Rant Ramblings: Week of 2-15-13

Obviously, the big news this week is Sunday's tornado damage and the subsequent flooding. My girlfriend and I were at a restaurant Sunday afternoon when things began to get bad; we could see the sky to the west through the large windows, and it was literally black. Here's a photo she took on her phone.

The sky was much darker than it appears in the photo. Minutes later, we saw the tornado itself, and we headed into the kitchen. After a few minutes, it was clear the the tornado had gone in another direction, as it had been close enough that we would have known by that time if it had continued toward us. After things calmed down somewhat, we managed to find a path back home that wasn't blocked by fallen trees. Even thought the tornado had veered off in another direction, trees and debris from buildings were everywhere. After a few hours without electricity, the power returned; it went out for a while a few more times, but things were basically back to normal for us after that.
Not everyone in the area was so lucky. Last I saw, the official tally for Petal and Hattiesburg stands at 1439 homes damaged, and 298 of those were completely destroyed. More than 200 people lost their homes, though fortunately, no one was killed. There is much to do in the area in the aftermath; thankfully, the community has pulled together nicely to help those who were affected, and to rebuild.

Moving from that somber news to frivolous matters, DC Comics revealed that Geoff Johns is leaving Green Lantern. Johns took over the series in 2004 with Green Lantern: Rebirth, which restored dead boring douchebag Hal Jordan as the "main" GL and restored the Green Lantern Corps. The GL line quickly expanded into a franchise, supporting several series as the scope of the books broadened with the introduction of hundreds of new characters and the aggressive fleshing out of the mythos. I feel that Johns's GL lost much of its momentum and quality after Blackest Night, but it's still been a remarkably consistent and solid series over the course of the past decade. The rest of the creative teams on the GL books are leaving as well, though it remains to be seen if all-new teams are taking over the books, or if there will just be some shuffling around. Personally, I'll be surprised if Peter Tomasi doesn't take over the main GL book, but we'll have to wait and see. Whoever takes control of the franchise's steering wheel has some big shoes to fill.

DC's May solicits reveal the collections of the controversial Before Watchmen comics, which are due out in June and July. There has been much speculation about exactly how DC would go about collecting the various series, and they have settled on grouping series together (mostly) by writer. For my part, the only ones I plan to get are the Minutemen/Silk Spectre and Rorschach/Comedian collections. The other series were mostly just decent, and the Straczynski collection should be avoided at all costs, despite the excellent art.

The Death of the Family storyline concluded in Batman #17 this week, and Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo absolutely killed on this issue. Their run just keeps getting better and better, and I can definitely see it  becoming one of those legendary runs that will be remembered fondly and highly recommended to new readers in years and decades to come.

Here's a photo album of a border collie who likes to balance various objects on her head.

I was able to get Halo 4 last week, thanks to a timely sale. I haven't quite finished the campaign, as I am about halfway through the final level and it's demolishing my ass, but I'm enjoying the game quite a bit so far. The campaign has been excellent overall, and even with a few irritations in the level design here and there, I don't hesitate to say it's the best campaign of any Halo game to date. (The main Halo games anyway; I have yet to play Reach.) I've seen some griping about the game not giving you enough information on the antagonist or certain events that occur, but honestly, if you find all the terminals and simply pay attention to the in-game dialogue and cutscenes, I don't see how you could be confused. I can understand some people being unhappy that you have to find the terminals and watch those videos to get the antagonist's background, but it's still part of the game, so it's not as if you're forced to go elsewhere for the information.
On every technical level, the game is absolutely superb. The graphics are probably the best of any game released to date for any game console; I really can't believe 343i managed to get a game on the Xbox 360's 7+ year-old hardware to look so damn great. Aside from the campaign, I've dabbled with the multiplayer, but haven't managed to stop playing Flood mode yet. It's loads of fun.

Reddit threads of note: Dave Grohl did an AMA, as did Bill Gates. Yes, that Bill Gates. Some pretty interesting reading in there.

Here is a gif of a cat born without the use of her hind legs. She gets by just fine.

Today is Valentine's Day, so be sure to have fun with your significant other, if applicable. (If not, be sure to get yourself some candy or something.) Here's the card my lady got today:

Jonah Hex'll give ya the screamin' thigh sweats.

