The Reverend's Show

C2E2 2011

2011-05-08T20:26:00.001-05:00

I've been all kind of busy in real life, and I neglected to mention that Chicago's comic book convention of the year (sorry, Wizard, your time has passed) happened in March, C2E2.

Artist Cameron Stewart and model Rizzo Ford

Your host with "Spazzy" of Panels on Pages

Epic times.
Thanks, ReedPop!

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #88 "Rain"

2011-02-21T19:36:00.001-06:00

Way at the toppermost of the poppermost of personal favorites. Were one to cite the songs that saw John Lennon make a seismic shift in creativity, all for the betterment and progress of rock & roll.

I think John was at the peak of coolness around this time...

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #89 “Good Day Sunshine”

2011-01-17T19:33:00.002-06:00

The ultimate good time jam, and go figure it was on the Beatles best album...

You may wanna go have your doctor check out your heart if this doesn't instill a good mood.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #90 “The Long and Winding Road”

2011-01-17T19:11:00.002-06:00

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #90 “The Long and Winding Road”

My first memory of this song? Well, I was in high school when I first got my hands on Let It Be in its entirety and my dad, a lifelong Fab Four fan himself, confessed how much he loathed this particular Paul track.

But I am sure it’s more the sentiment toward the bullshit Phil Spector version...

Schmaltiness aside, I’m okay with this.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #91 “Every Little Thing She Does”

2010-12-06T23:10:00.001-06:00

Some of my favorite Beatles songs are the ones that display the most collaboration. "Every Little Thing" is a great example since it’s essentially a Paul song sung by John.

It also served as a signature occasion to show the world that the Beatles were not afraid to reach beyond the trappings of a traditional 3- to 4-piece band, what with the compelling use of the timpani (by Ringo) in the song’s chorus.

Though as much as a fan as I am of the band Yes, I can't say that their take on this tune did much for me.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #92 "Dig a Pony"

2010-10-26T22:54:00.003-05:00

So Rolling Stone (the magazine) suggests that this bluesy Lennon composition was his “dig” at their musical rivals, the Rolling Stones.

Funny, the timing of this, because the "Beatles vs. Stones" debate has been revived in just the last month, from a new book by two longtime Chicago music critics, to musings by Keith Richards in his just-released autobiography, "Life", it’s a 40-year-old story that gets better with age.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #93 "Sexy Sadie"

2010-10-20T22:15:00.001-05:00

[Maharishi] what have you done,
You made a fool of everyone,
You made a fool of everyone,
[Maharishi] ooh what have you done?

[Maharishi] you broke the rules,
You laid it down for all to see,
You laid it down for all to see,
[Maharishi] oooh you broke the rules.

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover
She came along to turn on everyone
[Maharishi] the greatest of them all.

[Maharishi] how did you know,
The world was waiting just for you,
The world was waiting just for you,
[Maharishi] oooh how did you know.

[Maharishi] you'll get yours yet,
However big you think you are,
However big you think you are,
[Maharishi] oooh you'll get yours yet.

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table,
Just a smile would lighten everything,
[Maharishi] she's the latest and the greatest of them all.

She made a fool of everyone...

However big you think you are...

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #94 "You Won't See Me"

2010-09-30T23:19:00.000-05:00

A standout track when I was exposed to Rubber Soul in early elementary school. If you think about it, among the songwriters who contributed to this album, all of them seemed to have some pronounced lady issues (McCartney here, Lennon on "Run for Your Life," and Harrison on "Think for Yourself"). Rubber Soul indisputably marked a change in direction for the Beatles in more ways than one, all of them good. One of THE greatest pop/rock albums to come out of the 1960s, and I challenge anyone to convince me otherwise.

Funny thing to me that stands out with "You Won’t See Me." Ten years ago, thanks to the one and only time I ever purchased a CD series from Time-Life after some late-night TV-viewing, "Singers and Songwriters," I was exposed to a 1974 version of this song that to this day I think is fantastic. That cover of “You Won’t See Me” was done by none other than Canadian songstress Anne Murray, and it was actually a big hit way back when.

Much more recently, Dar Williams offered a splendid rendition on This Bird Has Flown – A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #95 "Any Time at All"

2010-09-30T00:51:00.001-05:00

"Any Time at All" is a nice song, though ultimately not a mover and shaker in Beatles mythology. A leftover song on A Hard Day’s Night, what I did always fancy was the ever-so-slight exchange of lead vocals between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, though it was clearly led by the efforts of the former.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #96 “ Within You Without You"

2010-09-27T22:50:00.000-05:00

I had to take a few days off from the computer over the weekend due to a long-awaited vacation to New York City (where my wife and I stopped by Central Park during our stay). Fate would have it that the next song in the countdown was one I always remember my brother having a great affinity for, so I let him offer his take on "Within You Without You." Thanks, Kevin!

I do enjoy the song tremendously. I actually only own a couple Beatles albums but Sgt. Pepper has always been a fav. The album rolls through a lot of different phases, love songs, rock songs, ballads and this trippy cut. "Within you Without you" is the most addicting and intriguing song of the album. I always picture being full of hallucinogens when I hear this song. I always wished it was a 10 or 12 minute song. George always seemed the mysterious member of the band and this adds to that notion.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #97 “All I've Got to Do"

2010-09-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

This song epitomizes a very specific time in my life when I developed a more full appreciation and comprehension of the Beatles catalog. About 20 years ago, while in college, was when I became a full blown CD collector. It was then that owning Beatles music A to Z was a priority, something I never had in a previous format, cassettes or vinyl. Only problem in those days was that it was not cheap to get the band’s CDs, as they were ALWAYS full price, never discounted, and close to impossible to find in a second-hand market. In my last full year at school, I hit the mother lode at a local used CD store and got every Beatles CD I’d yet to own (some for the first time ever), finally getting what was at the time all American versions of the albums from beginning to end.

If there was one CD then that served as a revelation by owning it proper for the first time, it was With the Beatles.
Having always been fascinated with how this one band managed so much versatility within the short confines of a lone decade, I’d previously dismissed this LP as a “Mop Top throwaway,” crammed with the early hits that I could always count on hearing on the oldies radio station.

But thanks to a more mature perspective (with a dash of semi-regular pot and LSD use that prompted me to perceive the nuances in their music I’d neglected for years), I came to accept With the Beatles as my favorite album of the band’s tenure prior to their highly regarded trajectory from Help! to Revolver, and “All I’ve Got to Do” is my top choice from it.

John Lennon back then typically left the heartfelt romantic ballads to Paul McCartney, but it doesn’t mean he lagged in the occasional conceit in that area. I think the vocal work he displays here is some of his best ever with the band, a harbinger of the singing found later in “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and “I Want You.” Apparently he was going for a Smokey Robinson vibe with “All I’ve Got to Do,” and I’d say he did the Motown legend and his band, the Miracles, proud.

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #98 “Long, Long, Long”

2010-09-20T19:28:00.000-05:00

Thing that always sticks with me is how for years it took me a good minute into the song to realize that it was even on. The song starts out so flippin' quiet! But all things considered, it's a George Harrison tune, and I'm hard-pressed to find a turkey in all of his Beatles output.

In more recent years, "Long, Long, Long" found a new audience thanks to one of the best mix CDs ever: DJ Danger Mouse's The Grey Album and the opening track "Public Service Announcement."

Did I ever mention how much I love The Grey Album?

The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs: #99 “Yes It Is”

2010-09-17T06:58:00.000-05:00

Wow. What a hauntingly beautiful song.

