On Topic Weekend: Superfriends

I love my TiVo. Mr. TiVo. I love it so much, that being a computer guy and all, I've hacked the crap out of it. It's tied into my home network, I can watch any computer vids through it, burn anything it records to DVD (menus are fun to make!), whatever. You name it, I can do it with Mr. lovely, lovely TiVo. I've also jacked up the hard drives' (and added an extra one) so that I have close to 1 Tb of space.

That's 1000 gig's of TV recording space baby! I had to install an extra fan on the sucker to deal with the heat issues. Geek, me.

So, I can be pretty liberal with what I let Mr. TiVo record. I'll thumbs-up anything that looks remotely interesting and sort it out later. I really don't watch live TV anymore, except for news and a few remarkable shows that I can't wait to watch later - like Heroes, for example. Heroes is Nine Shades of Awesome. And if you don't know that, you're a poopy-head, Mr. Poopy-head.

Anyway, on weekends I traditionally play catch-up and go through all those things Mr. TiVo has recorded. Today during breakfast, I watched a few episodes of Superfriends that it recorded automatically off of Boomerang for me because Mr. TiVo knows my recording habits by now, and it love-es me.

A few points, while I'm watching (real-time post!):

- When the Legion of Doom's opening scene of someone standing up and taking the floor with the latest "I have a cunning plan on how we can finally defeat the Super-Friends!" starts with ... Solomon Grundy .... Yeah, you got problems there, "Super" villains.

- When that same plan Solomon Grundy proposes eventually leads to space travel, time distortions, black holes, and dimensional rifts ... I'm OK with that. Thank you for my surreal breakfast moment!

- Brainiac needs pants.

- Of Hawkman, Black Lightning, and Wonder Woman, guess who's the only one wearing a space helmet. Nope - it's Wonder Woman. What th'?

- There is no "Eye of the Storm" in a black hole. There is however, a rocket in my pocket.

- Toyman is a dick.

- The Riddler is nothing but a useless plot device. Tell me how: "When the earth was young, it was only a trickle /// better solve this fast, or friends won't be worth a nickel!" leads the Batman to the Grand Canyon? Yeah, he's the Goddamn Batman, I get it.

- When you actually lure the Superfriends to the Grand Canyon, thanks to Riddler's brilliant bait-and-switch, and they send Superman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash, Samurai, and Apache Chief, don't counter with Captain Cold and Scarecrow. You're not representin', yo! I'm jus' sayin'...

- Aquaman gets them out of the Grand Canyon trap. Aquaman. Seriously.

- Paraphrasing Riddler: "You'd better tighten your belt /// or the heat will make you melt!" Constellation Orion? Yeah, first thing I thought of too.

- Toyman (dick) is hovering above Hawkman, Wonder Woman, and Black Lightning taunting them. If only one or ALL of them could fly and get to him!

- OK, umm... the whole "Citizens of Earth! We have captured the Superfriends! Send all the money in your national banks to the international airport, Care of: THE LEGION OF DOOM!!" thing.. yeah. Good luck with that.

- Green Lantern: "Only the power of Superman and myself can succeed in this mission!" Everybody else: "Dick."

- Legion of Doom defeated, buried under tons of airport rubble. Brainiac: "You forgot about my cloaking device!" They disappear. Umm.. I bet I could still find them. And I don't even have Super-hearing (vision, smell, et all), Super-Speed, a magic lasso, a power ring, or uber-detective skills.

- Batman's exiting taunt to Riddler: "What has 13 heads, belongs in a cage /// won't learn its lessons, and gets worse with age?" Riddler's disembodied voice: "Umm.. I give up!"

What!?! ... What!?!

Riddler: Dumbass

Edit: Riddler verse slashies look too much like italic I's. Fixed.

World's Finest Frosting

I got on a bit of a curiosity trip today after re-reading the first Batman / Superman story that climaxed in this panel, and it got me thinking about how many times those two have swapped places in order to push Lois into a psychological meltdown preserve their secret identities. Turns out, it's a pretty big number.

