Belated

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The End of the World Is Nigh

Tae na nga ang Twilight - - - it's a fucking chick flick, whaddya expect? - - -gagawan pa ng ABS ng panibagong tae.

Tae galing sa tae.

Spock with Klingon

yeah

Frak Heroes

I think I'd rather be watching this than that Tim Kring turd.

My Comic Year (Without Annotation . . But Hey, I Got Pictures!)

In light of the Eisner turnouts, here's my own shortlist of highlights from 2007, which I never got around to last January for reasons I'd rather not get into. Glad to see Eisner agreed with some of 'em. There were not-bad, not-great exceptions - - - Walking Dead and Thunderbolts come to mind - - - but mostly my comics year was one of more zombies and superheroes, of abominable flatness, of myopic visionaries, of more zombies and superheroes, of denser and duller continuity,of letdowns and kissoffs and heartbreaks none of which stung but gave off a chickenshit pffft, of Mark Millar's self-aggrandizing hyperbole, of more zombies and superheroes . Then these eleven beauties happened. Only wish I could whip up a few words to say about the lot 'cause they deserve it. But I can't.

My favorite comics of 2007, then, incidentally the best comics of 2007 as well. Alphabetically.





20th CENTURY BOYS Naoki Urusawa

THE ARRIVAL Shaun Tan

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Mark Waid & George Perez

I SHALL DESTROY ALL CIVILIZED PLANETS! Fletcher Hanks

THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, David Aja

ONE MORE DAY J.Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada/ SENSATIONAL SPIDERMAN ANNUAL Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca - - - Not a typo, this.

THE PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP: THE TRIAL OF COLONEL SWEETO AND OTHER STORIES Nicholas Gurewitch

THE SPIRIT Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone

SUBURBAN GLAMOR Jamie McKelvie

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba

'Nuff said. Excelsior.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

We'll all find out in January 2009, when Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert team up for this particular Batman story arc.

*SQUEEE!* ^_^

Read more here.

Eisner 2008 Winners

Best one shot for me is Matt Fraction's Sensational Spider-man Annual #1. Agree with The Umbrella Academy (though wouldn't mind if Nightly News won) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (then again, Immortal Iron Fist should've) wins though. Brubaker's Captain America is one of the year's best titles bu his Uncanny X-men sucks ass, so it's a toss between Joss Whedon and Brian Wood for me. Which reminds me, no DMZ win yet? Everybody loves Y: The Last Man; Naoki Urasawa’s Monster was another sorry miss for best continuing series. We better see Locke & Key in next year's awards. Your thoughts? Here are the winners:

Best Short Story: “Mr. Wonderful,” by Dan Clowes, serialized in New York Times Sunday Magazine

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot): Justice League of America #11: “Walls,” by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha (DC)

Best Continuing Series: Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

Best Limited Series:The Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)

Best New Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)

Best Publication for Kids: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)

Best Publication for Teens: Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)

Best Humor Publication: Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, by Nicholas Gurewitch (Dark Horse)

Best Anthology: 5, by Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa (self-published)

Best Digital Comic: Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon

Best Reality-Based Work: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)

Best Graphic Album—New: Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Strips: Complete Terry and the Pirates, vol. 1, by Milton Caniff (IDW)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material: I Killed Adolf Hitler, by Jason (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan: Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz)

Best Writer: Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel)

Best Writer/Artist: Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)

Best Writer/Artist—Humor: Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: Pia Guerra/Jose Marzan, Jr., Y: The Last Man (Vertical/DC)

Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art): Eric Powell, The Goon: Chinatown (Dark Horse)

Best Cover Artist: James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Process Recess 2; Superior Showcase 2 (AdHouse)

Best Coloring: Dave Stewart, BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cut, Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); The Spirit (DC)

Best Lettering: Todd Klein, Justice, Simon Dark (DC); Fables, Jack of Fables, Crossing Midnight (Vertigo/DC); League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (WildStorm/DC); Nexus (Rude Dude)

Special Recognition: Chuck BB, Black Metal (artist, Oni)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism: Newsarama, produced by Matt Brady and Michael Doran (www.newsarama.com)

Best Comics-Related Book: Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, by Douglas Wolk (Da Capo Press)

Best Publication Design: Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse)

Hall of Fame: Judges’ Choices: R. F. Outcault, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson; Voters’ Choices: John Broome, Arnold Drake, Len Wein, Barry Windsor-Smith

Other Awards

Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Paul Levitz

Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award: Cathy Malkasian

Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing: Archie Goodwin, Larry Lieber

Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award: Atom! and Portlyn Freeman of Brave New World

The Island Did Not Jump

Shakeup on the flashbacks and flashforwards will make it so you won't know when events are happening.

