It's been since May?

Wow, I was the last person to add an entry on May 20th? Where has everyone been?

Well, I have to keep this short, but I thought I would talk about the WizardWorld Chicago Con this year. This was my 6th or 7th time I have gone since 1997 (1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2007). I don't really remember if I went in 2001 or 2002. I have always enjoyed going to the Con. You can't beat the people and the deals there.

This year I went to find a few items. I don't buy much for comic books anymore and what I buy are usually trades or graphic novels. I went looking for Clerks series Inaction Figures, namely the Chasing Amy series, Futurama Tin Toys and signs, and some other random items.

I found the Inaction Figures at the View Askew booth, but at $10 it is hard to just snatch them up so I walked the whole area looking for some of them at the normal booths. I found 1 that I bought for $6. All of the rest nowhere to be found. I did snatch the other at the View Askew booth and paid $46 dollars for the set instead of $50. I stsill couldn't find Randall from Series 1 though. I still can't believe that I passed up Randall in 2005 for $5 because I thought I needed Dante and instead bought him for $5.

As for Futurama stuff, I found a couple of places that was selling Futurama stuff by Rocket USA, but it was either really overpriced or stuff I already have. I am only looking for the Nibbler Tin Wind-up and some of the original Tin Signs. I have yet to ever see any of the signs at the Con.

Guess who I saw there this year...Rocket USA. For the last 4 or so years I have been waiting for them to have a booth at the Con because they are based in Chicago. I have been looking for their items for at least 4 years, and they have never had a booth. Now that they have discontinued the signs and Nibbler they have a booth which means I couldn't even buy from them directly.

Either way the Con was great again this year. I am already looking forward to next year.

I won't name names, but...

It seems to me like this reminds me of somebody who posts in this blog. This another typical occurance at game nights.

Kingdom Come Reviewed

Lately I have been expanding my comic horizons. Since my interest in comics really began about five years ago I've found my niche to be mostly in non-superhero and non-traditional superhero stories. The big exception to this is Marvel's Ultimate Spiderman run by Brian Michael Bendis of which I own all the available trades. But by and large the classic DC Justice League materials really haven't been a draw for me, nor have Mavels staples like the X-Men.

Recently I found myself with growing curiosity and interest in the Green Lantern, which I've started reading. Along with that I decided to pick up DC's Kingdom Come. I have heard many good things concerning this title and I felt it was time to give it a read.

As a relative newcomer to the JLA, Kingdom Come was an interesting story to jump into and somewhat overwhelming. With little comic knowledge of the actual history of the major players (Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Batman, etc.) in many ways I felt as though I were jumping in mid-stream even though it is a stand alone story. However, a working knowledge really isn't requisite because the themes of the story are easily accessible. All you need to understand (and most people do I have a feeling) is that Superman and the rest of the Justice League have superhuman powers that they use for the cause of peace and justice on Earth. Or at least they used to before they stepped away from their roles.

Kingdom Come is a story that examines what their role really is, what their responsibilities are and how their actions ultimately impacts the course of human affairs. What we learn early on in the story is that many years prior Superman decided to walk away from his role as a protector of the innocent and champion of peace after a series of incidents soured public perceptions of his role. Due to his position of leadership in the JLA, the rest of the league followed suit, awaiting the day they would return to action.

In the interim, meta-humans rose up to take the place of the absent heroes. This new breed of "supers", led by a character names Magog, started out with the best of intentions but soon lost their way turning their focus on fighting amongst themselves leaving a path of destruction and suffering in their wake. The rest of humanity was powerless to stop them. Desperation reaches it peak when an incident in Kansas results in the complete desolation of the Great Plains and food production center of the United States. Is there anything or anyone that can persuade Superman to return to his duties as protector of humanity?

The heart of Kingdom Come is story of Superman, Wonder Woman, et al's decision to return and try to convince (or force) everyone to live in peace and pursue the cause of justice. With the Justice League returned, in some form or another, Superman and company wage an epic struggle to corral the renegade meta-human population while fighting their own personal demons. The central question: What is the cost of their noble pursuits?

In their telling of this story, Mark Waid and Alex Ross draw heavily on biblical references, specifically that of Revelations. It is therefore fitting that we experience the story through the eyes of a character who is a preacher and struggling with his own fears and doubts about humanity and it's uncertain future. The scope of this story was epic! Everything from the over-arching themes to the conflicts to the characters themselves was presented through beautiful illustration (Alex Ross) and on a grand scale making for an immersing read. While very much its own story, Kingdom Come drew many similarities to two other classic super hero tales with its subject matter, namely to Alan Moore's Watchmen (the examination of the role of the superhero) and Mark Millar's Superman: Red Son (Superman's personal struggle with tyrannical control in forcing peace on Earth).

I won't go about spoiling the ending for potential readers who haven't paged through this story. I will, however, highly recommend it. While I didn't like this story quite as much as either Watchmen or Red Son it is certainly worthy of the praise it has garnered since its publication. One of the aspects I really appreciated was its more serious and thoughtful approach to super heroes that it took. That is not to suggest that all other super hero runs are simply silly and poorly thought out. Hardly. But Kingdom Come certainly did present itself a cut or two above the norm.

Ladies love the 'Stash....

Ok here's one for the ladies because I am doubting the guys will enjoy this one much. For Valentines this year my lovely husband got me the Essential "The Savage She-Hulk," a message in disguise? Who knows, but my reaction was naturally "What the...?" I didn't know too much about the She-Hulk and my previous Hulk experience was limited to the Lou Ferrigno version so I had no preconceptions about this title. So I buckled down and read it cover to cover in two days or less because that is what I do.

She-Hulk is actually criminal lawyer Jen Walters who is shot by enemies of her defendant (some goons working for Nick Trask) while being visited by her cousin Dr. Banner (the Hulk of course). Like many superhero origins the perfect set of circumstances come together at the perfect time and Whalla! A Hero is born. So in order to save her Banner gives Jen a blood transfusion (he is of course the same blood type and somehow knows that off hand) and then runs off when the police come. Well this transfusion takes effect at the perfect time for Jen because while recovering in the hospital she is once more attacked by Trask's goons and is saved by her transformation into She-Hulk!