I can think of no better way to wrap things up than with this gif of President Obama's exploding fist bump with Senator Mark Kirk at the State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Rant Ramblings: Week of 2-8-13

Finished the fight: Yes, I finally played the Halo 3 campaign. I really enjoyed it, though I agree with the people who felt that Arbiter's story deserved more attention. We spent half of Halo 2 playing as the Arbiter, and his journey was a very interesting one, but then it is shoved aside in Halo 3. The penultimate level was not much fun, either. Have I mentioned today how much I hate the fucking Flood? This level was a massive Flood clusterfuck, and I was glad when it was over. It wasn't poorly designed or anything, the Flood has just  gotten that damn annoying. The good far outweighs the bad, though. It was lots of fun overall, and I'm sure I'll revisit it at some point. The legendary ending perfectly sets up Halo 4, from what I've seen of that game's opening. (And no, I did not beat the campaign on legendary; I watched it on Youtube. I'm no masochist.)
I got ODST as an early Valentine's Day gift. I'm a few levels into the campaign, and while it's interesting, I'm not having nearly as much fun. I think this will be one that I'll play a level or two at a time here and there, rathering than going through it in a day or two.
Halo 4 is on the way, thanks to a timely Amazon sale. It should be here Friday, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Via Reddit, here is a love letter found in an 8th grade classroom that demonstrates the importance of prioritizing your loves.

Marvel movie rumors: The latest batch circling the net concerns Marvel's Phase 2 movies. If these rumors are true, the Marvel movie universe's version of the Illuminati (a small group whose comics version consists of Tony Stark, Charles Xavier, Namor, and other assorted self-righteous dickbags) will trick the Hulk into entering a rocket ship, which will then travel outside of our solar system. Their plan to get him out of their hair will backfire as it did in the comics, with a Planet Hulk movie ensuing. This would lead to the Hulk returning for vengeance in the third Avengers movie. Sounds good to me, so I'm hoping these rumors are at least partially true.

Reddit threads of note: Here's one about hardcore gamers joining the military, and how they deal with their expectations being dashed on the rocks of the drastically different reality. This thread about being caught masturbating has some screamingly funny stories. There are come cringe=inducing tales in this thread about the stupidest ways redditors have injured themselves. As always, check out r/todayilearned every day or so for all kinds of fascinating bits of knowledge. It's one of my favorite spots on the internet.

Dragon Age Origins: I picked this game up for $6 not too long ago. It was one of those that looked interesting, but I eventually forgot about it for a while. I started playing it a few days ago, and I'm enjoying it so far. (I did get slightly annoyed at the coincidence when one of the first people who joined my party had the exact same name I gave my character.  Grr!) I really like the origin system the game uses, where you choose an origin for your character and play through it at the beginning of the game. This system has me already wanting to start a new character to see how things will be different. One of my few gripes with my beloved Elder Scrolls games is how every game always begins the exact same way, no matter what kind of character you've created. (Believe me, by the time you're making your fifth Skyrim character, you get pretty damn sick of running around Helgen while it gets blasted into oblivion.)
Anyway, it's early yet, but at this point it looks like the game is a winner.

Looks like that's it for this week! Everyone enjoy your weekend... or else!

Rant Ramblings: Week of 2-1-13

As many of you are aware, it's gotten increasingly tougher to keep this blog updated regularly over the past year or so. Between writing, various work and puttering around, and all the goofing off that is so very dear to me, it can be difficult to find the time to put together a post. I'm not about to let the blog fall by the wayside, however, so my solution is this weekly-ish column that will serve as a catch-all for whatever I'm up to at any given time, mostly items of interest that aren't worthy of an entire post of their own. Long posts devoted to a single topic will still appear; they'll just be fewer and further between, as has become the norm.

First of all, how the hell crazy is it that the entire month of January is already gone? On a related note, how about the nearly 80-degree days we've been having in the south? That's bad, even for the area. Anyway...

I've been sick with some kind of crud since this past weekend. This is really the first time I've been sick in about three years. Thankfully, I bounce back quickly, so I'm already basically over it. That's good, because I felt crappy enough for a few days that I didn't get much writing done. I don't think I've mentioned this here before, actually; my new book will be a novel starring Grant Mercer, the protagonist (some would disagree with the use of the word "hero") of the story Apex Predator, from Nightmare Escapade. I'll be doling out more information as the book nears release.

Here is a wonderful story about video game studio Bungie brightening a little boy's day after he had major surgery. Get your tissues ready.

If any of you haven't yet seen the thread documenting the series of prank calls 4chan perpetrated against the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop seen on the TV show Pawn Stars, here it is. It gets better and better as it goes. You might need tissues for this, too; you'll be laughing pretty damn hard.

Reddit threads of note from the past week: Redditors share secrets they have sworn to take to the grave, since it's semi-anonymous on the internet. Be warned, however: the thread has over 24,000 replies, so the rabbit hole runs deep. This one is about the strangest things you've gotten someone else to believe. Clearly, I was over-qualified for that one, so I chose one at random. Here is one of my favorites from that thread:

And, as always, you should check out r/todayilearned at least every couple of days to stumble across all kinds of handy and fascinating information.

I came across this video last week. It's a panel with Neil deGrasse Tyson, so you know it's good. Skip to about the 15 minute mark to get to Neil.

