The End of an Era

Next month marks the end of a huge era for me. 

For the first time since December, 1985 I will not be picking up a monthly issue of the Uncanny X-Men.

This was my first issue of the Uncanny X-Men that I bought monthly.

I am sure most of you are thinking this is not a big deal but this certainly is a big deal for me. Imagine for second that you bought and read a comic (or something else) every month for the last 27 years. 

Now I am ending that streak and it is ALL Marvel's fault. Don't get me wrong, I still love and am interested in the X-Men franchise but I can no longer afford it.

Back in the day, when I first began to read comics there was only one X-title, Uncanny X-Men. But now there are five main X-Men books and at $4 a pop that can definitely add up. But then Marvel decided to be greedy and publish these X-Men books more than once a month.

Because of this obvious money-grab, I was forced to drop other titles that I was reading (and loved) so I could just keep up with the main X-Men books. I was hoping that this would not become a regular thing since Marvel was not consistent in these double-shipped books so I hung on for as long as I could.

Uncanny X-Men #4... ...my LAST issue

But then I had to drop the Avengers, then Captain America, then Secret Avengers, then the plain X-Men, then X-Men Legacy, then Astonishing X-Men, then Captain America and Bucky and now finally Uncanny X-Men. Not only am I done with the X-titles but it looks like I am done with Marvel completely. The new Avengers vs X-Men miniseries will be my swan song for Marvel.

I am not done with comics completely. There is still a ton of classic material that really interests me but my days of buying comics monthly seems to be over. The only book that I will continue to get monthly is an independent book called The Savage Dragon.

I'll have to blog about this comic sometime in the future. 

It is sad that after 27 years and 348 (344 issues of Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 and 4 issues of Uncanny X-Men Vol 2) straight issues that I have to quit something that I love so much.

I sent Marvel an e-mail about this issue back in July but received no reply. I just sent them another e-mail this morning informing them that I am dropping all the books because of this. If I get a response, I will blog about it here. 

List-Mania: Comic Book Covers

A few months ago I blogged about if I was a rich man what would I spend my money on. Not surprisingly, it was about what comic book original art would I adorn my den/library with.

A few of my online friends and I were discussing what some of our favorite comic book covers. If it was possible, if I was a rich man, what comic book covers would I want? Now I could have just picked my favorite comics but I wanted to pick out just the covers alone without any regard to the story themselves.

I didn't spend a lot of time brainstorming this topic or rooting through the thousands of comics that I own, I just chose the ones that came to my mind first. I was a little bit surprised that out of the five covers I picked, only one of them came from my list of favorite comic book artists. I am positive that I am forgetting some and maybe I will post my favorite covers from my favorite artists in the future.

HELLBOY: THE CORPSE

One of my favorite things about artist Mike Mignola is the way he uses the color black. His art is not soft, it has a dark and hard edge to it. I already had this short story but when I had to have this comic when it was re-released to coincide with the first Hellboy movie because of the cover art. I would love to have this hanging in my den/library.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN TPB

Here is another case where I double dipped and paid money for something that I already owned. I had the single issues of this series but I could not pass up getting the collected version with this awesome new cover by my favorite artist Alan Davis. Davis typically has a clean style, no line wasted and very precise. What makes this cover stand out to me is that it feels (and looks) a lot more sketchy, which gives it a dirty impression which does fit the story quite well.

YOUNG LIARS #1

The coloring of the covers and interiors of this woefully cut-short series is what really grabs my eye. It has a pulpy feel to it, like I am reading something out of the 70's. Each cover is unique but this one captures the energy of the series. One of the side effects of having this hanging on my wall is that it would remind me of the whack job this series was. The writer/artist certainly has a warped mind and a keen sense of style.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #321

Artist Mike Zeck ruled during the 80's as one of the best cover artists around. He draw a ton of comics from my childhood (Secret Wars, G.I. Joe, Captain America) but this one stands out. What would make Captain America so angry that he would drop the shield and pick up an Uzi? This was a close one, he did a fantastic G.I. Joe cover and a memorable Wolverine/Captain America showdown that I almost chose. But this one kept popping up in my mind. 

