Arriving 7/25

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: what kind of asshole relaunches his blog, then doesn't actually post any reviews to it in the first week?

That asshole would be me!

My excuse is thus: Point-of-Sale goes live in six days (Monday 7/30), and I'm drowning in work to get everything ready for it. The database is "mostly" done (I still need to go and add distributors for the non-brokered stuff -- though I sorta am afraid if I put "COLD CUT" in that field, and there's not great news coming out after San Diego, that I am going to really strongly regret it), but I have to "get ahead" on other normal-business stuff.

For example, the new order form is due on 7/31... but if I don't finish it by, uh, tomorrow, it isn't going to get done this month, then we'll have no comics in September! Same thing with the latest subscription list, plus we had ONOMATOPOEIA to layout and print last week. Put it this way: I've been hopping.

I will (WILL!!!!) be ready come "D-Day" -- that's actually Saturday night, as we do inventory; and Sunday when we close the store to finish that, and install the database -- but every second of every day is precious right now in getting shit done.

I've barely responded to emails from Kate McMillan asking about the site, for that matter -- everything is triage mode right now. If it isn't POS related, and it will take more than 15 seconds to respond, then it is being put off!

One thing Kate did is to add a PayPal donation button over to the right -- if you like what you've been reading, PLEASE FEEL FREE to make a donation. At some point we'll probably be going to some form of advertising, but, for now, we're beggars on our knees, and if every one of you donated a buck or two, I could cut my fellow reviewers a nice check for their efforts. Think about it, will you?

Um, what else.... oh, yeah, Matt Brady finally put up the latest Tilting at Windmills on Newsarama, with some commentary on how DC's marketing has failed COUNTDOWN. Give it a read!

Mm, and like Abhay, I picture alt cartoonists on the bus, too. Except for Peter Bagge. He's on a bus, too... but he's wearing an ascot, and holding one of those Dennis the Menace pipes.

Also: am I the only one already sick of San Diego? Shit hasn't even started yet, and I find the whole exercise tiresome. I'm REALLY glad we're doing POS that weekend...

This week's books? OH MY GOD, it is a freakin' flood. Seriously, my largest invoice of the 21st Century. Not of ever, but in the last 7 years at least.

And I bet the post-SD one will be just as huge, too.

Anyway, here's what Comix Experience is getting this week:

ALL NEW OFF HB MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z UPDATE #3 ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #6 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #542 ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #13 ANNIHILATION CONQUEST STAR LORD #1 (OF 4) ARCHIE #577 BATMAN #666 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #12 BETTY #167 BLACK DIAMOND #3 (OF 6) BLACK PANTHER #29 CWI BLACK SUMMER #1 (OF 7) BLUE BEETLE #17 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #5 CABLE DEADPOOL #43 CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #35 CHEMIST COUNTDOWN 40 CROSSING MIDNIGHT #9 DEATHBLOW #6 DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #1 DUST #1 (OF 2) ELEPHANTMEN #10 FALLEN ANGEL IDW #18 FANTASTIC FIVE #2 (OF 5) FEAR AGENT LAST GOODBYE #2 FUTURAMA COMICS #32 GON VOL 1 GREEN ARROW YEAR ONE #2 (OF 6) GREEN LANTERN CORPS #14 GRENDEL BEHOLD THE DEVIL #0 HAWKGIRL #66 HELLBLAZER #234 HELLBOY DARKNESS CALLS #4 (OF 6) HEROES FOR HIRE #12 WWH HIDING IN TIME #1 (OF 4) IMMORTAL IRON FIST #7 INCREDIBLE HULK #108 WWH INVINCIBLE #44 IRON MAN #20 WWH JSA CLASSIFIED #28 JUGHEAD #183 LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #20 (NOTE PRICE) LOVE AND CAPES #5 MAGICIAN APPRENTICE #9 (OF 12) MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN #3 MIGHTY AVENGERS #4 CWI MULTIPLE WARHEADS #1 NINJA SCROLL #11 ONSLAUGHT REBORN #4 (OF 5) QUEEN & COUNTRY #32 RAISE THE DEAD #4 (OF 4) RED SONJA #24 RIDE DIE VALKYRIE #2 (OF 3) SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #39 SHEENA #2 (OF 5) SILVER SURFER REQUIEM #3 (OF 4) SPEAK O/T DEVIL #1 (OF 6) SPIDER-MAN FAIRY TALES #3 (OF 4) STAR TREK YEAR FOUR #1 STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #18 SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #32 SUPERMAN #665 (CD) TANK GIRL THE GIFTING #2 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #45 TEEN TITANS #49 (AA) TEEN TITANS GO #45 TESTAMENT #19 TOP COW / MARVEL UNHOLY UNION TRON #4 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #44 USAGI YOJIMBO #104 WALKING DEAD #39 WARHAMMER 40K DAMNATION CRUSADE CVR A #6 Of(6) WETWORKS #11 WITCHBLADE #109 WOLVERINE #55 WONDER WOMAN #11 (AA) X-MEN #201 X-MEN FIRST CLASS VOL 2 #2

Books / Mags / Stuff 24 SEVEN VOL 2 GN 52 VOL 2 TP ALAN MOORE HYPOTHETICAL LIZARD TP ALAN MOORE WILD WORLDS TP ALTER EGO #70 AMERICA JR VOL 1 TP AMERICAN VIRGIN VOL 2 GOING DOWN TP BACK ISSUE #23 BATTLE POPE VOL 4 TP WRATH OF GOD BOMB QUEEN VOL 2 TP QUEEN OF HEARTS CHICA GN (A) CLASSIC DC CHARACTER #3 WONDER WOMAN ESSENTIAL SPIDER-WOMAN VOL 2 TP FRIENDS OF LULU PRESENTS GIRLS GUIDE TO GUY STUFF GN GOODNIGHT IRENE GN ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #19 IMMORTAL IRON FIST VOL 1 LAST IRON FIST STORY PREM HC JOHNNY RYANS XXX SCUMBAG PARTY TP MARTIAN MANHUNTER THE OTHERS AMONG US TP MOON KNIGHT VOL 1 ROCK BOTTOM TP NANCY DREW VOL 10 THE DISORIENTED EXPRESS SC POSTCARDS TRUE STORIES THAT NEVER HAPPENED HC PREVIEWS VOL XVII #8 PULPHOPE ART OF PAUL POPE SC SHOWCASE PRESENTS MARTIAN MANHUNTER VOL 1 TP SOJOURN VOL 5 A SORCERERS TALE TP SOUNDS OF YOUR NAME GN SQUA TRONT #12 TIJUANA BIBLES VOL 8 TP (A) TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #156 UNCANNY X-MEN RISE & FALL OF THE SHIAR HC WARREN ELLIS CRECY GN WILL EISNER EDGE OF GENIUS VOL 1 TP WIZARD MAGAZINE ALEX ROSS JSA KINGDOM COME CVR #191 WRITE NOW #16

What looks good to YOU?

-B

Ponchos and Throw Pillows: Douglas doesn't actually review a 7/18 book

As I was waiting in line to buy my comics this week at Midtown Comics in Manhattan, the power went out for a moment, and a bunch of other customers pointed out the huge plume of smoke rising up from the explosion at Grand Central, three blocks away; I figured that whatever happened over the next few hours, I'd probably want something to read, so I paid for my comics and then went down to join the crowds of businesspeople running away from the explosion site. (It was just a steam pipe that had blown up, but we didn't know that at the time.) Understandably, I didn't really feel like turning immediately to a comic book about Manhattan getting smashed, or about a couple of characters trapped in rubble. So when I finally got to sit down and read, the first thing I pulled out was Giant-Size Marvel Adventures The Avengers #1, as the indicia has it, although the cover calls it Marvel Adventures Giant-Size Avengers--cue the "where are Giant-Man and Goliath?" jokes. It's actually a perfectly normal-size 22-page-story Marvel Adventures Avengers comic, padded out to $4 size with reprints of the first appearances of Namora and Venus, from Marvel Mystery Comics #82 and Venus #1. Those two stories were also just reprinted a couple of months ago in the Agents of ATLAS hardcover, in which their creators aren't credited either. For the record: the Grand Comics Database also isn't too clear on the creators' names, although the Namora story seems to have been drawn by Ken Bald and Syd Shores.

