Horror comic book update

There was one thing that really, really bothered me in that horror comic trade that I talked about in the post below. I meant to mention this earlier. It was broken down into different groups of decades, '40-'50s, '60s-'70s, etc. OK, so between each section there was a text piece explaining the state of comic books in general and horror comic books specifically. Now, what bothered me? In two or three of the pieces the guy writing it kept calling Swamp Thing: Swampthing, and it was everytime too. Swampthing, Swampthing, Swampthing. I know, I know it is a little thing, and it is something that if it had been a non-comic article I would have let go. This I could not let go, not only was this a comic oriented book, it was horror comic book, and you can't even get the name of a genre defining character right? Unbelievable. End rant.

The same company has done several big books like this. I just took a volume of war comics that they did to work to read. You can look forward to my thoughts about that months, and months from now.

Oh no

So I come home from work Thursday afternoon, and I notice almost immediately that something is amiss. Oh crap, my bedroom door is open. Suddenly, I have visions of going into the back yard and finding piles of chewed up comic books strewn about. The dog, Juno is a notorious chewer and wrecker of...everything. I've been meaning to post some pictures of his handy work. He really likes to get into paper products, the mail isn't even safe when it is on the bar. I slowly walk to the back door so see what damage has been done. I look back there, and...nothing. There was one of my socks, but I expect that. Juno will take one of my socks even when I am there, just one though. Seeing that didn't bother me. I was just so happy that none of my comics were out there. Hopefully, he is growing out of his chewing phase.

In other news, I finished the huge tome The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics. It was a really good for the most part and at over 500 pages mammoth is right. It collects pre-Code horror comics from the '40s and '50s all the way up to some just a few years old. I didn't find any of the stories particularly scary, and after so many tales at how great the pre-Code comics were, they were fine, I guess I was just expecting something gorier.

I did enjoy the older comics more than I did the newer ones. Especially, the stories representing the 21st century. That had two by the same guy that was just photoshopped work, which I don't dislike on principle, but this just wasn't very good. Plus, one of his stories was a remake of one earlier in the book, so that really left me cold. There was also a Steve Niles/Ben Templesmith Cal MacDonald story I have yet to see anything by either creator I like. There was also one or two Lovecraft stories, and that is just material I never got. Just mind-numbingly boring to me. The good greatly outweighed the bad though. Some nice early Kaluta. A Bernie Wrightson story, and he never disappoints. A number of Bruce Jones tales. Defintely worth the cost. I am saying this, and I am not even much of a horror fan at all.

My other problem is calling it a "Best of" when there is no EC.

I am bored!!!!

I finished up all of my work at...work at around 9 something this morning an I am bored.

bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored

Find exactly what

Last night I made a very comforting dinner that was very reminiscent of what my mom used to make: Smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes, and stewed squash. Pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I just used to much liquid in all of them though. Have to cut it back next time I make it.

After dinner I watched the movie Blast of Silence. I have hear a lot of great things about the movie, and how great it is. It was alright, nothing earth shattering. I was expecting some sort of surprise or twist somewhere and it just never happened. A solid film though.

A bit adventurous this morning at work. I carried my 1 million can box of Coke Zero, up and the handle on the box broke. One of the cans busted and sprayed coke everywhere. That is embarrassing enough, just couple that with I work out of my boss' house. I am just glad it didn't get on the rug or anything like that, it was easy to clean up. After that I had to get my jumper cables for one my boss' cars. Between three cars and a whole house. Neither my boss nor his wife own a set. That amazed me.

Changing my ways...

I have started to change my idea on how I buy music. I was always one of those people who wanted the CD. I want to read the liner notes, and get all of the info packed inside. A few things have altered my thinking on that.I usually just read the liner notes once. If even that, sometimes I store the CD away and never get around to reading the liner notes.

On Amazon it is usually cheaper, sometimes a lot cheaper to buy the whole album digitally. I downloaded one "CD" 11 bucks cheaper than if I had bought the physical product from the store. Seriously, 11 dollars!!!! Just glancing through it seems like around a 5 dollar average in savings. A couple of those and I can buy a book on the musician I am interested in. Another benefit is that I get the music pretty much instantaneously.

Now if what I am looking for isn't available for download, I will still buy CD, but I figure that will be getting rarer as companies open up more of their catalogs.

The digital age indeed.

Sketch #1

After much cajoling and pleading from my pal Rob* about posting the sketches I have gotten in my (Mostly) Legion of Superheroes sketchbook I have finally relented, and I am posting the first one today.

Here it is:


This is sketch is done by Todd Nauck. I can hardly believe this was 6 years ago. I knew I wanted one of the original three for my first sketch, and I was greatly pleased to have someone who has been a Legion artist in the past to do the first one. I do remember the convention I got it done at, because it was a very poorly attended convention. The table next to Todd's had Geoff Johns before he truly blew up in the comic book world, and there was about an hour when it was just us three talking about different stuff. I had a ton of fun at the con, a lot of one-on-one time with different creators.


* Rob may not have pleaded and cajoled, it may be something he mentioned once 2 1/2 months ago. My memory is a bit hazy.

That went horribly

Well the Rangers did not complete the sweep of the Yankees last night. In fact they got shelled. I, and I think everyone else in the free world, saw it coming when the relief pitcher Warner Madrigal came into the game. I don't think a one run game versus the Yankees in Yankee stadium was the right time to make your major league debut. I left the game before Madrigal did.

Two interesting stats I heard:
Derek Jeter post-season at bats: 495
Texas Rangers Franchise: 300
In the 36 years that the Rangers have been in Texas the number of sweeps of the Yankees in New York: 1 in 2003

That was during Showalter's first season as manager. You would think in all of that time they would have lucked into a sweep with some of the Yankee teams on the 1980s to early '90s

Liasing

An interesting article from Time.com:

10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas - 10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas - TIME

The radio line of the week makes it return after a long hiatus since nothing struck me as funny. This one was unintentionally funny:
"I don't hate Sidney Ponson. I hope he gets into heaven. I really do."
I don't know why, but that really made me laugh.

I am finally, kinda sorta getting use to the route I am riding on my bike. I can ride it without feeling like I am going to have a heart attack. Plus when I go uphill I don't need shift down so much. Slowly, but surely.

The Texas Rangers have never had success against the Yankees. Like ever. They have already won their first series since April 2005 against the Pinstripers. I haven't done the research yet, but I am curious to see when was the last time they swept them. They have that chance tonight.