I've been behind several months on reading my digital new comics (that darn iPad touchscreen doesn't work so well with hooves). It came out last year, but I only recently read and very much enjoyed the new Swordquest miniseries, continuing the tale of those classic early-80s Atari 2600 8-bit cartridges — and yes, I had Earthworld and Fireworld to play on my Sears Video Arcade with real simulated wood panelling! Even more than those original classic games, I loved the set of DC minicomics included with art by George freakin' Pérez. My little brain full of oatmeal and pins is properly blown.
The new Swordquest comics are written by Chad Bowers and my good pal Chris Sims, creators of X-Men '92, so I knew this was gonna be good, too. Also: another good pal, Josh Krach, did the lettering! Lettering: without it comics themselves would be nearly impossible!
What I didn't expect was that Chad 'n' Chris would so thoughtfully place a Today in Comics History in the first issue for me to use! I know they did this specifically thinkin' of me. Thanks, guys!
from Swordquest (2017 series) #0 (Dynamite, May 2017 and hey, Dynamite, why you not put publication month on your comic books? it bugs me that you don't); script by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims; pencils, inks, and colors by Ghostwriter X (Scott Kowalchuk); color flats by Karl Fan; letters by Josh Krach
Yay! Thank you, C&C Comics Factory! And imagine my surprise when I got to issue #2 only to find that these guys had actually guest-starredme, your favorite little stuffed bull, in a few glorious panels drawn by Ghostwriter X who I think is the leader of the New Mutants now. here's let me show you the page and see if you can spot me, Bully the Little Stuffed Bull, in the panels below!
from Swordquest (2017 series) #2 (Dyanmite, August 2017); script by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims; pencils, inks, and colors by Ghostwriter X (Scott Kowalchuk); color flats by Karl Fan; letters by Josh Krach
I...I am honestly touched, guys, that it's such an accurate and faithful portrayal of me.
In all seriousness, I do heartily recommend Swordquest, which cleverly mixes the mythology inside the original games and comics with the real-life drama of Atari's creation and marketing of the cartridges. Bully says DON'T ASK: JUST BUY IT! Well, actually, you should ask, nicely, at your local comics store, where you can buy the Swordquest collected trade and probably back issues of the series. If, like me, you're into e-literature, check here on Comixology for the trade "paperback" and individual issues.
And now, quite possibly the greatest comic strip of all time! Take that, Krazy Kat! Get outta here, Pogo! No time for you, U.S. Acres! Yes, it's the Sensational Character Find of February 2014...Iron Jonah!
The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip (King Features Syndicate, 2014), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Larry Lieber, inks by Alex Saviuk
Of course, Iron Jonah is an immediate hit with the general public (if not The Beat*)
Look out, Spider-Man! You've got Iron Jonah on your tail! And that's about as unappetizing as it sounds!
Unlike any of Tony Stark's armored suits, however, this one malfunctions! And Jonah didn't save the receipt, so he can't even get store credit back for it! Curse these restrictive retailing regulations!
So everybody forgives Jonah, and another subplot about Robbie Robertson is tied up in the most bromatic way possible.
This fantastic storyline was never adapted into the regular Marvel Comic Books, because J. Scott Campbell refused to draw a sexy cover of bare-midriff J. Jonah Jameson.
Iron Jonah, won't you?
(A hooves-up salute to my very good pal, the mighty Chris Sims, who first brought the Invincible Iron Jonah to my attention in this fine article from Comics Alliance!)
*I meant the English Beat, but if you wanna take that as referring to Heidi MacDonald, that works too.
from Batman Special #1 one-shot (June 1984), script by Mike Barr, pencils by Michael Golden, inks by Mike DeCarlo, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Todd Klein
Panels from Batman, Inc. (2011 series) #6 (June 2011), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Chris Burnham, colors by Nathan Fairbairn, letters by Pat Brosseau
Chris Sims, America's Most Popular Batmanologist™ has a lovely article today over at our friends, ComicsAlliance, that you oughta check out. (Go ahead, click here and read it and then come back. I'll wait for ya.)
Back? Good.
That was an excellent example of Batman dressing up as another hero. in contrast, I'm going to show you what Batman's usual and favorite Halloween costume is.
He dresses up as Batman.
from Batman: Gotham After Midnight #6 (DC, December 2008), script by Steve Niles, pencils and inks by Kelley Jones, colors by Michelle Madsen, letters by Pat Brosseau
(Click picture to Great Pumpkin-size)
Hey, did you spot the Little Cool Thing...a cameo appearance by the Peanuts gang?
Why does Bruce Wayne dress up as Batman on Halloween? Well, why not? (Also, he's already got the costume.)
Of course, some people just up and steal Batman's idea.
But in the end...it's all worth it. For the kids.
None of which explains, of course, the year Bruce went in drag as Madonna.
Live from the fabulous Bully Arms (and legs) in beautiful Park Slope, Brooklyn, it's The Fun Fifty, the nightly countdown, now for one night only 10% less filling!
Oh, no, that's not the scene of the Fun Fifty. That's actually The Three Batsignals.
What, you haven't heard of The Three Batsignals? Well, how else do you think Commissioner Gordon is going to summon three members of The Legion of Batmen?!?