She-Hulk appears under similar circumstances as the Hulk=when Jen gets pissed. But the transformation is painful and traumatic to Jen. At least one transformation is nessesary per issue, but its usually when Jen really needs an escape plan or just a powerful fist. As a Criminal lawyer Jen gets into all sorts of trouble and as She-Hulk she is hunted down by her own father, Sheriff Walters who believes that Jen is dead after her friend Jill is killed by Trask's men (they cut the brakes on Jen's car). She-Hulk attempts to stop the runaway car but is blocked by Jen's courtroom advasary and is subsequently blamed for "Jen's" death.

Among her other problems, Jen has trouble with love. This is the part where I expect the gents to loose interest. Jen's neighbor Zapper is totally into her, and since he is the only one to learn her secret identity early in the book, he falls for She-Hulk as well. Jen on the other hand thinks of him as a little mustashioed brother whose bad fro and 70s pants are totally unappealing; she digs this cat named Richard Rory. Rory is in town after a string of good and then really bad luck taking him from the Florida everglades to Hells Kitchen to Nevada and then LA where Jen resides. His only real friend is Man-Thing so he gets the She-Hulk thing. After knowing him two days they go to Florida together--Zapper is not happy. Later in the book Zapper and She-Hulk start dating, he is apparently undaunted by her huge greeness.

The interesting thing about this book is how Jen balances her two lives, something always comes up where she needs to be one identity or the other and sometimes both! It gets to the point where Jen doesn't want to deal with it anymore and retreats entirely into the She-Hulk. If you like chick flicks with some random violence thrown in I would give this a read but for girl-power read Wonder Woman's "The Hiketeia" or Catwoman's "Selina's Big Score."

Until It Becomes Like A Thing Unto Iron...

Aside from Kung-Fu movies, blaxpoitation movies and horrible pants, the seventies gave us comic companies trying to cash in on these fads (unfortunately that includes the horrible pants). One way Marvel worked all of this into one comic title was with the mysterious Iron Fist.

First off, I have to say whatever you may think about the costume, I think this character is great. He's hokey, he's got some corny dialogue (the stories are told in the third person, either by Iron Fist or someone else...sometimes it's hard to tell), but there's a brutal honesty to the character which wasn't/still isn't available in most other titles.

I've just finished the Essential Iron Fist and I've got to tell you, It's only convinced me to continue looking for more Iron Fist material.

The book starts out with Iron Fist's origin. Danny Rand was taken with his mother-by his father a wealthy business man who also was an heir/citizen of the fabled Tibetan city of K'un-Lun-to find the lost city. It appears on the mortal plane every ten years. The Rands also have their father's partner Harold Meachum along, who, it turns out came along just to make sure that the Rands never came back so he could keep the business for himself.

Well Danny's father is helped off a cliff by Meachum and after Danny and his mother flee, she is killed by wolves. Danny alone makes it across the bridge to K'un-Lun. There he is trained to become the Immortal Iron Fist. He basically goes through a rigorous training course that ends with him facing a dragon (which, through some weird ritual where he hugs the dragon gives him the dragon brand on his chest). After defeating the dragon he plunges his fists into a pot filled with the dragon's molten heart. This gives him his Iron Fists.

The Iron Fist is allegedly NOT a super-power, but it might as well be. His fist glows as he centers all of his body's chi in his hand and it allows his fist to become indestructible, impervious to harm and can even bust metal. Unfortunately since it's his chi-or his body's energy-he can't use it whenever he wants. He has to allow himself about a full day to recharge.

When Danny finally returns to Earth to get revenge he finds some strange twists in the plot that lead up to his parents' deaths. In fact little bits and pieces keep revealing themselves throughout the entire book which reprints like 30 or 40 issues, so it took awhile for the readers who read month-to-month to get the whole story (for about 3 years).

Basically the entire run of Iron Fist (until the end when the title merges with Power Man and they become a duo) focuses in on Danny/Iron Fist reclaiming his inheritence from his father's business and taking revenge on the people who killed his family. He faces many martial artists (as one would expect) and a series of increasingly ridiculous villains like The Wrecking Crew and Batroc the Leaper. He even has a run in with the Avengers (well, Captain America) when battling the Wrecking Crew who are trying to get Thor's hammer to kill Thor. Iron Fist also has a battle (of sorts) with the X-Men and Iron Man.

Wolverine is stalking Jean Grey by standing outside her appartment brooding over the fact that she loves Scott Summers, when he sees Iron Fist sneaking in through the roof. Well Jean's roommate is Misty Knight, Iron Fist's love interest. Wolverine goes into a rage, wears the stupidest costume I've ever seen, and starts a scuffle with the kung-fu master. Then Colossus and Nightcrawler appear on the scene to try and bring some rationale to the matter and divulge that Iron Fist isn't an enemy but a friend (Storm still gets a face full of potato salad though).

The thing that seems much different about Iron Fist than other comic titles being published at the time, is the degree of violence he's willing to resort to. Iron Fist is not above busting skulls, literally. Most of the time the people he battles are hopped-up ninjas or androids or super-powered rednecks; but when he's battling murderous street thugs he doesn't pull a Captain America and just bandies about, sweeping the legs and tossing them about.

He actually kills one of his opponents- The Warhawk-a dillusional Vietnam vet who still thinks he's in the jungle. He opens fire in a sniper position on a busy park and takes out civilians including two parents, leaving their child in his scopes before Iron Fist intercedes. All through the story Warhawk has had the upper hand because apparently he wasn't even human. There's some quality about him (never explained) that makes him like steel. He's basically a Punisher with a different costume. Well Iron Fist crosses the threshold of his anger and snaps, releasing his chi and knocking Warhawk into the ocean. At the time he was dead. Then for some reason Marvel needs to constantly re-use every shitty one-spot supporting character to confuse continuity and can't let sleeping dogs lie. So they said later that he actually wasn't dead.