My Halo Oddyssey
I've been on a Halo kick lately. You could be forgiven for calling me a veteran of the Halo series, as I picked up the first game along with an Xbox about two months after they were released about this time in 2002. Going through the campaign cooperatively with a couple of friends(though only one at a time, as four-player coop wasn't introduced until Halo 3 in 2007) are some of my greatest game-related memories. All told, I must have played through the campaign at least a dozen times. The multiplayer didn't see as much action, since we were limited to two-player splitscreen. I was the only one of my circle of friends who had an Xbox, so system link multiplayer sessions were out.

Skip ahead to 2004, when Halo 2 was released. I was anticipating it as much as anyone, but lacked the disposable income to pick it up as soon as it came out. I was lucky to come across a used copy in Blockbuster for $6.99 a few months later, however, and took it home to fire it up. Unfortunately, the friends with whom I'd played the game a couple of years earlier no longer lived in town, so the experience just wasn't the same. I put it aside for a while, resolving to pick it up again at some point and finish it.

In 2007, as the release of Halo 3 neared, I figured it was as good a time as any to dust off the old copy of Halo 2 and give it a go. I restarted the campaign, playing it on my Xbox 360 this time. I got killed a couple of times on one level a little over halfway through, and figured I'd take a break and resume my game a little later.

As so often happens, I got wrapped up in other things and kinda forgot about it. As the spinoff and prequel Halo games were released, I thought about how I needed to finish Halo 2, but I never actually dug the game out to do it. Then, toward the end of last year, Halo 4 was released.

I was officially three full games behind. Yeah... time to catch up.

And so it was that, eight short years after I bought the damn thing, I finally beat Halo 2 last week. I wound up restarting the campaign after loading my save made it clear that I had no idea what the frig I had been doing. It was a somewhat repetitive level that consisted of many corridors and rooms that looked the same, and I couldn't remember where I had come from and where I was supposed to be going. I'd forgotten much of the story from the first half of the game anyway, so I just restarted.

It was fun. Such a well-made game, from top to bottom. I remember the endless howls of rage over the cliffhanger ending, but knowing that the conclusion of the trilogy is a trip to Gamestop away softens the blow considerably. And for all the bitching about spending only about half the game as the Master Chief, I really enjoyed playing as the Arbiter. Oh, and I still really hate the fucking Flood.

So, with that game finally finished, I can now move on to Halo 3. I have managed to avoid spoilers for more than five years, so if any of you know what happens, so help me Grodd, you best keep it to yourself.

Coincidentally, Reddit is organizing a weekend-long return to Halo 3 multiplayer on Xbox Live this coming weekend. I've never actually played Halo online before, so I'm looking forward to participating.

That's it for this week. Enjoy the weekend, everyone, and watch out for the drop bears.

NIGHTMARE ESCAPADE is free today!

My first book, Nightmare Escapade, is free today for the Kindle. If you lack a Kindle, have no fear! Amazon offers free Kindle apps for pretty much any device, possibly even including your old TI-35X calculator from high school. Go and get it, and leave a review!

Okay, can anyone tell me...

... exactly what the frig is wrong with the snowman on my Fun Dip package? Get a load of this weirdo!

Possessed, tripping balls, or imitating Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis from Beetlejuice? This is not an isolated occurrence; pictured in side is a snowman family with the same distended mouths and soulless eyes. Be thankful that I spared you that horror; consider that your Xmas miracle.

The tree is up!

I put my tree up a couple of days ago. I don't have much space, so it got stuck in the area between some shelves against one wall. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.

Lots of Simpsons ornaments, as usual. A couple of Batman-related ones as well; those Brave and the Bold mini-figures convert to tree ornaments nicely. The bag of ornaments that included my Masters of the Universe ornaments has gone mysteriously missing, so no Skeletor or Mer-Man this year. Some lanterns representing the various factions in the Green Lantern universe were added once I realized their little handles made them perfect for hanging on the tree. Since Macho Man Randy Savage served as the tree topper last year, I gave the Nature Boy himself top billing this time around.

Here's a side shot in which a few more ornaments can be seen, including a Terminator endoskeleton peeking out.
Thanks to Cindy, I also have a nifty extension cord for the lights with a built-in floor switch. Sadly, my blue lights are in the bag with the missing ornaments, so I only have clear ones this year.
As usual, right click on the pics to embiggen them.

Rant Reflections: DC Comics February 2013 Solicitations

Like a lot of comic readers, I have the habit of reading through the solicits each month for the material that will be published a few months hence. This is a potentially ongoing feature I'm trying out; basically, it's a stream-of-consciousness commentary on what I see as I scroll down the page. Since it's stream-of-consciousness, any typos you spot are by design. Yeah, that's the ticket.
There's a lot to digest in DC's February 2013 solicitations, so let's dive right in!