“Yes It Is” was definitely a Beatles composition I was a latecomer on, not until well into the band’s CD era of the Eighties and Nineties, thanks in large part to Past Masters Vol. 1.

I have to say that when I think about it now, this somehow became a song that to this day has been mostly ignored by mainstream radio, though lord knows why. Granted it was a B-side that failed to crack the Top 40, and Lennon himself dismissed it as a weak follow-up to “This Boy,” (a song, by the way, that Rolling Stone chose not to recognize), it’s a prime display of the Beatles’ excellence at harmonization. Funny too, I’d give the nod to #99 big time over the more schmaltzy-in-a-barber-shop-quartet-way “This Boy.” Rolling Stone clearly did too. Not that it’s processor sucked, not at all, but this one works simultaneously as sorrowful and hopeful. And George Harrison’s gentle pedal guitar work captured a sound uncharacteristic for the band circa Help! while displaying their talent and versatility.

“Yes It Is” probably stuck with me for good back in 1996 thanks to its inclusion in Anthology 2. The Powers That Be, in their infinite wisdom, chose to fuse an early vocal demo of John Lennon’s with the final version via a nifty transition at the song’s bridge. An ingenious way to display the song’s development from start to finish, in fact it’s one of my favorites from that ’96 outtakes collection.

A new beginning: 100 Days of Beatles

2010-09-15T23:03:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of someone else’s project I just read about, I am going to partake in a labor of love that’ll roll well into 2012, and in the process breathe new life into my oft-neglected baby here.

Due to weekends, vacation, things like that, I won’t pretend to pull this off as a once-a-day-every-day endeavor. But I’m going to take a look at every song listed in Rolling Stone: The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs.

I’ll start at the end of the list at #100 and work my way down. By no means do I intend to play music scholar any more than they already do in this RS special edition. Simply, as a fan of the band pretty much since birth, roughly two years after the Fab Four broke up for keeps, I’ll offer my take on the songs themselves. The highs, the lows, perhaps some personal anecdotes on the songs as I experienced them many times over in my lifetime.

Hope you enjoy, let’s get started!

#100: Hello, Goodbye

A fun tune to kick things off. By no means a Paul McCartney masterpiece, it's still a song that grabs me just about every time with it's bounciness. It's often documented that Ringo Starr's one and only drum solo was found in "The End," the Beatles final studio effort with Abbey Road, but his drumming here that accompanied the viola-laden bridge is somewhat quaint yet memorable. It's often that I air-drum it out. Back around second grade, the 1-2 punch of "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" were all too familiar, but Magical Mystery Tour in its entirety really opened some doors for me as to how much range the Fab Four wielded. One of the band's first full-length LPs that I was exposed to, you can only imagine how much my interest was piqued when I opened up the album's full-color booklet that showed the quartet portraying rabbits and walruses, wizards, and other eccentrics. While "Hello, Goodbye" was originally a single and not an original Magical Mystery Tour composition, it's still one of the highlights of the album for me.

Championships NEVERMORE??

2010-06-01T16:59:00.003-05:00

So at what point is it okay for an All Star-caliber talent to join the Chicago Bulls in hopes of reaching and winning the NBA Finals?

There is no doubt whatsoever that the United Center is the “House that Jordan built,” but is the fact that Michael Jordan led the Bulls to six world titles mean that no one is EVER supposed to aspire to any sort of playoff success with them ever again?

It seems to me that if that is supposed to be the case, then the Boston Celtics had no business winning championships with Larry Bird in the 1980s, or piecing together a veteran lineup that’s already won a championship and two years later is poised to do it again (this time surprising a lot of people who saw a team in decline the better part of the regular season) after Bill Russell led his team to ELEVEN TITLES.

A month from now we will know what LeBron James decides to do (and should he opt for signing with the New York Knicks, it will be apparent to many following this story that James favors marketability and hype over championships and substance), but if Chicago’s franchise is a destination that he should avoid for no other reason than the idea of playing in the shadow of Jordan’s statue and banners, well, maybe they should just retire the Windy City’s franchise altogether. There's a big difference between being a franchise with a winning tradition and a team that happened to have the greatest player ever. If the Bulls want to consider themselves the former, signing King James would be a major first step, no slight to Derrick Rose.

Hope SPRINGs Eternal

2010-05-07T16:28:00.006-05:00

I am looking forward to IRON MAN 2 being the kickoff to a whole mess of Marvel Universe flicks over the next 3 years.
We shall see.

Swagger before Zod, folks.

The Day After Yesterday

2010-04-09T16:43:00.003-05:00

The Right Wing has this funny way of supposedly knowing EVERYTHING about the enemies of this country... right up until it's time to catch them.

And stop playing the Reagan card. He wanted peacetime more than you think.

Hitting the "Refresh" button...

2010-02-18T11:41:00.008-06:00

Long time, no blog. To the two or three of you out there who may see this (hi, Mom!), sorry I've let this page fall by the wayside over the last year. Fortunately I've been plenty busy, just like the rest of the country, from politics, to sports, to entertainment, to electronics, there's been more than enough to keep us all engaged.

But just to keep things fresh, and to get Billo the Clown's ugly-ass mug off my front page, I'll update with some highlights on what's captured my attention. Click on the covers below for more!

Bill O'Reilly: Torture Advocate

2009-04-23T14:55:00.004-05:00

Dick Cheney has himself a wingman, that's for sure, none other than Bill O'Reilly.

Footage courtesy of CrooksandLiars.com...

Thieves!!!

2009-03-17T10:11:00.006-05:00

Compliments of Ministry...

Thieves, thieves and liars, murderers
Hypocrites and bastards [in laughter]

Hey thanks for nothing!
Morals in the dust
Two-faced bastards and sycophants
No trust

Thieves! Liar!
Inside, outside, which side, you dont know
My side, your side, their side, we dont know
Which side are they? which side are they?
Which side of their mouth do you suppose that it came?
Which side are they? which side are they?
Which side of the grass is greener?
Inside, outside, which side, you dont know
My side, your side, their side, we dont know...

Click the pics for the books I've covered over the last few weeks...

NOW it's a Happy New Year

2009-01-20T14:34:00.004-06:00

Two-thirds of the way into January, there was very little new about 2009. That is, until today.

Fare thee well, Mr. President. Now let's get to work.

Oh, the economy outside is frightful...

2008-12-04T11:56:00.010-06:00

Meanwhile, as a dreadful economic situation gets worse, just in time for the holidays...

Let's get caught up on the books and TV that's caught the Revend's attention over the last few weeks. Click the books to go to THE Rev. O.J. Flow's latest...

And special mention to the television show I cover for Newsarama, Smallville, a show, despite recent surges in viewers and critical acclaim, may be looking at its final season. The first half of the 8th season capped off in epic fashion, so click the pic for details!

I wasn't going to mention it, but...

2008-10-16T09:50:00.006-05:00

"Mr. Ayers, I don't care about an old washed-up terrorist. But as Senator Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of that relationship."-- Sen. John McCain; October 15, 2008

Clearly, someone else had to raise the issue, because John McCain clearly wasn't prepared to, the "Phantom of the Weather Underground."
*snark*
Way to pin the allegations on a Democrat, Senator.

Got some contributions to Newsarama.com buzzing around. Click on the covers for the articles and reviews!

What was old is new again...

2008-08-20T13:08:00.002-05:00

This puts a smile on my face.

And now, here it is, your "Moment of Zen."

