This is the kinda book I'm talking about!

It happened again. I had an idea in my mind on what I wanted to read and write about for my next foray into the longboxes, but before I even finished the comics I had grabbed, my plan totally changed. (Actually I am loving the fact that my plans have been changing so organically. It really is an interesting phenomenon that I didn't expect when I started doing this.) Everything changed this time due to the fact that I read a single issue that probably best exemplifies the type of crazy stuff you can find when you dig through your old collections or the piles of books at a convention or the cheap bins at your local comic store. This comic deserves a post all its own. I give you Obnoxio The Clown Vs. The X-Men.

Just look at that cover. Bask in it. That is comic gold you see before you that I unearthed a few years ago at a convention for a quarter. Written and drawn by Alan Kupperburg, the titular Obnoxio the Clown is hired by Professor X to perform at Kitty Pryde's birthday party. Basically, the plot is that the X-Men think Obnoxio is an intruder and try to apprehend him, and hilarity ensues. How could you not enjoy reading about a filthy, pock-ridden, foulmouthed clown going toe to toe with Marvel's band of merry mutants? In the end, the X-Men discover that Obnoxio is not the intruder they are after. It was actually a mutant that can change his body into ice cream. Oh it gets better. This super villain's name is Eye-Scream. Wow...just wow. After some internet digging, I found that the character of Obnoxio the Clown was created by Larry Hama as the mascot of the humor magazine Crazy that Marvel put out in the 70's and early 80's. Yes, it was the same Larry Hama that wrote so many of the now famous issues of G.I. Joe. It is these kinds of book that make diving into a quarter bin worthwhile. This is Marvel history right here folks, much like The Star Wars Holiday Special is part of George Lucas's history. They may not want to remember it, but there it is, and I am proud to have it in my collection. I almost wish that they would remake this comic now that the Comics Code no longer prevents any real off-color comedy. This could really be something. I challenge you Marvel Comics. Bring back Obnoxio!

The last little thing I wanted to quickly mention was on Bullpen Bulletins page. (For those who don't know, the Bullpen Bulletins page was full of info about other Marvel books and letters from the fans. What caught my eye was an ad for Blip #1. I had never heard of this so I looked at the blurb. To my surprise, apparently Marvel Comics published a video gaming magazine in the 80's that in their words was "the most fun-packed and fact-packed Video Games magazine around." Guess what the cover article is: "Blip Tips: How to beat Centipede & Missile Command." Wow, now that is old. Look at how much of a history lesson you can get from one comic book!

We'll be back after these important messages.

I just have a couple things to share real quick with everyone.

1. I want to remind everyone that this Saturday is the live streaming of Harvey Pekar's opera "Leave Me Alone!" that I mentioned in an earlier post.

2. Also in an earlier post, I mentioned that there are no Thanksgiving comics. Well, you can sleep soundly now because I have found one. I just picked up a copy of Power Pack #19 and flipped through it to find the Power Pack spending Thanksgiving with Cloak & Dagger, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, and Beta Ray Bill. I will definitely be saving that book for next November.

3. As you can see from the nifty countdown clock on the right, the date for the Windy City Comicon has been set for September 19th, 2009. I will definitely be going and volunteering. Volunteering last year was phenomenal. In only a couple months, Chris and Sal from Around Comics put together a con that the city of Chicago can be proud of. I had more fun at WCC than any other con I have ever been to.

4. I want to throw some love to two awesome creators who make an awesome comic book. Go check out The Uniques by Adam Withers and Comfort Love.


5. It has come to my attention that there is a new blog/podcast that has the same concept and almost the same name as this here blog. They even have some of the same phrases from my description in theirs. All I can say is imitation is the best form of flattery. I am having so much fun doing this so I am just going to keep on doing what I am doing. Hopefully you guys will keep reading.

Random Dive #2

Now that the events from the "Big Two" are either done or winding down and neither company has left a really great taste in my mouth, I decided to just grab some random comics out of the boxes to clean my palette. I'm not in the mood to read about "Dark Reigns" or "Final Crises" for a little while, so I looked in the boxes for something different. Of course, the best place to start when trying something new is pick out the first issue, right? With only a peek at the issue number (to make sure I was starting a story at the beginning), I grabbed four #1 issues hoping that something was worth the paper that it was printed on. Let's see what I ended up with.