Three Batmen are needed in Gotham to hunt down Two-Face-and-a-Half, so that leaves plenty of Batmen to attend our awards ceremony. Why don't you settle down as we kick tonight's festivities off with...
#19: STAR TREK • I was skeptical about how good The Lord of the Rings or Spider-Man could be on film, and boy was I wrong. But from the moment I first saw that new trailer, I was ready to line up for May 8th's Horta-hot event of the year, the opening of the new Star Trek movie. I'm a little Trek fanbull from way back, but I'm no purist at the expense of entertainment, so Big-Screen Trek was everything I'd hoped for, and more. The bag of popcorn sat unforgotten in my lap while I gazed wide-eyed at the new Enterprise and fantastic space battles and a talented new crew and that green girl in her underwear. It wasn't necessarily Trek with a message (unless the message is, you can settle for a less than ordinary life, or you can be something better, something special) but big, bright, shiny sheer entertainment: the kind of movie I'll gladly plunk my twelve bucks down to see again and again. You can quibble about little bits and pieces if you want—I'd rather have had it be a full reboot rather than a changed history, and Kirk landing the Captain's chair before he'd finished the Academy?—but suspend your inner Trek nitpicker and you've got a movie that's not just a good Star Trek film, it's a good film, period. I especially loved McCoy: ten seconds after his first appearance and Karl Urban has already utterly nailed McCoy. (And I certainly didn't expect to be laughing at funny bits as much as I did!) Bring on the next one, I say.
#18: MARVEL SUPER HERO SQUAD SHOW • Cool little toys (of course I have the Ben Grimm one!) become a cool little TV show on Cartoon Network featuring superdeformed versions of the Marvel heroes and villains fighting a deadly Civil War which will lead to an invasion by shape-shifters and the death of...NO! This is just all silly and over-the-top fun, made for kids...but us little bulls, and my human pals, like it too. Doc Doom and his team of villains race Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Falcon, Wolverine, Thor and the Silver Surfer to find MacGuffins...I mean, Infinity Fractals that can help you rule the world! Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Sort of a halfway point between Marvel Adventures Avengers and Chris Giarrusso's Mini Marvels, it doesn't take its heroes too seriously: Hulk is the friendly dumb smasher, Captain America is straight-laced and frequently oblivious, and the Silver Surfer has a California beach bum accent. (I'm not too sure about that last one, but hey.) Super Hero Squad definitely isn't high art: it knows what kids find funny (there are a lot of burp and fart jokes here), but for long time Marvel fans it's great fun to see superheroes stripped to their primal components: guys and gals in bright costumes fighting the baddies, throwing punches and zapping with power rays, and nobody ever gets hurt any more than Daffy Duck used to.
And yep...that's Stan Lee as the Mayor. And how can you resist a show that has one episode titled "Mental Organism Designed Only for Kissing"?
There's enough in-jokes and Marvel Universe references to keep you amused even if you're not a kid or a little stuffed bull, but when you're tired of all the angst and blood and Ares's intestines getting all over the carpet and making a mess, give Super Hero Squad a try to just have some fun with Marvel's heroes.
#17: WOMAN OF A.C.T.I.O.N. • Super secret agent action spanning from London to Monte Carlo! Guns, girls, gambling and goons! Tight leather catsuits, monocled madmen, and lacy lingerie! No, you're not reading one of the approximately ten bajillion Black Widow comic books on the market now, but the all-new, all-adventure book from your pals and mine at Action Age Comics! Yes, that means it's written by pal Chris Sims, he of the face-kickin' Invincible Super-Blog, tongue firmly in cheek (with gorgeous art by Chris Piers and Steve Downer), and it's almost like Chris is writing it for me, playing on every over-the-top action trope that I loves to pieces in a spy movie, book, or comic. Sexy, troubleshooting (and troublemaking) agent Penelope Devlin's career in spydom may be overshadowed by her overenthusiastic approach (wherever she's been, there's usually something that's blown up) and her star-spy brother Ricky (given a lovely Wodehousean personality and dialogue, including an ultra-competant valet at his side). I've been enjoying all the comics coming out of Chris and his stable of slaves collaborators at Action Age Comics, but Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N., with its Ian Fleming antics set in a Bob Haney world, leaves me hungry for more. Hey, Chris...why doncha quit that dead-end retail job of yours and go into writing full time? Naw, he never listens to me. You can't buy Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N. at your local comic shop, but you canread it for free at the Action Age website, or download a .cbz file here!
#16: YOTSUBA&! VOL. 6 • I don't read a lotta manga...in fact, I think the X-Men: Misfits book I reviewed the other day might have been the first time I talked about manga on this blog. Well, add Yotsuba&! to that small new list of manga I love! 2009 was a good time to be a fan of the curious and outspoken little girl with green lucky-charm hair: Yen Press made us all happy by picking up the license from ADV and bringing out the long-delayed Vol. 6 (and Vol. 7 came out right at the end of the year; look for it, no doubt, in 2010's Fun Fifty!). Bright, giddy, and gentle everyday adventures of Yotsuba "and" everything and everybody...look, how can you pass a book with this as the cover copy:
Yotsuba’s getting a biiiiike, Yotsuba’s getting a biiiiiike!! Didja know the wheels of a bike go round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and roun —oh, Yotsuba’s getting dizzy...whoooooa...
