T-shirt #260 - Stark Industries R&D Department

T-shirt #260 - Stark Industries R&D Department

The other night during my reading time in bed when I started the Warren Ellis/ Mike McKone graphic novel of Avengers: Endless Wartime, I had one of those brain fart moments about which I am a little embarrassed. The book starts with an introduction by Clark Gregg, the actor who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the Iron Man and The Avengers movies and now on the TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Gregg was writing about his introduction to comic books. First, he explained that he had been a mad thing for Science Fiction (SF) reading Bradbury, Asimov, and Dick in the early 1970s. I have an aside about these authors, but I will save it (see below). He said that during this time his brother brought home an issue of Iron Man drawn by Jim Starlin.

Huh?

I thought to myself "when did Jim Starlin EVER draw Iron Man?"

I could not remember any run of issues with Starlin on the art for Iron Man, a book I read regularly in the 1970s. I had a subscription for a couple of years after I asked my parents for comic book subscriptions as Christmas or birthday presents, alleviating the need to pick up issues at various stores around town, which meant that I was not asking during each car ride to stop at the liquor store that had a comic rack, Louie's Pipe Shop, the Michigan News Agency, or if I could head over to the magazine and book department when we were in Meijer buying groceries.

But Starlin on Iron Man??? I assumed that this "actor," who was trying to pass himself off as a comic geek did not know what the fuck he was talking about, and no one bothered to fact check his little preface. After all, I KNEW Iron Man, and this fraud, whose fraudulent nature was further emphasized by his choice of SF authors, had obviously also tried a lot of drugs in the 1970s.

But I had a handy computer on my night stand, the ever useful Google Nexus 7 tablet. I quickly searched "Jim Starlin Iron Man," and to my shame, I found one of my favourite Iron Man comic book covers (see left). But this was not Starlin's first work on Iron Man. He originated the character of Thanos in Iron Man #55. Starlin drew issues 53, 55, and 56 of Iron Man in 1972 and 1973 and contributed to issue 54 along with one of my favourite artists of all time: Gil Kane. I wrote of my love of Gil Kane among others in my list of favourite 1960s comic book artists in T-shirt #83 the X-Men Logo.


I have been threatening to create a list of favourite 1970s artists, which would surely include Jim Starlin as well as George Pérez. One of these days I am going to do that.

But back to Starlin. Okay, so I am obviously getting old. Or rather, my comics are all packed in boxes, which I have not looked at in many years. I have not SEEN that issue of Iron Man in maybe 20 years or more. I remember issue #100 well as it sat on top of a stack of comics for a long time while I was grounded and not allowed to read comics. I was not allowed to do anything but homework, which is a different story, and one that I may not tell on the blog.

Anyway, regardless, I am ashamed at my faulty memory because like Clark Gregg (who is no fraud and seems like a cool guy), I was also a HUGE Starlin fan.

Just a cool side note, in doing a little research here, I have discovered that Jim Starlin's home town (or possibly current town) is Detroit, Michigan.

I met Jim Starlin when I worked at Marvel Comics' Epic Comics division in 1985 for my college internship. Epic was publishing Starlin's Dreadstar. I was impressed that Starlin's scripts came in on handwritten sheets of yellow legal paper, the same paper that I used for my writing. I thought professional comic scripting would be typed. I managed to get my hands on Dreadstar as well as many other Epic Comics before making my temporary move to New York City. I read all the published issues of Dreadstar, which at that time numbered about 20 or so issues. I would rank this reading experience as one of my top five comic book reading experiences of all time. There's nothing like reading a comic book novel, which at the time, 1984, had not yet really been invented (though Dave Sim was hard at work on one).

Like Clark Gregg, who may be about the same age as I am, I was obsessed with  Starlin's character Adam Warlock, while I was in junior high. Gregg's description of himself is an accurate description of me and my behaviour: "So obsessed, in fact, that when I recently dug up an old middle school notebook, the pages were so dominated by sketches of Adam Warlock that the school work was crammed into a few rumpled sheets in the back. Which is, of course, how one ends up with a career in the arts."


