My recent splurge

The longest I think I've ever gone without getting comic books probably came during my nine months in South Korea back in 96/97. And even then, it wasn't a straight dry run. I was slowly losing my mind not having any comics and ended up exchanging some emails with my friend Kirsten. I mentioned having seen Magic: the Gathering cards for sale, written in Korean. And thus was born a quick deal. I got a bunch of comics, and she got some Magic cards for her then boyfriend.

When I got them, it was like drinking cold water at an oasis. In case it's not obvious, I love comic books. I've collected them since I was seven years old and it was rare, until that Korea trip, that I went a week without buying comics. Hell, on weeks when comics were delayed getting into my favourite shop because of weather or holidays, I was noticably gittery and cranky.

I've had to make adaptations living in Nunavut. There's obviously no comic book store and no weekly runs for my fix. Nor do I buy single issues anymore, just collected editions. Still, this was an exceptionally long dry patch, even by my new standards. From the time I came back from New York until this past week, I got just two books.

So I made up for it with this haul, which arrived on Wednesday. I've been happily blowing hours and and hours diving through them.



Yes, that's a lot of books. But I warned Cathy that I was doing it. Plus, she's been having shoe issues in St. John's, so it balances out.

Don't worry, I'm not going to review all of them...unless people are curious about specific books. But I am going to mention my two favourites.

For the comic book geeks out there, I recommend The Immortal Iron Fist: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven. This is what you get when you have two writers who are almost giddy to see what weird shit they can think up next and have overdosed on kung-fu movies.

The plot is that every 88 years, seven mystical cities align on Earth. There, in the "Heart of Heaven", each city sends its immortal weapons into combat with the champions of the other cities. Along with Iron Fist, there are also champions such as Dog Brother #1, Bride of Nine Spiders, Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, Prince of Orphans and everyone's favourite - Fat Cobra ("Bring me my victory wenches!").

And every time there's a fight, the writers gleefully say what bizarre martial arts move they're using - Whirlwind of Impending Doom, Vaulting Mantis Spine Snap, the Stabbing Newlywed, Hell's Unfurling Hurricane, Mistress of all Agonies, Bastard's Black Heartbreaker.

How can you not love a comic that comes up with all of that? The art is a little erratic, but it's over-the-top fun. I highly recommend it.

The one for non-comic book people would be True Story, Swear to God - Archives, Volume 1. First of all, it's a hell of a deal. The one has 18 issues of the regular series for about $20. Less if you order it online through Chapters. Granted, the comic is in black and white, but still.

As you might gather from the title, this is an autobiographical comic. In the late 90s, writer/artist Tom Beland got a free trip to Disney World in Florida through his newspaper in California. And while waiting at a bus stop on his last night there he met Lily Garcia, a radio personality from Puerto Rico. And from that improbable meeting they ended up falling in love and Beland moved to Puerto Rico to be with her. The book shows the early courtship, the move and Beland getting use to his new life.

Why recommend it? Well, Beland has an appealing cartoon style that works well for the story. It's funny as hell and quite touching. Plus, Beland isn't afraid to make himself look like an asshole in the story. So it does feel very real.

The other recommendation for picking it up? Cathy like it. I can literally count on one hand the number of comic books Cathy will read (Amelia Rules, Runaways, Fables, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season Eight and this one), so there you go. It's a comic to give someone in your life who ordinarily wouldn't touch one with a ten-foot pole.

By the way, I'm enjoying all of them so far. I'm taking my time remembering just how good Sandman is and Usagi Yojimbo is it's usual delightful self. But so far, Iron Fist and True Story are the ones I keep picking back up to leaf through. So they must have done something right.

Last Five
1. Hide and seek (live) - Ani DiFranco
2. Father Lucifer (live) - Tori Amos
3. 15 - Rilo Kiley
4. Wonderwall - Ryan Adams*
5. Handshakes - Metric

Mo' money...

I need more money...

Yes, we all need more money. And lord knows I can't really complain about how much I make. I make an amount of money that a verion of myself from three years ago would only fantasize about. The version of me back in my university days would assume rappant inflation was taking place in the new millennium. That would be the only way I could possibly be making that much money.

Still, every now and then I see something. Not something I need, you understand. But something I want. Something I start to pine for, but there's just no way I can justify the cost. I blame my father for this. He installed this annoying sense of being careful with your money that I possess.

So what is it that I'm pining for right now? A new car? TV set? Computer?

Nope. Comic book art. Specifically this art.

I like Phil Foglio's art fine enough. My friend Jaap has been preaching the brillaince that is his comic series Girl Genius to me for years. But the real selling point for me is that this is artwork he did to try and pitch a comic adaptation of Good Omens, one of my top three favourite novels of all time (I couldn't even tell you what the other two novels were, I just know that Good Omens is there, whatever the other ones might be). So this is artwork for a series that will be never be published of one of my favourite books by a great artist. And it looks fantastic. He gets the characters just right. Adapting from novels to comic books can be hard, but it looks like they were on the right track.

Just as a kicker, the money from the sale will go to the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Good Omen's co-author Terry Prachett has been diagnosed with the disease.

So I could buy cool artwork for a good cause. I like that. Several of the sketches I got at the New York Comic Con in April where from the Hero Initiative booth, which helps elderly comic professional in financial trouble.

The problem? It's one thing to pay $40 for a sketch. The artwork is at $1000 and there's still five days left in the auction. It's easily going to top $2,000 before it's all said and done.

I need more money...

Last Five
1. Life is just a bowl of cherries - Holly Cole
2. Live in the D - Brendan Benson
3. Everything must go! - The Weakerthans
4. Baby Fratelli - The Fratellis
5. Why do you love me - Garbage

Sketches, part 3

So this is the last bunch of sketches. Tomorrow, I promise, I'll talk about something other that comic con and New York. You know, it's funny, but I haven't started to read any of the comic books I bought there. I was saving them until I got back to Iqaluit. But on the way up here I started reading a book I bought from the Strand bookstore (which lives up to the hype) called "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War." And I thought it was going to be a hackneyed piece of trash. But it's surprisingly intelligent and it's a captivating bit of reading. I should be done with it tonight, which means I'll dive into the comic books tomorrow.

In the meantime, let's take a look at the last six sketches.

1. Mark Buckingham - The Snow Queen ("Fables")



Mark Buckingham was the start of an expensive last day at the con for me. Although he had his own table in Artist Alley, he also showed up at the Hero Initiative table to do sketches for an hour. Hero Initiative is a very cool organization designed to help creators, especially older ones, in need. While many successful creators do well today, ones who were around in the 40s, 50s and 60s often did not profit much from their creations.

I've liked Buckingham's work for years. And while I was in line I was trying to figure out what to ask him to draw. He even teased me a bit for not knowing what I wanted. Eventually I settled on a character from the excellent series "Fables", which he currently draws. I said I was torn between Snow White, Bigby Wolf or the Snow Queen. Buckingham got excited at the idea of drawing the Queen, so that was that. She's perhaps not as sinister as she is in the comic book, but it's still a nice sketch for a good cause.

2. Peter Laird - Raphael ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles")



Look, I'm not a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. Never have been, really. But I'm strolling through Artist Alley and there's Laird, co-creator of the Turtles, set up at a table knocking back quick sketches of any one of the turtles you want for $20. And there's only about three people in line. So I figured, what the hell.

So I have a turtle. Granted, I'd be hard pressed to know which one, but hey, it's a turtle all the same.

