straczynski run which was constantly/consistently late, at least it was really good.  People are dropping Thor faster that I can write it down.  Now, it is no Amazing Spider-man, but he doesn’t have a movie coming out.  Shouldn’t we be doing the best we can to get people to read this book?  OR are we, the royal we, Marvel and us the retailer, their valued partners in this comic venture, trying to both add sales… OH, WAIT, could the problem be that there are too many Thor books coming out?

In November, there are 9 different Thor or Thor related books.  They include Astonishing Thor #1, Ultimate Comics Thor #2, Thor #617, Loki #2 (of 4), Thor: For Asgard #4 (of 6), Warriors Three #1 (of 4), Thor: First Thunder #3 (of 5), Thor: The Mighty Avenger #6 and Thunderstrike #1 (of 5.)   He is also in or at least on the cover of an additional 9 books, including Deadpool Team-up #887, Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #5, Avengers #7, Avengers Prime #4, Chaos War #3, Chaos War: Thor #1 (of 2), Captain America: Man Out of Time #1, Iron Man/Thor #1 (of 4) and Thunderbolts #150.  There are also the kids books Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1 and Super Hero Squad #11, don’t forget about them.

That is 18 different books (not counting the kids books) Thor is in coming your way in November!!  18!!!  You would think he was Deadpool, but I don’t even think he was in this many in one month.

Hey, I like Thor.  He’s a good character.  But do you remember when he was in the Avengers and, er, he had his own book and… that was it.  Oh, maybe he guest stared in say Fantastic Four or showed up in Power Pack or something, but max four or even five books.  This is overkill.  We get it, he has a movie coming out, but nine to twelve books is just plain dumb for any character.

Ah, but why would a company do such a thing?  I’ll tell you the two reasons.  When someone comes into a shop and that good upstanding retailer (not me) has stocked ALL of these stupi… er, awesome Thor books is space not available for some other books and it makes great advertising for the character.  The other reason is all of these books will need to be out and printed in both hardcover and soft by the time the movie comes out, not months after.  All in the big book stores, because we little merchants can’t return the awesomeness that WILL NOT SELL!!

So, someone said they wanted a craze filled rant… I think you got it.  The only thing I was missing was being dressed in the Destroyer armor while I typed this.

Besides, Beta Ray Bill is better anyway.

Quick Review…

I get asked from time to time about something new, or different.  I like to think I know what I’m talking about when I give a recommendation.  However, I feel bad when I see a real high quality book get cancelled due to poor sales, i.e. Unknown Soldier.

I’m not arrogant enough to think my 20 extra sales means didly in the grand scheme of comics worldwide, but I do want you to read good books rather than bad, so, here is one I have stocked right now that you should be reading… RASL.  Jeff Smith’s follow up to Bone, but nothing like Bone.  This is NOT in any way for the kiddies.  The book deals with the theoretical science of alternate dimensions, art theft and Nikola Tesla.  (An entire issue looks at Tesla through a lens of fact, fiction and theory.)

There are trades in now that collect the first seven issues of this fantastic series.  Not a regular monthly book, it is published on a two to three month schedule, however, it has ascended to one of the best  and smartest books on the market.  I give nothing away and encourage anyone who enjoys Hellboy/BPRD, Shield (Hickman’s book from Marvel) and Terry Moore’s Echo to give it a look.

The Week of September 6th

Published on September 7, 2010 in Comics, Reviews-comics and Shop Crap. 0 Comments

A reminder, due to the 99th anniversary of the assassination of President William McKinley on Monday (and the honoring of the Labor movement) COMICS ARE DELAYED UNTIL THURSDAY.

Do we still honor the Labor Movement?  I thought with all the terrible abuses corporations perpetrate on their labor force, the environment and the electorate we would have just skipped Labor day by now… but, I of the lefty lefty thought process could be wrong.

Hopefully you had a great day honoring those who made your minimum wage and other protections you have at your job possible, or at the very least, grilled out and listened to some baseball.

Hockey Jerseys…

Last chance.  Next week the hockey team is putting in a second order for Cup o’ Kryptonite Hockey Jerseys.  Currently, one, a large, is hanging in the shop.  They are a dark green (like the color Dallas uses) with white and black under sleeves and logo on front.  If you get one, you will also have the option of getting your name and number on the back (for an additional cost.)  The standard jerseys are $45 and come in sizes ranging from Medium to XXL.

When they do ship, we will be getting another round of t-shirts printed up too.  If you would like something other than the standard T, now is a good time to let me know.  Pre-ordering, and pre-paying, comes with financial benefits.

