Exfanding Your Horizons

Veteran's Day 2009

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

[Waiting for Wednesday will return tomorrow, a day late, but as always, ultra-relevant and imperative to your comics buying needs. For today, take a moment to thank a Veteran, or to reflect on the great sacrifices the few have made for the many. See you tomorrow.]

Dungeons & Dragons Spellcasting Soda

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

I like Dungeons & Dragons. I like Jones Soda. Naturally, I should like Jones' Dungeons & Dragons Limited Edition Spellcasting Soda. One look at the labels, and I knew I had to buy a case.

Potion of Healing. Dwarven Draught. Eldritch Blast. Sneak Attack. Bigby's Crushing Thirst Quencher. Illithid Brain Juice.

It was a beautiful sight to beholder.

I had seen and heard tell of exotic soda flavors from Jones in the past--flavors such as Candy Corn for Halloween and Turkey & Gravy for Thanksgiving. I could only begin to imagine what Illithid Brain Juice would taste like.

I placed my order online (as I tend to keep out of direct sunlight and therefore wouldn't have seen the product in stores), and I cringed because the shipping cost almost doubled the price, and I waited.

"Please note that due to high demand for these limited edition hand-made bottles orders are taking up to 2 weeks to process and ship. Thanks for your patience!"

So I waited a little longer than usual.

And I continued to wait.

Then I got an e-mail from the Jones people saying there was a high demand for these limited edition sodas, and because each soda is lovingly handcrafted, it would be just a little longer before my batch was ready. Thank me for my patience.

I waited some more.

Almost a month after placing my order, a package finally arrived. It was a large book that fooled me into thinking it was a 6-pack of glass soda bottles. I continued to wait.

At last, a month after placing my order, a package finally arrived. This time, there were sodas inside.

Beautiful, beautiful sodas.

I immediately opened the Potion of Healing. Page 229 of the Dungeon Master's Guide v.3.5 suggests that a potion of healing might taste something like almonds, so I bristled with anticipation as I drew the bottle toward my nose. For smelling it, that is; I drink out of my mouth.

Hm. A vaguely fruity smell with a hint of nuttiness. Intriguing.

I tasted it. Still vaguely nutty (which was probably just my eager imagination) and fruity (some sort of dark berry, perhaps?), quite fizzy, and with a mildly creamy aftertaste. Decent, but I needed something like water to wash it down with.

Curious. An odd soda, to be sure, but creative enough to make me happy. Besides, I was more interested in the other crazy flavors the fine folks at Jones came up with. I wanted to know what a Sneak Attack to the face tasted like.

Apparently, it tastes like cream soda.

I would have caught on soon enough, but it was pointed out to me that these were not, in fact, lovingly handcrafted sodas. They were lovingly handcrafted bottles containing regular (but still delicious) Jones soda.

Dwarven Draught? Root beer. Eldritch Blast? Green apple. Bigby's Crushing Thirst Quencher? Cola. Illithid Brain Juice? Grape soda.

And that strange Potion of Healing? Sugar-free black cherry soda.

Curse you, Splenda.

I was disappointed, to tell you the truth. Soda bottles with D&D-themed labels are great fun and all, but I'm not much of a collector of knickknacks and bric-a-brac; the D&D affiliation caught my interest, but the potentially weird flavors are what moved me to order a case.

Fortunately, the labels are pretty interesting, and there are fun descriptions of each soda above the nutrition facts. For example, here's what it says on the Potion of Healing label:

"Four out of five adventurers agree: A Potion of Healing is the perfect pick-me-up after going a few rounds with an ancient red dragon. (The fifth adventurer was eaten.) Effect: You can spend a healing surge and end all thirst-related effects you suffer."

Cute, right? I'm not sure if it was quite worth all the waiting and the money I spent, but I can at least claim I'm a big enough D&D dork to have ordered the sodas in the first place.

Plus, let's face it: Brain juice probably tastes like grape soda anyways.

The Week Ahead, Random Thoughts, and a Recommendation

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

We've got a busy week planned here at Exfanding Headquarters, with various personal projects and adventures lined up and ready to go. In addition, Wednesday is the big Exfanding Introduction to the Films of Akira Kurosawa, where Nathaniel and I will be watching his movies for the first time, thanks to our 10,000 hit poll and, well, you guys!

We're both looking forward to delving into a fandom we should have checked out a long time ago, and we'll be posting about our thoughts on the films in the very near future.

Also, even though it was thoroughly trounced in the poll, I'll be busy trying to convince Nathaniel that we should still go on a ghost hunt, possibly reading Lovecraft on the way over.

Just because it should be stupid, hilarious fun. (The ghost hunt. Not Lovecraft. There's nothing stupid and/or hilarious about Lovecraft.) And, since Nathaniel hates anything even remotely related to Halloween/horror/um...ghosts...it would make me happy to make him so miserable.

So, yeah. Fingers crossed on that front.

And now, to transition flawlessly into the Random Thoughts segment of today's post, I present you with this transitory sentence. Speaking of fingers, you'll need zero of them (fingers, I mean) to count the number of 4-day passes that are available for Comic-Con 2010 in San Diego.

That's right, all 4-day passes (both with and without the Wednesday preview night) are completely sold out. As reported over at The Beat this weekend, the San Diego show has reached a new milestone. They've managed to sell out of fan passes before guests and retailers have even been issued their badges.

Think about that for a minute.

It's early November. The last show ended only a few months ago. And all weekend passes for next summer's show are already sold out. There's no guest list yet. No retailer list yet. Not even a hint of what the programming will be yet. And...wow. That boggles the mind.

I guess comics aren't a dying industry. Yay!

Still, I don't think there's a snowball's chance in Mephisto's living room that I'll ever find my way out to that show. Now, sure, I know that San Diego is the mecca of geekdom, and everyone who's ever been there always says the same thing--you have to do it once.

Well, in theory, that would be fine.

But, in practice? Yeah, not so much. First of all, I don't like big crowds. Second of all, I don't like big crowds of fanboys. Third of all, I don't like big crowds of fanboys in July, when the weather really doesn't help that whole "Con Funk" thing.

Throw on top of that the fact that I'd need to cross the country, find a room, transportation, and then have some money left over for the show (and food)...and yeah, too much of a hassle at this point in my life.

And, most likely, at any point in my life.

I think the only way I'd ever go out there would be if I had a book of my own to promote. Then I'd go in a heartbeat, I think. But to go as a fan? I doubt it'll ever happen. I watch the coverage of the event on G4, and I scour the sites online to keep up with the news, and I can honestly say that keeps me satiated.

Never once during those shows on G4 have I said, "Man, I wish I was right in the middle of that giant mass of people."

Still, I have to say. I am very happy that the Con has gotten such huge numbers already. That means there's something Very Right with comics these days, and that is something I am all for.

And, finally in this scatter shot post, a quick review. I've mentioned many times that Charlie Huston is one of my favorite prose stylists, and his Joe Pitt series of vampire/noir books are some of my favorite in the genre.
Well, his fifth (and final) Joe Pitt book, My Dead Body, came out a couple of weeks ago, and I finally had the chance to read it this weekend. As I expected, it's the perfect ending to the Pitt series, and it further cements Huston as one of the most unique voices in fiction today.

It's certainly hard-boiled, but if that's your thing, then you really need to check out this man's body of work. Do an Amazon search on him and read the Pitt books from the start (Already Dead is the first one). They present an all-new, all-different take on the post modern vampire, and they will one day be considered classics.

Oh, and if you're into crime/noir (and I mean heavy duty crime/noir so hard-boiled it burns your hands as you turn the pages), then move on to the Henry Thompson series.

But don't say I didn't warn you.

Month in Review: October 2009

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Largely due to all the Halloween hubub that splashed over into November, our Month in Review for October was nearly lost and forgotten. This would have been most unfortunate, for October was a very big month, in more ways than one. Firstly, we reached 10,000 hits! Secondly, many of our posts were pretty darn long (but still interesting!). Thirdly, we devoted an entire week to describing the most important things we would change about some of our favorite fandoms. These included:

- The Star Wars movies, both the prequels and the originals

- Nearly every single game in the classic Mega Man series

- Comics, comic conventions, and the comics fandom as a whole (see the second half of the post)

As far as our regular fare is concerned, here's what we cooked up in October:

- A celebration of The END DAY, the 1997 apocalypse predicted by the NES game Crystalis

- An explanation of why October is the best month of the year

- Some hypothetical ponderings over how superheroes might fare in the job market if they really existed

- Assorted recommendations for anime, comics, music, video games, and food

- Our weekly comics news feature, Waiting for Wednesday, issues thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, and thirty-five

- A discussion about Alex's plans for the Baltimore Comic-Con, and vague hints about a writing job he can't really talk about

- My argument for why I like the Star Wars prequels better than the original trilogy

- A guest post about the New York Anime Festival, which was also the debut of our fancy new "Guest Post!" logo

- A recap of Alex's experience at the Baltimore Comic-Con and some convention news

- A contest to further celebrate 10,000 hits where our readers voted on what new hobby/fandom Alex and I should both experience

- A Halloween book recommendation of Sundays with Vlad: From Transylvania to Pennsylvania, One Man's Quest to Live in the World of the Undead by Paul Bibeau

- An introduction to Pandora, a customizable Internet radio station

- Suggested Halloween reading of comics and graphic novels

- A digression about the challenge of labeling blog posts

- A review of the creepy Halloween cult film Trick 'r Treat

- A quick blurb about candy

- My explanation of why I don't like Halloween

- A trio of Halloween-appropriate Batman comic book covers

Old habits die hard... and have extra lives

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I have finally finished Final Fantasy VIII, which I have been playing off and on since, oh, around January. This is especially good news because I was absolutely fed up with the game and wanted nothing more than to play anything else.

The bad news? As soon as the sense of accomplishment began to wear off, the first thing I felt like doing was playing through the game again.

WHAT???

It seems I have developed a dangerous dependency. After nearly a year of playing Final Fantasy VIII, I obviously don't know how to live without it, no matter how much I wanted to be rid of it by the end. Sure, there were parts I enjoyed, but those only accounted for maybe 10-20 out of the 63+ hours I logged, and that's a pretty generous estimate; the rest of the time was characterized by indifference, frustration, or ennui.

Ennui. It's a word.

Here's the scary part: I'd say I only did about 60% of the optional material in the game. There were scavenger hunts, nonessential boss battles, secret items, and all sorts of other nonsense I either missed out on or elected not to pursue.

About a third of the way through the game, when I first began to grow weary of the endless random battles and unclear objectives, I started using a walkthrough to speed me through. The walkthrough kept pointing out sidequests I should be doing, and I, foolishly, began to buy into the lie that I had to do everything.

Hang out in a battle long enough to steal all the powerful magic from a certain monster? Sure.

Fight the same few enemies over and over until they drop some fancy rare items? Okay.

Fight one Tonberry after another in order to take on an oversized Tonberry that requires me to use more of my powerful magic and fancy rare items than I'd like to part with? I guess.

After taking 15 minutes to walk halfway across a tiny room because a random battle happens with every other step, face off against a few dragons that are way too powerful for me because my character level is too high? Erm... Maybe.

Win a card game against every person on the planet when the rules change whenever you play? Uh... no.

Eventually, weariness won out over my completionist mentality. That's why I stopped playing Pokémon: one day it dawned on me that I didn't have to catch 'em all.

I suspect that the major reason I even considered replaying Final Fantasy VIII right away had something to do with the fact that so much was left incomplete; now that I knew what was ahead in the game and could plan and play better, surely finding all the secrets would be a cinch.

Then Chuck Norris dropped through my ceiling and roundhouse-kicked me, and I began to see clearly again.

I had just finished a video game I had been playing and not particularly enjoying for nearly a year. I was free! Best to capitalize on that gaming buzz and take another crack at a different game that I had been playing for too long: Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.