3. David Finch - The Incredible Hulk



Finch is a very popular artist, thanks to his work on The Avengers and Moon Knight. All weekend long there had been huge line to get near him at his table. But on Sunday morning things were a bit slower. When I walked past his table I noticed there was still about 10 people in line. However, all but two of them just had comic books in their hands to get them signed. Because of his popularity, sketches can be a bit pricey.

Still, I took a chance, got in line which moved quickly as only a couple ahead of me were getting sketches. Again, in the line I debated what I was going to get Finch to draw. He's done pretty much every character in the Marvel Universe. But he has what I would consider to be a very muscular and aggressive style. And looking at some of his artwork, I thought the Hulk would be a good choice. And it was.

I chatted briefly with him, but spent most of my time chatting with his wife. Nice lady. Plus I got the feeling she dealt with the distraction, allowing David to concentrate on the drawing.

4. Jim Calafiore - Superman



Another free sketch. He was at the DC table and I was walking by with miraculous no large lines around. So I asked him for a Superman sketch. This is obviously a very quick one, it only took about two minutes. But there's something about it that I like. I like all of my sketches, of course. But there is still something very stylized and distinctive about it, even though there isn't much detail. I think the good artists can do that...still make you appreciate it even if there isn't a lot of detail to it.

5. Leonard Kirk - Supergirl



And now back to the Hero Initiative table, where Leonard was sketching. I managed to be the first in line and remembered he worked on the Supergirl series a few years back and that his artwork had been quite nice. And also, unlike some artists, drew nice female characters, and not anatomically distorted sex bombs. It's a nice sketch. Kara (Supergirl) looks beautiful, but powerful. And catching her in flight like that works. More money for the Hero Initiative, but well worth every cent.

6. Walter Simonson - Thor



And this is my pride and joy from the weekend. If I have to be honest, I was certainly happy to get the sketch from Leonard. But I was also hovering near the table because I knew Simonson would be sketching afterwards and I wanted to make sure I was in line to get one. I'd ask for a sketch from him the day before, but he was getting ready to leave and said no, which was cool. But I knew he would be at the Hero Initiative table and was determined to get a sketch from him.

Why? Because his run on Thor in the 80s is a classic. A story that dove head first into Norse mythology combined with Simonson's deceptively simple, yet powerful art style. He's also in my top 10 all-time favourite artists. Also, from chatting with a few people from around the con I learned that Simonson doesn't do many sketches these days, and when he does, it's normally only head shots. But this one has most of the torso. I was also worried that he might not do Thor. Some artists can get bored drawing the same characters over and over again, and lord knows he must have drawn Thor a million times over the years. Plus, as I mentioned before with Gross, it's not unheard of for people to get a sketch from Simonson, cut it out of their book and resell it on eBay. But he was gracious and I was the first one who asked him for a Thor sketch.

This was my most expensive sketch of the con by far. But I love it and and the money went to a good cause. So it works out well for me. And it's was a good way to wrap up the con. I asked one more person for a sketch, but he declined. And then I decided, was I really going to beat a Simonson sketch of Thor? Nope. So I called it a day.

Last Five
1. High and dry - Radiohead*
2. Set yourself on fire - Stars
3. Failsafe - The New Pornographers
4. Lilly Bolero/The white cockade - The Chieftains
5. Come on, teacher - Joel Plaskett Emergency

Sketches, part 2

For those of you thinking that the New York con is over and I should stop talking about it, well, it's not over for me. Or at least my feet. Three days after it's over and they still hurt. I'd say the pain will also be felt by my Visa, but really that's not the case. Surprisingly few vendors at the con took Visa, which meant some scrambling at bank machines. But it also means the worst of the damage is already done to my bank account, which is all right.

Anyway, on with the sketches.

1. Rodney Ramos - Spider Jerusalem ("Transmetropolitan")



There are so many artists at the con that I walked past tables where I knew I had heard of them, but I just couldn't place where. That was the case with Ramos, whose art looked familiar, but I didn't know from where. Fortunately, he has a sign up listing some of the books he had worked on. One of which was Transmetropolitan, which is one of my top 10 all time comic series. Ramos worked a couple of the specials and the covers.

This is what he gave me, which was a bit more than I asked for. He normally charged extra for colour, but threw in the colour on the glasses for no charge. I'm quite happy with it.

2. Khoi Pham - Batman



Again, I knew Khoi's work from somewhere, I just didn't know where. Having just looked at his home page, I might have asked for something different than a Batman. This one was a quick sketch at the Marvel booth and there was no charge. That's why it's a bit rougher than some of the other ones. But still, for something he did in less than five minutes, it's quite nice.

3. Art Baltazar - Raven ("Tiny Titans")



Art was doing free sketches at the DC booth. To be honest, this was one of those "it's an artist and there isn't a huge line and it's free!" moments. But Tiny Titans looks cute enough and I've always liked Raven as a character. It's a cute enough quick sketch.

4. Keith Geffen - Ambush Bug



Geffen is one of these guys who has been around the industry for ages. He kind of disappeared for a few years, but has been making a big comback in the last few years. Geffen has drawn just about everything other the sun at one point or another, so I was genuinely baffled at what to ask him to draw. Plus, he was at the DC booth and only doing quick sketches. So when I got to him I just said "draw whatever you like." He gave me Ambush Bug. I confess to not being the biggest Ambush Bug fan in the universe, but it was still nice to meet him and it's a fun little quick sketch.

5. Rafael Albuquerque - Green Lantern



And yet another free sketch (I was apparently in a cheap bastard phase). However, at least I knew where I had seen Rafael before. He's the artist of the latest Blue Beetle series. And it just so happened that I had picked up the latest Blue Beetle trade paperback a couple of hours before. So why did I get a Green Lantern instead of a Blue Beetle? Not really sure. I just didn't feel like it, and I recalled he drew a pretty nice Green Lantern in the series, so I went with that.

Never really got the chance to talk to him much. He gets pretty into his artwork. Also, I hope he has a good chiropractor, because man, he really twists himself up when drawing. Still, it's a nice sketch.

6. Nuno Plati - Rogue



Again, not an artist I was immediately familiar with, but I like the art he had out on his table. This was also his first con and I think he was kind of surprised by the reaction he was getting to his artwork, which was very positive. He had prints for sale of different characters, but I like the idea of him drawing something there at the con for me.

This is the only sketch that's not done in the book. He didn't know when he would get around to doing it and didn't want to take my book for several hours. So this is done on smaller sheet of paper that I will likely tape into my sketch book. As for why Rogue, I like some of the prints he had of her. It's almost a fashion model way of drawing the character, which is different. I'm happy that all of the female characters weren't drawn like sex bombs. Yes, this is stylized, but still quite attractive.

Tomorrow, the final six sketches, including my favourite of the bunch.

Last Five
1. Rain down on me - Blue Rodeo
2. What's wrong with this picture - Lloyd Cole
3. Whiskey lullaby - Allison Krauss
4. If I ever lose my faith in you - Sting*
5. Until the stars turn blue - The Corrs and Bono

My favourite cover

So since I'm in a comic book mood - not really a surprise - I thought I'd show you my all time favourite comic book cover. Now, I've been collecting comic books for 30 years. I've seen a lot of truly amazing covers during that period of time. Covers that have wowed me with their art and creativity. Most of the covers from Neil Gaiman's Sandman are staggeringly beautiful and eye-catching. Like the first issue, for example.



Or even a classic like this Captain America cover from the 60s.




You can never underestimated a good cover in grabbing someone who might be looking at literally dozens of comics. Too many take it for granted, but good covers can make or break a comic book series. It was the cover of that Godzilla comic I mentioned in my last post that caught my eye.

