TheUnemployedShortstop

June 12, 2009 9:30 am

Bruce is badass at the bat bagpipes. 

May 31, 2009 12:15 pm drink!  Now someone say "The Shield." 

September 5, 2008 12:30 am

Ooooo...  New audio content!  Great interview Ron.  Thanks Jay.

 Can iFanboy's talksplode be taken out of the box?  I don't think it always has to be interviews with creators.  What about Ron Richards vs Jim Mroczkowski:  Top five favorite and least favorite X-Men moments (the Dark Phoenix memorial list)?  You might not think so, but I would listen to two huge X-nerds ramble on about their favorite children of the atom for 45-60 minutes.  However arguments over "the worst of times" might be where the most entertaining content lies. 

Keep in mind these stories survive becuase of the infinite conversations between fans, not on their own merit.  The Great Gatsby is a great book because people enjoy reading it AND talking about it.  If it was just a great book that no one likes to read (Ulysses I'm looking at you) then it kinda drifts away from the zeitgeist (sorry I just like to use that word when ever I can).

Along these same lines I would like to have Ron and Josh finish their converstaion about Thunderbolts.  I haven't read it and they made it sound like fun.  But I would like to hear more. 

August 28, 2008 12:52 am Wow!  Am I glad I read this review before I went to the store.  Thanks, this book was the best thing I read this week... hilarious.  It beat JSA and ASM... and they were both great.  Have I been missing out?  Should I go back issue diving, or was this a stand out issue? 

August 27, 2008 10:22 am I love that cover!  Can I pick up this issue and keep up?  I'm guessing yes, but maybe not...  Little Help?

July 28, 2008 12:42 pm

Well argued Jimski.  And, as always very entertaining (I'm sorry about your comics... savages). 

 

Now what you need is an exit strategy.  How do the comic companies withdraw from the stores without aggravating the independent retailers and the ... stalwart enthusiasts?  The underground, Kinko's copying revolutionaries might rally the lemming like fan... enthusiasts, who inturn recruit the retailers, and then we'll have a full blown insurgency on our hands... leading to civil...

 

I'm sorry.  I was thinking about something else... stupid NPR.   

June 30, 2008 7:30 pm Oh good I'm not alone on this one.  I know this is like a year late, but I'm still very excited. 

June 30, 2008 7:28 pm I dislike that cover.  And I'm not sure if I'm excited about Ellis.  I love Transmet and Fell, but I'm not sure that those themes will fit in here.  I'm going to keep an open mind and divorce this run from the Whedon Cassaday run.  Look at it as a number one... join me.

June 24, 2008 4:38 pm

Oh that last part showed up all big and made me sound like an ass.  Sorry about that.  Not yelling.  Just a luddite.

 

June 24, 2008 4:32 pm

I know that two of these suggestions are on going series but the first volumes are great examples of what the grander stories turn out to be.  I would think that you could make a positive or negative judgment based on the first chapters, which have complete arcs. 

Lady Snowblood vol. 1.  One might think this is simply a variation on a theme from the author of Lone Wolf and Cub, but I didn't see it that way.  Set near the turn of the century a female assassin tracks down her mother's rapists.  But that's not what's interesting.  What is interesting is the social commentary in each episode.  Topics range from hegemonic European culture attacks to illegal sex trade.  The setting is also interesting because the rules have changed.  Modernization has forced the Ronin to learn new tricks.  An assassin can kill people on the street in the country but not in the city (making the definition of the law much like the American west) this creates interesting problems and creative solutions.  What could be a simple hack and slash murder becomes a game of wits.  And the visual storytelling is phenomenal.  There is a silent training sequence in the first volume that knocked my socks off.  

Yoshiro Tatsumi's "Abandon the Old in Tokyo" ("The Push Man" is also very good).  These are collections of short stories that reminded me of James M. Cain stories (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice).  Modern day stories (written and drawn in the 70's) featuring everyday people, seemingly picked out of the crowd, put in horrible, twisted situations in the foul back alleys (sometimes venturing into the sewer) of Tokyo.  Society and fate conspire against human decency, if such a thing even exists.  Strange and fantastic.  Adrian Tomine is working on these beautiful anthologies put out by Drawn and Quarterly.  Great stuff if you can stomach it.

Finally, for fun, "Death Note."  I heard a story about this book and it's popularity on fresh air a while back.  It's pitch is simple.  A high school kid finds a note book that will kill anyone if you simply write their name in it.  I thought "well how much can you beat that dead horse?"  It turns out that you can beat it very much.  This book is audacious in it's lack of morality.  What keeps this story alive is the cat and mouse, spy vs spy chase.  Very clever and tons of fun.

This will sound redundant but I feel I need to hit this point home.  I know that some of these suggestions are parts of larger stories, but the first volumes of both Death Note and Lady Snowblood are very episodic and should stand alone enough for your judgment.  Plus it would be interesting to hear if it was enough to get you to continue reading.