Last Night I had the Strangest Dream...

Ok. You know I'm a high school teacher in real life. Or you would know that if you looked at my profile. As you can no doubt imagine, the last week or two of the school year can be pretty stressful, what with kids and parents whining/pestering/threatening over grades and how they represent the effort (or lack thereof) that the student has put in over the course of the semester. I guess I've been more stressed out than i thought, because I had the weirdest dream last night. Maybe not as weird as the "Me and Ice Cube hanging out at the Burger King" dream, but certainly weirder than the Hulk dream. To wit:

I'm in my classroom during one of my debate classes, and my friend Ralph (owner of Alternate Reality Comics in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada) walks in with a parent of one of my students. The parent? Alan Moore. Yeah, I don't know where that one came from, either. And what was even weirder? He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Now, if you know who Alan Moore is, you've probably seen one of a number of pictures of him. Does he look like the Hawaiian shirt wearing-type?

Anyway, class ends, and I'm trying really hard not to geek out here. I'd like to ask him for an autograph, but the only thing I have in my room written by him is my copy of Watchmen (that's true; I'm not sure why, but I do have a copy of Watchmen in my room at school), so you can see my quandary: can I possibly expect him to be willing to sign the work that, while a true masterpiece of the artform, is also the crux of his disagreements with DC? Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I ask him if he'd be willing to sign it, and he very patiently explains to me, as if he's talking to a five year-old, why he won't sign my book. He says instead that he's going out to lunch with Ralph, and if I have something different I'd like him to sign when he returns, he'd be happy to oblige me.

Well, I run home, running out to the parking garage (the high school I teach at doesn't have a parking garage), tearing down the highways and byways (I actually live less than 5 minutes from my school), and tearing up the stairs to my room to paw through my bookshelf. Of course, somehow, I don't live in my house, but in my parents' house. And my folks come home while I'm up in the room tearing apart my bookshelf, and they lecture me about why am I not at work, being a productive member of society instead of wasting my time "on all that comic book crap?" Narf. Thanks, Pop.

I finally decide on both volumes of Top 10, one of his ABC titles from Wildstorm and tear back to school. While I'm taking the elevator back to my school, I see Tina, a woman my friend Joel introduced me to (or maybe he didn't; maybe I made her up from whole cloth, and that's just part of her fictitious backstory), who hands me a flyer advertising the big Alan Moore signing at Meltdown Comics that night. Ok, here's the thing: A. I dont' live in the same town as Meltdown Comics. And B, Alan Moore doesn't do signings! Anyway, of course, I miss Alan at school, so I head down to Meltdown after school and I'm at the end of the line, behind my friend Joel. We slowly work our way to the front of the line, by the front door, and the man working the door says there are too many people inside, so we have to wait. I think, 'Man, this is like trying to get into a club!' while inside, we can hear all the loud music and what sounds like a killer party going on. While we're waiting, I ask Joel what he brought to have signed. "V. What about you?" "I brought Top 10." At that point the dude working the door hands me a clipboard with a laminated list of all the things Alan's not signing (no doubt because of his dispute with DC), and sure as shit, Top 10 is on it, along with all the other ABC titles, Swamp Thing, Watchmen, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. On the next laminated page is a much shorter list of the things he will sign, including (of course) V for Vendetta, Lost Girls, which isn't even out yet, and a few other things I can't recall right now. And, also of course, there are no more copies of V or anything else available to purchase. I'm bemoaning my fate and cursing my luck, when the dude working the door looks at me, opens his mouth and beeps. "What?" He beeps again. Then I realize my alarm is going off and I wake up.

Mrs. Z. thinks I'm having some anxiety about SDCC. I don't know about that, but it is a pretty weird dream. I mean, come on, Alan Moore in a Hawaiian shirt? That's crazy.

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A Memorial Day note

Memorial Day is the day we honor the memories of the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country and the freedoms we enjoy. There is much that I could say on this day, but Tony Isabella, America's Most Beloved Comic-Book Writer & Columnist, says it far more eloquently than I could. God Bless America. Not Republicans, not Democrats, or Christians, or any other divisive label we tend to employ on a daily basis. God bless us all.

