Happy New Year: Yesterday Dies Today!

The old 1970s Deathlok the Demolisher cyborg is another of my favorite characters. I felt the cover blurb "Yesterday Dies Today!" from Astonishing Tales #31 very appropriate for the New Year.

I think he shoud be the new Capatin America!

Be safe and have fun.

-Swinebread

ROMance ART, Spaceknight Love

Boy! I’m F-ing lucky. Why? because I almost missed an exhibition dedicated to one of my all time faves, ROM the Spaceknight. If I hadn’t gone out for Japanese food, if my SO hadn’t picked up a copy of the December 18th issue of the Asian Reporter, and if I hadn’t decided to skim it, I would never have read an article about Floating World Comics’ Rom Exhibition in downtown Portland. Whew! My wife and I went there today… the last day of the show. Man, I have to start paying a lot more attention to what is going on around town.

A selection of ROM art (image from Floating World Comics website)

Check out the informative Asian Reporter, article by Toni Tabora-Roberts here.

The quick rundown is that Floating World Comics’ owner, Jason Leivian, decided to put on a fundraiser for Bill Mantlo, the scribe of the ROM comic series from the 80s. A car hit Mantlo in 1992 and left him severely disabled. All proceeds from this show are going towards his care. Leivian, like so many others, loves the ROM character and felt an exhibition celebrating him was great way to honor Mantlo and give back to a creator in need.

Jason Leivian in front of many of the works on Ebay


Floating World Comics is a wonderful shop with a very diverse line of comic books, from the mainstream, to Indy, to the avant-garde. So, the venue was a perfect place for a ROM exhibition made up of artists with varied styles. Leivian did two innovative things with this show. The first was allowing artists from around the world to submit digital copies their work. This allowed Leivian to print out a limited number of high quality images for the show. Toni Tabora-Roberts dubbed this "Cyber Curating" in her article. I see a future in this. The second innovation Leivian used was a sliding scale for the digital prints. See, the first copy of any image had a low price of 5 bucks but each additional copy jumps in price by 5 dollars with the 6th print at 30 bucks. That way pieces by famous artists are balanced out with the less well-known work. The final aspect of the show was on-line auctions of ROM artwork by some of the artists featured in the show. The auctions have all closed by now and Leivian was happy to tell me that the auctions generated over $9,000.

I bought a print of Shane White's version of ROM (image from his blog here)

There were still some amazing prints available but sadly a few of the items I would have liked to get were long gone, but I’m not complaining because I might have missed the show all together and besides Leivian told me he plans on printing a limited run book that will contain all the art in show! Oh Yeah! That’s on the list.

Something that was amazing about the show for me personally was how I was drawn to the non-superhero style art. I guess there is just something universal about ROM that I never realized before. Maybe it’s his simple face that allows the viewer to add his or her own emotions character or it’s possibly ROM’s pseudo-retro, sci-fi design, I don’t know, but he seems to have a certain appeal beyond the comic book page. I was so inspired in fact that I’ve decided to whip up my own ROM artwork… and I’m not an artist. But that doesn’t matter… ROM is one of those galactic everyman characters that belong to all of us. Drawing your own ROM would make a great net meme, so why don’t you join me in creating one... …or two…

I didn't catch the name on this artist but nice work. (if you know it please leave a comment)
ROM and Starshine on Tortillas! By Mike Scheer (image from Floating World Comics site)
Guy Davis' ROM it went for big bucks on Ebay (image from Floating World Comics website)
Colleen Coover (image from Floating World Comics website)

Here’s the Link for many of the creative images from the exhibition and auction.

Make your own ROM!

-Swinebread

Seven Lies for Seven Splotchies Tag

BAC has tagged me (See here ) and now I must make up 7 untrue facts about myself... As if I ever told the truth. heh heh

1. In 1998, I published a book titled Assyrian Sight. It is a historical fiction novel about Babai the Great, an Assyrian Christian leader, set during the 7th century. Several devastating wars between the Byzantine Empire and Persia figure prominently in the plot.

