Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday: Halloween Special!

Archie and Friends

Hey, I didn't know Sonic and Archie were friends! Or, wait, is that just Jughead in a really convincing costume. Oh, man. Maybe they're all Jughead! Scary!


Adventures Into The Unknown

Dudes, dudes, dudes! There is such a thing as taking theme costumes TOO FAR!


Lulu and Tubby #2

They hate him for his industry. He'll show them. He'll show them all.


Lulu and Tubby #6

On second thought, I guess he won't show them. Lulu will make a pact with the Powers of Darkness to exact her revenge. Lulu is the new Scarlet Witch! Run!

Video Time: Crowded House - Mean To Me

Crowded House got the band back together, man! They came to town last month and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Here's "Mean To Me" from 1986. It's my favorite Crowded House single. Enjoy!

Quick Notes From Diesel Sweeties + Comics Curmudgeon

I think Arthur Suydam is a great artist. I don't blame him for all the zombie covers. Still, I'm tired of them.

I think R Stevens agrees with me.

Eric Powell's stuff is on display at the Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery right here in Nashville until November 30th. So, if you're nearby, check it out! I'm gonna!

And for those of you who haven't seen this on the Comics Curmudgeon yet:



Mary Worth + Kung Fu Fighting = AWESOME!

Also, Helpful tip: Putting the words "Dick" and "Ass" in the title of one of your blog posts increses your traffic. Who knew?

Links For The Memories

Oooh! Linkblogging is scary, boys and girls!

Once again, people are talking about doing a Green Lantern Movie. This one gives me hope because it looks like it won't have Jack Black in the title role. However, potential writer/director Greg Berlanti seems concerned about "overcoming the prejudice of a ring-bearing hero". Um, what?

Melissa Auf Der Maur, one of my favorite musicians, is involved in a project that will include "new music, a fantasy film series, a comic book line and an online alternative reality game". Sounds ambitious but the images at XMADMX.COM are intriguing.

Here are some Crisis-related comic book urban legends to complement the return of Blogging the Crisis.

Also, here's a picture of train passengers who ARE ACTUALLY SKELETONS!!

Blogging The Crisis #8

OK, this is a kickass cover. Flash has obviously been through a hell of a lot and he's not the kind of guy to just kill someone even if that someone is a douche like Psycho Pirate.

So, we know what's about to happen at some point in this issue. The fact that it starts off with Flash imprisoned in some kind of goo while Psycho Pirate stands below him and prattles on. Oh, this isn't gonna end well. Psycho Pirate is primarily concerned about the apparent death of the Anti-Monitor. Psycho Pirate has obviously read his share of comic books because he focuses on the word "apparent". He's scared to death and the irony hasn't escaped him.

Sure enough, Anti-Monitor shows up a couple of panels later and says, "Dude! What did you think? I was just gonna go away after a little thing like being disintegrated." He then puts on a shirt that says, "100% Badass" and he struts around the room. I'm paraphrasing a little.

Page 2 is all about Darkseid. He's used the awesome power of the planet Apokolips to hide the entire, freakin' world from the Anti-Monitor so he can strike from the shadows if necessary. Darkseid is one of my favorite villains and this is why. He's got godlike power but he knows when and where to use it most effectively.

One weird thing: Every word balloon of Darkseid's contains at least one misplaced set of quotation marks. Examples:

"I have diverted all our energy to "cloak" our presence."

"Remember that "lesson" Desaad."

Um, just Cloak and Lesson would have worked fine. What sort of euphemism is Darkseid using, here. Wait. No, I don't want to know. The number of weird quotes makes me wonder if Wolfman isn't making some sort of dig at Kirby, here. Anyone have an idea what gives?

Anyway, next up is a page devoted to The Guardians of the Universe. I love these guys. Even when they walk around bickering amongst themselves it's cool.

Following the Guardians in the One-Page-Per-Group Parade is the Legion of Super-Heroes, another of my favorites. This brings up a question though: How, exactly, is the Crisis affecting Earth-1 in the 30th Century as well as in the 20th? I know, I know: Multiversal shifts and powers beyond the ken of mortals, etc. etc. but it still freaks me out a little.

Speaking of Earth-1 in the 20th Century, we find Firestorm brooding atop a water tower as Firehawk searches for him. When she finds him she doesn't greet the news that Killer Frost is "hot" for him as a good thing. Firestorm smoothes that over by saying, "Hey, she was mind-controlled, Baby!". However he nearly blows it with his next comment. Safety tip: When you've just talked someone down from being jealous at you, informing her that you're "getting a message from The Vixen" is not the best course of action.

