Wow. I Suck At Blogging - or - Stormtroopers and Scott Pilgrim.

It's been a week or so since my last post. My, how time flies. If you remember, I had posted herethat I was going to post on a few things soon. Those things, if you're playing along at home, were:

"Picked up a few weeks worth of comics. Expect reviews.

On a related note, Free Comic Book Day was Saturday. I will give you an unflinching look into the dark heart of the event.

New episode of Lost as well as the launch of the Alternate Reality Game - The Lost Experience.

Podcasts: are there any good ones?"

Of those four things, how many have I actually posted on? One! Yay! I suck at blogging! Anyway, so it's time to clean up shop, as I'll be out of the Big Red Robot offices for a bit and I don't want to leave any unfinished business behind. So, without further ado, let's chat, shall we?



First off, Free Comic Book Day. Okay, so those are word that, when said together evoke some magic that makes my heart go all thumpitythump. Free Comics?! I am so there that it is not even funny my good sir. It's like that feeling when someone says "free candy," or "free cake." It's like some amazing dream that you have as a kid that has come true some multitude of years later. For anybody that knows me, you know that I loves me some comics, but you also know that I am poor. Poor as dirt I am, so the idea of a day where I can get a number of comics for nothing is, to say the least, very appealing.

Last year, I picked up some really cool stuff, namely the Sharknife one-shot and the Project: Superior sort-of sampler. Interestingly enough, this is the one time of year when I see the shadow of any kind of indy, non-guys-in-capes-and-long-underwear-punching-each-other book. And I loves me some indy books. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Comics Journal-reading comics snob. I like the superbooks as much as the next comics nerd. I just like other stuff as well.

Anyway, so back on task. I showed up about ten, fifteen minutes before I had to get to work, as the snarky kid behind the counter knows my name now that I have a box there and I have to leave a cushion for if he gets talking about something, though today I arrived early because I figured there'd be a bit of a crowd and I wanted to make sure I got my stuff wit henough time to get to work on time. Anyway, so I'm pulling into the parking lot and there are streamers and balloons and...Stormtroopers? Now, the counter kid had mentioned the Star Wars Dress-Up Club would be there, but I figured (hoped?) by the afternoon, they'd be gone. I was wrong.

Now, I love Star Wars. And I love comics. But I have a real problem with the two of them together. They make no sense when placed together. I'm sure that a majority of comics fans are also sci-fi fans, I know I am, but for a comic book event, wouldn't it make more sense to be dressed as a comic book character rather than a haracter from a science fiction film? It's like me dressing up like an astronaut at a car show. They're both modes of transportation, but really, only tenuously related.

Anyway, so I make my way past these guys, trying not to make eye contact with them, and I get my books. The counter kid pulls a Free Scott Pilgrim out of my box because I was a bit wooried they'd under-order tham and I'd be stuck with no SP goodness.

Anyway, here's my roundup: (originally posted over at iFanboy)

Bongo Comics Free-For-All! - Dunno why. I was curious about the Bongo house style and loved Futurama and the Simpsons (back when it was funny...remember those days). Plus, it was free. Pretty dreadful stuff, actually. It was written, I assume, by the type of people who think they're quite clever and keep elbowing you in the ribs and winking after each punch line.

Future Shock - From Image. Snippets from upcoming issues of Fear Agent, G�dland (which is why I picked it up...That book totally owns me), Invincible (which I really need to get around to reading), Noble Causes (makes my head hurt), Savage Dragon (featuring a blatant rip-off of the Super-Skrull) and, uh, Witchblade (no inerest whatsoever). An interesting idea on paper, but the inclusion of only a few out-of-context pages left me confused and didn't whet my appetite at all.

X-Men/Runaways - Skottie Young's art bugs. I have no problem with "cartoony," or "kinetic," art (heck, I love Sharknife to little bitty bits) but to use it well, it has to be used in a proper context, and maybe it's just me, but the X-men just don't seem to fit that style of art. Also, the whole "they meet misunderstand each other and fight and then come to a truce," thing is REALLY played out, especially in Runaways. I dropped this title back at the beginning of teh second series and, well, this didn't make me want to come back, unfortunatley.

The Preposterous Voyages of Ironhide Tom! - Far and away the best thing to come out of FCBD-06. Joel Priddy's brillaint "Onion Jack" strip from the Superior Sampler stole the FCBD-05 show. After thoroughly enjoying that clever dissection of, and love note to, the superhero genre, I honestly would have paid good money for this, the unlikely tales of the child of a "scurvy sailor" and a, uh, typhoon, as he ammasees and loses fortunes and, basically, has a bunch of adventures that straddle the line between myth and ridiculousness. Pure gold.

Free Scott Pilgrim - I [heart] Scott Pilgrim. Seriously, this is one of the best little OGN series out there - a hybrid relationship comic/arcade game that reads a lot better than it sounds. It's a ton of fun. This was a funny little taste of his universe, but admittedly, it's a bit lightweight. Creator Brial Lee O'Malley's website, www.scottpilgrim.com, says vol. 3 is at the printers and should be in your LCS on May 24th, so that's good news. After devouring the first two volumes (vol. one: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life and vol. two: Scott Pilgrim Versus the World), I've been waiting (not so) patiently for this one: Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness. Smashing Pumpkins reference? I am so there. If you love Nintendo, love and/or rock&roll, check this out - stat.

Owly: Breakin' the Ice - Man, I so want to like Owly, but it's just a bit too cutesy for me. Still, for kids, it's a decent gateway comic ("get 'em while they're young...") and I admire his use of visuals rather than text to convey the story.


So there you go. Not a bad haul for free. Some genuinely good stuff in there, too. So, one down, two to go. Can I get a "what what?"