That nails it, really, right there: gentle humor and enthusiastic exploration of her world is the Yotsuba trademark, without any cloying Pollyanna überniceness or Dennis Mitchell destruction. Just like Darkseid, Yotsuba is. After all, who could have charmed the Grey Lady herself, the austere New York Times, to go from this bewildered "WTF?" description of Vol. 6...
...to this more savvy and appreciative summary three months later:
Yotsuba's set up shop in my right-hand column for quite some time, as an avatar of exactly what this blog is about. In case you haven't seen that recently:
With Yotsuba, it always is.
#15: TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE VOL. 1 • Fantagraphics has brought out a great-looking hardcover collection of Michael Kupperman's brilliant Tales Designed to Thrizzle, reprinting the first four black-and-white issues in color! (Now that's extra added value from your pal Gary Groth right there!) Without hyperbole, Thrizzle is simply the funniest, most guffaw-out-loud comic book they're going to have to pry out of your cold, dead hands when you die laughing. Kupperman's style is to take a relatively simple if absurd situation (asking your friend if you smell like a hobo) and take it completely to its illogical conclusion (a plea to buy more Fireman Octopus merchandise) within the span of four pages. Thrizzle's stuffed from front cover to impressive back page blurbs with Kupperman's splendiferous pulps-meet-woodblock-print artwork and lunatic stories; it's one of those rare humor books that actually is downright hilarious. Truth in disclosure: yours little stuffed truly, and my pal John, work for W. W. Norton, which distributes Fantagraphics titles to the bookstore trade.
#14: AGENTS OF ATLAS • Really, just what the Sam Scratch is wrong with you people? Every week you buy umpteen-ump copies of Deadpool to inspire Marvel to put out four more series, while you let inventive, imaginative, and just-plain-crackjack comics like Agents of Atlas dwindle down to sales of 17,500 copies a month and get cancelled. Restarted this year with a new #1, Agents didn't even reach a full year of publication. So what'd you miss? Great high adventure including an innovative "Dark Reign" tie-in pitting the supposedly-villainous-but-really-good Atlas against the supposedly-good-but-really-villainous Norman Osborn, guest spots by the Avengers and the Hulk, the accomplished storytelling and natural dialogue of Jeff Parker, the beautifully textured and nuanced art of Carlo Pagulayan, Clayton Henry, Gabriel Hardman and Dan Panosian, and the most unique team of heroes in the Marvel Pantheon. Including a talking gorilla. A freakin' talking gorilla. Luckily for fans, the adventures of Marvel's most subversive superheroes continues in a series of minis teaming them with the X-Men and Avengers, back-up features , and (it looks like) some leading, starring roles in the Marvel Universe. But the regular Agents of Atlas? There ya go, and there it went. This is probably the strictest and scold-iest I will get during the Fun Fifty, but hey! Do you remember when your mom told you "If you can't take care of your nice things, you don't get to have them anymore!" And that's what happened with Agents of Atlas. I've got nothing against Marvel Zombie consumerism...heck, look at my pull list!...but seriously, guy who's buying every Red Hulk title on the shelf...try something new once in a while.
#13: THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST/IMMORTAL WEAPONS • For as goofy a concept as it was in the 1970s, Iron Fist has slid into the twenty-first century with remarkable ease and grace: from a kung fu exploitation hero (teamed up with a blackspoitation hero) to a modern multi-generationed hero encountering—and battling— his history and legacy. Duane Swiercyznski's admirably kept Danny Rand's adventures up on the same historical high-adventure zen as series originators Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction, teaming Iron Fist with his former fight opponents Five Immortal Weapons, a quartet of beautiful and bizarrely compelling characters. Brubaker and Fraction introduced the Weapons, but it's Swiercyznski who breathes true life and personality into them in Iron Fist's final arc and the Immortal Weapons miniseries. What I said about Danny Rand in the early issues of this series, that goes five times for the Weapons: this series has revived my interest in the zen outer edges of the Marvel Universe with dramatic but innovative continuity implants that granted these characters more import and weight in their world. Behind each of its dramatically gorgeous covers, Immortal Weapons is a true Marvel Universe comic in its purest form: pitch-perfect origin stories, world-sweeping grand adventure, and the choices and tragedy that build a Marvel hero.
#12: STRANGE TALES • What happens when you let a group of top-notch indie comics artists loose in the Marvel Universe? Chaos, bellylaughs, beautifully distinctive art, and—surprise!—a remarkable level of knowledge of and love for the Marvel heroes. It's tentpoled by the long-shelved Peter Bagge story "The Incorrigible Hulk," but golly, what treasures there are in here: Paul Pope's Lockjaw and the Inhumans, James Kolchaka's "Hulk Sqaud," Iron Man versus Baloney-Head by Tony Millionaire, Stan Sakai's Japanese samurai Hulk, and my favorite: R. Kikuo Johnson's Puppet Master/Alicia Masters/Thing story, which proves the politically-incorrect but absolutely hilarious point that a blind woman just ain't that good in the workplace. Strange Tales is a minty-fresh triumph—that old moniker "The House of Ideas" is as fresh and applicable as ever. You have do this again soon, Marvel.