While searching, I came across this piece of sweet, sweet goodness from 1977 (.PDF link). Here's the pertinent bit of cake-making genius:

It's a Batman AND a Superman cake all rolled into one!
This is truly a thing of 1970's baked-goods awesomeness! By simply using different frostings and the handy face and logo plastic bits included, you can make this mold into either hero! Or, if you have a kid that was as absurdist as I was at age 10, you can mash 'em up and make a Super-Bat! And, good news for Mom - she can make the cake part in advance, which gives her time to wheedle out of her kids which (Batman) character (Batman) is their (Batman) favorite (Batman, ya' crazy broad!) before she frosts it. Here's the Batman one. This would still be welcome at my birthday:


But Soup! (says I) This is a spiffy idea! Imagine the possibilites! Why don't we take this idea and run with it! It's what the readers demands! Both of them!

Well, I haven't used Photoshop in a while, and this might be good practice. OK, let's go running! Poor photoshop skills be damned! Ahoy!

Suppose your kid is totally into the lastest R-rated comic movie hack and slash manly men gore-fest? Or thinking about playing for the "other team?" No problem!


Ah! But what about Power Girl?!? Everybody loves Power Girl.. even pre-pubescent li'l kids who can't quite figure out why...


And Finally! Let's do something more current. Show the kiddies we're hip like that!


These are fun!

(Someone stop me. I really need to get out more....)

Quickie

Kinda busy right now and won't have time to post in any depth, but so as not to leave my 3 readers with nothing, I give you a panel that always cracks me up for no explainable reason:

It's got to be that goofy look on his face. Man, that's funny! Tee-hee!

Most Wanted

Whelp, another Wednesday, another comics haul, and another li'l writeup of the most anticipated issue brought home from the LCS. It wasn't even close this week - only one comic really piqued my interest and it was great, as always.

Fables #59
Writer: Bill Willingham
Artists (Ho-Boy!): M.K. Perker, Jim Rugg, Mark Buckingham, Andrew Pepoy, Joëlle Jones, D'Israeli, Jill Thompson, David Lapham, John K. Snyder III, Eric Shanower, Barry Kitson

Now this was a nice treat! In this stand-alone issue, Mr. Willingham takes some time to answer the reader's mail. Specifically, any questions that readers' might have about the series - questions like: "what about such-and-such's dangled plot", "what ever happened to...?", or "you never explained this bit..." stuff. He chose the 11 best questions, got 11 artists and went about answering them. Isn't that a spiffy little way to a) thank the fans (which he does during the opening page's explanation of the issue), b) wrap up some plots left hanging before the next story arc (which looks to be huge), c) make sure you (as a writer) didn't overlook anything too important from this huge cast of characters, and d) flex your writer's chops a bit and write 11 different premise-supplied-to-you stories. And they turn out to be darn fine stories at that.

The stories range from "pretty clever!" through "great idea!" to "that was seriously funny, right there!" They're all very good at least, but everyone will get hooked by their own favorite (mine was, "How are the new Three Little Pigs adjusting to being pigs?"). As an individual issue of a comic, it's a great read - really, really fun. As an individual issue of Fables, it's par for the course. What a consistently fantastic series! Much like my anticipation of Y: The Last Man, I'm sure that I'll be writing a lot about Fables in this weekly thing. I'm hooked on both of these books and really look forward to them each month (or, Bi-month, in Y's case). But what about someone who has never read Fables before? (shame on you!)

As I read these stories, I made mental notes to see if knowledge of previous events was required for anyone who picks this up as their first issue. I don't think so. I believe anyone could follow these - even those of you who have never picked up an issue of Fables before (and if you haven't, again, shame on you!). They're basically quick little premise / answer stories, and with questions like, "What is training like for a new member of the Mouse Police?" you should have no problem with the following story even if you don't know specifics of the Mouse Police. Indeed, the first story featured a character I had no knowledge of (I'm catching up through the trades and he's in the only one I haven't read yet, shame on me), but I had no problem following it and laughing at the end. Let's see... He's a fable, Arabic, named Hakim, and was granted his freedom recently... Ex-Genie. Easy peasy.

