And thanks for all the fish!

Hello and welcome to Hoopla!

Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and so I thought that would make this an appropriate time to officially give thanks for all the many lovely things in this world of ours--most of which are comic-book related--that help make getting up in the morning a bit less odious than it might otherwise be...

I want to start with a big one that has absolutely nothing to do with comic-books at all, and that is my number one thing that I am thankful for...

Thank you, American people. Or, at least, about 53% of you...

On to comic-book-y goodness...

I am thankful for Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, who are currently writing two sci-fi super-hero series for Marvel: Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy. Neither of these are outstandingly amazing works of literary genius, but what I love about both series it that they tend to be super-deluxe fun...

Nova is about Richard Rider, a normal Earth guy who was chosen to join the inter-galactic police force of Novas... which meant that he wears a funny bucket on his head and has some pretty cool powers. In this series, however, the Nova Corps. has been destroyed and Richard Rider is the last of the Novas... which means he's single-handedly responsible for the entire galaxy.

That's a big responsibility.

At first, the story focused on the interaction between Richard and the Worldmind--the collective intelligence/culture/history/other stuff--that now existed inside his helmet and constantly scolded him. Nova would race off to fight some inter-galactic evil and the Worldmind would point out that if Richard got killed the Worldmind would also be destroyed; its argument was that keeping the Worldmind preserved was a hell of a lot more important than saving a few lives.

Richard disagreed.

Hilarity ensued.

Then, about four issues into the series, Richard Rider got killed--sort of--and we had a replacement Nova, a Kree military commander. Then Richard came back, but had been infected by the alien techno-virus that was ravaging the Kree world and creating all sorts of problems across the universe. Just as that whole situation was being resolved, Richard got called to a planet that was being consumed by Galactus, leading to a big ol' fight against the Silver Surfer, who pretty much beat the crap out of Nova. They resolved their differences--sort of--but Nova was a bit slow getting off the planet and...

Anyway, the thing I love about this series is that the status quo is constantly changing and that Abnett and Lanning manage to make Nova seem like a heavy-hitter but also are able to continuously come up with big-scale challenges to keep him busy... this is no easy trick.

Their other series, Guardians of the Galaxy, is even better. The Guardians of the Galaxy are a real mixed bag of 'heroes' who were sort of coerced into coming together to fight inter-galactic badness... there's Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Starlord, Rocket Raccoon... and many more.

If this series has a flaw, it's that Abnett and Lanning sometimes try to tell too many stories at once... it's not always clear how--or if--the various plots tie together. That said, I much prefer a series with too much going on to a series with too little... and the writers make good use of humor to help keep things relatively light... Rocket Raccoon, in particular, makes this series worth reading. He's a raccoon with a laser-gun. How cool is that?

Very cool.

I'm super deluxe thankful for the current Thor series... which is bizarre, because I have zero interest in Thor as a character and I generally quite dislike J. Michael Straczynski's writing. A large part of the credit must go to artist Olivier Coipel, who is producing some of the most gorgeous artwork I have ever seen in a comic...

[That's Loki you see above, looking very creepy... he's a woman now. It's a long story.]

To my mind, Coipel's work on Thor is comparable to Totleban's art on Swamp Thing, back in the day, or the art from Promethea by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray.

It's that good.

But, in all fairness, Straczynski is also largely responsible for the wonderful-ness that is the current Thor series. He's taking his time to tell a slow, epic story rich with intrigues and tragedy and grim forebodings... and he has completely revitalized Loki, who was generally a pretty dull villain before this storyline.

Good stuff.

Anyway, I'm running out of time, but here are a few other things I'm thankful for...

Keith Giffen's art... whenever and wherever it may appear...

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank on Action Comics... I can't think of a run on a Superman title that I've enjoyed this much since... well, since waaay the hell back when Dan Jurgens, George Perez, Karl Kesel, Jerry Ordway, and a couple of other folk were writing/drawing the three titles. And that, I believe, was in the late 1980s.

The thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man... I think all of the writers and artists are doing a phenomenal job on this title... and editor Steve Wacker deserves a huge kiss for putting it all together and for returning the letters page...

Jeff Parker's writing on Marvel Adventures: The Avengers and all of the works that it has inspired, including a lot of recent comics by Paul Tobin, which have been VERY fun...

And many, many others...

Anyway, this has gone on long enough... You need to get back to work and I need to get back to whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing...

I did briefly consider giving thanks for all the wonderful people in my life and blah-blah-blah, but then I decided that would be incredibly tedious for everyone involved. So, just let's assume that I'm thankful for all of those people and then let us speak about it never again...

So, from all of us here at Hoopla! (me) to all of you out there in readerland (that would be you and that one other guy who keeps accidentally winding up on this page because he can't figure out how to use his favorites function)...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

- Paul

Hoopla! - Episode 48: In which we say farewell to 2007...