So while I had been collecting Hitman for awhile, I still did a double take when I saw this one. Perhaps being from Newfoundland made me appreciate it more, but I remember picking it up and laughing at it for about 10 minutes. I still laugh whenever I see it. I'd buy the original artwork if I ever saw it for sale anywhere.



The actual content of the comic, believe it or not, is funnier than the cover. A mad scientist kills all the animals at the aquarium and then unleashes a gas that brings them all back as zombies. Zombie penguins, zombie dolphins (including the immortal line "Oh man, I just smoked Flipper."), zombie sharks and, of course, zombie seals. It's a completely retarded premise, but so much of Hitman was completely retarded premises mixed with a genuinely touching look at the friendships between some generally reprehensible people (the guy in the green coat is a hitman. He has his ethics and all, but he still kills people for money). The series also had perhaps the best Superman story (until the recent All-Star Superman series) of the past 20 years.

Garth Ennis, the writer of the series, is going to be at the comic con. I hope I get the chance to meet him. Although having read his bio and realized that he's only a day older than me and wrote what is considered to be one of the best John Constantine (Hellblazer) stories - "Dangerous Habits" -at 21 when I was fucking around at the Muse, makes me want to kill him right now.

There are a lot of great Hitman covers, really. I've included a couple of others below. I wish I could tell you it's no problem to pick up the collections, but DC bizarrely stopped collecting the series about half way through. I have all the original issue, but I wish DC would come out with a nice collection of the series.






Last Five
Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits

Con update

Well, it's a little more than a month until I head to New York. Not that I'm counting down or anything. I've been doing my best to try and not get on Cathy's nerves by talking about all the things I'm going to be doing and planning. It's not that she's upset with me going, it's that I've probably been a little negligent in the Italy planning trip. Which is a fair enough point. I've asked now when I can take my vacation this summer so hopefully I'll back on that by the end of the month. Then we can get to work on when we're going, how long we're staying and what we're going to try and do.

And budget for it. Italy for 3-4 weeks is going to be a bit on the pricy side.

As for New York, well, more details about the con are beginning to come out. I'm resisting the urge to buy a VIP pass or one of the "Ultimate Experience" packages, just because they cost anywhere from $200-$500 extra and I can think of better things to spend the money on. I did drop $20 to see Neil Gaiman because I've always been a fan of his, plus the money goes to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which I consider to be a worthwhile expenditure of money.

But there's also other guests there I'd like to meet. Frank Miller (300, Sin City) is going to be there signing stuff. Do I bring something along for him to sign? I have a very nice, leatherbound copy of The Complete Frank Miller Batman I'd love for him to sign. The cast of Hellboy and its creator, Mike Mignola, are going to be there.

Plus, I'm beginning to get some idea of what I'm walking into. This con is going to be a madhouse. Which is fine. I think its just a matter of managing my expectations.

The one thing I really want is to get some sketches from artists. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but it's not unheard of for people to go with sketch books. I wasn't sure about the etiquette involved, so I emailed a well-known comic book columnist and asked if he had any advice.

Boy, did he ever. In fact, he spent pretty much all of his last column addressing my questions and concerns. That was awfully nice of him and his answers were thorough. At least I have a better idea of what to expect.

I thought I might get bored spending three days at this con. Instead, I wonder if I'm going to have enough time to get everything done.

Now I just have to make sacrifices to the gods to make sure my flights get out. You wouldn't think you'd have to worry about blizzards in mid-April, but given the lack of major storms we've had this winter, I'm getting worried that we're karmically due. On the other hand, maybe Newfoundland is just absorbing out quota for the year. Jesus but you guys are getting pounded this year.

Anyway, tomorrow, something that has nothing to do with either comics or curling, I promise.

Last Five
1. Wake up dead man - U2
2. Start me up - The Rolling Stones*
3. From here you can almost see the sea - David Gray
4. This little light of mine (live) - Bruce Springsteen
5. Sister Jack - Spoon

What to do with 10,000 comics

All right, fine. I'm a sap. But honest to God, I read this story about the University of Minnesota receiving a major donation of comic books for its library and got a bit misty. First of all, it's a lovely piece of personal writing. In hack hands, this is a couple of quirky paragraphs about some guy donating thousands and thousands of, you know, comic books, to a university library. Who cares, right?

But this writer puts the collection and what it's meant in perspective. Comic books have shaped their family for decades. She doesn't understand the appeal, and that's fine. She still recognizes their importance and what it's meant for her husband and children. And it's some lovely writing she uses to get that point across.

Simple, emotional and poignant. It works.

I think it also stuck a chord with me because Mr. Borger has people who appreciate what his collection means and recognizes the role they've played in all their lives. I like that because I'm not sure I've ever had it. This isn't a shot at my parents and Cathy. I love my parents. I love Cathy. But they've never understood why I love comics so much. My parents barely tolerated my collection, especially when I entered my teens. The only way the whole thing didn't mysteriously "disappear" one day when I was at school was my assurance that the comics would be worth something one day.

As for Cathy, well, she was introduced to them when I wasn't doing as good a job of keeping them organized as I should have. They were piled all over my work room. I'm not sure if she ever would have grown to have liked them, but she certainly didn't get off on the right foot with them. Also, and we just had this discussion...she reads trashy romance and vampire novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. She doesn't expect me to understand why or try to convert me to them. It's just what she reads. She doesn't see anything grand or romantic about it. Nor does she understand why I seem to have the view about comics.

She has a point, I guess. But I do considering something special about growing up and reading comic books. They were a comfort to me during a lot of crappy, lonely and depressing times.

At some point I'm going to have to make some decisions about my comic books. We've been up north for more than two years and I haven't bought any single issues during that period. It's all been collections (graphic novels). I'm pretty happy with the way that's going right now and it will continue when/if we move back south.

However, right now I probably have in excess of 10,000 individual issues sitting in storage at my father's house. The last time I was there, dad was storing his wine in the same space as them, which caused me to freak out at him a bit. Then again, I haven't treated the collection well in recent years. I wasn't bagging and boarding them all like a good collector is supposed to, simply because the budget wasn't there. Really. Bags and boards add up in a hurry when you have to buy as many I would have needed.

Anyway, what to do with them? The thought of donating them to MUN, similar to what this guy did, has its appeal. My collection isn't as historic as I suspect Mr. Borger's is. I know I bought a lot of crap in my day. But I do like the idea of them being read on a regular basis. I started collecting when I was seven years old. I still have comics from that period of time, although they're obviously beaten up pretty badly. Those comics have brought me a lot of joy and contentment over the years. The idea they might do the same for lots of other people is quite enticing.

Having seen what I can do with eBay and at bit of effort (I've probably said it before, but Cathy's engagement ring, and my first digital camera, were bought by selling about 300 comic books over the space of a couple of months), I'm sure Cathy and my parents would be happy to see me sell them all.

But I'll have to figure out something to do with them as keeping them all is probably not viable in the long run. Suggestions?

Last Five
1. Sweetness - The Trews
2. All you need is love - The Beatles
3. 11 O'clock, tick tock - U2
4. Lonely song - Ron Hynes*
5. Ladies and gentlemen - Hot Hot Heat

Two random things

You can get weird searches coming through a blog sometimes. For example, I still get hits for people looking for a specific pron site because I once typed in two fair innocent words. I won't say what they are because I'm really not looking for that kind of traffic. But let's say every time I check Statcounter there's always weird result listed there.

But the best in recent days was someone typing into Google looking for "Me and You and a God Named Boo." Which I think is pretty damn funny considering I'm sure our little furball probably thinks he should be a god. Or at least worshipped and treated like one.