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Friday 5 #1

Welcome, to the first edition of the Friday 5*. This will be a regular feature (or as regular as anything gets around here) at the House of Z, and it'll also give me a chance to catch up on things that have come up that I wish to comment on, but hadn't had the opportunity to over the course of the week. So, with that in mind, lay on, MacDuff!

*Props and apologies, of course, to Tom Spurgeon for taking his idea and putting a slight twist on it...


1. I'm mostly enjoying 52. I like the "anthology" feel of the book, but I had a hard time deciding if I enjoyed the first issue because I didn't really feel like I'd gotten much story. It was only after a 2nd reading that I realized I'd gotten a lot of story, just not all of the same story. I think I (and most of us, frankly) are used to A Plot, some B Plot, and maybe a page or so of C Plot in our books. But since this is a.) a weekly book, and b.) following, at minimum, six main characters, I probably shouldn't expect too much of each character in each issue. So, overall, I'm enjoying what's shown up.

2. Having said that, however, I do have a slight problem with #3. We end #2 with a confrontation between Ralph (I have a hard time calling him Elongated Man anymore, since he doesn't seem to, you know, elongate) and Wonder Girl over the defacement of Sue's grave. There is ABSOLUTELY no sign of either character in #3. Now presumably they'll show up in #4, but I hope I don't have to wait much longer than that to see some resolution to this encounter. Otherwise, I'll be one unhappy cheese.

3. This time of year makes me happy for a couple of reasons: School is almost out, and Comic-Con is fast approaching. As a teacher, I've worked hard all year, trying to get my charges whipped into shape, sometimes despite their every effort to fail. After 180 or so days of that, I'm ready to be done. But there's also a certain satisfaction that comes from watching these kids march across the stage in their caps & gowns and undergo this rite of passage. It smells like...hope.
Comic-Con, on the other hand, is one of my favorite times of the year. It's like Christmas, but without the cold. And the crazy relatives. Although I run into my boys from Epstein's Mother every year, and it seems like My Buddy Rob and I are always dragging some weirdo or other to SDCC (I refuse to call it Comic-Con International: San Diego; to me, it'll always be the San Diego Comic-Con), it's a different kind of crazy. It's the crazy that only comes from someone who shares your passions. I imagine it's what be a Red Sox fan in Boston might be like, if I cared about professional baseball. But I'm off-topic here. My point is that, in the run-up to Comic-Con, Mrs. Z. knows that I get a little goofy. I start poring over my want list, scrawling cryptic notations in the margins to account for additions to the list that have cropped up over the course of the year, muttering to myself, and asking her questions like "Are you sure I can't put my Parobeck Justice Society poster over the mantle?" or "Do you know where I put my last Tom Strong?" Half the time, she doesn't even understand what I'm looking for, but she's very indulgent of this aspect of my life, and I love her dearly for that.

4. Boy, have I missed James Robinson comics. I loved Firearm, which led me to Starman (and thank Buddha for that; talk about a transformative experience!), The Golden Age, and Leave it to Chance. So when I saw he'd be writing Batman and Detective coming out of Infinite Crisis, I was excited, but this story has lived up to my every expectation of Robinson's work. Part 6 (out this week in Batman 653) was an amzing piece of work. Don't believe me? Ask Scipio. He'll tell you.

5. Norm Breyfogle is my favorite Bat-artist. The prevailing theory about artisitic interpretations of long-running characters is that whoever was the Bat- or Super-)artist when you were discovering comics is going to be "your" artist. By that reasoning, Jim Aparo would be mine. And he's REALLY good. Arguably the best. But Breyfogle, who had a sweet run on Detective before moving over to Batman and then Batman: Shadow of the Bat over the course of the late-80s and through the mid-90s or so (I'm going mostly from memory here), had a certain command of angles and shadows that, frankly, no one else has even approached. Batman: Holy Terror remains one of my favorite Batman stories, in large part because of Breyfogle's art. His Batman is more expressive than any other. Of course, as with most things, others will have differing opinions. And they're entitled to them, no matter how wrong they are.

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Who's Kiddin' Who Here?