But the real raison d'être of this comic doesn't turn up until a few pages into it: a two-page spread dedicated to a bunch of the Spider-Man merch that ties in with the new movie--a card table, folding chairs, some throw pillows, a poncho, and two photos of what an explanatory caption notes is CHILDREN'S BEDDING. Another caption: "Available at fine stores everywhere. Product may differ by store." I should hope so!

This is followed, a few pages later, by an ad for Marvel Heroes bottled water, "The Coolest Water in the Universe!" This is as good a juncture as any to point out that bottled water is almost by definition uncool (seriously, go read that story). In another ad, Wolverine is wearing boxers with his own image on them, and saying "bub." Another ad is for the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer game based on the movie based on the comic book, which features "truly destructible environments." The movie FF's likenesses advertise milk, overleaf.

The only place where you can actually live the adventure, though, according to another ad, is Universal Orlando Resort, where the pictured Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride cost $100 million to build. Just to put that figure in perspective, let's say that after "One More Day," Amazing Spider-Man starts selling Civil War-ish numbers, 350,000 copies of each issue (and that its cover price is permanently three bucks). By my back-of-envelope calculation, it will still have to sell 95 consecutive issues at that level before their cumulative combined cover price is as much as it cost to build that one Spider-Man ride. Which it's reasonably safe to assume is making money anyway.

This is one weird, sort-of-guilty secret of superhero comics: they're really just caretakers for the licenses that go on CHILDREN'S BEDDING. The money isn't in Batman comic books, it's in Batman video games and throw pillows and coloring books. The comics' responsibility is to keep each franchise alive, in the "they still make those?" sense, and maybe if they're very lucky give it a little bit of cultural currency. As long as Iron Man and Wonder Woman don't do anything shocking enough to get their likenesses permanently removed from theme park rides, they're golden. The Big Two's market-supremacy skirmishes don't matter in the grand monetary scheme; I don't even know if superhero comic books' profitability matters. All that matters is that people keep wanting boxer shorts with Wolverine on them, which means that Wolverine has to keep being a thing of the present rather than of the past. This is not news, but it's irritating to have the comics themselves rub it in your face.

On the other hand, there's a curious kind of freedom that goes along with the way superhero comics are locked into a much bigger system of superhero commerce: as long as Marvel and DC don't rock their franchises' boat too much, they can do whatever they want with them. That's how projects like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and The Irredeemable Ant-Man and Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100 (and, thinking back a few decades, the Bill Sienkiewicz New Mutants period) happen. On the rare occasions when comics do give a superhero franchise more cultural (not just subcultural) currency, it comes from cutting loose within the limits of the franchise. Which is something I'd like to see a lot more of--Kirkman and Hester's Ant-Man hasn't caught on for a bunch of reasons (I'm convinced that one big one is the five-syllable word in its title), but it doesn't look or read like any other comic book right now, and that means it at least had a better shot at staying power than, oh, World War Hulk: X-Men.

GSMATA also includes a fun Avengers story by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk (involving the Agents of Atlas, Kang, time-travel, what would have happened if Captain America had been thawed out too soon, etc.). Kirk is credited as "penciler" only; there's no inker credited, but then again Marvel hasn't been crediting its inkers at all in solicitations for the past few months. I'm not gonna review the story as such, other than to say I enjoyed it, for the same reason I'm not giving it a rating (although I'll be giving other things ratings, never fear): partly because the commercial realities of superhero comics are clawing at me more than usual today, and also because I'm on a panel with Parker on August 1 (at Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon!), and if I started logrolling now I'd also have to point out that Jim Ottaviani and my pal Dylan Meconis's Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love is out this week from G.T. Labs, and will tear your heart out if you care about monkeys, parental love or both.

Finally, a bit more self-introduction and self-promotion, which you can skip if you don't like that stuff: Hi! I'm Douglas. I've got a new book out called Reading Comics, I do semi-regular graphic novel reviews at Salon, and I also write about comics for Publishers Weekly and its free email newsletter companion PW Comics Week, as well as a few other places. And I'm pretty sure I'm the last of the Legion of Savage Critics to post something; does that make me the Whilce Portacio of this crew?

That old tyme music: Hibbs' blast from the past

I love Harris Miller II, attorney to the comics stars. Upon seeing my "reintroduction" to the site, he sent me this email. Obviously, from the intro, this isn't the FIRST Savage Critic, but here's one Harris archived from 10/6/1993! So, it's been at least 14 years...

Don't try to email me at that address below (if it survives posting) -- haven't used it since the end of the 20th century!

Look how much longer the ratings list was back then!!!!

I like my new format better though....

Thanks, Harris!!!!

-B

**************************

From: Brian Hibbs (Comix Exp.)

Newsgroups: compuserve.cs2outlookexpress.forum.CIS.COMIC

To: All

Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1993 10:29 PM

Subject: The Savage Critic 10/6:

Because YOU demanded it! The exciting, no-holds-barred return of the Savage critic, featuring the best one word review column in town! We'll start this week with part 2 of the 9/29 shipment, but first, let's put thel rating system in perspective. In ascending order:

Unreadable Crap Terrible Awful Sucks Thud Yawn Eh O.K. Good Very Good Excellent

One special "rating" that doesn't fit on the chart: Don't care. This is reserved for subject matter that I couldn't care less about or am unqualified to judge. Additionally humor comics will be judged as "funny" or "not Funny"

Other superlatives are more or less equal to excellent.

Also, I reserve the right to change or add to the ratings at anytime, for any reason. You'll just have to muddle along.

I will not personally spend my money on any book rated merely good or lower.

Onto the final batch from last week:

Dances with Demons #3: O.K. Blazing Combat: Vietnam & Korea #2: Eh Vietnam Journal: Khe Sanh #3: Eh Days of Wrath #2: Eh Death's Head II #12: Awful Incomplete Death's Head #11: Crap Genetix #2: Unreadable crap Killpower #3: Unreadable Crap Chiller #1: Good, but not worth $7.95 for an incomplete story Dinosaurs for Hire #8: Funny Ferret #5: Terrible Protectors #13: Terrible Tor #4: Good Go Die: O.K. Femforce #65: Crap Good Girl Art Quarterly #13: Crap Flare #13: Unreadable Tigress #6: Unreadable Murcielaga she-bat #3: Crap Elfquest: Blood of 10 chiefs #2: Good Hugo Tate: O, America: Very Good Jason Goes to hell #2: Unreadable crap Jurrasic Park #4: O.K. Kip #3: Awful Lost Laughter #3: Good Meteor Man #4: Terrible Post Brothers #33: Very Good Ninja High/Speed Racer #1: O.K. Speed Racer w/ Ninja High #2: O.K. Zillion #1: Crap TekWorld #15: Terrible Vixen Wars #5: Unreadable crap Xenotech #1: Yawn Mia Farrow-Woody Allen Story: Unreadable crap Raven #1: thud Wandering Star #3: good

That covers *every* non-reprint, or children's comic that came into my store on 9/29. Let's move on to the first half of 10/6:

Team Titans #14: Awful Darkstars #14: Awful Nightstalkers #14: Yawn Guy Gardner #14: Yawn Kamandi #6: Thud JLI #58: Sucks Eudaemon #2: O.K. Negative Burn #3: Good (if a little uneven) Children of the Voyager #4: Very good Shadowman #21: O.K. HArbinger #24: Yawn Magnus #31: Eh Hard Corps #13: Yawn X-O #23: O.K. Deadpool #4: Thud What if? #55: O.K. Action #693: good Warriors of Plasm #3: Crap FF #382: Crap Spidey 2099 #14: O.K. Freex #3: awful Hardcase #4: Good Sludge #1: Very Good (W/ Rune #A: Eh) The extra 55 cents for 3 pages of BWS, 1 page of Magnor, and more (effectively) ads *is* a supreme burn. 3 pages just don't cut it - this wasn't even a *taste*. And FIVE dollars for shipping the "free" comics you get for buying ELEVEN others is a monumental ripoff.

