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Booking Through Thursday catch-up: Dog Days

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Walt

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[W]hat animal-related books have you read? Which do you love? Do you have a favorite literary dog? (Snoopy, anyone?)

[I totally forgot it was Thursday last week until Friday…so, doubling up this week!]

deweyOffhand, I haven’t read that many animal-related books. I’m sure I read a number of non-fiction ones back in 1992 or so…I have vague memories of poking through a lot of books about cats shortly after my family adopted Kayla.

I must highly recommend two comic-strip style books: Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Cats are Weird, both by Jeffrey Brown. These are hardcover collections of anecdotal observations of cats that PERFECTLY capture the nature of the beloved pet cat.

 

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weepnotformeThere’s also one of those pocket-sized gift-book style hardcover deals, with illustrations and the lyrics to a poem: Weep Not For Me; the words from which remain EXTREMELY cathartic to me, having lost two cats in the last 3 years.

marleyThen there are my top-3 “animal-memoirs.” Marley & Me; Dewey; and Wesley the Owl.

I “discovered” Dewey: The Small-Town Library-Cat Who Touched the World thanks to a Borders email or some sort of ad. It sounded interesting, but I quickly forgot it. Then, just days after I lost my cat Christy, I rediscovered Dewey. Bought it, and read it cover to cover in under 20 hours, including sleep. The book was highly cathartic, to say the least.

Marley & Me I think I had heard about, or else was recommended to me shortly after I read Dewey, so I located a copy and had that read quickly (and this was well before knowing there was a movie being made. The movie’s good, too!)

Continue reading →

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Mission: Ultraverse Revisited

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Walt

ultraversespreadA few weeks ago, a Facebook group I had joined some years back–for the long-dead comics universe, the Ultraverse–suddenly exploded into activity. It’s been stirring my interest back up in the Ultraverse comics. I already had a stack of PRIME issues on a shelf, waiting for a re-reading project I’ve had in mind for over a year.

In addition, this past weekend I snagged a handful of Ultraverse comics from quarter bins at a couple different comic shops.

Monday night, I decided to take a peek in my “most accessible” longbox, and lo! Ultraverse comics! So I pulled the Ultraverse comics, and decided to look at the next box. Then the two shortboxes.

Amazingly, I found QUITE the mix of Ultraverse comics in just 3 longboxes and 2 shortboxes.

ultraversepilesSeems that without particularly realizing it, I’ve actually been grabbing a number of Ultraverse comics the last few years from various bargain bins and such sales. I even found that I’ve got the Black September: Infinity issue, as well as the Ultraverse: Future Shock. And turns out the that special PRIME issue I picked up a couple years back for $1 at a used media store is one of those Limited-5,000 editions.

So, now have a mission before me: to dig through all the longboxes I have in this apartment, to pull together whatever Ultraverse comics I have. From there, see what’s out there that I’m missing, and begin very specifically hunting these things down.

Continue reading →

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My Earliest Comics (part three) – Grant Morrison’s Secret Origins and the TMNT

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Walt

I got my introduction to the concept of the comic book way back in 1988 or so, when my mom and grandfather introduced me to comic books with a stack of Silver Age DCs. But my REAL start into comics was with those earliest comics that my parents bought me. This week, I’m providing a brief look at what my earliest comics were.

In this third installment: Secret Origins and the Ninja Turtles!

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I’m not sure what prompted this purchase, but I recall my dad buying this one for me. Maybe it was the “Secret Origins” title itself.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized this issue was by Grant Morrison…it was rather cool to realize I’d read some of his earlier work.

The JLA story particularly stuck out to me, from the point of view of the mountain they had their HQ in. The bit about how “The shining red one” went, then came again, and was gone was very eye opening at the time. I still hadn’t realized that the Flash character I was reading in the then-present (The Superman/Flash Race from Adventures of Superman) was not the same Flash from my Grandpa’s comics.

I think this issue may have been when I started to realize that there was something significant out there that made these comics different from what I’d read of Grandpa’s.