#11: THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES • The best mix of mythology and modern superheroing since Walt Simonson's Thor, Herc kept hitting them out of the park again and again in 2009: the Prince o' Power's clash with his crazy-ass relatives on Midgard Earth, the breaking of the Herc/Amadeus Cho fellowship and young AC's origin, and the craziest Thor cosplay since a frog picked up the Uru hammer. But Incredible Hercules deftly balances tragedy and pathos with the high-adventure and comedy; we're never far away from a story of deep regret or shame in Hercules's past. Make what you will of rumors of Hercules' (and his book's) demise in the not-too-distant future: he's a freakin' god! Just you want and see...he'll be back.
...and, so will I, Sunday, to wrap up The Fun Fifty of 2009, with a few laughs 'n' giggles, at least one more scolding that a great book ended way too soon, and (I'm guessing) a #1 that will come as a surprise to ya. Little Stuffed Bull over an' out and to all my friends and comrades out there in blogosphere land, remember this: don't bet too heavily on the Super Bowl.You need that money to buy more comic books!
The hills are alive
And it's pretty frightening...
Oh, hi! Welcome to the midnight hour, where, as my good pal Mister Pickett once told me, his love comes tumbling down, and he likes waiting until then, because there's no one else around. Except hey, look, here you are, and here I am, and here's another viewer-submitted arroooo! So you can takes your shining love and your twinkling eyes, Mister P...me, I'm here for the arroooo!
Tonight's Arrooo from You, is submitted not actually by you, unless your name happens to be Chris Sims, webmaster of the Invincible Super-Blog (not to be confused with Sue Storm's Invisible Super-Blog). Cheerful Chris is the chief of all things kick-ass in the comics blogosphere, purveyor of bears punching the Punisher in the puss, amiable annotator of Anita Blake, founder of Bring It On Week, boss of Batman bludgeoning with a battery, accelerator of the Action Age of Comics. Oh, and he likes ROM: Spaceknight, too.:
Panel from ROM: Spaceknight #30 (May 1982), script by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott, colors by Ben Sean, letters by Jim Novak
Thanks, Chris! For your arroooo, I hereby award you the much-coveted ISB (Invincible Super-Bullyprize)! Thank you for all the face-kicks, too! (But please take off your boots next time, okay?)
Wanna be inducted into the House of Arroooo? You can too (arroooo!) simply by emailing me a kicky, ginchy, totally dreamy arroooo (or a similar sound effect) scanned from any comic book we haven't covered here yet. Make sure you tell me what comic book it comes from, and email your scans to this address:
Or, you can post it on your own blog and send me a link so I can link back and properly credit you for your arroooo!
Join us next time when special guest star Wolfman Jack joins in on our howling-mad festivities, and tells us all about the time he guest-starred on Galactica 1980! Be there or be octagonal, cool cats and cattesses!
Whoooooo! Whooooooo! (wolf whistle) Ann-Margrock, everybody! Whoa! (fanning myself). Whooo-ee! That heated up the joint a few degrees, didn't it, folks! Yowza! Okay, ladies, you can take the blindfolds off your husbands, and let's get on with the show!
Welcome once more to the fabulous, sparkling, all-star salute to the Fun Fifty of 2008—half a hundredweight of comics, books, movies, DVDs and chocolate bars that will bring a spring to your step and make your heart a little lighter. Before the break were were gawkin' away at numbers 30 through 21, in that order...so let's get right back to the action with number twenty as the countdown continues!
#20: GERANIUMS AND BACON Just like Crosby and Hope, Power man and Iron Fist, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Crisco, Geraniums and Bacon is two great tastes that taste great together! One of my fave minicomics in 2008 was the newest issue (#5) of G&B by Cathy Leamy (aka the mysterious Metrokitty, crimefighter to the stars!). Although I'd picked up a few of her minicomics in stores previously, I was lucky enough to finally meet Cathy at this year's ultra-hot MoCCA Art Festival, where she not only autographed a copy of her newest mini to me but also sketched a very handsome and debonair character:
As Cathy so accurately phrases it, Yay! And her comics are cause for celebration as well. G&B features short slice-of-life autobiographical sketches, funny, sweet, cute and sharp, with a wonderful ear for dialogue and beautifully detailed and energetic cartooning in which every element—from wonderfully captured facial expressions to detailed and shadow-depthed crosshatching...not to mention her stories are funny as all get out as well! While I'm a little stuffed bull who will never go shopping for a bra (unless I need a two-seater hammock), I giggled with delight at "Unmentionables," which winds up equating underwire underwear with Wonder Woman's bullet-deflecting bracelets, and the saga "Let me tell you about the Señor" had me wishing I could have a rotting pumpkin on my fire escape as well. I feel that we're looking at an up-and-coming graphic novelist in the vein of Carol Lay or C. Tyler here in Ms. Leamy. With artistic and writing chops like hers, in a few years you'll likely see Cathy producing full-fledged graphic novels for First Second or Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly and you can say I knew her when. So what are you waiting for?—hop on over to her website and order yerself some of those sweet, sweet minicomics, bub! (I also highly recommend the very funny I Survived Gwar mini!)