2. While vice chairman of the Nomenclature for Organic Chemical Transformations Board, I instituted several sweeping changes to IUPAC Nomenclature for Transformations methodology. Most namely the Theisberg index for evaporation.

3. I've been a guest lecturer at the Banff World Television Festival for several years now and was awarded best director in 2004 for the horror comedy Slayerrellla.

4. I had a quickie with Paula Abdul at the Espoo railway station in Espoo, Finaland. She was drunk at the time.

5. During a trip to the UK in 1995, I had a psychotic break with reality and stole a Dennis Dagger fire truck. I drove it around London like a maniac and ended up in the Thames River near the Isle of Dogs. It was a very sad and bitter time in my life.

6. In 2003 I was a judge at the Iowa Film Critics Awards. I was proud that I was one of the members that helped push Lost in Translation over the top to receive the best picture award.

7. I was engaged to Manoli Wetherell, the New York Bureau Chief Engineer for National Public Radio. She dumped me for a much more sophisticated person.


I'm tagging no one as no one ever does my tags, so what's the point? (except Snabulus, so you can do it if you want)

-Swinebread

Watch... The Astro Zombies!

-Swinebread

Spider Faust

What do I think about Amazing Spider-Man #545 and the whole One More Day thing? Simply this... Spider-Man, and Mary Jane for that matter, would never make a deal with the Devil... ever. And they certainly wouldn't do it to dissolve their marriage. A bargain of this sort is evil, pure and simple and I've never thought of either character as evil. But if making a little satanic deal seems to solve all kinds of storytelling problems well, what the hell, why not? grrrr... What a great message to send to the kiddies Marvel. This is merely Quesada's wet dream on crack. This fixes nothing and ruins everything. Well, OK Secret Wars is still intact, but the rest of Spider-man's story is buggered. It’s as if Jesus, when he was tempted in the desert by Lucifer, said yes. I don’t buy it… and I didn’t buy it by the way. I read it in the store.

Plus, on top of all that, it's just a shitty story. I'd rather read 52 issues of the Hairy Adventures of Wonder Man from Earth-11 then any more comics like this. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling hostile about this whole narrative fiasco. I can hear the fanboys (and girls) sharpening their knives. Look out Marvel here they come:



-Swinebread

My New Comics

This week’s best cover is Badger Saves the World #1.


Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash #3, DC Comics/Dynamite Entertainment.

Marvel Zombies 2 #3, Marvel Comics.

20 Million Miles More #4, Blue Water Comics.

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #4, DC Comics.

Badger Saves the World #1, IDW. I had to check out all the hubbub on crazy old Badger.

Trade Paperback
Giant Monster Boom Studios.

Toy
Retro Star Trek Mego Spock. I was one of those kids that was alive during the 70s but never received any Megos. But hey, that’s buried history right? WRONG! I knew these dolls... sorry, action figures were coming out and I thought “meh” but when I saw the Mego Spock in the comic book store something came over me, a faded memory of playing with my cousin’s’ Star Trek Megos when I was about 5. Suddenly I just had to have it. It’s sitting next to me as I type this post. I’ll get the rest if I can, but I’ve already missed Mego Kirk and Mego Klingon.

I guess they're bringing back the Planet of the Apes Megos too. OH BOY! Better late than never to get on the Mego Bandwagon I guess.



-Swinebread

Give Me Some Sugar Xena

With Dynamite Entertainment having the comic books rights to both Xena and Ash you just knew this was going to happen. Well, OK, maybe I just knew it was going to happen but it seems obvious if you think about it.

Here's the copy from Dynamite's site (from here)

The cross-over no one asked for -- or expected -- is finally here! Too big for the movie of television screen, Dynamite presents the ultimate "Why Not? tale as Ash and Army of Darkness meets Xena, the Warrior Princess in the first issue of this 4-part mini series event! ...the first issue of our most unnecessary adventure finds Ashley J. Williams transported to the world of Xena and Gabrielle and most importantly Autolycus, who of course, bears more than a passing resemblance to our main man Ash. Throw in the NecornomICON and an evil little ash taking charge of a group of fairies (the winged kind) and hey, you've got yourselves a story!