The castaways on the raft with Faraday are kaput. Faraday's probably not.

The immortal Richard Alpert will be seen barefoot in the very near future.

Vincent the dog survives 'til series end.

Oh, and the island did not jump.

That's as much as they'll let you know about Lost Season 5.

That ain't much.

But with no more Wire coming, January can not come fast enough.

Shield Yourselves

The operatic , hopped-up, almost surreal evil twin of The Wire has been prone to slippage since Season 3, with the reek of contrivance and the amount of corn getting a bit too rank for comfort in Season 6, but next to David Simon's untouchable masterpiece, The Shield is the cop show you should be watching. And very little TV approximates its thick sense of doom.

And now it's coming to an end,too.

Knowledge

I've been voguing on Knowing ever since it was name-checked as Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko follow-up. The vastly underrated Alex Proyas just wrapped a few weeks ago and is deep into post with it.

Here's the lowdown: schoolkids put drawings in a time capsule and 50 years other it gets cracked one and one of the drawings turns out to accurately and anally predict every major disaster since and some that haven't happened yet. Voltage for geeks, goes without saying, despite being a Nicolas Cage movie.

Oh, and Rose Byrne's in it. Can't wait.

AMBUSH!!

I just read Ambush Bug Year None #1. Warning... Here's the side-effect:

God Speaks . . .Again

Alan Moore, yes that Alan Moore, on his favorite show on TV:

"The Wire is the most stunning piece of television that has come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop.

(It's) grown-up television! It's novelistic. You get to find out about all these tiny different aspects of Baltimore, to build up a huge picture of the city with all of its intricacies — from the wharf side, to the kids in the projects, to the power structure with the boardrooms and police department and governor's office. And it's got some great writers: It's got George Pelecanos and David Simon. And so many wonderful characters, Bubbles, Omar.

So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire."

Also thinks South Park is the bomb.

Oh,if only the rest of the planet would listen, Mr. Moore, and stop watching Gray's Anatomy.

Also on Heroes, from some other interview: "I was persuaded to watch (Heroes) by people who said it nods to Watchmen but God, what a load of rubbish! It's a late-70s X-Men at best and full of terrible ideas and characters who've all been done to death. Beyond death. And the writing shows such contempt for the viewer. The climax, a man who is going to explode is carried off into the air by his brother... did anybody bother to compare the effects of a groundburst with an airburst nuclear explosion? I'll take the former over the latter, thanks. This is supposed to be the sort of thing that superhero stories are good at. I tell you, if we are ever threatened with a scenario like that in real life I hope the superheroes aren't American because we'll be sunk."

Oh and some nice words he has to say on the 300 movie: "Racist, homophobic and sublimely stupid."

Heh.

More here.

Keep On Trekkin'

Watching the Watchmen

Over and over. The Watchmen trailer. Gasp.

Bianchi Does Ellis

Lipton Meets Hell

Robotech!

News from Scifi.com. Good or bad? It could go either way - but Tobey Maguire as Rick Hunter...that is good news! And I wonder who will play Minmei?

Kasdan To Adapt Robotech

Veteran screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan has been hired to write Robotech, Warner Brothers' feature-film adaptation of the anime classic, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Akiva Goldsman and Chuck Roven are boarding the project as producers, joining Tobey Maguire and Drew Crevello.

Robotech was a 1980s cartoon series from Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Productions. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air as a daily syndicated series.

A sprawling SF epic, Robotech takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off three successive waves of alien invasions. The first invasion centers on a battle with a race of giant warriors who seek to retrieve their flagship's energy source, known as "protoculture," and the planet's hope for survival ends up in the hands of two young pilots.