I want to delve into greater depth about Jim Starlin and his Warlock character on my blog, but I am going to have to find the right shirt. Believe it or not, but not only do I not own a Warlock shirt, I cannot find any shirts devoted to Starlin's Warlock character.

Nevertheless, Jim Starlin is one of the heavy hitters of comics past and present, and if you like comics and do not know this, then check out the link below of "Comics You Should Own," and at the very least find DREADSTAR. Yes, it is Star Wars inspired, surely, but it's so much more than a Star Wars knock off.

COMICS YOU SHOULD OWN - DREADSTAR

JIM STARLIN TEASES THANOS ON FACEBOOK

JIM STARLIN COMIC VINE

JIM STARLIN WIKIPEDIA

Starlin is hinting that he has completed a 100 page Marvel project due in 2014 featuring his rendition of Thanos. See the link above.

This is exciting news for several reasons. One is that Starlin invented Thanos. Another is that the big bad villain seen at the end of the Avengers movie is Thanos, though few but the most well read viewers (well read of comics) know this fact.

Also, Marvel just finished a huge crossover event that featured Thanos and left him in much the same state as Starlin did at the end of a major story arc in 1977 for Marvel Comics.

Here's a page from Starlin's Iron Man run.

TODAY'S T-SHIRT

But I feel I have strayed too far from the cool new T-shirt: Stark Industries Research and Development.

Yes, this is a NEW T-shirt, and so it brings my total new t-shirts since I started this blog to 30 shirts. I had four new shirts arrive in the mail Wednesday, and I have a stack of four other new shirts that have been aching to be photographed and featured, some since this summer. What a blessing to have such a long lead time! And yes, the shirts themselves ache. Have you never been around a shirt eager to be featured on my blog? Well, let me tell you. That's how they are. Practically jumping up and down of their own accord: "Pick me! Pick me!"

I like this shirt very much because it is one of those faux logos, the kind of shirt that employees of Stark Industries Research and Development would wear if Stark Industries Research and Development existed.


SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS: Bradbury, Asimov, and Dick????

Back to Clark Gregg and the subject of Science Fiction writers as promised. Why are these the three most often mentioned SF authors from the 1960s-1970s period? Were they really the most often read authors?

I balk because it seems to me that these three authors get named most often not because they were the most widely read SF authors or the best SF authors but because these are the three that one is supposed to name. They are the "name brand" authors.

Though Heinlein gets mentioned often, why not Arthur C. Clarke? By the time Gregg referenced (1972-73), Clarke's 2001, A Space Odyssey had come out to coincide with the Kubrick film. Or what of Frank Herbert? Dune came out in 1968, and though it was not immediately a best seller, if one wandered into a SF section of a bookstore progressive enough to have one in 1972 or just trolled the fiction racks, one would likely find a copy.

I had heard of Philip K. Dick because he was mentioned prominently in my copy of The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, one of my favorite and most often read and reread books of all time. This encyclopedia listed Dick among the progenitors of a New Wave of Science Fiction with psychologically rich stories by Dick, Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, Philip Jose Farmer, and even Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, all of whom were part of a 1950s bevy of writers that gave rise to the New Wave of the 1960s and 1970s, in which they continued to write, joined by JG Ballard, John Brunner, Ursula LeGuin. Harlan Ellison, Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson, and Michael Moorcock.

Whew! Long damn sentence.

Though the passage does not mention them, I would add Larry Niven, Samuel R. Delaney, Gordon Dickson, Harry Harrison, Clifford Simak, Norman Spinrad, and Roger Zelazny. There are others I am leaving out. Those are just off the top of my head.

Sue me.