Saint Sinner #3: Unreadable Lethal Foes of Spidey #3: Crap Night Thrasher #4: Crap Static #6: Very Good JL Task Force #6: Eh Ren & Stimpy #13: Funny Cable #5: Eh Warlock Chronicles #6: Crap Showcase #11: Good Titans #103: Unreadable Robin #1: Good Catwoman #4: O.K. X-Men Annual #2: Eh. Batman & Superman Magazine #2 (comics): Way excellent (the Rest): Don't care Law Dog #7: Very good Monster Menace #1: Cool Batman Adventures #14: Excellent ("The Goy Wonder", indeed!) Spawn #14: Very Good Hitchhiker's Guide #1: Good adaptation Wolverine: Killing: Excellent Animal Man #65: Very Good Swamp Thing #137: Stupefyingly terrible Hellblazer #71: Excellent Batman/Houdini: Devil's workshop: Excellent The Upturned Stone HC: Excellent

That's it for now -- more as I get to it (todays' batch represents 6 and a half hours of my time!)

That was my opinion, now what's yours?

Brian

Johanna Says Hello

I'm an early bird, so I'll join the crew: Hi!

I'm Johanna Draper Carlson. You may know me from Comics Worth Reading. Or before that, Usenet. Or before that, CompuServe... I remember those days, Brian, and I loved reading that history.

I'm not nearly as creative as some of these other folks here, but I am quite opinionated, and I'm honored to be one of the gang. I'll be starting my contributions with a look at the Del Rey manga line, since many of the guys here already cover superheroes brilliantly. (Although feedback is welcome, dear readers, if there's anything in particular you'd like an opinion on.)

And in this corner... Diana says hi!

Things I know: That A on his head did not stand for France. Things you know: Darkseid is.

Things I'd like to know: Exactly how much Jagermeister was needed to come up with "Skrull Invasion"?

Things you'd like to know: Why was Paris Hilton snubbed for the role of Kara on "Smallville"?

Things I should know (but don't): Never post ahead of the boss. (Sorry, Brian!)

Things you should know (but don't): Since I'm on the other side of the Atlantic, I'm usually up and running while the Comix Experience crew's asleep (Do Comic Retailers Dream of Hologram-Foil-Covered Sheep?). Just think of me as your late-late-late-late-late night talk show host.

Things we all know: Kurt Busiek wins!

Brian Sez: Welcome!

Right, so it's after midnight, so that makes it Monday, and, although I'm not sure all of the backstage technical stuff (and hurray for Kate McMillan, too right!)is going to let you see this the second I post this, at least I know I've written the introduction. So, this is the Savage Critic.

I've been writing reviews under this name for, basically, forever. It was back on CompuServe on Doug Pratt's Comics & Animation forum in the early 90s. I want to say '94, but heck my memory for dates is terrible, so maybe it was as late as dunno, '97. Either way, it's been more than 10 years, I'm sure of that.

A lot of things started there -- I seem to remember the first Newsarama posts launching from there, and Rich Johnston was doing a thing, too.

Anyway, one day I idly commented that I read pretty much every comic that came out each week, and someone (Lou Perez, maybe?) said "No way, prove it", so I started writing these super-short (sometimes one word short) little reviews of pretty much every comic that came out every week. It's kinda my job -- since I own a comic book store, people ask me a lot about what I think about specific books and storylines and characters. I need to have an informed opinion.

And there weren't as many titles released each week, back then, either!!

I did it, mostly weekly, for at least a year or two, then starting burning out (as I'm sure you could imagine), and when I migrated to the Real internet, away from CompuServe, I stopped writing it.

Flash forward a few years (2000? 2001?), and I started realizing that this internet thing was actually catching on, and I knew we had to do a basic "business card" web site for the store (Comix Experience, if you didn't know); but that it needs *some* measure of "content" to get people to pay attention to it. I thought, "oh, sure, I can do the Savage Critic again!" -- enough time had passed to make me forget how much work it actually is!

Those should all be archived here somewhere, though I don't know if there's a direct link (the site is down as I write this, prepping for the launch) any longer.

I did it for a while, then starting burning out again, and Jeff Lester thought we should switch to Blogger, so I didn't have to keep emailing him my weekly thing, so he could post it, and I convinced him that he should join in reviews with me -- harder to burn out when there are two of us.

And then we invited in Graeme McMillan, who makes writing funny snark look so easy, I could cry. And I thought we really were rolling along.

Then Jeff decided it was time for him to retire, quit the store from his one day a week gig, and just generally focus all the time he was giving me to write for his own career -- eminently the correct move, if you ask me.

Well, I wasn't sure if it could survive without Jeff's solid backbone, so I spent several weeks casting about for what to do, and, as usual, it was a stray comment by Jeff that proved to be the right thing after all.

"You should just invite, I don't know, Jog, or Spurgeon, or whoever, and make it like the Justice League of Reviewers."

Oh. Exactly! Duh!

So I did, and we are, and that's where we're at now.

Conceptually, there are 7 of us now, which means "daily posts" (will Graeme continue to be insane and write daily entries? We'll all find out!), since everyone is committed to doing one review a week here. In practice, they'll probably clump up, but let's see what happens. And if someone "misses" a week, that's fine too, because the rest of us will cover.

That's the plan, at least.

We're going to start at 7 (well, 8 really, because I think I put together too good of a group, and basically forced Jeff out of "retirement"), and there's a chance we'll expand it from there. There's at least another dozen people on my Dream List, but I didn't want to try to start it TOO wide because that's just a mess organizationally.

Anyway, I'll still be posting "retail intelligence" here, as well (I really don't want a second blog, darn it), when it comes up. Even though it kinda won't fit. But that's OK, I think.

Over the next day or two expect everyone to pop in, say hi, and then we'll get set reviewing. I'll be back later today (well, tomorrow for me, because I should go to sleep now, so I can get up and start writing Tilting tomorrow!) with a review as well myself.

Welcome to the New Savage Critic, hope you enjoy the ride!

-B

Your Big News: The NEW Savage Critic

TOLD you there was big news coming (though, just FYI, this link will still work just fine): For immediate release!

All-Star Savage Critic Launches July 16th!

The Magnificent Seven! The World’s Greatest Comics Reviewers! Amazing! Spectacular! Web of! (Is there someone else’s Intellectual Property we can infringe upon?!?)

The Savage Critic, America’s snarkiest comics review website, brainchild of Comix Experience’s Brian Hibbs, is expanding its roster with a relaunch on Monday, July 16th at www.savagecritic.com.

Joining Hibbs, and Savage Critic regulars Jeff Lester and Graeme McMillan, is a new all-star line-up of comic’s best critics, including:

Johanna Draper Carlson, of Comics Worth Reading!

Diana Kingston-Gabai, of Sententia 3.0!