Of course the real question is, after this series, which one of these two will crossover with Red Sonja? heh heh

-Swinebread

Stan Lee's Birthday

Stan “the Man” Lee is 85 today. Yup, the grand poobah of the modern funny book has reached five and eighty years. Paradoxically it seems to me like he should be older, yet, at the same time he's much too youthful to be that age.

As child I worshiped Stan, I really did, he was the greatest guy in the universe. He made all these fantastic characters and was behind the scenes controlling the fate of the entire Marvel Universe. You see, when I grew up, every Marvel comic I read, said “Stan Lee Presents” right there on the splash page. OK, maybe he didn’t write it, or even edit it but certainly he KNEW, what was happening ‘cause his name was right there. And then, I heard his voice on TV. That’s right! It was like Moses and the Burning Bush, with a higher power's voice broadcast from on high. “This is Stan Lee…”
“What’s that Stan? You want me to buy more comics? OK, I submit to your will”
Well, all he was really doing was introducing Spiderman and Hulk cartoons, but he had such a wonderful voice, full of power and majesty. His very breath seemed to confirm all the crazy kid ideas I had about him. It’s hard to imagine in this day and age with the Internet and Youtube, but the sound of Stan’s voice had a strong affect on me. It was almost as if one of his comic book creations had come alive. He wasn’t just a name on the page anymore, he was the living, risen God… ahem… comic creator, and like God he was everywhere. Everywhere in this case being New York, controlling Marvel comics, and Hollywood, controlling the TV shows.

This all happened without me reading one comic written by Stan, with the possible exception of a reprint of Amazing Fantasy #15.

The majority of comics that Stan had penned were out of reach for a kid in the early 80s. The prices were already sky high on the collectors market and there were no reprints. Well OK, sure, there was Marvel Tales… but that had funny “old looking” art so that couldn’t possibly be the comic masterpieces I was imagining in my head.

As I got a little older, I realized Stan wasn’t really involved in comics that much any more and so I found the “Stan Lee Presents” thing kind of charming, then confusing, and finally silly. Eventually, to my shock, there began to be all kinds of accusations that Stan was merely the co-creator of all these superheroes and that he had stolen all the credit away from the artists that he had worked with over the years, most notably Jack Kirby.

When Stan’s backlog of comics finally began to be published in collections I could afford. I was shocked again. They didn’t meet up with my expectations. Where were the fantasy masterpieces I had built up in my mind? The stilted dialog, the over exposition (so endemic to silver and bronze age comics), and simple storylines threw me for a loop. The constant footnotes in the comics I had read prepared me for the gospel… and what I received were amusing, dated, little adventure stories. I wasn’t crushed though, because somewhere inside me I new this was true, but until I actually got my hands on Stan’s stories, I kept the IDEA of his Silver Age masterpieces alive.

I guess what I’m tying to say is that the Stan Lee I knew was a crafted fiction, created by Marvel, Stan himself and me. He was as illusionary as any character he had shaped. It seems crazy, but how could have I ever honestly considered myself a huge fan of his when I had read next to nothing he produced.

It was soon after that, that I abandoned comics for nearly a decade which was fine because it was the 1990s and by then Stan’s funny dated, little stories didn’t look so bad when compared to the crap the was on the shelves at the time.

This post might sound like I’m complaining about Stan on his 85th birthday, but I’m really not. I’m just working through the warped perception I had of him, of which I am partially to blame. As an adult, I have become much more interested in the real story behind comics, including the people. How were stories made, how were deals struck and how much pain was suffered. The pain that many of the creators went through as the industry chewed them up and spat them out are some of the tales that engage me now, (I’m still haunted by Bill Everett’s end days). Stan is the real success story in all this. I guess that’s the most important thing to take away from my blathering. He’s the beacon of dreams, the scion of success in the comics industry, and why many folks still want to “make comics.” Plus, he’s entertaining to listen to and polite. Courtesy is contagious, is a lesson that Dan Didio could sure learn from Stan as we are all getting rather tired of Mr. Didio's deliberate jabs at females.