Before Watchmen
These controversial series keep chugging along, with four of them-- Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach, Comedian, and Ozymandias-- ending their runs this month. A one-shot starring the ill-fated Dollar bill has been added, and it's illustrated by Steve Rude, to boot! It'll look pretty, if nothing else.

Justice League group
The Throne of Atlantis crossover wraps in Justice League and Aquaman; notably, no mention is made of the Shazam! backup, so Grodd only knows when we'll actually get to see the conclusion of that story. The new Justice League of America series launches with 52 variant covers, one for each state, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Honestly, I rolled my eyes when this was announced; I don't really care about variant covers for the most part, and the number of variants Marvel has had for some of their recent series are, frankly, disgusting. However, DC is making all 52 covers easily ordered in any quantity retailers wish, without having to meet some sales threshold, as is the norm. With that in mind, I think it's a cool and fun idea. I'll probably pick up a copy of the Mississippi variant in spite of my dislike of David Finch's artwork. For the uber-obsessive collector, a pack of all 52 variants plus the standard cover is available for the low, low price of $149.99.
Green Arrow gets its fourth creative team since the relaunch, with Animal Man writer Jeff Lemire and I, Vampire artist Andrea Sorrentino coming aboard. Green Arrow is one of those characters I usually like, but I only follow his series when it's really good, and so far, the current series has not been nearly up to snuff. The DC relaunch last September did a lot of good, but it also did a good bit of damage to certain characters; Green Arrow is one of the characters who has been screwed over the most. He's been almost unrecognizable since the reboot, and the book has been bland at its best(not that it was great before the advent of the New 52!). There will hopefully be some new readers checking the series out because of the Arrow TV show, and if anyone can pull the book out of its nosedive and make it worth reading again, this team can.
The new ongoing series Katana and Vibe(Vibe!!) kick off. It's always nice to see another book with a female lead, and the New 52 version of Katana has been pretty interesting so far. Ann Nocenti has not wowed me with her DC work so far; her stint on Green Arrow did nothing but make me quickly drop the book again, and her Catwoman #0 was a bit of a mess. Still, I've read a few of her Daredevil issues, so I know she is a capable writer, so I'm cautiously optimistic about this. Vibe will likely have a bit of a rough road, as the character has long been the butt of many jokes in the DCU. Vibe is a break-dancing Hispanic character introduced during the Justice League Detroit era, itself a much-derided period in JL history. Still, co-writer Geoff Johns has proven himself very adept at redeeming previously discarded and mocked characters, and with Pete Woods providing the art, it'll at least look good.
The Flash wraps up its Gorilla Warfare storyline, which should be lots of fun, even though I'd be perfectly happy if the Flash fought superpowered gorillas in every issue. It seems that Orion will be part of the regular cast of Wonder Woman for a while, and that's okay with me! This has been one of the best books available since its launch, and it looks like it's only going to get better.
The Savage Hawkman is a book I dropped very quickly, and then stayed far, far away from as Rob Liefeld took over and did what Rob Liefeld does. With a new team installed, I'll check it out, but it'll have to endear itself to me very quickly to avoid getting axed once again. I read the first two Dan Jurgens issues of The Fury of Firestorm, and they were solid, if unremarkable, superhero comics. whether or not I'll still be reading in February, I don't know.
Arsenal gets a spotlight issue in DC Universe Presents. I almost give a fuck.
Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest are a pleasant one-two punch I look forward to the first week of every month, and that's no different here. Dr. Fate debuts? Awesome! Taking up plot threads from Mr. Terrific's disappearance? Fantastic!

Superman group
Grant Morrison's final issue of Action Comics ships this month, and that makes me sad. I'm sure it'll be awesome, but when he was first announced as the writer of this book, I was hoping we'd get a multi-year mega-epic like he gave us with Batman. Alas, it was not to be.
The rest of the books are mired in the H'El on Earth crossover, in which I have approximately zero interest.