Truth be told, I barely needed two hands to count the number of times I'd played Rogue Squadron III, but I had already identified it as a game that was not nearly as fun as its predecessor, and that it would not be worth the time to find all the secrets and earn a gold (or even silver) medal on every mission.

Still, I had yet to beat it, and I was originally intending to make just as much progress with the optional stuff as I had with Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

With the lingering bruise of wisdom from Chuck Norris, however, it quickly became evident that I shouldn't even bother.

I don't typically play flight simulators or space shooters, so Rebel Strike is a little outside my comfort zone as far as video games go. Getting through Rogue Leader required a lot more effort and retries than usual, but at least it was rewarding to try; Rebel Strike was generally more challenging (in the stupid, "WHY do I have to do this?" way) and virtually never as fun.

Basically, I was putting in twice the effort and feeling half as rewarded. Not so good.

After several tries, I finally figured out how to complete the speeder bike chase level that had blocked all progress for the past few weeks, and I went on to beat the game less than half an hour later. Somewhat anticlimactic, actually, but there were many more levels to unlock, and plenty of medals left to earn.

I shut off the game and put it back on my shelf.

At the moment, my video game backlog is fairly substantial, and there are games such as Star Trek: Armada, Castlevania III, Mega Man ZX, Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (yes, I'm giving the series another chance), and Ghostbusters: The Video Game that I've been longing to play for months now. I can always come back to Rebel Strike once I've gone through the games that I truly want to play; no sense forcing myself through something because I liked one of its predecessors.

The freedom to stop playing a video game when I no longer enjoy it? Incredible! I feel downright liberated.

An Introduction to Wizard: The Guide to Comics, and the Curious Case of Wizard Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Even though I posted yesterday, I feel like I've been away from this blog for a while. Hopefully my presence was missed. If not, don't worry--Nathaniel will be back tomorrow. Or will he? Mwa-hahaha. (No, really, though. He'll be back.)

Anywho, I'm in a ranty, kinda-crazy mood today, and I think I found the perfect topic for discussion. And it's one that I'd love to hear your opinions on, because it's a topic that's left me scratching my head, Stan Laurel-style.

Today I'd like to talk about Wizard Magazine, and the decision of the publisher to eliminate the comic book price guide section of this...um...comic book price guide magazine.

But before we do that, some background on the magazine. Founded in 1991 by then-college student Gareb Shamus, Wizard: The Comics Magazine (and later, Wizard: The Guide to Comics) began as almost a fanzine. Only, the book wasn't so much about the creators and the story lines that were big in comics at that time. Instead, Shamus put a heavy emphasis on the business side of comics--namely, the buying and selling of them.

Wizard is/was responsible for the labeling of "hot" comics and creators, and it has propagated this almost stock market-like mentality in the industry over the past two decades. Recent books sell for what they do at shops, conventions, and online auctions primarily because of how they are priced in Wizard.

And, sure, the magazine gets these numbers from recent sales data, but when Wizard marks a book "hot," that title automatically goes through the roof, price wise.

Over time, the magazine evolved, and the company that Shamus grew around the magazine has become one of the biggest forces in the comics industry, and in pop culture today. Shamus has built an empire of all things dorky, from his publishing giant to his conventions that dot the calendar every year.
Wizard gets a tough rap sometimes, mostly because of its role in the boom and bust of the 1990s, and mostly because of the somewhat lowbrow humor featured in the mag. Even though the book is written and edited by talented adults, many of the features in the book tend to read as if written by a 13-year old with a propensity for fart jokes.

Because of this, many people like to point to Wizard as a main source for the image and attitude of the stereotypical comics fanboy. Unfair to a certain extent, but covers that feature more boobage than anything else tend to leave society at large frowning on the comics community.

So, with that brief introduction out of the way, let's get to the issue at hand--the un-price guide-ing of the magazine.

Now, I get that Wizard wants to move away from being a price guide, and instead it wants to be an " all things pop culture" magazine, but I'd like to be six foot four and sleep on a bed of waffles.

But that ain't never gonna happen, Bucky.

What I'm saying is--it's never prudent to be something that you're not. Wizard is, was, and forever will be a price guide in my mind. Sure, it's a price guide wherein prices sometimes (usually) seem almost arbitrary and more than a little insane, but hey. That's the nature of the beast.

The comics industry rose and fell and rose again since Wizard's inception, and love it or hate it, the magazine is a part of the historical landscape of comics. It was a crucial component to the 90's boom, and it played just as big a role in the 90's bust.

For years, it's been a once-a-month staple on every comic shop counter in the country. And I have read it, month in and month out, since 2003. I started reading comics that year, and buying a Wizard was one of the first things I did. It was actually their big Zero issue, and it was packed with interviews and fan awards and all kinds of things.

And I still have it--that Jim Lee/Joe Quesada cover is still pretty ingrained in my memory, and to this day I think it's the best issue of the magazine I've ever read. Isn't that the case with most things? One's first exposure to something is remembered most fondly, and yes, I know I've bashed comics fans who want every character to be just like he/she remembers them when he/she was 12 years old.

But that issue of Wizard did something that has been done rarely ever since--it focused on comics and comics people. And comics. There was an incredibly insightful interview with Neal Adams, and there were two (count 'em, two!) comics inside. One was a stand-alone three or four page Batman story that bridged the gap between issues of "Hush," and the other was a six page preview of a Marvel book.

There were countdown lists, and a big price guide section. There were blurbs on hard-to-find collectibles, and even a "this month, ten years ago" page that was very interesting. The magazine felt cohesive and the whole package was just...impressive.

Today, I still buy Wizard, but it's very much out of a sense of loyalty more than anything else. All of the news that "breaks" in the magazine has already broken online, sometimes weeks and weeks before.

The Internet will do that to you.

But I love print, darn it, and having a magazine about comics is just...comforting, I guess. But the magazine has gone through many face lifts since that mythical issue Zero, and the latest incarnation of the book is flimsy and thin and all over the place (kinda like my posts!).

There are an inordinate amount of grammatical errors, and their new "Countdown" style (they list the 50 hottest things in fandom and rank them--sometimes these things are covered in a couple of sentences, sometimes it's a couple of spreads) just doesn't work for me.

And last week's issue featured the biggest change since the magazine started--the elimination of the price guide.

Now, I'm a bit conflicted (read: this is going to sound hypocritical of me) in that, I hate price guides because of what they say about the industry. People who buy a boat load of books, only to sell them online at marked-up prices should have to spend a night over at the Goon's apartment, tied to a chair.

I don't get--and I never will get--the whole, "hot recent release" thing. How can something that was produced in the low-100,000 copy range, only a few weeks previous, be worth anything over cover price?

Old comics are expensive because there aren't as many of them. Old comics in good condition sell for premiums because there are even fewer of those. This makes sense to me. A book that "sold out" a week ago, going for $100 on eBay? That doesn't make sense to me.

And that's always been (one of) the gripes with Wizard. They flamed the fires of over-hyped, over-priced comics and their immediate "collectibility." So, getting rid of the price guide is something I should be on board with, right?

If I were a more...reasonably sane...person, sure.

But, I'm not, and I hate the fact that the price guide section is gone. And, being that I hate price guides to begin with, you understand my quandary. And my hypocrisy. I'm basically annoyed at Wizard for getting rid of the thing I think does the most damage to the comics industry.

But, then there's my point again about being who you are.

Wizard is not The Comics Journal, and their fan base doesn't want them to be, so in-depth interviews and analyses of creators and their work is out of the question. It is not Newsarama, so "late-breaking news" is beyond the realm of what the publisher is capable of producing in order to offer a better product than the various online entities that exist.

What Wizard does--better than anyone else--is drive the comics collecting market.

And I think they should stay in that game, because it's one they created. I say, keep the guide, but level out the prices. Comics aren't stocks, and they should not be treated as such. Prices should stay stable, and any book printed in the past six months cannot be considered "valuable."

Instead of changing the format into something completely new and different...I'm saying change the format you have.

Keep a price guide, but include more books, and more kinds of books--list indy titles in the guide, for example. And feature interviews with creators that aren't as well known as Bendis and Brubaker and Fraction.

I'm not saying get rid of the mainstream altogether--I'm saying spend some more pages covering the smaller publishers. If I want to know what Bendis is going to do next, I can go on a handful of comics sites online, or I can go to his Twitter page and find out what he did five minutes ago!

Talk about late breaking news.

So, Wizard has a bit of an identity crisis, and they need to figure out how to make things right again. Publishing stinks right now, and the simple fact that they come out with a new issue every month alone tells you how popular they still are. So, there's something to build on, and with.

But the one thing that separates Wizard from the online news sites is the price guide. Newsarama and CBR don't have guides. None of the sites do. By getting rid of theirs, Wizard is taking away the one thing they have over those places; the one thing that makes them a uniquely different entity in the world of comics.

I think Wizard's content needs to grow up. They need to take the red pen to the poop jokes, and they need to start sharing the wealth with smaller publishing houses. The day of the Wizard exclusive announcement from Marvel and DC is over, and they need to deal with that.

Which leads me to my final point. Wizard needs to stay in the middle. Unlike The Comics Journal, who tend to brush off anything with punching and kicking and capes as being juvenile. And unlike Comics Buyer's Guide, who focus on older books and creators, and tend not to delve very far into the indy titles.

Wizard can be both things. They have the resources, clearly, and their people are passionate about comics. But just because Superman isn't in it, doesn't mean it's not a comic. There was a great mag that tried to straddle both worlds (Comics Foundry), and they had to close up shop after just a few (excellent) issues.

They were hit and miss sometimes, but the majority of what they produced was great, and it seemed like the magazine was written for people like me--the fan of the cheapest, black and white-iest indies and the biggest, honking-est superhero punch fests around.

And I think the comics industry needs something like that. I hope Wizard finds a nice middle ground, because if they do--they will be the only game in town.

Waiting for Wednesday, Issue 36

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the first-ever November Edition of Waiting for Wednesday, where there will be absolutely zero talk of Halloween. I promise. I think we've covered that holiday plenty this year, thank you very much.

So, I won't be going into my Halloween holiday review, telling you all about how I got the scariest Halloween present of all time--a massive migraine headache that actually knocked me on my back for a while, thus rendering my favorite night of the year more than a little unenjoyable.

And I won't tell you about how great (and creepy) the House of Mystery Halloween Annual 2009 from Vertigo was. Nor will I mention the fact that I finally got around to reading Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree this year, and found it everything I had hoped it would be.

And I certainly won't mention that my annual tradition of watching John Carpenter's Halloween with my brother went off without a hitch. And the movie was wonderful and slow-building and creepy. And perfect, just as it always is.

Nope. You won't hear any of that from me, since, as I mentioned, we here at EyH are completely and utterly done with Halloween.

I will mention the fact that I saw the first Christmas commercial on television last night. And, while my stomach churned a bit thinking about being unemployed through the holidays (I've been there before--not fun), I have to say, I think I need a little Christmas this year.

And, thinking about Christmas got me to thinking about the end of the year, and how Waiting for Wednesday will soon hit its final issue of 2009. Which brings up the classic fanboy question of whether or not to continue the numbering as it is (i.e., the first January Waiting for would be issue 53), or to label the 2009 issues as Volume One, and start a new volume each year with new numbering.

Decisions, decisions.

Then, as I was thinking about such things, I started to count. And I realized that we didn't start Waiting for in the first week of January, 2009. Which means that the last issue is going to be 40-something, and not 52. Which means that continuing next year with issue 40-something plus one might be a little confusing for bookkeeping purposes.

And then my migraine returned, and I went to sleep for a while.

But now I'm back, and ready to stop talking about numbers and headaches and unemployment. And I'm very much ready to talk about new comics, and which ones I'm most looking forward to.