Oddly enough, when you actually do that search most of the results are for the actual song, but there is one for that spelling. It's for a song supposedly song that charted in Switzerland. However, I'm pretty sure that has to be a typo as well.

By the way, I'll try and take some pictures of Boo over the weekend and provide his fans with an update.

My other oddity is this story. Now, for you reporters out there who read this blog, and I know there are a few of you, there is an important thing you should know. If you ever find yourself doing a story about comic books and you used this headline or some variant, or you use it as your lede (this is actually a wire story, so the headline was the lede in other places) anybody who collects comics can legally beat you up. That might not be a scary prospect, but there are a lot of us out there and we can sneak up on you when you're not expecting it.

This story is the dream if you've ever collected comics long enough. You somehow magically stumble across Detective #27 or Action #1, both of which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lord know when I was growing up I'd always run into someone around the bay who would claim to have had some ultra rare comic when they were growing up or who had a relative who might still have them in a basement or attic somewhere.

Never panned out, of course. Never stopped me from looking, though. When I was younger I used to hit used book stores and garage sales looking for comics that people thought were worthless. Found some pretty cool stuff over the years too. But alas, nothing worth six figures. I think the best I ever did was buy a copy of Spider-Man #300 for 50 cents and resold it a week later for $50. Oh, and I bought some comics off a guy who, in retrospect, was probably selling them to buy drugs. What I bought for $80 I later resold for close to $1,000.

Comics are a ruthless business, folks. There used to be a small group of us in St. John's about 15 years ago constantly on the prowl for deals like this. We called ourselves Mercs.

Cathy asked me this evening if I had any $100,000 comics stashed around. Alas, no. I have maybe a dozen or so worth a couple of hundred dollars. Which isn't bad. But I do still dream of going into an attic one day, moving a few boxes and finding that magic comic.

In the meantime, please don't use "Holy -----, Batman!" in any story you write. Thank you...

More con

Sorry, I can't help myself with this con stuff. My inner geek is bursting with envy.

Anyway, enjoy this while you can as there's no telling when the studio will pull the plug on this. It's a preview of next year's Iron Man movie, staring Robert Downey Jr, among many others. It's pretty crappy footage shot by a guy with a camcorder. But it still looks pretty cool and you can hear how excited the audience is by what they're seeing.

I always knew Downey would be good choice for the role of Tony Stark. He's got the right level of charm, arrogance and wit to make it work.

Iron Man exclusive Comic con Clip
Uploaded by ingy489

Let's see, what else....how about a few people blogging about their experiences at the con that I've been enjoying - Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton and Bully, a stuffed, well, Bull.

For every very weird costume...



There's at least one family friendly one.




And finally, best quote of the con so far, of course, from Warren Ellis.

And the bay, which has featured military vessels from time to time. I may have occasionally stood at the window with a small drink in my hand exhorting them to turn their guns on the con center. Because you can't trust those furries. Any one of them could be Osama. Open up the big cannons on the fuckers and let their yiffy god sort them out.

The con is on

Right now a small frenzy is happening in Southern California as the annual San Diego ComicCon kicks into full gear. Approximately 150,000 geeks and their drug dealers are swarming the city until Sunday.

By the way, when I saw drug dealers, I don’t mean literally people selling crack and heroin, although I have no doubt there are few of those kicking around the city. No, these are people supplying geeks with the stuff to satisfy their habit. You may call them businessmen or women. I prefer to label them for what they are. They are supplying comic books, action figures, odd paraphernalia, science fiction oddities or whatever. If you’re a geek and you’re jonesing, then the ComicCon is the o.d. for your habit.

I know that many of the people who read this blog have little or no interest in comic books. However, as I believe Neil Gaiman put it, comic books are the tail that wags the dog at this thing. Gaiman, for example, is not there to promote a novel or a comic book, but rather two movies. The adaptation of his illustrated novel Stardust, which is coming out in two weeks, and for his screenplay adaptation of Beowulf, which is coming out at Christmas. Plenty of other movies will also be getting sneak peaks at the con in an attempt to build buzz before they open.

However, if you want to get an idea of what it’s like, just click on pretty much any of the links under the “Geek” section of the sidebar and you’ll get a small dose of what the insanity that is the Con is like.

And yeah, I’ll be checking out the announcements, because I am a big comic geek. The names of new writers, artists and storylines actually matter to me, sadly enough. Although my favourite announcement so far, although it’s early, is that porn star Jenna Jameson will be starring in a comic book called “Shadow Hunter” for, wait for it, Virgin Comics.

I’ll also be checking out this site.

One of the things that amuses me the most about the con are the costumes. And thanks to the joys of digital and cell phone cameras and photo websites, now everyone can get an idea of what it’s like at the con, and the types of costumes people are wearing. Yes, some of them are lame, although there’s something about the lameness that makes it endearing. The Elvis (Elvi?) Stormtroopers will no doubt show up, although the Samurai Stormtroopers from a couple of years ago are my favourite.

And, of course, there are plenty of women who think it’s a good idea to dress up in skin-tight and revealing costumes surrounded by thousands of geeks, many of whom are probably still virgins.

I really would like to go to this madhouse one day. Almost arranged it last year, but given the size of this con and how fast hotel rooms disappear, you almost need to plan a trip a year in advance. As it stands, the earliest I could see us making it back to San Diego will be in 2010. The tentative plan is to go to Costa Rica that year for a couple of weeks, and then maybe pop up to San Diego for the con and then perhaps back to San Francisco to visit friends. But we shall see. That year also marks the end of our original five year plan for the North. I suspect that’s going to be a summer of transitions for us.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for some quick amusement, check out some of the sites. If nothing else, you have to admire the enthusiasm.

Exchange rate

So that was interesting. The other day one of the more prominent comic book websites, Newsarama (or, more specifically the blogging section of their site) linked to my post about how Marvel Comics appears to be gouging Canadian comic book fans with the exchange rate. Which, in turn, produced a lovely surge in traffic and probably had more than one person wondering, “Where the hell is Nunavut and why can’t this guy get to a comic book store more often?”

I can’t get to a Wal-Mart, guys. A comic book store is a dream at this point.

But it was interesting to read some of the debate on the thread that linked to my post. First, apparently Ottawa sucks for comic book stores. Now, I did find a couple of nice ones. But upon reviewing receipts, they did charge me full Canadian price for the comics. Something I thought little of at the time, as I was in my glee at getting to my first comic book stores in about four months.

But the curious thing is the number of people who responded that in Toronto, most of the stores simply charge customers US prices and completely ignore the Canadian price. If they don’t do that, then the stores work out what the actual exchange rate is and charge them that.

Now, some of it is simply competition. There are a lot of stores in Toronto, and if one store starts charging the US cover price, then most are going to follow suit so they don’t lose business. But interestingly and employee (owner?) of the Beguiling (a very good Toronto comic book store specializing in smaller, indy titles) showed up and while lamenting selling at US cover a bit, believed that anyone selling at full Canadian cover was ripping off their customers.

And then, even more bizarrely, one of the guys who runs Oni Publishing (a decent sized “independent” publisher. Not Marvel or DC level, but they do respectable sales and have published some good series, such as Blue Monday, Whiteout, Queen and Country and others) said they no longer charge a unique Canadian price. Furthermore, he questioned exactly who is making the extra money off the high exchange rate.

