I recently replied to a comment posted on the journal of one of my LJ friends. It made me re-think and cement my opinion on some things.
Here's a paraphrase and slight re-write of what I said there.

I have been married to my wife for nearly twenty years. I would like it if less straight couples used the term marriage to define their temporary relationships. That isn't going to happen. I cannot in good conscience say that two people in love, in a committed monogamous relationship, with the honest intention (at the onset) of staying together, should not be married. I'll give them 'my' word... Here you go gay people... Have some marriage, enjoy it, don't trivialize it, find some happiness. If you can't accept that it is about tolerance, then say it is about equality, and fundamental rights. I just can't feel threatened by others wanting to find happiness on equal footing with what I am allowed to have. with the same legitimacy as everyone else. I never even had to justify it or fight for it.
...

I used to say... You know... There is no reason in my mind that homosexuals should be prohibitted from getting married in the civil union sense, but you know... marriage is one of those words that carries a lot of weight and very specific implications, etc. Don't fight over semantics, etc. Well... I respect people's right to their opinions, but not at the expense of the rights of others. You think the idea is abhorrent...? Shout it from rooftops if you want, but that doesn't entitle or empower you to even think about trying to stop someone from what is a basic human right, recognized by our legal system and protected by our laws, etc.

I believe pretty strongly now that my previous position was a bull-shit easy out sort of thing. 

Gay people exist. They are both gay, and people. Their ability to marry does not threaten anyone. I would never say that any given church or any given clergy should ever be compelled to marry a couple if doing so went against their beliefs. The good news is that there are more and more churches that are coming to an understanding of God's love that doesn't discriminate that way.

I don't understand why such things are ever put on a ballot. There should be an assumption of basic rights. 

I haven't plugged my comics blog in at least a day or so... so... Go read my comics blog!!! 

I plan to go to SPX this weekend in Bethesda Md, so let me know if anyone else plans to be there. I have never been before, so I am excited at the prospect.

My Birthday is next week. I am hoping to get Lego Batman for one of my game systems and maybe dinner out at the awesome Mexican/Peruvian/Salvadoran Restaurant that I like.

I have watched the first 4 episodes of True Blood, and I am enjoying it so far*

*I think it may be a terrible show, but I like Anna Paquin and it's pretty funny. I have an issue with shows and things set in Louisiana. I always think the accents make everyone sound like they are retarded. I am not sure if they are good accents or bad. I have no real life reference. There are a couple great characters in this thing, so I doubt it will ever be a complete waste of time to watch. 

Tonight We watched Bones. The lineup tonight was just mean... Bones, America's Next Top Model, Knight Rider and Pushing Daisies all at the same time. I enjoyed Bones. I will catch ANTM later and I am not all that bothered about knght rider, but I thought the movie was ok and was curious how the series would be.

If you refuse to read my comics blog you should go out and get the Plain Janes and Janes in Love by Cecil Catellucci and Jim Rugg. Published by DC's dead imprint walking... Minx. They are both awesome in the really good smart teen movie kind of way.

read my blogggggggggggg http://talkinboutcomics.blogspot.com/
Hey... you could even coment if you want. I made it so it will take anonymous posts, but if you do post there, let me know who you are. One of my hopes is that it will be a place for discussion and conversations regarding comics.

I understand that there are ten thousand better comic blogs, but ... um... read mine anyway. I have posts regarding Strangers In Paradise, The Pro, Blindspot, my comic purchases from week to week, etc.

We are simultaneously watching Angel Season 4 and Brisco County Junior Season 1 through netflix. My girls and I watched the Matrix the other night and I recommended they watch Underworld yesterday while i was at work. They liked them both a lot. Thanks to those ads that are running I have also gotten Breakfast Club for them to watch. It is important that they understand cultural references when they see them. So now they understand when I say 'There is no spoon' and soon they will understand when I say 'Without lamps... there'd be no light...'

This is perhaps the best part of being a parent... getting to actually share important stuff with your kids.

http://talkinboutcomics.blogspot.com/2008/08/fletcher-hanks.html

My review of the Fletcher Hanks collection. Go.. read... discuss...

Orrrrrrrr suggest something hear and I will talk about it there... It has to be Comics related.

Look! it's a new thing for me!!