The multiple artists do a good enough job with each story. Since there's really no mood to the stories, writing-wise (aside from maybe an underlying sense of lightheartedness), the art is relatively straightforward. Most artists get only a single page, and there really is nothing to complain about. Good job all around. The standout is, as always, the awesome cover by James Jean. This guy is consistently one of the best cover artists out there. I mean, look at that cover again - that's an amazing Snow White / Rose Red dichotomy. For a "mailbag" one-and-out throw-away issue. And again, as always, the issue number is cleverly placed within the cover art itself. Mr. Jean - I will buy you a beer if I ever run across you, sir!

Great issue, and a great jumping on point before the next big story arc is about to hit. I know I'm about the 50-bajillionist blogger to be saying this, but if you're not reading Fables, you're missing out (shame, and all that). Get the first trade and prove me wrong.

Most Wanted Panel: (and there were lots to choose from in this issue)

Dinosaurs!

I've been a dinosaur fanatic since I was 10. I know, most kids are at that age, but I never grew out of it. And by "fanatic" I don't mean I have lots of dinosaur merchandise (though I do), or I can name them on sight (though I can), or I've got a few fossils lying around (though I have) - I mean for the last 15 years or so I've seriously studied them. At one point, I was actually taking classes on my way to becoming a Paleontologist. I own full shelves of textbooks on dinosaurs, scores of articles, subscriptions to current dig newsletters - heck, I own several autographed textbooks on the subject. Let me repeat that: I own science textbooks signed by the Paleontologist authors. That's hard geek, right there.

So, yeah, I'm a dino-nut. This passion also bleeds nicely into my love for comics, of course. If it's a decent representation of my favorite 150 million year-old critters, I'm buying it. I could probably put together a lone long-box solely for dinosaur-related comics. I prefer the accurate representations - they appeal to my book learnin' about them - but I just love them if they're done well. I remember being completely heart-broken when I learned that Bill Watterson was retiring Calvin and Hobbes because - well, there are hundreds of reasons why that was a sad, sad day, but at the top of my personal list was that I would no longer get to see a master cartoonist drawing dinosaurs so well and so entertaining that I would squeal with glee nearly every week.

My favorite comic-related dinosaur series, however, pretty much fell completely under the radar. This series is so blasted good that I end up re-reading it pretty much every couple of months or so, and I'm currently re-reading it this time searching for a scene that will be my next tattoo. The dinosaur-lover's Watchman, I give you:

Clicky for Dino-Sized

Age of Reptiles
Ricardo Delgado

Check that shit out! That cover is a thing of sheer dino-beauty. Aside from being absolutely stunning, Delgado gets everything right. That's a pack of Deinonychus taking down a beautifully colored Saltasaurus on the run. Notice the broken claws, the turf and small animals caught up in the stampede, and the straight-spine balls-out running of the Deinonychis. I mean, the Deiny's are even a little emaciated! That's a fantastic detail. My only complaint is that the Deiny's should have more feathers. But that's just me, really. Anyway, that is one freckin' amazing action sequence - the guy's got "dynamic motion" down pat. You can see that scene taking place fluidly in front of you - the sounds, the smells, the blood, the thundering stampede of these massive creatures....

Ricardo Delgado, as near as I can tell, is mainly a designer/concept artist with several big-name projects under his belt - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is probably the best known. This (again - going on a brief bio included in the first issue and minor internet research) is his first comic series. That's amazing. Utterly amazing.

Why? Because this series has absolutely no words in it. None. Not even an opening "70 Million Years Ago..." It doesn't need them. It's completely done by manipulating pantomine, a focus on action, and expert pacing. That's no small task for an expert, much less a 1st timer! Check this out:



That's another amazingly fluid scene. And this series is chock full of them.

The plot basically follows an increasingly escalating war between a tyrannosaur pack and the Deiny's. It's simple, but it's doesn't need to be anything more complex. From the amazing panoramic landscape shots seen from the eyes of soaring pteranodons, to the character (yes, character) design of the many, many dinos (there's actually a "cast of players" guide in the back along with a map of the area), this book is a joy to read. Someone like me can read it with a dino-science eye towards the details, but anyone else can just enjoy it as a fantastic story and another example of how comics can experiment with different methods of story telling - and get it right.