Whatever.
One of the reasons I hate Marvel.

We learn as the title progresses that the Iron Fist has other applications aside from beating the hell out of people. He can use it to heal himself, and apparently he can do a mind-meld sort of thing. He does this once to both life-saving and yet a sort of lingering uncomfortable effect.

The title has some other things about it which should probably make it more popular than it was/is. It gives us the first appearance of Sabretooth. And, though we don't learn til decades later...Iron Fist actually, during the battle with Wolverine, makes the father/son connection of Sabretooth/Wolverine and even thinks it out loud. Apparently no one read it so it took Marvel another two decades of playing the is he/isn't he thing off its readers until they confirmed it.

There's a steady dose of martial arts action. One of the strange things, probably limited by the number of ways you can draw a punch or kick, is the fact that every issue gives us like thirty new "styles" when Iron Fist pucnhes someone. One time it will be the "monkey fist" or the "crane fist" or the "tiger fist" or something. Yet every panel looks like the same fist and fight. So I guess it was probably implemented to break up monotony.

This character, as Shang-Chi, was hinged on the increasing popularity of kung-fu and martial arts films in the mid seventies. The fad was short-lived and when it died down, the title lost its audience and was forcesd to merge with another failing title, Luke Cage/Powerman (based on the Blaxpoitation fad at the same time). The two actully did quite well for a duo and have had lasting effect on the industry. They are still referenced (even in an episode of Reno 911!) by other comics, including the Simpsons which did a parody of Iron Fist and Power Man with Lenny Leonardson and Carl Carlson who became Iron Foot and Nuclear Power Man.

In closing, this is, once again as with everything, not everyone's cup o' tea. Some of the story seems ultimately forced and the potential of such a characters, could be said to have limited potential. Nontheless it was entertaining and worth my time so if you're a fan of action and martial arts movies this will probably be up your alley.

Hard Bastard!

Trick or Treat and Happy Easter

Since Easter just ended I thought I would talk about another favorite comic book of mine. I don't care if you don't celebrate Easter...just listen up okay.

I never really was a DC fan and I still can't really get into their stuff, but there have been a few gems that I have randomly picked up. This is where you go, "What crazy DC book is he talking about? The Matter-Eater Lad comic?" Nope. I am talking about a pretty well known book about Batman titled "The Long Halloween." I bet you are thinking "Lame-O" right about now. If you have read it; good. If you haven't read it; pay attention.

"The Long Halloween" was originally a 13 issue miniseries beginning and ending on Halloween and written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale. They had done some previous Batman stories that I will eventually hit upon at another time. The art is beautiful and the writing is superb. Presently Tim Sale is near or at the top of my favorite casual current artists. The way Tim draws The Joker is just creepy and portrays the madness inside him. If you have the graphic novel check out pages 114-115 and and be sure to look at page 345 when you get to it, but don't look ahead at 345 unless you want something ruined.

"The Long Halloween" takes place during the Batman: Year One storyline or at least near to it. Two-Face is still Harvey Dent and Gordon is still Captain Gordon rather than Commissioner. Carmine "The Roman" Falcone is one of the lead villians in the story and the story mainly deals with somebody killing members of the Falcone family...at the beginning. The first killing is on Halloween and a killing happens on every major holiday afterwards, once a month. The killer leaves behind a .22 caliber pistol, a baby bottle nipple used as a silencer, and a trinket symbolizing the holiday. As the plot twists and turns more gang members die (including the rival Maroni gang) and you don't know who is doing the killing.

Throughout the story Batman will face many of his major enemies including Catwoman, Poison Ivy, The Scarecrow, among many more. I think you may be surprised by the ending even though it is made to be pretty obvious throughout the story.

Anyways, read it and tell me what you think. I know you will like it.

I Need Your Input/Help

It's about movie trailers, a double feature this summer and you. Please read more at my movie blog here.

why hello...

Hey, I am kdkd, Josh's lovely wife. I would guess that he invited me to chime in here to give a woman's perspective on the whole comics, gaming, sci-fi world, so I will do what I can in that vein. I am really into science fiction novels so I will probably talk a bit about that, as well as some sweet nerd worthy movies, comics that are actually interesting to women, and of course Sailor Moon. Just kidding about that last part...April fools! I will be good. But anyway thanks for having me guys, I look foreward to joining in on the conversation! Is it a conversation when you blog?

Typical Game Night

Hopefully you can read this comic about my experiences with game nights.

The Master Speaks

Every generation has it's icons. Jack Kirby, John Romita, Sr., ect. The current generation has one defining artist--Alex Ross. I've not only met Alex Ross, he's signed some things of mine and I've continued to follow his work where I find it along the way.

Anyone interested in Alex Ross will probably be interested in the Fanboy Radio interview he did with them. Listen to the podcast on their website posted here.

GO TEAM VENTURE!!!

One of my favorite contemporary cartoons for substance and style, is the Venture Brothers. Beside being everything I'm interested in, it also is very well written. One of the creators Jackson Publick has a great online interview on the Sounds of Young America podcast. Listen to him talk about comics, monster make-up, ripping off Johnny Quest, ect (p.s. the link is an MP3 so right click and download it instead of trying to play it here, it won't work).

He also has a great blog where you can see all kinds of production art, deleted stuff, and all kinds of geeky fun.

Bernie's good...it's Black & White.

Ten years ago if you would have asked me who my favorite artist was, period, I would have said Bernie Wrightson. And that hasn't changed much. If I see something on the rack (as rare as it seems to be) that has the Wrightson name on it, I'll probably be grabbing it to flip through it.

Bernie Wrightson co-created the DC Comics and pop culture icon Swamp Thing with writer Len Wien. He has contributed the illustrations seen in all of Stephen King's illustrated novels (The Stand, Cycle Of The Werewolf, The Gunslinger Series).

Bernie Wrightson not only is a big name in the horror universe, he is also a name amongst names for contributing concept art for the film industry. He has done work for the Spider-Man films, Ghostbusters, and many many b-films.