Cut to what's left of the Justice League Sattellite. Vixen has called Firestorm in along with a seriously weird collection of people including The Atom and T. O. Morrow to figure out what's wrong with the Red Tornado. Well, it turns out that the Red Tornado has been turned into a Red Thermonuclear Device by the Anti-Monitor and it blows the crap out of the JLA Sattelite. Everybody aboard escapes relatively unharmed although Blue Devil (I told you it was a weird bunch of people) ends up chasing Morrow who is whisked away by Brainiac. Blue Devil stumbles into another random space warp and falls into Omega Men #31. I suppose it could have been worse. He could have landed in X-Men #141.

Now the real action starts. Anti-Monitor in his new stylin' armor is overseeing the construction of an antimatter cannon that will destroy the remaining five universes. Oh, noes!

I have a bit of a problem with the opening sentence, however:

The Antimatter Universe stretches on for thirty-two zillion light years.

Zillion.

Yeah, that's not a real number, guys.

The gun is being assembled on Qward where the Flash is imprisoned and where Psycho Pirate is, well, not doing much at this point. Flash frees himself by slowly increasing his inner vibrations (badass!) and he leaps down and punches out everyone else in the room in three nanoseconds. He would have done it in one but he had to get lunch.

Psycho Pirate pees his pants and asks Flash not to kill him. Flash says, "OK". I guess we don't quite get the scene from the cover but it's close. Instead, Flash comes up with a wacko plan to mess up Anti-Monitor and his little cannon, too! He grabs Psycho Pirate and runs around the room at super speed so he can use his emotion-control powers to make the Thunderers of Qward really pissed off at Anti-Monitor. It works! They all zap A-M and Flash runs off to destroy the cannon. He does so by doing the thing he always does: Run fast as hell. Here's the aftermath:


Anti-Monitor would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling Earthlings!

The last two pages consist of the Challengers of the Unknown (recently used to great effect in The Brave and the Bold) picking up on something weird which turns out to be The Spectre screaming. When that dude screams, it's kinda hard to ignore.

This was a good issue without a lot of filler. This series really shines when it focuses on a single, big action per issue. Flash's destruction of the cannon was well done and, just like Supergirl's, his sacrifice had meaning.

Next Issue: Best. Cover. Ever.

------------
Previous Installments:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Friday Night Fights: Batman Punches Guy

This is my favorite comic-book punch ever. Back in the Giffen/DeMatteis JLA days, Batman got so fed up with Guy Gardner's crap that he just hauled off and dropped him like third-period French:

Click to embiggen

Now, go see how Bahlactus throws down.

Awesome Cover Friday: JLA

The Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis run on JLA is one of the things that got me back into comics in the early 1990s. It was funny, well-written, exciting, and often possessed a depth of storytelling that many of the "serious" titles didn't have. It also had some of the best covers ever:


#35

I just love the composition on this one. And it was done by Adam Hughes. Yes, that Adam Hughes. The women on that ice floe are astoundingly HAWT you just can't see if from this distance.


#58


Here's one by Chris Sprouse who is one of my favorite artists. He did the cover of Ocean as well as the interiors. I enjoy the grisly math lesson on this one. Also: Lobo!


#42


Another Adam Hughes cover. This one's on here because it's the funniest cover to appear during the Giffen/DeMatteis run and that's saying something. The level of outrage experienced by these heroes merely from being asked to join the JLA is a beautiful thing. Hawk looks ready to turn around and kick everybody's ass.


#27


Kevin Maguire is my favorite JLA artist so it's no surprise that this is my favorite cover of the batch. Also, it's got Amanda Waller on it. She increases the cool factor of anything she's in by 50%. The Exorcist reference is a nice touch, too. True Fact: This cover could beat up Chuck Norris.

Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday: Action Comics

Yowza, kids! It's your old pal King Clownape!

The proprietor of this "blog" is one of my subjects and I have commanded him to make fun of Superman. He countered that Supermockery has been done to death but such arguments fell upon deaf ears (I have three, you know)! Then he said that he had spent a lot of time extolling the virtues of Action Comics to which I replied, "Bollocks! There are, like, 800 of the things! Make with the jocularity, already.

He had nothing to say to that. I am that intimidating. Also: King!

Therefore, I bring you Weird-Ass Action Comics covers.

