WholeFnMachine

I stared reading comics when I was 11, so we're talking 1987. There was a local comic book shop called Memory Bank (it's been gone for years) as well as an indoor flea market (which is no a Burlington Coat Factory) that had a great little book shop called Book Worms. The guy who owned Book Worms, Hal, was such a cool dude. They had a great selection of comics and role playing games and dice. My parents would go in there on my birthday & Christmas and he would hip them to all the shit I was into. I stopped reading comics around 1990 or so and the DC New 52 reboot hauled me and my best friend back in. I walked into my local comic book shop, Best Comics International, had a chat with the guys there who were super nice & helpful. They suggested all the best of what I had missed while I was gone and my wife & family got me tons of trades from Amazon for Xmas and Birthdays. I picked up some back issues that I wanted from Midtown Comics as well as http://www.mycomicshop.com/. I now have a ridiculously large pull list, I go to the shop every Wednesday and get my fix. I still get the occasional trade through Amazon or digitally from them or Comixology. I don't really get back issues anymore, but if I do I get them digitally for both cost and space reasons.

Comixology is running a sale on DC Origin stories: https://www.readdcentertainment.com/Secret-Origin-Sale/page/1613/?adid=CRMDCSALE20140422&click=DCDIGclick I picked up Robin: Year One, Batgirl: Year One, & Nightwing: Year One.

From a Wiki of Ice & Fire Coldhands seems to be a brother of the Night's Watch: he wears black and calls Samwell Tarly "brother." Therefore the dominant theory is that Coldhands is a dead or missing brother of the Night's Watch. Possibilities include: Benjen Stark, who disappeared beyond the Wall during a ranging Lord Commander Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers Ser Waymar Royce, who was killed by Others Will, who was killed by Waymar Royce The Night's King, who was a known consort of the Others Evidence Against Brynden the Bloodraven is very likely to be the Three-eyed crow, and so could not also be Coldhands. The Night's King was said to be deposed, his name "wiped from the memory of man," which sounds like he was thoroughly destroyed and likely to have been burned if it was known he was consorting with the Others. Leaf, the child of the forest Bran meets at the cave of the Last Greenseer, says of Coldhands: "They killed him long ago." Will, Waymar Royce and Benjen Stark died/went missing only two years prior, a small amount of time for someone over 200 years old.

I think I have one physical issue of Year Three stored away in my attic. I know that I have the entire Lonely Place of Dying story line up there. From what I remember it was very good,

Grayson with a gun just seems so ridiculously wrong to me, though I am intrigued. Also, Multiversity is finally happening: http://www.newsarama.com/20834-grant-morrison-s-the-multiversity-to-launch-august-2014.html

Better still that he brought up all the pages about Sir Duncan the Tall.

J.T. if you had to rank JLA Babel, Detective, and Private Casebook, how would that go? Thinking of possibly snagging a few on Comixology. Thanks!

I co-sign all of the Natural's picks, but I have to add Under the Red Hood & I LOVED Hush.

Anne Burrell briefly taught at my alma matter before I went there, from all accounts she is a HUGE asshole. Meanwhile one of my mentors is a friend of Guarnaschelli's and has NOTHING but glowing praise for what a sweetheart & amazing chef she is. Bourdain is awesome and his wife is super cool and trains BJJ at Renzo's. A training partner of mine met them at a seminar & said they couldn't be nicer. I like the way both Sanchez and Cosentino talk about food & what they like. America's Test Kitchen, while I find the host of the show annoying, put out some of the BEST cook books. I met Fieri at a cookbook signing he was ridiculously hung over at 8 PM. I love DDD, but he is the worst part of it, watch his eye line when talking to a female chef, owner or patron, he's a fucking pig. Watch an out of character interview with Nadia G, that is not her normal accent, I like her, my wife HATES her and the fake accent is why. Anyone else a big fan of Unique Eats & Unique Sweets on Cooking Channel? I love when Allie Ward & Georgia Hardstark are on there. They have some douchebags on occasionally, but Lillian Wong is great and so are some of the other guests. I miss the Best Thing I Ever Ate, that was a great show.

I'm a trained pastry chef, a lot of these "celebrity chefs," especially the ones who have never stepped foot in a professional kitchen aggravate the shit out of me. I'm looking at you Big Boobs Giada. NO ONE COOKS SAUCE WEARING A SHIRT CUT DOWN TO THEIR NIPPLES! As a baker, I fucking hate Duff and Buddy Vallastro for making people think a cake has to have 70 lbs of fondant on it or turn into a race care that transforms into a spaceship to be good. Cakes with that much fondant and that are only made up of 20% cake taste like shit. They are also usually stale due to the amount of time they go from being baked to being fully decorated. Oh and I hate Ina Garten for being such a typical East End of Long Island, pretentious, rich, white, snob. Enough hate, here's the folks I dig: Alton Brown Michael Symon Alex Guarnaschelli Bobby Flay (I disagree & think BBB sucks, but you cannot deny his skills as a chef. Plus, I think Throwdown! was a great fun show that brought a lot of attention to the restaurants of those he competed against) Chris Santos (I love the Stanton Social, he can come off as douche on Chopped sometimes, but the dude knows his shit) Geoffrey Zakarian Marc Murphy (Same alma matter) Melissa d'Arabian

Does his secret identity become Vag Whitefather?

