Dork Forty!

Bats, Cats, and Tortured Spacemen: A Tom King Two-Fer

So Tom King’s got three 12-issue series running right now: Strange Adventures, Batman/Catwoman, and Rorschach. That last one is not something I’ll be discussing, because it’s a book that, as far as I’m concerned, is an unauthorized sequel that shouldn’t exist (you can go here to find out why). The other two, though… The other two I’m enjoying quite a bit. So let’s take a look at those, shall…

Fare thee well (AGAIN), Johnny Constantine! We (STILL) hardly knew ye!

So the new DC Implosion has finally claimed a victim that stings: Hellblazer. It’s not the first time they’ve canceled this book, and this time admittedly doesn’t sting as badly as the original. But still, man… Still… 

Hellbazer 10-12 by Simon Spurrier, Matias Bergara, and Aaron Campbell

I’ve really been enjoying this new run of Hellblazer. It’s retained a bit too much of the “sparkly magical…

So I’ve still got a buncha funnybooks here that I read while I was on blog vacation, and a bunch more that I’ve read since, and I don’t know which ones are which anymore, but I’ve got a buncha categories to put ’em all into, starting this week with…

DEPARTURES

All good things must come to an end, and that includes funnybook series. In the last few months, we’ve had a few of the good’uns say…

Then There Was That Time Captain America Fought Richard M. Nixon…

So it’s been a crazy week. I had fully intended to do my usual column last Tuesday, but then that whole “election” thing happened, and I figured people had more important stuff to worry about than funnybooks. Lord knows I did. 

And the week that’s followed since has been… Well, like I said, it’s been crazy. The last time America saw a White House dissolving into this much desperation was the…

What I Did on My Blog Vacation

So it’s been a while.

I didn’t intend for my blog vacation to last quite as long as it did, but once I really dedicated myself to not doing much of anything for a while… That shit really took. As I write this, I’m on the final day of a week off from the day job, and I was maybe three-quarters of the way into that vacation before I realized that I was feeling human again.

My vacations are…

Putting the Farm to Bed

So we went another week without a column, and I really don’t have it in me to do one this week, either. I have books I want to talk about, but not the will to actually sit down and write. It’s been a long year for everyone, and I’m just flat-out exhausted. So, as happens from time to time, I think I need a vacation. A few weeks to just read comics and watch movies and play online and not stress…

So here we are again, with a whole big pile of funnybooks to discuss, and not much time to do it in. Last week, I handled that with just a couple of full-length reviews. This week, though, I think it’s time for the opposite approach. Which means, of course, that CAPSULEREVIEWSAREGO!!

Decorum 4 by Jonathan Hickman and Mike Huddleston

Sometimes, I think I don’t really understand what’s going on in…

Cowboys and Nazis and Giants and Aliens

So it’s been a while since we had time to sit down and really talk comics. And it’ll have to be a short talk, even now. But the constant grind of work, pandemic, and politics is starting to have some deleterious effects on my psyche, so… Let’s talk comics for a minute. I’ve got a big pile of books to discuss here on my desk, and I don’t even know where to start.

Oh, wait! Actually, I do. I’ll…

Nerd Farming Ain’t Easy

So it just hit me this morning (Sunday, as I write this) that I missed posting a column this past Tuesday. I kind of thought I had, but I didn’t, and then I just put it out of my mind. Can’t remember the last time I didn’t at least post a picture saying, “Stay tuned, we’ll be back soon.” But it’s been that kind of week. The day job’s kicking my nerd-farming ass, and I’m thinking that it’ll be…

So we’re back with another art gallery post this week. I hope to resume regular long-winded funnybook discussion soon, but the day job’s just taking up too much of my time right now. Gotta make a living to buy them funnybooks, after all.

But I hope the quality will make up for the lack of verbiage here, because I’ve got a collection of Alex Toth pieces I didn’t even know existed before this…

Gone Fishin’

As happens from time to time, I haven’t been able to do enough nerd wrangling this week to offer up a new column. So here’s a Bernie Wrightson drawing that combines two of my favorite not-comics things: Monster Movies and Pro Rasslin!

Enjoy, and I hope to see you next week.

Kung Fu Fighters and Jungle Lords: Neal Adams’ Other Job

So I used to wonder why there weren’t more Neal Adams comics. I mean… He has a respectable body of work, don’t get me wrong. But for a guy who pretty much ruled comics art in the 70s, you’d think there would be more actual complete comics. While there’s tons of Adams covers, his interior work is more rare, and I used to wonder why that was.

The answer, in part, lies with this image I posted a…

What the Market Will Bear: A Big Two Skip Week Leaves the Indies to Rule the Racks

So this may be a short column. For one thing, I’ve procrastinated and gotten pressed for time. But also… I don’t have many funnybooks to talk about. Neither Marvel nor DC released anything last week, which didn’t impact me all that much since I don’t read a lot from either of them. But not much that I DO read came out, either. It was just two books, in fact, but they were both doozies: the second…

Sex and Crime and Magical Bastards

So… I was going to say something here about the subject matter of the comics we’re looking at this week. But for once, I think I summed that up in the title pretty well. So all I’ll add now is that we’ve got new Hellblazer and Hulk, the latest chapter of Donny Cates’ Redneck, a new Texas crime comic, and the book we’ll be starting off with today…

Sex Criminals 29 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky

So here we are, almost a month since new funnybooks returned, and I’m sticking to my guns on not over-buying in print. I had no missteps on that front this week, but I did belatedly discover a second misstep from last week that I regret far more than the one comic I bought but didn’t enjoy. But we’ll get to that a bit later. First, I wanted to talk about the most interesting corporate spandex…

So it’s a new week, and hey! We finally got us some new funnybooks! I got no theme or clever thing to say about them, either. I’m just so happy to get new comics that I’m actually tongue-tied! So let’s dive right in…

The Boys: Dear Becky 01 by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun

I missed the announcements for this book, so when it popped up on the new comics list last week, I was a bit gobsmacked. The…

So… Interesting times, are they not?

We’ll be back at a later date with our usual funnybook ramblings. But for now, it’s time for the Nerd Farm to go silent, so more important voices can be heard.

#Blackout #Justice RIP George Floyd.