Mikester

Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization.

filed under Categories End of Civilization 19 Comments

Hey, it’s a new Previews catalog (November 2010), follow along in your own copy, you know the drill:

p. 138 – Infestation #1:


Hmmm…a zombie crossover event involving Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Ghostbusters, etc. I was going to write some kind of lengthy essay about zombies and how played out they are and how they’re overused as gimmicks to jumpstart moribund properties and so on, but I’d like to get this installment of End of Civilization wrapped up pretty quick so I can get back to playing Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare.

p. 145 – This guy:


I wasn’t going to say anything, since this is a caricature of a real dude being used as IDW’s “mascot,” popping up throughout the solicitations, but…man, I don’t know, he’s kinda scaring me. YES, I WILL ORDER THE COMICS, PLEASE STOP MAGICALLY APPEARING BEFORE ME, TINY SALESPERSON.

p. 216 – Sarah Palin Versus The World:


I can’t even work up the surprise anymore.

p. 243 – Darkwing Duck #5 Long Beach Comic Con Get-A-Sketch Variant:


Little did you know that my old pal, Ian Brill, writer of Darkwing Duck, just loves drawing things, so be sure to bring this sketch cover up to him at cons and insist that he draw nothing less than the entire Darkwing Duck cast fighting the entire cast of Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers (which he’s also writing). Tell him Mike sent you.

p. 254 – Kevin Smith’s Kato #10:


You know, with a new female Kato…it was only a matter of time before she ended up mostly naked on a cover.

p. 267 – Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1942 – 1945:


Some may consider a Nancy collection to be the End of Civilization. I consider it a reason to keep on living.

p. 269 – The Overstreet Hall of Fame NYCC/Fan Edition:


If you’re lucky, you can get Bob Overstreet himself to draw something on this sketch cover. Maybe a price guide entry for something that features a headlight cover, an injury to eye panel, excessive gore, Betty and Veronica in lingerie, and a $355 price tag in NM condition.

p. 278 – Cursed Pirate Girl The Collected Edition Vol. 1 TP:


So there was Employee Aaron, at the San Diego Comic Con, standing in front of this cartoonist’s table picking up a copy of Cursed Pirate Girl #3 for himself. Meanwhile, his kind and goodhearted boss, Mike, was back at the shop a few hundred miles north of the event, and unable to also buy a copy of #3, which had been solicited through Diamond but canceled. And there was Aaron, knowing Mike still needed a copy of #3, handing money to the cartoonist in exchange for a copy, but oh no, at no time does it ever occur to him to pick up a second copy for poor ol’ Mike, struggling alone back at the store while Aaron is off nonchalantly not buying Mike comics and proposing to his girlfriend and stuff. And lo, did Mike lord this over him at every possible opportunity when Aaron returned from his little adventure sans an extra copy of Cursed Pirate Girl #3.

Anyway, Aaron hurriedly pointed out this solicitation to me when he spotted it, in some desperate attempt to stave off his death at my hands. Only if it actually arrives, my friend…only if the book actually arrives.

p. 324 – The Woodstock Generation Trading Cards:


The set was only supposed to be about 100 cards, but thousands of other cards somehow rushed in and crashed the collection.

…That sounded funnier in my head.

p. 326 – Deadpool Icon Black Hooded Pullover:


“Man, I love cross sections of old moldy tomatoes! Where can I get a pullover like that?”

p. 330 – The Joker Dark Detective #1 Military Green T-Shirt:


These Tea Partiers are getting awfully aggressive with their tactics lately.

OR

Meg Whitman’s campaign sure took an ugly turn.

OR

In retrospect, Rand Paul probably shouldn’t have handed these shirts out to his supporters.