The first book was The Comet #1 from Impact Comics, story and art by Tom Lyle and script by Mark Waid. OK, I like Mark Waid. I can be hopeful that this book might be a good read. The issue was purchased entirely due to the fact that I know DC owns the rights to the Impact characters and is planning to fold them into the DC universe. The thought crossed my mind that I might like reading something about them before DC just dumps them into our laps. I can tell you now that I don't. Honestly, the origin of the Comet is pretty mundane and common. Young guy gets electrocuted, but instead of dying, he gains superpowers. After reading the book I ran to Wikipedia to find out a little more about Impact comics and found that the entire imprint was aimed more at kids. That explains it. The book just isn't for me. Keep it simple for the kids so that they can get into superheroes. I am a huge proponent of getting kids to read comics. If you have a copy of The Comet lying around, give it to a kid. They might like it.

We go from kid friendly to adults only with the next book, Power & Glory by Howard Chaykin for the "Bravura" imprint of the now-defunct Malibu Comics. From what I can gather, "Bravura" consisted of multiple titles of original stories from some big name creators like Dan Jurgens, Jim Starlin, Peter David, and others. When I started reading, I found that I fell into the "seen it before" trap twice in one day as Chaykin tells a story of the government creating a fake superhero to rally the American people. The thing that I found interesting though had nothing to do with the story. At the end of the book, there is a sign-up form for the "Bravura Gold Stamp Program." Listen to this great deal! All you had to do was buy every Bravura book (which, of course, you were going to do anyway) and you will be rewarded with FOIL VARIANT COVERS! Ah, only in the 90's could a company even think that something like this would fly.

After seeing how Malibu tried to steal money out of people's pockets, it was only right to read a book set in Las Vegas where money is stolen from people's pockets every day. Don't get me wrong. I love Las Vegas and as soon as I saw Nevada #1 in the quarter bin I had to buy it. Written by the great Steve Gerber with art by Phil Winslade and Steve Leialoha, Nevada starts out as a murder mystery set in a Vegas casino that looks a whole lot like the Luxor. Of course, it is full of Steve Gerber's signature weirdness. With victims cut in half, the main character's pet ostrich, and a crime boss with no head, the book got very strange very quick. Honestly, I was sort of hoping for a more realistic crime story but the well written story and the amazing art was enough to keep me entertained. Fables fans can really see Leialoha's ink style and where his own sensibilities influence the art. I do plan on going out and looking for the rest of this series or for the trade.

Lastly, I moved from the city where every dream comes true to a city where dreams actually are real. Dream Police by J. Michael Stracznski and Mike Deodato, a one shot from 2005, tells the story of two cops who patrol the streets of the city where people's minds go when they dream. Yeah, the concept may seem a little out there but JMS made a good little story. Dealing with the crazy things that people's minds come up with is hard work. I actually laughed out loud when they were get stuck in traffic because "as usual, it's filled with people finding themselves suddenly naked in a crowd." You have to give JMS some credit for a very original idea. Dream Police is definitely worth a read if you come across it in the cheap boxes at a convention.

So say we all.

The time has finally come. Battlestar Galactica has returned, and my gods, it was amazing! This is going to be one crazy ride to the end. I think we all can agree on that. Also, I think I can say with confidence that fans will be clamoring for anything BSG related since there are only 9 episodes left. We need our fix and Dynamite Entertainment wants to be our pusher with all of their Battlestar Galactica miniseries. If you remember, my first actual post on this blog was of the first nine issues of the Battlestar Galactica comic series. Sadly, it was so bad that I never even tried to find the issue I was missing or finish reading the series. Logically, Dynamite's mediocre first attempt at BSG comics might be the reason why the other miniseries are also in the cheap boxes. If the core book is not great, why would I want to try the others? It is a very fair question and I can totally understand why anyone would skip the BSG line of comics after reading the first series.

BUT WAIT! Just because the other series were tossed in the cheap bins doesn't mean that they warrant it. Now that I have read Battlestar Galactica: Zarek, and Battlestar Galactica: Origins, I can tell you that the quality of BSG comics improved greatly after the first series. The first of these two that I read was Battlestar Galactica: Zarek. Zarek is a four issue miniseries that follows the life of revolutionary Tom Zarek and how he came to be a prisoner during the Cylon attack on the 12 Colonies. Fans of BSG have followed Tom Zarek's journey in the background as one of the show's second tier characters. The comic series shows how he lead a revolution on the colony of Sagittaron due to the death of his parents and the unfair treatment that his more agrarian colony received. All in all, the series served its purpose and did round out the character. Nothing seemed out of place and the story felt like it could be weaved into BSG continuity just fine.

