HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFL!

Well, today marks the one year birthday of Westchester Is For Lovers. Have a slice of delicious Wolverine cake, won't you?

New Comic Book Day - 09/17/2008, an addendum

So, after my last post, I decided to check my longboxes to see if I had any of my old 1963 books. I found issue #2 and re-read it.

I take back anything bad I said in my original post. These things are great!

New Comic Book Day 09/17/2008

Well, it's new comic book day, and I purchased quite a bit of books today. Let's take a look at the list.

So, as you can see, a big stack of books there (note to self: get bigger scroll). And, just to save my own face, I'm going to use the quantity of books I had to read as an excuse for why this post is a day late. It's not true, but you don't know that, so I get off easy.

Now, you might be thinking: "Gee willickers, Ryan sure did read a lot of comics this week. I bet he has all sorts of crazy things to say about them. I can't wait to read them and then not post any comments, just to spite him. Seriously, fuck that guy." Well, dear reader, you thought wrong!

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of things worthy of freaking out over (i.e. the giant Mecha War Machine in Iron Man: DOS, Luke Cage making an appearance in 2 unrelated titles this month, or everyone in the Marvel U continuing to be monkies), but I'm not going to write about any of those things. Instead, I'm going to tell you about the one comic you need to buy. And that comic is:

THE AGE OF THE SENTRY #1

With this book, Marvel tries to recapture the essence of their Silver Age titles. This is certainly not a terribly original concept in the comic industry. DC did it back in '99 with such titles as National Comics #1 and Star-Spangled Comics #1. Heck, even Image had the short-lived series called 1963. The key difference is that this one is much better.

As I mentioned nearly a year ago in my first post, I am quite a big fan of the Silver Age. It gave us countless books that offer idealistic heroes who never give you any reason to doubt their intentions. The books were straight-forward, easy for anyone to pick up and read, and generally way too silly not to enjoy. In my opinion, the Silver Age was the perfect age for comic books.

So, every time I see a new series like this pop up on the horizon, I rush to pick up my copy. Usually, I find myself disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the books are still good and I enjoy reading them. The problem, I think, is that they serve to be a mockery of the Silver Age, instead of an homage to it. They tend to overplay the camp and silliness, which can get old really fast.

This book, however, got it right. It has the camp, but the writing is spot-on, and the art and colors are even more perfect than that. If I hadn't known this came out yesterday, I'd have had no idea I wasn't reading an old Stan 'n Jack book. But, looking back on it, with a writer like Jeff Parker (Marvel Adventures: Avengers, X-Men: First Class), it really couldn't be anything less. He captures the essence of Silver Age plot and dialog perfectly, not to mention his beautiful handling of classic villainy and comic book science. Pairing that up with his old X-Men: First Class partner Nick Dragotta and Ramon Rosanas and you've got a Silver Age book on your hands. I had never heard of Rosanas prior to this book, but he and Dragotta have managed to craft art that you would almost swear Jack Kirby drew himself. Outside of a handful of pages in Troy Hickman's Twilight Guardian (which, I might add, just won Top Cow's Pilot Season), I've never seen Silver Age done so well in these modern times of computers and flying cars.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I highly recommend this book if you're a fan of the good old days. Now, I'm off to re-enjoy this issue for myself! If you've got anything you want to add, or want to hear my opinion on anything else I bought this week, feel free to let me know in the comments section. You know, it's that link right down there that says "0 people think this is stupid".

Out Of Context Panel Of The Day 09/15/2008

New Comic Book Day - 09/10/2008

Comics. Am I right, guys? I mean, we all read them. But what do they really mean? I'm not really sure why you think you're going to find answers to questions like that here!

CABLE KING-SIZE SPECTACULAR # 1

This had pencils by Ken Lashley, instead of series regular artist Ariel Olivetti. I was a bit worried, as the last book I read that Olivetti did art on kind (Punisher War Journal) seemed to lose alot of it's appeal to me once he left the book. And honestly, I was a bit disappointed when I first opened this issue up. Because, well, Lashley an
Olivetti have wildly different styles. But really, as I sit here and look at it, the Lashley's pencils with Frank D'Armata's colors look pretty fucking awesome. I have a hard time getting through the story because I get so caught up looking at the detail in the backgrounds and crazy explosions. Also, did I mention that almost half of this book involves fighting giant bear-armadillo hybrids? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I mentioned that...