This series gets my highest recommendation. Go get the trade. And the sequel's. (what? sequel?) Yes, sequel. A 6-issue series, Age of Reptiles: The Hunt follows this one. And it's even better. Delgado's only other series (at least for Dark Horse), Hieroglyph, is a really creepy stranded astronaut story that is also very, very good. We need more comics from this guy. He's 3 for 3 so far.

I leave you with quite possibly the greatest single dinosaur panel ever from someone not named Delgado:


It's dino-riffic!

Robin. Pimp.

Supergirl's got nothing on Robin:

In case you missed all the nuances of this glorious scene: here we have Robin picking up a woman probably close to twice his age whose standards are so incredibly high that they're limited to Superman, and only Superman while wearing the most garish nancy-boy costume ever! right under the nose of Superman AND Batman, his mentor. Oh, and multi-ba-jillionaire playboy and every-girl's dream Bruce Wayne, who was also on the boat flirting with Lois in this story.

"So, Robin... What do you do for fun when that mask comes off? It does come off, right?"

Robin. Pimp.

Acquired: Hitman #18

Price: $3.50
Where: The Paperback Place, Boise, ID

This one was on the list just in case I hapen to find it in a cheap bin somewhere, and it's been on the list for a long time. I eventually decided that I'd searched the cheapies long enough and that I should just buy it already. $3.50's not too bad...

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: John McCrea

To say this was a serious issue of Hitman would be stretching the truth. To say the least. To also say that this is Ennis at his absurd best would also not quite ring true. Even taking into account that this is issue 4 of a 6-part arc, the plot's all over the place. It jumps from The Demon rising from Hell, to the Hitman having one of those John Constantine stand-offs with his mates, to a bunch of D-listers getting the old team back together, to some spider-demon thingy rampaging the streets of Idaho, to a last page reveal that really isn't anything even halfway surprising. The art's a bit too cartoony for my liking - especally when it has to jump from comedy to suspense to spooky and back again. In another book, I'd probably dig this style, but when you have to deal with Hitman, The Demon, Jason Blood, Hell and all that... it's a bit too goofy to take the parts that are meant to be serious, well, seriously. Quite honestly, this issue only has one thing going for it.

But that one thing ... Holy Screaming Cats, Batman!!:


The Dogwelder. The Freckin' Dogwelder. The Sam-Scratch, Mother-Farkin', Freak Your Ass Out NOW Dogwelder. AAAAGGHH!

The Dogwelder is nine shades of Awesome. There's no way around that... Awwwwsome! I mean, the dude welds dogs to people's faces! Holy Shipdip, Groo! That's fantastic! Brutalizing a woman? Dog to the face! Bank robbery? Dog to the face! Caught littering? Dog to the face! Wrong street at the wrong time? Dog to the Face, baby!

The Dogwelder is easily the best character ever created as the result of a drunken bet between crazy Irish comic guys. As the story goes, The Dogwelder was created from a series of one-upsmanships between Steve Dillon and Garth Ennis building from who could create a dumber sounding super-hero name than "Green Lantern" (sorry, Sally). I believe Dillon came up with "dogwelder," which might have come from drunken association with "spotwelder," (ha! get it?!?) after which Ennis must have conceded. I know I would've.

Unfortunately, this is only The Dogwelder's first appearace, and he just appears long enough to get recruited back into his old team. This, of course, means that I'll be picking up Hitman #19 and #20. I must see some dogwelding in action!

Until then:


Comics are awesome sometimes.

