Hoopla! - Episode 2: What looks good in March 2008? (A-J)

Hello and welcome to Hoopla!

It may seem like it's been a while since I've written a new column, but that's not entirely true... I've started writing a couple of columns, but neither of them is finished, yet, and so the end result has been that, to the untrained eye, it would appear that I have not been fulfilling my Hoopla! obligations...

But now you know the uncanny truth...

So, what looks good in March...? Well, I'll tell ya...

ACTION COMICS #863

I am totally enjoying the six-part Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes! storyline and this is the concluding chapter. So, this is pretty much a no-brainer...

And, yes, Gary Frank's art does look very different than in his previous work, and I suppose that I do prefer the earlier stuff, but I have no problem with what he's doing here... Gary Frank's second-best is still pretty damn good...

ANGEL AFTER THE FALL #5

I hated the first issue, but the second one was better. Still not completely satisfying, but I think I'll give it a little bit longer to pull together...

If nothing else, I really enjoyed the Spike: Shadow Puppets limited series by the same writer and artist, so that suggests that this series may improve over time...

ANNIHILATION CONQUEST #5 (OF 6)

Enjoying this. 'Nuff said.

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #5

Chuck Dixon.

It is not a great series, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is consistently enjoyable, I think...

BLUE BEETLE #25

A neat little series. I first got interested in this because of Mark Waid and George Perez's use of the character in their Brave and the Bold story. Again, this series isn't the pinnacle of comic-book genius, but it's a good time...

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #11

I am SO bummed out that George Perez is leaving this title.

So very, very bummed...

But, Jerry Ordway aint nothing to sneeze at, either, and I suspect this will continue to be great fun as long as Mark Waid is doing the writing...

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #12

That Faith story by Brian K. Vaughan? That was damn good stuff...

Hopefully, they can maintain that level of quality...

CAPTAIN AMERICA #36

COMIC BOOK COMICS #1

Okay, so... what is Comic Book Comics, you may be wondering...

Well, I'll tell you...

Not so very long ago, Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey published a very quirky, funny and--yes--educational comic titled Action Philosophers. Essentially, Action Philosophers was a series of brief summaries of the world's most famous philosophers... a bit of biography, a bit about what they actually contributed to the wonderful world of philosophy, and a lot of good, snarky humor.

Action Philosophers recently ended, as they finally ran out of philosophers that they wanted to talk about, but Comic Book Comics is their new series, and it's all about the history of comic-books.

Here is a preview of the series and here's a great interview with Lente about Action Philosophers, M.O.D.O.K.'s 11, his Marvel Adventure stories, and Comic Book Comics.

Among other things, Lente says this about the new series...

Well, we were trying to come up with a follow-up series for “Action Philosophers!” and what I wanted to avoid was “Classics Illustrated.” I really didn't want to adapt the major works of novelists or the stories of films. It's one thing to “adapt” a work of philosophy, it's another thing to re-tell somebody else's story.

And I've done a lot of work for Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art (MoCCa). I now serve on the Board of Advisors there. So I've amassed a huge library about comics and it just sort of hit me one day: no one has ever tried a non-fiction comic about comics history before. And what's great about comics fandom is everyone is into their own corner of the history: this guy loves Will Eisner, this guy loves Marvel, this guy loves EC horror stuff, etc. But we're going to cover everything.

So, there you go.

Buy it. Love it. Polybag it.

CURSED PIRATE GIRL #1 (OF 6)

In my last column I showed some of the very beautiful preview pages... it's the one that looks like it was illustrated back in the 1800s.

It's gonna be mighty good, methinks...

FABLES #71

FANTASTIC FOUR #555

Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch.

GREEN LANTERN #29

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #115

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #43

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold.

Written by Keith Giffen.

Um... yes.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #14

Loving this series... loving the art, loving the "Kingdom Come" storyline, loving that ultra-tragic Superman from another world...

Really, really enjoying this series.

Well, that's only about half of the list of stuff I'm pre-ordering for March, but I need to get going... my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Meredith, and I are going to make some dinners at this place, Thyme Out, where you go and make dinners and then bring them home and eat them over the course of the rest of your life.

Get it...? It's called Thyme Out because... uh... because thyme is a seasoning that you use when you're... uh... cooking, and because "time out" is... er... the thing that you say when you... um... eat the thing. That you made.

Or something.

Anyway, I'll be posting What Looks Good in March 2008 (L-X) sometime this weekend, I hope...

Until then, I hope that you're THYME isn't... uh... out?

Hm.

- Paul