The Demonweasel Speaks

1. Channel Zero – Brian Wood Never read it, but I’m loving DMZ.
2. Agents of Atlas – Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk I’m not usually one for Golden Age type stuff, but I’ve heard good things.
3. Artesia Afield – Mark Smylie I recently discovered this series, and it’s quite good, even if it can be ridiculously smutty.
4. Casanova – Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba When issue 1 came out I said 2007 would be the Year of Fraction, and he makes it so. Casanova is one of the best new series in a long time. I’ve read all the single issues but one, and I want to enjoy them all together in the glorious HC.
5. Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 – David Petersen Everyone raved about this, but it sold faster than I could get my hands on it, so now it’s my turn.
6. Three Strikes – Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Brian Hurtt I really loved Skinwalker, and I’m a sucker for crime fiction.
7, 8, 9. Hellblazer: Fear & Loathing, Tainted Love, & Damnation’s Flame. – Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon I love Preacher, but the only Hellblazer I’ve read is Original Sins, some of the Rare Cuts TPB and Dangerous Habits.
10. The Couriers – Brian Wood, Rob G More Brian Wood goodness. Recently optioned for a movie.
11. AKA Goldfish – Brian Michael Bendis Old school Bendis I’ve never read.
12. World War Z – Max Brooks Because Zombies are real and they’re coming…

I make it a habit to bring more than I can read. Just because.

I will go on vacation. Even if I feel like I’ve been dragged behind a truck when I get there. I’m fairly exhausted, and I just need some time to just sit around with no responsibilities and worries and just chill out. Old Home, here I come.

It’s amazing to me that two of the shows I’ve been the most invested in this year had finales that totally were the opposite of their seasons. “Heroes” had a season that was fun and full of adventure, mystery and super-hero pride, and a finale that did everything to distance itself from those things. A build-up to a final conflict that lasted maybe fifteen minutes and could’ve been, should’ve been, a massive super-powers smackdown. No such. Little resolution of Nikki/Jessica, no resolution for Mama Petrelli and Sulu (okay, so they have powers…and they would be?) and strangely, the return of the boring Mohinder voice-overs.

“Lost” had a shaky season, with a lot of weird “Where are they going?” moments, the amazing expendable Nikki and Paolo, favorites that fell in and out of the show, and little to no mythology. Then the last few episodes ratchet everything up to a groin-destroying premise explosion that’s going to have everyone (myself included) screaming WTF until January when the show comes back. For 16 episodes. Puke.

I’m still big on both shows, but it will be interesting to see who stands up next season. Thus far, there isn’t a single new show that grabs my attention, and none of the shows (except for “Rescue Me” and “Big Love”, of course) this summer look at all interesting. I’m filling my time now with “Attack of the Show” and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”

When we come back I’m going to try to have a renewed vigor towards my personal work, like the afore-mentioned proposed show. I’m still getting interest from people about doing it, and I don’t know exactly how it’s all going to turn out, since we haven’t gotten all of our players together in a room yet. I’ve never been 100% successful when it comes to group work, so it could just be a disaster, but who knows.

I’m looking at everything through the murky haze of “When we get back.” Hopefully, everything will be clearer by then.

Even though my schedule at work has been ridiculous, I’m glad that not only do I have a good woman to come home to, but my entertainment choices are holding up in this, the final hour of TV season. “24″ kinda has gotten off the rails, but I like they just stuck with the one terrorist threat and not the “one group with 17 different plans” thing. That’s gets old, fast. “Lost” is back and firing on all cylinders. Tonight’s episode was killer, and I’m *dying* for the season finale. On wikipedia, apparently, they have the full breakdown of last summer’s meta-event thing, with all the different web pages and phone numbers and stuff like that, and it supposedly explains what the numbers mean. I’m going to wait until next week and see if there’s any mention of that stuff in the finale, and if not, I’m going to check it out.

In a world gone mad, both “All-Star Batman & Robin #5″ and “Ultimates 2 #13″ came out today. For those of you keeping score at home, the last time an issue of ASBR came out was last May, and the last time an issue of Ultimates came out was September. The two comics we thought would never arrive finally arrive. Of course, neither really lives up to the hype and delay (because that’s the dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about when it comes to late books: it makes the expectations higher: “I waited a year for this?”). It’s nice to see that Frank Miller hasn’t lost his stride when it comes to crazy. That squirrelly bastard hits the ground running on the first page. It’s ridiculously bad.