DEADPOOL # 1

Ok, so I understand that Secret Invasion is the big hot thing right now in the Marvel U, and I realize that making fun of the current big hot thing is kind of Deadpool's whole reason for existing, but I kind of wish they hadn't gone that route. Don't get me wrong, the book was still really good, I just couldn't enjoy it to the fullest because I am so fucking sick of Skrulls. Otherwise, it was great. The funny side of Deadpool's personality has been turned down a lot from where it was towards the end of Cable and Deadpool, but that's not really a bad thing. You get to see a lot of badical fights, and the jokes are still there, but the whole thing seems to be more driven by the plot than by the jokes.

WOLVERINE: SAUDADE # 1

I'll be totally honest, I bought this book because I thought it was called Wolverine Sausage. Turns out, it's not. There's not even a single thing about deliciously-seasoned ground meats in this entire book. What a rip.

Movie rumors that damn well better be true

OMG Horror reports:

Rumors about a third Ghostbusters film being in talks have been popping up in
various media outlets for years, usually without much information to back up the
reports, but according to Variety, work on Ghostbusters 3 is already under
way. "The Office" producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky are penning the
script for the new live action Ghostbusters movie which will not have all new
actors playing the team of ghost exterminators, but will actually reunite the
original cast of Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.

Office Producers Eisenberg and Stupnitsky recently worked closely with
Harold Ramis on Year One, a comedy which the three co-wrote. The filmmakers
involved in Ghostbusters 3 hope to reinvigorate the popular franchise despite
the significant number of years that have passed since the last GB movie by
bringing back the original cast and creative team behind the first films, much
like Harrison Ford was brought back earlier this year to reprise his role as
Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

It's been 19 years since Ghostbusters II, and while it's hard to picture Aykroyd,
Murray, Ramis, and Hudson,suiting up again, Ghostbusters 3 could still work and
it could still kick a lot of ass. So what if they're fat and wrinkly now. Bill
Murray will always be Bill Murray and Ghostbusters will also be one of the
greatest film franchises of the 80s. I say, a third GB movie is awesome news.

(slightly delayed) New Comic Book Day - 09/04/2008

Well, it's Thursday yet again, which means it's time for another one of those "Ryan talking about comics and making fart jokes" posts that I seem to do here every so often. After all the comics I bought last week, I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish them all in time for this weeks books. In fact, I actually just finished the last of last weeks pull just this morning. What was the big delay in reading, you ask? Well, I had to travel out of town for a few days this weekend, and then Sunday I spent at Dragon*Con here in Atlanta. Met some cool folks and bought some cool stuff, but I'll save that for a later post. Now it's time for comics!

DETECTIVE COMICS #848

I've heard a lot of complaints about this villain called Hush, and I really don't see what everyone hates about him so much. Granted, all I have to go on is this one issue so far, but he seems pretty on-par with the rest of the crazies in Batman's world. He's no Mr. Zsasz, but still a pretty cool character so far. More importantly, this issue is fairly Scarecrow-heavy, and that is very rarely a bad thing!

IRON MAN: GOLDEN AVENGER # 1

Is page 3 of this book the most hilariously misleading page ever printed ever? I'm pretty sure it is. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed to turn the page and find out that furry rape was not going to be a prevailing theme in the issue. Overall though, this book is pretty good. My only complaint is that it seems to not be able to decide if it's
a serious book or a funny book, and not in the good way like Cable and Deadpool. But, I can't complain too much about it. Definitely a fun read, and definitely very kid-friendly. That said, if any kids are reading this blog, maybe you should tell your parents to do a better job.

MARVEL APES # 1

A bunch of super heroes turn into monkies. I'm pretty sure that's all I really need to say about this. But, I guess I should also say this. SUPER HEROES TURN INTO FUCKING MOKIES!

SECRET SIX #1

First off, let me just say that Cliff Chiang knows how to draw a damn cover. This issue was good, but not as good of a start as I was hoping for with this series. Though, with Gail Simone penning it, I can't imagine the it will be a bad read in the future. The concept set up in this first issue sounds like it holds all sorts of potential badassery.