The Year-End Spectacular

It probably won't be that spectacular, but it might just be my last post of the year.

These last few weeks have definitely been eventful. In some ways good and bad in others. I've taken on more responsibility concerning my new baby brother. So have my two sisters. I've also been working a lot more (which means I've spent a little more cash than usual, thus defeating the purpose of working more hours...) and hope to hear in the next few weeks about a possible second job. One with substantial pay that includes benefits, vacation time and paid holidays. That would put me working at least six days a week, until I go completely out of my mind anyway. It would be a major step up though, and the pay is fantastic.

Christmas was a big day for my family. My sister Kelly got engaged to her long-time boyfriend. I couldn't have picked a better man for her if I wanted to. While I was extremely excited for them I grew encreasingly frustrated with almost everyone elses need to make the event about themselves. Especially my girlfriend and my other sister, who were so jealous it made me violently ill. But, there wasn't much I could do about that, besides propose to my girl, and that's not gonna happen (remind me to give my lecture on marriage someday...).

As big a present as that was for the whole family, there were still others to go around. I didn't give quite as good as I got though. My girlfriend got tickets to go see Wicked, which is still a few months away, but it was what she wanted. She also got Nintendogs and a DS, but she got those well over a month ago because she couldn't wait. I got Simpsons Season 7, the extended Sin City DVD, Burnout for the DS, two jackets, one of which didn't fit, South Park Season 5, Vol 2&3 of Speed Racer, the Marvel Legends Deadpool figure (easily my most favorite present!!), a nice Fossil watch, Thundercats Vol. 1, an odd little drinking game (even odder that I don't drink much). I think that covers it all. Well, except what I've gotten for myself recently.

From Amazon I got the Seinfeld Season 5&6 gift set (for about sixty bucks too!), the new John Oszajca cd, Toy Story 2 and Snatch. From EB Games I got Planetes Vol. 1, Aeon Flux: The Complete Series, Garfield and Friends Vol. 4 (no, I don't have 1-3, but it was $15), the Outsider and the Man Who Fell to Earth. For baby bro and myself to enjoy I picked up the Disney Treasures Silly Symphonies set. Got it for under $15, found out it's worth quite a bit more since it's out of print. Lucky discovery by me. Oh, and I actually found a copy of Danger Doom at Target. I bought it and love the hell out of it. It's like Wu-Tang for the geek crowd, well worth the ten bucks it costs.

I've also bought a number of comics lately, so here's som short snippets about 'em.

Y, the Last Man #40

A stand alone story focusing on two women in Yorick's life. With this Vaughan takes a bit of a soap-operatic approach. It was still interesting, and the surprise was definitely a surprise, it just feels like he's running out of ideas so in comes the melodrama. Hopefully things will get better with the upcoming arc.

Cable & Deadpool #23

Thank God this is over. Confusing, weird, and only occasionally funny, this is easily the wors arc the book has had since its first. Even I didn't know enough about the world of X to understand everything that was going on here. Good stuff with Cage and Iron Fist though.

Penny Arcade 25 cents

Yeah, this was even wors. Not funny at all and even more confusing. Likely over my head since I know diddly about the books origins as a comic strip. But, you'd think this would be a good place to hook someone like me, instead I'll probably never read another strip. Give me PvP anyday.

Local #2

Anyone else get a screwed up copy? Had to read it twice to realize I got double pages, and even then I didn't care about the story. Maybe I'm just too damn old, but all this just seemed to scream "play some emo music!!!!" to me. Kids, I'll never understand them.

Jonah Hex #2

Hrm. I loved, loved, LOVED the first issue, but this was only slightly above mediocre. The story is sloppy and you barely have time to get invested in it before it's over. But, since these are stand alone stories I'll likely pick up $3 and see if they can bounce back. Nice cover though.

Grounded #4

Listening to DVD commentaries has brought the term "10%-ed" into my vocabulary. What it means is that a show is run through a machine that speeds everything up by 10%. It helps to fit more material in and viewers can rarely tell the difference. This series is the equivelant of that, only instead of not being able to see it, it's bothering the hell out of me. I like the basics, I like the characters, but so much of it just flies by and is left unexplained that I fel like I'm lost in this world. When the series wraps I'm going to reread the whole thing and see if I can understand the thing any better.

A Distant Soil #1-3

These certainly aren't new, but damn are they good. Doran is a master at this type of storytelling. It's the comic equivelant of the Holy Trilogy, before Lucas mucked it all up. Well, it's far better than the Star Wars films really. There's more thought put into the story, though Doran admits to constantly seeing things she wants to change in it, and she has changed it to make it better (or had, since these are pretty old issues), only she actually made it better. I need to track these down, but I'm hoping to find a few trades online, or maybe someone selling an entire run.

Joker/Mask #1-4

Good mini that focuses on what happens when Joker discovers Loki's Mask. Interesting look into what makes the Joker the Joker, but outside of that it's nothing really special. Good art, appropriate since it seems to bee more of the animated Series Bats than the regular DCU Bats. You can almost hear Mark Hamill's voice coming off the page.

Batgirl: Year One #1-9

Another oldie I've finally gotten around to reading. Never been a big Dixon fan, but I think teaming him with Beatty helped keep the script less fetish-y, and art by Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez is fantastic. Babs is one of my favorite characters in comics, and I always try to pick up any story that involves her as Batgirl, and this didn't disappoint.

Maybe more later...maybe!

-L