See if you can spot what these two songs have in common.

from Eee! Tess Ate Chai Tea! (best blog name ever, btw):

But comics started to feel too expensive for too little payoff. I was beginning to lose track each month of what the storyline from the previous month was. Perhaps I was reading too many! Whatever actually happened, I always felt that I would stop reading comics when Cerebus ended.

Which is what I did. Except I didn’t completely stop. I would still pick up trade paperbacks from time to time. I kept up with Bill Willingham’s Fables and Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead. I also intended (still do, so intend?) to eventually finish up, through trade paperbacks, Azzarello’s 100 Bullets, and Warren Ellis’s Planetary. I’m sure there are more.

But I stopped collecting monthly comics. Until this year. While in Phoenix, my cousin Jay and I went all over town searching for RPG game shops. We also found a few comic shops which we killed some time in. And I found 52.

Now, I’d already read the 4 trade paperbacks of 52. But I didn’t realize DC was going to do what they did. Release 52 #1 issues and begin 52 regular comics titles. And I may have just let it go past me except one of the issues they began again was Suicide Squad. And it looked cool.

I picked up the four issues of Suicide Squad when I got back to Portland and enjoyed them. And I got to thinking. Maybe I’d enjoy more titles! So I made a short list from the list of 52 titles inside Suicide Squad #1. But as I walked to my old comic book store the next day to pick these up, I started to think about how I always wanted to read the entire line of comics that a company puts out. I could keep track of all of their super heroes and their exploits! And 52 was telling me right there how many that was! And they all came out each month with the next exact same number! How easy would this be to do? Read them all, Jeff! Read them all!

And so, that’s what I’m going to do. As an adult who owns his own business and can afford it, I’m going to do it. Read all 52 titles. Of course, I have to buy them first. And most of them are already on issue 4!

So time once again to get back in comic hunting mode. I forgot how much I liked the routine.

Read the rest.

I’m generally trying to renew my enthusiasm about the whole “reading comic books” thing, but these recent news items made me groan and groan and groan some more!

• One of these names just doesn’t belong here.

  Rich Johnston reported that Cup O’ Joe at NYCC included news on “a major project from Marvel would feature the five architects of Marvel – Hickman, Brubaker, Aaron, Bendis and Fraction.”

  Seriously, Jason Aaron?

  Also … Jason Aaron?!

• I absolutely cannot believe that Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi are reuniting to resurrect the Wolverine vs. Sabertooth decaptitation feud.

  That run on Wolverine was one of the worst things I have ever written read. It started off terrible. Then it got worse. And then it managed to get even more awful. So of course, Marvel is bringing it back.

  After Wolverine, Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum, Jeph Loeb went from being one of my absolute favorites to someone I will completely avoid. I’d drop a book if Jeph Loeb took over writing duties.

  Is Marvel just completely out of ideas?

• Age of Apocalypse is coming back.

Check it out.

Doomkopf will have some representation. The discussion will apparently be recorded and released as a podcast. I’ll try to get a transcript up once that happens.

UPDATE: I made some comment about wanting to remove Tony Daniel’s scrotum and keep it for myself so I could punch it whenever I want, so I will not be posting a link to the video or a transcript.

So funny thing happened — I was doing this weekly comic review called “The Doomino Effect” and then I stopped doing it for like two years.

Speaking of looking back at the past, that leads me to Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales. Like Justice League #1, this story seems to be taking place in the past of The New 52. Unlike Justice League, this seems to be taking place more than 5 years in the past, because Superman has a silly cuffed-jeans costume. They’re also big loose rolls and not tight rolls, so I’m thinking that makes it late 90s. I might need some backup on that one though.

I like this Superman. He seems to have a little more of a social justice angle to his “I am a Real American” schtick, which makes for something with a tinge of menace and therefore more fun than Super Boy Scout. Super Boy Scouts are lame. but as much as I do like this new version of Superman, I just feel like I’m reading another All-Star Superman or Superman: Birthright or some other reimagining of the Superman myth that really has no bearing on continuity.

I realize this is Action Comics #1, so it obviously is new continuity, but it just doesn’t feel like it. Maybe it’s just too nuanced and well-written, and I’m aware of the fact that Tony Daniel is writing several books in The New 52, so obviously “well-written” and “nuanced” are not going to be universal themes throughout the relaunch. But more than that, it’s just a gut feeling. Like “Yeah, I enjoy this, but what does it matter?”
(more…)

continued from part 1.

JIM DOOM: I will go through this 52 preview book, say the books that are coming out, and we say if we think we’ll give them a try or not.

DOOM DeLUISE: Ok, I’ll play that game.

