Venture Elsewhere

This week's EXCLUSIVE! mini-reviews and star ratings are over at Comics Should be Good. Why? Because I felt like it. So look there.

A Few Links on Your Saturday Night

1. I did this week's mini-reviews and star ratings exclusively for Comics Should be Good. I guess it becomes a less funny joke when it's an exclusive for another site.

2. The latest ...And the Superhuman Review is up with Brian Cronin and I discussing Before Watchmen: Minutemen #2.

3. Alec Berry and the Guttersnipes have departed Spandexless Reads, mostly because we were thrown out since it's a column meant to spotlight what the Spandexless writers are reading and everyone who participated (save Alec) doesn't write for the site. Of course, Alec asked us all to participate because no one who writes for the site would. Logically, you'd think they would simply go "Hey, do any of you want to contribute more than this?" to work around that little problem in concept and execution, but they didn't. So we're gone. I'll miss doing those capsule reviews of "The Curse of the Crimson Corsair." They amused me. But, I was only there because Alec asked and I like Alec, so I don't mind too much. Still...

Later

Because "Riding the Gravy Train" was already taken...

Over at Comics Should be Good, the first "...And the Superhuman Review" on Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 is up. Every week, Brian Cronin and I will briefly review/discuss new issues of Before Watchmen. The title is Brian's and I like it. I was leaning more towards something a bit more childish involving the term "scab comics" or something. But, Brian is more mature than I --and less willing to be an asshole for the sake of it. Thank god.

And, over at Spandexless, I wrote about the first part of "The Curse of the Crimson Corsair" for Alec Berry's Spandexless Reads column. Alec's a good guy and, as his intro says, he's not thrilled to have Before Watchmen content in the column, but he's also on board with me writing about the strip there every week. Me, I'm looking at it as a challenge: how do you write about a serialised story that comes out every week in two pages? It's similar to writing about Wednesday Comics to a degree, I suppose; except, there, I was writing about it with Tim Callahan and we weren't limited to just one of the strips.

So, look for those every week.

The Return of Random Thoughts!

Random Thoughts! has returned on Comics Should be Good with a new feature that will be part of every post: the Random Joe Casey Question! Each week, I will ask Joe Casey a question and he will answer it.

You can read the newest edition of Random Thoughts! HERE!

Hello Cosmic Part 28: The Metamorphosis Odyssey, The Price, the Dreadstar graphic novel, and Dreadstar #1-31

[During the month of December 2010, I wrote about Dreadstar at a rate of one issue per day on Comics Should be Good. The posts fit into my larger examination of Jim Starlin's cosmic work, so here's an archive.]

The Metamorphosis Odyssey, The Price, and the Dreadstar graphic novel
Dreadstar #1
Dreadstar #2
Dreadstar #3
Dreadstar #4
Dreadstar #5
Dreadstar #6
Dreadstar #7
Dreadstar #8
Dreadstar #9
Dreadstar #10
Dreadstar #11
Dreadstar #12
Dreadstar #13
Dreadstar #14
Dreadstar #15
Dreadstar #16
Dreadstar #17
Dreadstar #18
Dreadstar #19
Dreadstar #20
Dreadstar #21
Dreadstar #22
Dreadstar #23
Dreadstar #24
Dreadstar #25
Dreadstar #26
Dreadstar #27
Dreadstar #28
Dreadstar #29
Dreadstar #30
Dreadstar #31

The Comment That Made My Day (June 10, 2010)

Left today on my Judging (DC's July) Books by Their Covers post from over a year ago on Comics Should be Good by "Dubai-Guy":

Chad, can you please show me what covers you have drawn for any of the comic companies? Or if you earn money drawing covers for many of the 'major' comic book companies, while perhaps being a father and a husband? Or perhaps while paying the bills? You see, those who cannot do covers, criticise or complain....and for the record you have complained about artists, covers..and those who cannot..well you know how the old adage goes..or is that too blah blah blah or boring for you? Hmm....you see; maybe you cannot draw or maybe you are lacking in the bedroom department...who knows what your insecurities are?...Please note, you may go burn in hades....or I am stating that wrong? Please do let me know....take care chad dear...