McSame

2008-06-10T14:07:00.006-05:00

(click)

In case you had forgotten which party John McCain represents.

Have you seen the ALL-NEW Newsarama.com???
Well, you can if you click the pic below!

Church Chat: 3 things to consider

2008-05-30T12:36:00.002-05:00

1. For starters, I thought this was actually pretty funny.

I'll admit, I laughed. If you can't laugh at some of the roads traveled in this 2008 campaign season, then you're taking things WAY too seriously.

2. Last I heard any and all of these pastors who have made questionable, debatable comments do not serve as spokesmen for Barack Obama. Unlike others who all of the sudden have plenty to say when it may very well be too late.

3. It DOESN'T MATTER. At all. In any way. Whatsoever.

BUSH: "It was just a matter of time before the government was going to have to deal with it."

2008-03-28T12:54:00.007-05:00

Progress, clearly.

"One Shining Moment," this is not.

New Segment: PWN3D!!!

2008-03-13T14:39:00.011-05:00

The Abomination (No, not the Bush presidency)... PWN3D!!!

GOP candidate rHillary Clinton... PWN3D!!!

Billy Goat Sam Zell... PWN3D!!!

Old Coot Pat Buchanan... PWN3D!!!

Dear WIZARD Magazine...

2008-01-25T14:09:00.000-06:00

I know as a company you are a sinking ship rivaling the Titanic, but profiting off the death of Heath Ledger???
The week he passes away??
This is low, even for YOU!

May God have mercy on your soul, WIZARD, because I know Keith Olbermann wouldn't.

Sincerely,
Rev. O.J. Flow

Good for something once in a while...

2008-01-07T10:49:00.000-06:00

The Chicago Sun-Times went and did the unthinkable -- at least unthinkable these days in regards to the mainstrean media -- and published TWO very important editorials on the same day.

In anticipation of a visit President Bush is making to the Windy City today to stroke himself on another failed piece of domestic policy, the Sun-Times takes him to task on the children left behind.

And rather than discuss the obvious shortcomings of NCAA football and their maddening inability to produce a genuine national champion on an annual basis, Jay Mariotti details how the BCS Championship's host city is a far cry from being truly hospitable.

Mandatory reading all around.

Speaking of "mandatory reading"...
Anyone catch Teen Titans: Year One #1 this week?
Click the image for some analysis.

Happy 2008, and I hope "CHANGE" is a buzzword this year with some legs to it.

Would you buy a used car from this man??

2007-12-13T10:39:00.000-06:00

Leave it to Bobby Petrino to make Nick Saban look like a dependable, trustworthy guy.
Lord, am I glad this wasn't a Michigan problem.

Over the last few weeks, I've gotten to cover all sorts of books for Newsarama.com. Click the books for more!

JONAH HEX #25

NEW AVENGERS #36, GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #2 (along with an NFL-flavored look at ALL STAR SUPERMAN #9)

ACTION COMICS #859, DETECTIVE COMICS #838 (the less said about the latter, the better)

THE TRIALS OF SHAZAM! #10

Evidence in the case of Chicago v. The World

2007-11-08T13:01:00.000-06:00

Two strong arguments that Chicago is putting out the best pop rock out there right now:

Exhibit A
OFFICE

Exhibit B
The 1900s

Just to clarify...

2007-08-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

...the Republicans are the party for family values and virtue.

The Chicken Dance

2007-07-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

Ahh, College Republicans...
Never have I seen a more courageous gathering of Americans.
I will give them this, they do have their talking points down.
Except that one guy, the closeted homosexual toward the end of the Max Blumenthal's piece who attended the semi-formal political event in a t-shirt. He's all over the place.

JOEmentum Summer 2007!!!

2007-05-31T15:35:00.000-05:00

I think anyone who voted for Joe Lieberman in the last election should be forced to serve in Iraq until the war is over.

Was he ever IN??

2007-04-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

Mark Prior is out for the season???

When was he in?

2003???

We're not ALL in lockstep!

2007-03-23T10:12:00.000-05:00

Unlike your typical hardcore conservatives who unfailingly toe the company line, liberals are a diverse, free-thinking bunch, and all the better for it.

Behold, two fairly open-minded writers whose opinions I usually share, but they couldn't be more divided on the "agenda" of the motion picture 300.

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times:

So a movie based on Frank Miller's comic novel, which was written in the late 1990s and inspired by a 1962 film and, of course, a battle from 480 B.C., is actually a pro-Bush piece of propaganda? Really?

So is Bush represented by Leonidas, the bloodthirsty king defending his country, or Xerxes, the warlord trying to conquer the world? If he's Leonidas, I think there's a bit of a difference between a warrior-king who's on the front line as he tries to save his country from a mass invasion and a non-warrior-president overseeing a controversial war in a foreign land. And if he's Xerxes -- well, then "300" would hardly be a pro-Bush film.

(As the New York Times noted, reporters at an international press junket for "300" disagreed about whether Bush was Leonidas or Xerxes. The article was titled, "That Film's Real Message: It Could Be: 'Buy a Ticket' " Amen.)

"300" has its political overtones, but at heart it's a big silly fun movie, with great battle scenes and near-campy dialogue.

Then you got Dan Savage, advice columnist of Savage Love...

With nothing but time on my hands this week, I slipped out of the office and went to the movies. Have you seen 300 yet? It's about a handful of lightly armed ancient Greeks—the Spartans—who take on the mighty and massive Persian army. Some feel the film is homophobic; some feel it's a conservative, pro-war piece of agitprop.

Homophobic? It's Ann Coulter on a meth binge.

The Persian army is an armed gay-pride parade, a threat to all things decent and, er, Greek. The king of the Spartans—among the most notorious boy-fuckers in all of ancient history—dismisses Athenian Greeks as weak-willed "philosophers and boy lovers." The Persian emperor? An eight-foot-tall black drag queen—mascara, painted-on eyebrows, pink lip gloss. Emperor RuPaul is positively obsessed with men kneeling in front of him. Why gay up the Persians? So that straight boys in the theater can identify with the Spartan king and his 300 soldiers—all of whom appear to have been recruited from and outfitted by the International Male catalog.

What isn't up for debate is the film's politics. The only times the Persian army doesn't look like a gay-pride parade in hell, it looks like a crowd of madly chanting Islamic militants. And if the Spartan king has to break the Spartan law to defend Spartan freedoms? Well, sometimes a king's gotta do what a king's gotta do. Because, as the queen of Sparta points out, freedom isn't free. And, yes, she uses exactly those words. George Bush is going to blow a load in his pants when he sees this movie.

Can't please everyone. :)

Now click the pic below to hear how awesome the latest issue of Justice Society of America is!

Green Machine

2007-03-15T15:11:00.000-05:00

Can't believe I forgot to mention the review I did on a book I've been dying to get my hands on for ages!

BRAVE AND THE BOLD relaunched in February, and it figures to be spectacular so long as Mark Waid and George Perez are taking care of business.
I reviewed the debut issue recently for Best Shots @ Newsarama.com, and you can get to it by clicking the pic above!

Have a fun but safe St. Patrick's Day!

This Just In...

2007-03-06T16:37:00.000-06:00

Former CIA officer Valerie Plame is pretty hot.

Click the pic below for my latest Best Shots reviews over at Newsarama.com.

Toy Story too!

2007-02-20T09:42:00.000-06:00

Busy week for me at the ol' 'Rama.
Just out today is the latest edition of SUPER ARTICULATE, a comprehensive look at DC Direct's 2007 output as shown recently at New York's annual Toy Fair.