Batman group
Speaking of Grant Morrison, his Batman Inc. only a few more issues to go. The cover art teases Batman and Robin against the Heretic, which will no doubt be a blast. We need to put our scientists to work cloning Morrison and Chris Burnham so we can keep getting such a goddamn awesome Batman book forever.
The currently-running and thoroughly awesome epic Death of the Family concludes in Batman. That cover fucking rules your face.
Talon is a pretty interesting book so far. The Gotham Ripper sounds vaguely familiar, so I'm wondering where I read the name before.
The Dark Knight continues its exploration of the Mad Hatter. I've been enjoying this series since Gregg Hurwitz took over as writer, but Ethan Van Sciver taking over the art is only going to improve it. I hope these two stay on the book for a while.
Check out this solicit for Batman and Robin: "Batman and Robin gear up to protect Gotham City in the week leading up to the 300th anniversary of the city’s founding!" Sounds fun to me! This is consistently one of the best superhero books out there, and yet it's the only Batman book I never hear anyone talking about. More people need to be reading it.
Detective Comics has been rockin' ever since John Layman and Jason Fabok took over. Looking forward to this storyline.
The current Batgirl series is a book I want to like more than I do. From the get-go, it's never been good enough that I actually look forward to it each month, but it's not bad or anything. I just never seem to enjoy it as much as I feel I should, and the recent addition of Ed Benes as the artist ain't helping. For all of that, I'm still looking forward to the book's involvement in Death of the Family, and the return of James Gordon Jr.
Batwoman fucking rules. It hit a bit of a rough patch during its second story arc, with the artist turnover and all, but it quickly reasserted itself as a goddamn amazing series. The current arc featuring Wonder Woman has been fantastic so far, and I'm looking forward to this issue's conclusion.
Like I said, the jury is still out on Ann Nocenti's run on Catwoman. We'll see.
Birds of Prey and Batwing are both middle-of-the-pack books that I usually enjoy, but don't love. I am looking forward to seeing what Fabien Nicieza has planned when he takes over Batwing, though.
Nightwing looks interesting this month, as Death of the Family seems as if it's going to be particularly rough on Dick.
Red Hood and the Outlaws has been pretty terrible from day one, but I suspect I'll have to check this issue out, since it promises Bruce confronting Jason in the aftermath of Death of the Family. That's something I wanna see.

The Green Lantern group is launching into another crossover, Wrath of the First Lantern, as soon as the current one ends, giving readers no breathing room whatsoever. Geoff Johns's work hasn't been as strong on GL the last couple of years, but I am still enjoying it; however, the books' near-constant state of MEGA CROSSOVER EVENT can get rather tiring.

The Dark group
Phantom Stranger has been a decent book so far, improving with each issue, so I am looking forward to this issue. Jae Lee's cover is fucking awesome.
Sword of Sorcery hasn't won me over yet, so I may no longer be reading when this issue ships. We'll see.
Rotworld wraps up in Animal Man and Swamp Thing. I really enjoy these two books every month, but the pacing on this storyline seems rather slow so far. Hopefully, business will have picked up considerably by the time these issues ship.
Dial H is another book I like, but don't love. I am looking forward to Alberto Ponticelli taking over the art, but this book needs to start engaging me more. Not sure if I'll still be getting it in February.
I'm still smarting from my beloved Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE getting cancelled, but at least Frank himself wlll be showing up in Justice League Dark. This book is a favorite month in and month out, and I really hope the creative team stays in place for a good long while.
The core concept of I, Vampire has been turned on its head recently, and it's been a lot of fun. Looking forward to seeing that play out.
I've enjoyed Robert Venditti's work on Valiant's X-O Manowar, although I do find it a little too "decompressed." That said, I am optimistic about him taking over Demon Knights, and I'm glad DC didn't cancel it, too.

The Edge group continues apace, with Team 7 writer Justin Jordan taking over Deathstroke as well, which means it's okay for me to give the latter title a try again. The first eight issues of Deathstroke were pretty fun, but it immediately became unreadable when Rob Liefeld (yeah, him again) took over.
Threshold is defnitely interesting, boasting stories featuring fan-favorite Larfleeze and Blue Beetle, as well as such obscure characters as the Space Cabbie! For all I know, the one-off story featuring the Cabbie in Starman over a decade ago is the last time that character was even mentioned in the pages of a comic. I honestly don't expect this title to survive for very long in today's marketplace, but I sure am glad that DC keeps taking chances on books like this.
All-Star Western looks amazing, as always, while Suicide Squad and Stormwatch are always unspectacular, but solid, reads.
With the cancellation of Blue Beetle, I read absolutely nothing from the Young Justice group of books. that entire category seems to be sliding down the tubes; one wonders what DC has planned to rejuvenate it.

The non-New 52 books have plenty to offer as well. I've enjoyed Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti's gradual Freedom Fighters revival in the form of miniseries tackling each character, so I'll be checking out Human Bomb. JSA Liberty Files: The Whistling Skull just looks cool as hell, and since I love the first two of those series so much, this on is a no-brainer. Joe Kubert Presents is a series I've looked forward to since it was announced earlier this year, but now the series also serves as a tribute/memorial for Kubert himself. I can think of no better tribute to the man than having some great comics published with his name on the cover.
The print collections of DC's digital first series are pretty nice packages too, offering a lot of bang for the buck. I get the ones I like digitally as they're released; I wonder exactly how it breaks down regarding the sales of the digital versions versus the later print compilations.