Back in those old days of the 1970s, we learned about SF authors by word of mouth, by tracking authors published in SF magazines, and by looking through the shelves or racks of the book store or library. The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction was a rare and amazing animal and opened up my world of SF to many of the authors I listed simply because I read that book back to front multiple times and and wrote a research paper in high school (which I regurgitated in college) on the subject of Science Fiction. Sure those authors that Gregg named are all good, but Bradbury never won a Hugo (he has since won retroactively for Fahrenheit 451). Dick won in 1975. And Asimov won in 1973, for The Gods Themselves, which is around the time Gregg mentioned when Starlin's Iron Man comics came out. But still, there are plenty of other authors. Good God man!

I remember a guy named Jack that when I first met him worked at one of the three Tom Sawyer's Book Raft stores in Kalamazoo, later managing the one closest to Richland. He bought and renamed the Book Raft when the local owner sold the franchise. It stayed open until Jack got in trouble for not paying back his sales tax, and the store closed shortly before the East Towne Mall shut down around 1990. Jack introduced me to many authors, and though Dick was mentioned on occasion (and I owned a copy of Ubik, which I had not yet read), Jack introduced me to some of my favorite authors who are not on the list above, such as Keith Laumer and Edmund Cooper, whose books my father and I both read, and which I collected with religious fervor. In fact, family trips out of town meant that I could arrange to visit at least one store that specialized in Science Fiction and/or comic books, as such things did not exist in Kalamazoo. I once walked 18 blocks from wherever the Washington DC Metro train dumped to find a specialty SF bookstore while my family saw the Washington Monument and other sites. In London, I rode the tube into the city's West End for comics and SF books while my family saw the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace.

So, my point being: THERE ARE MORE AUTHORS IN SCIENCE FICTION THAN PHILIP K DICK, ASIMOV, AND BRADBURY!

It just makes me crazy when people don't know how many other great books are out there by other great authors without the "name" recognition.

This is a point I intend to circle back to regarding SF writers. I have a whole shirt to dedicate to the subject that I bought at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. Stay Tuned.

I was going to review AVENGERS: ENDLESS WARTIME but after my little rant about Science Fiction writers, I think that's quite enough content for now. AVENGERS: ENDLESS WARTIME can wait. Isn't this supposed to be my light content week?

WEEKLY COMICS LIST

This list does not contain all the comics for the week. When I went to Fanfare Wednesday, a day earlier than usual, I found out that some of the shipment had been delayed. I may have an update this weekend. I am planning to review both Inhumanity and Velvet as those are the two I have read so far. Notice how the back log has shrunk.Catching up!  I will return to a discussion of these comics in a future entry when I also get around to reviewing AVENGERS: ENDLESS WARTIME.

COMICS FOR 1312.04

Inhumanity #001
Velvet #2
Green Arrow #26
Guardians of the Galaxy #009
The Superior Spider-Man #023
Young Avengers #013
Iron Man #019
Daredevil: Dark Knights #007
Fearless Defenders #012
Batman: Detective Comics #26
Green Lantern #26
Secret Avengers  #012
Indestructible Hulk Annual  #001
The Amazing Spider-Man #700.1

BACK LOG

Cataclysm: The Ultimates Last Stand  #002
God is Dead #4
Trillium #5

COVER GALLERY
I went a bit nuts with the Iron Man covers as this is my only Iron Man themed shirt as of now, though I may have to change this. Though I grabbed the first issue Gene Colan cover and the excellent Adi Granov art that I already had on file (from the Warren Ellis Extremis run), the assortment of other covers came up as I was searching for Starlin's Iron Man art and deliver an interesting variety of artists, including George Pérez, Starlin, George Tuska, Gil Kane, and the last being very early art of John Romita, Jr.

I did discuss Iron Man previously when I reviewed the Iron Man 3 film in T-shirt #99: Moby. Given that I wrote about Iron Man when I was sharing a shirt for Moby, all bets are off. I can write more about Iron Man at any time. Beware.

There's also this for future reference:

TOP FIVE MOST ICONIC IRON MAN COVERS

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 105 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1312.06 - 18:17

T-shirt #230: Central Regionals Disconsin 2005

T-shirt #230: Central Regionals Disconsin 2005

Ultimate season is over.