First up is an expensive hardcover that I actually won't be buying, but it's one that I highly recommend to any fans of pulpy crime stories. From Marvel's Icon line, Ed Brubaker's and Sean Phillips' Criminal is one of the very best comics on the stands today. This week, the Criminal Deluxe Edition hardcover ships, collecting the first three trades of the acclaimed series.

This edition promises plenty of special features, including behind-the-scenes material, essays on crime fiction, and an introduction by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons.

I've been a fan of this series since its inception, and thus I own all of the single issues of the first story arc, and the trades for the rest of the series. So, I'll save my dollars this week and I'll likely spend them on something else in the near future. (Like maybe that Wolverine: Old Man Logan hardcover I saw at the LCS yesterday...or, you know, clothing/food.)

Anyway, if you are into crime fiction (think of the most hard-boiled movies/pulps you've ever read, then multiply that by two), Criminal is the book for you. Sure, the price is a bit steep (it clocks in at just under $50--cheaper on amazon), but the holidays are coming. And this collection would make a great gift for that Dashiell Hammett fan in your life who turns his or her nose up at comics.

And I mean that. Criminal is the type of book the traditional comics "civilian" will enjoy. It's literary, and the art is gritty and not at all exploitative (read: The book does not contain ridiculous depictions of big muscles, and/or boobs). Brubaker's writing is deadly serious and fast-moving and deserving of even the pickiest crime reader's undivided attention.

Give it a try--I think you'll dig it.

Next up we have another Marvel book, which is actually an important fact for me, since lately I feel like I've been tough on Marvel. I loved Secret Invasion and the immediate aftermath, but I feel like the whole thing is dragging along a bit too slowly. That said, I have heard interviews with some of the big Marvel writers and they have teased what's ahead--and it sounds pretty amazing.

So today I'm gonna show Marvel some love, and recommend a new mini-series from British writer Paul Cornell. Now, Cornell has worked on some of the best, most off-beat Marvel books over the past couple of years, like Wisdom, MI3, and the fantastic Dark Reign: Young Avengers.

This week he tackles the Black Widow, a character ready to explode thanks to her prominent role in next year's Iron Man II. From all accounts, this new series--Black Widow: Deadly Origin--seems like it'll be a big hit, and I have a feeling this first issue is going to be tough to find in a couple of weeks.

Here's the blurb from Marvel:

Before she steals the world's heart in Iron Man II, get caught in the wicked web of Marvel's sexiest and deadliest super-spy! She's been everything from a Russian espionage agent to a Champion to an Avenger, now a skeleton from Natalia Romanova's past is reaching out for those she's loved and lost...and the Black Widow has many victims to choose from!

From the frozen streets of Moscow to the upper stratosphere, writer Paul Cornell (CAPTAIN BRITAIN & MI3) and artists Tom Raney (DARK REIGN: HAWKEYE) and John Paul Leon (The Winter Men) deliver a globe-hopping, bone-breaking, high-tech thriller that reveals how Natalia's shadowy past threatens all she now holds dear. Guest-starring the Winter Soldier and Wolverine!

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, but you're a bit squeamish about picking up a number one issue, you can also check out Marvel's preview of the book, right here.

Finally today we have a third Marvel book, written by one of my favorite novelists, Charlie Huston. I'm recommending this book knowing very little about the series, or the characters involved, but Huston is a great writer, and his Joe Pitt series of novels ranks very high on my all-time list.

In an interview with Wizard Magazine, Huston described his latest Marvel effort, Deathlok, as a horror book, but you wouldn't be able to tell from the publisher's blurb.

Marvel’s ultimate cyborg is back in this 7-issue Marvel Knights limited series written by Charlie Huston (MOON KNIGHT) and breathtakingly illustrated by Lan Medina (FOOLKILLER).

In the not-too-distant future, war is a spectator sport, warriors die hard and live fast, and living larger than anyone is super-soldier Lieutenant Mike Travers. That is, until Travers hotdogs it on the battlefield and gets himself and his C.O., Luther Manning, blown to bits. The show must go on. Enter: Deathlok the Demolisher!!!

This one's kinda flown under the radar, and it feels like Marvel hasn't really done a great job promoting this title. Maybe it's because the character isn't well known (I've never heard of him, actually), and maybe it's because Huston's Moon Knight issues were picked on for being a bit too far out there. But he's a major writer, and I always enjoy his work. I'm going to give this series a shot.

And that's all I've got for today. Tune in next time...when I do much of the same. Before I go, one single, simple question--what are you Waiting for?

Sentenced to Our Geeky Fate

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

As you may recall, Alex and I wanted to do something big to celebrate the milestone of having reached 10,000 hits. Normally we celebrate such an occasion by forcing each other to experience one of our favorite hobbies or fandoms, but this time, we decided we'd let you, o precious readers, decide which hobby or fandom to tackle next.

We compiled a list, put up a poll, and watched the votes come pouring in. Like a half-empty jar of molasses knocked into a bathtub, they came pouring in. We declared we would close the poll either when we got 30 votes or when two weeks had passed, whichever happened later.

After exactly two weeks, we had exactly 30 votes. My powers of arbitrary number selection are indeed astonishing.

Our options on the table were to watch the first season of the sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica, go on a Ghost Hunters-style ghost hunt, read a bunch of creepy H.P. Lovecraft stories, watch the essential films of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, and do a road trip to local tourist traps. I was impressed by how close the results were.

In the end, the winner (barely) was watching Kurosawa films, which you chose (I didn't even use my Force powers to influence the vote!).

Thus, we will be watching the best and most significant Kurosawa films we can find. I have faith in my local libraries. Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and The Hidden Fortress are all on the list; feel free to suggest any others. Thanks for voting, and we'll let you know how this all turns out!

Halloween Aftermath

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Alright, so we've already established that I don't like Halloween, so perhaps you're wondering whether I did anything Halloweeny at all. Well, I'll indulge your insatiable curiosity just this once, but then I swear we're not talking about this wretched "holiday" for at least another year.

See, I use quotation fingers and loaded words such as "wretched" to make my negative opinion toward Halloween stronger than it really is.

I don't hate Halloween; it's just that almost everything about it is either unappealing or flat-out repulsive to me, and I deal with it. Sort of like celebrating Christmas with a relative who means well but doesn't realize he or she has given you the same pair of hideous socks every year, and though it bothers you to put on a fake grin and stare at the ugly pattern once again, it always turns out that you forgot to pack socks and need to wear them the next day anyhow.

Or something like that.

So what did I do for Halloween? I indulged my girlfriend, who brought back a stack of movies taller than the average trick-or-treater, and picked out two Halloween-ish movies to watch with her and my father, who happens to love horror films. Well, I managed to trick them both into thinking that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a horror movie (not really--they'd both seen it), so we watched that one first.

Honestly? My outlook became a ghoulish touch more positive when I saw Joss Whedon was involved, but despite some of the clever one-liners I've come to expect from him after watching Firefly, I was bored. Now, the movie didn't take itself seriously, which helped me to refrain from the kind of squirming I usually do when vampires show up, but it wasn't ridiculous enough to cross the line between being a vampire flick and being a total parody. And I just don't care much for vampires, fang you very much.

I don't care much for zombies, either, but next on the list was Resident Evil: Extinction. Don't act so surprised. I actually saw the first two Resident Evil movies, but those are more like action movies with zombies than horror movies. Also, I sat in on enough of the first one with my dad one time to know that I'd be able to tolerate it if I watched it the whole way through, and the movies are based on a video game, which automatically makes them a little more OK for me to watch.

I enjoyed Extinction more than Buffy, but mostly because there were a few cool action sequences and one or two neat ideas that I appreciated. Mercifully, the movie was just barely over 90 minutes long; it didn't overstay its welcome.

After that we shifted gears and played Castlevania for the NES. My ultimate plan is to expose my girlfriend to all the video games I own, and Castlevania is the kind of series and any gamer worth his or her garlic salt should be aware of.

The original Castlevania is rock-hard, unforgiving, and frustrating to control. And I think I accidentally played the Portuguese version. Yaaaay.

To cap off the evening, we did the one thing I actually do look forward to every Halloween--we watched the latest Homestar Runner Halloween toon, where all the characters dress up in funny costumes and ridiculous things happen. Hilarious.

Oh, and I ate a 3 Musketeers bar.

I also spent the night before Halloween preparing a video for GameCola wishing our fans a Happy Halloween, and I like how it turned out.

Fun fact: The video was made using an NES emulator, PowerPoint, and MS Paint. And I'll be darned if it wasn't an enjoyable challenge figuring out how to make the kind of video I wanted with such primitive technology.

No, Halloween wasn't a miserable experience for me; the company was good, my girlfriend will finally stop bugging me to see Buffy, Resident Evil was decent enough, I got to do a little exfanding with Castlevania, making the video was a lot of fun, and I ate a 3 Musketeers bar. As far as Halloweens go, this one wasn't so bad at all.

Oh, and against my better judgment, I got all festive and dressed up in costume for Halloween.

I put on an orange t-shirt.

Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Just because Nathaniel hates Halloween (and, apparently, fun), doesn't mean you have to! Um...hate Halloween (and/or fun), that is. Sorry for the clunky syntax.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, some spooky (and awesome!) comic covers...

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Why I Don't Like Halloween

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Ah, October 31st. Probably my least-favorite day of the year.

I don't like Halloween.

I used to like Halloween. When I was a kid, Halloween was a time for me to dress up as one of my favorite TV or video game characters--as Luigi or Geordi LaForge or a white wizard from Final Fantasy, to name a few--and roam around the neighborhood with my family.

Halloween was only fun because it was a family event, and because I got to parade around like a dork and get away with it. Candy was something of a non-issue, as I'm not a big candy fan. I enjoyed collecting treats, but I usually traded or gave away at least a third of my haul, and much of the candy I did keep ended up getting thrown out after sitting around for a year and growing fuzzy.

Halloween became less enjoyable as I grew older. Messily carving jack-o-lanterns lost its novelty. Flagrantly geeky outfits were met with derision, and it was uncool to be seen outside with your parents. Ever. While I would have been content to continue trick-or-treating as a little kid in a bigger person's body, it was simply not socially acceptable to dress up as Sonic the Hedgehog and march around the neighborhood with a hobo. A hobo who is actually your father in disguise. Clever hobo.

The crushing blow came when I, foolishly, dressed as a LEGO minifigure when I was around 10 or 11 years old, possibly 12. My mother, who made all my costumes, did an excellent job as usual--I really truly looked like an oversized LEGO person.

I was utterly crestfallen when an old lady opened the door with her bucket of candy in hand and asked me, "Are you a banana?"

Halloween died, right there.

The self-consciousness hit me at full force, and the magical whimsy of escaping reality in the guise of something I loved became little more than a childish charade. No amount of candy could heal my broken plastic heart.

I did eventually recover from the embarrassment of wearing a nerdy costume in public--since then I've dressed up for two anime conventions and a few more Halloweens, and I leave the house wearing pajama pants with worrisome frequency--but whatever joy I once got from Halloween has largely remained in the past.

And the older I get, the more things I find that make me actively dislike Halloween.

I won't fault you if you argue otherwise, but Halloween is a celebration of all things terrifying, grotesque, occult, and destructive--it's the one day of the year where society as a whole embraces the things I eschew. It's the one day where I feel isolated from my friends because I want to have nothing to do with Halloween, which, by extension, means I want to have nothing to do with those who celebrate it.

I'm always torn, because if I stay at home, I feel like a jerk, and if I go out with even my closest friends, I never want to do anything anyone else wants to do, which makes me feel like a jerk.

I'll hand out candy at the door. That's fine. It's everything else about Halloween that makes me want to hide away from the world until it all passes over.

I'm too squeamish for violent horror films, and I'm too fond of feeling safe in my own home for the psychological ones; I don't like being scared. Gory zombie costumes and a jar of brains on your doorstep don't help, either.

