Christmas on a Wednesday? Who voted for this?

Cover from 1989's Alf #13 by Dave Manak. 

I'm writing this post before I leave, but hopefully when this posts I'm just back from Montana: there's statistically a not-zero chance that I get stuck or held up, but I'm sure I'm fine. I swear I used to make that drive and the snow would be up to my armpits, and now it's not surprising if the roads aren't even wet. Global warming is real, yo. This is a short week that will manage to still feel long, since my work is once again demanding overtime. Sure, it's dark as hell out when I start and when I'm done, and there wasn't much else to do, and the overtime'll pay down my card, but I'm already a bit fried. I had a day--okay, today, as I write this--where I got up, went to work, then immediately went back to bed when my shift was over. Maybe spent an hour awake that wasn't working? That's no way to live, but I won't have to do that forever, so...we shove on.

It'll be an Alf-centric week, though: tomorrow, we'll have this week's strip, again guesting Alf; and I know I have the last issue of his series next to me, so I should read that for "The End" week. Well, if that ain't a reason to keep on keeping on, I don't know what to tell you! Anyhow, if you're curious, there's two stories and a Christmas card this issue; where Alf is somehow supposed to be endearing, while doing more property damage than a full Avengers roster and trying to eat cats. The property damage does explain why he was a good fit at Marvel, I guess.

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I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often around here, honestly.


Sonuvabiscuit. I spent about forty-five minutes looking for a specific issue yesterday and didn't find it, eventually coming out of my basement defeated and dejected and about an hour past my bedtime. Then I got the bright idea to try and find it on eBay, and not only was it a bit high, I realized I never had that issue, I had read a friend's copy, and in fact was even thinking of another issue that I did have. And didn't find.

I think during football season I'll make comics organization a little project. Being old, I have no problem with 'watching' a game on a black-and-white TV with a screen inferior to modern handheld game systems: I remember 'radio,' and it's more just for the noise. Even if my sorting is completely primitive, I'd like to get all my Thor comics in one pile, all the various and sundry Legion of Super-Heroes incarnations together, and the assorted missing or misplaced limited series compiled again.

Don't get me wrong: I unabashedly do enjoy digging through a box that contains three different numberings for Green Lantern, random issues of Motormouth, and a lone Optic Nerve--not the issue pictured, either; oddly, GCD didn't have them all. You may have thought I was joking about the Happenstance method...it's just that lately, I'm sorting, and sorting, and sorting. Maybe three times more past that, and it's cutting into my fun, and I'm running out of room to stand in the basement.

But, that's part of the way I enjoy comics. I like digging through a box of comics so disorganized that the more neat/anal-retentive amongst you might tear the box apart in a fit of filing madness. For me, part of the fun is flipping through issue after issue, looking for a Superman comic I might not even have anymore; and coming up with a Kelley Jones Batman or Neal Adams' Deadman reprints or a complete run of Skull the Slayer. (And the issue of Marvel Two-In-One that wrapped up that series when it was cancelled. I defy and demand any readers out there to tell me they have those. I'll be shocked, promise.)

So, while I say I'm going to 'organize' my comics, your guess is as good as mine as to how much of that actually happens. Chances are good I'll end up flipping through boxes, pausing to read forgotten gems like...Forgotten Realms or something.

Much longer entry tomorrow, promise. I wrote most of this entry at work today. Three and a half hours of overtime, which left me a bit loopy, but left me plenty of time to peruse GCD and blogs. Come to think of it, there's more I need to add... Read more!

Huh. Not how I pictured World War Hulk ending, but OK...

Ugh. Working a ton of overtime this week, the Wife hurt her back, I took the little dog ("Sugarpie," who isn't) for a walk and then the big dog peed on Sugarpie's chew toys in a jealous doggy rage. He's like a little sullen teen, I swear. So, it's not feeling like sunshine and lollipops over here, though admittedly it could be a lot worse.

This is from Spider-Man and Friends #1, which was attached to a shirt/shorts combo the wife picked up for the Youngest. At the time, he wasn't as into books as he has been lately, so I set it aside, until I bumped into it again yesterday cleaning up the aforementioned dog incident. The Youngest has been wandering around waving his brother's copy of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for about a month, so we'll see if he's ready to try something else. Hey, Udon art! I loved that studio's early work on Deadpool and Agent X.

Good grief, I'm not even getting to the comic shop until Friday this week, either. I did pull my run of the Question out of the basement, though, and read the first seven before getting ready for bed. Chances are, something from that will turn up soon... Read more!

Last time, on Hulk, T.I.:


From Fantastic Four 2001, "The Devil You Know" Carlos Pacheco; Raphael Marin co-plotting; Jeph Loeb scripting, Kevin Maguire pencils, Wade Von Grawbadger inking. I'm not a big Loeb fan, but Pacheco actually did some nice FF work by himself, and any excuse to see Kevin Maguire play with the Marvel toys.

And, I got overtime today: good for cash, bad for blogging. Tomorrow: probably my favorite Congresswoman ever! Read more!