I know many of the regular readers of the blog probably aren’t that interested in this, but to me it’s fascinating stuff. I’m old enough to recall buying comics when there was only one price. “Still, only 35 cents!” as the tag on the old Marvel Comics used to read. And I can recall the shock of picking up a comic and discovering that while the US price remained the same, I was now paying more because I lived in Canada, something I thought was very unfair at the time.

Then again, I guess it sort of balances out. Back in 2003 when I was selling some of my comics to buy Cathy’s engagement ring, I recall briefly cursing because I was taking a bath by selling the comics when the exchange rate was pegged around 72 cents. A year or so earlier it has been in the mid-60s and I felt I was losing money by selling at that high exchange rate.

Goes to show what I know. If the dollar remains where it is, my next sale is going to be a bloodbath compared to that.

I’m not naïve enough to think that one blog post is going to change things. But it was nice to see people chat about it and have an opinion. And that other blogs picked up on what I was saying and agreeing. Hopefully something good spins out of people discussing, and being generally pissed off, over the exchange rate.

I know a higher Canadian dollar means for many people cheaper vacations in the US or being able to buy clothing or electronics at lower prices. But for me, the day I can look at a book, magazine and comic and only see one price on the cover, it will be a very happy day for me.

Comic Review: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane

While I normally don't care for anonymous comments, one of the best ones I received this year was the one that said the blog occasionally resembled the ramblings of a 14 year old girl. I think s/he is a touch off base, but hell, I do ramble on about personal things a bit too much from time to time.

Yet, the comic I'm reviewing and recommending this week is one, well, aimed at young teenage girls. So maybe s/he is on to something.

There's been an ongoing debate in certain comic book blogs about whether or not super hero comics are really even meant for women or girls. And really, when so much of the art is created in a way that makes women look like little more than sex dolls, and only a handful of writers or artists in the super hero field are women, it's easy to understand where that perception might come from.



And yet Marvel Comics choose to launch Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. It's unique in that, despite the title, the focus of the series is on Mary Jane Watson and her somewhat confusing high school life. Peter Parker is just a geeky guy who is friends with a guy she may or may not like.

Oh, and she has a crush on Spider-Man. But that's a bit like having a crush on a rock star. Fine and all, but what are the odds of anything happening? Unless, of course, he happens to save her life one day.

So it's different in many ways. The focus is on Mary Jane, a supporting character in the main Spider-Man books. It's written in a way that you can pick it up and immediately start reading without having to worry about 40 years of convoluted back history. And it's written in a way that is clearly aimed at attracting younger readers. Specifically, younger female readers.

As a man in his mid-30s, clearly I'm not the target audience. But writer Sean McKeever is widely respected and I've heard good things about the series. So I picked it up on a lark

And it was a good lark. This is nice, clean and most importantly, smart writing. Yeah, I found the early issues a touch to "girlie" and liked the later issues where we see a bit more of Mary Jane and Peter Parker interacting. But McKeever never talks down to his audience. He's got a good feel for the characters. And despite some slow going in the early issues (Homecoming is just going to be one of those big American teen events that I'm never going to get), it really picks up steam towards the end.

Also helping McKeever is solid art by Takeshi Miyazawa. The art above is from the cover of the hard cover, but it's a pretty good representation of what you'll find inside the covers. A touch Manga-esque, but clean, easy to follow and appealing. He's also got a good grasp of the way teenagers are supposed to look. Comic books can be just as guilty as television in trying to pass of characters who are supposed to be in their teens looking like they're in their 20s.

As I said, it's not for everybody. The die hard Spider-Man and super hero fans probably won't care for it much. But if you like well written, nicely drawn comics, then this is a good one to have. And it's also the rare one you can buy for a girl in their early teens or slightly younger without having to worry about excessive violence or bizarre body types. It even has the all important messages about doing the right thing and standing by friends without hitting you in the face with a sledgehammer.

The hard cover of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane can be bought at Chapters. However, you can also buy it in a series of smaller, cheaper digests under the titles Mary Jane, Mary Jane: Homecoming and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. They retail for about $9 Can each.

Marvel gouging

The Canadian dollar crept steadily upwards with news stories coming out every day this week saying it hit a new 30 year high. One bank is expecting it to reach 96 cents to the U.S. dollar by the end of the year. Another is expecting parity with the U.S. dollar by the end of the year, something that hasn’t happened since 1975.

I like the Canadian and U.S. dollar roughly equal. I know that many manufacturers and businesses might not, but I do. It just makes things easier.

However, what I’m not liking is the gouging that’s going on in some areas over the surging Canadian dollar. I’ve lamented this before, but I’m going to do it again. Because the discrepancy in U.S. price and Canadian price in publishing is a touch ridiculous.



But instead of books, this time I’m going to focus on graphic novels. The example I’m going to cite is the one I got this week from Chapters. It’s the Frank Miller Daredevil Omnibus. Obviously, this is a book with a limited appeal to most of the people who read this blog. However, it’s a classic run done by a writer and artist I normally like. Plus, the original 30 or so issues are expensive and a nuisance to track down. The book came out a couple of months ago.

I thought about buying it when I was in Ottawa in mid-April, however I balked at the price. It retails for $99 U.S., but that isn’t what freaked me out. The Canadian price tag was $160.

It was enough that I took a look at some other recent purchases. Two other Marvel hardcovers I bought had the same exchange rate. Runaways Vol. 3 and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1 retail for $24.99 US, $40 Can. Soft covers are just as bad. Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out Vol. 2 retails $14.99 US, $24 Can.

And it appears to be just Marvel. A recent DC purchase, DMZ: Body of a Journalist, goes for $12.99 US, $15.99 Can. Other recent DC trade paperbacks have a similar difference in exchange rate.

So let’s hit on a few points here. First, the dollar has surged a bit in the past six weeks, so it wasn’t at 94 cents back in mid-April. But it was around 90 cents and has been hovering, give or take a few cents, in that area for about a year. That means an accurate exchange rate would have been around $110-115. And yet Marvel Comics stuck a $160 price tag on the book. In fact, all of the Omnibus line has this ridiculous pricing. The Canadian dollar would need to be trading at around 65 cents to the U.S. dollar for this pricing to be even close to reasonable. It hasn’t been at that level since 2002. So the change isn’t exactly a shocking turn of events that Marvel was unprepared for.

Secondly, I visited three comic book stores in Ottawa that were all selling this book. None of them were adjusting the price of currency exchange. They wanted $160 for the book. I probably would have bought it in Ottawa if the exchange rate was more reasonable. But even with the extra money I have in my pocket these days, I really can’t justify spending $160 on a book, no matter how pretty, big or cool.

And yet, you may say, you still bought the book. Yes I did. That also speaks to the problems of some comic book dealers. You see, I got the book through Chapters. Their online service works for me very well up north because they continue to offer free shipping and have a delightfully devil-may-care attitude towards shipping. I recently placed an order for six graphic novels. They arrived in three boxes in less than a week. That’s good service, if perhaps poor business sense.

But when I cracked open the box and began to unwrap my Omnibus, something finally made sense to me. You see, I paid about $73 for the book. Still very expensive, but that works out to about a 55 per cent discount of the regular cover. Chapters gives deep discounts off their books, to be sure, but that’s still pretty steep. But on the back of the book there was a sticker for $110.

So Chapters did the sensible thing and adjusted the price of the book to what the exchange rate should be. The evil, big box, independent bookstore killing behemoth was the only one that gave me a break on this book. By the way, they did the same thing on the other Marvel books I bought. Both hard covers were bought for around $19. The soft cover was a little more than $13.


