ohtani's jacket

Xenozoic Tales is a terrific series that ends mid-story arc with issue 14. Interestingly, the issues were released so far apart that you get a clear sense of the growth and development of Mark Schultz as an artist from '86 through to '96. He's released other projects since then, which I'll be sure to check out at some stage. Every once and a while, there's a tease that he'll finish the arc from issue 14 but nothing's ever come of it. It joins the pile with other great unfinished series like Tyrant and Vagabond. After the 80s black and white boom ended, Shultz only released one or two issues per year, but even at that slow pace, the book was constantly among the Eisner nominations and Shultz was highly regarded in the industry. That reputation has faded over time, but if you're interested in what the early 90s comic book landscape looked like, Xenozoic Tales was a release, along with From Hell and several others, that people eagerly anticipated. It's not entirely original, as a lot of people were doing riffs on similar ideas, but if you like dystopian sci-fi, it's a neat series.

I finished Kings in Disguise. The Great Depression is a topic that hadn't been covered in comics very often. The author, Jim Vance, was a playwright, who was adamant that this story could only be told as a comic. This was right around the time when all those articles began to appear about how comics weren't just for kids anymore, and you can feel that type of energy and enthusiasm in the book as the creators attempt to unlock the potential of comics as a storytelling medium. Kings in Disguise wasn't as influential as Maus, but it was part of the same movement that led to the rise of graphic novels, and inspired cartoonists to envision stories in different genres, which honestly speaking, is something that needed to happen if comics were going to continue to develop as an artform. I'm not sure why the series isn't as well known as other books from the era. It didn't sell particularly well, but it was critically acclaimed and drew high praise from the likes of Alan Moore, Wil Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman and Art Spiegelman. I'd never heard of it until I started this thread. Even as a kid, I was aware of the graphic novel books in my local comic store -- the Sandman books, Cerebus, Maus, Love and Rockets, etc. -- but I don't recall ever seeing Kings in Disguise. At first, I thought it might be because the art isn't quite as strong as some of those books. In fact, it's quite of striking when the early issues have covers done by some of the more popular independent artists of the day. However, the art grew on me when I read a letter from Mike Baron that pointed out the EC comics influence in the panel layout. Burr isn't as good as the EC guys, who were master cartoonists, but the EC style grid is a nice fit for the story and suits the tone of a period piece. I believe Vance and Burr published a sequel to the story decades later. The American had a lot of potential as an ongoing series, and then it ended abruptly, mid-storyline, which was the fate of a lot of intriguing indies during the boom and bust cycle. I'm not sure if the later mini-series picks up where the ongoing series left off, but after reading a handful of cancelled Eisner nominee/winners, I have a new found respect for creators who managed to somehow complete their series. Comics should be fun, and I had a blast reading Charles Burns' Hard-Boiled Defective Stories, Batman Adventures: Mad Love, and the short-lived, but delightful, Tantalizing Tales. Hard-Boiled Defective Stories was an attempt to cash in on the success of Maus by publishing Burns' short stories as a graphic album and sticking them in book stores. Unfortunately, for the other creators, Maus was the only book that sold, but the mix of pro-wrestling and weird pulp fiction/film noir stories was right up my alley. Mad Love was by far the best of the Batman related Eisner nominees I read. The other books were good, but Mad Love was a joy, and surprisingly dark at times. I absolutely adore Jim Woodring's Frank stories, but I also loved the issue of Tantalizing Tales that had Gerald Jablonski's Farmer Ned strips. Those were brilliant. Personally, I thought Bratpack was Rick Veitch's strongest work up until that point, even if it was a spiteful attack on DC and kind of nasty in that respect, but the ending was a massive letdown. He didn't stick the landing whatsoever. Fantastic art, though.

Inoki had been sick for a while, but it was a shock when they brought him out on TV recently in a wheelchair. People have been overlooking what a carny he was, and the batshit insane things he did, but it was a life well lived.

Jazz legend Pharoah Sanders.

Carnage.

Remember when this album was all you heard, everywhere you went.

I finished Mark Waid's first run on The Flash. It was okay, but it was full of generic superhero stories. I don't see why it's considered a landmark run. I guess Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs' runs may be considered weird to some folks, but to me, they were far more brilliant. There were some positives to Waid's run. He was good at multi-part storylines, and he did a lot of nice stuff with Wally and Linda. To his credit, his writing was solid enough that it didn't really matter when the art was subpar, but I don't get what the big deal was, other than the fact that it was long. Perhaps the appeal is that it was a solid superhero run in a decade not known for its solid superhero runs, but you'd think it was the equivalent to Peter David's Hulk run the way some people go on about it. I guess other folks are way more into the Speed Force thing than I was. I must really like Wally West, though, as I intend to keep going through the Morrison and Millar run and back to Waid, and maybe even Johns.

One of my favorite songs.

Grunge anthem.

Creepy little...

Is this what you're thinking of?

I finished Chew over the weekend. It took me a while to get used to the art, but once I did, I was in for a ride. What a weird and wonderful series. It was batshit insane but strangely moving. And always entertaining. Thanks for the memories, Chew!

I'd travel back to the 50s or 60s to see more British, French, European and American graps. And some vintage lucha too.

Sakaguchi has some really good matches from the 70s. That changed my perception of him completely, more so than anything from the 80s. There is a tag match w/Inoki vs. Fujinami and Kimura where he works like the first coming of Akira Taue, though.

That was a badass finale. Chozen and Silver were awesome this season. Here's hoping Chozen hooks up with Kumiko.

Ha ha, Stingray the AEW mark.

My favorite Godard film:

Great to see a young player fulfill their potential in the modern era. Hopefully, Alcaraz can kick on from here and not flake out like some of the other young hopefuls.

I'm not so sure that Ginobili was the second best player on the 2003 Spurs team. Parker was probably a bigger factor that year, tbh. Stephen Jackson was arguably the second best player on the team.

I finished Jim Shooter's run on Adventure Comics. It loses its charm when Curt Swan leaves. Win Mortimer isn't a bad artist, but I was used to the aesthetic Swan gave the book. Shooter was getting older too, and didn't have quite the same youthful enthusiasm. It's a great run, though, with some classic stories and a ton of folklore. The first appearance of Mordru is a brilliant two-parter and the peak of the run to me. I understand that Shooter continued to write some backup Legion stories in Action Comics, but I can't imagine that they're much better than the final Win Mortimer stint.

I can't keep track of what's going on in this show anymore. So many callbacks to things I've forgotten.