Trades and Singles, Singles and Trades

Recently I've made the decision to put off buying monthly singles and collect most of my limited series and certain story arcs in trade format. It's a trade-off (ha!), but I think I can wait the extra time for the series to complete in order to save 30% of the cost. It's not that hard of a decision on series that I think read better in trade format anyway - like, oh say, Age of Bronze, but it's really hard for me to lay off those "this could be great, maybe" books like, oh say, anything Alan Davis does. And it's particularly hard because I'm hard-wired for single issues. Can't help it; I love the serialization format of comics. I relish the "Wow! I can't wait to see how that one turns out!" anticipation of getting your stories in monthly batches. I love going into my LCS and finding out that oh, joy of joys! A new All-Star Superman is here! Huzzah! I like my comics like I like my women: single, bagged, boarded and stored in a box.

But now that I've adopted the "wait for the trades" mindset, I've had to mentally judge issues as to whether or not I can actually wait for the trade to read them. That's basically my litmus: Can you wait another 1/2 year to read that? ...it'll be cheaper....

In hindsight, I've made some poor decisions. But I know why. And tell me this isn't the case (and let's use the typical 6-issue arc as an example): If the first issue doesn't "grab" you, but it's by a favorite creative type of yours, seems to be a decent build-up, and shows the promise of potential... you'll get #2. After #2, if it doesn't poop on the reader, your Collector's Mentality!!! kicks in and you're going to get #3. After that, well, you've already eaten the cost difference, so you may as well get the last 3 as they come out. You'll finish the story earlier, and besides, single issues are more "pure" and you know it. Shut up and buy, fanboy!

So, I know I do this, and probably always will... but I'm a pretty good judge of what I want to read, and I'm slowly getting to the point where I can comfortably make the decision to put off that lovely, lovely single issue on the rack this week. I'm much more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to someone like Warren Ellis, who pretty much explores his topic in each issue, than I am for someone like Brian Bendis who seems to write for that 6-issue arc. Mind you, I like Bendis, and I think he writes very well for that format... it's just that if the advancement of his plots were charted on a line graph, the rise/run would be = 2 until issue #4. Then it jumps to 50 for the last two issues. That's a math reference, right there, folks.

But, I still make mistakes. Can't help it. I love the singles. Mistakes like: after reading this week's Ultimate Power #4 ... yeah, should've waited. But I'll still buy the last 2. Curse you, Collector's Mentality!!! And there's a bunch of Hellblazers I own that would read much better in trades, especially with the rotating creative teams and all... but Diggle started his first issue this week, so - yep! Bought that. And I still get Ultimate Spider-Man every month, even though I know it's a better trades read... that's just the fanboy in me that loves the Spidey, and the Ultimate version is how he should be portrayed. Can't resist that one.

On the other side, I don't (or didn't) get Exterminators, 100 Bullets, Mouseguard, and Lone Ranger each issue, but I fully intend to get the trades. And these are just the ones off the top of my head. And that's part of the problem - I'm sure I'm going to forget a trade that I meant to get when it eventually comes out. Another problem is if a trade will actually come out for a series. Please say yes, Mouseguard!

A third category is that the trades you pick up are so good, you start to buy the singles after you've caught up. To me, this is the ultimate sign of an awesome book. I can think of four offhand examples that I did this with: Y: The Last Man, Global Frequency, Preacher, and Fables. But, of course, Collector's Mentality!!! kicks in, and you're obliged to fill those early singles' gaps. I now have a complete singles collection of Y, plus the first 2 of the trades. I like to loan those out as "reading copies" and get new people hooked. Same with Preacher.

Filling it out is the final category: You've bought all the singles, but the trade itself is SO GOOD that you buy that one too. And not just for an easy "reading copy." I can only think of one that I've done this with: 300. Damn, that's a nice hardcover!

Well, file this one as a never-asked-for insight into the particular buying habits of Mr. FSoup. But I think it's a pretty standard case of a guy who loves comics and buys what he wants with distinction - not what the industry is supplying, or pushing. It's all about taste, selection, and balancing instant gratification against later enjoyment (and cost. and space.)

But, then again - I did buy every issue of Civil War as it came out. And I'll probably buy every issue of Countdown even if it starts to hit the crapper by #40. I'm still stupid that way.

Most Wanted

Going along with the weekly theme can get a bit anticlimatic when your LCS sells out of the one you were really looking forward to. But, we'll soldier on even without The Spirit #4. Dang it.

