Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin
Quicker than quick, stronger than strong since 1969
Mikester Fred Hembeck offers his own selection (under May 7th) of free comics from around the internet, in honor of Free Comic Book Day…
…which is when again?
I had a parent refuse to buy a Star Wars graphic novel for her child today because it contained “adult language.”
Just for the sake of my own sanity, I’m going to assume she meant “the language used in this book is too far above your reading comprehension level, and thus not suited as proper entertainment for you, young offspring.”
Though there is a small part of me that hopes that maybe, just maybe, I’ve missed a scene in one of the books where Han Solo shouts, “oh, yeah? F*** you, Vader!”
Inspired by Yet Another Comics Blog’s Free Comic Book Month Giveaway, Rick Gebhardt is also going to give away a free comic book every day from May 7th (the date of Free Comic Book Day at your local comics shoppe) until June 7th. Who knew there were two people this crazy? Anyway, go get yourself some free comics…either from Dave or Rick, or from your local establishment. You do like free stuff, right?
Speaking of free stuff, it just so happens I have in my possession a copy of AiT/Planetlar‘s Couscous Express by Brian Wood and Brett Weldele, which I received from Big Larry Young as part of his entry in the mix CD exchange. I already have a copy of this fine book (reviewed by me a while back – under Monday, April 26th), so if you want to try to win this extra copy for yourself, free of charge, just send your name and shipping address to contest (at) progressiveruin.com with the words Couscous Express in the subject line. Deadline to enter is Friday, May 20th…I will pick one winner at random and announce it the following Monday.
One entry per person, current and former coworkers may not enter (sorry, Josh!), winners of my previous contest can’t enter (er, sorry again, Josh), members of the ACAPCWOVCCAOE can’t enter (like I said before, that wouldn’t look too good for me if one of them won), and I reserve the right to reject any entry if I think you’re just screwing with me. International entries welcome, so long as your country accepts our mail. I’m not responsible for any import taxes, though…item will be declared as a gift with a value of $12.95.
Um, other than that, feel free to send me your entry. No hoops to jump through…just a name and address sent to contest (at) progressiveruin.com is all you need to enter.
Don’t forget:
Okay, I realize I’ve been kinda slacking off on my comics weblogging duties a bit over the last week or so…real life gets in the way sometimes, you know? I’ll be back in the swing of things soon.
Anyway, I have a few minutes to spare, so let me share a few goodies:
First, wanna know how to make me jealous? Find a killer Baby Huey panel before I do, like the mighty Scott Saavedra has done. Well played, sir. (It also gives me an excuse to link back to this post of mine, with Baby Huey reenacting a scene from Watchmen.)
Now I know you’ve seen this discussed here and there (and there’s a kind of futility to linking to anything that’s already been on Boing Boing), but let me add to the chorus of voices proclaming Naked Cosmos as something you have to see. I’ve only seen the original videotape, and not the revamped and reedited DVD, but a source close to the production (well, okay, it was Gilbert) assures me that the DVD version is a vast improvement over the original. I can’t imagine it being any better, because the original version is a real brain-breaker. I’m saying it’s a brain-breaker, so you know it’s gotta be strange. Dear God, at least watch the trailer.
If you’re an Emusic member, Our Most Beloved by James Kochalka Superstar is now available for download.
Batman and Hulk Sumo suits. This upsets me in a way that I can’t readily explain. Don’t even mention the Cock Fighting suits.
I’m about halfway through Marv Wolfman’s Crisis on Infinite Earths novelization (I would have normally plowed through it by now, but I just haven’t had much readin’ time lately)…and, well, if you haven’t read the original Crisis comic book series, I’m not sure I’d bother reading this book. It’s more supplementary than stand-alone. I have absolutely no idea how someone new to the material would be able to get through this, with all of its constant references to Earth 1 Lois Lane and Earth 2 Superman, and oh, here’s Uncle Sam from Earth X, and Batman and Robin are fighting the Turks, and here’s the Speed Force, and there’s Solovar from Gorilla City…it can be rough going even for the initiated. The fact that most chapters are incredibly short sort of adds to the disjointed feel of the story.
I do appreciate Wolfman’s revisiting of what may be his most successful comics venture, adding in more background details and whatnot to the original story. It’s just that so far, it’s not really adding up to a good novel.
This Legends of the DC Universe Crisis special works much better as a supplement to the original, I think.
And this next bit isn’t a criticism of the book…I just get thrown off a bit when I read references in the Crisis novel to “cell phones” and “The Simpsons,” since there’s a little voice in my head that says “hey, those things didn’t exist in the mid-1980s” — which is of course when the comic series was originally published.
And that reminded me (along with pal Dorian’s recent thoughts on the topic)…if we take the “20 year” modern hero timeline (as established in Identity Crisis) literally, and if the DC Universe comics being published today take place in 2005, that means the modern age of superheroes in the DCU started in the mid-80s. Weird, huh?
Speaking of revisiting, Batman: Dark Detective #1 (featuring the ’70s Batman team of Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin) came out this week. You know how nice it is to read just a plain ol’ Batman versus the Joker story? One that isn’t tied into some huge ongoing metaplot I don’t have any interest in? One that’s fun and brightly colored and doesn’t have Batman come across as a socially maladjusted nutcase? One I might even be able to (gasp) sell to kids?