Robotech extends Kasdan's return to the fantasy genre that began last year, when he was tapped to pen the Clash of the Titans remake for Warner and Thunder Road. Kasdan wrote the screenplays for Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark before writing The Big Chill and Grand Canyon.

Toy Con 08

Thor, Wilmer, and I just went nuts....

REVOLTECH Transformers: Hot Rod and Starscream

Custom Barbies by Chaz Coloma of Action Figures Philippines . He gave me Ms. Marvel.

Galactus. Not so gigantic but better than the cloud.

Kingdom Come Reactivated Superman

I got Wonder Woman (JSA) at the Con

Sensie Kakashi

Who watches the watchmen?

Before the Marvel's Registration Act, there was the Moore's Keene Act. All costumed vigilantes were banned unless they work for the US government. Sounds familiar, right? So here comes the Watchmen film. Much to Moore's disappointment, I guess. Still, I am excited as usual. The director, Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead) seems serious in keeping true to the graphic novel.

The Minutemen are, from left: Silhouette, Mothman, Dollar Bill, Nite Owl, Captain Metropolis, The Comedian, Silk Spectre and Hooded Justice. (That's Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian! The lovable and oh-so-cute Denny Duquette of Grey's Anatomy as a killer and rapist.)



And look at the locations - straight out of the comic!




The Watchmen will be shown next year and the pictures of the sets and characters almost makes me believe that this will be a perfect film. There are also plans to release a direct to DVD animation of the "Tales of the Black Freighter" (The raft made of corpses ... BLEH!!) which will include a documentary on Hooded Justice.

Most Wanted

The Wanted trailer that we all should see. It's in Russian and it kicks ass. (Two Millar references in one entry, sorry.)

Click here!

Endings and beginnings

X-Factor #31

Peter David and Pablo Raimondi delivered. Mutant Town is burning inside an impenetrable barrier. This is the end. This is depressing. This feels very symbolic of how mutants are continually being marginalized and the remaining ones have lost hope after the events in Messiah CompleX. But life goes on for X-Factor, as they were - as always - attacked by a villain that have a personal vendetta against them. Arcade wanted to destroy X-factor and raze the Middle East Side or Mutant Town to the ground. The team did what they felt they needed to do – to continue to help people and save lives. It’s sad that the people they saved were ex-mutants who were trying and failing to find meaning and motivation to continue living.

Valerie Cooper and the fire fighters were outside and they were doing their best to get through the barrier as they watched people burn to death. She called SHIELD and asked for assistance from Iron Man and the Avengers but she couldn’t get through. Emma Frost’s words to Tony Stark and Carol Danvers in Civil War rang true again – Where were you when we needed you? When Genosha was burning? When the children were murdered?

X-men Divided We Stand 2/2

The first installment of this limited series followed the young kids from the Xavier Academy/New Xmen who did not know what to do with themselves now that the school is gone. This issue told stories about tying up loose ends from various X-titles.

Hank McCoy went back to the Mansion to clean up - he burned confidential medical records, grabbed personal belongings, closed down his computers and lab, and said goodbye to the place where he grew up.

We caught up with Alex Summers after the Emperor Vulcan Mini-Series - he's in prison with Lorna and the rest of the Starjammers. To further torment him, Vulcan told Alex that the Xmen were no more.

Illyana Raspuntin has a new resolve to get her soul back after the New Xmen arc where she saw that there were people who still cared for her. Forge’s story filled-in-the-blank of how Bishop was able to follow Cable to whatever timeline he was in. Bishop practically beat him up and stole his time travel tech. This left Forge with renewed determination to protect whatever is left of the mutants by protecting the "present."

Last is Nori and Moonstar deciding what to do next - I have often wondered what happened to Nori - she was the leader of the New Xmen and why was she not chosen to be in Young Xmen I don’t understand. The experience left her confused and full of self loathing for her failure to save friends and teammates. Her conversation with Moonstar ended up in a depressing note. Moonstar told her not to lose hope as there will always be a new day. Nori had the last word though, she said, that night will always come.