Speaking of, I’m not holding any optimism any more for the “Transformers” movie. God help me, I want to love it…but c’mon. They just look weird. I mean, mayble it’ll be good, I dunno…but why can’t they look kinda like they used to. I know Megatron can’t be a pistol, but c’mon, you can make him a tank! Big crazy scary tank, sounds like Hugo Weaving? “Give me the Matrix, Mr. Prime.” Anyone? Anyone?

Here’s a dirty little secret: I’m assembling a team to do a podcast web show, about comics. Bi-Weekly, I’m thinking. We’re not going to do anything until I get back from vacation, but still…assembling my team, going to call myself Executive Producer. In caps.

Ssssh, don’t tell anyone.

PS: I’ve changed the comment permissions around, so ti should be easier to leave them. Do so, won’t you, so I know I’m not hollering in a cave. I promise to write back.

PPS: Continuing on the subject of comics and commenting, I left an extensive comment in Geoff Klock’s Blog talking about this weeks comics. Geoff is a smart fellow, and is requesting more readers and trust me, he’s worth reading, so check it out, won’t you?

Kenzie and I did a whole little skit about Jessica and Parkman meeting up again in tonights “Heroes.” We’re going to miss the shit out of that show this summer, as it’s really become the anchor of our weekly viewing. That and “Lost,” which has really stepped up it’s game the past few episodes. It’s nice to hear that the producers have decided to not drag the show out more than they feel it needs to be, and that the season finale will most likely introduce some status quo changes that promise to shed more light on what’s going on. And for those of you that don’t know, yes, there was a Jacob in the chair in the hut. For 11 frames, apparently.

And “Sopranos?” Don’t get me started on Sunday’s “Sopranos.” Holy jumped up Jesus. That’s all I can say.

Work has been wearing my ass for a boot lately. No real break since last Tuesday, and none in sight until next Monday. One of my co-worker’s grandmother is on her death bed, and he’s going to be gone until next Monday. And, given how well some stuff went on FCBD (which went really, really well), we’re moving some things around at the store to have a slightly different layout for street fair. To make sure this works okay, it has to be done before I leave on vacation on Memorial day, hence the extra work.

I got lousy ass sleep last night, but for some reason I’m more awake tonight than I have been for the past few days. Beer may be the reason. I’ve been joking about spending my whole vacation drunk, but really, that’s not going to happen. I think I’m just going to spend it in the yard or beach, sunning, reading and writing. Plus family time.

Mmmmm, it’s the light at the end of my tunnel right now.

So today at work we got free passes to see Spider-man 3, which would be great, except for the fact that I already bought tickets for me and the gang for tomorrow. Of course, these free passes are for the preview screening at 7pm tomorrow in Huber Heights, which is about 30 minutes away, and they’re first come first serve, so given the hugeness of the movie we’d have to be there at 5, the earliest, and we’re still chugging along prepping for FCBD and I can’t take the time off. It was ridiculously surprising, as we always get passes to shitty movies or ones that have so desperate a cult following that they need to get folks in there to see them early and talk them up before the release. Spider-man doesn’t really fit into that category, although they have been saying that it has to make all its money this weekend, as Pirates opens the following weekend and then Shrek 3 the week after that. Hollywood is so insane.

I’m going to go to bed early (pre-1:30am) tonight, as I’ll be up until 3:30 probably tomorrow night (and have to imbibe mass amounts of caffeine to stay up that late, which means I’ll be unable to sleep well) and then be working 10 to 8 Friday and then 10 (probably 9) to 7 on Saturday. Then, coma.

