After SiouxperCon last weekend, I am still trying to get caught up. As I type this, I am also watching Marvel Zombies on Disney +. I have no idea when I am going to read this large pile of books.
It was worth it to meet some awesome comic creators.
This week, we have three variant cover winners.
Also-Rans: Escape #1, Space Ghost #3, The Mortal Thor #2, News from the Fallout #3 (cover B), The Twilight Zone #1 (Sorry Todd, not a medalist this week), Wild Animals #3, All-New Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #2, Mark Spears Monsters #7 (cover B), and The Invisible Man #2 (cover A).
Bronze Medalist
The Phantom #1
Variant Cover E
Cover art by Freddie Williams II
I love the color choices on this cover. It grabbed my attention as I already had cover A in my possession. The light purple and webs really work together.
Silver Medalist
The Invisible Man #2
Variant Cover B
Cover art by Mike Del Mundo
How else can you make something invisible? How about an eraser. Such a neat concept and I was really attracted to it. This was another book that I already had the cover A, but needed to own it too.
Gold Medalist
Mark Spears Monsters #7
Variant Cover E
Cover Art by Mark Spears
Mark Spears is back on top. What an awesome Halloween inspired cover. This is a different style than we are used to from Spears and it is very exciting.
We go back to Apple TV + for the next show on our list. Shrinking is a comedy that buries a lot of real life drama into its storylines.
Starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, Shrinking is very poignant, funny as only real life can be, and filled with wonderfully characters.
Jason Segel is our main character. He is therapist Jimmy Laird, who gets way too close to his patients. However, the death of his wife rocked Jimmy’s world and had him questioning everything, including how effective he was at his job. He has a strong relationship with his daughter, Alice, though the loss affected them both.
The fact that Harrison Ford has not won an Emmy for his performance in this show is criminial. Ford gives such a human performance as Dr. Paul Rhoades, whose personal struggle with Parkinson’s disease is one more powerful storyline among some of the best around.
There is a wonderful comedic troop of actors on the show adding color and hilarity. Other cast members included Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Michael Urie, Ted McGinley, Luke Tennie, Brett Goldstein, Wendie Malick, and Lily Rabe.
The show has had two seasons so far and is one of the best shows from Apple TV +.
One of the all-time classic comic book mini-series came from DC Comics was entitled Watchmen written by Alan Moore. It was adapted as a big screen movie by Zack Snyder.
Years later, LOST’s Damon Lindelof created a new TV show for HBO based on the movie/comic.
Watchmen the TV series was very different, but it was a sensational series. Honestly, (and this is a little shameful) this was the first time I ever heard about the Tulsa race massacre, which plays a big role in this story. It was set 34 years after the movie.
Featuring Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Louis Gossett Jr., Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, and Tom Mison.
Wow I am late this week. There is a compelling reason, though. I went to South Dakota this weekend to attend the SiouxperCon with my friend Todd. I left on Friday, stopped off in Fort Dodge for the night, and went on to Sioux Falls Saturday morning. We spent the weekend with such comic luminaries as Gail Simone, Phil Hester, Keith Champagne, and Zander Cannon, to name a few.
Of course, I did not have much time for reading over the weekend, and I had a whole bunch of comics from the convention too. It threw off my schedule over many things with TV show watching and movies. I finally caught up to last week’s pull lists so I could write the EYG Comic Cavalcade. That is with NEW COMIC BOOK DAY being tomorrow.
The goal is to get some of the con books read and do a special edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade. I am not sure when that is going to happen, but I hope to accomplish it.
Books this week:
Deadpool/Batman #1. The new, big crossover event with Marvel and DC started this week with Marvel’s version of the team-up between Batman and Deadpool. Yes, it was a lot of fun. As were several of the other shorter team ups in the book, including Captain America and Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Daredevil, Krypto and Jeff the Shark, and Logan turning into Logo. There were a bunch of covers for this crossover and I picked up three of them.
No Man’s Land #1. Written, drawn and cover art by Symon Kudranski (Gold Medalist). My favorite book of the week, No Man’s Land takes us back to the year after the Cuban Missile Crisis and investigates a murder on the frozen bridge-the Ice Curtain- that happens at times between Alaska and the Soviet Union. Poor FBI agent Collins just wanted to retire. I expect some Cold War spy thriller goodness in this new series.
