I suck at updating, go kick a dog or something

So, I haven't updated here since before Comic Con, and I swear I'd feel guilty if I wasn't just so busy being COMPLETELY AWESOME. Honestly, I've come to realize that maintaining this blog actually made it harder to read comics. I would feel pressure every week to buy the books ASAP, read them, and come up with pithy things to say on a regular basis. Is this how writers feel when they're on deadline? If so, I can completely understand why books are late all the time.

Anyway, the new plan for this blog is basically to update whenever I feel like it, which I'm sure won't be incredibly often. (Send your complaints in the form of money to my PayPal account.) I guess I should talk about comics a little bit while I'm here though, so I'll tell you what I picked up today, as my shop (Golden Apple) was having their own post-Thanksgiving sale, and I finally used the gift certificate to Meltdown (the "rival" store to mine) my boss sent for my birthday.

The regular comics this week:
Beasts of Burden #3: I do think I like this book, although I'm pretty sure it's more for the art than for the stories themselves. Never really been into talking animals, so I'm not sure if that gets in the way of it for me, but I can't say I'm truly invested. What I can say though, is that I'll still be picking up #4-I may not be completely hooked, but I still need to find out what happens!

Chew #6: Yeah, it's still good. I actually dropped Dynamo 5 to stick with it (Sorry, Mr. Faerber!), and I still don't regret that decision. Half-faced terminator robocop cleaver face trumps a more enjoyable X-Men anyday AND OH MY GOSH MY DOG JUST LET OUT THE WORST FART IN THE HISTORY OF FARTS. I CAN'T EVEN CONCENTRATE MY EYES ARE WATERING SAVE ME!

Ok, I'm back. Had to go into the bedroom, out of the nuclear blast zone of Roscoe.
Where was I?

Oh yeah, my weekly purchases.

Criminal-The Sinners Part 2: I want to have Mr. Brubaker's babies. That's really all I can say about that.

Alright, everything else I bought I hasven't read yet-I'd promise to tell you about them later, but we all know I won't.

Here's a list anyway, in case you're curious:
Unknown Soldier #14
Stumptown #1 (finally!)
Northlanders #22 (Plague Widow #2) Quickly, I must say that I'm pretty sure this is my favorite North arc, and I'm only one issue in. I'm fascinated by the whole premise already, can't wait to see where this goes.
The 4th Exterminators trade (why, oh why was this book cancelled?! Shame shame shame.)

And then with my gift certificate at Meltdown, I picked up the first Y: The Last Man trade (for lending, since nobody's gonna borrow my floppies), and Winter Men, which has come highly reccommended by just about everyone. Let's hope it lives up to the hype!


Ok folks, I'm off for now. See you when I see you!

Back in the High Life Again

Sooooo much has happened since I last updated it's not even funny. Mainly awesome things-of course, I'm not going to go back and address them because my attention span just doesn't work like that. Instead, few quick notes:
-For any of you not currently frequenting the Standard Attrition boards, you really should. Aside from the fact that I post there and I know you want to spend more time in my presence, it's just a really awesome place. The creators who are represented there are like a who's who of my favorite books, and *Surprise!*-They're actually superfrickingcool. (Seriously, Brian Wood, David Lapham, Jason Aaron, Joshua Dysart, Jock...come spend your workday with us!)
-If you're coming to San Diego this year, you should let me know. Of course I'll be there, and rocking out like the cool mofo I am-if you want to have a quick chat or beer or whatever, just give me a shout!
-So Chew #1 is blowing up like Michael Bay-levels of crazy, huh? I honestly don't get it-I mean, I'm loving the book...as much as I can with only two issues out, anyway-but it's not like it's my favorite one on the shelf. Why Chew is going for $50 on eBay while Young Liars gets cancelled is beyond me. I'm all for raging successes of good books, I am! I just wish that this sort of love could strike a little more often than just for Chew #1 and Barack Obama Spider-man covers.
-Has anyone else seen the cover to Viking #2 and wanted to make love to it? I mean, I can't be the only one that thinks it's just the sexiest thing ever. UGH.
-What's with all the familly sex going on lately? Between Back to Brooklyn, Greek Street, and Jack of Fables, there's a whole lot of sketchy sex-maybe it's something in the water?

Confession of the week: I've never read anything Hellboy ever. Luckily for me, BPRD 1946 came in on special order yesterday, and I'm about to get into it. I hope it's good, for Dysart's sake!

GUESS WHO'S BACK, MOTHEREFFERS!

Finally, after only 90 whole days, I've wrested power of my URL back from the hands of the greedy Domain Registrar From Hell.

I know you've missed me. I know I've fallen way, WAY behind on too many things in comic news. I will not address all of them now (what the heck kind of machine do you think I am?!) but I will say this: I'M BACK. AND I WILL SHARE MY OPINIONS WITH YOU WHETHER YOU LIKE THEM OR NOT.

...But only if you come to my website to read them, so you still kind of have a choice.

Either way, I'll have a really real update for you all tomorrow.

Kisses!

Haiku time!

I've decided it's time to switch it up. This time around, all of my comments will be delivered in haiku form. Here we go:

DMZ:
Kristian is back!
Staten Island has never
looked hotter than this.

Rest:
Milo writes comics?!?
No, he's just a producer-
The book seems cool, though.

Welcome to Hoxford:
Good thing it's a book-
If this were a movie, I'd
be too scared to watch.

Dynamo 5:
This book is X-Men,
but with characters that you
actually like.