Bernie Wrightson has a beautiful duality to his work. His black and white work is breathtaking. his claimed "most personal" work was the nearly 50 illustrations he did for a republishing of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Below are some of the inset plates. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this, even most public libraries have a copy sitting around. Stare at each picture and I guarantee after hours of looking you'll find things you hadn't noticed before.





The ambidexterous wonder of Wrightson is that when he adds colors he doesn't go for the inkpress pop candy colors that can be seen on any given Superman or Wonder Woman. He leans towards watercolors, dried up markers, etc. I happen to have entire sets of his two trading card series' which is all original art. One example below, shows not only the detail of the almost Frazetta-like illustration but the earthy realistic colors.



Though his work is scant in recent years, he powerfully prevalent in the later 1970's and into the 1980's. Inspired by the timeless EC Comics titles like The Vault of Horror, Tales From The Crypt and The Haunt of Fear Wrightson brought the worlds of Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe. With a flair for the almost Hammer-esque trait of making the characters of horror dwell in either the brutally modern world or a world of vague Victorianism that doesn't really exist in time.

Though he started in doing explicitly graphic imagery as in the vampire tearing out the throat of a victim, now he claims that he's more interested in showing the moment before or after the act, allowing the viewer to fill in what happened.

Wrightson has a website to see all examples of his work (some good Spider-Man film work stuff, Swamp Thing stuff, originals) at Wrightson Art.

Here's a video interview I found on Youtube.



Keep Reading!!!

MAUS--A great read

As I sit here watching survivor (Yes, I still enjoy the show.), I remembered that it was about that time of year to reread one of my favorite graphic novels, Maus.

Every year I try to read Maus at least once. Not only is a great graphic novel, but it also is a great lesson in history and compassion. Maus was illustrated and written by Art Spiegelman and first appeared in 1973 according to the copyright information listed in the graphic novel. Maus was published in various forms throughout the 80s and early 90s. Eventually Maus was printed as two separate volumes and in 1992 the graphic novel and Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize.

Maus is first and foremost a memoir about Art Spiegelman and his relationship with his father, Vladek Spiegelman. The novel takes place during two different time periods (late 70s-early 80s and Nazi Germany). Although the novel is mainly about Art and his relationship with his father, the actual story is about his father's experience as a Jew during the Holocaust and surviving.

In Maus, the humans are portrayed as animals (Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Americans are dogs, etc). You can probably guess why the animals were chosen as they were. As a history book, this graphic novel excels in telling a harrowing account of a Jewish survivor of 1930s and 1940s Europe. In fact, I have been trying to get my wife to use this graphic novel in German class for years.

I don't want to ruin any of the story so I will leave you where you are. I highly recommend The Complete Maus and would suggest that everyone should read it at least once.

asrttyoxo is the new contributer

Hey people,

I'm going to start contributing to this blog. From me you will mainly see rants/comments on novels, comics (generally 80s-90s although you will see some some early 2000s and 70s), movies (maybe some anime if JW and H-DoGG don't kill me first), some games, and maybe even some TV shows (again pending not dying).

Digital Single!!!

Hey one person who reads this (Ed). I've uploaded a split digital single between recording superstars Aaron Ebertowski & The 57's and the ever elusive Cuddles.

First for download is the international smash mega-shit (all filler, no killer) For All The Little Babies by Cuddles.

The "b-side" to this record is the infamous (around Winona, MN that is) ballad The Prison Song by Aaron Ebertowski & The 57's!!!

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS:
Now these high quality mp3's are downloaded through Rapidshare file hosting services. So when you click on a song title it will take you to the download page. There will be two columns on the rapidshare page. Premium or Free. Click FREE button at the bottom of the right hand column. Then it will take you to second page where it will give you a countdown to when the file becomes available (usually no more than 9 seconds or so). It will have you type in an access code and click download. I know it sounds complicated but I haven't figure out how to do the goddam mp3 html link code yet so deal with it.

Lyrics are as follows:

Aaron Ebertowski & The 57's'The Prison Song"
If you've got nothing to do
And you got something to see
And your life is feeling blue
All I want you to do is push it in me
Push it in me

If you got a bowl full of piss
And a bunch of ash
And you want to make a tattoo
With a shaving razor blade and a razor
Push it in me

If you meet me at a bar
And I've had too many shot of Jaeger
And you've had too many shots of
Peppermint Shnaaps
Push it in me

And if you have nothing to do
And that girl dumped you
All I can say is that
I am not gay
But push it in me
Push it in me


Cuddles"For All The Tiny Babies"
For the little tiny babies
With their little tiny ladies
Going on little tiny daties
to the Cinema at dusk

For the baby biker mamas
Driving honchos on their Hondas
With their diapers and chaps on
Doing Jag bombs through a breast-pump

Will all the little tiny babies raise their hands? (Raise them, won't you raise them)
And wave their little baby fingers back and forth
Like a little fan? (Wave them won't you wave them)

For the itty-bitty toddlers
And the baby-boy bar crawlers
And the tiny shiny daughters
With the onsies' made of silk

To all the little bastards
All the drooling master blasters
Using poopie as a plaster
Doing shots of mommy milk


Your welcome

The Wonders of the Bronze Age

The Silver Age of comics brought us so many of the candy-colored pop icons like The Fantastic Four, the Justice League, The Incredible Hulk, the longest enduring and most infamous of the DC and Marvel universes. The modern age has given us a bevy of things to enjoy -The Goon, Madman, The more better X-Men run (as opposed to them being a different version of the Fantastic Four as they were originally) , and other things. There was however a period running from the start of teh 1970's through the early-to-mid eighties titled the Bronze Period.

This period was dominated with weird characters, strange plot lines and at times, exceedingly creative ventures. It also brought about the popularization of licensed trademarks like Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. But the 70's gave us horror, kung-fu and trippy sci-fi like nothing we've seen before. It's personally one of my favorite periods in comics history. I enjoy Power Man and Iron Fist, the original Bernie Wrightson creation of Swamp Thing, Master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi and etc.

Above I've compiled a collage of some of my favorite characters (all Marvel in this instance) from that era. See if you can name them all!

