Weekends and Wednesdays

I am not sure if it was Geoff Johns that said no matter how bad his week was going he always looked forward to Wednesdays. Lately it seems like I have been testing this theory to the hilt. A few summers ago I was having a rough go (which these days seems kind of like a cake walk, red velvet cake if you please) and thought well at least I have my new titles to pick up. Comics for some reason can center me and I can actually focus on the content. Television is trickier, I just flip thru and my mind wonders. So lately I have been enjoying that small relief that I get for oh say an hour or so. I was thinking about how there must be a million and a half comic blogs and reviews so why not one more! No I just wanted to write as I am home from work and had to do something to combat the stir crazies of taking care of a sick kid on a sunny day. Don’t get me wrong there is a chance left to my own devices I would be inside reading and such but this way I can feel like I am making the best of being stuck inside, yeah I would probably just read outside.


I seem to have this weird pattern of behavior pertaining to comics. I have my weekly pull list and once a week I look up the week’s list on Deathvalleydriver.com and copy it into a word program at work. I then while on hold or on break I high light what I am getting and my maybes. In my old age I often forget to print my list but more times than not I pick up my titles and end up back in the store on the weekend to pick up one or two things. Usually this second trip either involves a recommendation from my buddy Tim (who I partially blame for my Green Lantern fandom), a good review or sigh… the column the Buy Pile. The guy who writes that is a bit of a snot but I have to admit he has pointed me in the right direction on a few titles such as Dingo and a few one offs or one and dones. So usually after reading some reviews I end up making some excuse to run an “errand”. Comics are not very popular in our house and I am glad I have a storage space to store the long boxes that are native to my move here, it is hard to answer and skirt the question of “Did you read comics in Kansas?” Well uh yeah but I wasn’t obsessed with Blackest Night then.

So this week I ended up making not one but two trips for uh errands. I have my weekly pull at the delightful Lee’s Comics in San Mateo, where two really great guys work MP and Ryan. It also helps they are both football fans, one for the Saints and one for the Redskins, sorry MP about your team ending up with Larry Johnson. But they are good with the recommendations and are also not too into the realm where they cannot talk about anything else. This week I got my lighter than usual list and almost used up my $100 gift certificate. I am not sure if I am proud or ashamed that it lasted about 3 weeks for my pull list plus one new box and in the midst of talking I forgot to pick up the Siege and they were all out of Booster Gold #30. So MP got them transferred for me and put a Siege in the folder.

Saturday after a waaay too early wake up and a ton of house cleaning and a trip to Home Depot I made my escape to buy groceries and pick up the 2 issues I missed. It was a rough busy day and picking up these two issues and a steak rice bowl with extra rice from Chipotle were about the only good things in a long night.

Siege #3: I groaned and complained to Tim when I saw the check list for the Siege. I read the Secret Invasion and a few of the spin offs and really only one issue of Secret Invasion was great, the rest were very blah. I do have to say I have been enjoying all the Norman Osborne drama and really love the Dark Avengers title, although I heard it will not be around much longer. I really like the Sentry character as he is one of my favorites in the Marvel universe, one of the others being Bob from Agents of Atlas (I guess I enjoy your more troubled heroes). So a few times Tim and I talked about the Siege stuff and we both decided to take a pass. Late one evening I called him and had to say damn it I think I am going to have to get the Siege due to the preview in the back of a Marvel title. I refused to get the million other titles but I thought I could do a 4 book series, and I do not feel too lost in the going ons. So issue 3 is pretty good, it may sound funny but it is a bit of a slowed down issue. It sounds crazy to say that while there is so much action in this issue, Norman gets hit with Cap’s shield, Thor and the Sentry fighting, but I tell you I was absolutely floored and shocked with the Ares ending in #2. I was surprised it was not discussed at all in this issue but I am sure it will be or maybe it is in one of the cross overs. I enjoyed how many story lines are going on. It was cool to see Fury materialize and I enjoyed how the president is hedging his bets on the outcome of the battle. I am looking forward to seeing how they wrap this one up but I am also dreading that Marvel will probably just spin it into another series and truth be told I do not make that much money and well Brightest Day is on the horizon.
Favorite Part: Page 22 Norman showing his Goblin face and several panels of “Toldja.”