What I appreciate now about Stan Lee is the man rather than “the Man” who presents. That’s what I liked best about Who Wants to be a Superhero, just listening to Stan speak was fun and his teaching the world at large what it really means to be a superhero was a good reminder. A lesson the big 2 sadly need to relearn. So Happy Birthday Stan! Thanks for the fun adventures that paved the way for all the comics that I read, even if that way wasn’t actually paved with gold… or silver for that matter.

-Swinebread

Atomic Romance Awards

It’s the First Annual Atomic Romance Awards! This is my special tribute to the comic books of 2007 that have earned fame or infamy in my little corner of comic fandom. Now you might think there are some obvious choices missing from the winner’s circle, but as I’m not buying a huge swath of titles published by Marvel or DC this makes sense. The Atomic Romance Awards reflect my personal preferences and that’s just how it should be… …it’s my blog. So, I’ll end the banter and let the ceremony begin.

Note: The Atomic Romance Award categories were painstakingly developed along with a rigorous vetting process for the awardees. In other words, this is bunch of crap I made up off the top of my head.

Best Title Overall: Army of Darkness, Dynamite Entertainment.

Runner up: The Walking Dead, Image.

Best Writer: Dan Slott She-Hulk, Marvel Comics.

Runner Up: Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead, Image

Best mini-series: Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, Marvel Comics.

Runner up: Captain Carrot and the Final Ark.

Best Adventure Comic: Jungle Girl, Dynamite Entertainment.

Runner Up: Black Coat, Ape Entertainment.

Best Horror Title: Fall of Cthulhu, Boom Studios.

Runner Up: The Secret, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Sword and Sorcery Title: Red Sonja, Dynamite Entertainment.

Runner Up: Conan, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Sci-Fi Title: Star Trek Klingons: Blood Will Tell, IDW.

Runner Up: Terminator 2 Infinity, Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Art: Jae Lee & Richard Isanove – Dark Tower: The Gun Slinger Born, Marvel Comics.
Runner Up: Phil Noto Jonah Hex, DC Comics.

Worst Costume: Earth-11 Wonder Man.


Best Costume: SHIELD She-Hulk


Best Dramatic Moment: Spock’s lack of emotion shocks vicious Aliens, Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Vulcans #1, IDW

Runner Up: Suicide by Zombie, Walking Dead #41, Image.

Best Comedic Moment, Zombie Hulk wipes butt with the Necronomicon, Marvel Zombies vs. the Army of Darkness #5, Marvel Comics/Dynamite Entertainment.
Runner Up: The Sandy Eggo Comic Con in Captain Carrot and the Final Ark #1

Best One-liner: Ash: “Save the Whore Save the World” Army of Darkness From the Ashes # 3, Dynamite Entertainment.
Runner Up: Wolverine: “...I got better things to do than go around chasing Juggernaut’s sloppy seconds.” She-Hulk #16, Marvel Comics.

Biggest Surprise How Good It Was: Planetary Brigade trade paperback, Boom Studios.

Best Single Issue: Jack of Fables # 16, DC Comics.
Runner Up: Fall of Cthulhu # 7, Boom Studios.

Worst Single Issue: Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special, DC Comics
Runner Up: Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special, DC Comics (it's that bad)

Best Trade Paperback: 52, DC Comics.
Runner up: El Cazador, Disney

Best Collection of Older Comics: Chronicles of Conan, Marvel Comics/Dark Horse Comics.
Runner Up: Sword of the Atom, DC Comics.

Best Comic Company: Dynamite Entertainment.

Dumbest Moment: Killing Captain America.

Worst Editor-in-Chief: tie Dan Didio & Joe Quesada.

Silliest Outrage: Mary Jane Statue (on all sides).

Biggest Disappointment: Cancelled Showcase Presents titles, DC Comics
Runner Up: Star Trek: Year Four, IDW.

Lamest Promotion: Countdown’s Evil Shall Inherit the Earth

Favorite Earth from DC’s 52 Multiverse: Earth-3.
Runner Up: Earth-10

Favorite Hero: Red Sonja.
Runner Up: Captain Carrot.

Most Ruined Character: Spiderman,
Runner Up: The Flash

Favorite Villain: Kulan Gath, Red Sonja
Runner Up: the Governor, Walking Dead.