Collections
There are a slew of New 52 collections solicited; the one of most interest to me is All-Star Western Volume 2, and here I have to remind myself that i am still lacking volume 1. Beyond the New 52 stuff, there are some great collections coming, and I can only hope finances allow for me to get the ones I want. The must-haves are The Starman Omnibus Volume 3 in paperback format and Crisis On Multiple Earths Volume 6. Starman is probably my favorite superhero series of all time, and even though I have the complete run in single issues, I really want some nice collections I can easily pull off the shelf when I feel like re-reading some or all of it. I only managed to get the first two hardcover volumes, and a couple of those volumes are now out of print, so I'm left waiting for the paperback editions for the remaining four volumes. As for Crisis, the old Earth 1/Earth 2 JLA/JSA teamups are always fun to read, and unless I've figured it wrong, I think this volume will contain the last of them. Again, this also reminds me that I still don't have the previous volume. Money is just too damn tight for all the books I wanna buy.
The Jack Kirby Omnibus Volume 2 looks pretty awesome, as it reprints a good bit of Kirby Klassics that don't get a lot of love. It's the classic works that slip through the cracks that often really appeal to me, so I really wanna get my hands on this one, too.
Other notable collections: A new edition of Batman: Gotham By Gaslight which contains the titular Elseworlds story and its sequel, Master of the Future. These are both great fun, and this collection is about the same price as they cost originally, so it's a great deal, to boot. The victorian-era Batman featured in these stories has long been a favorite of mine, so it's nice to see them kept in print.
There's a new edition of DC Universe by Alan Moore, which now throws some of his work for the now-defunct Wildstorm imprint into the mix. Not a bad deal at $24.99.
We also have a collection of Day of Judgment, one of DC's events from the late '90s. It was pretty decent, but not great, although it did have the twist of making former Green Lantern Hal Jordan the Spectre for a few years. (That last until the powers-that-be at DC decided they wanted their Silver Age back.) The only reason I can think of for this being reprinted is that it was an early work by Geoff Johns. It's not a bad read; you could do worse for $15.
There are several Superman collections coming, some of them no doubt tie-ins to the upcoming Man of Steel movie. The Superman vs. Zod trade looks pretty cool, and I might check it out myself, but I urge you to avoid the execrable Reign of Doomsday at all costs. I love the Showcase Presents books, and the Superman Family volumes contain some great examples of true Silver Age comic insanity. Volume 4 is sure to continue in that tradition.
There's also the final trade of the Batman: Brave and the Bold comic, which was always great fun.
The Young Justice tie-in comic is cancelled, so that makes me wonder about the animated show's future, with it still on hiatus and all...
Of course, the biggest news with the Vertigo books is that Hellblazer is cancelled with its 300th issue so that DC can replace it with a Constantine book set in the DCU. It's a smart move from a purely business perspective, anhd Hellblazer has had a great run, so I can really begrudge them that. I will miss it, though. No matter how good the DCU Constantine book is, it just won't be the same. With American Vampire on hiatus, this leaves Vertigo with only a few ongoing series, so you really have to wonder what's going to happen here. The imprint really seems to be dwindling, and it's almost painful to see. This is the publishing imprint that brought us all-time classic such as Sandman, Morrison's Doom Patrol, WE3, Animal Man, Seaguy, and The Invisibles, Preacher, Transmetropolitan(yeah, it started out as part of another imprint, but the bulk of it was published as a Vertigo book), and many others. It's just sad to see it slowly withering like this.

Anyway, this has gotten much longer than I intended. If anyone has managed to hang on to the end, congratulations! You win juicy, gold-plated bragging rights.

Happy Halloween!

I hope you all have great big steaming piles of fun celebrating the best holiday of the year! Whether you have a party to attend, or you're taking some kids trick-or-treating, or just staying home and enjoying some classic horror movies or some spooky books(I humbly suggest my own book if you're stuck for something to read in that category), I hope you all stay safe and have a good time. As far as local events, Hattiesburg's first-ever Halloween parade was yesterday, so I hope you went if you were interested! Today, there is a Halloween-themed Free Comic Book Day event in which both local comic book stores are participating, and we'll be participating in that.
I've got one more thing to share with you that I came across this morning. This is a badass Joker-lantern carved by Andy Bergholtz, commissioned by DC Comics as part of their October spotlight on their supervillains.

Happy Halloween!

Trash Rant: The Penetrator #28- The Skyhigh Betrayers

This volume of the Penetrator series is written by Chet Cunningham, who handled the even-numbered volumes in the series. Dr. Brunt Maxwell is some type of scientist working on atomic shielding or something-- look, it doesn't matter, okay? Point is, this dude is missing, and everyone wants to find him, including Mark Hardin, the Penetrator. Most of the book consists of Mark bumbling around, asking everyone in sight if they've seen the guy, and constantly getting into fights. He blows up a carload of thugs with a frag grenade, breaks into a Hispanic woman's house after she's tried to kill him, just taunts her and then inexplicably leaves her alone so she can try to kill him a few more times, burns a guy's house down with a white phosphorous grenade, goes hang-gliding, goes through three or four cars... that still doesn't cover everything. This is certainly a busy book, as Mark never seems to sit still for more than a few seconds; it's ADD writing at its best. If you find yourself bored with whatever penetrating Mark is up to, just turn the page, and he's bound to be waist-deep in something else.