Vaklam: OK, OK, your Majesty. I'll do it. Jeez!


#47

I didn't think this cover was all that weird until I realized that Superman is kicking The Yellow Kid's ass. I mean, look:


This is like some sort of Old God/New God conflict. Yeah, Superman! Go! Viva la Revolución!


#293

And people think that fanfic is weird. Well, a lot of it is weird but, dude. Check this out.

Comet The Super-Horse:

• Flies
  
• Communicates Telepathically
  
• Used to be a centaur
  
• Has super-strength
  
• Can turn into a human when in sight of a comet
  
• Was trapped on a prison planet for three millennia
  
• Wears a cape.
  

If it weren't for that last item, I'm pretty sure he'd be a ninja, too.


#270

Again with the super-animals. The image of poor, sad Krypto with his little, torn cape is just heartbreaking. Also, damn, Lois, why don't you rub a little more salt into those wounds.


#245

This one makes me laugh every time I see it because I picture the shrinking Superman speaking in that little electronically-altered voice that's always used when someone becomes tiny. Hee hee!

Weird-Ass Cover Preview

Here's a cover that makes my life a little better. I totally need to paint this on my van:

There's a gorilla! From Krypton! And he's angry! And he's wearing a Superman costume! I am so glad I live in a world where things like this exist!

Also, he looks a little like Lemmy Kilmister:


And Sebastian Shaw:

Video Time!: Yello feat. Shirley Bassey - The Rhythm Divine

Yello didn't allow the "electronic music" label to restrict them. In 1987 they teamed up with Shirley Bassey (singing) and Billy MacKenzie (lyrics) to produce my favorite Yello song of all time. It's on my personal soundtrack.

Non-Comics Art by Arthur Suydam

I'm a member of the Hard Case Crime Book Club which means I get their new releases just before they hit the bookstores. I got a double surprise with this latest shipment. First off, it's a Mickey Spillane book that's never been published before. Next, the cover was done by Arthur Suydam:

Check it out. No one's undead or rotting or anything. It's a nice piece of work.
Here's another one he did for Hard Case:



This one's a candidate for Heidi's "Is This Gratuitous", or it would be if it were a comic cover. But that fits since all of the Hard Case covers capture the look of the pulp novels as well as the stories capture the feel.

I say, Joe!

Did you know that GI Joe was marketed in the UK as Action Force? I didn't. Actually, that's not quite true. It's closer to the truth to say that the Action Force comic book is the result of a slow merging of two toy-related storylines. Anyway, I love these covers:

The proper sound effect for this picture is "CHUD!", by the way.



The Dreadnoks have always been my favorite bad-guy group. They're super bikers! Angry super bikers who have retrofitted their rifles with chainsaw blades! And they're so badass that they can ride around with sleeveless shirts during winter.

Thanks, as always, to the Grand Comics Database for the images. Throw some money their way if you can. They're six kinds of shrink-wrapped awesome!

Friday Night Fights: Turtle vs. Bunny!

I was out of town (and away from the internet) yesterday so this installment didn't make it into the official record.

This week's sucker punch is brought to you by Turtle vs. Bunny! Just call me "Again With The Webcomics".



Bahlactus asks: Are you a Rabbit or are you a Turtle?

Awesome Cover Friday: Action Comics!

Superman's pretty awesome, right? My favorite thing about Action Comics is the title. Action! That's a great name! This is a comic that has spanned every age anyone has come up with a name for, so far. Therefore, there's a lot to make fun of. There are some wacky golden and silver-age stories back in there.

There are also some awesome covers. Here are a few:

#1

With the possible exception of Fantastic Four #1 this is the most homaged/parodied cover in the history of paper. It's also awesome. Look at that guy! He's picking up a freaking car! What the hell? It's iconic because it works, mate!

#2


Here's a non-Superman cover but look at it! This is why they call the thing Action Comics! Excellent composition and I want to know what's going on there. Also, nice suit, guy.

#162


I like this one for the wacky use of color. It's eye-catching and I've gotta find out why Superman is punching a spinning shaft of light.

#397


This one sort of falls into that realm of "Weird Things Happen To Superman And Are Then Reversed" but the cover is creepy as hell. I mean, look at those robo-Supermen in the closet. That's messed up.

More Reviews

This latest haul was a pretty good one:

Astro City: The Dark Age, Book Two #4 - Wildstorm (2007)

I've really enjoyed following the story of Royal and Charles, two brothers living in Astro City in the 1970s. Kurt Busiek really captures the feel of the period and Brent Anderson does a great job with the visuals. He's not going for a reproduction of '70s art which is good. What he's done is made Astro City look different while maintaining the feel that previous artists have given it.