I have started a comics blog called Talkin Bout Comics

It's on blogger and I will probably post links here for a while as I update it. I really want a comics discussion and review site where I can write meatier Comic Book related pieces and hopefully spark some discussion. I will still post just about everything here, but , yeah, that's the idea behind this.

My inaugural post over at my new place was going to be on the book - Fletcher Hanks: I shall destroy all civilized planets, but the news of this gem prompted me to put that on the back burner for now. - run tell your local comic shop they need to get this for you... go now!


HECTOR PLASM: TOTENTANZ

Written by Benito Cereno, art and cover by Nate Bellgarde.

The creative team behind Invncible Presents: Atom Eve return to their original creation, a modern-day member of an ancient cult whose duties dictate that he roam the earth to protect the living from the dead...and occasionally to protect the dead from the living. It's the follow-up to the book WIZARD MAGAZINE called one of the top 200 comics released during its publication history.

48 pages, $5.99, in stores on Nov. 5.

Today I picked up the following. I was able to keep it under 20 bucks AND I really enjoyed most of what I got.

Squadron Supreme #1 - I got this because it is written by Chaykin, and I was thinking about him recently. It's pretty good, the art is good,  it's intriguing enough to maybe get me into issue #2

Billy Batson and the magic of Shazam #1: Written and drawn by Mike Kunkel - This is cute as heck. The art is just... cool as all get out and so cute it makes me go awwww and giggle when I look at it. Cute little girl Mary Marvel kicks the crap out of evil black costume mary marvel (not literally) I liked the issue a lot, it was a lot of fun and the art is fun as well.

Madame Xanadu #1 - This is a new Vertigo title from Matt Wagner. Amy Reeder Hadley does the absolutely beautiful art in this book. It is stunning and clean and easy to read, etc.  The story so far is a lot of Arthur Legend, the main character is Nimue I guess, and she is awesome, Morgan is awesome, Just a lovely comic, and it has me interested enough to keep getting it. I am a Matt Wagner fan in general, and I think this is good stuff regardless.

Astonishing X-Men #25 - This is the first of Warren Ellis's run on Astonishing. I HATE Bianchi's art in this. Hate.. for serious. It gets in the way to me. I would prefer almost anything to this... except for Lenil Yu.. probably wouldn't prefer that. The team this time (so far) is Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Orroro, Armor, Beast... Not bad, and Emma is brilliant so far, I am willing to give this a chance. Hate the art, like the comic anyway.

Oh... It's set in San Francisco... or near it... Mutants in San Franciso... Go figure...*

*I was once a co-mod / co-creator of a San Francisco based Mutant Roleplaying game (mostly original characters)

I just looked at the site for the Baltimore Comic Con.
You may or may not know that I have a self imposed ban on going to Baltimore. I have gone many times. I am from Maryland, but DC was always the city we went to, or around if we needed city stuff. Baltimore was not some place we went often. I have been to the inner harbor many times and can handle that part of it for the most part. That is the area they pumped money into so that the jumpy white folks could have a place to come and spend money in without disturbing the actual residents.

I went to a concert a few years back that was at the Raven's Stadium there. It was great. Parking was horrifying though, and if you go a block or so away I am pretty sure the scary looking guys that just loiter in the MIDDLE of the street make you buy crack from them to park. I had this same sort of feeling in Boston's little italy... I don't handle middle of the city street tough guy loiterers. it puts me off my feed.

All that said... I think I will try to get to the Baltimore Comicon this year.