It’s very nice, indeed.
Speaking of selling comics to kids, he said overusing that transitional device, yesterday pal Dorian and I had a nice contrast:
– A schoolteacher came in looking for graphic novels for her high-school age students…she ended up buying several Hellboy graphic novels. Yes, I explained the concept of the books to her, and she thought they sounded like a lot of fun.
– Dorian helped some parents try to find comics for their kids, and apparently they turned down the Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures digests (the ones based on the cartoons, mind you) because they were “too violent.”
It really makes me wonder, sometimes. (Though I do hope the teacher doesn’t get any grief for supposedly “promoting Satanism” or some nonsense like that. This is in an area where one of the local elementary schools has a dragon as their mascot, but has trouble using any image of a dragon on their materials without being accused of sacrificing babies to Beelzebub, or something equally stupid.)
I am happy to report that, given my brief glance through the book, the new printing of Dark Horse Comics’ Little Lulu Vol. 2: Lulu Takes A Trip (which arrived today) appears to be printed with the pages in the correct order. (Do note that the corrected editions are still marked as 1st printings.) Volume 3, My Dinner with Lulu, also arrived today, and this is the one that begins reprinting the earliest Lulu comics from Dell’s Four Color series. Dark Horse wanted to start the Lulu reprint series with later comics rather than the beginning strips, to kick it off with the “good stuff” apparently (you can find the explanation on Johanna’s site). However, looking at the earlier work and comparing it to the later material, I don’t really see why the publisher was so concerned. It’s perhaps a little more simply drawn, but it’s just as charming and funny as the work that followed. Really, they probably should have just started this series with the earliest Lulu comics, and numbered the volumes from the get-go, rather than wait for later printings.
Ah, what do I know. I just sell these things for a living, is all.
I point you to Johanna’s most recent post on the subject, if you haven’t seen it already.
Just so I don’t come across completely as Mr. Negative-Pants, I am very happy that affordable reprints of Little Lulu are being released, regardless of any publishing quirks.
And my vote for most non-essential comic book reprint is…. Okay, normally I’d be all for reprints of the Golden Age adventures of Tuk the Caveboy. However, this comic also contains a reprint of the Wolverine story from Marvel Comics Presents #1, which is explicitly described by Marvel itself as a preview of a forthcoming trade paperback reprinting this same story…feh, sez I. More Tuk the Caveboy, less Wolvie trade paperbacks.
Odd arrival of the day…in one of our Diamond boxes was a reorder invoice from early last year for another retailer, along with a copy of the Adult Previews catalog from the same period of time. Go figure.
…so here’s a cover with Conan fighting Captain America:
Time got away from me today (“come back here, time!”) so I don’t have much of a post. Go back and look at some of my ramblings from previous days, or…
…take advantage of this limited time offer for autographed cards from Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin (spotted via Fred Hembeck)…
…marvel at the Newsweek mention of Dave’s Long Box…
…enter Yet Another Comic Blog’s Free Comic Book Month giveaway…
…sign this sure-to-be-effective petition calling for “a curse on the heads of DC Comics” (who wouldn’t want to be part of this crowd?)…
…or go say “Hi!” to Rob Liefeld, God bless ‘im. Hi, Rob!
So quite some time ago, pal Jaime pointed out what might be a logical flaw in one of the captions on the above cover:
As pal Jaime said, “‘wait’ll you dig Namor’s new costume?’ Why wait? The new costume’s right there!” So there’s, what, maybe a nanosecond of delay between reading the caption and thinking “oh, hey, look at the new costume!” Not much waiting involved…assuming, of course, you read that particular caption first instead of going right to the figure of Sub-Mariner.
But, as I was pondering this, I thought about how the caption was actually worded. “Wait‘ll you dig” — perhaps the caption is instead implying that your digging of the new costume will not occur immediately. I mean, it is a big change, and I think we all know how some fans react to change. So, in some cases, the caption can be considered to be worded correctly…if you don’t immediately like Subby’s new costume, some indefinite period of waiting will have to pass before you will begin to accept it…dig it, as it were.
I was admiring this cover for its variety of humor:
1. The character-based joke: Jughead’s primary impetus is to eat, and thus would of course be more interested in entering a movie theatre for the popcorn, rather than the film being shown.
2. The pun: the sign, which reads “a story of a ruthless woman who fiddled with a man’s heart strings and drove him to violins!”
3. The sight gag: the ticket taker as snake charmer, playing a flute with a string of tickets undulating before her.
It’s a little something for everybody!
How rich is Richie Rich? He’s so rich, the sheer power of his wealth can affect the very properties of light!
Hey, if could ask a favor of some of you good folk out there…should you happen to run across a particular in-house (or, perhaps, fanzine) ad for Hex, could you let me know where you found it? It’s simply an image of Jonah Hex astride a motorcycle, with accompanying text reading something like “What’s happened to Jonah Hex?” It would have appeared in early ’85, and it would have been only a half-page ad at most.
Anyway, it’s not like an emergency or anything (can you imagine a situation where this was an emergency?), so if you happen to come across it, please drop me a line!