The two main characters don't get to do much in this finale but that's not really a problem. The whole thing has more of a Marvels feel to it in that we see how normal people react to Big Events. Unlike, Marvels, however, the main characters both got to be truly involved in the fallout from the Big Events. I have a couple of quibbles with the amount of stuff that was revealed in this issue just to bring the story to a close but that sort of thing just drives home the difference between the "Capes" and the rest of us. Nice ending to a good story. There's an overarching mystery that may be wrapped up with Book Three. I'll be there for it.

Un-Men #3 - Vertigo (2007)

The first two issues just barrelled through the story at breakneck speed. In fact at least one neck was broken. The third issue ramps up the weirdness along with the pace. Everybody in this story is messed up and I don't just mean physically. I mean, how well-adjusted do you think a town full of freaks and run by Anton Arcane's original Un-Men is going to be? If you can be creeped out, there's something in this issue that'll do the trick.

John Whalen is writing the hell out of this thing and Mike Hawthorne's art fits well with the story. Some of the faces Hawthorne drew for this issue look too much alike which made some of the closeups confusing but other than that, it's all good. Whalen and Hawthorne are completely in synch on Cranius which is good when you're depicting a super-genius head attached to a hand.

Simon Dark #1 - DC (2007)

When I heard about this a while back, I thought, "Oh, yawn. Another creepy-ass dude running around Gotham City who's crazy and kills bad people." Well, that's pretty much what you've got, here, but Scott Hampton's art combined with Steve Niles's writing make it more interesting than that. Not a lot more interesting but interesting enough. The first page of the comic hooked me. It's dark and creepy and beautiful. I figured that even if the story sucked the book would be nice to look at. Good news: The story doesn't suck. There are few surprises, here, but it's a nice character study and it leaves enough open for future issues to reveal.

It's like a cross between Profit and Batman Begins. I'll stick with it.

X-Factor #24 - Marvel (2007)

This issue marks the conclusion of the "Isolationist" storyline. It started off strong but kind of lost focus near the end. The bad guy who shares a name with the story looked like he was going to be awesome and ended up being merely less lame than a lot of villains. I wish his motivations had been different because Peter David really invested him with a lot of depth.

Still, there were some very cool (no pun intended - see cover) things that happened. David does something a lot of writers who aren't Warren Ellis don't do. He comes up with innovative uses for superheroes' powers. Given that he's writing about a bunch of people who have lost their powers, as well, he has the chance to come up with innovative things they can still do. I'm not disappointed in this story but it had a potential that wasn't realized.

Stormwatch: PHD #12 - Wildstorm (2007)

This was the week for endings. In this case, #12 is the last issue of the entire series. Christos Gage and Andy Smith teamed up to tell a hell of a story. If you haven't been buying the individual issues, pick up the first trade. The second should be out soon.

I'm a sucker for stories where non-powered people fight supervillains. Of course, on this team a few of the members are "reformed" villains. Gage did a masterful job of developing the relationships between the characters while telling exciting action stories each month. There was only one small speedbump along the way involving Christine Trelane but they managed to smooth it out fairly well. This is a great story, well-told and very well drawn.

Super-Villain Team-Up: Modok's 11 #4 (of 5) - Marvel (2007)

This issue has the best cover yet. The story is less coherent than earlier issues which is weird considering that there's only one issue left. However, it's still as much fun as you'd expect a story about M.O.D.O.K., Armadillo, Nightshade, S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra and nearly every other weirdo in the Marvel Universe to be.

Fred Van Lente is one of the funniest writers in comics today and Francis Portella's art is spot on. Portella has a clean style, a great sense of composition and a Giffenesque flair for facial expressions. Also, the colors by GURU-EFX - E (whatever the hell that means) are outstanding. See the sample page below.

So, if you're interested in a kick-ass story which features crazy superpowers, crazier antagonists, double-crossing, and bizarre technology all while not taking itself too seriously, check this one out.

Video Time!: Paranoimia

Here's another Art of Noise video. This one's got Max Headroom. This post couldn't be any more 80s if it had leg warmers on it.

Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday: More House of Mystery!

Hi, again, kids! King Clownape, here! As the monarch of Wierdassia I decree that last week's installment did not contain enough House of Mystery covers. I have sent my simian thugs, in sad-clown mode to visit the proprietor of this so-called "blog" and instruct him to post more! So, prepare yourselves for more madness from the House of Mystery!

