Friday Night Fights: Spider vs. Furry Spider

Sixteen legs enter! Eight legs leave!

It's Spider vs. Other Spider!

Bahlactus wouldn't let Spider-Man get the drop on him like that!

Awesome Cover Friday: The 'Nam

Last Sunday was Veterans' Day here in the U.S.
Noetic Concordance salutes all our veterans along with everyone currently serving in the military. Thank you all.

The 'Nam was a Marvel series about The Vietnam War that ran for 84 issues in the late '80s and early '90s. It was a well-written book that took an unflinching look at the war and its effects on the people and countries involved. Well, as unflinching as the comics code would allow but they managed to tell some compelling stories.

I don't have a complete run of the book because it got a little stupid near the end but the original team of Doug Murray, Michael Golden, and Larry Hama is one of those teams that makes comic-book history. Also, say what you will about Jim Shooter but he greenlit the project in the first place. Here are some of my favorite 'Nam covers.

Again with the Linking!

I just found out about Marvel Digital Comics. I don't generally enjoy reading comics on my computer but they have a hell of a selection and a lot of free samples. Monthly subscriptions are $9.99 and annual subscriptions are $59.88. This definitely won't replace my comic-shop habit but it's a cool idea.

Also, Patrick McEvoy just left word in my comments section that he's signed an exclusive contract with Marvel's Licensing division. So, starting the first of 2008 you'll see more of his awesome art under the Marvel logo. He's still going to be working on Starkweather: Immortal, though, for which I am glad.

Here's one of my favorite examples of Patrick's work. It's from The Gatesville Company #1 which is a title I really enjoyed.

Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday: Weird War!

This past Sunday was Veterans Day. This week, King Clownape and I want to salute our veterans with a collection of Weird War Tales covers from the 1970s. Weird War had its share of But They Are Actually Skeletons!! covers and most of them were about WWII. Here are some of the best and the weirdest.

Tune in Friday for a more serious salute!

#36

Your superior intellect is no match for our inferior weapons!



#59

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the next internet meme:
Skeleton vs. Samurai vs. Robot!



#96

Form of an X-Man!



#89

Apes, people. Nazi apes. You're welcome.

Linkity-link-link-link: This Time It's Personal

There's gonna (probably) be a Starkweather: Immortal Movie. I'm enjoying the comic so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how this shapes up.

Looking for a bunch of Kirby Monster Stories which were never reprinted? I wasn't but I sure am, now!

Are you a plumber? Do you want to be in a comic book? Click here to realize your dreams! Also: Free Toilet!!

And now, here's a sequence in which Guy Gardner gets beat up by a mouse:

Click to Embiggen

Friday Night Fights: Thor vs. Thanos!

Oh, I'm sorry, Thanos, did you say somethi--BLAM!!

Bahlactus has the Power Cosmic and he's not afraid to use it!

Awesome Cover Friday: Decision 2007!

With an election day just past, I wanted to focus on some awesome political-office-related covers. General Zod's Campaign is still going strong, by the way. Here are a few other superheroes who have thrown their spandex into the ring:

Lex 2000 #1

This striking cover comes from the time that Lex Luthor was elected President of the United States. Comparisons with the actual election of 2000 flew fast and furious. The situation in the DC Universe's version of America reminds me of Alfred E. Neuman's perpetual campaign slogan: You Could Do Worse; You Always Have.


Captain America #250


Roger Stern and John Byrne teamed up for a story in which Cap runs for President and would have won but he drops out of the race in order to keep on bustin' heads. That's a good thing. If he'd been elected someone might have tried to assassinate him.


Green Arrow #60


DC skipped the entire Universe forward a year and then spent the next year catching the readers up on what happened. It was a pretty cool idea even if it had a few speedbumps along the way. My favorite change was the election of Oliver Queen as Star City's mayor. Yeah, let's see how that kid from Pittsburgh does in an archery contest!


Doom 2099 #28 & Doom 2099 #29

And now, two covers from Warren Ellis's run on Doom 2099. President Doom. 'Nuff said.




This is even better than that time Zod put his face on Mt. Rushmore!

Video Time!: Little Dee!

Little Dee is one of my favorite webcomics. It's cute, funny, and well-drawn. The video above is taken directly from a couple of weeks' worth of strips and, well, you just have to see it. No one can be told what "We Rogues of Wool" is.

Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday: Decision 2007!

Yesterday was election day here in The States so, this week, Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday is devoted to our elected officials!

Prez #1

Prez is the best comic series ever written about a teenager who became President of the United States. Nothing more needs to be said.



3-D Bullwinkle For President #1


Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a swing state out of my hat!


The Governor and J.J. #1


Governor Drinkwater was a widower so his zookeeper daughter fills in as First Lady. Zookeeper! Governor! This thing just writes itself!


Prez #4


Here's another Prez cover. As you can see, he was a very hands-on Commander-In-Chief. Trivia: "Vampire in the White House" is also the title of Dick Cheney's upcoming autobiography.

Video Time: Split Enz - One Step Ahead

Here's another one from Split Enz. Man, this was 80s, 80s, 80s!

Actual, factual content Real Soon Now.

Friday Night Fights: Alice Fight!

It's Alice vs. Alice. Oh, no! She just picked up The Looking Glass and smashed the other Alice over the head with it!

You know, most sites would charge for this sort of content. You're welcome.



I got home too late to make it into the official record but that doesn't change the fact that Bahlactus has spoken!

Awesome Cover Friday: The Long Halloween

The Long Halloween is a 13-issue limited series by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale which came out in the late 90s. It's could have been called Batman: Year Two because it followed Batman: Year One chronologically and it involved the origins of most of Batman's rogues' gallery. The covers were different from nearly anything else on the racks at the time and they are all beautiful. By the way, Tim Sale is the guy who paints all of Isaac Mendez's pictures for Heroes.

#6

This cover is a prime example of why I love Tim Sale's work. It's a beautiful combination of art and graphic design. I'm a sucker for limited palettes when they're used well. That combined with the black, empty background really sells this cover.


#4


The composition on this cover is superb. The images of Batman and the Joker didn't hit me until I'd been staring at it for a few seconds. When I saw them I actually got a little chill. Mission accomplished.


#12


Now, this is impressive. DC found a way to make Labor Day scary.


#6


Thanksgiving, on the other hand, needed absolutely no help. It's already the scariest holiday. However, dang! Look at it! That's really creepy!

Video Time: Split Enz - I Got You

The Crowded House video I posted the other day got me thinking about Split Enz which was Neil Finn's band before Crowded House. When this song was recorded in 1980, Neil was a couple of years younger than his son Liam (who tours with Crowded House) is now.

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.