OR

I knew those Obamacare death panels were gonna be trouble!

p. 331 – Blade Runner Replicant Gray T-Shirt:


Oh, great, now we’re going to be arguing whether Harrison Ford’s character was wearing one of these under his coat.

p. 332 – Star Wars A New Hope Luke Ceremony Jacket Prop Replica:


Oh, sure, I don’t see Chewbacca getting any kind of ceremony prop replica! The Wookiee gets screwed again.

p. 332 – World of Warcraft Murloc Green Zip-up Hoodie:


So close to a Sleestak hoodie. So close.

p. 344 – World’s Greatest Heroes Retro Action Figures:


Behold, the tragedy of rickets.


J’onn J’onzz insists on wearing flesh colored bodystockings for all of his nude scenes.


On second thought, maybe Smallville should avoid a live action version of Darkseid.

p. 345 – 8-Inch D-I-Y Toy Truck:


Graffiti artists should plan out their work on a small scale first, before actually painting all over some shipping company’s vehicles.

p. 349 – Harry Potter Ultimate Dueling Battle Trainer:


Apparently you basically wave your wand at an animated Voldemort head.

…Those of you waiting for a Hermione version of this toy can just keep on waiting, you weirdos. Go “wave your wand” somewhere else.

p. 362 – Iron Man 2 Movie Mark V Briefcase Suit Prop Replica:


I’m going to answer the question you all have about this product: yes, it’s just a regular briefcase inside. I know everyone’s first reaction, just for the briefest of moments, in defiance of all logic, is going to be “does it turn into the suit,” even though you know full well it’s not going to.

At least, I thought that for a split second. Surely I’m not alone in this.

…

Dammit.

p. 366 – Star Wars Commando Cody “Order 66” 1/5 Scale Resin Statue:


Relive that moment when the Clone Troopers get their instructions to slaughter their Jedi allies…or prepare for that moment when the very young children watching the Clone Wars cartoon finally put two-and-two together and realize that Obi-Wan and Ashoka’s trooper pals will eventually turn on them. …Fun for the whole family!

“The many heads awe me not…”

filed under Categories scans 5 Comments

These Joe Gill & Sam Glanzman 1960s Hercules comics are something else. I’m not overly familiar with this comic, aside from repeatedly seeing its covers at the shop, but it looks like the series is mostly played straight, with the very occasional bit of seemingly uncharacteristic dialogue:


Though, to be fair, I’d probably exclaim…well, okay, apparently calmly proclaim…”oh golly” under those circumstances, too.

The…shall we say, informal presentation of the sound effects are kind of charming:


I like how the sound effects just sort of fill up all their allotted space in that first panel, there.

Man, now that’s action:


“Zillcch” is a terrible representation of the sound that is made when a sword is plunged into a giant crab by a demigod. And I should know. Okay, how ‘about “THUNK–thwiSSSSSHHH” — hitting the shell, then piercing it and sliding in, you see.

Also, never forget the hydra. I realize a giant monster with multiple heads would be pretty easy to forget, but c’mon, focus here, people.

from Hercules #10 (1978) by Joe Gill & Sam Glanzman – reprinted from Hercules #10 (1968)

Aparo Vs. Sienkiewicz.

filed under Categories batman 18 Comments

So I posted that pic from a Batman comic featuring Bill Sienkiewicz’s inks over Jim Aparo’s pencils, which resulted, as some of you noted, in a seeming mismatch of artistic styles. Aparo’s clean lines (some samples of which you can look at here) are fairly well overwhelmed by Sienkiewicz’s much looser and scratchier style, but not always to poor effect. I thought I’d run a handful of panels and sequences from the book to present more examples of this particular collaboration. I’m no art critic, so my comments are mostly limited to “DUH, HERE ART, YOU LOOK,” so please excuse my lack of informative presentation.

While the faces from the previously posted panel looked a bit…off, to those of us used to Aparo’s usual illustrations of those characters, I like this portrait of the Penguin:


That almost looks like a caricature of an actual person, which makes the Penguin appear actually somewhat menacing.

The action sequences in the book come across okay, like this one:


In general, the Aparo layouts come through fine, it’s just the details, particularly on the overrendered faces, that the discordance sets in.