And I am still here. I still have unfeatured t-shirts. I still cannot see the end of the closet's contents, but I am starting to be a little concerned. But there's plenty of Ultimate shirts left to share both from KUDL and other sources, so onward and forward; once a week I will post an Ultimate shirt. By the way, those are my cleats in the photo to the left.


KUDL goes on with indoor, but I am probably out until the spring.

My ability to play indoor is limited, and I scheduled surgery on my toe for Friday to make sure I finished ultimate season with Huckfest before going under the knife and needing a week or two of non-running recovery. It's just an in-grown toe nail, but a bad one.

I am guessing at the date of this shirt. I may be off by a year or two, but I do not feel like investigating. I do remember attending this tournament with my Masters team. After one day, when over the course of five games, I played maybe five points, I decided that my time would be better spent going home and getting work done. This was my last tournament with this Masters team, which I helped start. I don't fault the decision to keep me on the sideline. I was not the only one. And I am not the most stellar player, though I do recall that in my five points I had a block and did not turn over the disc. Also, I kept tight on defense, and the player I was guarding never caught the disc. Not that these statistics make me the greatest player on my team. Hardly. I was old and slow then, and I am older and slower now. But I did not have the time or money to travel to Wisconsin for a whole weekend to be a cheerleader. The team had grown, playing time was at a premium, and I had better things to do with my time. My only regret is that I did not leave Saturday night, but instead spent a lousy night in a hotel room before I decided at Sunday breakfast to beg off and head for home. Luckily, I had not car pooled.


I am always amazed that I am still playing ultimate. I am 51 years old. I am old, slow, and very tired. I am not in great shape. And yet, I still go out there and routinely chase people who could be my children, such is our age difference. They could be my children and have children of their own making me a grandfather, such is our age difference.

For a few years now, I have been threatening to get a shirt made that says "I have been playing Ultimate for ## years straight, and gee wiz, am I tired." The current number would be 29 years. Maybe I will make the shirt next year as it would be my 30th year of playing Ultimate.

Hey! What if I make this my last shirt, one that will announce the start of Ultimate season in the spring in March of 2014? This plan assumes I have or will acquire another one-hundred and thirty-five shirts between now and March 22nd of 2014. I am starting to worry that I may not currently own one-hundred and thirty-five shirts and not sure I want to fund the shortfall. But I have continued to resist the urge to count my remaining shirts, so I may be closer than I think to the necessary total. And I do continue to acquire new shirts though not a significantly large number. However, both Christmas and my birthday approach, and guess what will be on my list? It might be close. But I sally forth and infiltrate. I will prevail.

Okay, back to the subject of comic books to finish yesterday's content (which is today because for the first time in a long time, I am writing a day ahead), but first: I finished Dune. Here's my brief GOOD READS review:

Obviously, _Dune_ is a masterpiece. It is one of the most important novels of the 20th century, not just in science fiction. I rather liked the audio edition with a large cast of narrators and characters. The production values for the audio book were very high, and I recommend it. However, in this re-read, I found the villains to be a bit wooden and over-wrought, cliché. I also wonder how much this book influenced George Lucas as there are many parallels between Baron Harkonnen and Darth Vader. One element of the Baron's characterization is his predilection for young boys. As one of the earliest depictions of any "alternative" sexuality in fiction, let alone science fiction, it is a shame that it must be demonized and made monstrous, made something innate to this man's evil, rather than something positive and normal. Herbert's writing is tight and well done except for those two criticisms. I am inspired to go on and re-read the next two in audio editions and finish all the Herbert books (seven in all?) that I never read.

COMIC BOOKS REVIEWS - continued from yesterday: T-shirt #229.

Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril (VERTIGO: Hogan/Sprouse/Story): I have been a fan of the Tom Strong comics since the inception of "America's Best Comics" by Alan Moore in 1999. Though Moore no longer writes the series, I have kept up with most publications of Tom Strong stories. Though I did not like some of the Terra Obscura comics very much, I love the Tom Strong concept as it has "strong" [heh] parallels to Doc Savage, and I am a huge Doc Savage fan. This current incarnation brings back original artist Chris Sprouse with the most recent and dedicated writer Peter Hogan. Though Hogan may not have flights of fancy as exotic as Moore's, his story telling is solid and Sprouse's art makes the whole thing beautiful. This book is definitely worth picking up as a smart variation on traditional superhero themes with a deep root in the pulps of the 1920s-1930s. Issues three and four (of an eventual six) complicate the plot of the science hero's journey to Terra Obscura to solve the problem of a mysterious illness. Issue Four especially ends with a very captivating cliff hanger. These issues moved up in my stack from where I reported them originally, and the next issue will rank even higher.

MIND THE GAP #15 (IMAGE- McCann, Esquejo, and McDaid) - I have mentioned Mind the Gap a few times as one of the many comics from Image that are of top quality and beating the best offerings of the big two (Marvel and DC) in many ways. Mind the Gap #15 is the last issue of the first phase of this comic book story, which shifted the emphasis from a mystery of how a young girl, Elle Peterson, ends up in a coma and who is responsible, to a story of history, conspiracy theory, and genetic engineering. "Act One" frequently used the tag line: "Everyone is a suspect. No one is innocent," and now the advertisement for Act Two bears the line: "Everyone lies. Every truth hurts." Color me intrigued, which would ne a reddish-purple. This issue of the comic features some fascinating back matter about the author's reasons for creating the story. The art by Rodin Esquejo and Dan McDaid is beautiful. The comic's story so far has been collected in two trade paperback volumes with a third due soon. This is definitely worth reading, especially for those uninterested in or tired of standard super-hero fare.

Shaolin Cowboy #1 (DARK HORSE: Geoff Darrow) - I wrote about Geoff Darrow's amazing art in regards to his Rusty the Boy Robot and the Big Guy comics in T-shirt #146. I mentioned his Shaolin Cowboy series from the 1990s at that time, though I did not know that another Shaolin Cowboy book was due. I must admit I skipped the crazy, tiny-font type "the story so far," which must number over 2000 words of front matter. Though, I skimmed it and it looks hilarious. The art is gorgeous; it's really an art-driven book. There's story but the weight of the story is carried by the art. Front matter aside, there's not much writing here. But it's a GREAT comic, even for $3.99. Darrow's art is beautiful and the taciturn Shaolin Cowboy is a great character. Check this one out!!

Oh, and there's ZOMBIES. And as seen in the picture below, a whirling chainsaw, which is pretty sweet. We don't see that on THE WALKING DEAD.


A more full review of the wonderful Saga (also from Image) and Velvet (Image, too) will have to wait.

Though if interested, enjoy Charles Skaggs' excellent review of Velvet.

Speaking of Sir Charles, he wrote a nice post about the new X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer.

The film is due next May.

I am not thrilled with the clip as an adaptation of the Days of Future Past classic X-Men tale.

But as an X-Men movie, without knowing the source material, it looks very good.

Check it out.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST - Official Trailer (2014)

- chris tower - 1311.06 - 8:18

T-shirt #219: Brooks White Sleeveless with Star Trek shirt and patches

T-shirt #219: Brooks White Sleeveless with Star Trek shirt and patches

Damn weather. It's time to start wearing the warm shirts. Today's T-shirt is a sleeveless, moisture-wicking, athletic shirt made by my favorite shoe company: BROOKS (more on this subject in a minute). The shirt I am wearing over the top of the Brooks shirt is a very warm, chamois shirt made of plush, 100% cotton on which I had stitched (or has stitched for me; I do not sew) two United Federation of Planets patches and a very nice Starship Enterprise patch.

The patches on shirts thing goes back to my senior year of high school and early years of college. I like the look of the patches on the shirts, which convey an official feel, as if I am wearing a uniform or some gear issues by Star Fleet or whatever is featured on the patch. I have several different shirts with various patches. Look for more to be featured in weeks to come.

