I Figured It Out!

Yes, the old Classic form of Green Lantern Butt's Forever, is BACK! I'm still not quite sure how, but I started pushing buttons and stuff, and playing around with the format, and somehow...SOMEHOW, I found out where I had downloaded the original version, and managed to re-install it.

Oh Baby, I missed you. I'll never stray again. Those other formats and color choices and HTML may LOOK enticing, but it just wasn't the same!

Yes. I'm a fuddy-duddy. I fully admit it. You kids with your "Jazz" and "Roadsters" and dancing the "Charlston" may try out all the new and wild fads out there, but not me.

Although, I AM keeping my Ipod. That thing is amazing.

In Praise of Comic Books

According to a front-page article in my local newspaper, the Hartford Courant, a National Study has discovered that apparently Wednesday is by far the most popular day of the week to commit suicide. Researchers are baffled by the conclusions of this study, which refutes the long-held belief that Monday was the most popular day of the week for suicides.

Theodore Mucha, medical director at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital theorized that, "it may be just that it feels like there's no way out on a Wednesday, it's too long to wait for the weekend."

I suppose that for a lot of people that may indeed be true. But not for Comic Book People.

My favorite day of the week IS Wednesday. And I think that we all know the reason why. That's when the New Books Come Out! Wednesday is a day of joy,of celebration, dare I say it, of Hope and Jubilation! Wednesday is the day that a great many of us make that familiar trek down to our local dispenser of printed delights! Granted some of us may wait for a couple of weeks for all the books at once, or may receive them in the mail...but still, you KNOW that the books are now out and just waiting in your box to be picked up, or plucked from the shelf.

Then you get to go home and read them. And enjoy them. Or maybe be filled with nerdrage over them, but it is still a visceral response. I would think that very rarely does someone commit suicide after reading a Comic Book, no matter HOW much a certain writer or artist may disappoint them. In fact, then you have the fun of going on the computer and writing about how terrible or how fabulous it all was.

My conclusion therefore, is that surely, More People Should Read Comic Books. Make Wednesday the Happiest day of the week, not the most hopeless. Because on Wednesdays, you have the great delight in being able to view pictures like this.



And this,



And this,


And even this



Ah Comics. If you're wrong, then I don't want to be right.

Green Lantern #43

Oh Lordy, this was something else. As we can all see from the cover, this is the final prologue to Blackest Night, and although it may be Green Lantern's book, Hal and the rest do not actually show up, because this is all about Black Hand, and who and what he is.

Doug Mahnke handles the artwork, and I must say that he handles it masterfully. This is a seriously creepy, not to say gory story, but it all works SO well. As for William Hand himself, he's not the buffoon or figure of fun that he USED to be. I must confess to a certain fondness for that portrayal of the character, for example, he was hilarious in the old JLI, especially on Guy and Ice's first date. This however is lightyears away from that.

William Hand is the middle of three children, born to a family that runs a Mortuary in Coast City. Right from the start, little William was...unnusual. He had a bizarre attraction to Death from a very early age, and it manifested itself in the taxidermy practiced on the family pet, to his choice of a costume, once he happens upon the weapon he acquires from Atrocitus.

There is all kinds of back story here, and then we start to get to the meat of thing, such as the deaths of various superheroes, AND the return from Death, and what that means.



It means that quite a number of people are in big trouble, that's what it means.

Anyway, after we get caught up on William's story, he finally ends up going back home and killing in a rather casual manner, his entire family, all the while, listening to a voice that only he can hear. But the kicker, is when he turns his weapon upon himself...and blows his brains out.

I...I did not see that coming.

And who should show up, but our favorite crazy renegade Guardian, Scar, who vomits up a Black Ring, and resurrects Black Hand as the new Embodiment of the Black Lanterns, just like Ion and Parallax, and incidentally, the Predator for the Star Sapphires.

And the living are in for a world of trouble. I can hardly wait.

Tiny Tiny Reviews

Not a lot to review today, since I only ended up getting a grand total of Four comics. But Oh! What comics they were!

We begin with Booster Gold #22. Booster and Rip are trying to figure out what happened to Dick Grayson, the new Batman, the Black Beetle is skulking around causing lots of trouble, and Booster has to go back and help out the newly-formed Teen Titans. Both Booster and Rip run into a smidgeon of trouble.

In the back-up story, of Blue Beetle, Jaime continues to fight the robots, while dealing with a rather more bloodthirsty-than-originally-Scarab. He does end up tricking the aforesaid robots, and manages to blow up the school,much to Paco's delight. Alas, school is NOT cancelled. I would imagine that most schools in the DC Universe have back-up plans just for this very occasion. Meanwhile, Paco and Brenda continue to snipe at one another, much to Jaime's displeasure.