If. You. Can.

Seriously, go prepare yourselves. I'll wait.

#2

Hello? Jane? Who's that dead guy that looks just like me? Can't you hear me? Oh, man. Hey, turban guy! You look mystical. Can you tell Jane that-- Hello? Little help?

Damn...

#15


But they have to want to change.

#45


OK, I don't even know where to begin with this one. Spectral Hands? Jewelry? Kite? What's with the bat wings. Perhaps most importantly, who's flying that damn helicopter!?!

Let's just focus on "The Phantom With The Funny Face", instead. That'll make all of us a little less insane.

#9


This story goes great with the "Terror of the Cute Shoes!".

Links + Video Time! Yello - Bostich

Brian Hughes salutes Fred Hembeck: Proto-Blogger!

Randy Lander asked us to, "watch the fireworks" after Heidi MacDonald's piece on autobiographical comics. Here they are! Also, I'm "this guy" in the 4th paragraph.

Dude, what was with the 90s? The fine fellows at Jimmy Olsen's Blues don't know either but they do have a feature on the lame-ass costumes that came out of that decade.

Scott from Polite Dissent posts (among other things) medical reviews of comics. He tells it like it is for good or ill.

Do you know about Blogger Play yet?

And now it's Video Time!!
Yello, the band who did "Oh, Yeah" from the Ferris Bueller soundtrack, consists of a couple of Swiss guys who made some of the best dance music that's ever been recorded. They, along with the Art of Noise, are among the godfathers of electronica.

Here's "Bostich" from 1980 (the video was made four years later) and it is a perfect example of their tongue-in-cheek attitude:

Blogging The Crisis #7

This is one of those covers that frequently makes "Best Covers of All Time" lists. It is powerful and it conveys the stakes the heroes (and villains) are fighting for.

The Death of Supergirl part is well done and I'll get to that later. However, the first part of this issue is all exposition all the time and it makes me tired. Therefore, I'll try to shorthand it for you.

The issue opens with Lyla "DON'T call me Harbinger" and Alex Luthor hanging out on a floating rock in a place "between the universes". Lyla mentions how calm she feels which is Pariah's cue to show up and bring everybody down:

"Boo, hoo, hoo," Pariah says. "Everything is bad. It's all my fault. I can't control where I go. I swallowed my gum."

Then Lyla says, "Take us to Earth, Pariah." She's asking him to control where he goes which he mentioned earlier was impossible. So, he takes them to Earth. Thus controlling where he goes. Buh? Also, she didn't say which Earth but it turns out that they're going to all of them. Well, all of the ones that are left.

Quick runthrough of the "Assemble The Heroes" scenes:

Earth-S: Captain Marvel and his Extended Family show up just in time to watch Dr. Sivana disappear. He's headed for Brainiac's ship. Then there's another one of those "I call bullshit" moments. Changeling (or Beast Boy or whatever he was known as then) is shocked, SHOCKED! to discover a talking tiger. Um, Changeling can fucking turn into a talking tiger! Maybe Tawky Tawny's smoking jacket threw him off.

Earth-2: Yolanda Montez mopes about in her brand-new Wildcat costume, translates her thoughts for herself, and otherwise does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Earth-X: God, I hate Earth-X! The whole Freedom Fighters team pisses me off. Here's a bit of dialogue from The Human Bomb (italics theirs):

I can almost see the other Earths becoming clearer in the sky. And even a Human Bomb doesn't want to see the explosion that will occur if they all appear at once.

Other Earths: Other stuff.

The whole point of all this Earth hopping was to get one representative of each Earth to go stand on a big, floating rock (pictured, left). Lyla sure loves those floating rocks. You'll see more of them later. They're all over the place!

So, who have we got on that rock? Why was each of these people chosen? It seems that the primary criterion was that each person be the Superman of that world:

Lady Quark: Very powerful. Only survivor of her entire universe. Makes sense.

Superman of Earth-1: Duh!

Uncle Sam: Urge. To. Kill. Rising.

Captain Marvel: Again, 'Duh!'.

Superman of Earth-2: This makes it a little Kal-El heavy but I'll allow it just for the "ZOMG! Two Supermanz!" factor.

Blue Beetle: There are definitely more powerful heroes on Earth-4 but Ted spends most of his time at the Gathering of Survivors just wanting Pariah and the Gang to get on with it. Ted speaks for the reader in this scene so I'll allow his presence.