JIM DOOM: And I should mention, for anyone listening in the Omaha area, that Legend Comics is doing a deal where you get one free 52 #1 issue for every three that you buy.

DOOM DeLUISE: That’s a great deal.

JIM DOOM: So for example, you walk to the counter with Action #1, Batman #1, Detective #1, and Aquaman #1, you get one of those for free. And yeah, it’s a cool deal, but I was too dumb to understand it.

DOOM DeLUISE: Haha

[audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: The guy at the counter was like “Are you going to be buying multiple #1s?” and I was like “Of this book?” and then he tried to explain, like “For every three #1s you buy, you get one free.” And I was like “Well screw that, I don’t want four copies of this book.”

So then he picked up the list and had to explain it to me slowly so I would understand.

I’m kind of dense sometimes.
(more…)

JIM DOOM: Well, Doom DeLuise, welcome back. It’s been a while since our last podcast.

[silence]

I actually didn’t even test out these microphones to see if they still work.

Is mine working?

I said is mine working?

Is mine working?

Doom DeLuise?

Is my microphone working?

Hey.

Hey?

Is my microphone working?

It’s been in a box.

DOOM DeLUISE: Oh hey, sorry, I was spacing off.

[audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: Hello?

Is it working?

Hello?

DOOM DeLUISE: Yes, it’s working.

JIM DOOM: Is my microphone working?

DOOM DeLUISE: [BLEEP], is mine?

[audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: Oh oops, my headphones were unplugged.

DOOM DeLUISE: Is my microphone working?

JIM DOOM: Yours is working.

Is mine?

DOOM DeLUISE: Yes.

JIM DOOM: Are your headphones plugged in?

TESTING
(more…)

I hated Transformers 2 so much I blogged about it twice.

But I was still determined to see Transformers 3. After seeing it last night, I have to say that it’s probably my favorite of the series. But it was still awful.

I’ll start with the good, because there was quite a bit that I enjoyed (and I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but be warned - spoilers follow). (more…)

JIM DOOM: So Thor.

I’m not sure what to say to open this other than that I didn’t read much of anything Thor related ever except for when he’d show up in big crossovers and get killed or something.

So I feel that my thoughts are solely based in reflections on Thor: the movie and not Thor: the comic book adaptation.

What’s your Thor background going into this?

And feel free to be long-winded because I need another beer.

DOOM DeLUISE: Very limited. I read some Mighty Thor comics back in the early 90s, when he had a big beard. Also, I remember him being really cool in the Return of the Hulk, the made-for-TV movie that was an extension of the Incredible Hulk TV show, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferigno.

I knew about the Bifrost Bridge, and I knew most of the characters from the movie, but I can’t say I’ve ever been an avid Thor reader.

That said, I think his movie is super fun.
(more…)

I’ve been kind of back and forth on DC’s announced reboot of its entire universe in August. I can see the pros and cons, and I still haven’t been sure whether I think it’ll be the final straw that gets me to bail on comics (or at least DC comics) once and for all. But at the very least, it’s led to some interesting commentary in comicsblogland. Take this column from Michael Breakfield of Lone Star comics, for example, where he comes out in full support of the move (emphasis mine):

I think it’s a great idea.

First, I’m excited about the prospect of reading a Justice League comic written by master scribe Geoff Johns, one of the best comic artists of the last twenty years. That is All Star talent for an All Star book.
[...]
Another reason this is a great idea is that it’s been done before, and it worked. In the mid-90s, Marvel did this very thing–perhaps on a smaller scale, but nonetheless successfully. In the wake of Onslaught, the world thought that its greatest heroes sacrificed themselves to save the world. They were in fact saved by Franklin Richard’s mostly untapped cosmic powers and the universe of Heroes Reborn was created. For the first time in Marvel’s publishing history Captain America, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the Avengers existed outside of the 616 and their comics restarted from issue #1. And like DC is doing now, Marvel turned the reigns of their flagship characters over to the best the business had to offer. Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, Jeph Loeb, Walt Simonson, Chuck Dixon, Brett Booth, Ron Lim, and Whilce Portacio–this was the All Star creative team behind this endeavor. The Marvel Universe was re-imagined by a new generation of superstars for a new generation of readers. Heroes Reborn paved the way for Heroes Return, which brought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Marvel’s First Family back to the fold of the Marvel Universe proper for a renaissance.

Get that? This is apparently a great idea because it’s like the frequently delayed and inconsistent Heroes Reborn and the subsequent Heroes Return — where Marvel undid Heroes Reborn and brought everyone back to the regular Marvel Universe. Good grief. That’s an endorsement?

So yeah, consider me convinced. This is a terrible idea.