Best Origin Story: Book Of Thoth, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Cameo: Bald Female Luthor, The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman #1, DC Comics.
Runner Up: Zombie Ham, The Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham #1, Marvel Comics.

Team or Character Most in Need of Another Mini-series: Captain Carrot.

Team or Character Least Deserving of Another Miniseries: Green Lantern

Best Cover She-Hulk #20, Marvel Comics.


Worst Cover: Spiderman/Red Sonja #1


Most Shocking Cover: Black Summer #0, Avatar.

Biggest Bone Thrown to Female Comic Fans: Earth-11.
Runner Up: Gail Simone on Wonder Woman.

Best Title I Have No Desire to Read: Buffy: Season Eight, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Title I have a Desire to Read But Won’t Until the Trade Comes Out: Conan, Dark Horse comics.

Worst Title I’m Really Glad I Didn’t Read: Amazons Attack, DC Comics.

Best New Anti-Hero: Tallulah Black “The Ballad of Tallulah Black,” Jonah Hex #17, DC Comics.
Runner Up: Sergeant Hook, Army of Darkness: From the Ashes, Dynamite Entertainment.

Biggest Blood Bath: Black Summer #2, Avatar.

Best Porn Face: Jungle Girl #2 Cover, Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Supporting Character: Lori Grimes, Walking Dead.
Runner Up: Stu, She-Hulk.

Biggest Fanboy Moment: The appearance of the old style cylons in the Battlestar Galatica comics.

Most Rapists: Jonah Hex. DC Comics.

Best Formerly Un-cool Character That’s Now Very Cool: Doll Man.

Best Gunfight: Jonah Hex 25, DC Comics.

Most Friendly Depiction of Native Americans: Lone Ranger

Most Not So Friendly Depiction of Native Americans: Streets of Glory.

Best Letters Page: Walking Dead

Best Retcon: It wasn’t’ Alley Cat Abra that killed Little Cheese, it was her evil clone, Dark Ally! Captain Carrot and the Final Ark, DC Comics.

Best Monster: The Harlot, Fall of Cthulhu, Boom Studios.
Runner Up: Mutant Evil Ash From the Ashes #4, Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Sword Fight: Wolfskin #1, Avatar.
Runner Up: Sword of Red Sonja: Doom of the Gods # 3.

Most Squandered Potential: Shadowpact.

Best Free Comic Book Day Comic: Astounding Wolf-Man #1, Image.

Best Marvel Essential: Silver Surfer Vol 2

Best Showcase Presents: Adam Strange Vol 1

Best Crossover: Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, Marvel Comics/ Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Death Scene: Spiderman eats Mary Jane and Aunt May, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days.

Biggest Oh Come On!: Spiderman One More Day,
Runner Up: Spiderman Reign

Best Reunited Lost Love Scene That Didn’t Happen: Captain Carrot and Wonder Wabbit.

Lamest Country in Marvel Atlas Volume 1: Any made up Balkan nation that’s not Latveria.

Cover That Makes Me Think About Vagina the Most: Shadowpact #16



Favorite Lesbian: Batwoman

Most Anticipated Title for 2008: The Twelve, Marvel Comics.
Runner Up: Superpowers, Dynamite Entertainment.

Worst News: Rob Liefeld is drawing Killraven… …and Robert Kirkman thinks it looks good.

Congratulations to all the winners!



-Swinebread

What Was That Weird Fantasy Movie

I had a vague memory of a fantasy movie I watched on cable as a child. Not knowing what it was had been bugging me for a few years now. I did remember that it was a low budget production, probably made for TV. I just couldn’t remember the name of the film, or any of the actors. All I had to go on was: one, it had an elf that could shoot superhumanly fast; two, there was a character with an automatic crossbow; and three, the main hero had a magic sword that could float back to his hand. Seems like not much to go on right? Well, in this day and age of the net, I just knew there was info online someplace, but what was the name of the film? It was even easier than I thought to discover it as I found the title in two searches on Google. The winning search yielded the answer by including: fantasy film and 1980s. …And the movie is?

Hawk the Slayer!