BONE #16

Now I have to admit that I chose this particular Bone cover because of the story inside. I chose it only because it represented my favorite set of storytelling panels. The vicious Rat Creatures have surrounded Bone and his friends in the forest and you cannot see them. The artist Jeff Smith employs the solid use of black and white (the original series was published in black and white) to show how pitch black it was in the forest. When sudden flashes of lightning occurred you could see how close the Rat Creatures were creating a very spooky and tense situation. 

Already by writing this blog I have remembered other covers that I would love to own and hang on a wall in my house. I just might have to share those here on the blog as well.

X-Geeks Unite!

I am so looking forward to a few comic book summer movies. I certainly cannot complain being a comic book geek since I have Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern and my most anticipated comic book movie, X-Men: First Class.



There are a few reasons why I am very excited for this X-Men movie. Now my favorite comic book movie is the 2nd X-Men movie in the franchise, X2. I liked the first one and the third one isn't so bad and Wolverine: Origins was absolutely horrible. So I am not sure what X-Men: First Class will be like, hopefully it will be better than Wolverine.

I do have faith in the director. He also directed another fantastic comic book adaptation in Kick Ass and making it his own. So I do think he can do the X-Men justice. I also love that is set in the past, back in the 60's around the Cuban Missile Crisis. Having the awesome Kevin Bacon in the film doesn't hurt either. But of course, I am stoked to have my all-time favorite X-Men, Banshee, in the film.

This summer cannot come fast enough!  I'll have to do a List-Mania sometime and list my favorite comic book movies.

I Really Should Be Writing...

ScriptFrenzy started a few days ago and I have not completed one word.

I am in some big trouble here if I wanna complete this writing challenge. I should have written 15 pages of my script already at this point and I have NONE. Not good. I am going to have to get cracking on it to make my goal.

So what should I write about? I have already decided to do some sort of comic because I am more familiar with the scripting since I have done one before. I have a couple of ideas but nothing is sticking until I was going through my old writing blog. And then an idea was born...

Think this:

Mixed with this:

Yeah, I know I am a geek.

I found a fantastic online scripting program that helps you script pretty much any type of entertainment. They assist you the whole way so you don't have to type in every little bit of information. A lot of times it will do it for you. It is called scripped.com and I highly recommend it. I better get going, I have a bunch of pages to crank out today.

If I was a Rich man...

Now I have that song running through my mind. Apologies to everyone else that is humming it now too.

I am sure that we have all dreamed about what it would be like to be rich. What we would buy first, what we would do for our family and stuff like that. I hope that money would not change me and that I could still lead a simple life. I would like to think that I would donate a lot of money and that I would take care of my extended family as well as those that live around me. I don't spend a lot of money as it is now so I think I am safe to assume that I wouldn't spend so much if I did have a lot. Sure, I might pick up a few more comics but that would be about it.

But then I got thinking... ...I definitely know what I would spend money on that I don't now. And yes, it has to do with comics.

I would purchase original comic book art and I would ask my favorite artists to draw something for me that I can frame and hang in my home. My home (my comic book den; I do have to have a place for all my geeky stuff!) would have a ton of comic art hanging on the walls.

Of course I would get another drawing from my favorite artist Alan Davis.

The ClanDestine

I would love to have something like this from Alex Ross hanging on my wall. Bonus points to whoever can tell what this painting is all about.

I would also try to track down some original art from Marvel's old Star Wars comic.

Something like this would be so awesome!

Now I am just getting envious surfing the internet finding cool pieces of art. Like this one of Alpha Flight (a Canadian team) from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.



Okay, I'll stop. So if I ever get rich, this is the vanity thing I would spend my money on!

Random Ramblings

Okay, I am not doing so well blogging. I am not doing it as often as I wanted and there are a couple of reasons for it. One of the reasons is I am just not as disciplined anymore. I know I don't have to blog everyday. Yeah, that is just plain laziness.

The other reason, and perhaps the biggest reason is that I just don't know what to blog about anymore.

I know that I do have some stuff that I would like to blog about but then the first reason comes around. I am just too lazy to start what I know is going to be a big blog. For instance during my 365 trek, I wanted to blog about the time I coached the 9th grade girls basketball team. I know those would be lengthy blogs and that is why I have never blogged about them.