Also this week, I covered the maddeningly interesting (or should that read "interestingly maddening"??) Batman #663. Ballsy move by Grant Morrison & Co. doing a straight prose story for a 22-page comic book. Nothing I want to see with any regularity, but it's anything but dull.

Click the pic for the review!

Instant Classic

2007-02-14T15:58:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovers out there!

This week, over at Newsarama.com, the Best Shots team covers a whole heapin' helpin' of stuff, but I cover what I can already say is one of my favorite Superman books of all time, Action Comics Annual #10.
Click the pic for the scoop.

Down with GOP? Yeah, you know me!

2007-01-26T14:33:00.000-06:00

So who, in this day and age, could POSSIBLY vote against raising the federal minimum wage? You, know, something the Republican party has opposed for over a decade?? Well, you can click the pic above to get an idea.
I know, there ARE a lot of presidential hopefuls in there, eh?
Here's the kicker: it was actually a vote to
ELIMINATE the federal minimum wage.
Crikey.

My BEST SHOTS peeps at Newsarama.com have put together a nifty little look back at the best and worst in 2006.
Click the pic below to read all about it.

Not like it was a contest...

2007-01-12T14:48:00.000-06:00

...but it would appear more than ever -- as the Commander-In-Chimp gets this country ready for its biggest failure yet -- that Keith Olbermann is absolutely BURYING Bill O'Reilly in terms of thoughtful, truthful, well-spoken commentary. Olbermann is an absolute revelation as we (the ones with brains, that is) know all too well that the news being dominated by the "liberal media" is a myth (click the images for more).

Got new material o'er yonder at Newsarama. Click on the images for the stories.

As 2006 wound down, the SUPER ARTICULATE team pondered the idea of what's been the definitive version of the most well-known superheroes in action figure form...

My first reviews of 2007 are of the latest offerings from Los Bros Hernandez. Almost a dozen pages of reader feedback, practically a record for the BEST SHOTS team, and not one post was about the brilliant books I covered...

A Change'll Do Ya Good!

2006-12-19T15:12:00.000-06:00

Maybe I should bring this bad boy into December, just in time for Christmas.
Heh.

Finally got something new with Best Shots for what feels like the first time in weeks.

Lots to look forward to in 2007!!!

Very Blue

2006-11-17T14:52:00.000-06:00

All of the sudden
The Game takes on a whole new meaning.

Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler: April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006

You Two Deserve Each Other

2006-10-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not exactly sure which one of these guys is more happy to be posing with the other.

Things I've Learned Today...

2006-09-19T09:43:00.000-05:00

For starters, World of Chad is a lonely and pathetic place.

Pellet guns are not toys.

Some Firestorm fans (mind you, only SOME) aren't much fer book-learnin.'

I could've told you this before, Rosie O'Donnell probably wasn't too off the mark on extreme fundamentalist Christians.
Will somebody tell me when the teachings of Jesus Christ became a template for war???

Stay Tuned!
President Bush has all kinds of sage advice for the United Nations this week.

Christ.
Haven't we been down this road before??

Boom!!!

2006-08-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

We have finally reached the point where the White House is the only one who doesn't think that it's gone from bad to worse.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

A Masterpiece

2006-06-15T11:14:00.000-05:00

If you find yourself in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between now and August 13th, I must insist that you visit the Masters of American Comics exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Anyone who has an appreciation for sequential art will love this for the exhibit's professionalism, depth, variety, and all around beauty. It's definitely for those with educated tastes, and hardly for the kiddie set. Fans of Jack Kirby, Winsor McKay, R. Crumb, E.C. Segar, Milton Caniff, and Charles Schultz will be in Heaven with this presentation, and there's so much more.

Plan your trip now!!

If at first you don't succeed, fail, fail again...

2006-06-09T12:12:00.000-05:00

If Rick Santorum couldn't hang on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, how did Bill Bennett think he was gonna fare any better??

Over forty years ago we had George Wallace, now America has guys like Sen. Sam Brownback and Wayne Allard. A rich history of intolerance continues...

ROSS-tafarian

2006-05-31T13:00:00.000-05:00

A good week of output after a very rewarding Memorial Day weekend.

I got a chance to contribute to Troy Brownfield's semi-regular action figure column for Newsarama, Super Articulate. I covered a recent purchase of mine, DC Direct's 3rd wave of action figures based off Alex Ross' JUSTICE miniseries. The highlight for me was the Plastic Man figure (click the image below for details on the figures).

In this week's Best Shots, I discuss the return of Two Face.

SUNK

2006-05-17T12:21:00.000-05:00

Well, damn.
I had a lot of hope for an Aquaman TV show next fall. Definitely chalk this up to a case of the WB-UPN merger costing some viewers a show with a devoted following (Everwood), and a show that never got a chance (Mercy Reef).

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
As much press and buzz as this potential Aquaman show was generating, and the backing of the producers of Smallville, I have little doubt that it would have been a reality if the WB was on its own for the 2006 season.

This week's Best Shots @ Newsarama.com saw me covering a book and a character from a genre that I've never followed before, the Western and Jonah Hex. The current book has been stellar so far, and I highly recommend it. It's very user-friendly too in that each issue has been a self-contained story so far.

I'm also a contributor to an ongoing article in Newsarama that is intended to get readers up to speed on DC Comics characters who have been prominently featured in the stories like Infinite Crisis, 52, and "One Year Later."

FOUR Your Eyes Only

2006-05-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

New Best Shots reviews this week over at Newsarama.com, including my take on Fantastic Four Visisonaries: George Perez Vol. 2.
In case you didn't know, I'm something of a Perez guy. ;-)

Our crew had some good laughs at the expense of the uninformed over the preposterous insinuation that we're in Marvel Comics' pocket since Newsarama stopped working with Kevin Smith's View Askew. Ain't gonna happen on my watch.

This just in: The Chicago Cubs and Barry Bonds are knotted up in a struggle to see who can be more worthless to baseball.

I BELIEVE.

2006-05-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

Trailer of the year, as far as I'm concerned. I love how the potential quality of Superman Returns is on full display without blowing a whole bunch of stuff as far as what happens in the whole movie. I always think that the movies that have their trailer's play out the whole story are the ones that must not be that good. Clearly this movie has a lot of good stuff it still wants to show us.

Only a few weeks away...

Snow Job

2006-04-26T11:16:00.000-05:00

The Chimp tagging a Fox News commentator as the new White House spokesman??
That sounds about right.

I need a vacation.

I'll talk to ya in a few days.

Mile High

2006-04-11T09:30:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets for their first divisional championship since the 1987-88 season. Long time coming, boys.

While winning the NBA Northwest Division was all but a done deal, it was nice to see it happen so soon after some rough news over the weekend.

Hopefully more great things come for this team. Question: Whatever happened to Robert Pack?

Click the cover for the latest Best Shots feaure on Newsarama.com!!

Hell Yeah!!!

2006-04-04T10:27:00.000-05:00

First Jack Abramoff, now Tom DeLay. 2006 just keeps getting
better and better.

New reviews this week over at Newsarama.com. This week it was all about Superman.

Hitchens a Ride

2006-03-21T16:02:00.000-06:00

So lead Bush apologist Christopher Hitchens wants us to believe that the Iraqi invasion was a good idea. The writer is even generous enough to provide a full transcript of the president's 2002 claims on why we should start a war. Generous as that is, I keep getting stuck on the part where Bush fantasized about Saddam Hussein's quest for uranium, a claim that at one time even had the Iraqi dictator baffled. I almost never sign off on any of the Commander-In-Chimp's ideas, but the man does know how to plan ahead sometimes.

