Comic Book Resources

A Comic Nerd’s Austin Road Trip Diary (Prologue: Little Content Generated About Austin, Some About Final Crisis, Brian Wood, Buffy, and Captain America)

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• by Brad Curran
• in General
• 5 Comments

Is it in better or worse taste to use my cousin’s wedding for content fodder instead of a hurricane. U-decide! Also, how funny is it that that phrase outlived one of the guys who thought it up’s comics career? Bill Jemas we hardly knew ye, but what we did was annoying. And yet Marvel was better under him, I think.

Tuesday- Went clothes shopping at the mall so I could be presentable at wedding. Used proximity to bookstore to use Borders coupon, buy Captain America: Burden of Dreams, Demo, and Shonen Jump.

I had slept on Brubaker’s Cap a bit, but then I went and recieved the Omnibus and got hooked. It still has ridiculous bits that clash a bit with the edgy, noir-ish tone Brubaker imported from Sleeper, not the least of which is Bucky’s detached bionic arm going on a rampage. I mean, I enjoyed the hell out of it, but it doesn’t quite mesh with the Red Skull causing the sub prime mortgage crisis. That said, it’s still probably my favorite Cap solo run ever (small sample size it’s up against aside) and Bucky taking the role felt as organic as it possibly could, given that he could very well have stepped right out of a crappy ’90s comic. Brubaker’s deft touch helps a lot. The art is great for the shadow drenched feel Brube’s going for without making Cap’s shiny (literally, in Alex Ross’s case) return to his own comic seem to out of place.

Demo was a comic that I thought was interesting when it was solicited, back in the first Cleaveland administration, but whose existence I forgot about over the years. In fact, I bought it thinking it was Local. So that was embarassing. But I think I’ll like this better than what I thought it was. I do need to rectify the problem of not having read much Brian Wood somehow, so this’ll do. Didn’t AIT/Lar serialize this? ‘Cuz Vertigo apparently owns him body and soul now.

SJ, well; I’ve only bought one ever issue. I was gonna review it here, but it gave me a splitting goddam headache, so, not for me. No big deal. I have enough comics to read, you know? But then I saw that Stan Lee was writing, and apparently starring in, a samurai manga now. So, yeah, I need to own that. Haven’t read it yet; it went in the large stack of mostly unread stuff I took on the trip with me. A 6 hour car ride with my dad can be filled with many silent pauses. Like, for 5 and 1/2 hours. This one wasn’t, oddly enough. So I haven’t seen if Stan Lee manga gives me the same splitting headache Naruto did. Also, this one has a series Jog mentioned in passing at Savage Critic, so there’s that.

Wednesday- In between all the last minute rushing around trying to get ready for the road trip, I found time to make my Wednesday pilgrimage to the Nerd Cathedral. Big week for me; Buffy, Criminal, re-ordered Ambush Bug were all on the menu.

Read Bug and Buffy that night. I’m not the absolute target audience for the former; I’ve read a couple Bug stories, but I’m not the devotee its most ardent net supporters are. I’m also not as ardent a fan of DC minutia as the people who love this book.

But I did enjoy it a lot. Between the Haney mocking and pounding the Women in Refrigerators gag so far in to the groud it went orbital on the other side of the world, there was a lot of fried sacred cow to go around.

As for Buffy… oh Buffy. I love you so much. And I’m happy that you found a person who speaks less like a real person than you in Fray. But I hope this team up ends soon, for my sanity, because Fray’s dialogue reads like what I imagine Frank Miller’s DKR teen slang would if he had done a lot of meth in the ’80s. Also, I knew what the big reveal was gonna be way before it actually happened. But hey, Dawn made herself useful, and there were many scenes where Fray did not talk, so it’s still my favorite comic since last issue.

I haven’t read Criminal the comic yet, but did read the backmatter. A pro wrestling noir? I finally wanna watch one of these things! Well, I have seen portions of the Silent Partner. If you’ve watched it, I bet you know which ones. But yeah, I’m personally obligated to watch that one, because I always like when wrestling is used in ways that aren’t as dead stupid as it usually is on TV.

And then there’s Final Crisis.

I didn’t get Final Crisis. They were sold out, and never added it to my pull. The shopkeep rectified that and added it (along with the Bug), promised to try and re-order it, and didn’t make fun of my last name for once, but still. No. Final. Crisis.

But then I went to the safety shop in town and grabbed their only copy off the rack before it was bagged and marked up. So that was cool. Everyone got
to keep their limbs. I read it in Austin on–

Friday- Not much happened comics wise Thursday. But Friday, oh, Friday. I’ll tell you all about it next time. Like, when I get home from getting Mexican food. Crap, I’m a prime reason why Patton Oswalt successfuly argued blogs’ evil to Lewis Black, aren’t I? Well me and everyone else. Mostly Deadspin.