(Answer in the comments).

Marvel Essentials: Fantastic Four Volume 1

One of the best ideas Marvel has had in say, the last ten years, is to realease collections of both their more popular and less known franchises starting with issue one. The Marvel Essentials collection does just that collecting, in varying volumes, the Silver Age classics like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Dr. Strange, and the Fantastic Four (as well as many others).

I've always been a fan of the FF. I've never seen any of the film adaptations, but I did love the 1960's animated cartoon occassionally shown on Cartoon Network in the mid 90's. Though the animation was slight, it basically transcribed stories directly from comic page to tv screen (see below).



Wanting to know more about the origins of the FF I purchased Marvel Essentials: Fantastic Four Volume 1. The trade collects Fantastic Four issues #1-20 as well as the first Fantastic Four Annual.

Obviously the first issue is the infamous origin story. In a panic Reed Richards assembles his fiancee Sue Storm, her kid brother Johnny Storm and Richards' irascible friend Ben Grimm at his apartment. It's the mid 1960's and the Cold War is hotter than ever! Reed makes a snap decision to fly to space to beat the Russians. Not to land on the moon, not to orbit the Earth. Simply to fly into space. Been Grimm brings up the preposterousness of this and Sue replies "Ben we've got to...Unless we want the Commies to beat us to it!"

So they launch themselves into space, get bombarded with "cosmic rays" and crash back to Earth only to find they've gained superhuman abilities from being exposed to the radiation.

Reed Richards "And I'll call myself...MISTER FANTASTIC!!" gets the ability to stretch his form to any shape or size.
Sue Storm "Same goes for me...THE INVISIBLE GIRL!" has the ability to become transparent.
Johnny Storm "I'm calling myself THE HUMAN TORCH--" can become living flame and control fire and heat.
Ben Grimm "I ain't Ben anymore--I'm what Sue called me--THE THING!!" has had his flesh turned to a sort of organic rock and has exponentially increased his strength and durability.

The FF's first adventure shows that maybe Stan Lee gets much more credit due to him than deserved. But hell, he's Stan "The Man" Lee. So it's all good. The FF square off agains the dreaded Mole Man. The Mole Man was once a normal human who was socially shunned for his squat "mole-like" appearance. He set off on his own to find a new civilazation to join. He eventually washed up on Moster Isle (not joking) and fell through a cavern to the center of the Earth where he learned to see in the dark and command an army of subterannean monsters.

Anyways the Mole Man's big plot to destory the Earth and subsequently rule it involves having his giant tunneling creatures dig a tunnel to every major city on the globe. They will then destory power plants and the such, leaving the Earth defenseless. The FF go to attack the Mole Man and, after battling a cadre of monsters, trap the Mole Man in the ground by imploding the opening they escaped from thus leaving him trapped. Well, basically this solves nothing as the Mole Man LIVES UNDERGROUND and the millions of other tunnels connected to major cities still exist as do the Mole Man and his monsters. So basically the FF plugged one hole. And not an important one. The Mole Man's plans haven't been hindered at all (but Reed Richards will tell you otherwise).

The rest of the book (I won't go through issue by issue) is more or less spent fighting two nemesis'. Dr. Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner. There are also battles with the who's who of FF bad guys: The Puppet Master, Skrulls, The Super Skrull, The Miracle Man, The Pharaoh, and the Red Ghost.

Issue three is the presentation of the FF's infamous blue garb and their Fantasticar. It also has some interesting schematics of the FF's apartment headquarters. Issue eight starts Ben Grimm's love affair with Alicia, daughter of the Puppet Master.

There is a love triangle played through the entire series with Sue Storm finding feelings for Namor, and Reed being jealous (I mean she is his fiancee and she refuses to marry him until she 'sorts her feelings out').

Most of the outright silliness of the series can be overlooked with such amazing artwork by legendary Jack Kirby. And this is what irks me. Stan Lee created the FF, the X-Men, the Hulk, ect ect ect. But in name only. He came up with the idea but no imagery. And people don't look at The Thing and say 'hey that's Ben Grimm who was iradiated in space and became the Thing.' They say 'the THING!"

Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, The Hulk..none of these characters wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it wasn't for the visual representations of the characters made by Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby and Gene Colan and John Romita Sr. So as much as Stan Lee 'created' the FF. Jack Kirby has just as much if not more or a role in their success. Because even though the stories left much to be desired, the art kept bringing readers back.

Is this worth the $14.95? Definitely. Whether you are a fan of the FF or just want some classic Silver Age reading.

Looking to Expand the Games Closet? Consider Runebound

I had heard of Runebound, but never played it for myself. So when a friend of mine called me from Games By James at the Mall of America wanting some input on a potential purchase, I was at a loss. He ended up buying it and I knew I was in for an introduction.

Runebound is a relative newcomer to the board game scene having been published in 2004 by Fantasy Flight Games. Seeing as I just did a write-up on Talisman, Runebound presents a nice comparison since both games fall in the same catagory of fantasy/adventure/RPG.

The first thing I noticed as we were setting things up was that Runebound is a bit more complex in structure, taking a drastically different freeform approach. Where Talisman follows a fairly simple, linear design for its three-tier board comprised of realms, Runebound's board is presented as a sizable, hex-filled map, consisting mostly of wilderness (forests, mountains, plains, hills, swamps, etc.) along with a handful of cities (think MiddleEarth-esque). The players (characters) are free to go wherever they wish throughout the game giving it a more "true" RPG feel.

Each player gets to select a character card from a fairly large selection. These cards reminded me of Magic cards in their presentation- the nicely illustrated character picture accompanied by a bit of character lore and flavor text, a list of special traits, the health and stamina stats and finally the base statistics for the three major types of combat: ranged, melee and magical.

The object of the game is somewhat similar to Talisman, but the idea of direct competition is taken away, replaced with a feel of cooperation as all characters seek the same goal of saving the land from evil Dragon Overlords. Growth of the characters along with completion of the goal are accomplished through "encounters" or quests, which take place only on certain, fixed hexes located across the map. The fixed nature of these encounters may seem counter-intuitive and boring, but let me assure you that the game's developers planned ahead.