#19: BAT-MANGA Okay, shall we get this out of the way right at the top? Chip Kidd and Pantheon oughta 'a put Jiro Kuwata's name in the title or subtitle. There, done. Now, crack open the book (hey, it's bound "backwards," just like a Japanese manga!) and get ready to dive into the wildest, wackiest, wu-tangiest Batman comics you or I have ever seen: sixties' Japanese manga created to capitalize on the worldwide sensation of the Batman TV series, but with an Eastern sensibility and over-the-top outrageousness all of its own. Jiro Kuwata's gleeful, almost primal Batman recalls the outrageous Bat-tales from DC in the 1950s, larger than life and twice as exciting. Batman battles Lord Death Man, Go-Go the Magician, Karmak the Murderous Intelligent Gorilla and a whole wacky rogue's gallery of foes new to even the most obsessive Bat-fan, and the vibrant comics are accompanied by color spreads of Japanese Batman toys and other merchandise. It's perhaps not a coincidence that throughout DC Comics's extensive series of "Elseworlds" graphic novels, Batman was the hero most often transplanted through fiction into other worlds and times. That's perhaps the beauty of Batman: a truly universal hero whose stories, like those of Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, or Robin Hood—prove that valor, courage, and a quest for justice can be translated into any culture, giving us a true pantheon (no pun intended) of heroes...and Batmen...for every world. My good internet pal Mister Chris Sims sent me this book as a present (thank you, Chris), and in the words of Mister S: this is more fun than a kick to the face! (And, Chip Kidd tells us, there's enough excess material in the archives for a Volume 2!)
#18: AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE There's no miniseries I looked forward to with more unbridled glee and drooling anticipation than DC's revival of Ambush Bug, and hoo-whee! The Bug is back and he's got yer Final Crisis right here, pallie! Keith Giffin and Robert Loren Fleming, the masterminds behind the classic Bug stories of the 1980s (thankfully soon to be reprinted in a big fat Showcase edition) have returned for this six-issue miniseries that pits everyone's three favorite all-green DC hero against his own universe. I'm not certain what readers who weren't prepped for this series by reading the old Ambush Bug comics thought of it: joyfully anarchic, bashing both the fourth wall and the hand that feeds them as it entangles and attacks the multi-series mega-Crisis-crossovers of today and even paints Dan DiDio as the ultimate supervillain. Some of it's silly more often than it is funny (much like the original Bugs), but there's plenty of good, solid chuckles in every issue, and let's face it: even if I can't quite figger out what's going on, how much different is that from most of the mega-comics of today? It's nice to know that DC doesn't take themselves so dead seriously that there's still a corner of their universe where hyperactive shenanigans are still welcome. (Now, bring back Sugar and Spike, ya mooks!)
#17: BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! Speakin' o' little fun pocket universes in the DCU, howzabout this wonderful, funderful take on Captain Marvel by Mike "Herobear" Kunkel, which picks up the story from the Jeff Smith mini of last year but brings Kunkel's own visual and story take on The Big Red Cheese—a comic that's for kids, sure, but you'll like it too! This is Captain Marvel taken out of the ever-complicated DC Universe and given his own world to Shazam around in with mischievous and marvelous kid sister Mary. This Shazam series is like nothing DC's ever done with the character—in fact it looks like nothing else on the superhero shelf, period: highly exaggerated cartoon art, but beautifully detailed, powerful in its energy and movement and a brilliant but not blinding pallet of colors. This is work that approaches the physical comedy, visual look and energetic movement of Asterix, which from me, a little stuffed Gaulish supporter from way back, is very high praise indeed. Not only that, but BB is the best value on the superhero shelf: you can't read this in two or three minutes because Kunkel's packed each page with plenty of panels and dialogue to entertain you and move his story along. It's never cramped or padded...it's just, for lack of a better word, chock-full. If you go back to the original Captain Marvel Adventures comics of the Fawcett Comics era, you'll find that those were never comics just for kids, but amazing in their appeal and entertainment value for adults then (and now). Kunkel's Captain Marvel has much the same appeal. If your only memory of Captain Marvel is as a crazed lightning-bolt slinger from Kingdom Come, you owe it to yourself to experience the joy and fun a really fine Shazam! comic can bring.
#16: EMPOWERED (In 2007: #15) As I do every time I talk about Adam Warren's manga-styled superhero soap opera (or is that a superhero-styled soap opera manga?), I issue the following advisory warning: kids, and little stuffed bulls, really oughtn't to be reading Empowered. It's sexy without being pornographic, adult without being sleazy, and my goodness, there's a lotta skin on display in this comic. But put aside the cheesecake (even tho' everbody luvs cheesecake) and Empowered is, once again this year, simply one of the best meta-aware looks at the tropes of superhero comics out there. 2008's eagerly-awaited volume #4 has probably the most superhero-aware plotline: inferiority-complexed super Empowered is nominated for a Caped Justice Award ("The Capeys"), and the climax (no, absolutely no pun intended) is a clever and triumphant twist on the usual superhero megabattle where we've been given the clues as to how the hero will defeat the villain, but if we can't spot it in time, will our heroine? Heck, yeah! Emp's rise to justly deserved fame is paralleled by the troubled fears of Ninjette following her defeat in the previous volume, but never fear, the melodrama never gets in the way of Warren's gloriously curvy and voluptuous art and genuinely touching and humorous dialogue. And, if you're not here for that, there's still plenty of boobs, butts, and sex jokes. Don't give it to your kid brother, don't give it to you mom, don't give it to your little stuffed bull: just enjoy Empowered and start impatiently counting the days until Book 5.