Ok. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, thinking I could get anything of substance posted here this week. Between the classes I'm teaching and the classes I'm taking, I'm pretty toasted until the weekend. Sorry to both of you who are watching, waiting with bated breath for me to post something here about comics. It's coming, I promise. Soon, Grasshopper. Soon...

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Completely Unrelated to Comics...

Ok, so a review tonight seems pretty unlikely. The demands of a couple grad-level English courses (Syntax & Rhetoric, if you must know) are weighing heavily upon me with the end of the quarter approaching, so I've got to address those needs first. Although, to be honest, I'd rather be doing almost anything else.

But as I research the topic of my rhetoric paper, I'm noticing a recurring theme in the literature: that most advertising aimed at male consumers is about beer (or other forms of alcohol) or sex. Not a HUGE surprise, really. Just sort of shocking to see it all laid out like that at once...

Anyway, I hope to have something new up either tomorrow night or Tuesday. I think I'm going to review the first 2 weeks' worth of 52.

Peace...

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Ice, Ice, Baby...

I'd planned on getting a review or two up today, along with a few more comments about various & sundry things on my mind, but was distracted by a few things today: 1. My buddy Rob and I took Son to the local zoo. Daughter wanted to go, but appears to be fighting off a cold, so she stayed home with Mrs. Z. 2. Mrs. Z. and I enjoyed a rare night out sans children and went ice skating. Keep in mind: growing up in the desert (Bako's the greenest, coldest place I've ever lived), I've never ice skated before. Still, never underestimate the capacity of the human mind to delude itself. I envisioned myself zipping around the ice like Iceman his own self, or even Apolo Ono. The reality is that, while I didn't fall (thanks to my rented walker), I sure looked like I would any second. I looked like Apolo Ono, all right: if he was 80 and had suddenly forgotten every single thing he knew about skating.

Again, short story long, I'll try & get something up before the end of the weekend; I've got a few thoughts on the first 2 weeks worth of 52, along with a few other questions/ideas.

Peace!

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Norming

Since one of the things I plan on doing with this blog is reviewing stuff (not just comics, but pretty much anything else I want to talk about), it seems like we ought to do some, as we refer to it in the Education Industry, norming.

Essentially, I'm going to tell you a little bit about what I like, generally speaking with some specific examples, why I like it, and what that means in terms of how I'll be reviewing stuff.

Comics: I like well-written, well-drawn comics (duh!). Although what consitutes well-written, well-drawn comics is widely subjective, in my case it's Starman. And Usagi Yojimbo. I'll buy anything written by James Robinson or Mark Waid. Almost anything by Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Peter David. Art? Tony Harris or Stan Sakai. Alex Ross gets a look, as does Mike Wieringo. I like alternate-Earth/multiverse stories. I'm also apparently pretty good at picking short-time books. You know the kind I mean: the kind that get cancelled within a year or so. Seriously, my collection is like The Island of Short-Run Comics: Chronos, Aztek, Manhunter, Bloodhound, Firearm and Green Lantern: Mosaic.

Music: I don't buy a lot of music, mostly because I've got a few favorites, plus whatever comes on the radio, then I'll hit something like Napster or something, and pick a few individual tracks. Although, in case you're curious, I love Barenaked Ladies and Johnny Cash. I'm also currently on a Flatt & Scruggs kick, and I have The LeeVees in heavy rotation in my CD player, too.

Movies: Since Mrs. Z. and I have kids, we don't get out to the movies much. I'll review the occasional DVD, but not often (this is mostly a function of the time I have available more than a measure of my enjoyment of movies).

Books: Beyond a few comics, I don't get much reading done during the school year, especially now that I'm working towards an M.A. in English. So unless you want a review of Carnie's Syntax: A Generative Introduction, don't expect much.