Spirits and magic and demons are really popular around Halloween, and while I'm totally down with them being a part of real-world religions and works of fiction alike, I get uncomfortable when people start treating them as something halfway between religion and entertainment. Sure, break out the Ouija board; it could be harmless fun, or I might get possessed by a demon! You never know until you try!

Bobbing for apples: Bleaugh.

I'm all about responsible parenting, and no matter how much fun I had trick-or-treating as a kid, in retrospect it seems like Halloween encourages children to assume that their neighbors all owe them something, and that a mountain of something bad for you is, in fact, quite good. Also, Halloween trains children to lurk in the dark. Criminals lurk in the dark, you know. Maybe handing out candy makes me a bad person.

I'm a bit of a neat freak. A proliferation of fake cobwebs and mushy pumpkins really doesn't improve the aesthetic situation of the season.

Lastly, eggs and toilet paper belong on a grocery list, not on my house or in my trees. Thank you.

Enjoy your Halloween; I'll be hiding out here until whenever I have a family of my own, children and all, and can have fun trick-or-treating with them the way I used to have fun trick-or-treating with my family. And maybe, just maybe, one day they'll see past the sketchy costume parties and the cheap slasher flicks and realize that the best Halloweens were the ones spent walking the streets with a hobo by their side.

Clever hobo.

Poll: Who Likes Candy?

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Halloween is just around the corner, and while some people are gearing up for costume parties and horror movie marathons, let's not forget about the true reason for the season: candy.

I'm not much of a candy fan, but I'm a sucker for the few varieties to which I'm partial. I'm big into chocolate truffles, Sno-Caps, Peanut M&Ms, Australian red licorice, Bounty, Aero, Runts, certain flavors of Airheads, and any kind of Nerds, especially if they wear glasses. Whoops! Um, wrong kind of nerds.

::ahem::

Alright, so maybe I do like candy, after all. Now that I think about it, there are several other kinds of candy I enjoy; I think it's just that I've been spoiled by good European chocolate, so American mainstays such as Hershey's bars and plain M&Ms are more like last resorts to me, hence why I gravitate toward fruity candy.

What this all boils down to is that I'm just as picky about candy as I am anything else.

My question to you: What's your favorite kind of candy?

Waiting for Wednesday, Issue 35

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Welcome to a very special, Alex Might Have the Flu Edition of Waiting for! I've had this wonderful and incessant headache since the weekend, and it is showing no signs of going away. Add in a slight fever and an overall feeling of never wanting to leave the warmth and security of my comforter...and I might just be getting sick.

Or, I might very well be sick right now.

Which means I won't be making my Wednesday run to the LCS, for fear of infecting the legions of comic fans who haunt the place on a weekly basis. See? I'm not all bad. I will, however, put a call into my retailer and ask him to put aside a few books for me.

Which books, you ask? Well, even though such a question sets up a perfect segue, I need to made a detour into digressions-ville for a moment. I went online yesterday to check what books were shipping, and I came across a...um, let's call it an anomaly.

From Marvel Comics this week comes the Marvel Holiday Spectacular Magazine 2009. Ummm...huh? We're a few days ahead of Halloween, and Marvel is releasing its annual Christmas special? Doesn't that usually ship in...I dunno...December? Well, I guess with the economy the way it is, retailers (and giant corporations like Wal-Mart and Toys r Us, for that matter) want consumers to start thinking about holiday shopping earlier than ever.

You know, so they can do a little at a time and maybe spread the money out over the next nine weeks or so. Sounds like a good plan, actually, and I guess Marvel is thinking along those lines. Maybe it is a--

Hey, wait a minute.

The price of the book has to be wrong. $9.99?! For a comic book? For a holiday comic book that ships in late October?

Ugh.

If that's not a sign of the times, I don't know what is. As I do with the annual Halloween specials, I like to pick up the Marvel and DC holiday specials, as well. It's just a nice, goofy way to spend a few minutes on Christmas Eve. It's fun, and I like doing it, so I'll continue to do it, thank you.

But for $9.99, over two months before the holiday?

Um...no. I guess I won't be reading a Marvel book by the fire this year. I know many say that comics are "recession proof," but really, guys, let's not go crazy with these prices okay? I understand that paper costs a ton these days, but is there anyone out there who will buy a new comic for ten bucks?

Didn't think so.

Now that I'm all fanboy angry in addition to being real person flu-y, let's get to the list for this week. I'm gonna make these quick, since I need to not be upright for much longer.

First up is this week's spotlight book, the Abe Sapien One-Shot, from Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse is in the middle of a very cool promotion called One-Shot Wonders, where they put their biggest titles (Goon, Buffy, Hellboy, Star Wars) on display in a series of one and done stories.

The idea is for people who have never read these books to jump on, with no strings attached, and give the books a try. A good idea, and with each issue carrying a $3.50 price tag, it's a nice way for those on the fence about a certain series to dip their toe into the water without having to plunk down fifteen dollars on a trade.

This week's title features Abe Sapien, who many of you will know from the two Hellboy movies. The story, entitled "The Haunted Boy," is about--well, I'll let the folks at Dark horse tell you what it's about. Here's the blurb from the publisher:

In his earliest days as an agent of the B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien is sent on a simple mission to investigate a haunting following the death of a young boy. What he finds there is far stranger and more deadly.

Mike Mignola and John Arcudi team with newcomer Patric Reynolds, who made his professional debut this summer on MySpace Dark Horse Presents, for this nightmare of corrupted innocence!

So, if this sounds interesting, or if you've wanted to give the Hellboy Universe a try, I'd suggest picking this one up. And kudos to Dark Horse for this new campaign. It's a good idea, and I hope it brings them new readers.

And since I'm starting to wane a bit here, let's do a quick run down of the other books I'll be sure to pick up this week. Blackest Night, issue four, from DC superstars Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, is the latest addition to the series that continues to impress. Now, despite its delays, this is still a must-read title if you're even a little bit interested in the DC Universe.

Johns is pretty much shaping the immediate (and, likely, long-term) future for the publisher's major characters and books, and the story he's telling is accessible and, frankly, a lot of fun.

Yes, there's a strong horror overtone to this series, but watching Hal Jordan and Sinestro punching holes through dead things is kinda awesome. I know. It sounds like summer movie popcorn stuff, and it is that in a sense. But it's also a well-crafted, far-reaching story that will actually have some implications in the DCU. And it's Geoff Johns. Here's the blurb:

Summer's hottest event explodes in this critical issue! Hold on to your power rings, because the secrets behind the Blackest Night finally stand revealed! While Earth is evacuated, Hal Jordan embarks on a brave journey to the darkest depths to uncover the truth behind the Black Lanterns! You won't believe what he uncovers!

Pretty cool, super hero-y stuff.

There's also the latest issue of Green Lantern (issue 47), written by Johns, which promises to feature a battle that any GL fan is going to want to see. And if those two books don't quite do it for you, Johns has three (count 'em, three!) titles shipping today.

In addition to the two GL books comes Superman: Secret Origin, issue two. A classic-in-the-making, Origin is drawn by the amazing Gary Frank, and it's great, great stuff.

Finally, from BOOM! Studios and written by the legendary Howard Chaykin, is Die Hard: Year One, issue two. I picked up issue one last month (and finally had a chance to read it while in bed this weekend), and let me tell you--this is classic John McClane.

The story follows McClane's first days as a beat cop in 1970s New York City, and the book oozes with grit as Chaykin's grasp of crime fiction and ear for dead-on dialogue shines.

Here's the blurb for issue two:

BOOM! Studios continues to present America's greatest action hero translated into the sequential art form for the first time! Drunks, pimps, freaks and the debauched rich. It's all in a night's work for NYPD rookie John McClane.

But what happens when 1976's toughest kid on the street runs into a dark conspiracy involving a blonde on the run? With McClane, it means the fun’s just starting. Join legendary industry creator Howard Chaykin on a thrill ride that's rung up over $1 billion in box office worldwide and become the gold standard for classic action! Yippee Ki Yay!

If you're a fan of the movies, then run out, find issue one, and grab issue two. You'll thank me later.

Speaking of later...I'm done. It's time to pass out and not move for a few hours. But before I go...

What are you Waiting for?

Exfanding Review: Trick 'r Treat...And a Touch of the Flu

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

So, today I had planned to review the recently released (whoa...alliteration is awesome) Halloween-themed film, Trick 'r Treat in depth. However, being that I am having a hard enough time seeing one of everything at the moment, I'm going to keep this post pretty short.

And, no, I don't mean "short for Alex." I mean, literally, short and sweet and almost to the point.

I think I'm actually getting (or in the process of having) the flu, as I am displaying flu-like symptoms. You know, like headache, fever, dizziness, and the inability to write coherently. Though, granted, two of those symptoms are ones I carry around with me at all times.

Thus far in 2009, I've avoided being sick enough to have to lie down all day and not do anything. Well, there's a first time for everything, as I literally spent all of the past nine or so hours under the covers, watching DVD reruns of 30 Rock.

Granted, that's not the worst way to spend a day, and it would have been heaven if not for the constant queasiness and that wonderful, pounding thing my brain was doing to the inside of my skull.

Right. No one cares. Sorry. (Like I said, coherency will be at an all-time low today...)

Yes, so. Trick 'r Treat. Hailed by many as the be-all, end-all of Halloween horror films. And it might very well be that, if, of course, a little, late-seventies flick called Halloween had never been made.

For my money (and for most horror fans' collected monies), John Carpenter's Halloween is--hands down--the best movie the genre has and will ever see. Sure, it spawned all kinds of junky slasher flicks in the eighties (included among them were the Halloween sequels themselves), but imitation is the best form of copying.

Or something like that.

Halloween is the Dark Knight Returns of horror films, and it will always be considered the quintessential October 31st viewing fare. It's a law, in some states, to watch this glorious (and mostly bloodless) introduction to Michael Myers and Laurie Strode on Halloween night.

It's like leaving cookies for Santa, or quietly cursing under your breath at happy, in-love couples on Valentine's Day.

But, with the addition of director/writer Michael Dougherty's (screenwriter of X-Men 2 and Superman (never even throws a punch but at least he) Returns) Trick 'r Treat, the Halloween canon has been revised and updated for a new generation.

Told in an anthology format (much like those great horror comics I love so much), Treat is something unique and fresh and much-needed in a genre that has grown stale, and stupid, and excessively violent.

And stupid. Did I mention stupid?

Sure, Treat features some over-the-top violence itself, but it certainly doesn't hold a candle in that regard to flicks like...well, you know the ones I'm talking about. No need to malign them here.

Unlike those movies, which you might have saw--er, seen, Treat features five actual stories (not just "hot chick walks into creepy room and is tortured for an hour and a half"). All of the stories are connected to one another and tied together by the appearance of Sam--that creepy little guy you see at the top of this post.

Sam is the Halloween anti-hero, and he's pretty hardcore.

The stories range from mildly creepy to downright skin crawling, and while there's always a lesson to be learned, Treat is never preachy. The premise is a simple one--if you mess with the "rules" of Halloween, Sam will get you.

I'm going to leave the recap of the film at that, since I'm getting all woozy again.

And I'll end with this. It took a good, long while for Trick 'r Treat to make its way to DVD--its history of near misses at the box office and distribution problems throughout its post-production life have all added to the aura of this creepy cult film.

And while many online have praised it as the greatest horror movie of all time, I just don't agree. That award goes to The Exorcist, in my book. Still, Treat is without question a great horror movie, and it's the second-greatest Halloween horror movie.

My recommendation?

Halloween night needs only two flicks to help ring in the holiday--Trick 'r Treat and Halloween. Watch 'em in that order, and you'll be set on the 31st.

Okay. It's back to bed for me. See you all tomorrow (hopefully) with another issue of Waiting for Wednesday.

Tag, you're... not it at all.

