ohtani's jacket

I really enjoyed Camelot 3000. Ordinarily, I would hate this sort of premise -- King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are resurrected and fight space aliens in the future -- but Bolland's art was brilliant. I understand there were all sorts of delays with the book because of how slowly he worked, but it left me wishing that he'd done more interior work during his career. Probably more of a triumph in collected form than it was off the shelves. Nonetheless, DC's 80s experiments were a fertile time in mainstream American comics.

Satanico Blue Panther El Dandy Atlantis Pirata Morgan Bestia Salvaje Virus Black Terry Solar Negro Navarro

Are there any Hellboy fans here? I re-read the original mini-series, and the DHP serial that followed. I don't want to judge it too harshly since Byrne scripted the first series, and the serial was Mignola's first crack at doing the writing, but is there a point where Hellboy comes into its own?

I have been reading individual issues. I'll probably read Brubaker's Daredevil after I'm done with Bendis.

No, I haven't read much post-Nocenti/JRJR and Man without Fear.

I've mostly been reading Brubaker's Captain America and Bendis' Daredevil. Brubaker's Captain America is one of the most cinematic comic books I've ever read. It reads like a film. It has the most beautifully choreographed fight scenes of any superhero book I've read, and no matter who the artist is, the book has the same look. Even the coloring adds a lightning effect similar to the visual tone of a film or television series. It has an incredibly realistic feel to it, right down to the detail in Captain America's costume. I don't know how many years ago it was released, but to me, this is a cutting edge comic and what modern comics should aspire to surpass. Another notable thing about it is how drawn out the storylines are. It feels like Brubaker is playing the long game, which writers aren't always allowed to do when they're given the keys to a Marvel character. Bendis' Daredevil isn't as good, but it's piqued my interest enough that I actively want to read it. Daredevil is one of my favorite characters, but I haven't read any of the modern runs on the title. The hook for me in Bendis' run so far is the idea that all this tragedy follows Matt every time he puts on the Daredevil costume, and the notion that he should retire as Daredevil and never wear the costume again, which of course plays into the idea of how much of Matt's identity is made up of the Daredevil persona, and vice versa. The art is kind of unusual for a Marvel comic, but I keep reminding myself that I grew up on Frank Miller/Sienkiewicz comics. Some of Maleev's art is really beautiful, and some of it is awkward and poor storytelling. Bendis' over-writing isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sometimes he'll throw in a reference to a song or something that makes me cringe a bit, but that's about it. I am slowly discovering that there is value in comics post-2000.

Fair enough. Jason Tatum just joined the list with Crawford.

Jamal Crawford had as many 50 point games in the NBA as Bob McAdoo, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, George Mikan, Tiny Archibald, and Karl Malone. Good enough for 22nd all-time. He also scored 50 points for four different franchises. He's actually 57st all-time in scoring with just under 20k points. But he was never an All-Star.

Staggering headline to walk up to. One of those Aussies that us Kiwis loved to hate.

He was the British wrestler Dave Larsen. He appears later on as the masked wrestler, Zarak.

How about DeRozan breaking a Wilt Chamberlain record? 35 points or more, shooting 50% of better, in seven consecutive games.

Damnit, time to put on my Betty Davis records.

So, um, Axl Rose is 60 years old today.

I read Hulk: Future Imperfect and The Thanos Quest, both of which would make my (very short) shortlist of best Marvel comics of the 90s. The former is set in a future where the Hulk has become the insane ruler of a nuclear wasteland, and the latter sees Thanos travel around the cosmos kicking butt and collecting Infinity Gems. Both books have outstanding artwork, Perez on Future Imperfect and Ron Lim on The Thanos Quest, as well as solid writing. Peter David was knee deep in his Hulk run at this time, and Starlin had just made a triumphant return with Silver Surfer. In many ways, this was the end of "my" era of Marvel where the writers still had equal billing to the artists. I was particularly impressed by Ron Lim's artwork. I didn't realize that he was so good. My biggest memory of Lim is being profoundly disappointed when he took over the pencils on Infinity Gauntlet. What surprised me most was the range of facial expressions he was able to get out of Thanos, especially those looks of despair whenever he was in the doghouse with Mistress Death. Villain-led titles aren't the easiest to pull off, but Thanos is such a multi-dimensional character that Starlin is able to make it work. You know he's going to succeed in his quest and claim all of the Infinity Gems, but it's a bunch of fun. The Maestro in Future Imperfect is likewise charismatic, and quite an outstanding character in an era not renowned for introducing a lot of new outstanding characters. So yeah, thumbs up for both.