Movement is dictated using x4 special six-sided dice that are marked with terrain symbols instead of numbers. A player rolls the dice and then uses one die for each space moved, but they can only move to a space that matches one of the dice. This adds an element of unpredictability and decision-making to the movement phase, because you cannot simply choose to take a straight path. To simulate injury, if a player has been injured in combat, until they heal in a city (or with an item) they roll only x3 movement dice.

Onto the quests. There are four levels of quests in the game with level one being the easiest and level four (also known as "game winning" quests) being the most difficult. No enounter space is ever guaranteed to be the same as there is a deck of cards for each level of quest. These are shuffled at the start of the game and the top card drawn when a quest hex is landed on. Additionally, the card drawn may not be an enemy of creature, but rather it could be an effect (personal or global) or even treasure of some type. When this happens, the card is played, the effect or item assessed and then another card is drawn. This continues until a creature card is drawn and combat commences. I found this aspect of the game to be well thought-out because it means that a turn is never routine, but more open-ended much like an RPG.

Combat is very simple. When an encounter takes place, the card drawn is read (it also includes lore and flavor text) and it may require that the player make an attempt at a "test" before battle begins. Let me back up...

To make another comparison, the characters in Runebound take the templates from Talisman one step further adding skills to the basic traits. An example might by that your character has "sneak" and for every sneak test you are required to roll for, you get a +2 bonus. Rolling is done with two 10-sided dice where the player simply totals the numbers rolled (0 = 10). The encounter may require your character to make a sneak test > 12 or take an attack penalty of -1. Once actual combat starts, it is simply a matter of you range, melee and magic attack rolls being higher than the value stated for each on the enemy card. For each round of combat, the player chooses one to be their offensive attack while the others are defensive rolls, and if successful they deal x amount of damage for their attack. (Example: Melee might be valued at 3/2.... 3 being the base attack value (+ 2D10) and 2 is the amount of damage dealt for a successful attack).

For each successful encounter, the player then receives x number of experience points (level 1 = 1, level 2 = 2, etc.) For every 5 experience, a player can level up, adding bonus to one attack of their choosing or adding to their health. Players also gain gold from defeated enemies and may by spells, weapons and armor in the cities as well as allies that travel with them. All these are used to augment the various attacks.

While I found the game to well developed and more complex than Talisman, it was very easy to learn, even intuitive having had computer RPG experience. It also sports a great sense of balance throughout. Higher level quests are significantly tougher, but in a scaled way that allows for characters with less experience to pull off rare dramatic feats of victory while still keeping the chance for failure for a higher level character well within the realm of possibility. For a board game, this is probably the most dynamic I've played in that regard. It kept me on my toes.

I really appreciated the combined use of dice and cards that the developers used to drive this game's mechanics. It keeps the game randomized and manageable at the same time which results in a very high replay value! It will be interesting to see what Games Workshop does with the 4th Edition of Talisman with Runebound now on the market for 3 years.

The bottom line on Runebound is that it is extremely fun and relatively easy to learn. It also has a boatload of expansions currently available online, so player really don't need to worry about this one wearing out any time soon. I would rate this game as a bit higher difficulty than Talisman due its being more elaborate. Talisman can take a while to play out and my guess is that Runebound might take a bit longer on average. If you're looking for a new game to feed your hunger for adventure, Runebound should be on your list.

BlackIndustries Set To Revive Classic "Talisman"

A bit of exciting news was shared with me last week concerning the classic adventure board game Talisman. After a long hiatus from store shelves, BlackIndustries, a division of Games Workshop, is planning on resurrecting the two decade old title with an upcoming 4th Edition! Official Announcement

For those unfamiliar (which is understandable with it being out of print and extremely scarce!), Talisman is a "cult classic" 2-6 player adventure game that was originally published by Games Workshop in the early 80s. It is perhaps best described as a toned-down, easily-accessible version of a role playing game. It employs a fully illustrated game board that follows a "tier" style format with different realms that players must carefully navigate their way through to victory, achieved by possessing the Crown of Command.

Fans of the fantasy adventure genre (Lord of the Rings, D&D, etc.) are bound to enjoy this game. The role playing aspects of the game are evident through the character system. Each player chooses (or randomly draws) a character card to start the game and each has its own unique set of characteristics and abilities allowing for different strategies.

The premise of the game is simply that the players are all characters living in a land inhabited with many magical creatures and artifacts. Through encounters and epic battles, each character grows stronger, either physically or mentally for purposes of spell casting. Once strong enough, players then advance into the next tier (towards the center of the board) which offers tougher challenges and stronger monsters. There are a total of three tiers that comprise the board. Players can even choose to battle each other if they happen to meet. However, all movement is governed by die roll.

The strongest feature of the game is arguably its driving mechanic of random configuration. The board, like most game boards, is comprised of spaces. Each space is unique and contains permanent game text that specifies what occurs when landed on. But the content of the game is played out through a deck of event, creature, artifact and item cards which are shuffled at the start of the game. Because of this feature, no two games of Talisman are ever the same which gives it a very high level of re-playability. Talisman appears a bit overwhelming the first time you sit down to play, but it is very easy to learn. It does, however, require a few hours (minimum) to play through.

The most recent edition of the game (3rd Edition) was released in 1994 and was a bit of evolution and expansion of the core game presented in 1st and 2nd Editions. I have only been playing Talisman for a little of a year now and almost immediately began looking for a copy of it for myself after I was introduced to it. The very determined gamer can find occasional copies on eBay for upwards of $100 but beyond that the game is literally impossible to find. That is until October 2007.

This is a great small group game and it comes highly recommended. It has gained a respectable fan base over the past twenty years and it is no surprise as to why. It is well designed, extremely entertaining and doesn't require serious devotion to enjoy. If you like adventure, Talisman is definitely worth checking out!