Hello and welcome to Hoopla!

So, here's the deal...

I have a computer at home, but it pretty much sucks... if you ask it to do anything more complicated than send an email, it pretty much goes into shock and the whole thing crashes. Which sucks. So, when I'm working on Hoopla!, I use the computer at my office, which isn't actually my office but the guy I work for doesn't use it, so he's sort of lent it to me for the past several years...

You may be wondering, "Why is this guy telling me about his stupid computer and his office that isn't really his office?"

Well, the reason is this... on Friday afternoon (the 21 of December, that is) the GMU building shuts down and does not reopen until January 2. And my-office-that-isn't-my-office is inside that building. So, that means that there's pretty much no way for me to do Hoopla! again until after the new year starts.

So...

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all (both?) of you for reading this and to extra-especially thank those of you who took the time to write to me... it's much appreciated.

In an ideal world, I'd have the time and energy to put together some kind of "Best of 2007" list that would be the very height of hilarity and yet would also serve as a heart-felt tribute to all the fine, fine comics that have been published in the past year...

Such a list would have undoubtedly included Jeff Parker's Marvel Adventures: The Avengers, The Irredeemable Ant-Man, Civil War (I know, I know.. the critics all panned it. Too bad. I thought it was fantastic and that it served to make the Marvel Universe a MUCH more interesting place...), Ultimate Spider-Man, Proof, Agents of Atlas, Doctor Strange: The Oath, Immortal Iron Fist (and yes, I find it somewhat remarkable that an Iron Fist series is in my best of 2007 list, but there you go...), Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, New Avengers: Illuminati, Silent War, Runaways (particularly the last few Vaughan issues), Nova, Godland (Even though it's kind of petered out these past few months), All-Star Superman, World War Hulk (Hey, it was action-packed fluff, sure, but it was damn good action-packed fluff!), M.O.D.O.K.'s 11, The Deadpool/GLI - Summer Fun Spectacular, the final issues of 52 (except for those crappy World War III issues that all came out on the same week), The Brave and the Bold, Justice Society of America (especially the current Kingdom Come storyline), and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't think of right now.

Perhaps I would have indulged in some sort of "Best Writer of 2007" kind of thing... and, no doubt, the winner of that would have finally, ultimately, inevitably been Jeff Parker.

Because he's awesome.

[For what it's worth, I think I'd have to give second place to Brian K. Vaughan who, in 2007, wrote the kick-ass Doctor Strange limited series, finished his superb run on Runaways, has almost finished a four-part Faith story in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer that actually surpasses the arc written by Whedon, and helped get the Lost TV series back on track. Now that's what I call a productive year!]

I would also, no doubt, have taken the time to single out some of the very worst comics to come out in 2007. Such a list would have been dominated by Countdown and all its many cross-overs, but I would have taken the time to also ridicule the Spider-Man: One More Day storyline, Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and the whole misguided killing off of Bart Allen, Amazons Attack, and possibly a few others that I have, through the grace of God, been fortunate enough to erase from my memory.

Biggest disappointment... Grant Morrison on Batman. It really should have been amazing and yet, it's really, really not. And it took me way too many issues to admit it to myself.

I was in Grant Morrison denial, I'm afraid.

The other biggest disappointment of 2007 was the big Wildstorm debut of Authority (Grant Morrison! Gene Ha!), WildCats, etc. What a fiasco that was!

And, too, let us not forget Dwayne McDuffie's debut on Justice League of America. I was totally psyched for that... but I've had to drop it after just a couple of issues because it is so very, very bad.

Perhaps such a column, had I the time to do it right, would also feature some of my favorite covers from 2007, interspersed throughout.

And, no doubt, I would have taken a paragraph or two to bitch and moan about the current direction imposed upon the vast majority of DC's titles, almost all of which are bogged down in continuity-incest of the very worst kind, and almost all of which continue to rely on the deaths of b-list characters in a very jaded attempt to maintain interest in their fictional universe.

I could try to make some funny ha-ha's about Dan Didio and the damage he's done to the DC universe, but the truth is, it's gotten to the point where it's not even a little bit funny to me.

It's just offensive.

All told, I'd say it's been a great year for comics... sure, there's been lots of dreck, but I can' t think of a year since I first started collecting comics when you couldn't make a compelling case that an all-time peak had been reached for truly awful comics...

But the good stuff... Yum.

There was lots and lots of good stuff.

On a more personal note, 2007 was an outstanding year for me... I've made a ton of progress on my dissertation and will hopefully be finished by the end of next summer... plus, I got to spend lots of time with friends this year, doing fun stuff like travelling to Florida and drinking lots and lots of yummy alcoholic beverages...

The biggest event for me in 2007, however, was issue #247 of my life, which featured the debut of a brand-new character... Mie.

We've been together for just about a year, now, as our first date was on or around January 4, 2007... and she'll be moving in with me at the end of December. So, that's pretty cool.