Out of the remainder of this week's haul, nothing really jumped out with anticipatory goodness, but it's alway nice to get an issue of a comic that's always good...

Y: The Last Man #55
Brian K. Vaughan
Pia Guerra

I really don't know if I can say anything new about this fantastic series from the so-consistant-he's-scarey Mr. Vaughan. Seriously, please let this guy write about anything he wants. If he's created it, I'm reading it. And, as always, that cover rocks.

This issue begins what will be (I think) the second-to-last story arc. Or the last one. I forget. Y & and 355 (did you see what I did there?) are making their way across Russia to get to Paris where Y believes his schweete is hanging out. We also get a check-in with the two other sub-plots that have been hanging over the story for months. It's an all build-up issue.

Not one of the more exciting issues of the series, really, and it doesn't have one of the series' trademark cliff-hangers, but it's a darn fine character advancement, (semi-)talking-heads issue. And it's Vaughan, so it's written so well that you don't care. It's setting things up nicely for the last year or so (this book is going bi-monthly soon - maybe next issue), and as someone who's been on board since the beginning, I'm both aglee with anticipation and dreading the finality. This series will be in my collection for many years.

Most Wanted Panel:

Sound advice, there.

Boobies! Ack!

Oh, speaking of photoshop - I couldn't let this go by... According to cmer at livejournal's scans_daily, Ray Palmer has been found!!

(Best joke all week!)

When Comics Collide!

Oh, no ... he didn't!

Bill Watterson
+

Frank Miller

=



That was funnier that I thought it would be.. hee hee!

If Only

Slight post today - too busy to do anything more indepth. But just to post something..

Personally, I would be delighted if at this time next year all of the buildup surrounding DC's Countdown finally leads to a series' finale page like this:

Tell me that wouldn't be the best ending to a Big-Two build-up series ever. Seriously.

EDIT: Wow, I miss stupid spelling errors every post. My bad.

Celebration starts early on a Friday!

St. Patty's Day! Whoo-Hoo!

Being more than a bit Irish myself, I love this holiday! If I had to distill myself (hic) into a holiday - Patty's Day would be pretty close: parties, drinking, little people, attractive red-heads, bad limericks.. and I hear that you can somehow throw in snakes! Love the snakes! Let it begin! Heck, I'm drinking right now! Whoo! Let's sprinkle in the comics, too!

Everyone with me raise a pint to St. Patrick's Day and to comics and especally to my favorite 1980s blatantly unabashed Irish stereotype super-heroine...

Shamrock!

Ah, Shamrock! How I love thee!

Errr, I mean... "Faith and Begorrah! Mine love for thee hits me skull t'wer a blunt sheleighly to me 'ead!"

Shamrock was one of the many "national" characters created for (possibly) the first EVER comics cross-over slash limited series: Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions. And brother, this 3-issue series kicked the ass of this particularly young F.Soup back in the day. So much so, that I have kept my original copies. And I even re-read them every once in a while. Why is there not a trade of this? I ask you? Seriously.

The plot is so simple that I won't go into it. Oh, heck.. it's really so simple that it's quicker to just write it out:

The Grandmaster has a bet with some other unknown uber-cosmic being that his "team" of kidnapped heroes can beat the Unknown's "team" at 4 games of "find the glowy thing."

It's like a very early Secret Wars, but without that whole "kill all your opponents" thing. And the heroes get no reward out of it.

Marvel (I'm guessing) thought this would be a good occasion to highlight some fan-favorite heroes and to introduce some new ones. For some reason (and, I suspect this was influenced by the Giant-Size X-Men all-foreign cast re-launch's success) they decided to make all the new ones representative of specific countries. Nothing really wrong there.. but they really went overboard with the ethnic-stereotype-as-it-relates-to-powers thing. Check it out:

Arabian Knight - Flying Carpet, Sabre, Turban. Only missing a lamp.
Blitzkrieg - Lightning! And Fast! Lightning Fast! Only missing the power to annex hopelessly undefended countries very quickly.
Collective Man - Collective strength (and nationality-powers) of all of China! Actually, he was a pretty cool idea for a national-based super hero.
Defensor - Spanish conquistador! They should have made him immortal, if he drinks a certain elixar once a year. And gave him blanket-throwing plague powers.
Peregrine - French asshole!
Sabra - Israeli Spikey bird lady. Hated the Arab guy. Controlled all media. (Hi, Google!)
Talisman - Aborigine (not the Alpha Flight chick) who used the "Dream Time." Does that ever work successfully as a viable comic super power? I mean, if you're not drawn by, say, Steve Ditko?
Vanguard - Russian Thor with magical Sickle and Hammer! I think he lasted for a bit, actually.

(I remember hoping that the Talisman from Contest of Champions was actually the same aborigine that teleported the X-Men to wherever from their Austrailian base during that abysmal period in the 90s. Nuts. Missed an opportunity there, Marvel...)

I think you can count the subsequent appearances of these guys on one hand. Wow. Has one series ever tried so hard to introduce so many failed characters?

But, anyway... back to Shamrock! Me many beer's thus far are derailing me thought train!

Shamrock had the power of luck. Of freckin' course she did, because what other super power would an Irish super-hero have? The power to drink 20 Guinness in under an hour, sing a maudlin dirge for your bonny wee child, then punch out a Catholic? Ah, 80s Marvel.. so deep. So deep.

Shammy was actually the eventual decider of the Contest O' Champions, capturing the final shiny thing. Here's the complete Shamrock-oriented sequence, scanned from me very own issue:










(I thought about commenting about each page there.. but.. you get it. Observant Bonny lasses as y'all are!)

(Except that last page.. man, even as a kid.. that missed coloring job on the yellow backside of me dear, dear Shammy, pissed off the youngin' Soup!)

So, the toast! Dear all: Happy St. Patty's to ye all! Enjoy the brew, may I see you grey while combing your grandfather's hair, may your home be too small to house all your friends, may there be nicer legs besides yours under the table, and most of all: Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!

-FS

EDIT: Shamrock Bonus!!

Previously unpublished Marvel Shamrock and French Asshole script! Good stuff!

Double EDIT:

When I saw the stats for this entry a week after the posting, I had at least 20 unique hits from China never to be seen again. Make of that what you will. (Hi China! China! China!)

(let's see if it happens again...)

Oh, Kari!

(The following is a transcript from a previously unaired episode of MythBusters)

MythBusters
Episode: 1574

(Pre-credits)

Adam: Remember, we've had years of experience doing the things we do. We're experts!

Jamie: Yep. And also remember: Do not try this at home.

(voiceover)

Today - on MythBusters!

Grant and Scottie try to prove if the unbreakable really is unbreakable. It’s time for the Adamantium throwdown!

Meanwhile, Grant and Tory try to answer the unseen question: How can an invisible woman see where she’s going?

But First, here’s Adam and Jamie ready to settle a myth - and a contest - that pits an ancient defense against a modern offense!

(cut to workshop)

Adam: Well, this is going to be a fun one! We’re actually going to be testing to see just how much punishment certain types of ancient armor can withstand. I envision us destroying all kinds of cool things! We get to play with guns, right?

Jamie: Yeah. The thing is, that even though some of the older stuff is, well, pretty ancient, and design-wise hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years, there might be a reason for that – you don’t mess with success.

Adam: Right! But even though you might have the perfect design for stopping, oh, a 15 pound mace, eventually hardware technology outpaces you, and you’re forced to design something a bit tougher. From wicker breastplates to Kevlar vests.

Jamie: In fact, the myth we're going to test today is that ancient armor was so well thought out and constructed so strongly that it can actually offer significant protection from even modern weaponry.

Adam: So, we’re going to try and see just how much punishment some of these very cool looking pieces of ancient defense can take from a modern firearm. Personally, I think this one is busted... but let's go anyway! What have we got first, Jamie?

Jamie: Well, this is an ancient, full-sized, 5th century bronze Aspis shield. It’s just about the kind the ancient Spartans used. It offers great protection for not only the wielder, but also, if you hold it like this, for his fellow soldiers on this side of him.