But for the most part, I just don't know what to blog about anymore. So I might have to get geeky. For the past couple of months I have been reading all my X-Men comics from the beginning of the new X-Men. Long story short, I have every issue of the Uncanny X-Men from issue #94 to the current one #531. And that is not counting all the other X-Men series as well. And there are hundreds of other issues. So I thought it would be fun (well, for me, maybe not everyone else) to review them all. Take a run of issues and give my thoughts about them. Currently I am in the middle of the Chuck Austen run and that is what brought about this idea. His run was probably the most controversial run on the book. In fact, I may have to go back and count how many times the word "naked" appeared in his run. Yeah, I usually don't antiquate naked with the X-Men. But it sure happened all the time during his run. We'll get to that more in depth when his time comes up.

So that will get me blogging a bit more. I will have to pool some of those columns before I start publishing them. Another thing that I noticed my blog is missing lately is List-Mania! Look for that to return sometime this week. Those are a little time consuming to put together but I always get a kick out of doing them.

Blogging also allows me to stretch my writing muscles and my dad found another cool and fun way that I am going to try. NPR has this contest called 3 Minute Fiction. They give you a topic or some specific instructions and you write a story and submit it to them. They judge it and read the best one on the air. It sounds challenging and I think it could be a lot of fun. I might publish it here on the blog when I finish it. I better get cracking, it is due on the 23rd.

While I was cleaning out my bookshelf I also found something else that I had no idea I even possessed.

When Kristy bought me my bass guitar for Christmas she also included a book on how to play. I don't recall that at all. We were talking about it just the other day and again I didn't think I owned such a book. Boy was I wrong and my face red when I found this book while cleaning. So cleaning is a good thing! Now at least I know if I am holding and plucking the strings right.

Comic Book Day

So I might have already broken a New Year's Resolution.

I might not blog 5 days this week and I blame this entirely on my comic book obsession hobby.

I order all my comics online (and I save about 35-43%) and to save even more money, I have them all shipped to me in one easy end-of-month package. And today was the happiest day of the month, it is Comic Book Day. And I almost didn't want to blog forgot.

But I have a good excuse. My all-time favorite X-Man has returned from the dead. I think I will tweak my New Year's Resolutions and say Comic Book Day is also an official Blogging Holiday.

Random Ramblings

Day 338

Today has finally come and I cannot tell if I am excited or if I am nervous. Either way, I have puking butterflies in my stomach because today is the Halloween Hootenanny featuring the Gruesome Twosome!

I have no idea what to expect from the show, the crowd or from the weather (it is supposed to rain). All I know if that I will have a good time. I think I prepared enough by listening to Alice Cooper non-stop this last week and I grew out my beard a little bit. All I have to do today to prepare for the show is figure out what I should wear and then put some oil in the car and pump up the tires.

I have not been running as much as I used to so I had to find something that will motivate me some. A couple of weeks ago it was the Top of Utah marathon and I have decided that I will run the 5K race next year. This will give me sufficient time to train next summer. I also checked the results and found that most of the people run the marathon or half-marathon but few run the 5K. If I had raced using my time of my pre-test run, I would have placed 17th overall and 8th in my age category.

The last few days I have been in contact with my favorite artist Alan Davis and I have been redesigning the forum for him. I am not a huge fan of web design work but at least you can see your work progress as you make changes. I had to upload a new banner that Alan designed and sent me and I had to move a ton of topics and reorder the threads. I then uploaded a new look and I had to do some tweaking. Overall I am pretty happy with how it looks. You can view it by clicking here. 

I am so lucky that I am in such close contact with my favorite comic book artist. I have to admit that I geek out when I get e-mails from him.

List-Mania: 5 Comics that Wigged Me Out!

Day 335

I haven't done a List-Mania column for a long time, let alone a real geeky one too, and I thought that the time is right for another List-Mania devoted to comics. This time I am choosing comic books that are difficult for me to read and get through. These comics are ones that stay with me long after I read them. They are either creepy, or they really tug at the heart strings or they portray pain, sorrow and anguish. They are not shocking just to be shocking. These are real moments, moments that made me take pause. Basically they are Comics that Wigged Me Out!