When I think back to her original appearance, she was drawn slightly differently and the writer hadn't quite gotten her dialogue style right... but from the very start I knew that I wanted to, someday, have my own prestige format limited series with her.

That's my humble little dream, anyway...

So, here's hoping that 2007 was good to you and that 2008 will be even better... the world seems to be a tad bit more f*cked up than usual, at the moment, but I am hopeful that better times are ahead for all of us...

Best wishes to you all and I'll see you on the other side of the New Year!!!

- Paul

Hoopla! - Episode 22: The Best of Times, and the Worst of Times...

Hello and welcome to Hoopla!

This past week has been some very good mixed with some very bad for me... the good is that one of my articles has finally been accepted for publication in an academic journal. This is my first published "scholarly piece" and I'm pretty psyched. The title of said piece is "Toward Developing a Structured Approach to the Diagnosis and Resolution of Nonperforming Loans" and, let me tell you, it's every bit as scintillating as the title suggests.

For those of you who want to pick up a copy, quick stuff it in a mylar bag, save it for a few years, then sell it back on ebay for a small fortune once I've become famous, it's going to be published in the July 2007 issue of Review of Policy Research.

So, make sure you put that on your pull list.

The bad news is that Mie and I finally broke up. We had a decent run... better than most Keith Giffen illustrated series, at any rate, so I take some solace in that.

A lesser man, saddened as I am by the end of this relationship, might choose not to post comic-book reviews this week. A lesser man might simply wallow in his grief and leave his readers to fend for themselves for yet another week.

Not me, though.

You see, if I do that... then the terrorists have already won.

So, without any further ado, it's time that I present our newest monthly extravaganza...

The Best and the Worst of the Month That Was...

Each month, I'm going to present the three (or so) best and the three (or so) worst new comics I've read in the past month. Some of these, to the average reader, will appear to be far more than one month old. Well, blame it on the post office and the fact that I'm too busy to read every damn comic I receive when I receive it. This batch of reviews, for example, comes mostly from the comics of April of 2007.

And what a month o' comics it was!

I'm pleased to report that there was a lot more competition for the Best than there was for the Worst.

And the winners of The Best Comics of the Month That Was (in no particular order at all) are...

Detective Comics #831
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Don Kramer and Wayne Faucher
Published by DC

It took me a while to warm up to Dini's run on Detective Comics, at least in part because the pacing of his single-issue stories aren't what I'm used to. I think, though, that Dini is writing some of the best (and most original) Batman stories I've read in a long, long time.

One thing he's done that I very much appreciate is to provide a fresh look at villains we've seen a bazillion times before. For example, having the Riddler retire and become a celebrity-style detective who often ends up trying to compete with Batman to solve crimes... that's a pretty neat idea. It differentiates the Riddler from the numerous other Bat-villains and opens up some very fun story opportunities.

Issue #831 may be my favorite issue yet, though, because it stars Dini's greatest creation, Harley Quinn.

This one-issue story does a great job of establishing that Harley Quinn is completely bonkers, setting up an uneasy alliance between her and the new Ventriloquist, and then taking it in a completely unexpected direction. In so doing, Dini adds dimensions not only to Harley, but also to the original Ventriloquist and to Batman. And when you go back, having read the story, you can see how Dini has cleverly foreshadowed everything that happens. There's a throwaway line where the new Ventriloquist tells Harley, "Mr. Scarface prizes family loyalty and rewards accordingly." Harley responds, "Trust me, so do I." and that piece of dialogue, in particular, becomes very relevant toward the end of the story.

Good stuff, says I!



Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #12
Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Juan Santacruz and Raul Fernandez
Published by Marvel

With a title like "Ego, the Loving Planet" there was never much question that this was going to kick some serious butt.

Although almost every issue of this series that Parker has written has left me thinking "That was my favorite one of the whole series!", I think issue #12 may actually be the best one yet.

Ego, the Living Planet, is nearing the Earth, disrupting its gravitational pull and causing natural disasters around the planet. The Avengers race into outer space to confront Ego, only to find out that the Living Planet is, er, trying to score with the Earth.

"I was just cruisin' through your little system here and I said to myself, "Who is that fine, blue number three over there sportin' the ice caps?"

and

"I know I got a rep as a galactic playah, but I'm the real thing. Ego is all about commitment. Yeah, you heard that right."

The Avengers have a heck of a time discouraging Ego, since they're too small to even warrant his attention, and the final resolution to the story is pretty hilarious.

Jeff Parker is my favorite new writer to come along in a long, long time and this latest issue of Marvel Adventures: The Avengers just may be the best he's done yet.

-------------------------------------------------

Well, time is short this week, so we'll have the other winner and three losers of our The Best and The Worst of the Month That Was... next week, along with a look at comics coming your way in August. Until then, I leave you with this sneak preview, the cover to a new Metal Men limited series...