It looks pretty cheesy, but at least I can stop wondering “what was that weird fantasy movie.”

I love this user comment from IMDB:

Everything about it is terrible and yet something about it is great!

It has the feel of a Saturday "matinee" and is certainly an entertaining piece of work (although far from a masterpiece). Essentially, this movie is a guilty pleasure. If had to choose between it or "The Beastmaster", I would certainly take Hawk the Slayer.

Plus, it has Jack Palance as the villain so you know it has to be entertaining on some level right?

Here’s the trailer:


-Swinebread

Merry Christmas

Have a great Holiday, from the best dam comic character ever Ambush Bug!

-Swinebread

Party Foul in the Rumpus Room

Whoa, I’ve got a big headache after Germaine Gregarious’ holiday potluck party. See, I was the only one that consumed any of Dr. Zaius’ homunculus eyeballs, but first I had to build up some liquid courage via FranIAm’s flaming cocktails and Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein's delicious Banana Daiquiris. To make a long story short, I ended up dressed as Wonder Man from Earth 11. Ugh…

Don't Drink and Dress

It will take me awhile to live this one down.


Edit: BAC put together this great video of the party!


-Swinebread

My New Comics

This week’s best cover is Doctor Who Classics #1.

Shadowpact #20, DC Comics.

The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman #1, DC Comics. I’m a big fan of DC’s multiverse stuff going back all the way to Crisis on Infinite Earths, that’s why Infinite Crisis was such a letdown. I’ve been staying away from Countdown despite the fact that I love the whole alternate earths idea. It’s a favorite comic book concept of mine. Well, I broke down and picked up this one issue because of the whole reversed gender of Earth 11. I always thought it would be a great concept for an alternate universe ever since What If # 34 (vol 1). I enjoyed this comic, except for Wonder Man’s costume, which is ridiculous. His “300” atmosphere was a kick, but his femmy suit didn’t work at all. Taken as joke, it’s OK I guess. I liked the women though; they looked like real gals not fake-boobed, steroid freaks (think Power girl in Infinite Crisis). Plus, having Columbia leading the Freedom Fighters shows that somebody is paying attention. I just gotta’ see earth 11’s version of Ambush Bug, Bizarro, and Swamp Thing. So does this mean the male version of Kate Kane is gay?"THIS IS SPARTA... ...ah, I mean THEMYSCICA... no wait... ELYSIUM ISLAND!"

Red Sonja #28, Dynamite Entertainment.

She-Hulk #24, Marvel Comics. I’m kinda lost. I think some stuff must have happened in other titles I’m not reading.

Star Trek: Year Four #5, IDW.

Star Trek: Alien Spotlight: Orions #1, IDW. These Alien Spotlights have been good.

Savage Tales #5, Dynamite Entertainment.

Doctor Who Classics #1, IDW. Reprints the comic book adventures of the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) as drawn by Dave Gibbons.

Robotika #1, Archaia.

Trade Paperback
Golden Age Spotlight Vol#1: Phantom Lady AC Comics.

Magazine
Alter Ego #74, Twomorrows Publishing. The Stan Lee 85th Birthday Issue.