New reviews over at Newsarama.com, including a look at the conclusion to Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder, and the "One Year Later" kickoff for Superman.

Fired Up!

2006-03-14T10:35:00.000-06:00

Got some new coverage over there at Newsarama.com for the latest issue of FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN.

Know thy enemy.

Sitting Duck

2006-02-28T10:27:00.000-06:00

Above, the president demonstrates his part in handling Dubai Ports deal.
While the current administration is well-practiced at lying, polls don't.
The 2006 elections should be veddy eenterestink.

Oh, Frank. Why couldn't you leave well enough alone?

New BEST SHOTS reviews over at Newsarama.com where I take a look at an instant classic featuring Green Lantern and Batman.

Tossin' and Turin

2006-02-14T14:01:00.000-06:00

So I guess the 2006 Winter Olympics and under way, right?

Anyone watching?

Didn't think so.

Wake me when it's over.

New edition of Best Shots @ Newsarama is up & atom! Click the cover to see my look at the return of the Golden Age Superman and my all time favorite comic book artist, George Perez!!

Stripes and AWAY!!!

2006-02-07T11:40:00.000-06:00

I gotta agree with Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times. While there's a myriad of reasons why umpires are still in a position to miss calls in baseball games as important as the ones in the World Series, pro football has no excuse. They have the benefit of replay, they have more than enough money to compensate individuals to be full-time referees, so why the continued fuck-ups?

In Super Bowl XL, or Super Bowl "40" to those of you under ten, one particular blown call got to me, the first Pittsburgh touchdown in the 2nd quarter to go up 7-3 shortly before halftime. I don't know about you, but the only thing I could NOT see in the replays we as an audience had the benefit of seeing was QB Ben Roethlisberger actually getting the ball across the plane.

It's only because of a line judges knee-jerk reaction to rule the approach to the goal line a touchdown that it even held up even after review. You can't overturn a call if there's no conclusive evidence to do so. Unfortunately this does not take into account the fact that there was not any replay that actually showed Big Ben for sure touching the goal line. Am I the only one who thinks replay seems to benefit BAD calls rather than undoing GOOD calls in crucial situations?
How amazing would that have been to see Bill Leavy (ALWAYS a bad sign when you know a ref's name) say to himself "Hey, you know what? I don't see a thing in this replay that shows me that a touchdown was scored." Holy shit, was a concept!!

The fortieth Super Bowl played was a steaming turd to begin with. It's too bad the NFL referees made such a generous contribution to that. As the Commander-in-Chimp would say, "Only in America." With so many blunders and discrepancies, it was a game only the president could love.

Detroit Rock Pity

2006-01-31T12:24:00.000-06:00

With the promise of a Super Bowl for Detroit and Ford Field comes the equal promise of a sports media blitz that will be teeing off on this once- and still-great city. It stands to reason that a lot of spoiled and lazy journalists will ride in on their high horses and declare that the Motor City, as a Super Bowl venue is no Miami, no San Diego, and certainly no New Orleans (though now that's a good thing, right?). Fortunately the coverage is not all that bad so far. Thomas George of the Denver Post writes from experience as a former Detroit resident in the 1980s, and Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times tells it like it is: The Lions played ball, built a stadium that can host a Super Bowl, and there you go. Make no mistake about it, Detroit is war torn, but not hopeless. It is a work in progress.

And then there's the cubic ton of press we're seeing about The Bus, Jerome Bettis. You heard that he's from Detroit, right?? Totally true!!!

Oh, and the Seattle Seahawks happen to be playing in their first Super Bowl.

Junket Food

2006-01-25T12:35:00.000-06:00

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you can't pick up a magazine without running into articles and features on the same people over and over? The stars were in alignment this week fo' sho,' and there was product to push. The good news is that it's mostly quality material, or at least product from dependable names.

I did pick up the new CD release from Cat Power, The Greatest, a relatively upbeat recording from the notoriously gun shy indie goddess.

On the docket are new releases from Rilo Kiley frontwoman, Jenny Lewis...

Beth Orton...

To this day, I will swear that "She Cries Your Name," from Trailer Park is one of the most amazing, hauntingly beautiful songs I've ever heard. That opening violin will immediately take me to Seattle in 1995 anytime I hear it.

Of course you can't read an issue of SPIN without knowing what The Strokes are up to.

I don't necessarily hate the band, and should I get an opportunity to see them at a cozy venue, I'd be into it. But something about the way the media really force-fed them as the saviors of rock without them ever nailing even one song that had everyone at attention has always kept me off their bandwagon.

But of all the various stories I ran across in the last 8 days, this one leads the pack, and it was anything BUT business promotion...

SUICIDE GIRLS EXPOSED!!!
Let's do a count on the magazines that came out this week alone that had some angle on various controversies that have plagued the leading alt-porn site since 2005 and before that:

Did I miss any? I've made a lot of great friends and connections as an SG member since 2003, but I won't hide my disappointment in the stories I've read about the company, even before these stories broke in the mainstream press. Not much different than if you read disparaging articles about the company you work for. I'll go to bat over what I do have control over on that site, mine own user profile, etc., but there's been a Big Brother specter looming over the site for the last year or two now, and it's finally come to a head. I'm just waiting for TIME magazine to cover this.

Moore of the Same

2006-01-16T14:16:00.000-06:00

Over at Newsarama.com, I take a look at DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. Great stuff for any self-respecting DC fan.

It's a good thing the Steelers beat Indy Sunday, cuz dey wuz robbed. This was not a good weekend for NFL officiating. I'm a Denver Broncos fan, and even I felt empty after the Broncos first score against the New England Patriots was by way of a gift-wrapped pass interference call. What's discouraging is seeing these instances all occurring around the same time when team seasons are on the line. The NFL and the fans deserve better.

Best foot forward

2006-01-11T15:12:00.000-06:00

The Perfect Forwarding Email

My heartfelt appreciation goes out to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me "forwards" over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed and Healthy.

Extra thanks to whoever sent me the email about rat crap in the glue on envelopes - cause I now have to go get a wet towel every time I need to seal an envelope.

Also, I scrub The top of every can I open for the same reason. Because of your genuine concern, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it I know it can remove toilet stains, which is not exactly an appealing characteristic.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone might drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer eat KFC because their "chickens" are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer worry about my soul because at last count, I have 363,214 angels looking out for me.

Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl on the internet who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time).

I no longer have any money at all in fact - but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special on-line email program.

Yes, I want to thank you all so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favour! If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 7 minutes , a large pigeon with a wicked case of diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM (EST) this afternoon. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician.
DO IT NOW OR ELSE.

And Have a nice day!

So Long, 2005!

2005-12-20T12:20:00.000-06:00

Probably the last post of the year, what with vacationing I got lined up. Despite the Bush administration's continued assault on diversity, progessive thought & education, and civil liberites, the opposition has been fairly up to the task of preventing the bad guys' success. I think 2006 could be amazing, especially this time next year if the positive efforts keep up.

I got what figures to be my last solid contribution to Best Shots @ Newsarama.com for the year where I covered Green Arrow #57, and Aquaman #37. But the highlight had to be what was featured in Teen Titans #30, the return of Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew!! Great stuff, thanks to Geoff Johns and Scott Shaw!

Tune in to the December 26th edition of BEST SHOTS, though, because I will be offering my take on Infinite Crisis #3. Happy Holidays, everyone!!!