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Before I even begin, I need to pause and reflect on how to label this post. Though we occasionally write about music, the majority of our focus has been on visual media--comics and sci-fi movies and video games and whatnot--and the standardized tags we use reflect that. For the sake of posterity, here are all the tags we've used as of this very moment:

Action-Adventure
Alex's Nonsense
Anime and Manga
Books
Card and Board Games
Collectables
Collecting
Comics
Contests
Conventions
Costumes
Demystifying Fandoms
Election 2008
Exfanding Your Horizons
Exhibits
Fan Projects
Fantasy
Food
General Information
Guest Posts
History
Holidays
Humor
Internet
Monsters
Month in Review
Movies
Music
Obituaries
Off-Topic Discussion
Philosophy of Fandom
Politics
Puzzles and Mystery
Reviews
Roleplaying
Sci-Fi
Simulations
Sports
Stories of Fandom
Technology
Television
Video Games
Waiting for Wednesday
World Languages
Year in Review

Most of the categories are intentionally broad--my original hope was to keep the list of tags to a manageable size so that readers might actually be inclined to sift through our archives by topic. Also, there have been plenty of posts that could have had more specific labels than just "Books" or "Music," but seriously, how often were we going to write about anything horror-related?

Obviously this was before I figured out that Alex loves Halloween and vampires and zombie comics. Suddenly, the "Monsters" tag just isn't cutting it anymore.

Digging deeper, though: I'm something of a perfectionist, and if I'm going to get specific about my labeling, I want to have a tag that will stand the test of time. I don't want to have to turn around every few days to overhaul my tags because I suddenly fancy "Anime" and "Manga," respectively, instead of the combined "Anime and Manga."

And then there are times when Alex and I have two different interpretations of what a particular label means. Heck, I don't think either of us knows when to add the "Demystifying Fandoms" tag. We usually either introduce or discuss--I'll bet we confuse people more often than we demystify anything. What possible use do we have for this odd label?

Maybe I'll tag this post with "Demystifying Fandoms" and see if Alex does anything about it.

Hey, now there's an idea. Make, like, a "Bacon" tag, or something totally random that in no way, shape, or form applies to the post in question, and have that tag be some kind of code for something entirely different. For example, "Bacon" could be our tag for something we can't figure out how to classify.

Ooh, I like that.

I wonder if I can tag our tags with tags? If so, I'm totally hanging some "Bacon" off of "Demystifying Fandoms."

Just how important is properly tagging these posts? Well, this was supposed to be a discussion of the Third Eye Blind concert I just saw. When I discovered we had no tags specifically for music genres, I launched into a tangent about tagging. Therefore, I must think tagging is pretty important.

Or else I really just didn't feel like writing about the concert just yet.

I dunno--what should we do about the tags? Try to keep them down to a nice, short-ish list, like we've been doing? Classify everything a little more specifically? Be really specific and make "Madame Xanadu" and "Virsona" tags? (Honestly, we should at least do that for Mega Man and The Goon.)

Ideas, anyone?

Pandora: Don't be afraid to open the music box

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

When your Winamp randomizer repeats the same 12 songs from your library of 8,000; when every radio station plays "We're an American Band" at least eight times per hour; when your Tally Hall CD has disintegrated from a year of continuous use in your CD player... then it's time to turn to Pandora.

Pandora.com is a free online radio station with a humongous selection of streaming music for your listening pleasure, but that's just the beginning of why Pandora is so great. Pandora gives you a great deal of control over the music that is played; you start by typing in the name of a specific song, composer, or artist you'd like to hear, and Pandora creates a playlist that includes your request as well as other music that you might like.

Seriously, you might actually like the music Pandora conjures up.

I say this because Pandora is in the business of mapping the Music Genome--that is, every single song is tagged with all sorts of attributes ranging from tempo to lyrics to instrumentation, so when you search for music in the same vein as "Disco Duck," Pandora's results will be much more dynamic than you probably deserve.

Once you've got a playlist going, you can diversify its sound by adding other songs and artists and composers into the mix. Why stop at Rammstein when you can also have Hindi rap and gypsy jazz?

Pandora isn't a total replacement for a traditional music collection, however; just because you request a song doesn't mean Pandora has it. And just because Pandora knows the artist you've requested, that doesn't mean you'll get to hear his or her music right away.

Fortunately, if Pandora starts playing anything particularly repulsive before getting around to "Muskrat Love," you can veto the song; Pandora will never play it again, and will be more careful to avoid playing similar songs.

There are some other restrictions--for example, you can't rewind a song, you can only skip a certain number of songs per hour (it's a licensing thing), and you do eventually need to pay (a pretty reasonable fee) to listen to Pandora if you use it for more than 40 hours in a month--but you can read more about all that in the official Pandora FAQ. Or, you can just jump right in and figure things out as you go. It'll be an adventure!

If you're getting tired of your usual music selection, if you're looking to broaden your musical horizons, or if you just need to listen to some good music, try out Pandora.com.

Waiting for Wednesday, Issue 34

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

What a weird and horrible week it's been so far. Both on a personal and professional level, I can say things have been pretty downright awful. First, the good news (And, by "good," I mean, "less bad"). I was told by Official Re-Employment People that my industry (publishing, for those keeping score at home) has one of the highest layoff percentages in the country at the moment.

What's worse, though, is the fact that publishing also has one of the lowest re-employment rates in the country, due to the fact that many houses are laying people off (or closing outright), and there are many, many fewer jobs than there are people in search of them.

The bad news is something I don't want to get into. But, man, lemme tell ya...it's been a week. On the bright side, I did manage to apply to a few more jobs yesterday (making the grand total near 40 in the past three weeks), and as usual with these things, I'm very much qualified for the positions I've applied to.

However, as the statistics indicate, that means next to nothing. In a "normal" economy, I think I would have had at least a half dozen interviews with places that I really want to work at. As it stands, I've had one. For a volunteer position. I got it, and it's quite a cool little gig, but it's not paying work. (I will, however, have an announcement about that soon.)

For now, though, I'm still scouring the usual sites, trying to find something in my industry. It's a weird thing, to have a profession, a career, and then be told by Outside Forces that you can no longer work within that field. Seriously, what the heck do you do when all the doors to your profession (a profession you're quite good at, by the way) close up and double-lock?

I can say, honestly, I have no idea.

So, yeah, when I say that I could use a Wednesday, I really and truly mean it. And happily, today is Wednesday. So, at least there's that.

It's a weird week for comics at my LCS, mostly due to the fact that Diamond shorted my retailer pretty heavily last week. So, while there's a decent amount of stuff coming into the market today, my store will be seeing much more product than most. Yay, being broke.

Still, I'll be grabbing a small handful of titles, and there are a couple that I'm actually really looking forward to. That said, it's time for the list of things to buy!

First up, we have the welcomed arrival of an annual tradition. The chill is in the air, the leaves are falling, and there's an abundance of candied apples for sale at the grocery store. Also, the DCU Halloween Special ships this week, so you know it's officially That Time of Year. Yep, that's right. Today sees the release of the yearly anthology book that many stare at in the store and go, "Um...no, thanks."

But not me.

Oh, no. Not me.

I love this stupid, mostly useless, (and bafflingly expensive) yearly title. Each year, DC writers, artists, and even editors (yep, sometimes they let them out of their cages!) all pitch in and contribute to the oversized (80 pages long!) Halloween special. This year, expect stories by Billy Tucci, Joe Harris, and Franco, and art by Rags Morales and Joe Prado.

And, while you can't expect to find anything truly creepy here (for that, check out the House of Mystery Halloween Annual, which shipped last week), you can expect some good old superhero fluff.

Every year, I like to pick up whatever Halloween-centric comics look good to me, and I usually read them on the 31st while I'm answering the door and handing out candy. And, of course, while eating my yearly fill of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It's a fun, childish thing that I still get a kick out of.

And the DCU Special is always on the pile come Halloween night. Here's the mandatory blurb from DC:

Darkness falls across the land as the DC Universe faces its greatest horror in this Halloween special filled with all-new stories! Watch as Guy Gardner continues his quest to share Halloween with the cosmos and his fellow alien Green Lantern Corps members.

In another tale, Red Robin finds the true, deadly meaning of the sinister holiday while overseas on his quest to find Bruce Wayne. Meanwhile, Bizarro receives neither trick nor treat in his own backwards celebration of the spookiest night of the year on his home world. Plus, 10 other ghoulish tales to fill you with fright this Halloween!

Like I said, this is good, goofy Halloween fun and if you're in the mood for something light, but still true to the season, I'd suggest giving this book a go.

Speaking of Halloween reading, I also have a stack of graphic novels that I like to dive into on or as close to Halloween as I can. Last year, the excellent (and true to the movie continuity) Halloween: Nightdance was collected in an affordable trade paperback from Devil's Due Press.

And, while the current mini-series has (apparently) stalled out at DDP, Nightdance features some of the creepiest, scariest comic book horror I've ever experienced.

Horror, methinks, is the toughest genre to pull off in a comic, but Nightdance drips with eerie visuals and skin crawling circumstances. So if you're a fan of the original Halloween (and, really, who isn't?), I definitely suggest you find this book. It's on Amazon right now, for under $13, and you can have it in time for the holiday!

Finally, we have Beasts of Burden, issue two, from Dark Horse Comics. I had high hopes for issue one last month, and the book did not disappoint. This title manages to juggle a creepy story, sarcastic and spot-on dialogue, and whimsical art. How? Well, it's written by Evan Dorkin, and painted (yes, fully painted) by Jill Thompson.

This series follows around an eclectic group of four-legged paranormal investigators (as if "four-legged paranormal investigators" could be anything but "eclectic") as they dig deeper into the mystery of last issue.

Here's the blurb from Dark Horse.

When some pups go missing, it’s up to a ragtag team of dogs and. . .a cat to get at the heart of this mystery that reveals horrors greater than they could have ever anticipated. Turns out these pups aren’t the first good-natured animals to disappear in recent weeks, and it’s going to take some strong will, determination, and straight-up heroics to unravel this peculiar case.

Adventure, mystery, horror, and humor thrive on every page of Beasts of Burden--a comic-book series that will capture readers’ hearts and haunt their dreams.

The Eisner Award-winning story gets its own series!

A book that I am 100% onboard with, Beasts is yet another example of a stellar title from Dark Horse that ships on-time and doesn't take a decade of continuity knowledge to pick up, follow, and enjoy. That, and the art is beautiful and haunting and perfect. Give it a shot!

Welp, that's it for today. I'll have some more Halloween Reading Suggestions in the coming weeks, starting tomorrow with a review of book I just finished and loved. So, the only thing left to do is ask...What are you Waiting for?

Exfanding Our Horizons

laffman85@aol.com (Flashman85) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Recently this blog reached 10,000 hits, but instead of celebrating by Alex and I taking turns forcing one another to experience one of our favorite fandoms, we both decided to take the plunge together into a fandom to which neither of us has ever been exposed.

We asked around for ideas, added some of our own ideas to the list, cut out the hobbies and fandoms we've already experienced in some capacity, and then we whittled down the list to the five fandoms we were most eager to try out.

The key here is that we both had to be complete newcomers to the fandom, and we both had to be interested. We received some great suggestions, including reading manga, attending a live Rocky Horror Picture Show, and underwater basket weaving; however, I've dabbled in way too many fandoms for my own good because I am the everygeek, and Alex is just no fun--he was concerned he'd need to start buying an over-the-counter cream for Quidditch, which I assure you is a real sport. Apparently.

After a laborious (read: five-minute-long) selection process, here are the five hobbies and/or fandoms we've agreed on...

...AND YOU GET TO CHOOSE WHICH ONE WE TRY OUT!!!

tHAT'S RIGHT! Oh, whoops, Caps Lock.

::ahem::

That's right! For a limited time only, we'll be keeping a poll at the top of the blog so that you can vote on our horrible, horrible fate. We'll close the poll either in one week or when we get 30 votes, whichever happens later.

Behold the options!