Astonishing X-Men:
Oh Warren Ellis,
Is there nothing that you won't
insert sex into?

Hawaiian Dick:
Short stories in back
Make it worth the three dollars
all by themselves.

Noble Causes:
They're ending the book,
but at least I get to keep
my Dynamo 5!

That's all for now, as I still haven't finished reading Air, Unknown Soldier, and Fables. Maybe I'll update on those later with limericks!

PS-I cheated on one of these, and left a syllable out of one line. Sorry, but I couldn't make it work no matter how hard I tried! And I mean, come on-would you have noticed anyway if I hadn't told you?

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That's right! NOW is the best time of the year, hands down-pumpkins, holidays where you wear costumes and get free candy, jacket weather, big piles of leaves to jump in, and oh! Lots of comic news!

Let's get started, shall we?

I skipped last week's comic-buying venture, mostly because I'm super-busy, and once the weekend rolls around it just makes sense to wait until the following Wednesday. SOooo, I have two week's worth of reading fresh in my head. First, the news:

This week, word came down that David Gordon Green was attached to direct the Steve Niles book Freaks of the Heartland. While there's no shock that a Niles book is up for a movie adaptation (30 days of Night, anyone?), DGG directing certainly IS. He's actually one of my favorite directors, but certainly not for his ability in adapting from books, or even for his experience in this genre.

He's known as a Southern Gothic director, who crafts these sleepy little gems of character development in slow-moving, "talky" films. (See "Snow Angels", "All the Real Girls", "George Washington"...no, really. Go SEE these movies-you'll thank me later.) Recently he made a notable departure with "Pineapple Express", but this isn't even another comedy: It's horror, AND a comic book adaptation. While I'm totally sure DGG can pull it off (mostly because I blindly love him and can't imagine he'd release anything that wasn't top-notch), I'm really curious how he's going to do it. Guess we'll wait and see.

I was going to insert the new round of comments I have for the books I read last night, but I've gotta run to grab lunch, and don't want to leave this sitting until I get back. Today's blog updates part 2, in a few hours!

Sooo many things...

You ever put off doing laundry for so long that the pile starts to resemble a mountain and the larger it gets, the less you want to do it until one day you're just like "Eff it", and buy a whole new wardrobe?

That's kind of what maintaining this blog is like. Once I go a week without updating, I think of more and more entries I want to make, and the fun of it suddenly starts to look more and more like a daunting chore.

I apologize for that, I really do. I'll try to change, but like any addict I'm sure I'll slip again. Either way, there are a few things I'd like to bring up today.
Actually, there's way more than a few, but my memory is shot and I can only remember things for roughly 72 hours, so that's what you're gonna get.

-MY LETTER WAS PUBLISHED! FOR REALS!!! For the first time in history, I sent something to a letters page, and it ran in the issue! It's kind of the most exciting thing ever, and I feel like I should have an IMDb page now, or something. Anyway, for any of you who want to see the wonderful glory that is my wrathful letter to Robert Kirkman, be sure to pick up issue #8 of Astounding Wolf-Man!

-Back to Brooklyn. Oh man. This is a new title from two names that roughly translate into "golden" and "golden golden", AKA Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis. If you're a fan of (awesome) things like Brubaker's Criminal, oh man. Buy it.

-Minx died. Sigh. Maybe someday publishers will realize that teenage girls don't want to read books geared towards teenage girls*-they want to read GOOD books geared towards people with taste. Sadly, some great writing got swept under the bus there, and hopefully the marketing push from now on will be more focused to point out that existing comics are GOOD, rather than these new lines that delineate "comics for them" from "comics for you". *-Although, I will concede that pre-teen girls do want to read books written for girls. But I swear by the time I hit 13, those Babysitters Club Books were long forgotten.

-I'm really really upset about the most recent issue of Fables. What should have been a captivating story was rendered completely distracting due to the shoddy artwork of this issue. I understand that comic artists are people too, and that everyone needs to take some time off-honestly, I do. But for a line as beautiful as Fables-one whose covers are all worthy of wallspace, and interior pages are a delight to look at, this recent issue was a total letdown. With apologies to the artist-it's nothing personal, I promise-it was just so poorly done. Let's all hope for the speedy return of Buckingham.

Kick-Ass, Shmick-Ass.

I mentioned a few posts ago how excited I was about the development of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass into a movie. Especially so, once I found out that they're sticking with the original story (no sanitizing for the masses), and one of the major players had been cast, in Christoper Mintz-Plasse. But now, disaster has struck.

As in, more players have been announced. Some people of no real working history, blah, blah, and, oh yeah-NICHOLAS CAGE.

Seriously, guys? NIC FRICKING CAGE?!? That guy is like Jack Kevorkian to every worthwhile comic movie. Or any movie in general. I mean, have you guys SEEN Ghost Rider? I understand he's one of the biggest comic nerds in Hollywood (a son named Kal-El?), but seriously who messed up so bad that they decided Nic Cage would be the best person to cast in this situation? I mean, if we're using fandom as a worthwhile reason to cast someone in a movie, then shit-you can call me Jean Grey.

I don't even know that part that he's supposed to be playing, as the character hasn't really been introduced in the book yet (thanks for the spoiler on character development, by the way), but I guarantee that it's a terrible idea.

Dear whoever's in charge of casting,

For your career's sake, I hope somehow, somewhere, there's a National Treasure 17 being conceived that makes him have to leave this project.

Hopefully yours,

-Dina