Abhay Khosla, notorious comics commentator (without his own website)!

Joe McCulloch, of Jog - The Blog!

Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean!

“Dude, I mean, seriously – isn’t this the coolest line-up of comics critics you’ve ever seen in one place?” said Hibbs, “If I was ready to die, I could die happy now!”

“Not that anyone should get any ideas,” added Hibbs quickly.

“Finally, people talking about comics on the internet! Every ancient text has prophesied this day. It's all true!” said Jog.

"Truly, this is the Savage Critic Age of Argumentative Assessments. Ex cathedra!," Wolk chimed in.

"The Savage Critics. The blog of dreams. Men's dreams. It STINKS of men, of... oops, my bad, someone left a Jim Balent comic on the counter. Where was I... right. It STINKS of men. Of DOORWAYS and abandoned, obsolete blog links used as URINALS. Of alcohol-soaked morning sweat and stale cigarette smoke and inky diesel fumes and sickening-sweet aftershave and how the hell did I end up at San Diego Comic-Con?" added Kingston-Gabai

The Savage Critic relaunches on Monday, July 16th at www.savagecritic.com

A quick test

At the store, just making sure I have everything set right.... "Content" in a few hours, after I get a couple of other things done....

-B

Brube in da house, and more of Hibbs' blabbing

It was a painfully slow day at the ol' CE today -- there were points I expected tumbleweeds to start rolling through. Thankfully, things were deeply enlivened when Evil Ed Brubaker did the surprise pop-in around 3 PM, which nicely helped us kill 3 hours, hooray!

Ed, once a long time ago, lived in San Francisco, and was a CE customer. Back in the days before he became a Corporate Sell-Out, Working For The Man, Ed used to come around and be a Little Black Rain Cloud, always moaning about how much the comics business sucked, and how he got no respect, and yadda yadda. Don't get me wrong, we loved it, because, yeah the comics business can and does suck, and Ed wasn't getting the respect he deserved, and yadda yadda. It's just that if I could cartoon at all, and you held a gun to my head and said "draw Ed Brubaker", I might draw a picture of Eeyore in a Porkpie Hat.

So I was a little surprised (happily so!!) to see Little Miss Sunshine Brubaker, all happy and smiling and filled with joy to all things comic-al. I guess having the nest selling single issue of the last year can do that to a feller, right?

Honestly, it couldn't have happened to a better guy, and we couldn't have possibly be happier for all of his success, and I like the fact that it's made him a Smiling Guy, because while I liked 'ol Dour Ed, I like the Happy Brube better, I think.

So, anyway, yay that!

I've decided that, no matter what he says now, I'm not going to remove Jeff from the "contributors" list. He doesn't actually ever have to post, but he'll always have the ability to, in case he changes his mind.

I'll make no secret of the fact that I think he's (easily!) the best of the three writers here (I'm the worst, pretty clearly), because he is actually edumicated about writin' and stuff. I just know if I like something or not... Jeff knows WHY.

Anyway, I hope he decides that posting a review of something occasionally doesn't violate this new focus. Even if it is only quarterly or something, I don't think he should let that particular set of muscles grow cold (unless he starts doing reviews for pay, in which case, yah forget about us!)

As for me, Jeff told me... uh three weeks ago now? You'll notice that's pretty much when MY volume of posts starting dropping, too. I mean, the Savage Critic as a blog, and as more than just my voice? That's all Jeff's fault, so having Jeff here was one of the things that kept me posting as often as I have -- trying to top him, and all.

(Look, there are worse motivations one can have)

So, I don't know much, but I do know that I won't be doing daily posting "any more" -- I'll shoot for thrice a week, though. Graeme says he enjoys posting daily, so, alright, he can be insane and keep that up (My problem is my boss is CONSTANTLY looking at my work...)

As for the future of the blog, really what I'd like to do is find 2-3 more people who share a similar style or sensibility and who know when to snark, and when not to, and get it so the Critic IS "multiple content daily", but NOT dependent on one person to make it so. I'd also really like it if we could figure out a way to monetize the Critic without selling out TOO badly (or triggering your epilepsy), but everything we've looked at so far seemed like it was too little money involved for the general intrusiveness of ads.

So, if you have any ideas, I'm always glad to hear them.

There's also a new TILTING AT WINDMILLS up on Newsarama. Follow that link to read me talk about late comics and weekly comics both. I think it turned out pretty OK for once!

Muh, one quick review before I go off and decide to have some "time off":

ULTIMATES 2 #13: Maybe, just maybe it is because there was most of a year between issues that this didn't connect to me at all, but I kinda doubt it.

The big problem is, of course, the protagonists are struggling against a faceless horde, and are rescued by another faceless horde, so there's nothing even remotely resembling human stakes through most of the proceedings (this is a common mistake of Millar's, of course)

Big widescreen action is fine enough, but it needs to have something human to anchor it against -- and I don't really care about any of these iterations of these characters enough to do so naturally. There could have been some interesting through line in here via "Sorry for thinking you were a mental patient, Thor", but that's never addressed here at all.

About the only thing I DID like was the Black Widow scene at the end.

And what about the art? I hope it's not me, because I found parts of it to be downright sketchy -- probably the biggest offender is that full page half-shot (? I thought a page was missing) of the explosion. Jinkies!

Most perplexing of all is the final scene. Why is this here? Did I forget some opening sequence from a year and a half back this is meant to link to? Even if there is, I can't see what possible resonance that scene could have to the events of this issue, or those leading up to it.

All in all, not worth the wait, and while it may tighten up in paperback, for this, as a single entertainment experience, I have to go with AWFUL.

What did YOU think?

-B

Jeff Gives Notice...

I've been putting this off for a couple of days now, hoping to at least piggy-back it on some genuine content, but things have been harried this month and if I don't do this now, I may not ever. My last day at Comix Experience is Friday, May 25th, and this month is going to be my last contribution to the store newsletter as well. My first column for the newsletter was issue #37--exactly a hundred issues ago--so that and the big signing last month seemed like perfect high notes to go out on. This also means I won't be contributing to this blog after the end of the month as well.

Now, comics bloggers retire in the same way that Marvel characters die--it seems more likely than not they'll be back just as you start to miss them--and I can't say for certain that won't be the case here; not only do I enjoy shooting my mouth off about comics, but the work of Graeme and Hibbs always inspires me. However, I have some other things I want to do, and it was getting harder and harder to find the time and energy to devote to them when I was either trying to stay on top of the tremendous amounts of work being done in this medium, or concretize my opinions about that work.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my posts, as well as contribute feedback. The rewards for being a critic aren't numerous, but learning that someone else has found a new favorite book or author thanks to a review I wrote--or simply found amusement in the wisecracks--is priceless.

If you get a chance to stop by the store this Friday or the next, and feel like saying "hi," please do so. I'm looking forward to ending my tenure as Comix Experience counterguy with as much fun, noise and chit-chat as I experienced for the vast majority of my run there.

There. That wasn't so hard, was it? So let's return you now to your regular run of savage criticism...

Still catching up

I actually thought about changing the name of the blog to Graeme McMillan's Savage Critic for the week, since he's been carrying all of our asses this week... Anyway, about 60% of my ComicsPRO emails and calls have been made, I completed ONOMATOPOEIA this morning (gonna be amusing to photocopy it "while" we have a major signing going on), and the new TILTING AT WINDMILLS is up at Newsarama, wherein I talking about the ComicsPRO meeting.

Reviewish stuff...soon. BUt probably not before Sunday, honestly.

