20 posts tagged “comics”

In a world that hates and fears them, these mutant strains are doing there best to stop the brotherhood of white blood cells.  This group led by mad professor X started off as normal flu viruses but their mutations manifested at puberty.  The team consist of Cyclops, a one eyed foe that spreads sheep flu,  Univ. of Phoenix, who spread the bird flu, Iceman, who only spread a common cold (this weakens the brotherhood of white blood cells), Beast, who spreads any number of animal flus, and finally of Angel, who spreads the biblical plagues. 

Comming this summer, the Uncanny X-Flus get a new member.  Meet poor razorback who was cast out by society and now spreads an airborn swine flu.  Will he be the key that finally gives the X-Flus the edge over the Brotherhood of White Blood Cells?  Pick up issue #162 to find out. 

Alkaseltzer

So in an effort to remove the imposing stack of boxes from the closet in the room that we are giving to my oldest, and in an effort to cut down on the amount of stuff we have, I am selling off a large portion of my comics.  I am still keeping some (original wolverine min, wolvie #1, etc), but the rest are going to be sold either as a large lot or broken down by title and sold that way. 

If you have any holes in comic collection from the 90's that need filling, let me know.  I may have the book you are looking for. 

The wife said I have to sell my Vampirella books regardless.

We are rearranging some things in our house and it looks like there won't be limitless storage for my library or my comic book collection.  I have gone through and seperated all of the books that I want to keep.  Any book that I thought a friend would enjoy, I gave to them.  I will try and sell the rest of the books on Amazon or Craigslist.  I now have a little over 50% of the original pile.  My comics are a different story.  It will take a long time to go through them and then it is silly to remove books to sell because the current comic market isn't so hot.  I will probably want to keep anything worth any money anyways.  I will have to sell them in lots for cheap. 

I seriously need a bigger house with a room for just my stuff. 

The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House

Neil Gaiman

This was a very good read and is a fine example of why people love Sandman and Neil Gaiman.  Gaiman has a love for mythologies and it shows very well in this book.  I kept getting flash forwards of American Gods while reading this. 

Batman: The Long Halloween

Jeph Loeb

Two crime families struggle for control of Gotham.  Harvey Dent is going after the Roman with Jim Gordon and the Batman.   People keep turning up dead on holidays with the custom murder weapon and decorations for the appropriate holiday.  This book has a lot of the elements of The Dark Knight movie.  It is cleared that the inspiration for the movie was this graphic novel, even if this story centers on Holiday and only features the Joker and the movie is a Joker movie.  I believe in Harvey Dent.

Babymouse #2: Our Hero (Babymouse)

Jennifer Holm

Ashli has been getting these Babymouse books from the library.  They are really cute and fun.  I should sue the Holms because it is clear to me that Babymouse is just an anomorphic representation of Ashli. 

Friday night, my family made our weekly pilgrimage to the Wal-Mart.  Immediately our senses were overwhelmed with the plethora of items that we never knew that we needed, or that my wife never knew that we needed.  As she is looking through clothing for herself and the girls, and I am standing around completely bored, I recommend that we take our children to the Halloween section.  15 minutes later we are back with two Wonder Woman costumes in tow. 

What good are new costumes if you don't give them a test drive?  So, the girls put the costumes on immediately upon returning home.  Ashli, of course, wanted to know more about Wonder Woman.  I told her that she was Queen of the Amazons.  I then had to explain what an Amazon was and then about the Greek gods and goddesses (especially Athena).  Living in Nashville, the next leap was to the Parthenon and how we have a scale replica downtown.  I also told her that Nashville is the Athens of the South (due to the large number of universities in the area).  She wanted to go to the Parthenon to see it, and, of course, she wanted to go in costume.  I told her it might be weird this far from Halloween, but then relented.

So, Saturday we went to the Parthenon.  Saw some awesome Koi paintings, some other artwork, and a 40+ foot tall statue of Athena.  The person working the ticket counter was glad to have two Wonder Women in the building and told Ashli about the 7 ton doors that only she, Wonder Woman, could move.  You could tell that some people completely understood why Wonder Woman was at the Parthenon, others just thought they were cute.

Later that day, I stopped by the comic shop to grab a few things.  Ashli woke up, and went inside with me, in costume.  The guy working the counter commented on the costume and told him the story of the Parthenon and he loved it.  He said that was the coolest story he has ever heard. 

The lesson here is that even Halloween costumes can be educational.

Wonder Women

3 comments

Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1

Joss Whedon

So, I finally got around to reading this one.  Let me preface this by saying that I enjoyed Firefly and Serenity.  I have seen a few episodes of Buffy, but never got into it.  I have seen an episode of Angel and was not impressed in the least. 

Astonishing X-Men is awesome.  I don't say this in a I worship everything that Whedon does way.  I say it in I love the characters of the X-Men and this book really shows off those characters well.  The astonishing team is made up of Cyclops, Emma (sleeping with Scott no less, Jean is in one of her dead phases), Beast, Logan, Kitty, and a suprising addition of a character that was previously dead (the comic actually makes fun of itself for this).  The dialogue is witty and full of flavor.  One example would be when the various X-Men are verifying someone is who they say he is:

Scott: How can we be sure it is him?

Emma:  I read his mind.

Beast:  I ran a DNA test.

Logan:  I smelled him.

Beast:  I did that too.

Needless to say, I will be looking for the rest of the series in TPB form and may even start picking it up on a monthly basis.

Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition)

Bridge to Terabithia-  I watched this to basically check it out and see if it was appropriate for my kids.  I don't think it is.  There is no questionable content, but the movie is just too grown up.  I haven't read the book but knew the basic plot.  The previews made me think it was going to be way off and maybe a kid friendly movie. The previews are wrong.  I think a 10 or 11 year old would probably be the youngest I would expose this movie to.  The concepts are just too big.  Ashli, however, has stated that she saw this at a friends house and that she didn't like it.

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth-  This movie was so close to being a kid's movie.  Well, except for the whole World War II military movie that was included in the film.  The movie was beautiful both visually and conceptually.  The parts were well acted (what do I know, they were speaking spanish), and well cast.  The Captain has by far the scarriest scene in the movie (the wine bottle).  The story itself was spooky yet beautiful.  It is hard to explain.  You, like Ophelia, don't know whether you should trust the faun or not.  This movie is so close to being great for kids of younger ages and would be fine if about 4-5 scenes were edited out.  I was really impressed with this movie.

Batman: City of Crime

Batman: City of Crime- This book exemplifies what I like about Batman.  The story shows how human and vulnerable he is while at the same time showing how his intellect and discipline make up for his vulnerabilities.  You spend most of the book just wondering what is going on and at the end you are kind of let down by the climax.  I am not sure if I just didn't understand a few things or if I somehow skipped a page that explained it all.  But, I have reached a point in life where not knowing is sometimes okay, and this is one of those times.  This was a really fun read.

I am looking for a stand alone comic book title that is published monthly.  I don't want a title with a large back issue catalog.  One to two years is okay but any more than that is too much.  I want it to be well written.  I can deal with quirky art, but would prefer good artwork as well.  I would also prefer something widely available as I would love to support my local comic shop. 

Anyone have any suggestions?

Things I have liked in the past:

Generation X- about the first 20 issues

Spawn- the first few years

Battlechasers

Supergirl- the Linda Danvers run

Evil Ernie

Marvel Zombies

Age of Apokolips