>>FRESHHHH<<

2005-12-07T10:31:00.000-06:00

About friggin' time, folks! Chicago has joined the land of the living and passed a smoking ban. Of course it wouldn't be the Windy City if it wasn't done in a compromised, bullshit, half-assed, palms greased
sort of manner. Seriously, I would LOVE to see how many bars actually attempt over the next THREE YEARS to make their establishments the types of places where smoking is okay while maintaining quality air.

I've been to one downtown bar on multiple occasions over the last few weeks (don't wanna divulge the name), and they are small, on the seedy side, while still being a decent venue for local live music. I had an occasion to talk to the manager of the bar when I was preparing for a big get-together there. He couldn't have been more excited for the prospect of a smoking ban, and his customer base is majority smokers! I mean, this is the type of place you go if you LIKE to smoke, and he was done with it. I have the feeling that if he was of that opinion, a lot of other prominent places are ready to make way for cleaner clothes and fresher air.

Maybe it was because this time a year ago I was roommates with a full-time smoker, so I was used to it, but I personally CANNOT STAND how my girlfriend and I smell after virtually every single live show we attend. Without fail, the clothes come off immediately when we get home, no different than if we were caught in the rain or exposed to weapons-grade plutonium. It's officially gotten ridiculous. And while I have defended smokers rights in the past because last I heard it was still LEGAL, let's not kid ourselves, THEY are not making ANYONE healthier with their habit, yet they clearly set the tone at virtually every drinking and live music establishment to their terms. All of the sudden the term "Take back the night" takes on a whole new relevance thanks to this smoking ban. They just need to get a move on. Healthy lungs don't grow on trees, you know.

He Ain't Lion, They Suck!

2005-11-30T15:23:00.000-06:00

I don't know what was more likely to make my delicious Thanksgiving dinner come up abruptly: Mariah Carey's halftime performance at Ford Field in Detroit, or that 27-7 atrocity laid on by the Lions that got their head coach, Steve Mariucci, fired. Wow, that team is lousy.

Boys N the Hood

2005-11-15T13:47:00.000-06:00

The latest contribution to Best Shots @ Newsarama.com is up and at 'em. One of the more hot debates right now over in the DC Universe is the apparent resurrection of Jason Todd, a.k.a. "Robin II". The funniest thing, to me, in this debate, is how some of the original voters who back in 1988 called in a 1-900 number to kill off Batman's oft-maligned sidekick are now crying foul because they claim that their vote didn't mean anything. Balderdash, I say. For starters, their vote did get the desired effect, but last I saw, it's like 17 years later, and I'd argue that the comic book superhero statute of limitations has more than expired. Shoot, we're seeing that right now with Infinite Crisis. Scores of writers, artists & editors have come and gone since the one event that made Jason Todd as close to a household name as he'll ever get, and if some newer creators have some interesting ideas in bringing the dead Robin back to life, bring it on. They're only comic books about heroes and villains in costumes, folks.

Benched!!!

2005-11-07T15:59:00.000-06:00

Note to Terrell Owens:

You are not bigger than the NFL. You are not bigger than the Philadelphia Eagles. And now you're out. Dumbass.

Uhh, Pretty Bird??

2005-11-02T13:10:00.000-06:00

Lord knows Frank Miller has clearly decided to go in a pretty far out direct with the DC Universe cast with ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN THE BOY WONDER. Then they released a preview this week to a variant cover for issue #3:

Hmmm...

Black Canary is one of DC Comics' most longstanding female heroes. In the JLA, she's second only to Wonder Woman. While she's always been portrayed as a hottie of stratospheric proportions, I can't help but speculate that Miller is going to paint Black Canary in a most unflattering light (words like "ridiculous" and "embarrassing" also come to mind). He hasn't exactly made out Batman to be the picture of nobility now, has he? I consider myself to be one of the more openminded comic book readers out there (I'm amazed almost daily how prudish and conservative a large contigency of the readership is these days -- the creators can always be expected to be liberal in general, while their faithful readers oftentimes act the opposite), but I can't see any good coming from this other than Miller continuing to put a SIN CITY-style imprint on this maddeningly popular retelling of the Batman and Robin legend.

Though I have the feeling that I would've been a lot less leery of this had the overall art execution been better. I love a lot of Frank Miller's art, but his attempts at the mainstream superhero characters he made infamous over 20 years ago have been hit or miss at best since DK2. Adam Hughes, Terry Dodson, Frank Cho, or even Kevin Maguire could've made this same Miller illustration truly something that would've split the Internet in half.

Now THIS is a Black Canary I can appreciate (thanks to Brian Bolland).

A city on the brink

2005-10-25T10:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times for this insightful view of the Windy City.

In the latest Best Shots @ Newsarama.com, I take a look at the latest chapter in Alex Ross' ode to the JLA, JUSTICE. Great stuff so far.

Remember to set your clocks an hour back this Saturday night, kids!

Party Like It's 1959!

2005-10-17T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well, it was good enough for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the Tacoma News Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, the Myrtle Beach Sun News, MSNBC, and USA Today, shoot, it's a good enough headline for me.

Congratulations to the 2005 American League Champion Chicago White Sox. It's a blast being in the same town as a World Series contender, and you have to like this team's chances after how they easily dispatched the defending world champ
Boston Red Sox, and then to grab 3 straight on the road in Anaheim without even making a call to the bullpen. Wow. This is what you call a team that's for real.

Whifffff!!!

2005-10-13T12:20:00.000-05:00

I think the hardest thing to do Wednesday night was find a replay that actually made the umpire look remotely accurate. So he called strike 3 and even gestured to confirm it, yet it was still a live play?? Huh. It's not any surprise that this happened in Chicago, home of The Curse (I use that term broadly because there are too many Windy City curses to go around), but when a freak occurrence like a controversial call happens here, it's typically at the expense of the home team. Not this time.

Should be an interesting weekend in Anaheim.

So we're 24 hours removed from the DC event of the decade, and I am intrigued and excited with a tinge of melancholy. The first issue of the seven-part INFINITE CRISIS is in stores now, and it's been a fucking howl so far. Theories have been espoused for months as to what will go down in this universe-shattering series. For one, it does act as a sequel to the legendary maxi-series CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS which in 1985 served as a 50th anniversary celebration as well as a means to clean house and start from scratch with its most iconic characters. Back in the 1960s going into the 1980s, DC creatively explained that each generation's version of Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, etc. were all, along with acquired properties from the defunct publishers of Shazam! and Blue Beetle & Captain Atom, functioning on separate universes. The Crisis served as a cataclymic event that allowed all the characters in DC's stable to operate in one distinct universe with fresh integrated histories. With INFINITE CRISIS, a sequel of sorts is being produced twenty years later, and the editorial ramifications promise to be spectacular if not altogether controversial.

An epic of this nature is usually accompanied by a high body count, and so far the creative team behind INFINITE CRISIS is off to a rollicking start. The current version of the super-team, the Freedom Fighters, is decimated in a gruesome fashion. For sure, we know that Black Condor is ruthlessly and abruptly taken out by Green Lantern foe Sinestro, Human Bomb is pounded into mush by a particularly vicious Bizarro, and Phantom Lady gets torn apart by the Cheetah and Deathstroke the Terminator.