Batman looks a little awkward in this panel, but I don’t know if that’s a layout problem or a finishing issue:


That’s fully an Aparo eyebrow on Robin in the first panel, there.


There are several pages in this story colored with a limited palette, like the above panels, and that seems to work to the art’s advantage, adding to the moodiness of the proceedings already enhanced by Sienkiewicz’s sketchy style.

This last panel from the story is quite moody and effective, I think…Nightwing’s a little on the wrinkly side, but crimefighting ages you, man:


Overall…an interesting experiment, but I think I prefer Aparo on his own. Or Sienkiewicz on his own. I’d totally read a regular Batman series drawn by Sienkiewicz, come to think of it.

images from Batman #533 (August 1996) by Doug Moench, Jim Aparo & Bill Sienkiewicz

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD.

filed under Categories fakeapstylebook 11 Comments

So some of you folks might remember that I’m a member of The Bureau Chiefs, that gaggle of bloggers, professors, and rapper-lawyers responsible for Fake AP Stylebook, the popular and hopefully humorous Twitter feed. And some of you may also recall that, as a result of that feed, we got a book deal.

Well, now I am finally allowed to announce that the book, titled Write More Good, will be out in April 2011 from Three Rivers Press. And it’s not just a transcript of jokes from the Twitter feed, though a few of those are there — the majority of the book is all new material. Plus, the foreword to the book is by legendary film critic (and Fake AP Stylebook fan) Roger Ebert, which I think is pretty darn cool.

The book is not yet available for preorder from the usual places, but I’ll let you know when it is.

By the way, speaking of the Twitter feed, it just hit its one year anniversary, so we’re having a contest, sponsored by Zazzle (which is also offering 10% off anything from our Zazzle store through the end of November if you use the super-secret code FAKEAPZAZZLE during your purchase).

Please excuse the commercial interruption, pals, but I’m pretty excited about all this and I’ve been dying to share it with you. (Also, I came up with the title for the book, which the Bureau Chiefs gang and the publisher all liked, so I’m pretty proud of that, too!)

And now, the greatest insult ever.

filed under Categories justice league 13 Comments

from Justice League of America #141 (April 1977) by Steve Englehart, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin


Your project for the week: you must call someone an “insolent squirrel” at least once. Like your boss. Or your spouse. Try it, it’s fun!*

* Not responsible for resulting job loss or divorce. Will totally take credit if you get punched in the nose, however.

Where you can find Halloween-type comics stuff, since I’ve not really been on top of it on my own site this year.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, sir-links-a-lot 5 Comments

Since I’ve been distracted over the last couple of weeks by my dental issues, I’ve not yet properly settled into the proper Halloween spirit…which is a shame, since I do so love all the costumes and decorations and such for the holiday. But some of my pals have been in the Halloweenish mood of late:

And I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. Any others, drop ’em in the comments section…go ahead, plug the hell out of the Halloween posts on your or your friends’ websites.

To be honest, I have no idea what I’m going to do for Halloween this year. I’m never going to top this. And I’m still pretty happy with this guest post I wrote for The Horror Blog on Five Scary Superman Moments.

Maybe I’ll just post a picture of me in my Nancy costume. Surely that’ll be frightening enough.

I’m all complainy and stuff.

filed under Categories this week's comics 13 Comments

And now…the Best Comic Cover of the Week:


And the contents ain’t half-bad either. All of Boom! Studios Muppet comics are entertaining, but The Muppet Show really is the platonic ideal of a Fun Comic Book. Cartoonist Roger Langridge knocks it out of the park, every time.

Some other comics this week:

  • I was planning on picking up Vertigo Resurrected, the latest in DC’s 100-page mini-trade paperbacks, since this is the first printed appearance of the long-shelved Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez Hellblazer story “Shoot.” However, the reprints that fill up the rest of the book are short stories from Vertigo’s many anthology books from over the years, none of which I’d bought (for whatever reason…I have no real excuse), which means the entire volume is new to me. That worked out nicely.

