News for the Week of May 29, 2008
We will be closed on Monday, the 26th. New Comic Day will be Thursday, the 29th this week.
Rick’s Writin’s
Went to Paula's annual Vegetarian B-B-Q last night, where her hubby, Barry,
turned some poor chicken "like" fillets into barbecued flavored
charcoal (kinda tasty though, actually). I had a grilled vegetable hockey
puck that was pretty good too, and an overall good time. I don't get to
socialize with Paula as much as I'd like, which is too bad because it's
always nice when we do. Different work schedules get in the way, and as
I'm not Mr. Spontaneous, it has to be planned out in advance or I don't
deal with it well. I'm better at getting out of the house than I used
to be, but I could do better.
There are a few really BIG BIG books this week, but first I want to remind
everyone that books will be in Thursday May 29th this week, due to the
Memorial Day holiday. It's new Previews and Wizard week as well. THE book
is DC's major 2008 event Final Crisis (#1 of 8). Billed as "The Day
Evil Wins!!” with worlds ending and heroes dying. It's being written
by Grant Morrison, who's also writing the Batman RIP story, and the art
is by one of the best in the biz, J.G.Jones. Looking forward to this one
for sure. I'm curious as to which event story will pay off the best, Final
Crisis, Marvel's Secret Invasion, or maybe even the Batman RIP story.
Good reading for all. Coincidentally, Batman's RIP story continues this
week in Batman (#677). This story will mostly be in the Batman book, but
there will be related stories in up-coming Robin, Nightwing and other
Bat type titles. Secret Invasion also has a couple pieces this week, with
New Avengers (#41) and Ms. Marvel (#27), but in my opinion Marvel's top
book this week is the long awaited Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men (#1).
Continuing the trend of finishing story arcs in Annual issues, this book
has the final Joss Whedon written issue for the Astonishing X-Men title.
Of course, a long loved character is supposed to die. I think it's Flash...oh
wait, wrong Crisis, I mean story. Warren Ellis will be taking over the
writing on Astonishing after this issue. The seemingly forgotten arc Divided
We Stand, featuring the X titles, has three parts this week, including
the two main X books Uncanny X-Men (#498) and X-Men Legacy (#212) as well
as the popular new revised X-Force (#4). Other titles of note: Thor (#9),
two Star Wars books: Dark Times (#10) and Knights of the Old Republic
(#29), All Star Superman (#11) and another Batman title, the new 12 issue
maxi series Batman: Gotham After Midnight (#1). Creepy will be the theme
for this series, written by horror master Steve Niles with art by long
time Batman artist Kelly Jones. It starts off with the Scarecrow, and
promises monsters, grave robbers and things what go bump in the night.
Thought the M's were going to win one today, so I was going to use the
old saying "Even a blind dog finds a bone every now and again",
but then they blew the game in the eighth, so no bone for them. General
Manger Bill Bavasi made a point yesterday of saying the players are to
blame for the poor play and lack of leadership, not the manager, defending
John McClaren. I was glad to see that the Tacoma News Tribune was not
shy about pointing out that Bavasi was the one who signed most of the
players, and built this team of underachievers, complete with lacking
leadership. They also pointed out that some of the leadership SHOULD come
from the manager, but doesn't seem to be. I couldn't agree more. Lately,
all descriptions from the beat reporters include how McClaren seems weary
and beaten down when he talks to the press. I'm sure he's tired of having
to defend the crappy play. I'd like to see him go ballistic like Lou used
to, just once even. This is unacceptable. The players line is has been
"We're better than this. We'll get it turned around." At this
point, I'll say..I don't think so. I'm sure the plane ride back from New
York after this road trip will be a long one, particularly after blowing
this last game, and giving up nearly 60 runs over the past six games,
including five in a row over nine runs each. It's only late May, but it's
already over. Blow it up and get ready for next year. There's lots of
work to be done, from the bottom all the way up to the very top.
Paula’s Picks
I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend! It’s been great
for grilling! We’ll be closed on Monday due to the holiday and New
Comic Day will be Thursday this week instead of Wednesday. Also, we’ve
got in our entries for the Secret Invasion art contest! You have until
May 31st to put in your vote!
We’ll be getting Fables #73 in this week. This is the first issue
in a three part story arc about the war of Fabletown versus the Empire.
We’re also getting in Giant Astonishing X-Men #1. This book wraps
up Joss Whedon and John Cassidy’s run on Astonishing X-Men. The
next team working on Astonishing X-Men is Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi.
We’re getting in some good trades this week including Countdown
to Final Crisis volume 1, Heroes soft cover and Return to Wonderland hardcover.
I'm sorry my writing is so short this week. I'm having a very distracted
day. Not in that my environment is distracting, but I'm just having a
hard time focusing today. My mind is constantly wandering today. I think
it may be the nice weather, or that I finally have a cool plan to decorate
my bathroom (Pirates!), or that I need to count the trade paperbacks for
the week, or that I need to get more of that alpaca cleaned (thanks again,
Shawna!), or that I need to get some productive work done here, or that
I need to something about my tennis (knitter's) elbow, or that I haven't
read my comics in two weeks....the list goes on and on (including the
fact that I've edited this thing five or six times now)! My brain hates
me.
And for the record, Rick just called and asked if I could bring in a couple
of the veggie hockey pucks for him! So, I guess hockey pucks aren’t
all bad!