from the site...
GUEST OF HONOR: BERNIE WRIGHTSON | HARVEY AWARDS HOST: KYLE BAKER
JIM LEE | BRIAN BENDIS | Mike Mignola | John Romita, Sr. | James Robinson | David Mack | Mike Oeming | Tom Raney | Frank Cho | Barry Kitson | David Finch | Geoff Johns | Darwyn Cooke | Robert Kirkman |Howard Chaykin |Tim Sale | Ramona Fradon | Amanda Conner | Michael Golden | Jimmy Palmiotti | Mark Waid | Jim Shooter | Ron Garney | Adam Hughes | Mark Wheatley | Robert Tinnell | Eric Powell | Stuart Immonen | JG Jones | Brandon Peterson | Dennis Calero | Steve Conley | John Gallagher | Cliff Chiang | Dean Haspiel | Andy Runton | Peter Tomasi | Luna Brothers | Erik Larsen | Don Rosa | Ron Wilson | Mike Grell | Tim Truman | Alex Saviuk | John K. Snyder III | Phil Noto | Herb Trimpe | Todd Dezago | Craig Rousseau | MIke Okamoto | Mark McKenna | Bryan J Glass | Mark Sparacio | Jim Calafiore and many more...
...
People I wouldn't mind meeting and having sign something:
Bernie Wrightson - Master of the Macbre came out in that late 80's big time for me, he is a pretty great artist especially with regard to the creepy stuff.
Bendis... I hope to get him and Oeming to sign a powers trade for me. Maybe have him sign a New Avengers or something. I love Powers, I have liked a bunch of his stuff, but I always resent the guys who end up writing everything published on any given week or month
Mignola - Hell yeah! Maybe Guy Davis will end up at this one too and I can get them to sign my BPRD: Plague of Frogs! I got Davis and Wagner to sign my Sandman Mystery Theater, I would love to have that team as well
Chaykin - I don't know if I have any American Flagg, but I always thought it was cool and like what I heard about it.  I should pick something up as I respect the stuff he's done.
Eric Powell - I love The Goon... I mean I really really do. I would love to get the first trade signed.
Luna Brothers - I have read a bunch of the Girls series, and really thought it was good. I got the first issue or two of the Sword, but thought it was kind of slow (a difference between reading trades and floppies sometimes.) I wouldn't mind meeting them.

There are others I would certainly want to meet, but those are the ones that stick out. I think I have stated this before. I am not exactly all that interested in signatures, BUT, I do like the process of getting to meet artists you respect and or admire, and have a moment with them and be left with a thing as a memento of the encounter.  I try to have people sign things personally to me wherever I can, just to sort of underline the idea that I want it for me and not for sale. I don't care if they care (same reason I generally only get 1 or 2 things signed. I am not for the most part collecting their autograph as much as I am collecting the experience of meeting people I think contribute something to my life in one way or another.

I got the first tpb for the comic FELL at the convention. I paid half price for it, and I would say that I got full price enjoyment out of it. The comic Written by Warren Ellis with art by Ben Templesmith. I remember purchasing the first issue when it came out, because the art was intriguing and it was written by Ellis. I wasn't pulled in enough at the time to keep getting it. It really benefits from the trade format, like so many books do.

The book is about Detective Richard Fell, Just tranfered in to 'Snowtown' from 'Over the Bridge' . Snowtown is a place that is falling apart on itself. It is a place with it's own sort of superstitions and mysticism, etc. Fell is super-intuitive and super-perceptive, etc.  I won't go in to much more than that here. It's extremely well done in my opinion, and I guess is sort of like... Northern Exposure+the Closer(maybe)+Seven+hot fuzz...

OK... Maybe not the hot fuzz part though.. but He WAS transferred from the big city, and in some places, Ben Templesmith's Richard Fell looks a lot like Simon Pegg's SGT Nicholas Angel... Holy crap that would be good casting!!

In addition to showing just how amazing Fell is, there is also the mystery of his transfer and the warning that he not go back to the city. In addition, we see at least one good story where things don't turn out the best for him, and it is all his fault. It is an extremely good set-up volume, but it stands alone very well. We have a vice handfull of interesting characters thrown in as well.

Unfortunately, I guess the series doesn't go anywhere really after what is collected in the trade. Oh well... It's worth getting anyway.

Thanks Much to my friend Reg for going on and on about Templesmith all the time... That made me want to buy it when I saw it!!

I missed picking up my comics last week due to my trip to Charlotte, and I didn't get by my LCS until today(It's Thursday until I go to bed, you know.)