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I’ll detail more of my earliest exposure to the TMNT in another blog soon. But A friend brought this comic to my attention at the mall, and I convinced Dad to buy it for me. I had now idea who the alien guy was, or what was going on story-wise beyond this single issue…but it fit right in with the cartoon at the time. The only REALLY weird thing was Krang affixed to Shredder’s head and the turtles having to “save” him.

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Not long after #25, I came across this issue at a flea market my aunt was working at. I convinced Mom to let me get this issue, though again–didn’t know what was up with overall story stuff, didn’t pay much attention to numbering at the time except knowing each issue had progressively higher numbers.

Didn’t understand why Raphael had black tights on, but it was what it was…

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I’m pretty sure this one was one that Dad bought me. In retrospect, quite the value–96 pages (3 issues’ content) for $3. At the time, I recognized the chapter breaks, though wasn’t entirely aware of what they meant. Eventually came to realize that this contained material that was originally 3 separate issues (the Mighty Mutanimals 3-issue mini-series).

The story–these characters fighting against an alien invasion–was epic stuff back then to my 10-11-year-old self.

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I don’t quite recall if I got this issue off the rack at the mall or if I came across it later after discovering an actual comic shop…but I want to say this was my first “regular” issue of TMNTA, when I began specifically collecting TMNT comics.

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This issue stuck out for me as really marking a difference in the cartoon and the comics for the Turtles. April had a boyfriend, Splinter seemed younger and much more involved in their lives, and the characters were abroad–not based in NYC. Come to think of it…I don’t recall if they really ever returned to NYC properly in this title. But that’s something for another blog.

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Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #1 [Review]

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 3/5
Art: 2.5/5
Overall: 3/5

Filed under: cxPulp.com, Fear Itself (event), MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Uncanny X-Force | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

My Earliest Comics (part two) – Batman, Detective Comics, and a dead Robin

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Walt

I got my introduction to the concept of the comic book way back in 1988 or so, when my mom and grandfather introduced me to comic books with a stack of Silver Age DCs. But my REAL start into comics was with those earliest comics that my parents bought me. This week, I’m providing a brief look at what my earliest comics were.

In this second installment: Batman, Detective Comics, and a dead Robin!

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I wasn’t familiar with Clayface at the time, so didn’t know this gang of multiple Clayfaces from anything else. But the cover stood out big-time, as this mud statue of Batman, and then seeing it within the issue, getting smashed by the guy on the cover. So this was Batman, but I was without context…just sorta took it as it was, at face value.

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I didn’t know who this guy on the cover was–didn’t know about Nightwing, didn’t know that he was the original Robin, etc. And this being the conclusion of a story, I really didn’t follow. Just something about some book everyone was after, and this guy and Batman not getting along. There was a sense of some history, yeah, but I didn’t even know what questions to ask at the time to catch up. Still…like with the Superman stuff from the other day…this lack of understanding and comprehension failed to turn me off to the character and comics…

This being part of the story that introduced (cameos) of Tim Drake is part of why I like the Tim Drake character–he was introduced into comics at the same time I got my start in “collecting” comics.

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This issue was probably just about THE most eye-opening comic of my youth. Turns out that Robin died some time back, as here’s Batman at the grave with a ghost of Robin pointing a blaming finger. The way Batman acted inside, that someone took the appearance of Robin, bringing back the memory of his dead partner…yet again, it’s just something I took at face value. Something that had happened sometime between the comics my grandpa had and these. It just WAS.

(I then found out from a friend some time later that Joker was the one who killed Robin, with a crowbar. It was yet more time later before I tracked down that story as Death in the Family, and still later before I got to actually READ the story.)

Continue reading →

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My Earliest Comics (part one) – Superman & The Adventures of Superman

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Walt

I got my introduction to the concept of the comic book way back in 1988 or so, when my mom and grandfather introduced me to comic books with a stack of Silver Age DCs. But my REAL start into comics was with those earliest comics that my parents bought me. This week, I’m providing a brief look at what my earliest comics were.