Now, one more word about my comic-buying habits: I've got a buddy in Vegas who owns a comic shop (that would be Alternate Reality Comics on Maryland Pkwy across from UNLV). Said buddy, whom we'll call...oh...Ralph, sends me a package of books at the end of every month containing my purchases from the pull list for the month. In addition, here in Bakersfield I go to Dark Side Comics every week or two to pick up things that aren't on my list. Here's my problem: Ralph's got great selection, but I can't thumb through it. Chuck, over @ DSC, is in town, but carries a pretty limited selection. He's happy to order stuff for me, but that's not always a good option, either. Finally, I occasionally find myself near any of a number of purveyors of the four-color goodies, so I stop in & pick up a few things (my main two, if you're curious, are The Comics Factory in Pasadena and Brave New World in Santa Clarita/Newhall). To make a short story long, sometimes I won't be able to post a review on something until a week or three after its original publication.

So, that should do it for now. Sometime this weekend, I'll crank out a few reviews and post them here.

Peace...

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Test Post

In my ongoing efforts to make this blog a better place...

...I'm trying to learn some html code. Not too much at this point, just enough to learn things like using the...what did they call them? "Expandable Post Summaries!" That's what they were. Ok. Now we can see if this Grand Experiment will work.

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...And into the new stuff...

I caught the final episode of JLU earlier tonight and there were a few things I wanted to talk about. Since I haven't figured out how to use those nifty "Read More" links, you can safely assume that SPOILERS follow...

As far as final episodes go, that was pretty cool. So here were some of the things I liked, in no particular order:

• The sequence that showcased characters created by, or at least drawn by, Steve Ditko (Hawk & Dove, The Creeper, The Question, and Captain Atom).
• Giganta smoochin' on Flash. Funny as hell.
• I noticed, in the final "run out" that the heroes were organized like this, and again, I'm probably remembering this out of order:
  1. Solo heroes (folks like Metamorpho or B'Wana Beast who aren't commonly associated with a team in the DCU proper)
  2. JSA
  3. 7 Soldiers of Victory
  4. JL-Detroit
  5. JLI
  6. Black Canary/Green Arrow (although I have no idea why they were singled out like this)
  7. JLA/Big Seven
• Ice and Fire's transformation scene made me laugh.
• Superman's speech before he knocks the hell out of Darkseid.
• J'onn's return.
• Batman being the only person to avoid the Omega Beam.

I'll say this: Cartoon Network really doesn't seem like it knows what it's doing half the time. Between the way they gave this show the bum's rush and showing live-action films, along with a few other things that just make me shake my head, it doesn't seem like anyone's really driving the boat.

But what do I know? I'm just some goof with a keyboard...

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Catching up with the rest of the herd...

Ok, a few items to "catch up" with things that other folks have been chatting about/discussing over the past few days, then onto new stuff...

1. I liked Infinite Crisis. A lot. In fact, my buddy Rob and I geeked over each issue. Lots of "What about ____?" moments. Have I read it all in one sitting? Nope. I won't have that kind of time until the 2nd week of June. But I'm going to then. And I'm reasonably sure I'll still enjoy it. Which doesn't invalidate the opinions of (seemingly) everyone who didn't like it. It just makes theirs different from mine.

2. I don't know Joe Quesada, but he seems to spend a lot of time defending a position that doesn't need defending. He doesn't like Peter and MJ being married? Great. Again, he's entitled to his opinion. But his justification for his position, that there are no stories about "Married Peter" that can't be told with "Single Peter", isn't a very good one. One of the respondants to the discussion over at Comics Should Be Good offered the idea of Anniversary stories as one example. I don't have an opinion either way, because I'm not the target audience anymore, I guess, being 34 years old and married with kids. Joe's opinion is valid as is, simply because it's his opinion. We don't have to like it (and it seems like most people don't), it is what it is.

3. I would have liked Desolation Jones #6 a whole lot more if I could remember who the hell everyone was. That could be a function of one or more of the following:
A. Bi-monthly publication schedule
B. A weak story (unlikely, really, but a possibility)
C. I just read too many damn comics

4. I really like pizza. That doesn't really have anything to do with anything else being discussed here, but I thought I'd share.

Peace (or piece, as the case may be...)

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Ta-daa!

This is my little corner of the blogosphere. Give me a few days to get some pictures up on the walls, get a few things in the fridge, and unpack a little. Then we'll talk. No, no, really. I mean it. I've got you on speed-dial. I'll call you. Seriously...

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