In no particular order.

What If? #30 "What If The Fantastic Four's Second Child Had Lived?"

Marvel published a line of comics called "What If?" and they would take a storyline and choose a different route for it to take. Most of the time the stories would be tragic and this one was no doubt one of the few comics that creeped me out. Mr. Fantastic (the stretch guy) and his wife the Invisible Woman have one child, a boy named Franklin. He is a mutant and has the ability to have special dreams that foretell the future. The Invisible Woman gets pregnant again and she dies in childbirth. But this story shows what would happen if the baby survived. Franklin sees the future and sees that his sister is a monster and no one believes him. Eventually family members die and Franklin sees that his sister is the reason. So Franklin turns to the Fantastic Four's deadliest enemy, Dr. Doom for help.

Dr. Doom kills Mr. Fantastic and he dies but before he dies he sees his daughter as the monster that his own son described. Doom also dies facing the monster and Franklin manages to send it to the Negative Zone (long story... basically he sends his sister to another dimension).

The final words of the story, spoken by Franklin looking on all the destruction and death were haunting.

"At first you said it was a nightmare... ...a child's dream gone away. Probably from something I ate. The you chalked it up to jealousy... ...sibling rivalry... ...as old as Cain and Abel. But I was never jealous of her daddy.. ...I was afraid of her. And as I stand here amid the ruins of your lab... ...over your body... ...I take no solace in the fact that I was right and you were wrong. If only you'd listen to me things might have been different."

Vigilante #50
I was in the sixth grade when I first read this comic. Vigilante was my friend's brother's favorite comic. I read a few on and off but I had to get this final issue. And I was not prepared to what happened right at the end and it bugged me for days. The character (Adrian Chase) was a lawyer who became disenchanted with the law and took the law in his own hands as the costumed hero Vigilante. Unfortunately Adrian was a tortured soul who made grave mistakes and was often haunted by the decisions he made as Vigilante. And soon it was too much for him to take. He gets caught up in a situation where he mistakenly kills law enforcement agents and realizes he has gone too far.

I honestly didn't expect him to kill himself and I thought it took a lot of guts for the writer to make that call. I eventually picked up the entire series and you can see how Adrian slid down that slippery slope.

Generation Next #4
The Age of Apocalypse storyline was a bold move for Marvel. They cancelled all the very popular X-Men titles and replaced them with a whole new set of X-Men drastically different from what has happened before. Essentially, a huge reset button was pressed when Professor X's son travels back in time to kill Magneto (a play on if you would go back in time to kill Hitler) so mutants can live in peace with humans. Only his son accidentally kills his dad, Charles Xavier and (as usual) something horrible happens and changes everything. In this world mutants are in charge and one of the most evilest mutants, Apocalypse, is in charge and a small team of X-Men, led by Magneto is all that stands in the way of total mutant domination.

In this story, the X-Man Colossus and his wife Shadowcat train a set of young mutants to be the next generation of X-Men (hence the name) and Magneto assigns them a mission to find Colossus's sister whom he thought was dead. Things quickly get out of hand and the team find themselves in a situation and battle that they are unlikely to survive. But this is Colossus and Shadowcat we are talking about. Colossus is one of the most bravest and noblest heroes. But not in this universe. Colossus and Shadowcat succeed in their mission and rescue Colossus's sister and they get her out of the death and mayhem caused by the revolt. Shadowcat wants to go back to rescue their students but Colossus stops her. He volunteers because he does not want to lose his wife. So Colossus goes back to rescue them. He peers inside to see the massacre and hopeless battle and shuts the door.

He goes back to his sister and his wife and tells them there was nothing he could do. He left them to die because he was afraid. He was afraid of losing his sister again and his wife. All I remember is the look on the abandoned student's face when she watches Colossus shut the door on her. And the look on Shadowcat's face because I think she knew.

There were a lot of horrible and heroic moments peppered throughout this series but this one made the biggest impact. There was another one at the conclusion of the massive storyline and unfortunately it involved our good friend Colossus once again.