In this first installment: Superman and The Adventures of Superman!

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I don’t recall what my first impression was, exactly…though the cover was certainly significant. Giant-sized Superman stomping all over a city, and this weird character in the corner suggesting this doesn’t actually happen? I vaguely recall having NO CLUE WHATSOEVER what this Hostile Takeover thing was with Lex Luthor…I’m not even certain I actually read that segment all the way through. I do recall having no idea WHAT was going on with Clark and why he was acting funny, or why his mom would be shocked.

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I had no idea, really, who these phantoms of the past were. I may have thinly connected them with the villains from Superman II, but had no idea how the “continuity” and such worked (I didn’t even know the term “continuity” at the time). I was quite struck by a “What If?” scene with the villains having taken out the other Earth heroes–one of my earliest memories of some of those characters, at least for the then-modern DCU. The true depth of this story and some of the figurative/hallucinatory elements was lost on me as a kid–but somehow, that did NOT turn me away from Superman…

NEXT: My introduction to Batman!

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Fireworks

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Walt

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It’s been a lot of years since I’ve really appreciated fireworks. A few years ago–maybe 4 or so–I was at a baseball game with some friends, and there were fireworks after the game. Other than that, offhand, I can’t remember the last time I sought out a fireworks display.

Usually, I avoid them–I’m not partial to the noise is probably the biggest factor–to say nothing of summer and being outside at the time of night the visuals of the fireworks work best being a time I associate with swarms of mosquitos and other bogs that have nothing better to do but land and crawl on bare skin or fly straight into one’s eyes.

That said…I always seem to think back to this cover of Adventures of Superman when I think of tying fireworks to comics. It was one of those shiney/foil/sparkly covers so popular during the 1990s, but it works.

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Booking Through Thursday: Size Matters

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Walt

btt buttonWhat’s the largest your personal library has ever been? What’s the greatest number of books you’ve ever owned at one time? (Estimates are fine.)

Is your collection NOW the biggest it’s ever been? Or have you down-sized?

What’s the fewest number of books you’ve ever owned (not counting your pre-reading years)?

IMG_0154I’d say my personal library is the largest it’s ever been now, as I’ve continued adding to it through the years, without any significant downsizing. A large chunk of it is comics-related: graphic novels, collected editions, etc. I couldn’t begin to properly estimate at present–especially as I have several bins of books tucked away in a shed at my parents’ house.

I’ve meant for ages to downsize a bit–but never quite get around to it. I also haven’t quite determined if I’d be merely downsizing what I have in this apartment, on my shelves…or downsize the collection itself permanently.

That’s the trouble, I’ve found, with being a comics & books person: by the very nature of the thing, it’s materialistic. The things take up space.

About ten years ago, I visited a friend’s place, and she showed me her dad’s library. A beautiful room with more books than I could count, organized neatly…and I was simply in awe.

At the time, my personal library could probably fit on 3-4 shelves, and included college textbooks whose “buyback” prices were insulting (Take a $35 book kept in good condition through the semester and offer me $1.25–less than the price of a single-issue comic–I’ll keep the book.)

IMG_0156But I’d received the bite, and found myself stuck with a vision that I hold to this day of someday being able to have my OWN library. A library, study, den, man-cave…whatever the word would be. A space for my book and comics collection.

Though in today’s economy and my own work situation at present…I begin to see definite folly in that vision.

And perhaps morbidly, after watching various CSI and L&O shows…I sometimes think about what my collection says about me. The books I have, the comics I’ve amassed. Quantity and quality of books, where I’ve chosen to shelve them, etc. What someone would deduce about me and my life simply from seeing this bedroom.

Plenty of other stuff to be touched on, such as the collector mentality (I don’t collect for value, but for completism, for one thing); but it branches into other topics. Perhaps to be touched on by future (or already touched on in past) Booking Through Thursday prompts.

’nuff said.