Watch Battlestar Galactica
A minimum of one season of the sci-fi TV series that ran from 2004-2009. Yeah, yeah; I know there are, like, 4.8 bajillion episodes in total if you count the original TV series and the movies and... well, we think one season oughta do.

Go on a ghost hunt
You know; a ghost hunt. Going on a stakeout for paranormal activity. Just like those guys from Ghost Hunters. We'll bring doughnuts, I bet.

Read the best of H.P. Lovecraft
We'll both sit down and crack open the Necronomicon, take a hike up the Mountains of Madness, and spend some quality time with Cthulhu. If nothing else, we hope to learn how to spell "Cthulhu" so we don't need to consult Wikipedia every time.

Watch essential Akira Kurosawa films
Considering Kurosawa is reportedly one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, it's a wonder we've never seen any of his films. We'll undoubtedly give his reputation a boost by saying he's influenced us after we've watched Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, The Hidden Fortress, and/or whatever else our local library has in stock.

Do a road trip to local tourist traps
Surely our corner of the world has a wealth of tourist traps on par with The World's Largest Ball of Twine, the Celebrity Vegetable Museum, and the Dino Bungee National Memorial. We'll map out a trip and hopefully come back with lots of stories and a minimal amount of kitschy swag. If nothing else, we hope to learn how to spell "kitschy" so we don't need to consult the dictionary every time.

Have you made your decision yet? Go on, now--vote in the poll and make us exfand our horizons for a change.

More Con Madness!

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

A quick Monday morning mash-up of a post, featuring a little Baltimore Con recap and some news that broke out of this past weekend's Big Apple Con.

First, to Baltimore. Couple of things that jumped out right away. The people. There were tons of them. I don't know what the actual numbers were for attendance last week as compared to last year (I'd check online, but it's late and I'm tired. And, um, lazy).

But just by the look of Saturday morning and the throngs of people waiting in the convention center lobby, it seemed like there were more people. And there was a steady stream of more people, all day long. Sunday was busy, as well, and it was very clear that people love the Baltimore Con. It's fun, and laid back, and there's plenty of space.

As I've said before, somehow the promoters manage to take a big, honking convention and make it feel like a Saturday morning show at a local high school. It's down home and the people are polite and there are no hassles trying to walk around.

But.

I talked to several people at the show, fans and creators alike, and they all said the same thing. This year's con seemed more crowded. A lot of people said it reminded them of the old Wizard World Philly Show, which had been a great mid-major convention with top notch guests and little media encroachment.

And then, it exploded.

Several people said that's what they see happening in Baltimore in the next few years. Now, clearly, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I just hope that the con remains focused on comics and not 1970s TV series and whatever it is else that many comics shows feature that aren't comics.

Because, if Baltimore (with its new Summer 2010 time slot) goes in the direction of the Wizard shows, or even the New York Comic Con...well, that would be a shame.

Speaking of Wizard and NYCC.

This weekend at the first-ever combined/merged/whatever Big Apple/Wizard New York Con on the Pier, Wizard head honcho and promoter Gareb Shamus announced that next year's Big Apple Con will take place the same weekend as the New York Comic Con.

Confused yet?

Remember that long and ranty post about comics conventions devouring each other and flooding the market that I wrote last week? Yeah. I guess I was kinda right in my worst fears. Unfortunately with me, that's usually the case. So, what's the deal here? Arrogance? Stupidity? Greed?

Who knows.

Will New York be able to shoulder the burden of two huge cons on the same days? Of course it will. It's New York. And creators will likely split their time between the shows. As will fans. And there will be plenty of people at both shows. The problems will arise if the two shows attempt to exclusively sign creators, thus limiting their appearances to one show or the other.

Which will, of course, happen.

And it'll be the talk of the comics Web sites and we'll hear about this writer jumping the NYCC ship to go to Wizard, and that artist ditching Shamus to hang out with the Reed people.

Shamus has been methodically (and brilliantly) buying up cons around North America, and the Wizard Shows are on their way back to prominence. But do we need more pop culture mash ups every month? Or do we need more Baltimore Cons?

Well, you know my feeling on that subject.

In any case, it'll be interesting to follow Con Season 2010 and see what the trends are and what shows do well and what shows lose their audience. Hopefully the good ones stick around, and hopefully there's still an audience for comic cons by the end of the year.

So, here's to continued relevancy and cooler heads prevailing.

-- -- -- --

We'll be back tomorrow with our compiled list of new fandoms (for you to vote on!) that we're willing to try in celebration of our 10,000 hits on this blog!

NYAF: Not your average festival

noreply@blogger.com (Guest Post) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:00:00 +0000

We've had lots of convention talk this week, so it's only fitting to have a full-blown review of a real-life anime festival, courtesy of longtime reader neko-chan. Enjoy!

The NYAF (New York Anime Festival) is a midsized convention held every year in - you guessed it - New York City. This was my first time attending, as I usually try to make my way to Otakon instead; however, since NYAF is only a short train ride from my house, and Otakon is... well... not, financially I opted for the more local of the two.

Now, I always cosplay at conventions, and this year I went as Yomiko Readman ("The Paper") from R.O.D. I have tried to be more sensible in recent years about my choice in costume, and have this wisdom to impart:

1) Cosplaying as a character who natural carries a large bag with her means you have plenty of space to store swag and still be in costume. You can also pack a change of clothes, or a baseball bat to thwart off over-zealous fanboys.

2) Wearing a benign costume means you won’t get overly-harassed if you plan to take public transportation or enter non-convention stores and restaurants.

3) The more you naturally look like who you are cosplaying as, the less costume pieces you have to deal with. After being a giant blue penguin for one con, and running around at another con in a wig and helmet during the height of summer, I can honestly say it was a pleasant surprise to not have to deal with elaborate accessorizing.

4) Dress for the season. It was late September, so I chose a character who dresses in layers and has a coat as part of her costume.

5) Consider the efficiency of your props. Is carrying around a 12-foot sword that does not fit inside a taxi really the way to go? Methinks not. My character had a book and a few scraps of paper that worked as bookmarks when I wasn’t using them. A simple and practical prop, especially because it gave me something to read on the train ride.

6) Wear comfortable shoes!!! I cannot stress this enough. You can forget your debit card, you can forget your hygiene, but for the love of Miyazaki do not forget comfortable shoes.

*ahem*

So I had my costume, I had my ticket that I pre-purchased online, and I was on my way to the Javits Center for day one of the convention. I knew it was a 15-minute walk from Port Authority, so I figured I would ask a friendly local for directions once I got there, and everything would be fine.

Note: friendly locals are dumb.

After wandering around for a half hour, mostly in the wrong direction due to the influences of bad information, I gave up and called Nathaniel so he could MapQuest me there over the phone. Thus, I was a half-hour late to the con and missed the traditional building-wrapping queue of doom.

Actually, even though I was still grumping it worked out better that way. I managed to walk right in, grab my badge, and head down to the convention floor in all of 5 minutes. Not too shabby.

DAY ONE

The con felt more like a giant mall of vendors and artists that happened to have a few screening rooms in the back. It was all on one floor, which made navigation pretty simple, but Lupin help you if you got stuck on the wrong side of a developing queue.

When I arrived, I pulled out my handy-dandy program to plan the day’s activities. I was quite upset at the schedule, though, as my options were 1) see the promotional screening of 20th Century Boys parts I + II and do nothing else, or 2) try and catch a variety of shows and panels that were horribly overlapped and didn’t take fanbases into account.

I tried for option 2, wanting to see as much as possible, however the first thing I went to see was canceled without warning, so I spent more time wandering around the dealers' room and avoiding Haruhi dancers than I had initially planned. Not the best start to a convention, especially because I ended up buying way too much swag while waiting for the next round of screenings.

Luckily, the rest of the day went by without a hitch. I saw the first few episodes of Aria (female gondola operators drenched in sappiness), the first two episodes of the original Captain Harlock TV series (mmmm, space pirates), the entire AMV contest (which turned into “It’s so magical” yaoi vs. magical girls), and the US premiere of Cencoroll (an animated short involving shape-shifting cannibalistic monster-cars and the humans who feed them pudding).

DAY TWO

I managed to arrive an hour early, and got to chat with people in line about comics and anime as we waited to file in. A friendly Zero cosplayer helped me with directions, and in return I helped provide him with safety pins for emergency costume repair.

I wandered around the artists’ alley for a bit, and then got in line for the Yui Makino (Yuchi) concert. Although I didn’t know any of her songs, I always make a point of attending concerts at conventions, as it is likely the only chance I will ever have to see that performer on a US stage.

It was a fairly informal setting, but she proved a talented singer and piano player, and she was adorable – the very definition of kawaii. While I probably won’t run out and buy all of her CDs, as it was not generally the genre of music I would listen to on a regular basis, I did enjoy the concert and respect her as a performer.

Next, I saw the US premiere of the Soul Eater dub. Now I am usually an elitist snob about subtitles, and there are very few things I will allow to be tainted with English voices, but I really wanted to see what all the hype was surrounding this show, so I took a chance.

I am so glad I did. Before the episodes started, they had a special performance. The entire English voice-acting cast was there and read aloud a Soul Eater fan-fiction as professional cosplayers (some wearing official costumes borrowed from FUNimation) acted out the ridiculous scenarios.

Even without knowing the characters I was ROFLing, and it made me appreciate the series (and the English voice cast) that much more. (gun. gunning. gun gun.) Also, everyone in the audience got a free Soul Eater iron-on patch. Yay for free swag.

After that I caught the first two episodes of Galaxy Express 999 (Trains... in... Spaaaaaaace), then rushed over to see the first few episodes of Aquarion. All I can say about Aquarion is that I’m not sure whether to be disturbed or amused by the transformation sequences.

Next, I met up with a few of the guys from college as we waited for the evening events to start. One of them was cosplaying as the main character from Hikkatsu! Strike a Blow to Vivify and was offering $10 to anyone who could guess his costume. He kept his money, but in the process was able to educate the populace about the series.

They went off to see the cosplay masquerade, which is where fans dress up in costumes and perform fan-written skits involving popular anime characters. I, however, decided to sit in on a screening of the first episode of Guin Saga.

The show has not yet been licensed in the US, so we were able to get a sneak peek, and we also received a free poster for filling out a survey with our impressions and demographics. I enjoyed the premise: young heirs of a war-demolished country find themselves trapped in enemy territory, and are randomly saved by an amnesiac man with a leopard head who can punch people through trees and pile-drive them into the ground.

I ended the day with an older comedy series I had been wanting to see, Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Imagine a young Jack Sparrow crossed with Lupin III, and then make him the captain of a spaceship who somehow manages to destroy an enemy fleet by accident.

I should also mention that this series has one of the most painfully bad theme songs of all time, which means we had a riot singing along and making fun of it. Because there was nothing scheduled after our screening, and because the facilitators had to stay until the masquerade wrapped up, they let us watch an extra two episodes. Epic win.

DAY THREE

I spent the entire morning watching Gurren Lagann: The Movie. Now I had been warned not to see it until I had seen the TV show, because it basically condenses the plot of the first half of the series, however I took a chance on it anyway. I loved it.

Yes, there were obvious spoilers, but the sheer amount of awesome overwhelmed. Take a post-apocalyptic-style world, and then add in scantily clad females with guns, ambiguous mechanics, and mecha pilots whose machines are powered by their manliness. Now have a combining mecha that can sprout drills at will and pummel enemies ten ways to Sunday. What’s not to like?

After that, I wandered over to World Cyber Games area. I have no idea what most people were playing, but everything looked shiny. I put my name in for a drawing to win a Samsung SSD (which I unfortunately did not win), and I spent a good half-hour watching some kids play Resident Evil 5 on the prettiest system set-up I have ever seen.

As I was walking back through the aisles, I passed a booth that was handing out free SoBe energy drinks if you posed with their flyer. Sweet.