First, Here is what I picked up:
Project Superpowers #4
Trinity #3, #4
Ultimates v3 #4
Hulk #4
Teen Titans Year One #5
Young X-Men #2
Final Crisis #2
Incredible Hercules #118
Amazing Spiderman #563
DC Special Cyborg #2

Second, Here is me talking about it:
I will probably drop the following ASAP - Project Superpowers, Trinity, Ultimates 3, Hulk, Final Crisis, um... That's it... But that's enough isn't it? One thing that popped out at me when reading things today is that there seemed to be a lot of excessively 'busy' books this time around. Too much on a page in a style that makes it hard to tell one thing from another, pages broken up into large oddly sized and shaped panels with tons of action on them just overload me these days and make actually reading and taking in what's going on fairly difficult for me. Yes, when I say 'I'm Olllld' I sound exactly like GrandPa Simpson.

What am i loving? What is surprising me a good bit? Amazing Spider-Man. This issue was fun and funny. It had some endearing little bits and didn't take itself too seriously, but didn't exactly come across as spoofy. I have enjoyed a good number of issues recently. I think this title has bought itself a month or so more without having to worry about being on the chopping block for me. The cover is also cute.(Spidey and the Enforcers in bumper cars)

I liked both of the Teen Titans related books, although cyborg was just ok this time(and busy busy)

TTY1 #5 was great, and features a date between Wonder Girl and Speedy. The kids are drawn looking like kids. Speedy is a dick, he deserves to become a drug addict. I really like Karl Kerschl's art in this series. Even though Aqualad looks like a wolf-boy to me. I still like it a lot. There is some sweetness and some innocence to it, which is nice.

Incredible Hercules - I like this title a lot, and want to like it even more. This one was just ok, and I will come back to this in a minute or two. I sort of hated nightmare in this. I thought, for the first time thinking this... no lie... hey they are really making him like Sandman... sort of. It was still decent ish.

I am not sure I understand what is going on in Young X-men, but I like it.

I read Wanted, finally. I am always late to the party on stuff, and yeah, I was influenced by the fact that a movie is coming out. I understood prior to reading it that there are only one or two pieces of the original that made it into the movie, aside from the title and maybe some basic outline of the idea of the thing.

I don't know how to describe things like this. It was ok... It was mostly a decent read, I thought the art worked fine, etc., I didn't like it, though. It is too dark for me. I don't have to like it to think it worked, and I guess it worked, and like I said, it was ok, but I don't LIKE it, and I don't really want to.

The idea of a world where supervillains rule is fine with me. The idea that there is this cartel that keeps things running smoothly and covers everything up, etc. is good enough. The idea behind Wesley and his rebirth as his father's successor and supervillain is ok. I guess I would like this more if I didn't find elements of it unnecessarily over the top.

I am not personally a big fan of certain things used for the sole purpose of showing us how bad someone is, or how edgy and dark your writing is, etc. I am not a big fan of rape, but rape seems to be like sudoku to the people in this world. It's what they do when they need to kill time in between doing other stuff. It's all by reference, but still. Bestiality also gets a funny enough nod, but I'm not sure it all needed to be that way. I think that people use a lot of easy ways out in writing, and writing badass and over the top and such instead of writing artfully or intelligently is one of them. Had it been just a bit different than it was I would probably be raving about it.

One thing it has going against it is that I just finished (re)reading Astro City Life in the Big City and Tarnished Angel. These are masterful and good. Well done, full of character development, etc. The first one is a collection of stories, and the second is a single work, focusing on a super-villain fresh out of prison trying to do right. Not every story needs to be a good upbeat one, but I think the difference in the quality of story telling between these two different worlds populated by super-folks is pretty glaring.

I like Millar, and have liked plenty of his stuff. I liked Ultimates 1&2 a lot, and his ultimate FF, etc.

I want to see the movie. I sort of want to see it based on the promise that it ISN'T like the comic. I like the casting, I like the trailers, etc. I want to see Hancock more than Wanted... but I want to see it anyway.

http://elsies.comicgenesis.com/

Go there!! new strip!! enjoy also, other strips and sketches and things are there.

I will write more when I am able to, I haven't done any decent updates in a while

HOLY CRAP!! This was seriously the best run of episodes of lost in maybe forever. I hope that whatever they do from here on out that they don't retcon or go crazy making up new stuff and abandon resolving and touching on stuff that has needed explaining since the beginning.

Now on to comics

First...

Judenhass - Dave Sim - I am pretty sure that if you say something good about Dave Sim, Gail Simone will egg your house. Here goes anyway.

