Random Happenstance

Presented without commentary...aw, hell, there's commentary.
The Youngest set this up. I had given him a little pile of Simpsons toys, since he loves the movie, and I had brought that Corgi Batmobile from my desk at work for another strip...that I haven't had time to take any photos for. Hell.

I took Monday off, since it was a busy, busy weekend. The Oldest's tenth birthday ended up running for three days: Saturday with Free Comic Book Day and Iron Man, Sunday with a barbecue and party at his grandparents, and Monday with lunch and more presents from my folks. Rest assured, he got a ton of stuff, a ton of cake, and generally spoiled rotten. Oh, and Iron Man was all kinds of fun, and even with a ton of other comic book movies coming out this year, it's going to be a tough one to beat.

A quick note on Free Comic Book Day: as usual, the Comic Book Shop fixed me and the boys up. My personal favorite? Probably the Marvel Spider-Man/Iron Man/Hulk one, although the Atomic Robo story was solid, and I did like the Hellboy one a lot, but it loses a few points for being a bit tied up in the current storylines.

Greg Land gets a lot of flack for his art being overly photo-referenced, but I liked the FCBD X-Men issue more than I'd expected. Still, and I know she's a pre-existing character from New X-Men, but every time I see Pixie, I'm going to think of some editor telling the writers, "We need a new audience identification figure, like Kitty Pryde or Jubilee. Something like, I don't know, Pixie or something, just not as lame. Oh, and this time, I don't care if she's fourteen or thirty-seven, I want her built."

Saturday morning, before we left the house, the Wife asked me if I knew anything about German Idealism. Not off the top of my head, but I recommended Action Philosophers! which became the first comic books the Wife ever bought or read! Congratulations to Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, especially since she had proven resistant to just about every other comic. She picked up two trades, and we'll have to dig up the last one later. The Wife's enjoyed them a lot, although she might also be a Marxist now. Well, baby steps--she also loved Iron Man.

Also, I fixed the toilet with my dad, which involved sawing off a plastic lug nut from a stripped bolt. Most people don't have to use garden shears for plumbing, but I say, you can't argue with results. I also took my bike in to get new tubes, so we'll see how long they last me this year. While I was waiting, I dug through the quarter boxes at the Comic Book Shop again, until I found that issue of Balder the Brave that I'm theoretically missing. I also stumbled across this one:

The more things change, huh? But would this work, ever? In high school, for a while I dated a girl that had an older brother who was often the source of my group's booze. Even though I didn't think it was going anywhere, and tried to break up with her more than once, on one occasion I went to see her, bound and determined to end it once and for all right then and there. Except she had got her brother to buy us a Party Ball. I zipped my lip and took one for the team without any hesitation. After all, she was prettier than Denise...

(Anyone else remember the Party Ball? If not, you're either younger than me, weren't a teenage drunkard, or had a bigger social group, like enough friends for a keg. The thing was kind of a pain in the ass, since I think we had to find a pump for it...God, I can't even remember what kind of beer it was. Coors? No?)

Speaking of beer, it comes up a lot in this one, which I read while waiting at the Youngest's therapy:

Switchblade Honey isn't one of his major works, but it is a fun story from Warren Ellis, one he admits in the introduction to be "a joke told in my voice, full of my usual rubbish." It's a fun sci-fi adventure, that's like a dirtier, British Star Trek with drinking, smoking, cursing, and other stuff that makes life, if not worth living, mildly tolerable. Ellis seems to have most of his stuff through Avatar now, so I'm not sure if this one is easily available or not, but it's well worth digging up.

Gah, busy day. New figure comic Wednesday. I know I won't have this much going on between now and then...