Then Lyla steps up and delivers one of the biggest infodumps in the history of literature. For being a ton of exposition, though, it's pretty well done and it kept my interest. Short version: There was this bad Oan (the Oans are the dudes who created the Green Lantern Corps) named Krona who was all full of hubris and pretty much led to the creation of the Antimatter Universe. What a douche!

Next, Pariah proves that he is unmatched in Being a Downer by telling a story about himself which is pretty much THE SAME STORY LYLA JUST TOLD ABOUT KRONUS! Hubris, soulless science, woke up the Anti-Monitor, blah, blah, blah.

There's some bickering and posturing and a brief "Who's life is worse" contest (Pariah wins) before everyone agrees to go back to his or her respective Earth and recruit a bunch of people to attack the Anti-Monitor's fortress. Which leads to this panel:



Dang. That's pretty cool. Also, floating rocks!

Everybody on Strike Force Badass (my name) flies into the Antimatter universe (which is not easy). There's a big, weird castle or something and almost everybody has trouble affecting the scary rock creatures who attack them. Old, fat Superman gets hit so hard he bleeds which kinda freaks him out.

The Kryptonians are the only ones powerful enough to get to the heart of the fortress with some help from Dr. Light (no, not the rapist, the mean Japanese woman). Then we have pages and pages and pages of fighting. It's all pretty cool but it's also there to lead up to this moment:



Supergirl sees that the only way to end this is to hit the Anti-Monitor with everything she's got. Literally. It's too bad that you have to slog through all of the exposition of the first half of this issue to get to one of the most moving and well-done character deaths in all of comics. But, there you go. You take the good with the bad.

So, the Anti-Monitor doesn't die but he's really, really hurt. Kara pretty much disintegrated him. Unfortunately for her, Anti-Monitor returned the favor. Everybody cries and/or swears vengeance and then there's one of those weird comic-book funerals where half the people are in wacky costumes.

This issue had more good than bad, for sure. The action scenes were HUGE and that's the stuff Wolfman and and Pérez excel at. Also, the last panel where Superman flies into space with Supergirl's cape-enshrouded body is one of the saddest things anyone has ever drawn.

Next week: Flash kicks ass!

------------
Previous Installments:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Heidi MacDonald: Can Anyone Here Tell A Story?

Heidi MacDonald talks about lame, autobiographical comics. She's not saying all autobio comics suck but this quote sums up a great deal of her argument:

When Cervantes wanted to rebel against the badly written romances of his day, he didn’t write a long novel about being a smart guy who was sick of reading about the relatives of Amadis of Gaul. He made up a story! About a made up guy who had made up problems and friends, even though intelligent, sensitive readers could recognize their own foibles and dreams in those problems. Cervantes was making things up. God love him.

Thanks to Randy Lander for linking to this over on his blog.

Video Time!: Art of Noise

Heidi Meeley, the blogger with the strength of ten bloggers, has been posting awesome metal videos. Here's her latest.

Since she's got the metal thing covered, I'm going to throw some old-school electronic music at you. Here's the Art of Noise with Beatbox:

Friday Night Fights: Webcomics Version!

(click to increase the awesome power)

Tonight's kick to the face comes from one of my favorite webcomics, PC Weenies. Krishna, the guy behind PC Weenies, has just started a new webcomic called Uncubed.

In other news: Bahlactus is gonna knock you back to the Devonian, punk!

Awesome Cover Friday: The Black Knight

The Black Knight is one of my favorite Marvel characters. I'm talking about Dane Whitman, here. The one who was in the Defenders and later The Avengers. However, the character was created in 1955 as Sir Percy of Scandia. He had his own series back when Marvel was called Atlas but it only lasted five issues. Check out the medieval awesomeness!

#1

This is a hell of a first cover! Big horse, cool armor, dudes with swords, and exciting text! Also, look at the detail on the horse!

#2


Battle scene! Damn! I have no further commentary. This thing just looks great!

#4


I miss word balloons on comic-book covers. It's not that they've completely disappeared but you don't see stuff like the cover above anymore. It does a great job of letting you know what you're in for and it makes me want to see the rest of the story. Mission Accomplished!

#5


Another battle scene! In this one everybody gets a different helmet. It's an Arthurian Helmet Party and Sir Percy's is the grandest of all!

I'm gonna name my next techno band Arthurian Helmet Party. Watch our MySpace page for details!