Eventually, I wore out the shirts on which the patches had been stitched (though one still bears elbow patches attempting to increase its longevity), and then for a long time, I did not have any shirts featuring geeky patches to wear. Once I hit my thirties, and was still single, I was a little hesitant about letting my geek freak flag fly, and so I did not put the patches on new shirts and return to wearing such geek-wear outside the house.

Geek was not as cool in the 1980s or 1990s as it has become today. Geeks had to grow up and mainstream geek. Once comic books were not kid stuff any more, once Star Trek fandom was not fringe culture and open to ridicule, then being geeky became cool. Long before Big Bang Theory made the nerdy and geeky thing so popular, long before Comic Con was a massive popular culture event with a whole issue of Entertainment Weekly devoted to it, some of us were geeking it up, though somewhat in secret.

I addressed this "closet geek" thing in T-shirt #21 and shirts you will not see me wear in public. I also wrote about "the closet" back in T-shirt #166. In regards specifically to Star Trek geekiness and hiding that Trekkie (or Trekker but who are we kidding with the name game here?) rabid fan thing, You may recall that I devoted three of my first fifteen shirts to Star Trek (see list below).

I first addressed this issue about hiding my inner geek all the way back in

T-Shirt #4: Original Star Trek - Command - Gold.

This is another one of those times in which I am in favor of copying and re-presentation. Back in the first weeks of the blog, I had not figured out what I wanted the blog to be and how it would function, how I would present content. Check out how shirt it is! Of course, by T-shirt #13 I had figured out how to extend the content to mammoth proportions.

Monday, March 25, 2013

T-Shirt #4: Original Star Trek - Command - Gold

T-Shirt #4: Original Star Trek - Command - Gold

Star Trek! One of those Facebook ads that show up because the social web 2.0 knows I love Star Trek snared me. Now that I am married, I am a lot more comfortable showing my true geek self. Not that I was all that shy about it before I got married. But there was quite a bit of hiding my in the closet, so to speak. I think the "closet" comparison is somewhat apt, not to minimize the way the term is usually applied, which is far more serious. Now, I am more comfortable with who I am. Also , geek (or nerd, if you prefer) has become cool. I always loved these uniforms. Once the ad caught me in its trap, I sprung for the blue and red ones, too. Damn. "Now, would be a good time to beam me up, Scotty..." - 1303.25 9:25

Star Trek has been featured on the blog nine times now, counting today. The list via the Blogger links is worth re-presenting if you, dear reader, wish to perform some exploration. There's quite a variety of subjects here and have fun if you wish to visit or re-visit these. T-shirt #118 helped me write about the Trayvon Martin case and in T-shirt #131 I wrote about classic 1980s arcade games and the awesome Ready Player One.

T-Shirt #4: Original Star Trek - Command - Gold

T-shirt #11: Star Trek Science Officer

T-shirt #13: The Unlucky Red Shirt

T-shirt #39: The UFP symbol: United Federation of Planets

T-shirt #72: Science Blue STNG

T-shirt #81: Starship Enterprise Schematics

T-shirt #118: WWKD: What Would Kirk Do?

T-shirt #131: Starfleet Academy

The content on being geeky and in the geek closet would be enough content for one blog post. I am trying to limit my sometimes gargantuan content and keep things focused and limited.

However, last night I reviewed a production of "The War of the Worlds," the original radio drama from 1938, created by Orson Welles. The show was very good. Expect my review soon.

This show put me in mind of Jeff Wayne's impressive and ground-breaking, progressive rock adaptation of this HG Wells science fiction classic. I found the entire album on You Tube but can't seem to bring up the video here, so this is just the first cut. It's worth checking out. Narration was by Richard Burton.

No one would have believed that in the last years of the 19th century that human affairs where being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few have even considered the possibility of life on other planets, and yet across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.

War Of The Worlds (1978) - Jeff Wayne (Disc 1)

Who's ultra geeky now, huh?