NB ....and let me say again....chad CANNOT DRAW!!! That means he has NO TALENT!!! That means he cannot render something useful for a cover and actually work 14 hours in a day drawing a cover, earning actual hard-earned money!.....since chad cannot draw and probably feels really bad and upset about that fact, and insecure, he complains....

muah...chad...love you sweety-pie...please burn....

I honestly do love comments like these. And, for the record, I haven't drawn a comic cover since I was 13 or 14. And the ones I drew then were awful.

Over at Comics Should be Good...

I began a daily feature for this month called Nostalgia November with a post on Punisher 2099 #1 and a reread review on The Death of Superman. Basically, each day in November, I will read and then write about one comic from a shortbox of comics I acquired at various times in my childhood/teenagedom (more childhood, honestly). It's a pretty random batch of books. To go along with this, for the five Sundays of November, I will be doing reread reviews on the death and return of Superman (that will take up four Sundays -- Reign of the Supermen getting two weeks) and the Marvel 2099 crossover "Fall of the Hammer." Do enjoy.

Vacation is Over

Returned Monday night from four days at a cottage with the girlfriend and her cadre of friends. Good times. Good food. Read the first 200 pages of Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (this is my third attempt at reading the book, the previous two never getting past page 20), so I'm pleased about that and hope to finish it sometime this month if at all possible. Oh, and I got to go swimming for the first time in... I want to say over ten years. I honestly cannot remember the last time I went swimming, so that was a lot of fun. But, enough about that, let's get to comics...

First, the Splash Page: Wednesday Comics week four went up with me contributing for part of it before leaving town. Tim, wisely, found several others to contribute and make up for my absense. Yes, it takes four people to fill in for me. Damn right.

Second, this week's reread review on Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men is actually just a reposting of one I did here (and is found in the links at the right). I assumed that many/most of Comics Should be Good's readers had never read it and it's one of my favourite essays that I've written.

Third, I'm doing a reread review series counting down to the finale of Young Liars, looking at one issue a day with issue 17's post going up on the day before issue 18 arrives. So far, I've done issues one, two, and three. Issue four's post will go up tonight around 9 pm EST (the daily time for every post).

Fourth, go read non-random thoughts posts from yesterday where I discuss my planned upcoming blogathon on Saturday August 22, which will be happening right here. I did it in 2007 and I'm doing it again this year. I will be discussing Brian Michael Bendis's Avengers work with many, many tangents. I want to save those as surprises, but I will give you a hint for two of the tangents (as they're related): they're mini-series that happen to have the same name as a New Avengers story/trade and will be discussed before and after said story/trade. And they're not written by Bendis, but both are written by the same writer. Remember, it's for charity! So donate if you can and let me know so I can keep track of how much I raise, and dole out the proper thanks.

That's about it. I'm off soon to buy comics. I should be reviewing five books this week -- and both Tim and I are in our respective homes, so the Splash Page will be normal... except for the special guest commentator that's joining us. I'm excited about his joining us, too, since I'm a fan of his online writing. Let the speculation begin!

Comics Should be Good Reminder

Just wanted to post a little reminder about my contributions to Comics Should be Good where, each Sunday afternoon, I do a Reread Review (a look at books I've read previously and am now rereading), each Tuesday I do Random Thoughts!, and, once a month, I do the Judging Books by Their Covers feature for Marvel and DC's newly solicited covers. A lovely archive of all of my writing for CSBG can be found here. I just posted a Reread Review on JLA: Heaven's Ladder, the oversized kickoff to the Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, and Laura Depuy JLA run that no one really remembers.

Comics Should be Good

As Brian announced this morning, I will be contributing to Comics Should be Good. He asked, I accepted, it all happened rather quickly. This won't affect my blogging here since I have no interest in giving that up. For now, I'll probably just do a regular feature over at CSBG called The Reread Reviews where I review works that I've read at least once before. My first post will be on Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato, Jr.'s Thor run, "Worldengine" and, hopefully, that will go up later today.