Random Happenstance

Didn't this blog used to be about comics?

Well, kinda. It's summertime, the weather is getting nicer, and it's perfect weather to sit in the backyard, put your feet in the kiddie pool, and read a metric assload of comics. But said reading hasn't been translating into blog posts, sadly.

Partly, it's due to my recent selections: I re-read Warren Ellis' Scars, which is a gut-punchingly brutal crime horror (but with no supernatural elements) story, and all twelve issues of Nextwave. Nextwave is fast-paced, funny, and too good for this world; while I think Scars doesn't have so much as a single lighter moment, or even black humored laugh, in the whole series. Incidentally, while I don't have the direct link handy, I saw the trade for Scars is being reissued, and I recommend it if you're a fan of harder-edged crime fiction: keep in mind, it's hardly Law and Order, and is much more violent and bleaker than Fell.

And while I'm a big Ellis fan, I'm not buying No Hero until Black Summer is over. The trade'll be here before the last issue. (I'm exaggerating...maybe.) Ellis is also seemingly taking a page from Mike Mignola's book, and letting other creators play with his creations a bit, like Gravel and Wolfskin. Briefly, Gravel is like 'What if John Constantine was a British special forces agent?' The character may have even started life as a Hellblazer story that DC canned and Ellis reworked, if I recall correctly; although I don't know how much of the initial idea ended up in Gravel.

And Wolfskin, well, if Conan is heavy metal, Wolfskin's death metal. With mushrooms! The first limited series has a plot that's A Fistful of Dollars (or Yojimbo, or Red Harvest...) with a couple smutty twists, and the hero kills everybody--both groups of bad guys, and a good portion of the surrounding countryside--in a berzerker rage in the end. Man, I need to flip through that again before the new one comes out...I think, and this is based off my increasingly shoddy memory, that the rage itself isn't completely shown, just the aftermath: the Wolfskin comes to, bleeding, not sure where he is, and he's apparently turned a farming village into a crater full of corpses.

I may be making both of these sound derivative, and that's not true: they are genre works, and are told using a lot of genre traditions, but they are told well. Ellis might decide to tell, say, a Shadow or Doc Savage styled story (the Apparat single Simon Spector, a one-shot of pulpy goodness); but he's going to put his spin on it.

No scans today, but I should mention: I really like the Jacen Burrows/Avatar house style.


Does lemonade with ice, stirred, have a distinctive sound? Or is it just that people drink coffee out of different cups, and don't stir other iced drinks like pop? An odd thought, but somebody's stirring a glass over here.

On toys: I haven't got to the comic shop yet, and I was thinking about picking up the DC Direct Jonah Hex figure. The comic shop is also just about the only game in town for the DC Universe figures, and I still need Harley and an electric Superman--I'd prefer blue, but the Grodd arm is the main thing if I get him, so either or.

I'm positive I wanted Harley for a strip, but I can't remember what or why now. In fact, last week I finished one that she could've guested in, but I still think I had something else in mind. I need to keep better notes.

Worse, I had an idea for a one panel joke, that would involve buying two other figures. At least. And one of those would just be for the accessory. There's no way I could spring for it. Aw, but it'd be good!