Colossus does not want to be without his sister Illyana and tries to involve himself in Magneto's plan to save the world. But he would screw it up (long story, trust me). Shadowcat has the mutant ability to become like a ghost and she counted that her husband would stop if she said so. So she doesn't use her powers and Colossus runs her over and tramples her to death. Another X-Man uses his powers to stop (kill) Colossus before he does any more damage. As he dies, he sees his younger sister and says, "Forgive me sister. I thought... I was the bravest of us all. And then I met you. I am so scared... please... give me courage and hold me while I..." And then he dies.

Will To Power #11
The story followed the descent of Titan from hero to villain. Titan was like Superman. Except he had a difficult childhood involving abuse from his father and trying to fit in. He was told throughout his life that he was never good enough. Slowly, as he made mistakes and tried to be a true Superman-like hero he became more distant and angry. Eventually he wanted to prove he was the best and tried to take down one of the most powerful beings on Earth just to prove a point.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is what I thought of when I saw the look on Titan's face here. There is no pity, there is no conscious thought here. This is pure rage and hate and Chris Warner (the artist) really captured that look here. One simple look from Titan was all it took. The pages before showed him easily dispatching the Army and destroying Las Vegas. None of those shows of power told the story like that the bottom panel.

Star Wars Annual #2
Yes! A Star Wars comic! It had Han on the cover so it had to be safe right? Set after the events in the Empire Strikes Back, Luke, C3-P0 and Lando are escaping from Stormtroopers when they find a gold statue of Han Solo. Han was one of my favorite characters so I had to have this comic. I remember flipping through the comic to find out what happened but I didn't get too far because I came across a panel that freaked me out and even to this day I cannot look at it. Go ahead and call me chicken but I didn't re-read this annual because I was too creeped out. Check out the panels below:  BRRRRRR!

 

Just looking at that gives me the creeps! I am sure that I could find more stories or pieces of art that stuck with me but these were the ones that came right to mind.

List-Mania: More Graphic Novel Recommendations

Day 209

Last month I blogged about my favorite graphic novels and recommended them to you guys. These were the books that I would want to have if I was stranded on a desert island and in looking back I definitely got the list right. But if I was really on a deserted island I would miss these books quite a bit.

So here are more graphic novel recommendations. I have included a link directly to Amazon so you find more information and reviews as well and if you want to buy it. I have also included the synopsis/review of each title and why of course I love them.

I tried to choose a variety of different books this time instead of just my favorites. Hopefully there is something here for every one.



SCOTT PILGRIM: Precious Little Life
Vol. 1
By: Bryan Lee O'Malley

Scott Pilgrim is 23 years old, lives in a cold, unnamed Canadian town, plays bass in a band called Sex Bob-Omb and has a very cute 17-year-old Chinese-Canadian girlfriend, Knives Chau. His "precious little life" is amiably unstructured, and he drifts, happily unemployed, between band practice and time spent with Knives. But then he starts having dreams about Ramona Flowers, a mysterious, equally cute and perfectly legal hipster chick on Rollerblades who delivers books for Amazon.com. Ramona is anything but simple, and O'Malley's tale of adorable slackers in love is transformed into a wildly magically manga–kung fu fantasy adventure. We meet the first of Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends, Matthew Patel, who challenges Scott and his band to a supernatural martial arts duel right out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  It's an alt-lit, rock 'n' roll graphic novel with wonderful manga-influenced drawing and a comically mystical plot that manages to capture both the genuine intimacies and serial dishonesties of young love.

If you want something completely different and very unique, I recommend picking up this first volume of Scott Pilgrim. It is funny, cute and exciting. Real life mixed with Nintendo. Michael Cera (of Arrested Development fame) is set to star as Scott Pilgrim in coming soon to theatres and I cannot wait. And the final Scott Pilgrim book (in a series of 6) is coming out in just a few short months.


ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN: ULTIMATE COLLECTION
Book 1
By: Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley

High school, puberty, first dances - there are many pitfalls to being young. Compound these with intense personal tragedy and superhuman powers, and you can start to visualize the world of Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man. Following the murder of his uncle and the Green Goblin's assault on his high school, Peter finds himself on the brink of manhood: getting a job at the Daily Bugle to help support his widowed aunt and taking on extracurricular activities - such as bringing down the Kingpin, the head of organized crime in New York City!