Oh, yeah...

- Paul

Hoopla! - Episode 14: The Unbearable Lightness of All-Ages Comics

Hello and welcome to Hoopla! I'm back from vacation and better than ever... my skin is tan, my walking pneumonia seems to have finally gone away, and life is good!

Before we start in on this week's comic-book reviews and a look at the June 2007 solicitations, I just wanted to say a word about last week's column.

It was a joke.

I had a couple of people write to me asking why I had posted a transcript of a DVD commentary on my blog. I'm not sure if this means I did a really good job or a really bad one, but just for the record, that wasn't a real transcript. It was a satire.

The good news, for those of you who enjoyed it, is that there's a second part that I'll use the next time I need to do a "fill-in issue" of Hoopla!

The bad news, for those of you who hated it, is that there's a second part that I'll use the next time I need to do a "fill-in issue" of Hoopla!

Anyway, on to new stuff...

Our Link of the Week is Tracy, Sarah, and Shelby Edmunds' All-Ages Read, which used to be posted at moviepoopshoot.com (I always hated that name, by the way) but which can now be found over at newsarama.com, my favorite source of comic-book news. The All-Ages Read is a semi-regular review of comics that are -- you guessed it! -- for all ages. As far as I can tell, they don't have their own web-site or blog, so the link above is to a specific column of theirs that just came out. I'll tell you what, though, I'll go ahead and write to them and see if they have their archives available anywhere. If so, I'll let y'all know.

[Update: No archive exists yet, but Tracy promises me they're working on it.]

Here is their mission statement:

Welcome to All Ages Reads. Our review crew consists of Tracy (mom, teacher, and avid comic reader), Sarah (third-grader, age 8) and Shelby (fifth-grader, age 11). Our mission is to seek out comics and graphic novels that both kids and adults can enjoy and tell you all about them so you can enjoy them, too.

The two comics they review in this week's column both sound pretty cool and I'm planning to try to trick my friends into buying copies for their daughter, Ivy (whose art we featured previously) so that I can read them for free.

We'll see how that goes.

What I like about their reviews is that they are usually super-funny (Sarah and Shelby are a riot) and, even more importantly, they review stuff that I've never heard of before and probably never would have heard of otherwise.

And this brings us to this week's sermon, er, I mean topic...

Last week, during Spring Break, I went off to Florida with a bunch of friends who are all in the same PhD program that I'm in. We rented a condo together and a good time was had by all (despite the inevitable friction of having six people share a condo with only two bedrooms for a week).

Before going, I debated whether or not to bring any comics. On the one hand, I like comics. I like reading them. I like wearing them on my head.

But, on the other hand, I hate having to explain to my fellow grown-ups that, yes, I read comic-books and no, it doesn't mean that I'm a social deviant because really comic-books aren't just for kids anymore and Maus won a Pulitzer Prize and blah-blah-blah.

I got tired of that conversation about ten years ago. Nowadays, I'm really tired of it.

In the end, however, I decided to bring just a few... just in case I had a comic-book emergency situation.

So...

Fast forward a few days and I'm on the beach, reading about political science theory as it pertains to self-regulation (I did a lot of school work while on vacation... sue me!) and I suddenly felt a strong need for something a bit more... fun. So, I figured "To hell with it..." and pulled out a comic-book and started reading.

My colleagues stared at me, as one might expect, and eventually questioned me about this.

Insert the whole conversation. Maus. 300. (Which, somehow, it's okay that they all want to see that movie, but it's weird that I read the comic-book that it's based on.) Persepolis. Etc.

I thought I'd made some progress with them, but later that night, as we were watching something on TV (the Colbert Report, possibly?) there was a commercial for a video-game. Some dragons and dungeons and big sword-y kind of thing. And my friend, Ema, said, "Oh, look Paul! That's the kind of stuff that you like, right?"

Ugh.

So, again with the conversation. And later that night, it occurred to me that I should show them some of the comics that I'd brought so that they could see that comics aren't like video-games. So, I opened my backpack and pulled out my comics and...

[And here's the point that I've been building up to for the past several paragraphs...]

And there was no Persepolis in my backpack. No Maus. Nothing even remotely adult-like.

Instead, I'd brought Marvel Adventures: The Avengers (the one where all the Avengers get big MODOK-heads) and some old Justice League of America and stuff like that. Fun stuff. Stuff that basically would sink the argument for me.

And this got me to thinking...

Back when I was a kid, I used to love comics because they were fun. This was back in the late 70's and the comics I read then, when I go back to read them now, they aren't terribly sophisticated. The Justice League of America were working from their satellite headquarters (this was pre-Detroit) and Batman was fighting the Calculator (How many of you remember that storyline? It was in Detective Comics and it lasted several issues.) and Superman was still single and nerdy. Spider-Man only had one costume. The Punisher had never had his own series. There was no Alan Moore, no Frank Miller, and certainly no Maus.