Booster Gold #30: This has been a nice little story arch and I am a big fan of Cyborg Superman. I loved the one off origin in the Sinestro Corps. Wars and feel he is one of those characters you really feel bad for and understand why he is pissed off to some degree. Booster Gold has become a big favorite of mine (damn you again Tim) and I often find his stories filled with a lot of heart and they are often bittersweet. The dilemmas he faces are great not wanting to alter history but not wanting to have horrible things happen. There is some pretty gripping stuff in issue 30 and the Sonora and Gracey interactions with both Booster and Skeets are great. The only problem I have and sorry not to sound Comic Book Store Guy nit picky but towards the end after Michelle and Booster leave and Drew is left behind to perish Michelle seems fairly calm about it. Maybe she is not melting down because she thinks they can go back in the time stream and fix it so he does not die but I would think your immediate reaction would be to as they say scientifically to lose your shit. The end had a nice twist that I read several times, damn the time travelling and all can get complicated. Not sure if everyone would dig this but I am glad to be on board.
Favorite Part: Page 7 When Sonora Crain is holding Gracey Greene and Skeets scans their names in the records of the dead from the Cost City disaster and Sonora says “My god how sick can you be?” She is angry and just appalled but then he helps save them.

So on Sunday I woke up early with even less sleep than the night before. I was up a good bit of the night playing nurse maid and felt like an old time man sitting in a chair beside the bed to keep an eye on any odd breathing or requests for water. The house was being shown from 2 to 4 so I had my window of opportunity to make a trip down south to another comic shop. I never remember the name of it but I want to say it is called R and K or something and it is in Sunnyvale. I am not sure when I came across it in the phone book but I spent a long long Sunday trying to find it. I even had my trusty co hort Tim on the phone in KC giving me directions and Google earthing the location, “Ok it is buy a car lot and a Burger King.”

This is a pretty good shop as they have a lot of good cheap back issues and they are super close to an In and Out Burger. I love having a day of fat man decadence when I scour through back issues and then have a gut bomb. I even planned my last birthday around one of these stops, however that Saturday I had a super shit morning and when I got there one of the clerks was so damn annoying. He just kept talking and talking and had this high pitched voice and kept talking about how he worked in the iron industry and blah blah. Now keep in mind he did not say one word to me but it was enough to drop a giant stink bomb on the usually pleasant event.

It made me realize how much I loved Lee’s and would only go to this place when it was really really warranted. Well I had a reason to go, Lee’s did not get Anchor #6 and they were out of Scalped #35 which I had read rave reviews about. So I figured I would hope bad tattoo iron man weasel would have the day off to organize his Molly Hatchet records and made the journey. I was pleased that the Giants cactus league was on and actually enjoyed the drive over. Sadly they did not have the latest Anchor (had to go on Ebay damn) but I picked up a few things. Iron Weasel was not there and I actually heard what I think is the owner complain about the mess he left. By the way the owner has a giant grey pompadour and big glasses, he is straight out of a Crumb comic. The guy who rang me up was super nice and said good choices on the 3 issues I picked up. He even recommended another shop that may have the Anchor. So I picked up a few things and picked up some Arby’s on the way to a short work session, by the way if I was more tech savy or had a better phone camera I would have taken a pic of the Arby’s bag that said never greasy that had… you guessed it a big grease stain on it.