Judenhass is an extremely well done book. The format is a high quality prestige format... It's about 50 pages or so, and it is 4 dollars. Buy it, support it, encourage authors to take chances on important projects. vote with your dollars... Get it and read it for yourself, from the beginning through to the last notes. It isn't really a graphic novel.. it's sort of a graphic essay. It is portraits of famous people over backgrounds of concentration camp horrors and it uses quotes from those people to show a very real pervasive environment of Jew Hatred as a blight that was not created by Hitler, although it was certainly perfected and exploited by him and his kind. It is an effective Holocaust museum experience in a comic format. I think it is another good example of the power of the medium when used right.

All Star Superman 11 was pretty awesome. I really recommend this series. It's fun and.. well done.

Giant sized Astonishing X-Men - I was happy with this as well. There is cute snappy writing in it and some sadness for me.

Not much else to recommend that is new, although I picked up a handful of other stuff.

Here is something that is not new that is well worth reading...

My LCS came through with Issue 1 of Atomic Robo... I totally recommend Atomic Robo. It is a hoot! buy it if you can find it now, or when the trade comes out*! Read it all and enjoy..

*I assume one will come out some day.

Go... Read... Enjoy...

A while back I mentioned a thing, or an idea I had that I was excited about but I wasn't going to talk about it at that point... Well.. My amazing collaborator and artist friend Frost empathicfrost and I have a comic genesis site for our new web comic Elsie S.

So far there are only 2 strips and a handful of awesome pictures of our leading lady there, but we are updating weekly. I will continue to post here when updates are up, but I would love it if everyone would give it a try.

Thanks!!
Bob

We went to the pool again today. The weather was perfect. It was warm enough for swimming, but not too hot in the shade. There was a nice breeze, it was heavenly. Three hours is about my limit on sitting at the pool, but it makes for some extremely productive reading time.

Today I took the following along with me:
Sandman Mystery Theater v1 The Tarantula - Matt Wagner, Guy Davis
Grrl Scouts v1 - Jim Mahfood
Grrl Scouts v2 Work Sucks - Jim Mahfood

( Comic Talk )

I borrowed a pile of books from the library the other day. Among then were two Comics. I had different reasons for borrowing each, and uncertain expectations about both.

Will Eisner - The Contract with God Trilogy
http://www.amazon.com/Contract-God-Trilogy-Dropsie-Avenue/dp/0393061051
It is a 30 dollar book, available for 20 on Amazon... I recommend it.

Kurt Busiek - Astro City - Life in the Big City
http://www.amazon.com/Astro-City-Life-Big/dp/156389551X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211682149&sr=1-1
14 bucks on Amazon... Also highly recommended.

( reviews under the cut )

Well it wasn't quite as bad of a day as it could have been. I decided to go to my LCS and see just what was in my box today. I was able to keep my expenses under 15 bucks, so I didn't feel so bad about it. Here is my haul, as yet unread:

dc special: cyborg #1
JSA #15
Casey Blue #1
Amazing Spider-Man #560
Ultimate X-Men #94

I am getting JSA because of the Gog/Kingdom Come thing that's going on. I will get spider-man probably through the next couple months, just because. I am not loving it, but I am not loathing it either, really. I will probably stay on through the Slott run that was announced recently, whatever that is? 566ish?
Ultimate X-Men is still getting a free ride based on a long time ago when I really liked it. I will cancel it soon, I swear... Actually I thought I had done that already.

Ok... I may give it a few issues just to see more of ultimate alpha flight. I have to say... I hate what they have done to colossus. It has nothing to do with him being gay, I just don't think the Ultimatizing of Piotr was done by someone who liked the character.

I just finished reading them all and here goes...
Cyborg - It doesn't do much that's new, but I like it better than any other non-tiny titans I have read in forever.

Spider-man - it's ok... not awesome, but funny in spots and dumb in spots

Casey Blue - a little intriguing, except the TEENS all go to growth hormone high apparently, where all the girls have porn start sized boobs. I am not a fan of that. All the girls are like Michael Turner women... Puffy lips and enourmous racks, and that's the teens. I like that sort of drawing just fine, but I would like some variety, like in life, and that isn't really the norm... for teens...

JSA - I am really enjoying this. It is mostly fighting right now, but it is still interesting, and I think it is written well.