Far be it from me to complain about well written, well drawn material that doesn't let up, but it never hurts less as a fan when you see characters you've grown attached to take one for the team. Writer Geoff Johns and artists Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning I'm sure would appreciate that this first issue of INFINITE CRISIS has me hankerin' for more big time. If you read the first CRISIS series, especially if you read it when it first came out, I would never believe you if you told me the very last page of the first chapter didn't move you.

Ad Hawk

2005-10-10T13:33:00.000-05:00

In my lead contribution to this week's Best Shots @ Newsarama, I was given a major reason to bitch when all I wanted to do was praise the exceptional Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big In Japan #1. This book was off the hook (and not in a good way) with an embarrassingly excessive ad count. Every other page in the book was an advertisement, and the ads ended up exceeding the pages of actual content. Marvel isn't exactly near and dear to my heart with some of their business decisions anyway, but I'm calling bullshit when they charge $3.50 per issue. Piss poor. It was too bad, too, because artist Seth Fisher provided some funky-ass visuals to an old school Japanese monster mash.

Fluff Piece...

2005-10-04T09:44:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to profess to have the slightest fucking clue about Harriet Miers, but The Chimp doesn't exactly have a stellar track record when hiring personal associates now, does he? If it was within the parameters of his job description, I wouldn't put it past Bush to appoint Rafael Palmiero as commissioner of Major League Baseball.

In this week's Best Shots @ Newsarama.com, I covered JLA #119, Adventures of Superman #644, Batman #645, and Superman/Batman #22. I personally had a lot of fun with the latest story arc in JLA, because it brought back the better part of the League that I hold near and dear to my heart, from Justice League of America #200. Superman/Batman has been pretty bananas too. The World's Finest team has been hunted down by a superteam from a parallel universe that's intentionally supposed to be a dead ringer for Marvel Comics' Avengers. The two heroes have been all over the place, and for some nutty unexplained reason the story involves Bizarro and his new partner Batzarro. It's been some loopy shit, to be sure. And then on top of that when the "World's Worst" team uses the JLA's transporters to follow Superman and Batman, one ends up confronting the Elseworlds Superman from RED SON, while the other meets up with the Caped Crusader from Batman Beyond. That last one is especially significant as that animated version of Batman has never been integrated into the DC comic book world. Not sure how far they plan on taking that, but we'll see.

Mark this date!!!

2005-09-29T16:19:00.000-05:00

Today, President Bush stated that the swearing in of John Roberts to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court was "a very meaningful event in the LIFE of our nation..."

Sounds like code to me. What do you wanna bet that's a shout out to his right-wing Christian contingency that abortion is on its way out?

The Chimp added, "All Americans can be confident that the 17th chief justice of the United States will be prudent in exercising judicial power, firm in defending judicial independence and above all a FAITHFUL guardian of the constitution."

Let's just hope he didn't really mean "faith-based" guardian of the Constitution.

Go get 'em, Cindy!!!

2005-09-26T16:56:00.000-05:00

This broad RAWKS!!! Read all about it.

My biggest question has to be, if the Iraqi invasion is so great, how come we don't see 100,000 Americans gathering for a Pro-War rally??

No Moss!!!

2005-09-22T17:26:00.000-05:00

How is it news that Kate Moss has been FINALLY called out for being a cokehead??? For crying out loud, she was in a high-profile realtionship with Class A offender Pete Doherty! I only wish this shit was all captured on a reality show. Now THAT is one I'd watch. I am such a sucker for spectacular celebrity failures.

0 for 2

2005-09-19T12:28:00.000-05:00

In this week's BEST SHOTS @ Newsarama.com, I gave my take on All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder. Basically Miller took Batman to a bat-shit insane place with issue #2 in stores now. I'm willing to ride this story out. But I hope that Miller can find some redeeming qualities in his lead character. Hasn't happened yet, I'm afraid. Part of me wonders if Miller is out of his fucking mind.

The Maestro

2005-09-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

George Perez. There is no substitute.

Open Letters

2005-09-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

From one priceless open letter...

To another.

Personally, I think New Orleans is worth saving. And things ARE going to get better (in Baton Rouge), even though right now the Bush cartel stands to make a bundle, the Department of Homeland Security failed their first big test, and all of the sudden we don't look so hot in front of the rest of the world.

This is your mandate, George?

2005-09-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

For weeks, the President Bush has solidified his status as the United States' WORST PRESIDENT EVER, Rolling Stone details in their brand new issue (RS #983, Sept. 22, 2005) how his administration has absolutely ass-raped the enviroment. I wonder if those 50 million-plus dipshits who thought Bush deserved another term knew this is what they were committing to by casting their vote for him.

No-talent ass clown.

Back to work, you!

2005-09-06T11:30:00.000-05:00

I know our friends to the south weren't so lucky. You'd think that that the Bush administration would've been on top of this, but no. We'll get 'em next time, George.

All I know is that if John Roberts deserves the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court, we deserve to know everything.

I think that in less than a year we're going to see DC Comics leading the pack again with their comic book motion picture production. The new Superman Returns film coming next June looks very promising.

The BEST SHOTS crew turned in our meatiest slate of reviews to date. Celebrate diversity.

And don't stop giving.

Please help

2005-09-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

I'll make it really simple. Do something to help your fellow Americans in need right now. Here’s a good place to start. Thank you.

"You Know You Want It"???

2005-08-29T15:20:00.000-05:00

So this week, my lead contribution to Newsarama's BEST SHOTS reviews is Adventures of Superman #643. Greg Rucka & Co. have been doing a great job with Superman in this book, and a lot of heavy shit's been going down between DC's "Big Three": Superman, Wonder Woman & Batman. Make no mistake about it, these a not the same cheery folks from Superfriends all those years ago. Basically none of them trust each other right now. Superman was brainwashed into kicking Batman's ass, Batman is heavily responsible for rogue technology that is running rampant all over the world, and Wonder Woman resorted to killing the person responsible for brainwashing Superman in the first place. For the most part, it's been good stuff.

What hasn't been good stuff is Rob Liefeld's current contribution to Teen Titans. My God, I didn't know that it was possible for an artist this popular to be so fucking awful. For all the complaints (some valid) you can find online against the likes of Michael Turner, Ian Churchill, Tony Daniel or Jim Lee, none of them even come close to matching the sheer horrendousness that Liefeld is churning out right now. The bad news ( and I use that term loosely) is that because I did not buy Teen Titans #27, I do not have the page by page evidence to show you here as to how pathetic the artwork is. I was able to find a couple of pieces online.

There's this little gem:

So besides the fact that Rob can't do a proper bowling stance, we're to believe that when the Titans get together to bowl in the comforts of their own headquaters while taking a break from work that they do so in full costume with the masks on??? George Perez would be so ashamed.

Here, where Liefeld by the way comes up with his own original take on Robin's costume, he is so incapable of producing distinguishing features in his male characters that his Robin, a boy no older than 16, could easily pass as former Robin Dick Grayson, known to all now as Nightwing, a man in his early to mid-20s.

I also like how Liefeld has little to no penchant for backgrounds (there are tons of pages in their entirety where there are no fucking backgrounds), but also you gotta love the way he makes the women as imposing as the men. We're supposed to believe that these ladies, the new Hawk & Dove, are around 20, 21, maybe??? Nice, Rob. Hawk here has legs as meaty as Nightwing's -- I mean ROBIN'S!

Where to even begin with this piece of shit?