Calling it FOREVER Evil has become way too literal. It is really just dragging on horribly this point. Especially for idiots like me who are buying all the tie ins like ARGUS, Arkham War, Rogues Rebellion, and the whole Blight thing going on in JL Dark, Constantine, Phantom Stranger, and Pandora. I just want it to be done and for the rest of the DC Universe to catch. Shit, my pull (which did include some Marvel, Image, & IDW) this week was 15 fucking books! As an aside, anyone else have an extremely light pull list for next week? Is it me or is hardly anything coming out?

Read Lemire's entire run on Animal Man & loved it, fantastic writing, awesome character. So glad he'll be in that new Justice League book.

FYI: Comixology has every issue of Animal Man (including pre-new52 and annuals) except for #28 & tomorrow's final issue (#29) on sale for .99 each. I just bought Lemire's entire run. I cannot wait to binge read it as I always heard good things but didn't want to add it to my already bloated pull list.

The show seems to get further and further away from the comic's storylines as it progresses.

I'm reading the nu52 Green Arrow and I jumped on at the first Lemire book myself. I think it's a great read, I've been really enjoying it.

It's not so much that I think that Dick is going to die or stop being a hero, it's that I don't like what they've done period. I like Dick Grayson as Dick Grayson & I also like Nightwing.

Thanks for all the input guys, way to come through with the recommendations, seriously, thanks so much! After plowing through Year One & the Longbow Hunters I'm now reading Quiver and will follow it with Sounds of Violence & Archer's Quest. All while simultaneously reading my 52 Omnibus (fucking huge, cannot bring it on the train thus only halfway through despite starting it ages ago) and my ridiculously large monthly pull. I hope to delve into the Green Lantern & Green Arrow compilation trade at some point once I'm finished. As far as Forever Evil goes, as an idiot who is also reading all the tie ins & fucking BLIGHT, I do feel it is going on FOREVER. Please excuse the horrible pun. As I mentioned to a friend the other night, it's pretty awkward that all this stuff is going on in it & all the regular titles aside from the Justice League, Constantine, & Trinity of Sin books are ignoring it until the end. Oh, and as a big Nightwing fan, it's horrifying. I really do not have much faith in what they could be doing regarding Dick Grayson when all is said and done.

and that's established very early on. I never thought Grell was an a great writer or anything, but I think Longbow Hunters is fantastic. Just reread it a few months ago, actually, and thought it held up rather well. The GA series that spun out of Longbow Hunters, and was written by Grell with art by Ed Hannigan is a different matter entirely. It was hit and miss and exposed Grell's shortcomings as a writer (imo, anyway). I'm thinking about picking up Smith's run as well, just to get it all in there. Have you ever read the Green Lantern/Green Arrow collection? How does that hold up?

Personally, I don't think you'll go wrong with any of them. I'd go with Archer's Quest and Longbow Hunters over Quiver. Longbow Hunters is my favorite of the three, but Archer's Quest is a lot of fun if you want something lighter in tone. I read Year One & Longbow Hunters and also downloaded Archer's Quest. I absolutely loved Year One, and thought Longbow Hunters was good, but not fantastic. I liked the artwork but the story was hit or miss to me. Perhaps because I made the mistake of reading Year One first. Looking forward to reading Archer's Quest. Thanks for the input!

It had to do with where Pearl is and what Skinner has been up to, I don't want to spoil anything, but trust me, it's going to be grand!

I'm on a Green Arrow kick and will have 2 to 3hours to kill later tonight, I already downloaded Year One. Of Longbow Hunters, Quiver, & Archer's Quest, which is best?

Insightful interview with Scott Snyder on the Batman 28 reveals, contains spoilers. http://www.newsarama.com/20308-scott-snyder-talks-bluebird-spoiler-batman-s-new-generation-of-allies.html

I've really enjoyed almost all of Scott Snyder's run on Batman, but I too am having misgivings regarding the whole Selina as Kingpin nonsense. Also, the whole Bluebird character and her "stungun?" Not digging that at all. Also, I'm guessing that was her brother at the Batcomputer back at the cave? So do they BOTH know his identity now? And where the hell is Alfred? I'm all for switching things up, but this is getting a little ridiculous. I'm trying to have faith in Snyder, but it only goes so far. I did like the last page reveal though. Time will tell. As a positive aside, I cannot wait for American Vampire to resume! Snyder told me some cool things about it when I chatted with him at NY ComicCon, so I'm stoked.

I honestly believe that Moira is the absolute worst part of the show with Laurel a close second.