Betrayal At House On The Hill-A Fun Though Sometimes Confusing Venture

First off I need to say that I'm a moderate gamer. I dabbled in Magic: The Gathering in junior high and never really cared for it. Aside from a couple half-handed games of Dungeon and Dragons I pretty much gave up on the entire thing and never really delved into the world of gaming (especially when Pokemon bombarded it).
Now I'm more into gaming-card games, board games, rpg's. One game I got for Christmas, Betrayal at House On The Hill, is one I've found myself trying to master, but to ill effect.
The premise is that you and your co-players are a group of people on a trip into the "spooky" house which lies on a hill on the outskirts of town. You start by exploring the house. As you move you add new rooms to all three stories (basement, ground floor, and attic). Each room brings new challenges, rewards or surprises. Eventually, through a chance turn of events it turns out that one of your party, maybe even you, is a traitor who's led these people here under false and malign pretenses. No one knows who the traitor is, not even the traitor, until the 'Haunt' is revealed.
The Haunt is the chance roll that starts the supernatural event in the game. For example you can all be haplessly walking around the house and then when the haunt is revealed, it turns out that the House itself is alive and you've dragged the others here to let the House feed on their energy and they have to perform a special function to get ot alive. Or it turns out after the Haunt is revealed that a player is a cult leader who has stranded the others in the House to sacrifice them and bring his other-dimensional God to this plane.
This game is definitely fun. It takes some intuitive guessing and some strategizing as far as room placement, card usage and companionship. The game is always different, scenarios change with the smallest detail (what room the Haunt was revealed in, what item revealed the Haunt).
The main problem I have with this game is that for the three times I've played it I've always been the traitor! And it's difficult to tell who's won after the game is over. Many of the scenarios don't really allow you to distinguish, when a game is finished, who the victor is. So alot of the time you're left guessing. Although it's vague in some spots and takes a couple of games to really get the rules and mannerisms down, I recommend Betrayal at House on the Hill. It's solid fun with a quirky supernatural twist that Stephen King, Robert Bloch or even H.P. Lovecraft would enjoy.

Frank Miller–the most overrated name in comics?

I write this with full knowledge and understanding that it will and may call down the wrath of every bloodthirsty fanboy (or girl) who may wander past this vastly unread blog. But then again these things are for expressing one's opinion without concern to censorship or public opinion, so here goes.

I fully understand that when Frank Miller "burst" on the scene with Daredevil #158 his style and storytelling seemed different and "new" to people when the big name comic companies forced artistis and writing formulas on their employees, forcing them to churn out Xeroxed imagery from one title to the next. Hell, Marvel even wrote a book about it, "Hot to Draw Comics The MARVEL Way," so that you could do it too. I disagree with the common interpreation of Miller's early Daredevil style as 'noir' though. It was definitely more 'hard boiled' in the fact that it was wrought it he over-the-top violence that has become a signifier of Miller's work, but there wasn't anything particularly shadowy about it.

I've read the entire Miller run of the Daredevil revival in which the infamous Elektra death scene takes place. I found the storytelling to be actually quite boring. The entire thing hinges on Daredevil's relationship with Elektra, her his one-time girlfriend and he not quite over her. The Kingpin is involved of course. He sets up political stooges, hires assassins (namely Bullseye) and basically wants Daredevil killed. The story itself seems confusing and very slowly told. I realize good things take time but I literally got bored with the title at this point. Finally the big "pay off", Bullseye gets a brain tumor and goes insane, and Elektra gets killed. Then it turns out she isn't dead. Big surprise.

Sin-City of course is Miller's opus of sorts. Considered to be his "finest". I'm not saying Miller is a bad writer, or a bad artist. But there certainly seems to be a difference in what Miller considers good storytelling and what others consider good storytelling. Many knee-jerk liberals will see a Michael Moore documentary which is all relentless evidence (however skewed its presentation is) against the Bush administration and consider that good storytelling because it helps back-up their already self-supported views. Perhaps a different person will see the movie "V: For Vendetta" and consider that the better of the two, when it comes to political discourse, because it presents political matters in a more even light and openly questions both sides of the argument. Each have their critics.

When Miller's idol Will Eisner penned "The Spirit" he made one thing clear: The Spirit aka Denny Colt was not going to triumph over evil with a smile and a flick of the wrist. The Spirit pounded his way through mobsters, bookies, cops and killers and often wound up in near critical condition himself. He took as many beatings as his enemies and sometimes he didn't win.

Miller obviously drew alot of inspiration from Eisner for Sin City. The difference? The Spirit wouldn't take a hacksaw to somebody or graphically remove their limbs. This is all a penny in the well of course. Who cares what Eisner would have done, it's Miller's title, right? But all of Miller's storytelling seems to wander the same path. Sketchilly drawn characters in over-the-top blood filled situations. Hell he had Batman take out the Joker's eye. He's like the Tarantino of comics. But where in lies the value? You can only see Miller's name on a cover before you assume that the characters within end up eviscerated and lying in a pool of blood, with the protagonist in not much better condition. It gets trite after a while. It's like reading, well I don't know if one can actually "read" a Todd McFarlane 'story' but if you could you'd get the same thing. Entrails, blood, tits and cursing.

How about some exposition? Try a story that is original, creative and doesn't rely on someone punching though someone's skull like an overripe watermelon or rehashing Kubrick's "The Killing" as a framing device. It's tired. It's the over-machismo frat boy way of doing things.

The newest Miller creation to hit the limelight is the film adaptation of his graphic novel 300, which in itself is an "adaptation" of the event that took place in 480 BC when Leonidas led 300 Spartans (as well as Thesbians and Thebas) against the advancing army of Persia at the Pass of Thermopylae and lost. Yes they lost. They fought for freedom from slavery and the Thebans and Thesbians joined them in battle (though according to Herodotus' book The History, the Thebans never actually wanted to be there and surrendered as soon as Leonidas was killed).