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Ultimate Spider-Man #160 [Review]

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Walt

Death of Spider-Man: Part 5 of 5

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Mark Bagley
Inker: Andy Lanning with Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Art: Bagley & Ponsor
Assistant Editor: Sana Amant
Senior Editor: Mark Paniccia
Published by: Marvel Comics

So, this issue is mostly one big fight scene. Seems the Green Goblin’s been busy, and it’s all come back down to Norman Osborn vs. Peter Parker. But unlike that first time the Goblin came back–when it was Mary Jane who was thrown off a bridge, playing on readers’ knowledge of what happened to Gwen in the regular Marvel Universe–this time, it just feels like little more than a ripoff of a two-decades-old Superman story. Yet, it works.

The villain apparently rose…many have fallen, and it’s down to the titular hero to save those around him from said villain.

Face it…the title of the story, the branding of the last few issues of this title and the Ultimate Avengers thing–it gives it all away. Much like knowing weeks before the story even began that Doomsday! was a tale that would end with the death of Superman. It was the journey to get there, watching the hero gradually take more and more of a beating, attempting to dish it back, and ultimately making a final sacrifice to save those he loves from a monster’s rampage.

The story itself–pretty simplistic. I haven’t read the first four chapters of it in this title, and bought (but wound up only skimming) the issue where Peter takes the bullet for Cap….yet, the recap page at the beginning of this issue sum things up pretty succinctly–I don’t need those chapters to “get” this.

The art–maybe not fantastic, but after recently reading the first tpb of the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Comics Spider-Man…Bagley‘s art–which I’ve always enjoyed and associated with Ultimate Spider-Man–is SUCH a thing of beauty. The characters actually look like I’d expect, as I got used to. The way they looked over the course of all those practically biweekly issues in college and all those TPBs after that when I went back to the series last year and caught up on over 60 issues of story.

As a whole…not truly worth the $3.99 cover price. Not even with that black plastic bag with the hero’s logo in red on it. But y’know? I missed out on Ultimate Spider-Man #1; I wasn’t able to acquire any issues til #4 or so, and was only able to get back to #3. But by and large (I got the first hardcover with those first 13 fantastic issues) I got in at the beginning. So I couldn’t bring myself to entirely “pass” on this ending.

If you’re already buying this title, sticking with the singles after the Ultimatum stuff and the renumbering and the re-renumbering, the changes in art and all that…if you read the earlier chapters of this story…again, face it: you were already going to or have bought this issue already. If you’ve sat things out, wondering at simply waiting for the collected volume: keep to that route. You’ll get a full story. If you’ve avoided this story on principle…hold to it.

This isn’t going to be for everyone. In many ways, I should be appalled at this. To see the character I so enjoyed reading about–and the supporting cast–put in this (albeit fictitious) situation, to see things come to this…it’s horrible. Heart-wrenching. But when you come down to it…this issue makes this version of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, much more real, at least in the moment. We saw his origin. His beginnings. His career. And now, his end.

If you can find this issue, without being taken for a marked-up price…I recommend it. If you’re a lapsed fan of the series, it might be worth getting to be there for the end. If nothing else–consider the collected volume.

Story: 4/10
Art: 9/10
Overall: 7/10

Filed under: MARVEL, Spider-Man, Ultimate Comics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Booking Through Thursday: Soundtrack

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Walt

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What, if any, kind of music do you listen to when you’re reading? (Given a choice, of course!)

It depends on the kind of reading. If I’m reading emails or casually reading news and other articles online, I may have a little bit of everything playing.

But if I’m reading comics or books where I actually want to “mentally invest” in what I’m reading, has to be instrumental stuff.

Typically, I go with movie scores/soundtracks. I find that my FAVORITE movie score/soundtrack to listen to–as a whole–is the music from Gladiator. I’ll often mix stuff from that, from John Williams’ work (Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Superman, etc.), Lion King, Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, and whatever else strikes my fancy at the time.

Lately I’ve been enjoying the Green Lantern soundtrack/score after getting hooked by the opening/prologue track.

It’s really that simple, I’d say.

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