What a show.

That was impressive coming back from 5-1 down in the second set with all that pressure on her. It looked as though her chances at a Grand Slam might slip between her fingers, but she is one hardnosed Aussie. No wonder Steve Waugh approves.

I read the Vortex stuff. Didn't read the rewritten and redrawn version of issue 14. The Hernandez Brothers issues were brilliant. Didn't like the Seth artwork. Is Terminal City good?

I ended up re-reading Concrete: Think Like a Mountain. This was the mini-series where Concrete got involved in an eco-war. I believe it was also a time when Chadwick got heavily into the environmental movement. In terms of Chadwick's craftsmanship, his work was starting to reach new peaks, but the story kept bugging me. Then it kept bugging me that the story was bugging me, like I must be some kind of anti-environmentalist if the story bothers me, or that Chadwick was telling me things I didn't want to hear. I still haven't figured out what to make of it. Another comic I want to talk about is Mister X. This comic completely fell off a cliff once the Hernandez Brothers left. I have never read a comic of this ilk (touted indy comic) that crash dived so quickly after such a promising start. There may have been a few that were cancelled, but never one that crashed and burned like Mister X. Others may not agree, but I was shocked.

I finished Tomb of Dracula Magazine, which ran for six issues. There was no reason for them to resurrect Dracula for this series. At first it seemed like the magazine would continue on from where the monthly series left off, but then Wolfman left, and it became more of a Dracula anthology series (something they could have easily done without resurrecting the character.) Roger McKenzie writes some of the stories, and the last issue is penned by none other than "James" Shooter himself. As with the other Marvel black and white mags, the highlight is the gorgeous artwork from the likes of Colon and Buscema. There's even a quirky Ditko story, whose Dracula has a passing resemblance to Dr. Strange. Tomb of Dracula is one of my favorite Marvel comics from the 70s, and I was surprised to learn that the magazine came out only a month after the regular series ended. Instead of being excited about more Dracula stories, I found the magazine largely unnecessary and not worth reading even if you're a fan of Tomb of Dracula.

Y'know, I just got into Saga around a month ago, but I didn't realize until just recently that it had been on hiatus for three years. I knew they took breaks every six issues or so, but not that long. You mentioned the other day about how people feel reading these types of comics uninterrupted. I'm actually in the process of reading Camelot right now, and I began reading Berserk long after its many lengthy hiatuses, as well as catching up on large chunks of favorites like Love and Rockets and Stray Bullets without having to wait for new installments. I've been pretty lucky. The only tough part was waiting for new installments of Berserk before Miura's untimely death. I have no idea how I would feel about any of these series if I had to endure unearthly delays between issues. I seem to recall as a teenager that From Hell took a long time to finish. Most of this stuff is probably better read in trades, anyway, I suspect. I hope Saga doesn't go on hiatus for another three years. What has the feedback been like on the latest issue?

There were three Sword of the Atom specials after the mini. You may be thinking of the Power of the Atom ongoing series.

I finished a few miniseries. I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League is the final Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire JLI miniseries. Lots of banter. The plot is secondary but there is some emotional growth to the characters (I imagine it was strictly limited to the Giffen/DeMatteis Bwahaha-universe, however.) Maguire's art is as good as ever. Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo wasn't the Michael Fleisher Jonah that I know, and the supernatural bent wasn't handled the way I expected, but Truman's art was nice. Jonah looked too much like Grimjack though. Sword of the Atom was decent. It felt like a pitch for an ongoing series. Not sure it would've had the legs for that, but as an experiment in turning Atom into a sword and sorcery title, it was pretty cool. I was surprised by how quickly things turned sour between Palmer and his wife. It happens only a few pages in, and it's pretty ugly. Gorgeous art by Kane. I was impressed at the effort Strnad & Kane went to to describe the physical effects of the Atom shrinking. That was really cool.

I just read the reveal. Wilingham kind of telegraphed it, though, as I'd already guessed it.

No, but it's on my radar as I keep seeing house ads for it in the books I'm reading.

No, I'm only 17 issues in.