Spirit #1:back issue for 3 bucks: They had quiet a few issues of the 2007 Spirit. I was hoping for more dollar issues but oh well. I have weird feelings towards the Spirit. I saw the movie and thought it was ok (gotta love Red Box) although I did like that Samuel Jackson kept talking about eggs. I always thought of it as pretty old timey and was not that into it. However, First Wave has really piqued my interest and I really enjoyed the first issue of that so I figured I would check out some Spirit, the more recent mind you. I do really like the look of the character and I have added the re launch of this series to my pull list. This issue was pretty decent, probably the lesser of the five weekend pick ups but it was not bad. You gotta love the heavy duty cover that is on a thicker stock. I was not too fond of the art work but it was not to the degree where I would not buy it because of that. I try not to be too snobby but really certain styles will make me just not want to buy a book. The art in this looks more like a Johnny Test style cartoon which kind of makes it look slap sticky and takes away from what could be a really great gross piece of work of a villain like the Pill. I do have to say I was shocked at some of the language used as well, I guess this is not the old Spirit. This was a nice one and done and it sets up a lot of characters and I imagine I may look into picking up some more.
Favorite Part: Page 7 where the Spirit digs out of the back seat of the Pill’s limo.

Justice Society of America #36: I have recently picked up some cheap used trades of Geoff John’s work on the JSA and loved it. I haven’t added this to my pull list as of yet because to be honest there are just way to many damn titles to pick up. I remembered thumbing through this at Lee’s and thinking I could pick up right in this arc and hey Nazis, I love heroes fighting Nazis. I made a Saturday second run and they were fresh out. I always kick myself when I do that as I know I will be making a longer drive or hitting up Ebay. The cover of this issue is just fantastic, you can see the age lines in Jay and Alan and the bloody flag is just incredible. The start of the story with the interview process and retelling is great, it leaves some mystery and I was wondering what the hell happened? I am sure it will all unfold and we will know why Mr. Terrific is being held and possibly about to be executed. I forgot how much I liked the odd little twist with Liberty Bell where she says an equation to get her speed and loved even more the crafty nasty use of rubber bouncing balls used to stop her. Damn I always knew those things were dangerous. When the Nazis swoop in I kind of rolled my eyes, some of the names seemed a little forced and obvious but once they get rolling they are kind of scary and I think the Shadow of War character was genius. The scene with Flash losing his mind and going off was just tremendous. I have to say I was tired and worn out and dreading a 5:15 AM alarm but this issue just made me go out on a high note for the day. I really enjoyed this and am glad I did not let this one slip through the cracks.
Favorite Part: Page 12 Where Alan finds the crate and Jay is in tears. The narration explains why it did what it did and I had to think wow what a clever way and evil way to do that (sorry trying to be somewhat vague so not to be a spoiler, yeah probably Tim is only reading this).

Scalped #35: I hate to admit but I heard about this one and done story in the Buy Pile column. Glad it exists but I hate to see the butt kicking he gives almost everything Green Lantern related. That guy I think his name is Hannibal described this issue as life affirming and damn if he was not right. I have only read a sample issue of Scalped and it is on my ever increasing things I need to check out list. First off the cover is fantastic and after reading the story it is both fitting and haunting. I am not a big fan of how most stories these days end up in happily ever after but I was really pulling and hoping for it with this story. I didn’t really dig the art that much, it had that odd jagged line look but the story is what really carries this issue. It tells the tale of Mance and Hazel and how they are struggling with life. It was interesting for me to read this on this day as we had our first open house and there was just this sense of sadness around here about selling the house and how tough the economy is. But you read something powerful like this and it puts things into perspective and hell I know it is just a comic and many people look down on them but this had some great storytelling in it. So many issues are dealt with in this book, true love, guilt, environment, social issues. I don’t want to give away too much but I would say this is one of the best things I have read recently.
Favorite Part: So much to choose from, I guess page 11 when Mance is driving home and he turns his guilty thoughts into appreciative thoughts.

So I would say a pretty good weekend pick up, it was kind of nice to actually spend a day writing and re examining the comics I bought. To tell you the truth I got more enjoyment out of them by doing this, so stick that negative comic book dudes. If I had to rank them it would be:
1. Scalped #35
2. JSA #36
3. Siege #3
4. Booster Gold #20
5. Spirit #1