As I hit my teens, however, I wanted comics that reflected (at least a little bit) reality. Naturally, I was drawn to the X-Men (back when they only had one series) and to the Teen Titans (Wolfman and Perez). I loved anything by DeMatteis (at the time, he was doing Captain America and The Defenders) because it dealt with real stuff. Sure, there were super-heroes fighting super-villains, but it was all very relevant. And from there it was just a couple of years to Frank Miller's Daredevil and Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and the rest is history. Love and Rockets. Maus. Watchmen. The more "real" it was, the better.

But these days, I look at what I'm really enjoying--what I choose to bring on my vacation to Florida--and very little of it is deliberately relevant or gritty. I like Jeff Parker's Marvel Adventures: The Avengers and Jeff Smith's Shazam. I want to read Superman Confidential and All-Star Superman and stuff by Mike Allred and Dan Slott.

I'm excited about the upcoming Minx books which, let's face it, is being published for teen girls.

I don't want to read Warren Ellis' millionth deconstruction of super-heroes. I loved Promethea because it was beautiful and hilarious and awe-inspiring, not because it was philosophical and vaguely brilliant.

I've gone back to liking comics that are fun. And maybe this is a part of the natural cycle of things. When you're a teen, you suddenly realize that the world is far more complex and imperfect than you'd realized previously. And you want to read about that, not about make-believe stuff. You start appreciating movies like Chinatown and Apocalypse Now.

But, at a certain point, it's like, "Okay. I get it. The world is imperfect and complex. Duly noted. Now, can I please get back to having some entertainment that's actually fun?"


And on that note, it's time for... New stuff I'm excited about for June 2007!!!

Isn't that a lovely cover? I get all happy inside just looking at it. All-Star Superman is a gorgeous book and I am eternally grateful to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely for producing it. It's got all the fun and silliness of the comics I grew up with, but written and illustrated with a flair that simply didn't exist back then.

I had decided to drop Grant Morrison's Batman because I just wasn't finding it very interesting, but the solicitation for the June issue has pulled me back in.

BATMAN #667
Written by Grant Morrison
Art and cover by J.H. Williams III
The Batmen of All Nations reunite for a weekend of fine food and nostalgia, but an unexpected visitor has other plans for the gathering. Batman, Robin, and the rest of the Club of Heroes find themselves trapped and at the mercy of a dangerous madman on the Island of Mister Mayhew!On sale June 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The Batmen of All Nations??? Art by J.H. Williams III???

Oh, yeah. I'm there.

Thus far, I've held off pre-ordering any of the Minx books because ten dollars is a lot to spend on something I haven't actually seen yet, but I'm about to break my own rule, because there's just no way the above title isn't going to be excellent. I like what I've seen of the work of both Andi Watson and Josh Howard, but it's the plot summary that really clinches it.

See for yourself...

CLUBBING

Written by Andi Watson

Art and cover by Josh Howard

CLUBBING is the third book from MINX, DC COMICS' new young adult graphic novel imprint. CLUBBING is written by the Eisner- and Harvey-nominated indie sensation Andi Watson (Geisha, Paris, Skeleton Key) and illustrated by Josh Howard (Dead @ 17), Wizard magazine's pick as the #1 independent book to watch in 2005.

The crime: Getting caught with a fake I.D. at an extravagant West End nightclub. The punishment: Spending the summer at her Grandparent's stuffy country club. But Charlotte "Lottie" Brook, best known for her mile-high platforms, an endless i-tunes account and an unbridled passion for classic lit, will end up doing more than just serving time in country boot camp. Lottie will narrowly escape romance and end up solving a murder mystery on the 19th hole of her Grandparents1 golf course.This book also includes Lottie's Lexicon, a special dictionary feature that translates English slang to fluent American.All MINX books contain 176 pages, black and white interiors with gray tones and color covers. Each title also includes previews for three other MINX books as a special bonus.Advance-solicited; on sale July 11 / 176 pg, FC, $9.99 US

Sold!

I've got nothing really to say about the above cover except that Fables is a wonderful comic and that's a particularly excellent cover, I think. Fables is another fine example of a series that combines a childish sense of wonder (it is, after all, about characters from children's fairy-tales living in New York City) but with an adult sensibility.

See? How can I argue that comics are for adults when I'm totally psyched to get the above issue of Legion of Super-Heroes? I can't. My credibility is shot to hell.

The above cover is not all that great, but the plot summary sounds like a lot of fun!

MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #25
Written by FRED VAN LENTE
Penciled by CORY HAMSCHER
Cover by PAUL SMITH
The Human Torch falls into a probability rift and finds himself flung across innumerable alternate realities, including: a world where a heroic Victor Von Doom, a.k.a. Doc Iron, battles against Mr. Devious, Monsterman, The Human Pyre, and The Unstoppable Woman ... a.k.a. The Frightful Four, a world where the Femmetastic Four defends a world completely depopulated of men (then Johnny shows up) and a world where Johnny's arch-nemesis runs the FF ... That's right, SPIDER-MAN! Can The Watcher help Torch get back to his timeline, or will he wander forever through "The Worlds of What If?"And a warm welcome to new cover artist PAUL SMITH!32 PGS./All Ages …$2.99


I've never heard of writer Fred Van Lente, but there's no way that a comic-book with the Femmetastic Four is going to be anything but brilliant! I mean, seriously, you can't go wrong...



This Brian Bolland cover is for a trade paperback collecting a bunch of old Jimmy Olson stories. I have no interest in the book itself, but I think that cover is beautiful. If only Bolland would re-illustrate all those old stories, I'd buy it for sure!




I only buy the occasional issue of She-Hulk; I really enjoyed it for the first year or so, but when artist Juan Bobillo left, a lot of the fun seemed to be drained out of the comic. That and the very long, not so interesting Starfox storyline led to my dropping the series.

But...

The above cover has piqued my interest. Any allusion to Howard the Duck is guaranteed to draw me in...

It takes so little to make me happy, really.

This cover is okay-but-not-great, but the text has me intrigued...

MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #3

story MICHAEL ALLRED

art & cover MICHAEL & LAURA ALLRED
32 PAGES FC JUNE 6 $2.99 "SWIPED FROM DIMENSION X!" Frank Einstein must run the gauntlet through multiple realities in various comic strip and comic book universes in a story you'll have to see to believe! Will Frank make it back to Snap City? Or will he settle into a new world and just try to make the best of it?

I know, I know. Again with the multiple realities!

What can I tell you? I like stories with multiple realities... and the fact that it's by Mike Allred is pretty much a guarantee of good times ahead!

Anyway, I was going to do an overview/review of the recent Eternals limited series (written by Neil Gaiman) but I am way behind on my dissertation and I have another conference in a few days that I need to prepare for. (I won't be taking Jet Blue to get there, so I may actually make it to this one!)

I hope you're all having a wonderful week and, if you have a spare minute, I encourage you to drop me a line (either through the comments-thingie or via email) and let me know which comics you're enjoying these days and what you look for in a good comic-book reading experience.

Until next week, here's hoping no one screws with your continuity...

Hoopla! - Episode 11: A celebration of moisture.

Hello and welcome once again to Hoopla! This week we're going to take a look at a couple of upcoming projects from Image that look potentially interesting, a list of everything I'm ordering for the month of May, and the first in an ongoing series called Link of the Week which, as you might have guessed, is... um... a weekly link. Yup.



More often than not, the link will be related to comic-book stuff, such as blogs with comic-book reviews or comic-book news or comic-book plates or comic-book cups or comic-book birthday cakes or... well, you get the idea.



Our first Link of the Week is to one of my favorite sources of comic-book reviews, news, and general all-around stuff, Every Day is Like Wednesday. Caleb's column is always interesting and often pretty damn funny, but the truly amazing thing about it is that it comes out every day.



How the hell does he do that???



Caleb has great taste, as evidenced by the fact that it's similar to mine!!! He even reads and enjoys Jeff Parker's Marvel Adventures: The Avengers, which proves that he is a worthwhile human being.



So, there you have it. Our first Link of the Week. I think that went pretty well, don't you?



[And if you, the reader, have any suggestions for future links, please send them along to me. Anything interesting/funny/cool is fair game.]

And now, this...


Grant Morrison only wishes he could come up with something that surreal...

And now for something extra-special:

A few weeks ago I started going out with this woman I'm rather fond of.

But it's my first potentially serious relationship in a long, long while.

So, now that we're officially "an item", here's a little song I've written about that...

Oh, I like my girlfriend...
La, la, la,
But my heart is oh so filled with anxiety...
La, la, la
She is so cool and funny and pretty...
La, la, la
I hope she doesn't wind up being insane and making my life a living hell...
La, la, la

I'm so glad I could share that with all of you.

And now it's time to take a look at what all I'm ordering for the month of May. Will this be interesting to anyone other than myself? I have no idea. Hopefully you'll find a couple of things you didn't know about which you will then purchase and enjoy and be eternally grateful to me.

That's my hope, anyway...

THINGS I'M PLANNING TO BUY IN MAY

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #3

Written by Joss Whedon, I'm hoping that this will be good... but I'm not totally optimistic.

ACTION COMICS #850

I don't normally pick this up, but the solicitation makes it sound like a fun single issue story.