I glad that Marvel did this. Of course there were no “complete stories” here. If you don’t follow the various X-titles you’d be lost in three out of the five stories and would probably be bitching about how the stories were disjointed and incomplete. But maybe this is a ploy to tease people to go buy the trades of New Xmen, Emperor Vulcan, and follow the on-going Cable arc. I don’t know. I’m just glad that at least I know what happened to Alex, Illyana, and Nori and I’m looking forward to what happens next!

Birds of Prey #118

Tony Bedard has taken over writing BoP - he has written excellent stand alone issues after Gail Simone left. This is another great stand alone issue that will have repercussions in the future.

Misfit was kidnapped by the Dark Side Club - it seems that the New Gods incarnated in human forms (no explanation has been given yet) with Darkseid as a black guy call Dark Side. He ran the thunderdome-like arena where kidnapped superheroes fight. (Reminiscent of the JLU animated series arc and the JSA arc). Misfit and Black Alice were both kidnapped and of course they fought to the death! These two have been fighting for Oracle’s undivided attention since they met but the Dark Side DNA and blood tests of both of the girls came up with a surprising twist... They're related!

Nicola Scott's art is excellent as usual - my favorite was the panel where Black Alice borrowed the powers of Etrigan and when she teleported with a villain (using Misfit's powers - she always warned people that she couldn't teleport others with her) and the woman exploded to bits and pieces.

And even if Manhunter only played a bit part it was nice to see her around the DCU.

Go To Hell

Why frothing over Iron Man was a waste of spit. Because you have this superhero movie to drool over proper. Only droolworthy one for miles.


This is so going to rock.

I'm A Believer

When the timecode hit 0:35, a slight chill ran up my spine.

Heroes And Villains

Can the worst TV show of 2007 get back on its feet?

God, I hope so.

Teaser doesn't show or tell us much,though. Doesn't even tease much. And the visual mnemonic's a little too Chip Kidd/Final Crisis. Oh well,better than that shampoo commercial they ran for Season 2. Better than the godawful Season 2. Better than nothing.

Astonishing!

Lookee look!!! Previews of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men! With huge intergalactic bullet fired towards Earth with Kitty Pryde in it, the Avengers and FF are pitching in to save the world. Cassaday's drawings are awesome!


This page is funny... heh!

God Speaks

Alan Moore on Hollywood: "Any kind of involvement with Hollywood is a waste of my time and there is no amount of money that can compensate for that. I think the industry is an embarrassment on all sorts of levels but sure there are bad comics, bad books and bad culture so it’s not just films that produce an overwhelming majority of unwatchable rubbish but films that are unwatchable rubbish cost $100 million. That is the budget of an emerging third world nation, which is the point where it goes from being merely tasteless to being kind of evil."

Dig That Bolan Riff

No longform manga since Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira rocked my planet harder than Naoki Urusawa's 20th Century Boys - - - except maybe his Monster, which I haven't read yet. Moviebound for years now, a teaser's out at fucking last. And a teaser it is. Superlative use of that T Rex riff notwithstanding, it isn't much . . .but if you've read the manga or if you're not in kindergarten anymore, this will make you drool more than that potentially sucky kid's movie with Robert Downey in red armor coming to brand us stupid in a few weeks.

New York Comic Con 2008 Day 3 - The Stack

New York Comic Con 2008, Day 2 - Artist Alley and More!

New York Comic Con Day 1: Milo Ventimiglia, Grant Morrison

Under . . .

It’s the week I read Secret Invasion . . .although slog would be more apt. Skrulls- - -feh. I also picked up Echo and . . .ummm . . .I’ll be kind . . . it’s OK . . . but the strain shows. Terry Moore doesn’t wear superhero sci-fic well . . .least not yet but I'm not sure I’m fan enough to be up for this ride. Then I pick this up. No secret - - -unless you’ve been living under a rock on a moon
- - - that Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. So, it's genetic. Locke & Key is promising ,give it that- - - and Gabriel Fernandez’s art is a must.

It’s a good day when you can read comics without stumbling over a superhero (although Brave & the Bold ain’t half bad) or a zombie.

Kick In The Gut

My second and third favorite comics of 2008. Thanks be (or not) to Torrent, I've read (or tried to but couldn't finish) nearly everything that's come out so far and these, plus Lucha Libre are the only new titles worth the trouble so far. Add Suburban Glamour and you have the only titles worth the trouble period - - sorry, Grant Morrison's Batman, ya ain't as stupefying as the rest and I luv ya but not enuff. Annotations forthcoming, if I ever get in a cheery enough mood.