Also, one thing I didn't get into my column (it didn't seem to fit the tone), but I pasted it off into Notepad so I wouldn't lose it:

Let’s end this with the third weirdest thing about the trip: The Orleans hotel has a check cashing service these days. If you haven’t been to one of these old-school Vegas hotels, you need to understand that the hotel lobby is the casino. In order to get anywhere in the hotel, you have to pass through the casino. So, five to ten times a day I’m walking through the casino, and past the check cashing line, and during normal 9-5 business hours that line is the longest line in the whole joint – usually 40+ people deep.

Like any check cashing service, it’s pretty clear that the people using it are generally poor – that’s why most of them are using such a service in the first place. (and let me say that using these services is a really bad financial deal, and should really be avoided in anything except the most desperate of times) It’s really pretty evil to set up a checking cashing deal in the middle of a casino – way to stack the house against the poor twice over – but what astounded me even more was that the casino had waitresses serving booze to the people in line.

Only in Vegas, I guess.

-B

Wha'chu wha'chu wha'chu want? (wha'chu want?)

So, and I'd very much like you to take the 3 minutes to register an opinion here, hows this "daily content" thing working for you? Are you checking us every day? Were you, anyway, even when we updated once a week? Are you still coming just 1x a week, and soaking in it? Would you rather we do a score of books each with short short entries, or do you like the smaller # of titles but a bit more in depth reviews that we've been experimenting with? Another question: we're thinking of trying to figure out a way to make this make a little money so everyone gets paid for their time (less me, then Graeme and Jeff, really -- they really SHOULD get paid for their content), which might be dunno, banner ads or something. We've been fully ad free (except for the ones Haloscan rips us for) from the beginning, but do you give a damn at all? Does it change your feelings about the blog? If we had a blinking strip of banners on the top or the bottom or the side, would you change your reading habits of our Savageness?

Inquiring minds want to know!

-B

Arriving 2/21

OK, last week, "new blogger" just hung on "publishing" on Opera... but it was published. This week, it says "uploading to ftp server", and then hangs. But nothing publishes. Which means I now have to open up IE, sign my wife's gmail account out (she uses IE, I use Opera... it makes a lot of things much much easier for us), open the blogger.com page, edit the post (in order to publish it), sign myself out, then sign my wife back in, and close IE.

FUCKSAKE

You know how I post pretty rarely anyway? This pretty much slaughters my interest in even posting shipping lists, I have to be honest.

(edit #2: Huh, maybe not.... front page still isn't updating for me, oh well, I have too much other things to do tonight to worry about it.... maybe you'll see this before Wednesday, maybe not)

(maybe edit #3: it's possible that we broke something in the background and Jeff just fixed it, which means OUR ARCHIVES ARE WORKING AGAIN! and so let's see if this allows we to edit a post without hanging)

(edit #4: Yup, back to the old hangs-in-Opera-but-still-actually-publishes, so I don't *have* to use IE, hurrah again!)

Anyway, this week....

Lots of stuff, and lots of very very late stuff, too.

30 DAYS OF NIGHT SPREADING THE DISEASE #3 (OF 5) 52 WEEK #42 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #51 (A) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #538 CW AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #49 ARCHIE & FRIENDS #107 BATTLE POPE #13 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #6 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #77 BIRDS OF PREY #103 BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1 CABLE DEADPOOL #37 CATWOMAN #64 CHECKMATE #11 CIVIL WAR #7 (OF 7) CLASSIC BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #4 CONAN #37 CRIMINAL MACABRE TWO RED EYES #3 (OF 4) DEVILS PANTIES #9 DMZ #16 ELEPHANTMEN #7 EX MACHINA INSIDE THE MACHINE VOL 1 GHOST IN THE SHELL 1.5 HUMAN ERROR PROCESSOR #5 (OF 8) GIRLS #22 GRIMM FAIRY TALES #11 GRUNTS #3 (OF 3) HELLBLAZER #229 HELLSTORM SON OF SATAN #5 (OF 5) HELMET OF FATE BLACK ALICE #1 HIGHLANDER #4 HUNTER & PAINTER IMMORTAL IRON FIST #3 IMPALER #3 (OF 4) INVINCIBLE #39 ION #11 (OF 12) KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #123 KRYPTO THE SUPER DOG #6 (OF 6) LEGION OF MONSTERS WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #1 LOCAL #8 (OF 12) MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #10 NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI #2 (OF 5) NIGHTLY NEWS #4 (OF 6) NUMB OMEGA MEN #5 (OF 6) OUTER ORBIT #3 (OF 4) POWERS #23 PS238 #20 PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #4 RAMAYAN 3392 AD #6 RED MENACE #4 (OF 6) RETRO ROCKET #4 (OF 4) REX MUNDI DH ED #4 ROBIN #159 SCOOBY DOO #117 SE7EN SLOTH #3 (OF 7) SHADOWPACT #10 SHE-HULK 2 #16 SILENT WAR #2 (OF 6) SIMPSONS COMICS #127 SOCK MONKEY THE INCHES INCIDENT #3 (OF 4) SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #172 SPECIAL EDUCATION #2 SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #1 SPIRIT #3 STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION THE SPACE BETWEEN #2 (OF 6) SUPER BAD JAMES DYNOMITE #5 SUPERMAN #659 TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #18 TESTAMENT #15 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #39 WALK-IN #3 WARHAMMER 40K #2 WASTELAND #7 WITCHBLADE TAKERU SUMITA CVR A #1 WONDER WOMAN #4 (RES) X-MEN FIRST CLASS #6 (OF 8)

Book / Mag / Stuff BIRDS OF PREY PERFECT PITCH TP BRIT VOL 1 TP OLD SOLDIER CATWOMAN THE REPLACEMENTS TP CHARACTER SKETCHES 2007 TRAUMA & JOY SC CHECKMATE VOL 1 A KINGS GAME TP DANGER GIRL BACK IN BLACK TP DRIFTING CLASSROOM VOL 4 TP GOLGO 13 VOL 7 GN HEARTBREAK SOUP PALOMAR VOL 1 TP HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE SPRING 2007 HOUSE OF SUGAR GN JUSTICE VOL 2 HC KAMANDI ARCHIVES VOL 2 HC KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER CASEBOOK SC MAGGIE THE MECHANIC LOCAS VOL 1 TP MARVEL 1602 GAIMAN HC NAOKI URASAWAS MONSTER VOL 7 TP NEED MORE LOVE GRAPHIC MEMOIR HC NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE VOL 1 THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT TP PREVIEWS VOL XVII #3 SHE-HULK VOL 4 LAWS OF ATTRACTION TP SKATE FARM GN SOULS WINTER COLLECTED TMNT WORK OF MICHAEL ZULLI TP TEEN TITANS TITANS AROUND THE WORLD TP UNIVERSE X VOL 2 TP NEW PTG X-FACTOR VISIONARIES PETER DAVID VOL 2 TP X-FACTOR VOL 1 LONGEST NIGHT TP

What looks good to you?

-B

Going the Way They're Going: Jeff's Reviews of the 2/14 Books.

I should apologize. We're really horrible hosts here at the Savage Critic(s). I was well aware that we got a ton of traffic links to Graeme's review from places like Bookslut, Wired and Time (and of course our pal Dirk at Journalista who started it all) but didn't think, until just yesterday, to write some sort of post to greet new readers who might stick around but wonder, like, why this blog never gets updated? So if you're a noob and you're still here, hello! We update at a rate considered lethargic by the Internet's terms--usually three times a week on average--with usually two (but sometimes three) reviewers tackling the week's books, and Hibbs chiming in with a shipping list, or an oddly-formatted link to some article or other he's written for Newsarama, or some complaint or other about toilet training. But sometimes you get a little bit more (one day, I swear, you'll get my post about NYC and Rocketship) and sometimes you get maybe just a little bit less.