The attempts at reaching the page count are more obvious than in Mardi Gras Massacre; for instance, Mark visits two porno theaters/brothels, and has basically the exact same conversation in both places. Oddly, one of them masquerades as a model-photographing place, where you rent a camera and photograph the model/stripper for money, which serves as a cover for whatever else you negotiate with the ladies to pay for. Did any strip joint/brothel actually use this gimmick? I've never heard of it before, and the absurdity of it had me laughing my ass off.

In one of the brothels, Mark encounters the "manager," who happens to be a homosexual man. Most of the guys who wrote novels in this genre were basically Archie Bunker with a typewriter, so of course the only homosexual men in these novels are of the ridiculously flamboyant variety. This guy immediately comes on to Mark, then calls him a bitch when he is rebuffed. I was sincerely surprised that he didn't try to scratch his eyes out. Mark leaves the porno district soon afterward, surprisingly without any actual penetrating done.

The main villain, who is so inconsequential that I've already forgotten his name, kidnaps Dr. whatsit's wife, and then hilariously announces over the damn radio that she will be gang-raped by five men like clockwork every six hours until the doc turns over his plans for the macguffin. This leads to a genuinely interesting finale in an abandoned funhouse where Mark penetrates the fuck out of a bunch of guys with his bullets. He gets shot in the leg, but it's cool, because he uses some ultra-convenient Indian mental discipline to isolate the pain until he can deal with it at a more convenient time.

I didn't enjoy The Skyhigh Betrayers as much as Mardi Gras Massacre, largely because of the problems with obvious padding mentioned above. Another reason may be the misleading cover art, as we never get to see Mark penetrate the ocean and fight a killer whale, or have an axe fight with an Asian dude, or watch a black guy kick back and smoke a pipe. George Wilson's cover art is honestly cooler than the actual book, unfortunately. Pornstache represent!

Read my new book NIGHTMARE ESCAPADE for free this weekend!

It's not just a clever title! My new book, Nightmare Escapade: A Horror Anthology, is free for the Amazon Kindle this weekend. Don't have a Kindle? No worries, download a Kindle app, available for pretty much any device: cell phone, tablet, PC, toilet paper holder, you name it. After you've read (and hopefully enjoyed) the book, I would greatly appreciate you taking a few minutes and writing a review on its Amazon page. Also, clicking the "like" button on the page and tagging it will make it easier for people to find.
You can get the book (and leave a review!) here.

Trash Rant: The Penetrator #5- Mardi Gras Massacre

Despite my partaking of trashy men's adventure novels here and there from my pre-teen years to the present day, I had never heard of the Penetrator series. This grievous oversight was rectified when I came across a few of the novels in a thrift store a little over a week ago, scoring them for one thin dime each! Once I saw them, there was no way I was leaving without them, and now my interest in the genre has been reawakened. A few minutes of research revealed that the Penetrator series was written by two authors, both of whom used the "Lionel Derrick" pseudonym: Mark K. Roberts, who penned the odd-numbered volumes, and Chet Cunningham, who wrote the even-numbered volumes. It seems that the series was quite popular, running for 53 volumes, and selling millions of copies. It's always interesting to me how something so popular can be so utterly forgotten just a couple of decades later. Thankfully, the series' large print run and its lack of popularity mean that I shouldn't have too much trouble getting my hands on the rest of the series.

As an odd-numbered installment, Mardi Gras Massacre is the work of Mark K. Roberts. Mark Hardin (no, I did not type an "i" instead of an "o" by mistake, that's really his name) is the Penetrator, a Vietnam veteran (virtually a requirement for protagonists in the men's adventure genre) who resolved to wage war on the criminal element after his fiancee was killed. For new readers, the basic concept and the Penetrator's previous adventures are helpfully summarized at the beginning of the book.

This volume sees Mark travel to New Orleans after a fisherman sends him a letter asserting that he is being paid with counterfeit bills. The money's phony nature  is virtually impossible to detect, and the culprits are distributing it in cahoots with Cuba to destroy the US economy. The man is dead when Mark arrives, but he meets his daughter, a lovely young lady who has an uncanny resemblance to Mark's dead fiancee. She leads him to a family who is sympathetic to their plight, leading to many, many action scenes and whole hell of a lot of murder and mayhem. As with most novels in this genre, the plot is entirely incidental, and exists only to provide plenty of opportunity for bloodshed.