There are actually people debating whether or not this film is historically accurate! (http://www.movie-list.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17570). COME ON! First of all there are no definite first hand accounts of the war so NO ONE can be truly historically accurate. Secondly, whatever happened, it probably didn't look like a bondage fetish video with weird Hellraiser monsters populating the Persian army (which ar clearly visible in the trailer). This is a worthy story to tell, but it's also another excuse for over the top gore, jingoistic storytelling and slow-motion blood splatter. He might as well just create a graphic novel called "People getting Killed" in which each panel consists of a different person being forced to meet their demise in a bloody graphic manner. No need for story, character or exposition.

It looks like an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (bad, loud acting included) with the props man from Dawn of the Dead (by the way the director is Zack Snyder, the DOTD remake director.)

So that aside, I think that Miller brought some fresh blood (pun intended) to the genre. He stirred things up when they definitely needed to be. But at the same time it seems that something different was labelled something genius just because it was different, with out any real dissection of the attributes. I enjoyed Sin City somewhat, the Daredevil run was a tad boring, but still entertaining. But you won't find me in line to watch 300 or championing the return of the floppy-haired girl Robin.

Dr. Strange: The Oath–Good but to a shaky end.

I'm not a follower–per se–of Brian K. Vaughan. I couldn't rattle off every title he's been involved with or how he's impacted storylines. And to perfectly blunt, I couldn't really care less. I pick up a title and if it's well done, I keep reading it until it seems to dip in quality (are you listening Green Arrow?) or the storyline goes crazy (Spider-Man). I've always been a sucker for second-stringers. I don't know if it's the thrill of a character that doesn't get much attention, thus making it a "my little secret" of sorts, or if the material is just vastly unnoticed because people like shiny variant covers and your commonplace heroes slashing their way through mountains of bad guys, but damn I like the lesser-knowns. I have always enjoyed Dr. Strange as a character. There's a cheese-factor to him, I'll admit. The spouting of Lovecraftian (?) names as enchantments, the weird mystical objects, or maybe it's the weird leopard-print gloves. Either way, I've enjoyed his stuff. I was intrigued to see him pop up on the newsstands in a short series penned by Vaughan titled "The Oath."

I was intrigued for several reasons.
1.) Dr. Strange has been a quiet commodity for Marvel for quite some time. His hey-day was in the 1970's and early 80's, the Bronze Age of comics, and since the early 1990's his appearance has been scattershot with no real continuing series. Also the story attempts to revamp another forgotten Marvel unknown, Night Nurse. Night Nurse had her own series for awhile, mostly murder mystery or ER style storylines where the fledgling medical care-giver had to save lives and produce justice. Something you'll find stacks of in the back-issues of any larger comics retailer.
2.) It is actually well written. It doesn't steep itself in the over-the-top flambuoyancy that some Dr. Strange stories have had, where it's all "Eye of Agamotto" this and "Seven Rings of Raggador" that. It has humor, action and enough arcane magic thrown in to keep the character grounded but expand on him.

Some things I don't like:
1.) Every time a someone gets their mini-series, we need to recap the origin story. If we took a count how many issues of Batman had the same origin story filler we'd be able to set aside half of the Batman comics published in the entity's entire history. The same with Spider-Man. WE KNOW ALREADY! I understand that this is a lesser-known character and many people don't know where he's coming from, but it seems so redundant, like such an obvious starting point.
2.) Every time a smaller character like this has a group of die-hard fans who actually like the content of the character's storyline and his 2D world, we are soiled when the character suddenly becomes an overmarketed buzz word. I've been to the Source twice looking for current issues of this mag and it's out, because everyone's buying it. I'm led to believe, because it is a mag one is "Supposed" to have because of Vaughan or whatever. Anyways everyone deserves a chance to read it. People who don't like the usual Strange fare will like this and it's understandable why it would get snatched up by the general reading public. But come on, exploiting a character because it's trendy is annoying to those who actually enjoy the character.
3.) Finally I dread the end of this series because I know in my heart of hearts that Dr. Strange will go back into back issue obscurity or even worse, if the rumors are true, end up in the aftermath of this hideous 'Civil War' that Marvel has going on, as a member of the New Avengers. I've seen the line-ups and come ON! Storm on the FF? Dr. Strange on a team? WTF? I know he was on the Defenders but that was a laughable premise to begin with...wait...JUST LIKE CIVIL WAR!

Overall my gripe is that this is being pumped into another fad, and as soon as this series is over Dr. Strange will be lucky to see the light of an (decent) ongoing series. My praise is that, well, he finally getting some light and with good foundation. I recommend it fully (if you can find it).

Just Friends Here

Welcome to the Card Table! As Ed explained, this is basically a blog dedicated to those who also share the "basment culture" of gaming, comics, movies, other nonsense. This blog will be an outlet of reviews, musings and miscellaneous conversational brick-a-brack about said items. Interesting stuff. Soon!

The Table Convenes

Hello and welcome to all of you who have ventured to this sector of the vast internet. This is the first of what hopefully will become many future posts dedicated to discussing, informing and reviewing the world of gaming. Now, we're not talking XBox or Wii. We're talking those games that usually require a bit more setup and a lot more imagination.

Yes, it is the world of board games, card games, RPGs. If you frequent comic or hobby shops, you already know what this is about. Certainly, though, there is a large portion of the population that has absolutely no idea about these types of games, or if they do, it is with the narrow perception and gross misunderstanding that goes with any knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering. Unfortunately way too many people seem to immediately associate those with devil worship. But that is another conversation for another time.

Of course many folks actually have had experiences with some of these types of games, an example being a game like the widely popular Apples to Apples. While this blog will most often be dealing with some less well known titles like Z-Man Games' B-Movie game collection or Avalon Hill board games like Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill, Apples serves as a good introductary example.

Before I conclude, I have one interesting item. While listening to public radio this past week, I heard a call in show where they wanted listener ideas for show topics. One caller inquired about doing a show on this exact topic! He was interested in hearing more about theses types of games because he had friends he knew of that role-play and play these types of card games. His interest seems to reflect my observations and experience that these types of games are really gaining in popularity among young adults. Its good to see, because as those of us who already play them know, they are extremely fun!

Stop in regularly to see what we are talking about Around the Card Table. Until next time, happy gaming!