-Swinebread

X-Mas Tag

The holiday cheer is spreading like a virus. As Moody Minstrel has tagged me so I must comply. Here are my answers to a list of 20 questions plus one I added.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Lite Egg nog or Soy Nog, the regular stuff is too sweet and Hot Chocolate you can get anytime
2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree? What? Santa does not wrap his presents?! I’ve never heard of such a crazy thing.
3. Colored or white lights? Colored lights.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, nothing against it though.
5. When do you put your decorations up? The first weekend of December.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Turkey or Pie.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I went to my Aunt’s House in Yakima for X-mas one year. That was nice because there was lots of snow and it was fun to be in a completely differently place
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? For some weird reason I always knew about Santa. My older Siblings must have told me when I was very young, as I have no memory ever of not knowing the truth. That’s why other folks’ tragic stories about finding out have always freaked me out.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes, but usually I wait until X-mas day.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I have a lot of old X-mas stuff my family collected over the years but we get a few new pieces every year. Also, because of my SO, the tree has some Japanese items as well. I have also begun to get a few pop culture items of late too (see here)
11. Snow: Love it or hate it? love it.
12. Can you ice skate? No. I never tried.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I sure do, it was a the millennium Falcon from an adult cousin. My parents would never buy me any Star Wars figures for X-mas, but that's all I ever really wanted. I think they must have thought they were stupid or something. So I had to scrape, save and trade to get all the figures I had. But this one year my cousin got me the Falcon and my X-mas prayers were answered.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Teaching my SO, who is unfamiliar with American customs, about the Holidays and her teaching me about Japanese customs.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pie.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The stories, it doesn’t’ matter if they’re pop culture favorites, like Rudolf, or family tales. I love ‘em all
17. What is on top of your tree? A small red wreath ornament with a red bird. My SO and I haven’t found a tree topper we really like yet.
18. Which do you like best giving or receiving? Receiving when I was young, giving now that I'm an adult.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Probably Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, but I like a good parody or humorous X-mas song once in a while.
20. Do you like candy canes? They’re OK, more for decoration.
.
21. (I’m adding a question) What do you NOT like about the holidays? The huge shopping crowds and fundies who think they know everything about Christmas but really don’t know anything about it at all.


I’m gonna’ Tag
Dean Wormer
Becca
Heidi Meeley

Edit: I found a great Christmas Parody to go along with my tag. You all like the Chipmunks right?


-Swinebread

Captain Carrot Maintains Some Momentum

Scott Shaw passed along an announcement by DC (here) that a Captain Carrot trade is coming out.

"CAPTAIN CARROT AND THE FINAL ARK TP
Written by Bill Morrison, Roy Thomas and E. Nelson Bridwell
Art by Scott Shaw, Ross Andru, Rick Hoberg, Al Gordon and others
Cover by Shaw & Morrison
Captain Carrot returns in this volume collecting the 3-issue miniseries in which the Zoo Crew faces a threat that begins at the “Sandy Eggo Comic-Con!” Plus, adventures from The New Teen Titans #16 and Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #1 and #14-15!
Advance-solicited; on sale April 2 • 168 pg, FC, $19.99 US"

Now, this is not the full-blown Showcase Presents that would have reprinted every issue of the original Captain Carrot run, which was cancelled incidentally. That was the book I was so excited about, just so you know. What we’ve got collected here are: the new, 3 issue mini and just few stories that seem most relevant to countdown. Although it’s in color… I’ve already got these in comic form, so I’m a little conflicted. To me, it seems like the other animal superhero adventures will never see the light of day again. That would be sad. However, this collection does prove that there is some level of support for the zoo crew within DC and with the general public and that is absolutely a good thing. We all could use a lot more fun in our funny books.


If you bought an issue of Captain Carrot and the Final Ark, thanks from a fan.

-Swinebread

Cthulhu Caroling

Carol of the Old Ones
the first and the best!


It's beginning to look a lot like fish-men


The Cultist Song
Their latest



-Swinebread

2nd Season of Jericho has a time slot

Tuesday February 12, 2008.


Mark your calendars!

My understanding is that they've shot two different season finales. The first is a cliffhanger if the series gets renewed for a third season and the second ending will wrap-up the plotlines if Jericho is cancelled.

Can’t ask for more than that especially since it was resurrected from the dead.

Season 2 Promo:



-Swinebread

Dave Gibbons Visits Watchmen Set

It's perhaps the most surreal experience of my life...

...And I'm standing amongst them. Nite Owl shakes my hand. The Comedian slaps me on the back. Silk Spectre smiles a dazzling greeting. I'm overwhelmed by the depth and detail of what I'm seeing.

But more than that. I'm overwhelmed by the commitment, the passion, the palpable desire to do this right.

I'm starting to feel a glow that eclipses even Dr. Manhattan's...

-Dave Gibbons
December 2007

From the Watchmen Movie Blog here

Too soon to get excited... Too soon to get excited... Too soon to get excited... Too soon to get excited... Too soon to get excited... Too soon to get excited...

Can you name the character whose costume is behind him?

-Swinebread