Holy Expensive Art, Batman!!…

I read this week that just one of Todd McFarlane’s Amazing Spider-man covers went for over $70,000!  The cover in question is ASM #313.  You can read the full story over at Bleedingcool.com, but this is the second major cover that has gone serious money in the last six months at auction.  So, if this one goes for 70 grand, what does some of the REALLY big issues covers go for and does anyone else have some super art out there that could be worth a ton?

Holy Awesome Creators, Batman!!…

SO… where to start with this.  There were a few comments out of Fan Expo last weekend that have a few people up in arms. …and I’m not sure who I agree with and who I don’t.

First, I’m going to give some links and then discuss.  Here are some comments from Darwyn Cooke.   In them he really takes DC to task on certain editorial choices in superhero comics, contrary to publishing kids comics.  Among them are his dislike of a character of 60 years being turned into a lesbian overnight due to a writer’s inability to come up with a story.  All this stems from a question about if he would have any desire to return to children’s comics.

The second is Scotty Young (he of Marvel’s Wizard of Oz series.)  He said “A ton of guys who do super violent, adult books complaining about no books are made for kids. Odd trend. Me? I just go make a book for kids” on Twitter.  No one is 100% sure if this refers to Cooke or if it refers back to Robert Kirkman.  On line there is a decent write up about this comment and the Cooke one.

I can agree more with what both are saying.  Cooke nails just about everything I’ve hated at DC in the last five to seven years.  This is a man who gave us one of the best superhero books of the last decade and is now taking flack for stating the obvious.  I think Scotty Young in one sentence summed up my irritation of several paragraphs a couple weeks ago.

The industry just needs to get its head out of places it shouldn’t be and make good comics.  Write and draw good comics for adults AND for kids and the industry will be just fine.  Not a hard thought process.

Zombies in Des Moines?…

I want to tease something, that I’ll have more info on in the next couple of weeks.  Just go to desmoineszombiewalk.com and see what you see.  More to come.

Ronnie’s Reviews…

Sweet Tooth #13, by Jeff Lemire
This issue, as all previous (except #12, a great jumping on point!),  starts at the nail-biter cliffhanger of the previous issue, pushes the story momentum forward at a heavy pace (thanks to lots of character development) and ends in another nail-biting cliffhanger.
Issue 13 keeps the attention on Jeppard, Gus, and that weird scientist guy, tracking them as their inevitable epic collision comes closer.  When it happens, I expect fireworks to jump off the page and singe my shirt.  Jeppard’s motivations are becoming clearer, as well as the intention of The Reserve.  And Gus, poor old Gus.
The writing/art of Jeff Lemire (Essex County!) is unique as always.  There is a familiar story formula at work here, but it always keeps you guessing and engaged.  This “Mad Max with antlers”(USAToday) is a must read, and an excellent, original addition to the post-apocalyptic genre.  If you haven’t started this must-read series yet, the first trade is out for $10, (but reads better monthly) and we got a pile of the first issue for a buck.  Recommended to fans of The Walking Dead, Essex County, The Road, and people that like good comics. 4.5 stars.

-Editor’s note – I can’t agree with Ronnie more, except that this is a five star book.  This is one of the ten best comics being published right now and if you are not reading it or haven’t enjoyed it, I clearly must question your reading habits and wonder why you bother with this literary style.

Scarlet #2, by Brian Micheal Bendis & Alex Maleev
You can be forgiven if you passed this up because your only experience with Bendis is Marvel superheroes, but if you have read Jinx, Torso, Alias or Powers, you know what this guy CAN do.
Scarlet is the story of a young woman who suffers horribly from police violence by a drugged up crooked cop.  After recovering, she sets out for revenge, but finds out that her situation was a symptom of a much bigger problem.  Something is rotten at the foundation of our society, so she decides to do what it takes to fix it. And you are gonna help her. (Cue Public Enemy)
What’s different about this, than say, The Punisher?  For one, it’s not cheesy and, so far, not stuck in a ‘universe’, as it is creator owned.  Also, the main character uses you, the reader, as a partner and her rationale for the violence and destruction she is planning to commit.  There is 4th wall breakage here and quite a bit of it, which forces you into a more active role than consumer/bystander.  After two issues, it seems to be working very well.  Also, Alex Maleev’s art is, as always, interesting.  He seems to use a lot of photo reference, giving it a very ‘Waking Life’ feel.  It’s pretty unique, and works well for the story.  Check out the two page spread of Scarlet in the hospital bed.
This second issue is better than the first, you get a bit more of Scarlet’s mindset, and the story rushes forward.  The series tries hard to put everything into context from the point of view of Scarlet and her experiences in life.  I am pretty excited to see where this will go.  I recommend it to fans of DMZ, Scalped, and Channel Zero, as well as to people who like good comics.  4.5 stars.

-Editor’s Note – this really is a pretty good book and worth checking out if you can find a copy of the first issue.  Easily Bendis’s best work in nearly ten years.