There are some great moments in this book, from a kid who imitates Grady from "Sanford and Son," which is made even funnier since the combat-obsessed Penetrator has NO IDEA what the kid is referring to, to some truly great (bad) dialogue that flows steadily from the first few pages to the end. My favorite, delivered by a thug who follows Mark into a dark alley: "Darker'n the inside of a turd in here." You won't find lines like that in a Jane Austen book! There's also a scene in which Mark, delirious from a penicillin overdose, has sex with his new female pal, convinced that she is his dead fiancee. Happily, the woman doesn't mind, so thrilled is she to be with Mark! I can only conclude from this that Roberts never spoke to a woman his entire life, since I cannot conceive of any circumstances in which a woman would behave that way!

I must mention the great cover art; the artist is uncredited, but it may be the work of George Wilson, a prolific illustrator who seems to have handled at least the bulk of the covers in this series. Dig the pornstache.

This book was a lot of fun, and you can count on seeing more of this series featured here.

October Bookstravaganza!

The past few days have been very good to me when it comes to scoring interesting books. Between our two local used bookstores and a few thrift stores, I've snagged 42 books for $9! A few of them were for other people, but that's a hell of a deal any way you look at it.

First up is this nice hardcover copy of the Carl Sagan classic Contact, which I picked up at Goodwill for $1.50. The book section there is normally pretty pitiful, so this is the first time I've actually found a book I wanted there. It's even a first edition!
(I also found a stack of records for Cindy, but that's a whole other topic.)

A trip to the Book Rack (the one off of Highway 98) introduced me to these three gems. I've had an old mass-market paperback copy of The Phantom of the Opera for years, so this 75th anniversary hardcover edition seemed like a wise trade-up. Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series is one of the great old pulp lines i always enjoy; and President Fu Manchu was a total no-brainer for a dime. As for the King Kong book, I've always had a fascination with short-lived oddball series and genre projects that failed, and the 1976 DeLaurentiss version of King Kong most certainly fits into the latter category. I've flipped through the book, and it looks like a pretty comprehensive chronicle of the making of that train-wreck of a movie.

A newly-opened thrift store yielded this new edition of Octopussy, part of the Penguin line that has those great pulp-ish covers. I've admired these editions for a long time, but I can't justify the price since I already have multiple editions of all of the Fleming Bonds. I wasn't about to pass one up for fifty cents, though. The Frank Yerby book, A Woman Called Fancy, came home with me because I've been interested in his work since I first found out about him some time ago. Yerby was one of the first successful black authors in America, the first to have a million-selling novel, and the first to have his work adapted as a movie. I always pick up his books when I run across them, finances allowing.

A dollar and change got me these three trashy adventure novels at the other Book Rack(the one on 13th Avenue). I haven't actually read any of these series, but I figured they were worth a shot at their dirt-cheap prices. Anyway, just look at that Enforcer book! Calling Doctor KILL!!!! How in the hell could I have walked out of there without that?!?!!

Now, here comes the motherload! One of the local thrift stores, Bargains and Blessings, looks like  a garage sale vomited inside the building. Piles of stuff everywhere, with minimal organization, but most of it is dirt cheap. I walked in there literally for the first time in years, and walked out with an armload of books, all for a dime each. It was glorious. This is the kind of score that keeps me looking as regularly as i can manage at various thrift stores, through all the dry spells when I come across nothing but diet books and "Left Behind" garbage. Eventually, I know my vigilance will pay off. A couple of these books are for Braxton, my nephew, including the Bradbury classic Fahrenheit 451, which anyone who is literate should read at least once. Several of the books were things I knew Cindy would like, and she's already taken them home, so no photos of them.

As with Octopussy, I already had these Fleming Bond books in other editions, but I can't resist buying them when I come across some with cover art I don't already have, as long as they're cheap.

Damn near everything else falls firmly into the trashy adventure novel genre. Some of these series are new to me; my instant favorite is The Penetrator. I've already read one of them, and trust me, you will be seeing more about this series. There are a couple of Mack Bolan books in the mix; honestly, I tried reading a couple of these when I was a teenager, and the series focus on gun porn just didn't do anything for me. For a dime, though, I figured I'd give 'em another shot. The old science-related books are just cool, and they were both in really good shape too, especially considering their age. I got the Empire Strikes Back adaptation because I remember having it when I was little, and this one was in fantastic condition.

So, I'm swamped in books, many of them thoroughly trashy, and loving it. If only I'd run across a copy of the Overload series, which features a pair of ex-commando truckers who roam the country, doling out righteous ass-beatings to any random asswipe who deserves it, or Body Smasher, the wrestling adventure series that features Captain Lou Albano, this would've been a haul to tell the grandkids about someday!