This week? Considering there's a store newsletter to get out? Mmmmmmaybe just a little bit less. We'll see how Wonderman McMillan does. As for me, while everyone stayed away from the store and enjoyed our lovely end-of-the-world weather, I read:

52 WEEK #41: Putters along nicely, particularly if you're interested in the space opera story, or Renee's story. (I'm sure I'll be proven wrong, but the last six or seven appearances of Ralph feel like they're running out the clock on his arc--it's ready to end, but they're not ready to have it end.) (And, boy, is it a lovely feeling for an old-school paranoid like me to bust out a sentence with so many "they"s in it. I should go back and capitalize and italicize them: "Ralph is supposed to be the new Spectre but They won't let him!") It's Good stuff, I know it, but because I'm really only concerned about the Black Adam storyline, the mad scientist storyline, and poor ol' Will Magnus, I'd probably give it an OK if it was just you and me talking over a beer somewhere.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #20: I'm willing to bet Hibbs won't be posting reviews this weekend after all that insane number-crunching and summarizing in his Newsarama article, which is a kind of a shame since my take on the book was "Wow!" and his was "Yeah, it's all right. I guess. Pretty standard." His take is that he doesn't give a crap about Breakworld so the story has no tension. My response was that Whedon and Co. put the emphasis on the story not on whether Breakworld lives or dies, but what that'll do to Peter. Hibbs' response to my response was that that was a moot point because it's not like Whedon would bring back Colossus just to break the character (which makes me wonder if he's been paying attention to those Buffy seasons he watched at all) and then I don't know what happened because they next thing I remember we were both shrieking and flinging our feces at each other. To sum up: I think this is a Very Good work, being as it's well written and beautifully drawn and, while I can see Hibbs' complaint, he probably still deserves a face full of poop.

BATMAN #663: The thrill of the world's loveliest title page gave way to a sinking feeling as I discovered the whole issue was illustrated prose. I mean, I'm a fan of prose, really--hey, some of my fictional best friends come from prose!--but it almost always feels like a chore to me in a comic for some unknowable reason.

Here, Morrison gives us passable writing (it reminded me of the stuff I used to read in the lesser pulp magazines, purple, occasionally prolix, but definitely serviceable), perhaps as a commentary on how close to the pulps Batman can be, and while it allows Morrison the space to expound on the Batman's methods and The Joker's madness, it doesn't add much more to the story than the amount of time you'll need to read it. I'd give it a high OK/low Good, since it's a noble experiment and kinda cool to look at than actually to read, but if the construction of twenty-some-odd pages of prose is why this title had to run a fill-in arc for a few months and possibly lose several thousand readers for good.... well, I guess I wish Morrison had waited and done this as an Annual or something.

BLADE #6: You can tell Chaykin loved drawing the clothes on those flashback scenes, and Guggenheim continues working hard to throw some kind of cool twist into all of his action scenes (if nothing else, he's becoming the go-to guy for self-mutilatory characters) but this still feels like less than the sum of its parts--depending on how much you care about the character of Blade, maybe a lot less. OK, unless you're a fan of the character in which case it might be awesome, maybe.

CASANOVA #7: [Got about nine pages into it, then forgot to bring it to work. I reserve the right to retroactively add stuff in here later.]

GHOST RIDER #8: By creatively yoinking the hook of an old Night Stalker episode (where the headless horesman comes back as a biker), and tossing it into an issue of Ghost Rider, Daniel Way accomplishes the formidable task of ruining two of my beloved childhood memories at once. As always with Way, it's not the ideas that are the problem (frankly, that headless horseman on a hog is a cool idea, and a great fit for Ghost Rider), it's the execution: he lingers over his scenes of cruel cops and untouchable rich kid date rapists as if they were new breeds of rare orchids and not the bitter ragweed of cliche. The art's not bad, although Texeira's dramatic scenes continue to be overwrought, but books written and edited this shittily and cynically are why I always feel guilty when I don't praise some mediocre, but well-meant, book to the skies. Awful.

GØDLAND #16: Hey, speaking of which.... I was kinda bummed that Casey and Scioli published a sixty cent issue of this title to nab new readers and pretty much muck it up. Admittedly, summarizing fifteen issues of storylines and introducing all the characters isn't an easy task, but the approach taken here (a bunch of pissy military men argue about it in a room and you get flashback panels) is the path of least resistance...and even lesser drama. I thought this was deeply Eh, and like I said, I feel guilty as hell admitting it.

GREEN ARROW #71: It almost feels like genuine tension when Winick has his two favorite Mary Sues (Green Arrow and Red Hood) fight it out--I mean, since neither one can ever lose, who will win? Actually, despite my sassmouth, I liked this issue OK: Judd and Scott McDaniel are doing pretty much the opposite of something new and yet they're doing it pretty damn well. It certainly could be worse.

JLA CLASSIFIED #34: I missed the first issue of this arc by Dan Slott when it first hit the stands--and most of the people whose opinion I trust was pretty dismissive of it, at the time--but it hasn't been that bad. This issue is my favorite so far, as it uses the alternate reality powers of the bad guy to indulge in the classic Imaginary Story trope of the Earth being evacuated before it explodes. Slott, Jurgens (writing and drawing) and Ordway are really just going for an extra-large Gardner F. Fox story here and, if you like that kind of thing, I think you'll dig it. Good stuff so far, if you ask me.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #3: Poor Alan David Doane. I remember thinking he was kind of going overboard a few years back when he was loosing long tirades about Geoff Johns and his overly violent, age-inappropriate handling of DC icons, but these days, Doane's screeds seem more and more prophetic. I mean, by page five of this book, you get to see a woman and child torn apart at a picnic, an invulnerable silver dude killed by having a metal shard jammed through his open mouth... it's like Friday the 13th: JSA for a bit, there. Hibbs was bemoaning the fact that this is a really good JSA book except that he doesn't feel comfortable having kids read it and how sad is that? (Note: the proper answer here is very, very sad, since the original JSA stories from All-Star Squadron are some of the earliest books Hibbs read as a kid and a cursory glance at the Matt Wagner original art on CE's walls will attest to Bri's enduring fondness for the characters.) Me, I'm just bothered that Johns, who's always struck me as the professional's professional, thinks that this is the best, strongest and most effective way to craft a gripping story and that's really, really sad. As the non-maimy parts of this book show, Johns has a good handle on characterization and the clever hook. But I kinda doubt he'll ever really develop those traits to any significant extent now because this is the kind of stuff that keeps him at the top of the charts. It's an OK issue, but it's also kind of a god-damned shame, you know?

MANHUNTER #28: Skimmed through this issue and it was Eh. The parade of sales-saving cameos continues, but for me the most noteworthy thing about it is that on the last page Kate sees the chess piece, the mark of covert government agency Checkmate, and looks all alarmed. And you know, no matter how Rucka and Co. try to make it work, Checkmate just isn't alarming, and it's not cool. (Maybe for the same reason that a top secret organization called "Bingo!" or "Yahtzee!" wouldn't be cool. I'm not sure, to be honest.)

NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #12: Yes, okay, of course, the revelation of the ultimate villain (which I'm loathe to reveal) had me initially squeal with glee. But, after thinking about it, it's really just the "Fin Fang Foom" thing + the Kirby character piss-take of the first two issues rolled into one. I laughed once or twice reading this, and the art was insane and gorgeous, but to tell ya the truth, I don't think they could've gotten much more from this series: as it was, it often felt like one part inspiration to two parts rehash. Good issue, a fun bit of skylarking, and a pretty decent miniseries overall, but I think it's probably for the best that it's the end.