I finally got a chance to watch 'I'm not there' last night. What I mean of course is that I made myself a chance by staying up until nearly 2 am and that I watched it 'this morning' rather than 'last night'.

I have been a big fan of Bob Dylan since I was in Middle School. I am not sure why, but it's the truth. There weren't a lot of other folks I knew that were into him at the time. I am very much also a Woody Guthrie fan and a Pete Seeger fan as well. I got into Woody Guthrie based on his influence on Bob Dylan, and to a lesser degree his influence on Bruce Springsteen.

The movie has some brilliant performances in it and some that may not be brilliant. Cate Blanchett is brilliant in this movie. She deserved the awards she got, and probably some that she didn't.

I recommend that everyone make a point to see the documentary by Scorcese on Dylan during his goes electric/sells out era. The interviews and glimpses and things are amazing, and they really help with an appreciation of I'm Not There. Also, some familiarity with the Bob Dylan myth and with Woody Guthrie doesn't hurt either, but I don't think any of that is required.

I'm not there is very interesting because I dunno I see it in part as saying Dylan actually isn't there... and also that defining him and pinning him down is near impossible, because he is less than you think he is and more than you can imagine. I think it is best to just consider him for the music he has made, and makes, and not hassle him about anything else.

We always want people to live up to how important they are to us.The media has no real soul and doesn't think anything is actually important beyond how it can be exploited. Scholars and critics just love art for their theories about it and their insights and how they can use it to appear smarter than the rest of the world. Movements only love you when you are saying their slogans. I think this movie shows some of that. I think 'No Direction Home' does too.

There are a lot of unresolved things for me in this. I think I will need to watch it again at some point. Splitting the idea and the reality of Dylan into pieces and having all of them be real and distictly separate entities, none of which are Bob, and assembled together might not equal half of him, is pretty great.

The other brilliant performance in this is Marcus Carl Franklin as 'Woody Guthrie' Really, I could have had a movie twice as long with only him and Blanchett in it. They are the aspects I embrace the most, and their appeal to me is pretty obvious to me.

Probably not a movie for everyone, but good stuff anyway.

Here is a list of the comic blogs and comic book news and reviews sites that I currently have bookmarked. I read them like crazy (well I skim) the news ones)
I love them. Each of the blogs has definite merits and all are completely worth reading. For example, Every day is like wednesday does a 'Weekly Haul' comic review that I wish I could do even half as well as they do. It's really good stuff. Two of the blogs are written by Ladies, and as I said, all are pretty great.

If you have any outstanding Comic related blogs, let me know! Any Web Comics you like to keep up with? Let me know!


Blogs and reviews and things
http://kleefeldoncomics.blogspot.com/
http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/
http://comicsworthreading.com/
http://livingbetweenwednesdays.blogspot.com/
http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/


Comic Newsy sort of things
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/
http://www.newsarama.com/
http://www.comicbookresources.com/

I just finished Castle Waiting.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A set of linked nouveaux fairy tales, this graphic novel extends the story of Sleeping Beauty into a modern, feminist Chaucer for happy people. After Sleeping Beauty leaves with the prince, the three ladies in waiting, Patience, Prudence and Plenty, stay on in the castle, a hobgoblin-infested structure that becomes a refuge for those in need: a pregnant woman fleeing her abusive husband; Sir Destrier, a horse-headed knight who wants a place to rest between adventures; Beakie, a kindly bachelor merchant; and Sister Peace, a bearded nun. The ladies do things like dye their hair red with henna, but mostly they tell stories of their lives. The art is full of humor; we know each character as soon as we see them. The faces are particularly expressive.

It took me a few sittings to finish, but I really enjoyed it. It is very well written. It is funny and interesting, it's sweet, the art isn't bad, and for certain things it's pretty perfect. I really how expressive the (human) faces can be. She does giggling better than most I would say.

It is labeled as young adult, and that appeals to me as well. It is nice to see well written and 'nice' comics that can be enjoyed by young and old. It was a 17.95 paperback, and I'll say it was worth it. The binding has a bit of an issue, but I don't know if that is something about this individual volume or the whole print run.

I am pretty sure my library has this, so check yours if you don't want to buy it on faith.

Monday = Violin lessons for my 14 yo
Violin lessons = right next to the used bookstore...