#15: SATURN KNIGHT Earlier tonight I mentioned Cuddly Chris Sims, the Invincible Super-Blogger who will always tell you if a part of your anatomy is haunted, isn't just a cool guy who sends me free books, suspiciously trying to bribe me into listing him more than once in my year-end wrap-up...no, no, no, he's also a guy who brags about his upcoming comics projects, all of which threaten to break the comics blogosophere in equilateral thirds. Well, Chris (in collaboration with artist Pierre Villeneuve) has finally done that thing we call around my house "pooping or getting off the pot", producing the ultimate Christmas comic (and that includes that Punisher ish where Frank Castle shot an elf point-blank in the face): Saturn Knight in "The Knight Before Christmas!" It's a battle royale at the North Pole when a villainous vixen kidnaps St. Nick and the only hero who can stop her is...aw, you guessed it, Saturn Knight! This is bright and bold and brash: nothing deep or serious but just what the jolly old elf ordered in a Christmas comic. In addition to introducing Saturn Knight, the strip guest-stars some great cameo super-characters who deserve to get more time in the spotlight later: Jim Shelley and Pierre Villeneuve universe, with Chris Sims at the writing helm in this story, all bring us a solid and original heroic world in the vein of Astro City or 1963 that I'd love to explore further. And let's face it, how can you resist a villain who attacks Santa Claus using a big-ass laser gun called the Holidazer with a sound effect of KWANAZAAAP! It's all great fun, gorgeously drawn and lushly colored, and appeals to my sense of good solid superhero comics: not trying to reinvent the genre, but simply to produce a solid and entertaining comic story. And in the end, we're left with a great warm feeling and a belief in Santa Claus and superheroes. Only a Grinch would tell a kid they don't exist, and Sims and Villeneuve...and Saturn Knight...bring back belief in all that's good, fat, and dressed in a red suit. And how much is this stocking full of Christmas cheer gonna cost me, you ask? Absolutely nothin'! (Say it again!) Click on the image above or here to read Saturn Knight for free online! Who says this isn't the Flashback Age of Comics?
#14: STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS I'll admit it: 2008's Star Wars: The Clone Wars was the first Star Wars film I didn't queue up for, dressed in my tiny little Wookiee fur costume and waving my plastic lightsaber around: in my button eyes, the films had pretty much been the definition of diminishing returns, so I skipped the theatrical midquel. But I thought I'd give the Cartoon Network weekly half-hour Clone Wars adventure series a try, and color me as bright red as Mister Vader's lightsaber: I'm lovin' this thing! Set between Episodes II and III and probably no doubt sidebarred precisely between volumes 18 and 19 of some lengthy Extended Universe novel, Clone Wars does what no other Star Wars has done since the late lamented Star Wars Tales comic did: it entertained the heck out of me. Maybe it's the short, snappy, half-hour episodes that keep the galactic politics to a minimum and the swashbuckling right up on screen...maybe it's that it fills in some of the adventures of Jedi other than whiny, petulant poster boy for loss of temper control Anakin Skywalker...or maybe it's the rule of inverse Lucasism is in effect here: the less George Lucas is directly involved with a Star Wars project, the more entertaining it is. Whichever it is, doesn't matter—it's just good, solid, primal Star Wars. Despite my initial misgivings, the video-gamesque computer animation actually fits the characters and action, and the action is actually thrilling and the humor—like that of Star Wars IV-VI—actually makes me laugh. Ahsoka, Anakin's chirpy Jedi apprentice, could have been yet another annoying teen sidekick character, but she's fun and brings a light of optimism to this darkening universe. Clone Wars even performs the very definition of an absolutely impossible task in an episode that spotlights Jar Jar Binks and makes his adventures genuinely funny and entertaining. I only have one question: why is it all female Jedi are costumed either in the galactic equivalent of a burkha, or in a belly shirt?
#13: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS In 2007: #3) Over in the Marvel Universe, there's still umpty-ump gajillions of X-Men titles, most of which feature Wolverine. Excuse me if I step over those books to grab X-Men: First Class off the rack: it's been consistently the most entertaining and fun X-comic since Grant Morrison left New X-Men ten seconds before all his stories were retconned. 2008 saw the end of the regular First Class series, but never fear: it was followed up with a lovely Giant-Sized special (featuring two of my favorite X-stories of '08, Roger Langridge's Edward Goreyesque Charles Xavier storybook, and Michael Cho's gorgeous black-and-grey-and-ruby-quartz toned 1950s-style take on that movie with Keanu Reeves Michael Rennie). But the real star here (aside from the five original X-Men) is the writing of Jeff Parker, who gives these 1960s continuity implants a level of high adventure and entertaining soap opera that Stan and Roy never reached. (For comparison, check out the cheerfully goofball reprint of [Uncanny] X-Men #40 in the Giant-Sized First Class: where the Famous Five met Frankenstein and try to beat the bejeezus out of him before finding out he's an alien robot...wha?!?) No mention of First Class is complete without praising the frequent back-up strips written by Parker and cartooned with whimsical gleeful art by Colleen Coover, who's turned pre-Phoenix Jean Grey into a spunky, clever, and outgoing heroine of the sort I'd want to grow up to be. Um, if I was gonna be a girl.