PUNISHER PRESENTS BARRACUDA MAX #1: If this had been a prequel to the Punisher storyline with Barracuda, I would've been much closer to loving it: as a sequel, it really diminishes the impact of the original storyline. And your enjoyment of the rest of the issue may depend on what you think of Ennis's imitations of Christopher Walken's vocal stylings (not bad) and/or how you feel about a trope from the first Fury miniseries popping up (the tagalong nebbish? Really?) But I did like this issue despite all that: some similarly perverse sense of humor on the part of Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov makes Barracuda a strangely appealing nightmare. The character's monstrous good cheer is infectious. I was actually hoping for better to be honest, but I thought it was Good.

I have another four or five books I read, but I realize I really don't have much to say. So let's just cut to

PICK OF THE WEEK: Even the stuff I liked I damned with faint praise. ASTONISHING X-MEN #20 was the stuff I bitched about the least, maybe because I was defending it from Hibbs.

PICK OF THE WEAK: Well, if that movie is as much of a turd as it looks to be, then at least Marvel is putting out material in the direct market perfectly suited for any new readers it might bring in: GHOST RIDER #8 sucks, too.

TRADE PICK: SHOWCASE PRESENTS AQUAMAN VOL 1 TPB and I can't wait to get a day or two to dig into it.

And howzabout your fine self?

Ben Hibbs and the Infinite Non-Sadness

Before I forget, I should point you all to the new page of Ben photos I just posted. Tzipora sent me these pics ages ago, and I'm a cad for not posting them sooner. The kid is earth-shatteringly cute. Also, I finally, finally, finally added Graeme's column at Comic World News to our links which I've also been meaning to do forever. I also added a link to his new gig as part of the crew as the new and absurdly content-rich Blog @ Newsarama. Simiarly, the excellent lads at Comics Should Be Good (at their CBR location) had to be mentioned. I pruned a link or two as well, and need to talk to Hibbs about adding a few more, and need to add almost a year worth of my Fanboy columns, but that should keep you entertained until we power up the Snark Engines again...

Why, Why, Why? (Or, Alternately: Go Here, Read This.)

I wish I knew why my incredibly talented fellow co-bloggers don't hype themselves at every turn. This is the Internet, after all. I mean, we get a perfectly lovely entry from Graeme that not only utterly demolishes the first two issues of Moon Knight, but gives us a quick take on Scott Pilgrim and warns us of the West Coast Scottish invasion. You'd think he'd plug his appearance on Newsarama's new blog, wouldn't you?

Oh, sure, you guys probably know about it already, but just in case....

I've been meaning to update our links on the sidebar again, and this (plus Comics Should Be Good) gives me the perfect excuse. I'll try to get to that this week.

Meaning To Do This For the Longest Time...

Since Graeme and/or Brian haven't posted yet, thought I'd take a second and point out that I updated the links. This is something we really should do more often, but don't because I always feel like it's something Brian should do, and I have no doubt Brian feels it's something I should do. Anyway, I finally added Paul O'Brien's The X-Axis which is absurdly overdue: there are weeks where reading Paul's reviews is the incentive I use to finish my own.

I started reading Christopher Butcher's Comics.212.net only recently to fill the hole left by Graeme's Fanboy Rampage and am hooked. There's just tons and tons of great information on the site, and his list of recommended manga hit me at just the right time.

Finally, Jog's comics blog is another one that's been linked everywhere and I only got around to checking out recently. But, my god, that Golgo 13 essay! Exhaustive in nearly all senses of the word, it took my love for the ellipsis-muttering assassin and helped raise it to a new level.

And now I can just click on them from our sidebar. It's a beautiful thing.

Arriving 11/9

If you just opened this page for the first time this week, scroll down and say "HI!" to our newest Savage Critic, Graeme McMillan. I've long been a fan of Graeme's sensahumor, and his writing style, so it was a no-brainer to offer him a shot at Savaging when he closed down his Fanboy Rampage. Doing a blog is damn damn hard, and I say that as someone who is happy to post once in most weeks. I thought that if we brought Graeme in, then it would matter less if any of the three of us dropped a week -- theoretically the other 2 will "cover". We'll see how it actually works in practice, though. Anyway, this is meant to be fun for all of us, and I've told Graeme that the minute it becomes remotely like work he has to stop.

I've also told him he doesn't have to write in Savage Critic form or scale if he doesn't want to, but it looks like it was a decent fit in week 1. We'll all see together how it evolves.

And if we're lucky, he'll OCCASIONALLY link us to things that the other daily bloggers don't see, or dare to tread (*I'm* not setting eyes on the John Byrne board, thanks!)

Because something had to eventually cover up Graeme's first post (I think that's why Lester didn't post, trying not to upstage him with his red text maybe?), here's this week's list of what is meant to arrive at Comix Experience. Not everything WILL arrive, of course, rassen-frassen. Your local comic shop may vary.

100 BULLETS #66 ABC A-Z GREYSHIRT AND COBWEB ACTION COMICS #833 AIRSHELL #1 AQUAMAN #36 ARMY OF DARKNESS #2 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #197 BATMAN STRIKES #15 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #161 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #72 BLACKLIGHT #2 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #107 BOOK OF LOST SOULS #2 BREACH #11 CABLE DEADPOOL #22 CAPTAIN UNIVERSE DAREDEVIL CAST #3 CITY OF HEROES #7 CORPORATE NINJA #1 DANGER GIRL BACK IN BLACK #1 (OF 4) DAREDEVIL FATHER #4 (OF 5) DECIMATION HOUSE OF M THE DAYAFTER DMZ #1 DRAGONLANCE THE LEGEND OF HUMA KURTH CVR A #6 (OF 6) DRAX THE DESTROYER #3 (OF 4) EXILES #72 FANTASTIC FOUR WEDDING SPECIAL FRIDAY THE 13TH BLOODBATH #1 (OF 3) FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #2 GHOST RIDER #3 (OF 6) GOTHAM CENTRAL #37 HAWKMAN #46 HONOR OF THE DAMNED #1 INCREDIBLE HULK #88 INFINITE CRISIS #2 (OF 7) JLA #122 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #117 LUBAS COMICS & STORIES #6 MAJESTIC #11 MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #6 MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #24 MICHAEL CHABON PRESENTS ADV O/T ESCAPIST #8 MORA #4 (OF 4) NEW EXCALIBUR #1 NEW THUNDERBOLTS #15 NEW WARRIORS #5 (OF 6) NEW X-MEN #20 NIGHTWING #114 POLLY & THE PIRATES #2 (OF 6) PULSE #12 PURGATORI (DDP) #1 FREE COPY RED SONJA ONE MORE DAY ONE SHOT REX MUNDI #15 ROBERT JORDANS NEW SPRING #3 SCOOBY DOO #102 SMOKE AND MIRROR #2 SON OF VULCAN #6 (OF 6) STAR WARS EMPIRE #37 STAR WARS REPUBLIC #79 SUNDOWN #2 (OF 3) SUPER MANGA BLAST #57 TALES OF TEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES #17 TEEN TITANS #29 THOR BLOOD OATH #4 (OF 6) VICE #2 WALKING DEAD #23 WILDCATS NEMESIS #3 (OF 9) WITCHBLADE 10TH ANNIV COVER GALLERY Y THE LAST MAN #39 ZORRO #6

Books / Mags / Stuff ALCHEMY OF MIRRORMASK HC ALTER EGO #54 COMPLETE CLIVE BARKER THIEF OF ALWAYS HC COMPLETE JON SABLE FREELANCE VOL 3 TP DAY OF VENGEANCE TP GRIMJACK KILLER INSTINCT TP HARDY BOYS VOL 3 MAD HOUSE GN IRON WOK JAN GN #14 LATE BLOOMER LEES TOY REVIEW NOV 2005 #157 LOSERS CLOSE QUARTERS TP LOVE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE #4 MANGA MASTERS OF THE ART TP MANHUNTER VOL 1 STREET JUSTICE TP MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN VOL4 WILD BLUE YONDER TP MARVEL MASTERWORKS GOLDEN AGEHUMAN TORCH VOL 1 NEW ED HC MYTHOLOGY ART OF ALEX ROSS TP SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL PREMIEREHC TOXIN THE DEVIL YOU KNOW TP TOYFARE PETER JACKSONS KING KONG CVR #101 TSUBASA VOL 7 GN WALT DISNEYS CHRISTMAS PARADE #3 WIZARD BEST OF BASIC TRAININGHEROIC ANATOMY TP XXXHOLIC VOL 6 GN YOSSEL APRIL 19 1943 SC

What looks good to you?