  • Legion of Super-Heroes #6 – I’d pretty much made the decision last week, when I skipped the new issue of Adventure Comics, which is essentially a second Legion title. But, yeah, after nearly 30 years of Legion-reading, I think I finally reached my saturation point. Nothing specific I can really pin down as being the last straw…it’s just a case of being “enough’s enough,” I think. The last couple of issues have been bit of a slog, I can’t get involved in the characters and plotlines…I took the hint and dropped the books.

  • DC Universe Legacies #6 – …But that said, the Legion back-up in this book was actually pretty amusing. The lead story, which, like the rest of the series, is For Advanced Fans Only, retelling events from the era of Crisis on Infinite Earths through Legends, is about as good as this kind of thing is able to get. Nice art from Jerry Ordway, George Perez and and Scotts Kolins and Koblish.

  • Okay, Green Lantern Corps #53 introduces a new villain…well, actually an old villain of sorts, as it’s a Weaponer from the Anti-Matter Universe of Qward, which should be familiar to GL fans, and he’s got a good gimmick, and Sinestro’s in this too and we all like Sinestro. So, it’s some good ol’ fashioned superhero stuff and it’s all fine.

    But seriously, it just reminds me that there are three ongoing Green Lantern series, and…was there actually talk of a fourth ongoing? So for the first time in years, the Green Lantern franchise manages to gain some sales success, and, as always, the response to a comic selling well is the publisher doing its damnedest to dig the golden eggs out of that goose’s body by pumping out more of the same thing. Marvel did it with Marvel Zombies, they’re well on their way to doing it with Deadpool, and now DC is following suit with too many GL series. And I suspect DC is going to discover something similar with the Batman franchise, which will soon be “the one by Grant Morrison that actually sells” and “a bunch of other titles that don’t sell nearly as well,” which…well, that’s kind of where we’re at right now, anyway.

    And the thing that gets me is that there’s nothing particularly wrong with any of these books…all the GL books are fun, there’s nothing particularly wrong quality-wise with the Deadpool titles…I mean, they’re not for me, but the people who do read them seem to enjoy them, and all the Batman books are okay…but do we really need a Batman and a Batman and Robin? Do we really need a Green Lantern Corps and a Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors?

    …

    Sigh. Sorry, felt like shouting into the wind there, a bit. Don’t mind me.

    And yeah, I know, “do we really need any comics?” Yes, yes we do.

  • Still enjoying the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which is current at #4 of the five-issue mini “Hardcases,” which is, what, the fourth or fifth mini-series out of the approximately 1000 mini-series it’s going to take to compete this project? But it’s a good adaptation, and I find it odd that this comic, which is basically a word-for-word retelling of the novel, still maintains my interest, while the multiple series based on King’s Dark Tower, featuring untold tales and new storylines, lost me and, judging at least by our sales, most of its readership several months ago.

  • Charles Burns has a new handsome volume of cartooning out this week…Xed Out. Gorgeous production values on this book. You can see a picture of the cover here, which really doesn’t do it justice.

  • Okay, here’s another potential cover of the week, from Loki #1:


    Boy, Loki’s never been happier. Just look at that joy on his face.

Progressive Ruin presents…Your Grandparents’ End of Civilization.

filed under Categories golden age 7 Comments


How would you get anyone to join your Liars’ Club? “Hey, I have a Liars’ Club…wanna join?” “Ah, you joker, you don’t really have a club.” “No, honest, guys, I do!”


You know, the “mistakes are impossible” promise is quite a bit to live up to.


We think the book should teach you…can’t say for sure, you are awfully pathetic.


I have to admit, I’ve never been happier.


I will of course insist on being called “Radio Mike” from now on.


At last, I can finally add up my midgets.


Harmonica shown to scale; measures 4 1/2 feet in width.


When we say “kidding,” we actually mean “annoying.”

images from an ad in Feature Comics #121 (April 1948)