So to recap:
Marvel Comics – grotesquely gouged the price of the book by easily adding another $40 to $50 for Canadian buyers by ignoring years old currency changes.
Comic book stories – followed Marvel’s lead by not adjusting the price of the book when I’m sure many of them had to have spotted the difference. (Note, this was just the handful I saw in Ottawa. Perhaps others adjust for currency fluctuations, but I haven’t heard of any, indicating to me that they are a rare beast.)
Chapters – properly adjusted the price of the book to account for currency exchange, gave 35 per cent discount on top of that and free shipping to a remote area. The free shipping is also as good as giving me another $25 off, as I’ve seen Omnibus volumes on eBay that have $25 or more shipping on top of the final price to get it here.

I’ve always known that owning a comic book store is a rough business, which explains why so many owners eventually become either evil or insane. You’re operating at thin margins, at the whims of distributors, market fluctuations and now, big box stores like Chapters and Amazon, which are increasingly moving into the comic book business.

Oh, and the customers are demanding pains in the ass who want discounts and other kinds of preferential treatment. I know how hard it is to offer breaks. I know how thin the margins are and how cut throat the business can be. I’ve spent enough time in stores and read enough comic book blogs and sites to understand all of this. And I really do try to support local comic book stores when I can. I still like them. It’s one thing to spend an hour browsing Chapters website. There is a real joy for me in spending an hour in a good comic book store, looking at the books, checking out the art, reading some of the story and chatting with the staff about what’s good and what isn’t.

I’m in Nunavut. I rarely get to do that anymore and I miss it. The couple of hours I got to spend doing that in Ottawa were some of the best moments of the trip for me. But folks, I’m only got to spend so much extra on tactile pleasures. Not every book I order from Chapters is going to have this extreme a price difference. But Marvel needs to stop this horrific price gouging on Canadian consumers. Very, very soon there is going to be a legitimate argument that there should only be one price on North American comics (and all books and magazines, for that matter). And comic book stores are going to have to start stepping up on the discounts and perks.

Because when/if we move back down south, I’m trying to find a good reason to give up Chapters and switch back to comic book stores. I think tactile pleasures aren’t going to cut it.

Houston, we have a problem

So this is a picture of the book shelf dedicated to holding my graphic novels. When I first moved up here, there was still plenty of room left on the shelf. Understand, that isn't all the graphic novels I own. I have two 75 litre containers in storage that contains the rest. Not to mention 20-odd long boxes filled with single issues.



Yes, I have a problem. This has been previous acknowledged.

Anyway, I’m running out of space on this shelf. I still have other books shelves I can expand onto, but this is being met with a frown from the lovely wife. While she tolerates the habit, she’s quite concerned about it getting out of hand. Especially since she’s wondering about the deal we stuck when moving here.

The deal was pretty simple. I didn’t buy singles of coming books because they quickly eat up too much room. However, I was allowed to buy graphic novels. In fact, as many as I would reasonably like, as long as I didn’t buy singles. The logic being graphic novels can fit on book shelves while singles tend to expand outwards in messy piles. This has been a deal I’ve been gleefully taking advantage of, as you might figure out looking at the shelf.

What’s worse is that now that I’m making decent money for the first time in my life, it’s not that I’m just buying graphic novels, I’m buying pretty, expensive hard cover graphic novels. If you look closely at the picture you will see “Absolute” (DC’s premiere hard cover line) versions of Sandman, The Authority, Planetary and New Frontier. I have a bunch of Marvel “Premiere” hard covers. And I’ve recently discovered the beauty that is Marvel’s “Omnibus” line, which takes 30 or so issues of a classic run and put them into one over-sized hard cover.

I currently have Grant Morrison’s run on X-Men in that format and I’m drooling over the Stan Lee Fantastic Four volumes and the Frank Miller Daredevil volume.

If all of this sounds not only space consuming, but bank account damaging, you would be right. I did a count on how it would cost to buy all the books on the Chapters wish list that are available now. This doesn’t mean all the ones I have book marked that will come out during the summer. It’s a...sizeable, chunk of change. One that even I’m balking at. I mean, I can afford it pretty easily, but it’s still one of those things that makes you think twice.

Funnily enough, even with all of these graphic novels, I rarely write reviews about them. I don’t know why. It’s just one of those things that I’ve always found hard to review. TV, movies, theatre and even music aren’t that hard for me. Books are more of a challenge. Same thing with art. I guess that combination makes it more understandable why I find comics hard to review.

Still, I think I might try. One graphic novel a week, on Sundays. If people find it useful or hate it, let me know. (Oh, and if Marvel or DC or any comic book publish would like to start sending me graphic novel review copies, I will love you forever).

This week’s pick is All-Star Superman. Because I ragged on how terrible All-Star Batman and Robin was, it seems only fair that I take a look at the other All-Star title. And one of the reasons why the Batman title is so terrible is that it suffers so poorly when compared to this one.



The story is by Grant Morrison and the art is by Frank Quietly. Morrison is one of the mad geniuses of comic books. He got his North American start back in the late 80s doing groundbreaking titles like Animal Man (where the lead character discovers his maker, which was Morrison, and the two of them walk around Glasgow talking about art and the nature of existence) and Doom Patrol (which featured a character whit multiple personalities and each personality had a super power. Oh, and there was a painting that ate Paris). Morrison is one of those people you hate if you’re a writer because he has so many good ideas bursting at the seams. He breathes and something clever comes out with the CO2. It’s maddening.

But it works here. One of the taglines for Superman has always been that he’s “The Man of Tomorrow”. And yet, too many of the monthly comic book stories feature Superman battling the villain of the month. There’s rarely a sense of the future in the series.

But this is what the series is. Mad ideas throw out all over the place with Superman right in the middle of them. A scientist’s quest to get a teaspoon of the sun (yes, I know, it’s been done before, but it works in this case) and how Superman fits into it. About the best version of Lois Lane we’ve seen in awhile, including what happens when she gets Superman’s powers for a day. Black Kryptonite from a super-dense “under” universe. The Unknown Superman of 850,000 A.D. He even manages to make Jimmy Olson fun.

And above all it’s tremendous entertaining. You don’t need to have read a Superman comic in the past 20 years to pick up the series and be sucked into it. If you thought last year’s Superman Returns was a tad too dry and serious and filled with its own self-important mythology, then this is the book for you.

Morrison loves Superman, but he also realizes that Superman should be fun. Which is precisely what this is.

I haven’t said much about the art. Quietly is widely respected in the comic book world, but is slow. Still, the art is beautiful. It’s filled with bright colours and Queitly has worked with Morrison long enough to have no problem capturing Morrison’s occasional off-the-wall idea. He also draws fantastic Superman/Clark Kent. Superman is majestic, power and imposing. His Clark Kent is, well, a schlep. He’s a clutz that is continually knocking things over. He doesn’t make eye contact and is stooped over. His suits are baggy and ill-fitting. He stutters. You really could miss the fact they are the same person. Give Quietly credit for managing to draw the character in a way that makes it believable that people could fail to make the connection. Oh, and can still slip in the iconic image or two, like the one on the cover.

It’s a fun, fun book. It collects the first six issues of what I understand will likely be a 12 issue series. It’s out in hard cover right now and at a reasonable price with Chapters (less than $15) and I recommend it highly.

One side...

About the funniest thing I’ve seen today is the comic book panel at the end of this post.

It comes from a comic book called All-Star Batman and Robin and it is, by all accounts, just a wretched series. It is startlingly bad if you can believe the reviewers. And the reason for the shock is that the artist is Jim Lee, one of the best in the business. And the writer is Frank Miller.

