Wait, What? Ep. 75: Joshua Judges OMAC

[Above:  Not a deliberate shout-out, I'm sure, but we'll take what we can get, of course.]

Thanks for your patience during our mild vacation! In return, we offer you Wait, What? Ep. 75, which features more than two and twenty minutes of Graeme McMillan and me "stealing the air" or "pump[ing] up the volume" or whatever it is you "kids" call it. [Thanks to Joolian for pointing out that should really read "two hours and twenty minutes," damn my eyes!]

Do we talk Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and The Walking Dead? Do we, ever! Dare we discuss Gary Friedrich, Ghost Rider and Marvel? Dare, we do! Tire I of answering rhetorical questions? Frankly, yes, but I won't let that get in the way of telling you we also chat about L.J. Smith and The Vampire Diaries; John Rozum, Scott McDaniel, and Static Shock; and James Doohan and William Shatner and Star Trek.

Also, there's Brian Bendis' ideas for the New 52; sales expectations for the Marvel and DC; Marvel's possible reboot and their strategies for Avengers Vs. X-Men; the myth of the Marvel Architects;  Joss Whedon and Buffy The Vampire Slayer; and et cetera, and what have you, and like that.

If you were the type to indulge in auditorial gambols, you may have encountered our gift in the wild autumnal splendor that is iTunes (where nearly-extinct creatures like Ping and DRM still play).  But if not, please take it as it is offered here, with utmost generosity and verbal pomposity:

Wait, What? Ep. 75: Joshua Judges OMAC?

As always, we thank you for listening and hope you enjoy!

In Which Hibbs Actually Recommends Something

As many of you know, I've really become quite a cynical bitch about comics lately. There's just a resounding sameness to so many of them, and too many writers are "writing for the trade" (rather than trying to make each single issue a compelling read in an of itself). In far too many weeks, I think the alright stuff is really just all right in comparison to other, lousier, comics.

Well, I read a comic that I genuinely liked in and of itself this week, and I want you to read it as well, That comic is XOMBI #1.

XOMBI gave me a thrill, because it's full of crazy ideas just tossed out there, like a good Grant Morrison comic -- seriously, it features a team of Catholic superheroes, one of whom is named "Nun The Less", whose superpower is shrinking -- and, in this incarnation, it has some REALLY GOOD art, by way of Frazer Irving.

XOMBI was a Milestone book -- part of the third wave, if I recall correctly, released after the market had decided, actually no it didn't want the Milestone books, though, looking at comics.org, I'm a little shocked that it lasted 22 issues back in the mid-90s.

It was an idea machine back then, too, but it kinda suffered from art in v1 by JJ Birch -- well, Joe Brozowski under a pen-name, and he's one of those artists who actually has a lot of wonderful fundamentals, but whose actual rendering style isn't too exciting, really. Everyone looked a bit stiff and angular.

This isn't a problem now with Frazer Irving doing the art -- man, this stuff just sings.

This series clearly follows from the first, but I understood every word that I read (and it's been like 14 years between issues, so I'm telling you this as a plus), and it felt very much like a proper first issue.

If I had ONE criticism of the book, it would be that it's a full 22 pages for the $2.99, instead of the now-usual 20-pages-for-a-DC-book, which means that issue #1 doesn't have a letter's page, and, thus, doesn't have any kind of "introduction and here's what we're thinking!" kind of text pieces that all of the best first issues have.

Here's how much I liked it -- so far today, I have not LET a single customer out the door without a copy of the book in their hands. I don't think I've done THAT since the SANDMAN days, actually. The downside of THAT is that, as I write this, I have exactly one copy left for sale, and I'll be sold out in the next 10-15 minutes. (reorders, sadly, take 2 weeks to turn around in the current system, unless you're willing to pay usurious shipping rates)

Which leads me to the next "here's how much I liked it" -- I've just placed a reorder equivalent to nearly 200% my initial order.... and I'm not sure I've ever quite gambled that big (well, proportionately) in a long-ass time.

So, yeah, when you go into your LCS, tell them you really would like a copy of XOMBI #1 -- it's a pretty exciting comic -- and if they're out (which they might be, I bet most stores ordered just barely above pre-orders), tell them it's Diamond order code is JAN11 0259, and that you want them to reorder it for you.

I thought XOMBI #1 was absolutely EXCELLENT.

-B