Millar outdoes himself,sort of. Who'd have thunk?

To live in hell

After the Fall: Angel Season 6
Written by Brian Lynch and plotted by Joss Whedon
Art: Franco Urru

The first thing that came to mind was CROSSOVER!!! Imagine Angel, Spike, and Buffy together again! Unfortunately, Angel is published by IDW while Buffy is published by Dark Horse. I have no idea why Joss allowed this to happen. Anyway, the series is set to be a canonical continuation of the Angel television series, and follows the events of that show's final televised season: which showed Angel’s gang charging towards—oh just all the demons in LA. I hate endings where you don’t know what happened to the heroes you have become so attached to. I filled the void by reading all Angel books that I could get my hands on.

So when Season 6 came out…No need to state the obvious. There are five issues out and available at your friendly comic book shop. If you don’t want to be spoiled leave now and no harm will befall you….

Imagine Los Angeles in HELL. The whole city transported to hell! Wolfram & Hart literally sent the entire city to hell in retaliation to what Angel and his gang dismantled the demon cartel in LA. In Hell, demons gained more power and they divided the city into territories. Angel is in trouble since he got pissed off at a demon and killed him—he sorta killed-off the son of a demon-mafia leader. Angel, on a dragon continues to rescue citizens from the destruction and sends them to Connor, Gwen, and Nina for sanctuary. Meanwhile, the ghost of Wesley is now an incorporeal representative of Wolfram & Hart – since the contract with W&H extends after death, and Gunn has been turned into a vampire—how ironic, no?

Spike has a harem of humans and demons and he’s with Illyria whose powers have gone bonkers – she’s time jumping as n the series. Spike and Angel fight of course. After a series of surprising reveals they spring the biggest… Angel got wounded during the fight and he is not healing fast because he is human. THEN I HAD TO WAIT A MONTH TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

The demons will keep on killing humans to avenge the demon that Angel killed and to stop this Angel dared ALL the demon lords of the city to send their champions against him at the same time. . The battle begins with Angel and all his friends at his side—including Groosalugg, Conner, Gwen, and Nina thanks to Lorne's last minute rousing (By the way, Lorne controls one city district where everything’s sunny and rosy and happy!). In the meantime, Gunn and his vampire gang demolished the W&H building. Wesley was in a “meeting” with his W&H bosses and when he arrived Spike said that Angel didn’t tell him that Wesley would be there. Enter Illyria… she saw Wesley and she transformed into Fred! NOW THEY WILL MAKE ME WAIT FOR THREE MONTHS!

Next month they will be publishing a three-issue arc about “The First Night” – focusing on what happened exactly after season 5 ended. I am of course very interested in knowing what happened but my God, why do creators have to make me wait after how issue 5 ended! Lynch’s story-telling and pacing is excellent. The art—ummm, I like the art of Buffy Season 8 better. But the cliff-hangers are a bitch.

Divide and Conquer

Marvel's Secret Invasion will be out next week. The build-up towards the event has been uneven - there are some good issues on both New and Mighty Avengers but nothing mind blowing or exceptional. Bendis and other writers have at least created an atmosphere of paranoia among the superheroes. How can you win when you can't organize your ranks?

I still BELIEVE

July 25...



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Monsterism

Prone to shifting shape still - - - or maybe not, I'm a little fond of this one already - - -but this draft's as spot-on a sum-up as you'll get.






Match 25's the Tuesday after Easter,people. And you all will be there.

Free food, free beer, free art and the jams will run long and sweet and knock your socks off. What's your excuse?

More later.

Colonial 1

The Luxury Liner, Intersun, was converted to the President of the Colonies' personal carrier after the second Cyclon attack. It became Baltar's harem in Caprica 2 until Roslin claimed it back. Thor and I found a Titanium die-cast 3-inch replica in Toys 'R Us. Dodo, meron ka rin!

Watching out for the Watchmen

The first pictures from the movie are out! Cool, no?

Silk Spectre

Ozymandias

Nite-Owl

The Comedian

And my favorite, Rorschach