-B

Please Be Nice: Reviews of 11/2 books from the newbie.

You know what would've been great? If I had somehow managed to post something immediately after Brian's "Countdown" post, as opposed to hours later when I'm not only at a computer, but have already written a lengthy post, only to have it eaten by Blogger. And yes, I know that I did my own blog for a couple of years and should therefore know about very basic things like that. What you all need to know to explain this is that I am, apparently, very stupid indeed. Anyway, hello. My name is Graeme, and I'll be your Savage Critic in Training for this evening (text color pending). To start with, might I recommend a review?

HOUSE OF M #8: Remember when Joe Quesada compared House of M to Infinite Crisis, and said that the difference between the two series was that you wouldn't need to read a lot of books to understand House of M? That's obviously the kind of thinking that led to the only double page spread in this final issue getting split in two by a four page ad insert making sure that you have the complete checklist to all seven new books and five currently ongoing series that will be spinning out unresolved threads from the book you hold in your hands. And, boy, do those books have a lot of unresolved threads to pick up on. Wanda's "No more mutants" thing has depowered thousands of mutants worldwide, but we don't know how - something that Emma Frost brings up in the book itself, which suggests that it's not something that is supposed to be swept under the carpet. We also don't know if it's supposed to be permanent or not, but the fact that Magneto is one of those depowered suggests that, hype to the contrary aside, it'll probably only last until X3 comes out, whenever that is. We also don't know why all mutants weren't affected, although it may have something to do with Doctor Strange, who appears to feel guilty about everything being his fault, which must make him fun to be around at parties ("My duties as master of the mystic arts are simple. Protecting your dress from your 'gimlet' is one of them. I failed. Completely."). We also also don't know if Hawkeye is really back from the dead - and if so, we don't know how that happened, which isn't really a surprise by this point - or whether someone else is going around pinning his costume onto walls with arrows. Perhaps most importantly, we don't see anything about Pietro, the guy whose fault this whole House of M thing was supposed to be, in the entire last issue, so there's that whole "resolution of overarcing plot" thing out the window. We do get to see Wolverine threaten Magneto again, though, and that's never been done before.

What the whole series ends up being is an eight issue McGuffin - six of which were one long What If? - all created with the purpose of depowering a whole bunch of mostly-forgotten characters (Magneto aside, the only named depowered mutant that we see is Iceman. Iceman, for God's sake. Clearly, nothing will ever be the same again) to create a false sense of shock new status quo under which lots of new series can be launched. Business as usual for the X-Books, then, and fairly Awful business at that.

JONAH HEX #1: Ah, the Western. Where men are men, women wear big puffy dresses, and plots are telegraphed from a mile off. The latest relaunch of DC's weirdy-faced cowboy arrives under a decieivingly pretty - well, as pretty as Jonah can be - cover by Frank Quitely, hiding the static and Greg Land-ish artwork of Luke Ross within, a man who's quite clearly been watching a lot of spaghetti westerns to research just how closely he can get Jonah's good side to resemble Clint Eastwood in his prime. The story centers around kidnapped children, cardboard bad guys and dog fighting, and spends most of the time reading like a censored Vertigo pitch ("And then the bad guy gets eaten by his dogs! While the doctor watches!"). If I liked westerns as much as the next man, I'd probably have dug this more, but as it is, it all felt pretty Eh to me.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #14: The "Please Buy My Image Book, Invincible" issue. It even ends with "Invincible's story continues in INVINCIBLE #33," just in case you missed the earlier footnote plug for the same issue. That said, the issue ends up being a lot of fun, as Robert Kirkman uses his creator-owned character's guest appearance as an excuse for lots of jokes at Marvel's expense (Iron Man on the Avengers' recent exploits: "When's the last time we did something even remotely cosmic? I don't even remember. Does the Kang stuff count? We were in space a little bit for that."). There's not really a story in the issue - Invincible shows up, meets Spider-Man and the Avengers, and then leaves, more or less - but it's all done with speed and humor, and even has me wondering what's going to happen in Invincible #33 after all. That's what I get for reading something Good, I guess.

(Interestingly, the indica for the issue still says that "All characters featured in this issue and the distinctive names and likenesses thereof, and all related indica are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc." Kirkman, fire your lawyer.)

OPTIC NERVE #10: Let's get the obvious out of the way: Adrian Tomine sure does draw purty. Shame that his book is full of self-obsessed whiny bastards, really. Even though it seemed like Tomine was working out all his misogynistic issues through his... interesting portrayal of women at first, by the time you get to the end of the book it's clear that the one male character in the entire thing is just as much of an asshole as everyone else. There's probably some kind of artistic genius at work here that I'm somehow managing to miss, but right now, the whole thing seems more than a little Awful to me.

That sound you hear? That's the death of any indie cred I once had.

SEVEN SOLDIERS: BULLETEER #1: In which Grant Morrison returns to the theme of the zero issue of the whole shebang: What's the difference between a hero and a wannabe with a superhero fetish? This wins the Seven Soldiers title most likely to be mistaken for an issue of The Ultimates Award, given the unfortunate Millaresque quality of the set-up and characterization as well as Yannick Paquette's Bryan Hitch meets Kevin Nowlan art, which might not be the negative in your book that it is in mine. For me, it's OK, but here's hoping that it picks up next issue when we find out what happened in Miracle Mesa.

STRAY BULLETS #40: David Lapham, fresh from his sell-out success on Daredevil/Punisher (as in, the success he got from selling - Oh, okay, you were there before me), returns with another Public Safety Announcement for the world at large. This time, we learn that, while it may seem like a good idea to keep your hearing aid turned off around crime scenes both known and unknown, there may be the occasional drawback to that theory. In other words, more of what you'd expect. It still feels like Dan Clowes doing some European crime comic, so if that's your bag, you'll find it all well and Good.

I know what you're thinking - Just what else have I been reading this week? Tom DeHaven's new novel, It's Superman, turns out to be well worth however much a reputable bookseller would charge you for it; for those who need more of a comic context than "It's Superman in depression era New York, with Lex running for political office and Lois in journalism school", there's a Chris Ware cover for your troubles. I also finally read SCOTT PILGRIM'S PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE this week, because I always find value in being 18 months behind the zeitgiest, and Goddammit if it really isn't as good as everyone said it was. It's an easy, if somewhat cheating, pick for my TRADE OF THE WEEK. My non-cheating pick would be ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, purely because it teams the Thing not only with Luke Cage, but also the Guardians of The Galaxy and Black Goliath (Yes, I do loves me some not-even-second tier Marvel characters from my childhood, why do you ask?). Marvel apparently own my soul this week, as MARVEL TEAM-UP wins my first ever PICK OF THE WEEK, and HOUSE OF M my PICK OF THE WEAK. Somewhere, Joe Quesada is laughing maniacally.

But then, he does that anyway.

Countdown!

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