Adam: Like in the movie 300!

Jamie: Exactly. Now, these things are great at stopping arrows, spears, and most of the other piercing and slashing weapons that were being used around in the 5th century. They’re real solid and can take a lot of punishment. But as you can see …

BLAM!!

Adam: Ohhhh! Who-Hoo! You're dining in Hell now, Buddy!

Jamie: …they’re really no match for a modern .38.

Adam: So we don’t have to worry about those pesky Spartans? What if they had elephants? Or dwarves? Or dwarf-riding elephants? With knifey hands?

Jamie: Not really no.

Adam: Well, I for one, will sleep a little better tonight. This one's already looking busted - what about other forms of ancient armor - what do we have on hand to try and destroy, Jamie?

Jamie: Well, we decided to try a little field testing with a larger piece and sent Kari out for another experiment. Here – Let’s put her on speaker … Kari? You there?

Kari (on speaker): Yeah, I’m here.

Adam: So, how are you doing?

Kari: Well, it’s a beautiful day outside here and I’m ready to start some shooting!

Adam: Whoo-Hoo!

Kari: Yep! I’ve got my old trusty .30-06 set up, got my scope set, the slow-motion cameras in place and I’m good to go!

Adam: You’re shooting at Buster, right? You can’t shoot at Buster!! Hasn’t he been through enough? Think of all the little crash-test dummies that will be orphaned!

Kari: Ha ha! No, no – I could never take a shot at ol’ Buster. Besides, after that episode we did about the possibility of surviving a massive gamma explosion, we can’t even find him.

Adam: I heard he's rampaging through the American Southwest!

Kari: Ha ha! No, don't worry, Buster's not wearing the scalemail.

Adam: Oh! Scalemail! Awesome! The coolest of all ancient armor, if I do say so myself! What era is the armor from, Kari?

Kari: Well, this is more of a modern reproduction. The original stuff is just too expensive for us to just go shooting at it. OK - I'm about ready to go here. Let me get in a comfortable shooting position here...

Adam: Where are you exactly, Kari?

Kari: I'm on the old Bushmire building. Almost set.

Adam: The Bushmire? On the roof?

Kari: Yeah, it has the best view of the Courthouse. OK - firing in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...

Adam: Did she say Courthouse?

Kari: 2 ... 1 ...

BLAM!!

Adam: Uh... Kari?

BLAM!!

BLAM!!

Adam: Kari!?!?

Kari: (Fuckin' Liberal Anarchist Walkin'-away-from-a-fight-without-finishing-it Douchbag)

(end of transcript)

Hiatus Over!

Hey! He's back!

Glad that's over with.

I just finished up having the busiest work period I've ever had before. No time to do anything except grind out projects for 50-60 hours per week. Whew. It was so busy that I didn't even have the time (or desire) to read comics (or comic blogs) for the past two weeks, much less write about them. I just got back from the LCS with a big ol' pile of books that I'll go through sometime this week.

So, did I miss anything? Anything crazy go on? Did DC punch the multiverse again? Marvel have another "this will change everything" thingy?

(What? Who? They did what?!?)

Sunuvvabitch.

Well, it's not like they'll get someone unworthy to replace the embodiment of all things good and American. I mean, they won't give that costume to some psycho killer or some dude Brian Azzarello or Garth Ennis could comfortably write for or anything.

(What?!?!?)

Ho. Lee. Crap. Can't Tony just clone him back or something? Sigh.

Anyway, I should have more spare time now and hope to keep on updating this thing as often as I can. Probably 4-5 times a week, I think. And, I got a few more things in the mail that I'd been hankering for that I can write about.

Oh, and thanks, Adam! Honestly, today was the first time I even looked at this thing for weeks, and when I saw your "keep writing" comment, it actually convinced me to write something new as soon as I got home and keep on with it. Thanks!

OK, now - off to dive into that big ol' pile of comic goodness. Except that particular issue. I swear, whenever the Hulk gets back, I hope he starts kicking asses 'till there ain't no asses to kick no more.

He can start with Quesada's.