14.1 - Cool New Book Witch Doctor

So, I have been excited about this new book out by Skybound an imprint of Image, called Witch Doctor, since I read the preview in Walking Dead issue 85. I has a cool premise which can be summed up by saying that it is House MD meets Hellboy; They say "House meets Fringe," but that doesn't make sense to me because Fringe deals with super science not the super natural. For 2.99 you can't beat it though. I'm on issue 2 and I'm waiting on issue 3 of this 4 part series, and I am really hoping that they can make this an ongoing series because so far it is funny and very interesting.

I love the way this comic approaches the super natural aspects of this world, even though I am not a big fan of fantasy. It doesn't just chalk everything up to magic and leave it at that, it explains things in a semi naturalistic way making it seem that the "demonic possessions" and "fairy baby kidnappings" are things that happen in the real world, normal people just don't experience these things everyday, and thus have chalked them up to magics over the years. The "possessions" are parasites and the "fairies" are humanoid insects who replaces human babies with there own in order to be reared.

As far as new comics go this is the topps and like I said I really hope this gets an on going, so I can add a new book to my list of non-superhero books (this is a very short list).

The writer, Brandon Seifert, is new to comics but worked with and for Brian Bendis at Portlan State University. I found a pretty good interview with him here and he talks a lot about the comic. The artist, Lukas Ketner, is just as new to the comic scene with doing a variant cover on Walking Dead.

I love hearing about new guys to the comic industry because it is always good to get new blood in the system. Check out the book!!

12 - Last Issue of Red Robin

You may or may not know that I am a great big Robin fan, Tim Drake specifically, and I have been since I came across issue 85 years ago. I just finished the "last" issue of Red Robin, a series after Robin that follows Tim Drake under his new persona. Overall I hadn't been to impressed with Red Robin until late in the series.

It was only in the second to last issue that they started to tease me with a bigger picture story, the whole thing with them introducing a thousand year old "villain" looking for his replacement in Tim, was awesome. It just makes me wonder if they will pursue this thread in the coming new universe. The last issue of the series was alright, but kind of a week story to end it on. It's not a real end though, right?

One issue I had with the series in the beginning besides that it spun out of the whole "Bruce was lost in time thing" was that it was Tim trying to prove Bruce was not dead. Some how he proved he was not dead by solely travelling the globe and beating up assassins while doing a surprisingly small amount of detective work. I guess they just left that part up to the readers to fill in between panels or something, but I may have just been reading too disjointedly. I'll probably go back and re-read it some time cause it is only 26 issues and I want to make sure I didn't miss anything. If I do ill probably post about it.

11.2 - Read a little further in to two books

The first is Irredeemable, by Mark Waid. I had gotten the first trade of this a few months back and thought it was pretty interesting. It has an interesting story of a Superhero going bad and what this means to his old team and how they will try and stop him. I thougth this ws a pretty good hook for the book but once I read it it did not strike me as much, it was cool, but I wasn't clamoring for the next trade. I found this second trade for 50% off at the Buckeye Comic con, and now that I have read on it definitely has me more excited for Irredeemable. The art seems better and the plot points make it more interesting than just seeing the good good guys run from the bad good guy.

The next book was Avengers Academy issues 3-5. I picked up 1 and then 2 when thy came out and they didn't hold my interest. Now I got some more and I am still thinking about the same. Just seems like an angsty emo teen team book. I might pick up more if I can get them cheap but probably will not continue with this series.

11.1 - Still Gonna Be DC Guy

Its gonna be another double post day. I'm not very good at this 30 day challenge thing, but I am achieving my true goal of just posting more regularly.

Anyway, like the title says I am a DC guy and will more than likely stay a DC guy on into the coming relaunch. Unlike most I have been kind of excited for this whole thing since I realized what they were trying to do. Initially i thought that this was a whole Zero Hours-esk thing again and I kind of blew it off, but the I started hearing more and more about the all #1 and relaunch/retool talk. I think that I am excited because of my nature to be a collector and completest. Since they are putting an end to everything essentially I have a good stopping point for my collection, and since they are going to keep putting out books with my favorite characters, I can still get new stuff which is always awesome.

oops gotta go to work.

9 - JLA: Tower Of Babel

Just finished the JLA: Tower Of Babel arc, issues 43 to 46, and I thought it was alright. I picked this up on a recommendation from CGS, they have mentioned this story a few time in the show. I say this arc is only 'alright' because the idea was very cool, but the execution could have been better. The editing took me out of the story a few time, but these might just be nit picks, when they say Ras is an Asian and when wally freaks on GL about mentioning Hal. I thought Ras was middle eastern and I would think Wally wouldn't care so much cause Hal was Barry's friend not his so much. But any who, over all I thought the idea behind the story was cool and it was a fun old read. I never really read JLA when it was coming out, and I will always pick up a story with Batman predominant in it.

8 - More "Black" Superheroes Movie in Next Decade?

First let me explain my title. I ask the question because in the last 10 years there have been more live action superhero movies in America than in the previous 50 years (not sure on accuracy got it from wiki wiki). With only a hand full of them staring a black or a non-white main character. (one of them was catwoman *yikes*) I quote "black" because I am talking about non-white characters in leading roles, not just black characters in leading roles.

Let me start by saying that there is no magic number or ratio that I need to see in order for me to be happy with the representation of minority characters in comic book movies, I would just like to see more than I have seen. The decade started with X-Men and ended with Jonah Hex (*yeah I know great book ends*), and of the 30 or so comic based movies that were released 3 of these movies stared a legitimate minority (not counting Hellboy), and two of those were Blade (granted, they were pretty kick ass). The only other examples of minorities being portrayed were in the X-Men movies co-staring storm (who didn't get her due till 3) and then Nemo in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (lets face it, no one got there due in that one).



It just makes me sad to not be able to see some superhero characters that look like me and I can relate to up on the big screen. I am hoping that in the future we can get maybe some John Stewart Green Lantern, T'Challa Black Panther, or Luke Cage Powerman on the big screen. With all the sequels comin out I really don't want to see continuations of Blank-Man or Meteorman in the next decade(lol).

7.2 Loot from Buckeye comic con

I'm just gonna give the highlights of the cool stuff I got. My best find was an issue two of TMNT first print of the Mirage run. A book like this is selling for well over 50 on ebay and I got it for 15 smackers, talked down from 20. Woot. I also got some earlier issues of Invincible, 14 17 and 18 for five bucks each. They are in great condition and just what I have been looking to add to my collection. All I need now are issues 1-13, and that will probably cost me. I also finally got issue 33 of Brave and the Bold featuring Zatanna, Wonder Woman, and Batgirl (Barb) which is pretty hard to find and also hard hitting with the twist on the end. Thank to the CGS guys for recommending it. I also got a we bit of Ultimate Spider-man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and Ultimate Avengers 3, with a lil chunk of Green Lantern to fill in some holes. Great show and looking forward to the next one.