I had planned on heading over to the FUNimation panel to see what they had upcoming for 2010, however I was waylaid by Jedi.

Yes, Jedi.

See, it’s generally an unspoken rule that Jedi will attend most anime conventions. We just try to ignore them and teach our children not to stare.

Okay, okay, I jest. I love Star Wars, but they were a touch out-of-place. Anysaber, they were doing a trick show of styles and techniques, and I couldn’t help stopping to watch. The performers were quite talented, but I think I was one of only two people clapping. Hopefully they had better luck garnering love at the NY Comic Con.

The rest of my day was comprised of doing a last round of shopping, and I think I left the convention center with a mere $2.80 in coins left in my pocket. I was tired, my feet were sore, but I had enjoyed my weekend and would definitely consider attending this con in the future.

Con Malaise

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

This week we're taking a critical look at some of our favorite flawed fandoms. We're proposing one change to each installment or aspect of the fandom in question that we feel would provide the most improvement.

In our final Fandom Fix, I'd like to take a look at the current state of the comics convention. And, really, what better time of year to do this than October, when there are four (yes, four) major conventions in the U.S. in a span of four weeks?

Think about that for a second.

Four major shows, in four weeks, back-to-back. Three of those shows are on the East Coast. Two of them are in New England. Two weeks ago, the first ever Long Beach Comic Con was doing its thing out West while the following week, the Baltimore Comic Con was doing its thing on the East, celebrating ten years of shows.

And today sees the start of the first Big Apple/Wizard-merging Big Apple Con in New York City. Followed next weekend by the Boston Comic Con.

Next year, the Baltimore Con is being muscled out of its October slot, and will instead take place in August, not even a month after Comic Con International in San Diego. Why? Because New York Comic Con (which has become San Diego East) has now moved to the second weekend of October, from its annual February slot.

It used to be (and when I say, "used to be," I mean as in, last year!) that Baltimore Con marked the end of the convention circuit, and everyone from dealers to fans to creators to editors could take a few months off before starting up again in the coming year.

Clearly, that is no longer the case. The recent glut of comic cons, and especially this October surge of big show after big show, is something that has me a bit worried.

This whole state of competing conventions is beginning to look like something out of a Daredevil comic. And I don't mean the ones when he wore yellow and smiled every now and then.

In the world of comic cons, there's a whole underbelly of corporate money-grabbing, dishonest guest stealing, and an all out promotional campaign that would make Presidential candidates jealous.

And it needs to stop.

Haven't we learned that, when you flood the market with the same type of product, consumers get sick of it? Obviously, since this is comics we're talking about, the answer is a four-color no. Remember that whole variant cover craze of the 90's that did its darndest to kill the industry?

And then remember when Marvel (then DC) started issuing all those "limited" variants a few years back? Some of those books were listing in price guides (Wizard Price Guide) for anywhere between $20 and $100!

And today?

Let's just say I saw more "hot" variant covers lining dealer's booths--not selling--than I cared to count at Baltimore. The day of the variant is dead (again). But, much like dead comics characters, the variant cover will be back and more ridiculous than ever one day.

That's just how it goes.

A type of book gets hot, stays hot, drops off the planet, then for whatever reason interest rises again five years down the road. It's cyclical, sure, but the cycle always ends in the quarter bins.

Long, rambling comparisons aside, the same situation is happening with comics conventions. By having so many of them, so close to one another, with virtually the same guest list...well, you see where I'm going with this.

It's just another example of the comics industry trying to punch itself in the face.

The Baltimore Con is an East Coast, autumn staple. It's known as one of the friendliest shows out there, and everyone knows you go to Baltimore to meet creators. Short lines, incredible guest lists, and an entire half of the convention center devoted to artist's alley.

Baltimore is exactly how to go about running an efficient, high-quality show. And its timing makes it a welcome site, after the crazy summer con season is over, and early enough as to not interfere with holiday shopping.

For me, it's been the perfect excuse to take a few days off, spend a little money, and talk with my favorite comics people.

Next year, though, I doubt I'll be going. August is typically a big wedding month, and I am in one the weekend right before the con. I'm just not a big fan of summer cons, I guess. Too much else to do.

As for Baltimore, there were several big name cancellations this year, and with the show being in August of 2010, so soon after San Diego, I wonder if they'll have trouble finding guests.

It has to be hard on creators to take so many weekends out of their time to hit up these shows. And more shows means more time creators need to be away from home. And, really, how long is that going to last? I'm willing to bet that many creators are going to look at the ominous list of 2010 cons and pick one or two shows to go to, and maybe decide against going to some of the smaller shows in favor of seeing the most fans possible at San Diego or NYCC.

Speaking of San Diego, I just read over on Mark Evanier's blog that the four-day ticket package that includes a ticket to Preview Night is already sold out. Yes. In October of the year before the show, tickets to San Diego have sold out.

So, clearly there's interest in comic conventions.

But, not to be all Chicken Little today, how widespread can that kind of interest be? Next year will be a big year for comics, and how conventions play out will mean a lot. Because there will be more shows, with less time between each, than ever before, will attendance suffer?

We'll see.

I say, less shows. Make them special occasions, not every-other-weekend occasions. Comic cons are like a little early Christmas each year, but how long will it be before there's a show planned on Christmas Day?

Hang on, I hear Gareb Shamus calling...

Fixing Comics

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

This week we're taking a critical look at some of our favorite flawed fandoms. We're proposing one change to each installment or aspect of the fandom in question that we feel would provide the most improvement.

The worst thing about comics is that inevitable moment when someone unfamiliar with the hobby asks that question. You know the one.

"So, what's the origin of Wolverine?"

*groan*

"Well, you see, he's a mutant, but he's...um...really old and he wasn't always a mutant. Actually, wait. Yes, he was always a mutant."

"And his mutant power included him having a metal skeleton, right?"

"Yes. I mean, no. It's--ah--it's adamantium, actually, and--"

"Adamantium?"

"Yeah, but--but that's not important. What is important is that Logan had his--"

"Who?"

"Logan--Wolverine. That's his real name. Well, hang on. I gues his real real name is James Howlett, but...um. Where was I?"

"Ada-something skeleton."

"Right. Yeah, see, this government program, Weapon X, they experimented on Logan--"

"You mean James?"

"I mean Wolverine. Anyway, so this government program experiments on him and they lace his bones with this unbreakable metal."

"Oh. Well, I guess that's kinda cool. I didn't realize the U.S. government was part of Wolverine's origin."

"Oh, right. They're not. He's Canadian."

*sigh*

We've all had a similar conversation with a newbie, and we've all gotten the same, utterly perplexed and a little bit questioning of our friendship look. They never ask what Superman's origin is, because that one is simple and easy to remember and perfect. Same thing with Batman. I've heard Batman scribe Denny O'Neil explain that Batman's origin is the only logical event that could have propelled someone to become Batman.

And there's no need to tweak it, or add to it, or change it in any concievable way.

The same can't be said about many other characters' origins--especially some of the more modern ones. What's worse though, is the fact that so many characters' current state of affairs can't be described without some level of confusion.

"Tell me about Jean Grey."

"Oh, she's dead. Um...again. Give it a few months, though. She'll be back. And, um, probably evil."

"I see. I think. That sounds complicated. How about Batman? What's Bruce Wayne up to these days?"

"He's in a cave. I think. Drawing bat symbols. And he has a beard."

"Umm..."

"Oh, and he's not Batman anymore. And he might be dead."

"Wait, who's Batman? Is it the old Robin?"

"Yep! It's Dick Grayson, and Damian is the new Robin. And Tim Drake is the new...um...Red Robin."

"Hold on. I thought you said Batman was in a cave?"

"He is! But everyone thinks he's dead."

I could literally do this all day, but I'll spare you all that burden. Instead, I'll just complain, sans the dialogue. One of the biggest problems with comics is accessibility. It's a hinderance that has always, and will always, plague the industry.

Because comics are, by definition, an ongoing serialized story, people who have followed a certain character for a number of years (or decades) expect to be "rewarded" for their loyalty. In other words, longtime fans don't want to invest time and money (oh, the money) into a year-long, company-wide crossover event just to have the whole thing erased from continuity a few years later.

Personally, I don't care. If the story happened, and I liked it, great. If the story happened and I hated it, that's my opinion. I'm sure someone out there loved it. Just because an event (or a character, for that matter) is written out of continuity doesn't mean that the event didn't happen or the character never existed.

That's the beauty of comics. Somewhere, either in a dusty longbox or in a beat-up trade paperback, that story still exists, and is viable, and is there for anyone who wants it to go and read. And enjoy, or hate.

But Continuity Hounds (and I honestly believe there are many working in the comics industry today) want things to tie in and connect and, sometimes, never really change from their own personal favorite runs on a book. Which is fine, but that also means that more recent continuity needs to sometimes be tweaked in order for older continuity to make sense in a character's world again.

Let's say you read comics in the 70's and 80's. And you fell in love with Chris Claremont's and Jon Bynre's legendary run on X-Men. They made that book a must-read for anyone in and around comics back then. Let's say you stopped reading after Byrne left the book. Flash forward to today. That same person picks up (one of the couple dozen) X-books Marvel produces today, and has no idea what the heck's going on.

Well, you can argue that they've missed two decades-plus worth of stories, so a lot had to happen. Good argument. However, the problem with that argument is, if you were to pick up an X-book a year after Byrne left the book, you'd be just as lost. I'm picking on the X-Men because they're the best example of a far-reaching, in-depth, and frankly, confusing string of continuity.

There are so many titles, so many characters, and so many different takes on the characters that, in order to dive in to an X-book for the first time, you really need to do your homework.

And a newbie is not going to want to do that. And why should he or she?

Of course, there's another side of the coin to consider. Say a 13 year old walks out of X-Men 3, loves all the punching and exploding, and wants to go read some X-Men comics. Great! A new reader! Well, sure, but only if the book that kid picks up is incredibly streamlined and doesn't require any prior knowledge of the characters.

And if an X-book is written that way, with all the cookie cutter characters from the movie franchise, then what about the fans who have followed the complicated lives of these characters for years and years?

And there's the problem. Comics, somehow, need to fall somewhere in the middle. A book needs to be written so that a newbie can pick it up and follow it, which means it can't be steeped in decades-old continuity. But, at the same time, the book needs to have some reverence for what's come before it, and it cannot be insulting to the tried-and true Wednesday Warriors.

Stan Lee always used to say that every comic book is someone's first. And if that book is incomprehensible to that someone, then comics loses a potential reader. Likely forever.

This makes me think of the first comic I read before I really got into this crazy culture. It was Batman, issue 613, right smack in the middle of the "Hush" story arc. Jeph Loeb wrote that book in a way that past events in the series were explained, and he used familiar characters. And the characters acted in ways I could relate to, because his interpretations of the characters were very much in line with the traditional takes on them.

Still, Loeb managed to bring new stuff into that story, and Hush and Jason Todd play huge roles in the DC Universe today. When I first read it, sure, I didn't get every reference or reveal, but I was still able to follow the mystery and enjoy the heck out of the ride.

And it made me want to go back and learn about some of the characters I'd never heard of before. Like Jason Todd. You mean, there was another Robin after Dick Grayson? What happened there?

And I have to believe that, if that one, single issue of Batman was way beyond my grasp, and, say, Bruce Wayne was drawing symbols in a cave instead of being a detective, I may not have continued to read comics. I might not have gone back to the shop the following week to check out what Superman was up to. I might not have picked up that weird-looking Dark Horse book with the big, ugly guy and his bug-eyed sidekick, shooting at zombies.

And that would have been a shame.

Waiting for Wednesday, Issue 33

noreply@blogger.com (AJG) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Holy Inner Harbor, Batman! I'm back (but not rested!) from the Baltimore Comic Con, and I didn't know it was possible to be both unemployed and completely bogged down with work at the same time.