#12: DOCTOR WHO SERIES FOUR (In 2007: #23) Okay, Who fans, get your broomsticks and cricket bats ready, because I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that I think the just completed Series Four has featured some of the best episodes of the reinvented Doctor Who to date, andthe best companion, Donna Noble. I loved Donna this year: sharp-tongued, sarcastic, fierce, protective and jubilantly happy at (most of) her adventures. Donna in many ways challenged The Doctor and brought to him a sense of humanity that continues the evolution since the Christopher Eggleston series—reminding our 903-year old time traveler that with great power comes great responsibility. Russell T. Davies last year of sailing on the TARDIS gave us some fantastic moments: a hilarious mime as The Doctor and Donna meet again, the chilling two-episode Library spooktacular, a wonderful David Tennant tour-de-force in "Midnight," and the lovely light period episode guest-starring Agatha Christie, who woulda made a dandy Companion herself, doncha think? Sure, there were a few mis-steps: nobody needs to see Baby Spice as The Doctor, Jr. again, and I'll gladly step up to be first in line to slap whiny Rose for dickering over which Doctor she gets in her little pocket universe. Still, if you can watch the final hour without sniffling your eyes out, well, boyo, you're made of stronger stuff than me. Some may argue this is a horrible end to a wonderful companion, but I've got a feeling this isn't the end of Donna's story. In a world of a time-traveling adventurer, any story can be undone, and no tragedy need be definite. (F'r instance, weren't we told we could never, would never see Miss Tyler again?) I'm greatly looking forward to The All-New, All-Different, All-Flopsy-Haired Doc The Eleventh, but RTD and company have given David Tennant a great final voyage of a series.
#11: TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE If I could have any comic book on Earth melted down into a concentrated form and shot directly into my brain using a special brain-bazooka comic-book flinging sort of gun thing, well, I'd want it to be Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Michael Kupperman's anarchic, Dadaist comic that's all about...well, what the heck is this thing about? If the Marx Brothers were a comic book, if the Firesign Theater were a...uh, comic book, if The Goon Show had been...hey, The Goon Show was a comic book! Well, anyway: a befuddling cornucopia of strips, fake ads, and period informational pieces, 2008's Thrizzle #4 starred Albert Einstein and Mark Twain: Cops; pop group NSync starring in a high-seas pirate swashbuckler; those twin tykes of hiding behind furniture, The Scaredy Kids; and the greatest duo in pop culture, Snake & Bacon. Kupperman's deceptively simplistic woodcut style only highlights the utter absurdity of his work, and frequently a strip will be hijacked by another feature's heroes until they drive it careening into an advertisement for Snails Across America. I've said of many comics on this list that there's many laughs in every issue—Tales Designed to Thrizzle stuffs so many guffaws, belly-laughs, and perplexed "huh?"s into every page that you'll be beating down the door to buy the upcoming hardcover collection coming this year from Fantagraphics (handily linked above to the right). Truth in advertising department: When I'm not typing away about comic books, pop culture, and Ben Grimm, I work for W. W. Norton, which distributes Fantagraphics Books to the bookstore trade. But I'da bought and recommended Thrizzle if it'd been published by any press.
Whew! I need to go backstage and hose down my rented tuxedo, folks. In the words of Jack Benny...we're running a little late, so, goodnight, everybody...what's that? What are the Top Fun Ten of 2008? Oh, it's just Secret Invasion #0-8 and , huh, I guess the issue of Mighty Avengers where Dr. Doom told us to shut our cow mouths. Kind of an anti-climax, huh?
I'm kiddin' ya! I kid because I love. If you think the rest of this stuff was fun, well, it only increases in geometrical funness the closer we get to #1, until we all collapse into a Fun Hole which will destroy the universe! So until then, stay cool, feed your kittycat, brush up on your Shakespeare, and we'll see you at the finish line!
I'm a bull of very little brain / But I have great friends on the internet
And when it's their birthday again / What kind of gifts for them to get?
Now this time it's for pal Chris Sims / Who likes his action wild and rough
With kicking feet and thrashing limbs / And all his heroes built Ford tough
Don't give him just a pair of socks / Presents should be the kind Chris needs
Give a fight scene that really rocks / Gift the man not words, but deeds
Preferably with some kung fu / And punches to the face and gut
No ordinary fight will do / His birthday gift must kick some butt
Make it with style and with flair / But let me tell you, for god's sake
Don't ever even try to dare / To give the man Anita Blake.
So the best gift I can think of / A birthday gift that shows pure class
Given with respect and love / Here's Iron Fist kicking Batroc's ass.
Happy Birthday, Chris!
All the panels for Chris this year
Are taken from Marvel Premiere
Ish twenty, January, Seventy-Five
When Chris was hardly yet alive.
Tony Isabella did his part
Writing the script. And the art
Was done by Arvell Jones and Dan
Green, kicking ass as only they can.
Coloring was by John Drake
(That's a pen name, make no mistake
For Carl Gafford). And by the way
Letters by Ray Holloway.
I've been behind several months on reading my digital new comics (that darn iPad touchscreen doesn't work so well with hooves). It came out last year, but I only recently read and very much enjoyed the new Swordquest miniseries, continuing the tale of those classic early-80s Atari 2600 8-bit cartridges — and yes, I had Earthworld and Fireworld to play on my Sears Video Arcade with real simulated wood panelling! Even more than those original classic games, I loved the set of DC minicomics included with art by George freakin' Pérez. My little brain full of oatmeal and pins is properly blown.