If you enjoyed the Spider-Man movies, I cannot possibly recommend these books any higher. While there are big differences between the movie and this version, it is still Spider-Man at heart. You don't need to worry about being lost reading this, it starts right at the beginning. Bendis really delivers a powerful and believable story and Bagley's art is perfect for new readers. Once you start, I promise you will be addicted and luckily there are about 20 volumes so far. Seriously, it is probably the best Spider-Man stories I have ever read.


HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION
VOL. 1
By: Mike Mignola


Hellboy is one of the most celebrated comics series in recent years. The ultimate artists' artist and a great storyteller whose work is in turns haunting, hilarious, and spellbinding, Mike Mignola has won numerous awards in the comics industry and beyond. When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come to save it. Sent to investigate a mystery with supernatural overtones, Hellboy discovers the secrets of his own origins, and his link to the Nazi occultists who promised Hitler a final solution in the form of a demonic avatar.

Hellboy and Hellboy 2 are some of my favorite movies and Hellboy is definitely one of my favorite comic books. If you like mystery, action and horror, this series of books (10 volumes) are definitely up your alley. If you like strange monsters, Lovecraft, fables and urban legends, this book is definitely for you. Mignola takes real fables and sends Hellboy out to figure them out. And the Hellboy character is just perfect, even though he is a demon, he is certainly human. Just writing about him makes me want to go read them.

STAR WARS LEGACY:  BROKEN
VOL 1
By: John Ostrander and Jan Duursema

The Jedi Temple is attacked, an Emperor is betrayed, and the Sith are born anew! A lot can happen in a hundred years, but that's just the beginning of the story! Not since Luke Skywalker first stepped aboard the Millennium Falcon has the galaxy seemed like such a vast, exciting, dangerous place! Readers will meet a host of new characters, see fleets of new spaceships, and visit scores of exotic locations - some new and some familiar. This is a perfect jumping-on point for any reader - an epic beginning to an untold chapter of the greatest adventure in the universe!

What kind of geek would I be if I didn't recommend a Star Wars title to read? I read these in comic book form and I absolutely love this series sanctioned by Lucas himself. The story idea is wonderful, it is set over 125 years after the events in Return of the Jedi. It features a descendant of Luke Skywalker who was trained as a Jedi but has abandoned the order. The series begins with an attack on the Jedi Temple and the overthrow of the Galactic Empire by a newly created Sith order. If you like Star Wars you will love this series. And there are more volumes published.


Y: THE LAST MAN: UNMANNED
VOL 1
By: Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

A mysterious plague has killed every man on earth except Yorick Brown, who was somehow spared. The sole Y-chromosomed survivor is an amiable, headstrong young man, the son of a U.S. congresswoman and, as it happens, an amateur escape artist. He tries to escape to Australia to find his girlfriend but finds that being the last man on Earth to be a much greater problem.

This series is not for the weak-hearted. Terrible things have happened and terribly things will continue to happen as Yorick tries to travel to Australia to find his girlfriend Beth. During his travels he will encounter various groups of women that have different beliefs and have different views on what they should do with Yorick. But during his travels he learns a lot more about himself. This is a fantastic science fiction story that really addresses a lot of what the world would be like if all the men died. But like I said before, this book is for Mature Readers Only. There is cursing and adult situations.

Most of these books are available at any book store and I am sure you could find copies of it at your local library. Do yourself a favor and try one of them out and you'll see why I love this medium so much.

Confessions of a Comic Book Geek

Day 177

**WARNING**   **GEEKY POST**  **WARNING**

You know you have a comic collecting problem obession when you see a number and you can remember a certain comic book with the same number. And the number 177 is memorable for me.

Issue #177 is the first issue of the Uncanny X-Men that I own and I have every single issue from that issue on. I officially started to collect the Uncanny X-Men with #200 but I soon went back and bought back issues all the way down to #177. I do have a copy of every issue in some form whether it is in a trade paperback or hardcover collection all the way down to Uncanny X-Men #94.

I am sure that to some that doesn't sound impressive. But let's take a look at the current issue that just came out a few weeks ago.

That means I have 345 straight issues of the Uncanny X-Men. And yes, to answer your question about how geeky I am, I can probably tell you what is on the cover for each one.