What REALLY thrills me to no end, is that Milagro is shown playing with a Blue Beetle Action Figure, which you would think would be quite natural...AND an Action figure of Guy Gardner! Be still my heart. Oh Jaime's family, you are the best new characters created in a very very long time.

Next of course, we have Green Lantern #43. Let's just say that I am agog. AGOG with delight. More on that tomorrow.

AGOG!

I also picked up the Superman: World of New Krypton, because dammit, it's good. Cal El is on trial for treason, puts on his defense, is given every excuse to cut and run, and stays, because he's still Clark deep down. Heck, he even impresses the hell out of Zod. Good stuff.

And finally, I picked up the first issue of the new Wednesday Comics. It is printed on old-fashioned newsprint, and actually LOOKS like a folded up newspaper, while on each page, is printed a chapter in a variety of different stories, beginnning with Batman, then Kamandi, Superman, Deadman, Green Lantern, Metamorpho, Teen Titans, Strange Adventures (with Adam Strange), Supergirl, Metal Men, Wonder Woman, Sgt. Rock, the Flash, Demon/Cat Woman and finally Hawkman.

This...this is PHENOMENAL! The artwork and the stories are simply gorgeous, and alternately interesting, funny, suspenseful,and on and on. This must be one of the finest things that DC has done in quite a while, and frankly, if they continue week after week with work of this high quality, then I am HOOKED! Beautiful, go out and try and find one. You won't be sorry.

Ten Thumbs Up!

Oh...Hal.

It's Wednesday! Woohoo! So off to the Comical Book Store, I go. But first, I thought I'd put up this little bit of nonsense.

Nothing like Hal making a fool of himself.




Obviously, Hal doesn't believe in repressing his feelings.

I'm doing a little bit of experimenting with the layout and format of the old blog. Originally, it was just going to be a temporary measure, while I was busy featuring Jonah Hex, so I saved my old template, and merrily started doing NEW stuff. Naturally,now I can't figure out how to go back to the original layout, thus, the new look. Perhaps I'll get my oldest, who is the Tech expert to swing by and lend a hand.

Er...Uhmmm...

If that's not the single greatest title I've ever come up with, then I don't know what is. What it does of course, is present my frame of mind...which is completely and totally blank. I'm tired, cranky, and the new books don't come out until tomorrow. I'm physically exhausted and emotionally bankrupt.

What, oh what could possibly stir me out of my doldrums?

Why, merely the contemplation of one of the greatest of all Green Lanterns, and possibly one of those who is going to be turning up in the near future, due to Blackest Night, which incidentally, debuts this coming Wednesday.

I speak of course, of...





The Immortal Ch'p.

Oh Ch'p you left us too soon. Squashed in the road by a yellow truck in Mosaic. Or was it a school bus? Whatever it was, I'm much too lazy to run upstairs and go poking through my boxes for my run of Mosaic, but I do remember it being a large vehicle of some kind. A mundane and sorry end for such a gallant member of the Green Lantern Corps,and yet, possibly, for a Squirrel anyway, a poetic one, a death that many ANOTHER Squirrel has suffered. Perhaps, Ch'p really died for ALL the Squirrels.

Truly, he was a buck-toothed hero in my book.

Maniacal Matchups

You know what I like? I like Team-ups. That's one of the reasons I always liked "The Brave & The Bold" and "Marvel Two-in-One" and stuff like that. Where they would take two heroes that wouldn't necessarily work together, and...well...put them together for some reason. It was just fun.

So, I was trying to think of some of the most bizarre team-ups that I could, and I do believe that I have conceived of one that may not have ever occurred. On the other hand, what do I know?

Yes...I give you...

VIBE vs Geo-Force!!!



and

Granted, Vibe is no longer with us, but let's not allow that to stop us from their really really excellent team-up. Or possibly NOT a team-up but something a little more adversarial.

But who would win, in this clash of Titans? Well, Geo-Force has his own country, which I must reluctantly admit, is rather cool. And he can make earthquakes and stuff. But hey, Vibe can break dance, and he has vibratory powers! Put the two of them together and you have DC's best Movers and Shakers!

I...I can't believe I actually said that.

Anyway, what interesting heroes would YOU all like to see paired up?

Happy Fourth of July!

Fireworks, picnics and parades. What better way to celebrate our nation's birthday?



The Green Lanterns have the right idea.

This is by Black Cat, from her site, "Welcome to Wayne Manor", and as usual, it is right on the button.

So...so cute.