Luckily, Nathaniel's been knocking his posts out of the ballpark this week, and I have some seriously big (clown) shoes to fill with my "I liked it, but I think it could be better if..." posts.

But, because it's Wednesday and all, I'm going to go half and half with today's entry--I'll continue the Wednesday tradition of a good, old fashioned Waiting for, but I'll also transition (effortlessly) into the first of my two (maybe three) "how I would fix a fandom, if given the chance" posts. And, after you see how I would "fix" each chosen fandom, you'll also see why no one would ever give me the chance.

And then a bit later in the week, or maybe even early next week depending on how things go, I'll do a little Convention Recapping, just so I'm sure to cover all bases. It was a fun trip--a productive trip--and it might lead to some Very Good Things. More on that later on, though.

Now, before I get into this week's List-o-Things-I-Want-To-Buy, first, a picture of the place where my GPS got me a little...lost...on my way to Baltimore. We needed to make a quick detour before heading to the hotel...and, well...as you'll see, it was more of a major detour.

Yeah. Let's just say I experienced a little culture shock. As in, why's there so much corn, and seriously, why isn't there a Best Buy around every corner?

Still, we made it to the Con safe and sound, and despite nearly seven hours of traffic on the way home, we even managed to get back home. Which is always a plus when traveling.

Anyway, it's a big week of comics and I have a fandom to repair, so let's get going. I'll do a fairly in-depth bit about one book, then a Quick Hits rundown of a few others.

You know, so as not to lull you all to sleep.

First up, we have the comic that I am most looking forward to this month, by far. It's the big House of Mystery Halloween Annual #1, and it's going to be over-sized and creepy and spectacular. Clearly, there are other people out there besides me who have been picking this series up each month, because this $4.99 holiday (yes, Nathaniel, Halloween is a holiday) special would not have happened otherwise.

As I pare down the number of titles I read on a month-to-month basis, it is becoming quite clear what books are the absolute must-haves for me. And House of Mystery is one of them. The Goon is the other.

If I could read only two comics every month, having those two series on a regular basis would make me happy. I mean, just look at the cover to this week's issue:

If that doesn't make any self-respecting horror fan want to run out and pick up a copy, then I have nothing to say to you. Really, this comic is worthy of the hype I've bestowed upon it over the last year or so, and it's definitely worthy of a spot on even the most discerning horror fan's bookshelf.

And the creative teams! Since it'll be compiled in the old school anthology style, the House is full up this month with some of the best talents in comics. Included in the issue are series regulars Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, and they're joined by (among others), Amy Reeder Hadley (artist of Madame Xanadu), Matt Wagner (writer of Madame Xanadu), and Peter Milligan (writer of Hellblazer).

Here's the (lengthy) blurb from Vertigo:

It's Halloween at The House of Mystery, and that can only mean one thing: the bash of a lifetime! But when Fig discovers a strange mask in the attic, she begins having visions of everywhere the mask has been, and she quickly becomes the life and death of the party.

This special 48-page annual contains a framing story by the regular HOUSE OF MYSTERY creative team of writer Matthew Sturges and artists Luca Rossi and Jose Marzan Jr. Also included is a series of short stories from a few regular Vertigo titles including HELLBLAZER by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini and MADAME XANADU by Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Hadley and Richard Friend as well as a special MERV PUMPKINHEAD tale (the first in over 8 years!) by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham and Kevin Nowlan! In addition, you'll be treated to a yarn spotlighting the upcoming new monthly series I, ZOMBIE by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred!

Plus, a Q&A with the creative teams to uncover their scariest Halloween costumes, memories and other sordid tricks and treats as we salute the holiday that has made Vertigo world famous for all things dark and frightening!

I think this book is going to serve as a good jumping-on point for anyone who has thought about trying out the Vertigo line, but for whatever reasons, hasn't yet. There will be a nice sampling of Vertigo's major talents and characters, and I give this book my highest recommendation.

Next up, we have two Waiting for mainstays from Dark Horse, BPRD: 1947, issue 4, and Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, issue 7. I've screamed from the rooftops about these books for months, so just go and buy, yeah? There's also The Unwritten, issue 6, from Vertigo. This fourth wall-busting series by comics novelist (yes, Nathaniel, it's a real term) Mike Carey asks the questions, what if the stories we read as children were actually true? And what if you found out that, your whole life, you were actually the main character of one of those stories?

The Unwritten is a fascinating read, and it goes in directions you just can't expect from issue to issue. Like Neil Gaiman's masterpiece, Sandman, I believe that Unwritten is one of those books that will enjoy a massively popular trade paperback issue. It'll be a big bookstore seller, and I think there will one day be fancy hardcover collections with oversized art, and featuring introductions by very impressive people.

Okay, well, there are a few more books that are worth mentioning (like the solid Blackest Night: Batman series from DC, which sees the final of its three issues shipping this week and the sure-to-be-hilarious Deadpool, issue 900 from Marvel), but I need to get this behemoth of a post moving along.

So.

Abrupt end to Waiting for. Followed by the mandatory, so, what are you Waiting for?

And now on to something else entirely, something with its very own mandatory intro text.

Right.

-- -- -- --

This week we're taking a critical look at some of our favorite flawed fandoms. We're proposing one change to each installment or aspect of the fandom in question that we feel would provide the most improvement.

My first foray into a flawed fandom will likely not go over well with many folk. But that's okay, because just in the past few days Nathaniel's said he would fix Star Wars, and that the prequels were better. So, please, direct all fanimosity towards him.

The fandom I want to talk about fixing today is...um...fandom. Comics fandom, to be exact.

Since I'm returning from Baltimore Con, I want to talk about conventions in general, and comics conventions in particular. Now, before we get into it, a preface. I believe comic conventions are (and should be) fun and different and weird and wonderful. I really do. I like the idea of comic conventions. I really do. I like the road trip to comic conventions. I like meeting creators and I like buying whatever stupid thing it is I want to buy at a comic convention.

I even enjoy the fact that some people like to dress up when they go to comic conventions. Really, I do. I think cons are a Judgement-Free Zone, and that is probably the thing I love most about them. At a comics con (or a gaming con, or an anime con), you are among friends. You are among others who get it, whatever your personal it is.

And there's nothing better than that.

And I hear your wheels spinning and I hear you saying, "but..."

And, yes, there is a but. A rather large one, squeezed into lycra and parading around as Ms. Marvel or Robin or *shudder* Aquaman. Sorry. Couldn't help myself. The "but" in question is not, "but c'mon, let's stop with the costumes." The "but" in question is, "but, people, really, as comics fans, we need to present ourselves as human beings every once in a while."

What do I mean by this inflammatory and insulting statement?

I mean, shower. Just because you're at a convention and many societal "norms" need not apply...showering still very much needs to apply. I mean, if you see a mother walking with three kids in front of her down an aisle, don't cut in between them and split up a family. I mean, say thank you when a writer or artist signs a book for you.

And that goes both ways. Writers, artists, guy who played Zombie Number 17 in Shaun of the Dead--say hello and make eye contact and smile and say thanks for reading or watching.

Because, as I said, we are among friends at a con.

And to those creators who don't like mingling with the fans (you know, the people that allow them to have careers?), remember this: you are Comics Famous. That's an entirely different thing than being Real Famous. In a comics shop or at a convention, you might be treated like Steve Rogers on Veteran's Day, but in the corner market or the Burger King, you're just the next guy in line.

So don't be a jerk.

People paid good money in the worst economy since [insert funny Depression-era reference here] to come and say hi and get a book signed, so say hi back and sign the book with a smile and a thanks for reading.

There. I'm done with that.

Now back to the fans. When a creator (who has left his or her family on an all-too-precious weekend to instead sit behind a table all day and sign things) comes to a show, he or she should be treated exactly how you would want others to treat you. Say thank you if they sign a book or do a sketch, and never expect an artist to sketch for free "because it's his/her job."

His/her job is to draw for whatever company he or she is working for. And you are not a company.

Creators aren't at these shows to be your own personal entertainment, and they are not there to listen to your idea about a 75-issue maxi-series wherein you plan to kill off Superman, Batman, and Howard the Duck, and re-launch a new line of heroes featuring every character you've ever thought of creating since the time you were two years old.

Sorry. That's not part of the contract at these things.

And for anyone out there going, but I paid my hard earned cash to be here, so Guy Who Writes Snippy the Cat better sit and listen to my story about Batman's Bad Hemorrhoid, I'll say this.

Do us all a favor, and stay home.

I can't tell you how many times I stood in line next to another person who was incredibly nice and friendly and funny and outgoing. I can tell you how many times I stood next to a person who was smelly, or rude, or just plain mean. And if a "civilian" or a mother or a grandmother (there were several at Baltimore) goes to one of these things because a family member wanted to go--I guarantee he or she will not remember the polite people.

She'll only remember the guy who clearly didn't shower since getting to the hotel. Or the guy who couldn't stop sweating onto the artist's sketchbook as he drew a commission. Or the girl who said the F-word at the top of her lungs when she saw how long the line to Brian Bendis had gotten.

I don't mean for this post to be full of spite (though you can't tell by reading it!), but I think it's important that we all agree on certain things at conventions. We should all be polite, we should all try to help the little kid who was separated from his parents, and we should all respect each other's space. Especially in such close quarters.

I want to be very clear when I say this--the MAJORITY (seriously, 99%) of the people at the Baltimore Con followed these rules. But, as I said, all it takes is a handful of idiots to screw things up for the rest of us.

Because I fear this is an overly negative Fandom Fix on my part, I want to end with two things. And they both have to do with zombies. So you know they're meaningful.

Firstly, on Saturday at the con, I was bumped into, rather hard, by a big dude wearing a full-on zombie outfit. You know, spattered blood all over the place, white make-up, and even creepy, foggy contact lenses. When I turned around, he put one hand on my shoulder and said, sincerely, "Oh, man. I am so sorry."

A small thing. Something that happens everyday, right?

"I was posing for this lady who was taking a picture of me and I completely had no idea someone was behind me."

"No harm, no foul," I replied, and meant it. "Nice costume, though."

"Thanks."

And the scary, bloodied zombie shuffled off. And that was that.

The second zombie-related incident occurred on Sunday, when I was completely Baltimore Con-ed out. I was sitting in the lobby of the adjoining hotel, munching on a protein bar and guzzling as much water as I possibly could, when I saw the Swarm approach.

Anyone who's been to Baltimore knows that the Inner Harbor area and all of its hotels and attractions (including the convention center) are linked by a series of Sky Walks so pedestrians don't have to cross major roadways.

These Sky Walks are incredibly convenient and I came to love them immediately.

Anyway, as I was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for my buddy to emerge from the show so we could head back home, I glanced outside through the big glass windows ahead of me.

And I saw a group of people walking, very slowly, across a Sky Walk from the convention center. They were spread out, walking single file, and they appeared to be having some issues. They were stumbling and lurching and bumping into things as they headed towards the hotel.

And then the first walker in line got close enough that I could make out what it was I was looking at. In all, there were about a dozen high school aged kids, dressed to the nines in zombie clothing and make-up. And they were playing their parts well, and they were having a blast doing it.

When people from the hotel would walk by, a member of the zombie troupe would stop, pose for a picture, then continue with his or her lumbering. A man sitting across from me, his back to the window, was working on his laptop, oblivious to the world around him. He was madly typing away, and clearly his focus was on the computer screen.

Finally, he felt the need to come up for air, and he shrugged his shoulders, sighed, and leaned back in his chair. Then he turned towards the window, and nearly jumped out of his shoes. He looked back at me, and I smiled, and then he smiled, and then he laughed.

More people inside the hotel finally noticed what was going on along the Sky Walk, and they all smiled and laughed, too. Because it was pretty cool, and different, and funny. It only lasted a few minutes, but I was glad I could see it.

With that, I'll end this thing by saying the following.

Fandom--fix thyself.

Because we know we rock, and everyone else should, too.