In a Rob Liefeld universe, everyone talks like they just had their wisdom teeth pulled. For a guy who reportedly worships at the alter of Perez and his classic work on New Teen Titans, he clearly never spent a day in his life practicing how to draw varied facial expressions.
And then there's or Wonder Girl in the foreground. Believe it or not, Cassie Sandsmark there is 15 years old. You wouldn't know that by the six-pack she's got on her that looks like it should belong to Superman. Plus of course she's how ample here? Is she up to a D-cup, or is she a high C? For every page of horseshit we get in this one issue of Teen Titans there are at least a dozen artists in the business who could easily illustrate a proper Wonder girl who is clearly distinctive from her older mentor, Wonder Woman.

I mean, the guy can clearly do man titties:

The cover to this issue read "You Know You Want It." Is that supposed to be some kind of fucking joke??? How does this guy have a following??? I keep reading how there are comic book readers that are still ga-ga for his shit! All of the sudden Liefeld's got me acting like some sort of art instructor, something I am not comforatble with. But on top of all of these style errors that run rampant through the book, the overall art production, even if it was more compostionally correct, is still sloppy-ass as all get-up. The art would've been laughable at best if a competent inker was brought in to reign in some of this, but the suckiness was 100% Liefeld. No one assisted on this, I'm afraid.
Here's a book that's easily in my personal Top Five, especially when Geoff Johns writing was accompanied by Mike McKone's art. The good news is that this stuff Liefeld's doing on Titans is only 2 issues. Johns isn't even writing this 2-parter getting the break to focus on other projects, but the otherwise talented Gail Simone, in a fill-in spot, is saddled with the most amateurish excuse for comic book art, and something this bad could set the title back in a big way. I'm taking two issues off of this book and getting back on by #29, but I might very well drop the next DC book that they feel is worthy of Rob Liefeld's services. I mean, if THEY don't care about the book, why should I?

Thanks for playing

2005-08-24T10:43:00.000-05:00

There wasn't anything that I took from the August 21, 2005 Chicago Sun-Times article on accused murderer Jeanette Sliwinski that made me any more sympathetic to her plight. I missed the weekend article inititally, but I got it today, thanks to catching Times columnist Richard Roeper's Aug. 24th piece making me aware. I totally agree, by the way, that the increasingly loathsome media places too much of an emphasis on the plight of the pretty. Say the hopeless waste of space who committed this crime was a young lady more reminiscent of Jean Teasdale, would the media have had as much to do with this story. It should be wrenching enough that ANYONE took three vital and beloved gentlemen in their prime due to a truly selfish act, but the press is a lot more inclined to give this attention, mainly because they what to know why such a stereotypically attractive gal could commit such a heinous crime.

What I am dreading is the prospect of some well-payed attorneys getting a forum to suggest to a jury that these 3 counts of murder were preventable because someone else was not held accountable. One can't help but speculate that going off the not guilty plea submitted.

But because I don't want to make this all about HER, I offer this space now to the fine individuals who are no longer with us on Earth, but in our hearts forever:

Douglas Meis

John Glick

Michael Dahlquist

Also, I must add that the Dials turned in an OUTSTANDING return engagement at the Empty Bottle on Saturday, August 20th. It couldn't have been easy for anyone involved, but they cranked out a performance that has me confident that they can kick the jams going forward. Lord knows they'd be forgiven all the time in the world to regroup considering the circumstances. The lovely Rebecca Crawford was hit particularly hard by this tragedy, and she rocked it like a champ. Cheers and God bless, ladies.

Best Shots: GREEN LANTERN #3

2005-08-22T12:54:00.000-05:00

My lead contribution to Best Shots @ Newsarama.com this week is Green Lantern #3.
Best Shots

Clearly others are on the fence on this book as am I because there's a stellar lineup of talent turning in a hit-or-miss story right now. Some people, after 3 issues, are calling it falt-out boring, and I'm not going to argue with that right now, just so long as they don't call my review, boring. :-p
I think the book is at least good enough right now that it deserves another 3 or 4 issues to assess whether or not this is going in a good direction.

Broken Bat

2005-08-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

My Newsarama editor had to go and pull rank on me and snag review duties on DC’s All Star Batman & Robin the Boy the Wonder #1 for Newsarama.com, but since this is my space, I’m gonna tell you what I think of the book.

For starters, I hope what we got from the first issue is not what pervades throughout the series as a whole. If not, Frank Miller is going to only have two good Batman outings under his belt (Dark Knight Returns, Year One) while three others were creative misfires (DK2, Batman/Spawn, and now this). From this opening chapter at least, it looks like Miller is taking Batman in a SIN CITY sort of direction, and it doesn’t necessarily serve a superheroic retelling of the origin of Batman’s sidekick, Robin. This SIN CITY idea mainly comes from how we are introduced to Vicki Vale. I have no qualms with her being portrayed as a take-no-prisoners Gotham City society columnist, but the way she’s gratuitously rendered in her unmentionables while dictating a story is bliss under Jim Lee’s pencils, but borderline insulting as a longtime Batman fan. In interviews preceding the release of this high profile book, Miller promised guest appearances from Black Canary and Wonder Woman, not exactly regulars in regular Batman series, so one wonders if we’re going to get the same cheesecake moments from them in instances that contribute nothing for what Miller himself called “Batman: Year Two” (or is that “Robin: Year One”??).

I also wasn’t too keen on how Bruce Wayne was portrayed in All Star B&R #1. If this is what we get for another five to eight issues (the series’ run is up in the air at this point), I am ready to fully embrace the bitter Dark Knight we have in the mainstream DC books out right now. What’s most unsettling about this Bruce who in assessing Dick Grayson just before his parents are ruthlessly assassinated refers to the boy as a “brat” is that it doesn’t even sound like the Bruce we got in Year One and Dark Knight Returns. Instead it’s the one from DK2 who seemed to positively despise his first and most legendary sidekick. I swear in reading that sequel to Dark Knight Returns in 2001 that it seemed like Miller absolutely hated the mere notion of Dick Grayson as a character.

Ultimately in this first part of the story, the highlight has to be the murder of Grayson’s parents. In reimagining the story, Miller & Lee really only alter the scenario in that the Flying Graysons successfully perform their acrobatic trapeze show in Gotham only to be gunned down as they accept their applause (originally it was rigging the ropes to fail resulting in a fatal plunge during the performance). This leads to Dick’s first meeting with Batman, the concluding page to issue #1 (“You’ve been drafted into a war.”), and that’s about it. Vicki Vale logs in more page time than Bruce & Dick combined. Should this continue in the subsequent chapters of this story, we have a problem, but I’ve been reading comics long enough to know that an opening chapter is rarely the measuring stick for a series. I’m ready to give All Star Batman & Robin a couple more chances. With the movie Batman Begins kicking all kinds of ass this summer, it would’ve been nice to see this well publicized series get off to a better start, though.

Maiden Voyage

2005-08-16T10:26:00.000-05:00

Aloha, students. I'm Joe, also known in cyberland as the Rev. O.J. Flow.

This is a work in progress as I try to see what works and what doesn't, how far I can take this, and if it'll all be worth it in the end.

As you may or may not know, "The Reverend's Show" is a column I write periodically, pontificating about things on my mind, from comic books to sports, from entertainment to politics. Right now 2 different websites graciously run "The Show":

Shotgun Reviews

Life During Wartime

Through my alliance with Shotgun Reviews, I contribute weekly book reviews for Newsarama.com, "Best Shots."

Now I'm trying to see if I can do something a little more immediate with this blog. I avoided it for the longest time as it had short-term fad written all over it, but I dug what I saw from Coop, one of my favorite artists, and I thought I'd take her for a spin.

Let's see how this looks...