- chris tower - 1310.26 - 16:21

POSTSCRIPT - I am a Brooks shoes guy. I always wear Brooks, and now with my foot problems, I need to stay in neutral cushion shoes; Brooks makes excellent neutral cushion shoes. But I decided to make a switch to Saucony as my outdoor shoes for this season. I tend to need to change shoes once a season (every three months). I decided to give Saucony a try as it had a Goretex shoe, which is water resistant, and I had a pair of Saucony many years ago which I dearly loved.

I was assured that Saucony had returned to excellence as I had not liked their shoes at all in recent years, and so I am giving them a try. So far so good.

Here's my anal shoe thing: I have to be in shoes all the time as I have orthotics. So, I have indoor shoes, regular outdoor shoes, and several old pairs for rainy days and work outside and such. Usually when I buy a new pair, I rotate: the current indoor shoes become the new outdoor shoes, and the new shoes become the new indoor shoes.

I bought the Brooks' Glycerins recently, so I decided to keep those as the indoor shoes and move the Saucony shoes to the outdoor shoe as soon as I give them an indoor test drive to make sure I am going to like them. Test drive is almost over, and I am nearly convinced that the Saucony shoes are keepers.

Just a little extra Brooks-related content. And my ultra-geek nature hits new heights (or lows, depending on your perspective).

T-shirt #217: In-Sport White Sleeveless with Nostromo Hat

T-shirt #217: In-Sport White Sleeveless with Nostromo Hat

A shirt like this is so non-descript that it's simply an excuse for me to write about whatever I want, which in this case is some comic book reviews. But not before I indulge in some blog reporting. I could also complain about the weather like an author I follow, John Scalzi, who loves in nearby Ohio. I won't kvetch about the weather. I did yesterday. But here is what Scalzi wrote:

SERIOUSLY, OCTOBER WTF?

Though, before I leave off the subject of the weather, I do rather like the Haiku my wife penned yesterday.
She is watching A LOT of Breaking Bad.

As for the shirt, this is so form fitting that it's an under-shit only. I am not that secure with my flabby torso.

MORE BLOG RECAP

I know this information may be more fascinating to me than anyone else. And yet, I love recapping, if only for my own analysis and reflection.

After writing about the blog's statistics, my page views spiked to a recent high of 149 hits. The Powell's Books entry, T-shirt #215: Powell's Books, jumped out at 22 views, whereas T-shirt #211 - HYDRA came in second for the week (new results) at 21 views followed by T-shirt #213: Bitch Magazine (16),  T-shirt #212: Orange UnderArmor (16)--due to its content about the Samsung Galaxy S4?-- and, as previously reported, the newly popular T-shirt #62: Nightwing (12).

Though this is not really as exciting as it sounds since sites like vampirestat and adsensewatchdog account for large numbers of these page views (91 and 46).

Still, I find the statistics interesting as some of the numbers may represent actual readers.

SIDENOTE: Given that today's shirt is very non-descript, I dressed it up with the replica hat worn by characters in the film Alien. The name of the ship was the USCSS (United States Commerical Star Ship) Nostromo. Clearly, this was the captain's hat. It is my second replica hat. The first hat was ruined when, during high school, friends of mine showed up at my door and hit me in the face with a cream pie, irrevocably soiling my hat.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS

These reviews will be brief. Since returning from Hawaii and finishing Night Film, I have been working to catch up. I still have a huge stack to work through, but I am chipping away at it. Last night, I caught up on the X-Men Battle of the Atom issues, and I have dispensed with many of my favorites from the last month, such as Avengers, Thor, Iron Man, Nova, and Justice League.

SPOILERS!!! 
If you do not wish to risk spoilers, skip these reviews.

Fables #134

I wrote about Fables in T-shirt #184. Though it is one of my top ten favorite comic books currently being published, I often delay gratification by not placing it highly in my weekly stack and even allow it to back log to be able to enjoy four-six issues all at once. I did not go much in depth on stories from Fables in the blog post I dedicated to the subject. I just delivered as strong recommendation to read this book. Currently at 134 issues, at least 120 of which are collected in trades, reading the entire run of Fables is time-consuming commitment. I continue to try to entice my wife to read comics, though I do not push them on her. This is one comic I think she would like. Once again, I refer you to my List of Comic Book Recommendations for Non-Comic Book Readers from T-shirt #160.

