"MEANWHILE..." *

* apologies to Dick Giordano

Okay, I've been away for awhile. I had the flu for about a week and now I'm still recovering from an ear infection. Nice huh?

Anyway, that hasn't stopped me from teaming up with my friend Bryan over at Comic Geek Speak Podcast and plugging away to bring everyone some fun topics. I've also been reading as much as I can - I'm on a kick to catch up on my reading but to do that, and to get the full effect of what DC is putting out right now, I tried to find a decent starting point. So I'm going all the way back to JSA #1. Eventually, Phil Jimenez' Wonder Woman run will spill into my reading pile, as well as Teen Titans and Outsiders, the Superman books, etc. Eventually I'll read all the DC books I have up to Identity Crisis and from there it's all a big race to Infinite Crisis. I can't wait.

Come visit Comic Geek Speak - we are having a great time and it's spilling over into our Forum Message Board. Hopefully I'll catch up with some things I want to post here on my own blog. I've caught up on all the X-Men books since this latest jumping on point and I have a few things to say about that (if anyone's actually reading haha).

Until then - get out and enjoy Spring. My second favorite season. And not just because all of a sudden every girl seems to shed her winter wear for skimpy shorts. Oh no. Heh.

"BYE BYE JOOOOO-EEEEEY!!!"*

Flipping through this month’s Previews (April) with Wildsiderz on the cover, as well as the Marvel Previews for the month of June, I have finally decided to weed out about 90% of Marvel Comics from my monthly buying. What caused it? One book:

Marvel Team-Up #9.

Now, it’s not the content, it’s not the creators, it’s the simple fact that Marvel raised it from a $2.25 book to $2.99. $2.99?!? This was the month that all of Marvel’s $2.25 comics went to $2.50. Okay - I was ready for that. Amazing Spider-Man is now $2.50. X-Men and UncannyX-Men are now $2.50. So I figured Marvel Team-Up would follow suit.

Nope. $2.99.

With no extra pages, no cardstock cover, no boost in anything. Marvel did the same to Fantastic Four a year ago - arguably in anticipation for the movie (but that still doesn’t make it better) - but I let it go. This time I can’t. I can’t keep supporting a company that makes drastic changes like that with no explanation. Especially considering Robert Kirkman and Marvel hyped the book initially BECAUSE it was only $2.25.

To start the weeding process, I’m no longer picking up ANY “X” book. Both X-Men and Uncanny are starting new storylines (Uncanny is bringing back Mojo >yawn<; X-Men, although I want to support both Milligan & Larocca, this new storyline just doesn’t interest me) so those are easy to drop. Astonishing X-Men is wrapping up Whedon & Cassaday’s first year so that’s easy to drop (and just pick up a hardcover or trade of the second year later).

Next, Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine and Marvel Team-Up all have 2-3 more issues before they wrap up their stories. Straczynski’s Amazing started off with a controversial story that set the Spidey-fans on their ears. And the story worked. He even brought Mary Jane back into the fold and the promise of greatness was there. And then it just fizzled. Oneshot stories, co-writing with Fiona Avery, Amazing quickly became just another Spider-Man book for me. Wolverine and Marvel Team-Up, I’m giving until the end of their respective runs once Millar/Romita Jr’s year ends and with Team-Up, just until issue #12.

Looking at the previews for House of M, I realize I just am not that interested in picking up 2 books in one month (by the way, the same goes for X-Men and Uncanny - I don’t need two issues a month). Thankfully, the online website I use (with a link over on the side there), has House of M #1 for .75c. So I’ll pick that up, but for the rest, I’ll wait for the trade.

The only Marvel books I’m keeping are new Thunderbolts, to support Tom Grummett and Fabian Nicieza, especially since Marvel shot themselves in the foot when the changed the original Thunderbolts book into a fightclub series. They killed the momentum on the book so I’m hoping this new series builds a fanbase. The other books I’m collecting are the Official Handbooks. Are they perfect? No. Do they have mistakes? Yes. Do I wish the artwork was all original, new work? Yes. But oh well. I’m a sucker for “Who’s Who” type books.

That’s two books that I will continue with once the others go by the wayside. I’ll also pick up the new Defenders title but that’s because I lovethe collaboration between Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire (the Justice League International gang). But for now, that’s it. When there are great “history” books like Modern Masters vol.5 with Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and the Will Eisner tribute in Comic Book Artist #6, both priced at$14+, as well as trades like the Who is Donna Troy? trade and Fantastic Four Visionaries vol.1 by George Perez, I need some room in my monthly budgeting.

So, Joey Q, I loved your Marvel Knights. Marvel, I loved your risk taking in the past few years. But I can’t support you anymore.

Adios.

*PS/ To be sung to the tune of "Bye, Bye Birdie".

"DAYLIGHT SAVINGS REALLY SUX!"

Okay, my internal clock is all askew now with the loss of an hour. I find it weird that my computer knows when daylight savings is going to happen but I didn't have clue #1. So it's 1:30 in the am which for me feels more like 12:30 and considering my sleep schedule the past few months, I can count on about 4-5 more hours of insomnia.

But why bitch when I can read some comics right?

In anticipation of a boatload of "r'views", I strained my eyes to read all the current X-Men Reloaded mess (Uncanny, Astonishing, and plain ol' X-Men) as well as the complete Byrne Fantastic Four run (currently at the Negative Zone saga). On the plate: the third Runaways digest (thanks Bryan), New Avengers, Marvel Team-Up and JSA from issue -1 (that would be the Secret Files issue that predates JSA #1).

Geez that's alot of Marvel.

"That IS the best you can do (ya pansy)!"

SinCity
Saw Sin City last night with a bunch of my comic geek friends. What a great movie. The best comic-to-movie approach ever! (and in all fairness, the original source material lends itself to having it so easily translated word for word, image for image, beat for beat). You can listen to a "review" with me and the gang that saw it at www.comicgeekspeak.blogspot.com. No spoilers here.

And hey, if there ever comes a time when Toby Maguire doesn't want to be Spider-Man ever again, my vote is for Elijah Wood. Watch those scenes with him in this movie and you'll see what I mean.

Thumbs up, 5 out of 5 stars, A+...go and see it........ya pansies!

"AND WE'RE OFF....AGAIN"

It's been over a year since last I posted. I had no real idea where I was heading at that time but now I'm a little clearer. I'll be laying some things out as I go along daily concerning current comics, trivia, the audio podcast I do with my friend Bryan, etc.etc.etc. I'll just start out with this for now:

DC Countdown. The most excited I've been about the future of DC in a long time.

More to come...

Peter

PS/ Head on over to www.comicgeekspeak.blogspot.com for (in my humble opinion) the best comic book related podcast (in english anyway! haha).