Miller, for those of you not intimately familiar with comics, is probably one of the three most important comic book creators of the past 25 years. Did you like the Batman movies? Much of the feel came from two of his books – Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. Oh yeah, and if you liked Sin City and 300, those are his babies as well. Literally, in the case of Sin City, which he co-directed. Oh, and all the good bits in the Daredevil movie came from his run on the series in the 80s.

He’s always been fond of going slightly over the top and producing meaty, chunky dialogue that works great on the page, but doesn’t always translate to screen.

So there was some excitement when Miller announced he was going to write a Batman comic again. I only read the first issue and thought it was fairly pedestrian. Keep in mind, I read that back in the summer of 2005. It’s now approaching the summer of 2007 and the fifth issue of a series that was supposed to come out every six weeks just hit the stands.

So yeah, a few delays. Plus, as the reviewers will tell you in gruesome detail, it’s howlingly bad. Not even so bad it’s funny. Just bad.

Although it’s apparently managed to create one of the most quoted lines in recent comic history with “I’m the goddamned Batman”, which had people swooning on comic message boards with the shock of the terribleness of it.

And now we have the panel below. Understand, it is awful. It’s bizarrely out of character for Wonder Woman (what, you might ask, is Wonder Woman doing in a series called All-Star Batman and Robin? Take a number). Even for Jim Lee, who has certainly never shied away from drawing hyper-sexualized female characters, this is over the top.

And yet I laughed at it. I have female friends who I think will howl in laughter over it and promptly make it the wall paper for their computer. Mireille, I’m thinking of you in particular. You too, Pat.

So relish the horror. And later this weekend I’ll try and recommend some good comics for you to go out and buy.



Copyright DC Comics, 2007

Oh my god, they killed Captain America! You bastards!

I appreciate for some people that the only thing less exciting than me talking about curling is me talking about comic books. However, since I talked a lot about curling a couple of weeks ago, I'll use some restraint and not talk about Newfoundland's resurgence at the Brier, the ice conditions and the general lack of people showing up at the games.

Instead, I'll talk about the death of Captain America.

Yeah, if you didn't hear about it, Captain America died yesterday. It was big enough news, and certainly layer with enough unsubtle symbolism that most of the major news outlets ran pieces on it. It had been hard time for the good Captain. Marvel Comics just concluded a major event called Civil War, which pitted heroes against heroes over whether or not they ought to be registered with the government. The Captain opposed it, his side basically lost and he turned himself in.



Then, in the issue of his comic which hit stores yesterday, he's assassinated by a sniper when heading to the court house to be arraigned. In the promo copy for comics coming in the next couple of weeks Marvel is very much trying to sell the idea that he's dead, with an autopsy taking place.

The reason that Marvel is trying to really sell the idea that Captain America is dead is that no one who is a comic book fan actually believes it. There are already sites predicting how long he's actually going to stay dead. It ranges from about three months to a year. Some are saying a couple of years. Virtually no one believes the death is permanent.

There's good reason for this. Death in comic books is a dubious racket. Superman died, came back. Jean Grey (Phoenix from the X-Men) has died and come back so many times it's a joke. And even recent Marvel Comics history shows three characters who were believed to have been untouchable brought back from the dead, in a manner of speaking.

There's Ben Parker, Peter Parker's uncle, the one who had to die to teach Peter that "with great power comes great responsibility." To be fair, while I haven't read the books lately, I think this Ben comes from an alternate reality, so I'm not sure if that counts (its comic books, of course there are alternate realities.) Then there was Captain Marvel, who died of cancer back in the 80s. Then again, he was resurrected so much as "plucked from the time stream before he died." Which is weird even for comic books.

Both of those resurrections were met with reactions that ranged from "huh?" to threats to fly to New York and burn Marvel Comics to the ground.

The other big controversy actually came from the page of Captain America about two years ago. The Captain used to have a sidekick named Bucky. Ever since the early 60s it's been written that Bucky died at the end of WWII. And yet, he was brought back. There were more cries of outrage when it happened, and yet, most fans now agree that it's worked really well.

The same writer that pulled that off, Ed Brubaker, just killed Captain America. He's considered one of the best in the business, so he might actually be able to pull something interesting out of this.

It's also worth noting that Marvel Comics and the creator of Captain America, Joe Simon, were involved in a legal dispute over the rights of the character a few years ago. I thought it was settled, but maybe not. Maybe opted to kill him because of a rights issue.

Or, you know, maybe they were trying to make a dramatic point about the state of America right now. Yeah, right....

For the curious, here's and interview with Brubaker on how the decision to kill Captain American came about and what it means.

Radioactive what?

That I read too many comics is pretty much a given. Cathy is already living in terror of the bookshelf dedicated to comics in the apartment. It's quickly running out of room (and will take a serious dent if I cave and buy the Fantastic Four Omnibus volume I'm looking at) and besides, she never got the whole comic book thing anyway.

But nearly as bad is that I still read comic book related sites. It's my way of compensating since I can't get my weekly fix of comics, I just read the sites and some message boards and there and that keeps me sated until my next fix of graphic novels come in (likely not to happen now until around Easter. I'll have the shakes
by mid-March).

Anyway, the comic world is currently having a small embolism over a mini-series called Spider-Man: Reign, also derisively known as The Dark Spider-Man Returns. Here's probably the best review of the latest issue, although you have to scroll down a bit to read it. I should warn you, the review is rather...explicit.

There is also a fairly obscene, but also obscenely funny, thread on
the Warren Ellis board. Again, not for those who perhaps want to deal with descriptions of Spider-Man's sex life.

It's basically about how Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane, dies in this (alternate reality) series. And that's apparently because, bub, blood is the only thing radioactive about Spider-Man. This isn't the only time that people have written weird things about sex and super-heroes. There is, of course, the legendary Larry Niven story, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex. But at least that was done tongue in cheek. By all accounts, the writer is actually trying to be serious, but only managed to come up with seriously bad.

What's even more strange is that Spider-Man 3 is coming in a few months, quite possibly the biggest movie of the year. I don't really know why you tell a story like that now. But hey, what do I know, I only read comics, although I think I might give a pass on this series.

Anyway, enjoy your dose of geeky and highly disturbing right in time for Valentine's Day

Did somebody say crazy?

I have a ritual when I get up in the morning. I stagger into the shower, get cleansed, get dressed, grab some breakfast and then plunk myself down in front of the computer. The first site I check is the local weather to see exactly how freezing ass cold it is outside.

The second is For Better Or For Worse. There are many comic strips that I like and that I try to catch. But this is part of the morning ritual now. And I've read the strip for years and years. It's like a soap opera now, which makes it hard to give up.

Anyway, I imagine there were plenty of people like me that read the strip every morning and care about the characters. But I did something I rarely do....I underestimated the level of craziness in the fan base.

Understand, I read comic books and I like science fiction. We're talking about two highly demented sections of fandom. To give you an example, a guy by the name of Steve Wacker left DC comics and moved to Marvel. Fandom went batshit for weeks, calling him a traitor and everything under the sun.

And what does Mr. Wacker do? Is he a writer? An artist?

No, he's an editor. Venom and bile and massive freaking the fuck out over an editor switching companies.

That's fandom. It's fun and all, but let us realize we are frequently dealing with the marginally sane. But For Better or For Worse is such a...mild comic strip. I like it, it's fun. But I never expected nutjobs and fanatics because it is so harmless.

Boy did I learn. First, I read this comic book gossip column and learned there was something weird going on. Then I reread the strip in question. Pretty much what I recalled - that Lynn Johnston was setting up Liz to end up with Anthony before the strip ends in the next year or two. No big deal, I thought.