The used bookstore had gotten a shipment of awesome in recently and I picked up the following:

B.P.R.D. 1 - Hollow Earth and Other Stories $9
B.P.R.D. 2 - The Soul of Venice and Other Stories. $9
B.P.R.D. 3 - Plague of Frogs $9

Batman: Year One - awesome little hardcover in mint condition awesomeness $10
Courtney Crumrin Tales - Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man $3

I am a happy guy right now. I have the original issues of Batman Year One. It may be my favorite thing ever... It's one of them at least. I have a trade of it that I have read the heck out of. It is fairly ratty and worn in the way the velveteen rabbit was before it became a real rabbit... I am thrilled to have a pristine shelf copy of it.

Except for the Ted Naifeh book, which was still in really good condition, everything I picked up was perfect or close to it. Read once, maybe.

They also had 4 PVP books and 4 Penny arcade books, v1 of the Goon which I have, V for Vendetta pb, and a few other things. I have V already so I passed, and if I keeps spending like this my wife will kill me in my sleep and then sell them to feed the kids and pay the mortgage... Just kidding!! She'd totally wake me before killing me!

In the past two days I have watched at least 5 episodes of Dresden Files S1. I have also read 3 trade Paperback Hellboy collections.

The Chained Coffin and Others, The Right Hand of Doom, and The Conqueror Worm are the 3 trades I have. I need to get the first two, as well as anything else I can buy and read. Between the 3 volumes you get a nice variety of stories, ranging from extremely short to nearly? the whole volume long. I love the art and the writing both, and as much as anything, I love the littles introductions to the stories that the author has written. Usually a paragraph or so, they give some idea as to where the story came from, literally and figuratively. Often it seems the stories are expanded upon, art has been reworked, even pages added. I really like knowing that, because I wouldn't know if he didn't tell me.

The characters are great, the use of the characters is smartly done. We see a variety of sides to most of the characters that are focused on throughout the volumes. Some stories Hellboy is hardly in, some he tells, some he punches his way through, etc. There is humor and creepiness and interesting folk lore. It is an extremely good model, and I doubt it is done much better anywhere else.

I am not sure why it took me so long to read Hellboy, but I am glad I did.

Dresden Files is something we picked up at blockbuster on a whim of mine. I had wanted to see it, but never remembered to watch it. It is a tv show about Harry Dresden, Wizard (everytime I see that written on his door, I say... 'Yer a Wizard Harry' in my best Hagrid, and then I laugh too much. The show is pretty awesome. The acting is decent, and the writing is well done, the effects good. Harry Dresden is a Wizard. He works like a private I more or less, only with wizardy things. He has a girfriend, he has various acquaintences, and he has a ghost of a formerly evil and powerful wizard bound to a skull in a secret lab of his. There is a wizard's council, Vampires, Demons and Devils and stuff... I like it a lot.

We went to my LCS this morning and got our free comic books. The way it ran was when you walked in you were greeted and told that everyone could pick out 3 of the fcbd books and one of the 2 little game figures they had. We all took the HeroClix IronMan because the starwars clone trooper was of no interest to us.

Some of the books that he had out were from last year I believe, but that doesn't make it less cool. There were also a bunch of titles I would have LOVED to get my hands on, but that weren't even available at mine (Atomic Robo FCBD edition for instance). The ladies and I picked up the following things:

Comics 101: How To and History Lessons from the pros
Sonic the Hedgehog
X-Men
Death Defying Devil (dynamite special... Project Superpowers)
Legion of Superheroes
Nexus
The Stranded / Dan Dare (Virgin)
Hellboy
Worlds of Aspen

Of what I have looked at so far, Hellboy is probably my favorite. I just like that this little event exists. Next year my guy says he will probably tie it together with a good sale or something. They just had their huge 10th anniversary sale recently though, so I understand why they didn't do it this time.

Here's a link: http://www.freecomicbookday.com/the_comics.asp

May 3 is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!!! Go to your local participating comic shop and get yourself a free comic book!!! Then buy some not free comics while you are there!

If you do not regularly pick up comics I recommend Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley and King City by Brandon Graham (these are manga sized comics but don't let that stop you!!) Both of these are cool and funny and awesome.