ACTION COMICS #850
Written by Kurt Busiek
Art and cover by Renato Guedes
In this extra-sized special issue, writer Kurt Busiek reunites with artist Renato Guedes to visit the 31st Century and the Girl of Steel! Supergirl's looking for a way to back from the future and to realize why Superman doesn't want her to wear the "S" shield, but both Superman and Supergirl in for a big surprise when they see what the past has in store! With time-viewing sneak peaks at the upcoming year's events!

COUNTDOWN #51

My super-sneaky plan is to only order the first issue of this series. The first issue is actually scripted by Paul Dini, so it should be pretty good, and this way I'll have a sense of what the series is actually about.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #9

I've got mixed feelings about this title, thus far, but I guess I'm enjoying it enough to stick with it for now. Besides which, this issue crosses over into...

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #6

This has been pretty darn good so far, too. Neither of these books would make my Top Ten of the month, but they're both generally good super-hero-ey fun.

SPIRIT #6

BATMAN STRIKES #33

I don't normally buy this. In fact, I've never bought it before. But, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the cover made me laugh. Sometimes, that's all it takes...

FABLES #61 (MR)

Ah, Fables. How I do love thee...

MADAME MIRAGE KENNETH ROCAFORT CVR B #1

This is a new series by Paul Dini. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it's being published by Top Cow. I've never bought a Top Cow comic and I've never wanted to.

Their company motto is "We draw bigger boobs... for the exact same price!"

So, I'm probably going to regret this one.

[Side note: although I've never purchased a Top Cow comic-book, I did once know a guy who was really into Fathom and insisted that I read some. As someone who likes to at least pretend to be open-minded, I read the first three or four issues. All I remember about them now is that the lead character had huge breasts and that she was constantly coming out of the water. I think maybe that was her super-power or something. One issue she'd be stepping out of the ocean wearing a very wet and clingy t-shirt and a thong. The next issue, she'd take a bath with lots of sudsy bubbles and then would step out of the tub with a few protective bubbles covering up her naughty bits. The next issue, she'd step out of a pool wearing a super-tight one-piece bathing suit. Etc.

It was a very wet book. It was a book that celebrated moisture.]

CIVIL WAR FALLEN SON CAPTAIN AMERICA

I had no intention of picking this up, but the mail order company I use (mailordercomics.com) features a handful of titles at ridiculously low prices every month, and this is one of them for this month. So, it costs 74 cents.

What's a guy to do?

CIVIL WAR FALLEN SON IRON MAN

Also didn't plan to pick this up, but it's got art by John Cassaday. Ack!

SPIDER-MAN FANTASTIC FOUR #2 (Of 4)

Jeff Parker. Yummy goodness...

SPIDER-MAN FAIRY TALES #1

I was already considering getting this because of the beautiful cover art, but it turns out that this is another 74 cents special from mailordercomics. So, that pretty much decided that.

AVENGERS INITIATIVE #2 (Of 6)

Dan Slott.

BLACK PANTHER #28

Zombies...

DAREDEVIL #97

That first story arc by Brubaker and Lark was so good... I keep waiting for them to do that again.

FANTASTIC FOUR #546

Dwayne McDuffie. See my review from a couple of weeks ago...

INCREDIBLE HULK #106

Haven't bought this in a long, long time, but it's got art by Gary Frank and it's setting things up for the upcoming World War Hulk storyline, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #6

Still hasn't totally blown me away, but definitely good enough to stick with for now...

IRON MAN #18

I've actually really enjoyed the past few issues I've read by the Knaufs and I'm interested to see what's going to happen with the character post-Civil War.

IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #8

Yessssss!!!!

MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #13

Yessssss!!!

MARVEL ZOMBIES DEAD DAYS

More zombie goodness...

NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI #3 (Of 5)

So far, this hasn't really lived up to my expectations. It's good enough to keep buying, but it seems like it should be about a million times better than it is...

RUNAWAYS #26

SILENT WAR #5 (Of 6)

I reviewed this a couple of weeks back. This is the series about the Inhumans being at war with Earth. Good stuff...

X-MEN FIRST CLASS SPECIAL

I talked about this one last week. Jeff Parker and a bunch of kick-ass artists, including Mike Allred. This is gonna be frickin' awesome...

CRIMINAL #6

NEW AVENGERS #30

I'm just about ready to drop this, but not quite yet...

NOVA #2

This might suck, but I've got a good feeling about it. We shall see...

GODLAND #19

I love this book.

And here's the solicitation for the May issue...

GØDLAND #19
story JOE CASEY
art TOM SCIOLI
cover TOM SCIOLI & RICHARD STARKINGS
32 PAGESFCMAY 30$2.99

BOOK NINETEEN: HIGH HEAD STUNG

Cosmic Melodrama meets Orgy of Violence! What more could you want from a comic book? I mean, just look at that cover! That’s the SAVAGE STING, baby! Doesn’t that just say it all?!? Besides, so much insane sh*t happens this issue, you won’t believe your beady little eyes!