Kenz and I bought wedding invitations today. We get the proofs back soon, and then the final tweaking of the guest list. Well, honestly, there’s not much tweaking. We have about 250 warm bodies on the list, but I don’t think every single person on there will be able to make it. Maybe there will be some new folks added, but we shall see. It’s funny how we were like “Wow, it’s really happening,” afterwards, but we already had a spot of that in February when we met with the planner-lady and saw the Legion and bought all that stuff and such. It’s silly to do that again now, but we go through cycles of wedding planning. We did a bunch in February, nothing really in March and April (maybe a little in March, who knows), and now we’re back to doing stuff. Okay, well, Kenzie bought her dress and the bridesmaid dresses were picked out, but for some weird reason I wasn’t invited along for that. What gives?

I’ve been burning out my eardrums on JoJo, NIN, mc chris and Little Shop of Horrors. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of mc. I’m kinda sad that I didn’t make an effort to go see him in Columbus, but when I was surfing YouTube I saw that he did a show at the Isotope in San Francisco, which is a stylish, high-end Comic Book store/louge. Ah, the dreams I have for the ‘Star.

I don’t talk comics much here, but I should because they’re awesome. The Sensational Spider-man Annual that came out today is a near-perfect Spider-Man story. Matt Fraction crafts a great portrait of the Peter/MJ relationship, from awkward “he’s a nerd, she’s a party girl” past to “everyone knows my secret identity, my aunt has been shot and about to die and we’re on the run from the law” present. Despite all the crazy bullshit about the Civil War fallout nonsense and the Joe Quesada “I don’t think Peter should be married” hullabaloo, this is the kind of story that reaffirms your love of the character and the relationship he and MJ have.

It was also Joss Whedon day, as Astonishing X-men, Buffy and Runaways all arrived today. If you liked Buffy and you don’t read the Buffy comic, go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass GO, try to get my boot out of your ass. If you read comics and you don’t read Astonishing or Runways, see above. All three are so just stellar it’s mental. Mental! I’m also in the process of reading the “Battle Royale” novel. The original, that they based the movie, and the manga and all that other shit on. Very dark, very weird, very good. For those that don’t know: in a weird future/alternate present, every couple of year, in order to improve their military, the Japanese (?) government takes a middle school class and strands them somewhere, gives them each a random weapon, and tell them that they have to kill each other and the last one alive gets a reprieve. Like I said, very, very dark.

Like it is outside, so it’s bedtime. Y’know, one of these days, I’m gonna write a short post.

Oh, and “Leather Jacketed Punisher an,” I didn’t ignore you, I’m just bad at responding to comments. And I still can’t figure out who you are…

This is one of them there “I have to go to work right now” posts. So, with a quickness.

- “Drive” was canceled, which blows. Very few things seem to be given a chance nowadays. I mean, try it on a different night, give it some chance to build word of mouth. Almost every blog I read had been talking about it, and their MySpace had about 14000 friends. I know that doesn’t translate into ratings, but c’mon. It was *fun.* We need more fun shows.

- Thankfully, “Heroes” the most fun show on TV, has returned, and sweet peg-legged Jesus it’s good. Again, I make my challenge to DC or Marvel to try to do a show like this. You’ve been shamed, kids. I mean, dressing up in costumes and fighting crime? Alright, maybe that’s played out. Hell, even comics today don’t have much of that any more, but people who are born with powers, trying to get along in the world? Any enemy who’s trying to control it? C’mon, you can’t make an X-men show? Drop the fancy suits and some of the high-end type stuff, and you’d be rolling. Granted, they do a good job on “Heroes” of giving people powers that don’t cost a lot to show. Parkman just has to concentrate, they just put strings on stuff for telekinesis, and Nathan never really flies, so the FX budget probably isn’t that high. Maybe next season, though.

- Kenzie has it right (she usually does): Sylar is one of the best villains on TV, pretty much ever. They’ve gotta keep him around, because you cannot top him.

- I’m re-editing Shadow of the Past, and I’m very happy with the results. Who knows, maybe I’ll begin posting them.

- The gang is going to see Spider-man 3 Thursday at midnight. Then I’m going to be at work for about 10 hours on Friday getting ready for Free Comic Book Day. Then I’m going to be at work for another 9 hours that day (saturday). Yay.

- There’s a new Fantastic Four 2 trailer. Okay, now I’m listening.

- I need new categories.

- I may not’ve posted this already, but I changed my “About” tab up there, so it now contains a bio. Wait, getting Deja Vu. Maybe I did.

- Late