Fables #134 chronicles Bigby's (The Big Bad Wolf) time in the afterlife. Recently, he was "killed," though the Fables are working hard to bring him back to life. Roaming the afterlife, Bigby encounters Boy Blue, based on the Nursery Rhyme character "Little Boy Blue," who died defending the Fables in the war against the Adversary in the Homelands, the original lands populated by the Fables before they were forced out. Boy Blue dies from magical complications with Rose Red, his great love, at his side.

An extremely popular character in Fables, the question of whether Boy Blue would return to life has been a constant thread in the comic for several years. Fables author Willingham puts this question to rest in issue #134 as Boy Blue talks with Bigby and then "moves on" to another world. In the course of the conversation, Boy Blue assures Bigby that he will return to the mortal world because he is a "god" and the rules are different for such as him.

After Boy Blue crosses over, Bigby gets to spend time with his son Dare (Darrien), who died trying to find and rescue Therese, who had gone missing. The issue content spends most of its time on a reflective conversation between Bigby and Boy Blue, in which the latter delivers "the meaning of life" in such a way that demonstrates why this is one of my favorite comic books and why Willingham is such a great writer.

Lazarus #4




Lazarus continues to be on of the best comics being published today. I first reviews Lazarus way back in T-shirt #138 on August 6th and again in T-shirt #168. Basically, I have covered all three issues released so far. And now issue four.

Rucka and Lark continue to amaze. After the cliff-hanger at the end of issue three, the story resumes as the two Lazaruses battle the mop up crew sent to kill them. Since a Lazarus can regenerate, "death" is only possible by destroying the brain entirely or decapitation.

Sounds easy enough.





But a Lazarus, especially the Carlyle Lazarus Forever is a bad ass. When Forever cannot get the clean up crew to back off, and they are about to behead her, she attacks and slaughters them all, even though she is unarmed and out-numbered facing a assault rifle armed, high-tech body armored crew of a dozen soldiers.


Aided by Joacquim Morray, the Lazarus for the other family, the two (though mostly Forever) mop up the clean up crew.

Johanna Carlyle's ruse works to frame her twin brother Jonah for the betrayal of the family and the attack on Forever, making him a fugitive from the family. The story grows more complicated and promises more excellent twists and turns to come.

The issue ends with Forever receiving a mysterious message, to add another complication and layer to the plot.

Batman #24

I have been enjoying immensely Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's run on Batman with Zero Year stories that depict origins or first encounters with classic Batman villains. The first villain depicted is the Joker, who started as the Red Hood before falling into a chemical vat that transformed him. Snyder/Capullo re-invent the basic story, positioning the man who becomes the Joker as head of the Red Hood Society, a terrorist group that tries to take Gotham City hostage.

Issue 24 is the culminating, double length issue that wraps up the Joker story before shifting to the next Zero Year story (the Riddler).

Batman stories live and die by the use of Bruce Wayne and an extended cast of characters in both Batman and Bruce Wayne's life. Some Batman writers have focused too much (or entirely) on Batman and have forgotten that Bruce Wayne is the man in the cowl, and he is A MAN, and needs to be treated as such.

The Zero Year story of the Red Hood Society does a great job with showing the two roles, both Batman and Bruce Wayne, while giving page time to other cast members, such as Alfred and Jim Gordon.


In the end, the Red Hood plunges into the chemical vat, but the comic ends with the Riddler making a public announcement via video feeds not the Joker, which is a surprising twist.

Even though Capullo was unable to finish art for the entire double-length book, and the replacement artist is not nearly as skilled, the comic is a strong one and arguably one of DC's best products of the year.

An excellent and more in depth review can be found at

WORD OF THE NERD,

a new website I discovered that looks quite good.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the Weekly Comics List.

And as always, thanks for reading.

- chris tower - 1310.24 - 9:03