As soon as I was done with Zarek, I moved right into Battlestar Galactica: Origins. Now I love a good anthology series and Origins does not disappoint. Over eleven issues, we get three completely separate stories. Issues 1-4 give us Gaius Baltar's story of how he rose from the son of farmers to the rock star of the science world. Written seamlessly, the story gives you just enough to make you believe that Baltar could have become no one but the arrogant narcissist that we know him to be. After Gaius's four issues, we change characters and time periods and find ourselves with a young William "Husker" Adama during the First Cylon War. "But Mike, we saw all that in the Razor webisodes or interspersed with the movie on the DVD?" You're right, but we only saw him fly a single mission (that they do mention in the comics) during Razor. You really think the great Husker Adama only flew one mission? If you love "the Old Man" as much as I do, then this story is a must read. The last three issues of the series give us a Starbuck and Helo story set during one of their early training missions. While the story was fairly basic, I did get the feel that both of them developed a strong trust with each other which is an important plot point of the second season when they meet up on Cylon-occupied Caprica. Considering the quality of all three arcs in the series, Battlestar Galactica fans should at least go out and pick up the trades. They'll be worth it.

Now have you noticed a common theme between these two series? Neither of them take place during the time period of the actual show, and that fact alone might be what makes or breaks a BSG comic series. Both of them are prequels that fill in gaps that we as the reader or viewer didn't even know that we were missing. That is the way they should operate. The first series's downfall was that it stepped on too many toes and made too many changes to established characters and plot lines. When you go and tell the stories that happen outside of the show, that problems is nowhere near as prevalent. You have a wider canvas and you can use interesting ideas that don't hamper anything that the characters on our televisions are doing. So Dynamite, thank you for making Battlestar Galacitca comics and keep them coming as long as the quality can stay consistent with Zarek and Origins.

The Best American Comics 2006

Well, I'm back. I know it has been a while since my last post but I have valid reasons. It has been a very busy time for me lately with the holidays and a lot of work baring down on me, so it probably wasn't the best time for me to choose a book that I would really need to delve into and contemplate. I am not big on the whole idea of New Year's resolutions, but I kinda told myself that I would venture out from the common superhero fare and try some new comics in 2009. With that in mind, I went to my bookcase and grabbed The Best American Comics 2006. I found this book a few months ago at a Borders outlet store for $4.00. Honestly, now that I have finished reading it, I can assure you that I got much more than my money's worth. Even at the cover price of $22.00, I still think this anthology is a steal.

Basically, The Best American Comics 2006 is an anthology of sequential art stories and excerpts from larger works. I was very excited to read it since all of the stories in the book were new to me except one of the entries, an excerpt from James Robinson's Tricked, which I wholeheartedly agree is worthy to be included in the best of 2006. My excitement was heightened even more due to the fact that Harvey Pekar, writer of American Splendor and The Quitter, was the guest editor of the collection. If Harvey Pekar says something is worth reading, I will read it without question. The man is a genius in my book. (By the way, I just found out that he wrote an opera that is going to be performed and simulcast on the internet on January 31, 2009! Click here for more info.)

Through the course of all of the selections in the book, two themes became pretty obvious: the sociopolitical climate we live in and the internal problems and idiosyncrasies we all deal with. Almost every selection dealt with one of these two topics. The only one that really did not tackle either subject was also the only comic to mention superheroes as it humorously looked at the evolution of mainstream comics from the Silver Age up through the Modern Age. I think the best way to critique the book for all of you is to look at my favorite story from each of the two themes. In Joe Sacco's autobiographical story "Complacency Kills," we follow Sacco in Iraq as a front line reporter. Sadly, what I know about modern warfare comes only from playing way too much Call of Duty, but I learned a lot from just a few pages of Sacco's comic. He showed the day-to-day actions of our Marines in Iraq and you get the feeling that they truly are in a horrible catch twenty-two. Many of their normal operating procedures are in place to keep them safe, yet they could be construed as slights to normal civilians in that country. For instance, the Marines that Sacco was riding with were called to investigate a suspicious group of cars parked far off the main road. When they get there, guns drawn, they find that it is a funeral procession. It is a story like that that truly makes you think. As for the more psychological stories, the most interesting was definitely the excerpt from Couch Tag by Jesse Reklaw. I had never read anything by him before but this excerpt really made me want to go look for more of his writing. The selection was actually multiple stories from Reklaw's childhood that all centered around the many cats that his family had. The art was simple but evocative which was perfect for the subject matter. While many cats came and went from the household, something profound was learned from each one of them, even if they didn't live very long. The pets acted as a solid framework for a coming of age story.

After reading the entire collection, I highly recommend The Best American Comics 2006. If you have the chance, go and pick up a copy. I think that now that I have had a taste, I will have to go out and find the books that were excerpted to make this excellent anthology.