DON’T DARE MISS THIS MONTH’S COSMIC EXTRAVAGANZA!

That's a mighty enthusiastic solicitation, no? And the whole damn series is like that. I think that this, Irredeemable Ant-Man, and Marvel Adventures: The Avengers are some of the most fun comics I've ever read. And I've been reading the funny-books for a miiiighty long time.

A couple of titles that I had been picking up but which got officially dropped this month...

MIGHTY AVENGERS

As mentioned last week, I have no interest in Lady Ultron vs. the Sentinel, and I certainly have no interest in Tigra... AS DRAWN BY FRANK CHO!!!

BATMAN

I'd been picking this up because, y'know, it's written by Grant Morrison and he's great and all that, but the simple truth is that this series has been pretty lame thus far. I'm tired of pretending that it's anything better than what it is.

And that's it for me. If I've missed anything that you think is truly excellent, please do let me know.

So, I keep promising to give you a look at a couple of upcoming projects from Image that have me intrigued, but I'm frustrated by the lack of information available. As a result, this is going to be brief...

GUTSVILLE #1 (of 6)
story Simon Spurrier

art & cover Frazer Irving

32 PAGES FCMAY 30$2.99
GUTSVILLE is a town living in the belly of the beast, literally. 150 years after the ocean liner HMS Daphne was swallowed at sea, its passengers’ descendents cling to life in Gutsville. All is not well among the slippery streets… As revolutionaries, sadistic priests and frothing psychos clash in the psychedelic innards of an impossible creature, it’s left to one scared RatCatcher to consider escape…
RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

It actually looks kind of awful, but I really like Frazer Irving's art, so that's why I might consider picking this up. Possibly.

STRANGE EMBRACE #1 (of 8)

story DAVID HINEart & cover David Hine & ROB STEEN

32 PAGESFCMAY 16$2.99
SPAWN & X-MEN: CIVIL WAR writer David Hine brings his magnum opus to Image Comics! Digitally re-mastered, STRANGE EMBRACE will be available as eight monthly issues colored by FLANIMALS co-creator ROB STEEN and lettered by those awfully nice chaps at Comicraft! STRANGE EMBRACE is a modern gothic psycho-sexual tortured romance and is not for the nervous!
RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

The fact that David Hine has written Spawn and X-Men-Civil War isn't something they should be boasting about, really, but he's also written Son of M and is currently writing Silent War, both of which I enjoy.

Again, I probably won't end up picking this up, but it seemed worth mentioning.

Okay, so this next one is the biggie...

INTERSECTIONS

art & cover DUNCAN FEGREDO & Sean Phillips

96 PAGESFC MAY 9$14.99 SC$34.99 LTD HC
Conceived during a repast of fine wine and nouvelle cuisine, INTERSECTIONS is the meeting of two artistic minds.
Sean Phillips (MARVEL ZOMBIES, CRIMINAL) and DUNCAN FEGREDO (HELLBOY, ENIGMA) play artistic ping pong with a sketchbook – a drawn and painted conversation where punctuation is provided by the postal service.
Can you read between the paintings?
Intersections: A visual dialogue between Sean Phillips and DUNCAN FEGREDO.
Intersections: The sequential conclusion to an excess of curry and beer.

Ah. Now this looks interesting. Duncan Fegredo is one of my favorite comic-book artists (I loved Enigma) and Sean Phillips is pretty damn good too. [I wonder why Fedgredo's name is in all capital letters throughout the solicitation and Phillips' isn't?] This might be very, very good.

On the other hand...

It's fifteen dollars. And it might suck.

So, this is where some additional information would be useful.

But I can't find anything.

Which I find kind of annoying and odd. I mean, let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that they would like to sell some copies of this book. That they aren't printing it up for the hell of it, but would actually like to exchange the books for money.

Everyone involved in this project knows that stores (and many readers) preorder three months in advance. So, how much effort would it take to put up some sort of web-site that describes the book in a little more detail and maybe provides 4 or 5 preview pages so that the consumer (that's you and me) can make an informed decision (one of the fundamental assumptions that must be met in order for the free market system to function properly) before ordering?

They're ruining capitalism for me!!!

Oh, well. I'm going to wrap things up now... I'd hoped to do a review or two, but my poor brain is throbbing. Remember previously I mentioned how I was all sick and everything and then the doctor prescribed antibiotics and I was feeling better but also feeling kind of stupid because I'd been so skeptical about going to see the doctor and getting antibiotics?

Well...

It turns out that my original dubious-ness was correct and the antibiotics seemed to help for a few days but then stopped and now I am as miserably ill as I was to begin with. So, that means I win!!! Ha!!! The doctor is stupid and antibiotics are stupid and I am the greatest person in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my prize is... I feel like poop.

Hurray for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, be here next week when I show the French what a montage is all about!

(Not really...)

Until then, here's hoping that your doctor is smarter than mine!