#18: MARVEL SUPER HERO SQUAD SHOW • Cool little toys (of course I have the Ben Grimm one!) become a cool little TV show on Cartoon Network featuring superdeformed versions of the Marvel heroes and villains fighting a deadly Civil War which will lead to an invasion by shape-shifters and the death of...NO! This is just all silly and over-the-top fun, made for kids...but us little bulls, and my human pals, like it too. Doc Doom and his team of villains race Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Falcon, Wolverine, Thor and the Silver Surfer to find MacGuffins...I mean, Infinity Fractals that can help you rule the world! Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Sort of a halfway point between Marvel Adventures Avengers and Chris Giarrusso's Mini Marvels, it doesn't take its heroes too seriously: Hulk is the friendly dumb smasher, Captain America is straight-laced and frequently oblivious, and the Silver Surfer has a California beach bum accent. (I'm not too sure about that last one, but hey.) Super Hero Squad definitely isn't high art: it knows what kids find funny (there are a lot of burp and fart jokes here), but for long time Marvel fans it's great fun to see superheroes stripped to their primal components: guys and gals in bright costumes fighting the baddies, throwing punches and zapping with power rays, and nobody ever gets hurt any more than Daffy Duck used to.
#17: WOMAN OF A.C.T.I.O.N. • Super secret agent action spanning from London to Monte Carlo! Guns, girls, gambling and goons! Tight leather catsuits, monocled madmen, and lacy lingerie! No, you're not reading one of the approximately ten bajillion Black Widow comic books on the market now, but the all-new, all-adventure book from your pals and mine at 
#20: GERANIUMS AND BACON Just like Crosby and Hope, Power man and Iron Fist, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Crisco, Geraniums and Bacon is two great tastes that taste great together! One of my fave minicomics in 2008 was the newest issue (#5) of G&B by 
#18: AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE There's no miniseries I looked forward to with more unbridled glee and drooling anticipation than DC's revival of Ambush Bug, and hoo-whee! The Bug is back and he's got yer Final Crisis right here, pallie! Keith Giffin and Robert Loren Fleming, the masterminds behind the classic Bug stories of the 1980s (thankfully soon to be reprinted in a big fat Showcase edition) have returned for this six-issue miniseries that pits everyone's three favorite all-green DC hero against his own universe. I'm not certain what readers who weren't prepped for this series by reading the old Ambush Bug comics thought of it: joyfully anarchic, bashing both the fourth wall and the hand that feeds them as it entangles and attacks the multi-series mega-Crisis-crossovers of today and even paints Dan DiDio as the ultimate supervillain. Some of it's silly more often than it is funny (much like the original Bugs), but there's plenty of good, solid chuckles in every issue, and let's face it: even if I can't quite figger out what's going on, how much different is that from most of the mega-comics of today? It's nice to know that DC doesn't take themselves so dead seriously that there's still a corner of their universe where hyperactive shenanigans are still welcome. (Now, bring back Sugar and Spike, ya mooks!)
#17: BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! Speakin' o' little fun pocket universes in the DCU, howzabout this wonderful, funderful take on Captain Marvel by Mike "Herobear" Kunkel, which picks up the story from the Jeff Smith mini of last year but brings Kunkel's own visual and story take on The Big Red Cheese—a comic that's for kids, sure, but you'll like it too! This is Captain Marvel taken out of the ever-complicated DC Universe and given his own world to Shazam around in with mischievous and marvelous kid sister Mary. This Shazam series is like nothing DC's ever done with the character—in fact it looks like nothing else on the superhero shelf, period: highly exaggerated cartoon art, but beautifully detailed, powerful in its energy and movement and a brilliant but not blinding pallet of colors. This is work that approaches the physical comedy, visual look and energetic movement of Asterix, which from me, a little stuffed Gaulish supporter from way back, is very high praise indeed. Not only that, but BB is the best value on the superhero shelf: you can't read this in two or three minutes because Kunkel's packed each page with plenty of panels and dialogue to entertain you and move his story along. It's never cramped or padded...it's just, for lack of a better word, chock-full. If you go back to the original Captain Marvel Adventures comics of the Fawcett Comics era, you'll find that those were never comics just for kids, but amazing in their appeal and entertainment value for adults then (and now). Kunkel's Captain Marvel has much the same appeal. If your only memory of Captain Marvel is as a crazed lightning-bolt slinger from Kingdom Come, you owe it to yourself to experience the joy and fun a really fine Shazam! comic can bring.
#13: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS In 2007: #3) Over in the Marvel Universe, there's still umpty-ump gajillions of X-Men titles, most of which feature Wolverine. Excuse me if I step over those books to grab X-Men: First Class off the rack: it's been consistently the most entertaining and fun X-comic since Grant Morrison left New X-Men ten seconds before all his stories were retconned. 2008 saw the end of the regular First Class series, but never fear: it was followed up with a lovely Giant-Sized special (featuring two of my favorite X-stories of '08, Roger Langridge's Edward Goreyesque Charles Xavier storybook, and Michael Cho's gorgeous black-and-grey-and-ruby-quartz toned 1950s-style take on that movie with 
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