Now, go and read this. Not all of it. You might go mad. The first page will do. Then come on back. I'll still be here.

....

Right, so, if you're looking for a group of escaped mental patients, there you go. All in one convenient spot for the guys carrying the fitted white jackets. I think I can safely say that might be the most concentrated dose of fan craziness I've seen this year. Which is a fairly impressive statement.

I only hope to God that Lynn is the Fan Protection Program or something. Because some of these people might be coming for her.

Enter Sandman

I've been a believer in getting Christmas gifts for yourself. There are always things you'd like for yourself that are either too expensive, that you can't wait until Christmas or that you know loved ones will perhaps not care to get you.

I've longed resigned myself to the fact that comic books are something that my parents tolerated at best. They never bought them for me when I was a kid and they were certainly something they didn't care to get for me as an adult. While Cathy is better, she's still not comfortable buying them either. She's picked up the odd one, but I think she's worried about getting the wrong one.

And I think both her and my parents dislike buying them because they don't want to encourage me. A little late for that now, but I guess they live in hope.

Anyway, I got my early Christmas gift on Thursday and spent the weekend on and off reading through it. I still haven't finished it, but I am enjoying it thoroughly. It's The Absolute Sandman. This is what it looks like.







It's a beautiful over-sized hardcover with a slipcase that reprints the first 20 issues, or three trade paperbacks, of the series. Along with the issues there are some nice extras including the series proposal and a script. Plus, the stories have all been recoloured. It might not seem like a big deal, but when the individual issues first came out there were problems. The technology to colour comics improved significantly with computers. However, believe it or not, the paper comics were printed on wasn't keeping up. So a lot of the early issues had dark and smudged colours which marred the artwork. This book cleans it up and puts it on nice paper. The issues look beautiful.

Granted, it's price tag isn't for everyone. But the way I look at it is if you've never read the books before and want to, buying the three trade paperbacks will set you back about $50 or more. For $30 extra you get this much better looking book.

If you don't know what the fuss is about with regards to Sandman, well, you could always go to Neil Gaiman's site or, of course, the token Wikipedia entry. Let's just say it's one of the best comic series of the past 20 years and well worth picking up.

By the way, this is volume one of four, although I don't know when the other three volumes are coming out. Needless to say, I'll be getting the rest of them

Book tag

Ian tagged me on this one, and while I don't always respond to tags (OM is notorious for sending me chain mail) this one is fun. Also, just because I can, I'm using favourite book and comic book. I have lots and lots of both and way too many favourites…

1. One Book That Changed My Life
I think it would be "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke. It was the first "adult" novel I read when I was about 10-12 years old. I was just enthralled with the book and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the end meant because it wasn't "Happily ever after". It was the first time I realized that science fiction, at its best, is far more than big action sequences, aliens and space ships trying to blow each other up (ie. Star Wars).

The one comic book that changed by life was "The Anatomy Lesson" from #21 of Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. Which might sound silly, but 25 years later it remains a masterpiece on the level of Edgar Allan Poe in terms of crafting a truly scary and disturbing story. It was the first time I realized that comics could be more than guys in tights beating each other up.

2. One Book I Have Read More Than Once
"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Yes, maybe it should be some great piece of literature. But I've lost one copy of this book from lending it out so much and had another destroyed from over-reading. I'm on my third copy. Fifteen years after it came out it remains one of the funniest books I've ever read.

Comic book wise I'm going with "The Complete Frank Miller Batman" which contains two of the best Batman stories ever written – "Year One" and "The Dark Knight Returns." It laid the ground work for every cinematic version of Batman since 1988. Except for the horrific "Batman and Robin" which was inspired by Joel Shumacher's wallet not having enough cash in it so he decided to sell his soul to toy companies.

3. One Book I Would Want On A Desert Island
So here's the rub, would I pick a book that everyone tells me I should read just so I'm finally forced to go through it out of sheer boredom, or something I genuinely love? Because the only time I was able to get through the terrible "The Shipping News", which everyone told me I had to read, was when I was in South Korea and desperate for anything written in English.

So if it's the former, I'd go with "Lord of the Rings" in the hope I might find out why people love this book and I've been bored into a coma within 10 pages. If it's the later, then I would pick the "Complete Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke." And yes, the "SAS Survival Guide" might be more useful, but I'm going with the assumption someone is going to rescue me before starvations sets in.

The comic book would be "Absolute Watchmen" by Alan Moore. Given enough time I might finally figure out all the narrative tricks he used in completing what Time Magazine called one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20 th century.

4. One Book That Made Me Laugh
I already used "Good Omens", so instead I'll use "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore. Almost anything by Moore is funny (his funniest idea is still "The Stupidest Angel" about the Christmas Angel accidentally unleashing a plague of zombies on Christmas Eve who chant "First we feast, then IKEA.", but it's more of a novella than a full book), but this was his first book, which I picked up on a lark and was floored by how funny it was.

Comic book – "The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius" by Judd Winick. A foul mouth 10-year-old, who just happens to be the smartest person on the planet, and his well meaning, not so bright, hormonally over-charged best friend and the weirdness that they get involved in. I've laughed so hard while reading this on public transportation that I was unable to explain why a comic was doing this to me. Find it, seriously.

5. One Book That Made Me Cry
A tough one. Not because I'm so macho that I don't cry, just having a hard time remembering one. I think I got upset several times while reading "Shake Hands With The Devil" by Romeo Dallaire. The poor bastard.

Comic Book - "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. The story of a Holocaust survivor as told to his son. However, both are portrayed as mice while the Nazis are portrayed as cats. It sounds stupid, but it's a masterpiece and is at least as emotionally powerful as "Schindler's List." It also won the Pulitzer Prize, the only graphic novel to do so.

6. Two Books I Wish Had Been Written
"Craig, this is how you write a novel and become rich"

"Final Foundation" by Isaac Asimov.

Comic Book – "Barry Ween: Boy Genius in Space" by Judd Winick.

7. One Book I Wish Had Never Been Written
"Lure of the Labrador Wild", which a high school English teacher once described to me as "like reading Revelations backwards". Not entirely sure what that means, but it was said in a context that indicated it was horrible. And it is. Part of my problem with high school English is far too often terrible books are selected. And really, if you ever want some of these kids to read again, let alone pick up another novel, this book should be banned from the Newfoundland curriculum. Just a dreadfully dry, dull, boring book. I understand it's still being taught. May God have mercy on their souls…

I'm not especially proud of that "Charles Barkley vs. Godzilla" comic I bought back in the day, but there has been much worse. Probably Todd McFarlene's "Spawn" because it was a mediocre comic that had plenty of dramatic, and not always positive, impacts on the comic industry and many of its professional.

8. One Book I Am Currently Reading
"Two Trains Running" by Andrew Vachss. "The Custodian of Paradise" by Wayne Johnson is up next. Oh, I don't know if "Lonely Planet: Costa Rica " counts.

Comic Book – Just finished rereading "300" by Frank Miller. Waiting for Ed Brubaker's run on "Captain America" to arrive from Chapters.

9. One Book I've Been Meaning to Read
I have bookshelves full of books I've been meaning to read. Probably "A Crack in the Edge of the World" by Simon Winchester, which is about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Meant to read it before going on the big trip. Ah well…

Comic – "Fell" by Warren Ellis. I'm a big Ellis fan and have most of his collections. However, Fell isn't out in it yet and might not be for some time, which is a pity.

As for who I want to see respond to this – OM, Mireille and Helmut.