Uncanny X-Men #21. “Of Mice and Mutants” Written by Gail Simone and art by Luciano Vecchio. Cover art was done by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. One of the people we met at SiouxperCon was Gail Simone and I really love what she has done with the Uncanny X-Men book. I don’t know if she is writing the upcoming Age of Revelations series this book becomes, but I sure hope that this is not her last hurrah on this book.
Fantastic Four #3. Written by Ryan North and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. I also picked up the wrap around MCU cover done by Wesley Burt. The Fantastic Four continues their struggle against Emperor Doom.
Orla #2. Written by John Lees and art by Sally Cantirino. Cover art was done by Sally Cantirino and Dearbhla Kelly. Orla is on another date, but this time she is hitting it off with the guy. She liked him so much, she did not want to eat him! Will he survive? Who knows!
Exquisite Corpses #5. Written by Jordie Bellaire with James Tynion IV and art by Claire Roe with Michael Walsh. Cover art was done by Michael Walsh. I also picked up the stealth variant cover with cover art by Sebastian Fiumara (Silver Medalist). The body count continues to rise as the competition gets wild.
Incredible Hulk #29. “The Requiem Plain” Part Two. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Adam Gorham. Nic Klein did the cover art. The Hulk takes on the Eldest in a brutal and violent issue. It is only going to get worse.
Justice League Red #2. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Clayton Henry. Cover art was done by Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo. Cyborg joins the fun and he is not happy with the manipulation (if not our right lies) of Red Tornado. I have found this book intriguing and I want to know what is behind Red Tornado’ current behavior.
This Ends Tonight #3. Story by Gerry Duggan, Kelvin Mao, and Robert Windom with art by Jae Lee. This was the final issue of this three issue series and I have to say I felt disappointed at the conclusion. It was clearly not designed to be concluded here as it left off on a gigantic cliffhanger. It is a fun series, but I did not enjoy the finale.
They Choose Violence #4. Written by Sheldon Allen and illustrated by Mauricio Campetella. Cover art was done by Rahzzah (Bronze Medalist). Big background issue with big origins abounding everywhere. There is a creative stretch where it is more of a script than a comic. And it was original.
Slasher’s Apprentice #5. Written by Justin Richards and art and cover art by Val Halvorson. The serial killer story comes to a shocking conclusion as this book ends. I think it was a little obvious what was going to happen, but it did turn out enjoyable.
G.I. Joe #11. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Andrea Milana. Cover art is done by Tom Reilly. Baroness and Cover Girl’s story comes to a conclusion with a great ending with Baroness showing her loyalty to the Joes.
Amazing Spider-Man #12. Written by Joe Kelly and penciled by Ed McGuinness. Cover art was done by Ed McGuinness and Marte Gracia. All of the other Spiders came after Norman Osborn Spider-Man and kick his butt. Norman facing off with Gwen Stacy (aka Spider-Gwen) is an iconic moment.
Absolute Flash #7. “The Trials of the Flash” Part 3. Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Travis Moore. Cover art by Nick Robles. Absolute Flash fight a hurricane. Well, sort of. And then, he joined the Rogues. I enjoyed this month’s Absolute Flash.
Runaways #4. “Think of the Children” Part Four. Written by Rainbow Rowell and art by Elena Casagrande, Lee Ferguson, and Roberta Ingranata. Stephanie Hans did the cover art. It turned out that Nico does have her magic power, but only when she is holding hands with Gert. I do enjoy the Runaways and their drama.
Nightwing #130. “What I Was Afraid Of.” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Dexter Soy. Dick has to deal with the Nightwing Prime as the Justice League approached Nightwing with this problem. I do love how much respect Superman shows Nightwing. There can’t be more difference in their power set, but he talks to Dick with the total respect.
The New Avengers #4. Written by Sam Humphries and art by Tiago Palma. Cover art was done by Stephen Segovia & Rain Beredo. The Sub-Mariner clone of the Killumnati faces off with the New Avengers. Oh and Clea is just back after she left last issue.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #38. “Thick as Thieves” Part Two. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Luigi Zagaria. Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon did the cover art. Miles and Black Cat team up to face off with the new villains, Inari and White Cat, but things wind up in a surprising way.
Bat-Man: Second Knight #1. Book One. Written by Dan Jurgens and art and cover art by Mike Perkins. Pre-World War II Batman? The black label book is an awesome story and places Batman in a new light. This one was a lot of fun.
Marvel Zombies: Red Band #1. Written by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan with art by Jan Bazaldua. Cover art was done by Greg Land & Rachelle Rosenberg. The return of the zombies correspond with the debut of Marvel Zombies tomorrow. This focuses on the Fantastic Four zombies.
Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #4. “Spring.” Written by Ryan North and art by Mike Norton. Cover art was done by Jae Lee & June Chung. Krypto meets a friend… another dog…. who was just not going to make it. Even the narrator hinted that this would be a sad issue. We also get to see Krypto’s super powers arrive.
Other books this week: New Gods #10, The Seasons #8, Star Wars: Boba Fett-Black, White & Red #1, Deadpool/Wolverine #9, Dark Honor #5, The Expanse: A Little Death #1, Ultimate Black Panther #20, Magik #10, and Ghost Pepper #3.
Quick Hits: There were several issues of books this week ended this week. Buried Long, Long Ago #5 is one of those. This was a solid horror comic. Blink and You’ll Miss It#2 was a little confusing. I have to refocus on this book. The Ultimates #16 has some intriguing storytelling with a character that I am not sure who it was. Good as Dead #1 arrived at Image Comics this week and it was a different read. I did enjoy the return of Crimson Justice in Whatever happened to the Crimson Justice #4. There are some dangers in the Marvel Universe in Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #2. More movie characters appear in Star Wars #5. I do love Luke and Han together. Captain Planet #5 brings the Planeteers back together after some conflict and Captain Planet will face off with Captain Pollution. Phoenix#15 comes to an end (temporarily???) as Jean Grey faces off with the powers of the universe. I picked up a beautiful cover for Absolute Batman #12 by Stevan Subic and this cover glows in the dark. Finally Godzilla Escapes the Dead Zone #2 actually does not have Godzilla in any way except a few pics.
Only Murders in the Building continued to build the mystery surrounding the murder of the doorman at the Arconia, and we focused on another aspect this week. Last week it was more about the CEO billionaires, where as we returned to the part including Téa Leoni’s Sofia Caccimelio.
Charles, Oliver and Mabel tried to find info from the employees of the Arconia, which turned out to be just as eccentric as they could be.
Charles is taking testosterone and it is affecting him in hilarious ways. Oliver is considering moving out of the Arconia, and this upset Mabel when she discovered it.
The L.E.S.T.E.R. robot got thrown out of the window, landing in the exact spot where Lester the Doorman was found dead. This came after Oliver tried to bring the staff and the residents together in a building meeting. That was never going to work because… NO SNACKS????
After an encounter with Sofia in her van, Charles lost his cell phone with all of the info on the case. They rushed to follow Sofia, who arrived at the end of the episode at the home of Lorraine, Lester’s widow in a wild twist.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph was back with a little more to do, and I loved her inclusion. It was weird that the twist last week with the billionaires was never mentioned this week, but it was still a fun show.
The first Marvel Studios to find its way onto the list is Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner, reprising his role as Clint Barton from the series of the MCU movies and Hailee Steinfeld, playing Kate Bishop.
The show was set at Christmas as Clint has to leave his family in order to try and retrieve his old Ronin costume he wore during the period when his family had been blipped. He comes across fangirl Kate Bishop, who was inspired by Hawkeye during the battle of New York. She had taken up archery and was intent on joining Clint on his rounds.
The show was wonderfully written and had a nice tone to it. It is a great Christmas time show as it deals very much with family.
One of the issue a lot of people had was the return of Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin. Some people hated his return here because he was not playing Kingpin the way he did in the Daredevil Netflix series. That did not bother me at all. I expected some differences.
The show also introduced Echo, though the use of Echo is probably the weakest area of the season.
Yelena, portrayed by Florence Pugh, guest starred starting in episode 4, in her attempt to kill Clint for his part in the death of her sister Black Widow. Pugh and Steinfeld had remarkable chemistry and their shared scenes were some of the best of the series.
Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld worked extremely well together, in a mentor-mentee/father-daughter style.
I really enjoyed the six episode series and I would love to see another season at some point.
While this would also include the time when the show was hosted by Trevor Noah and others, my favorite stretch of The Daily Show was when Jon Stewart was the host.
The Daily Show appeared Monday-Thursday on Comedy Central. It is a parody of a news program, hosted by Jon Stewart. He has had a lot of correspondents that have become huge stars including Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, Jessica Williams, Larry Widmore, Olivia Munn, Roy Wood Jr., Hasan Minhaj, Jordan Klepper, Ronny Chieng, Lewis Black, Wyatt Cenac, Michael Che, Josh Gad, Jason Jones, Al Madrigal, Aasif Mandvi, Rob Riggle, and Kristen Schaal.
The writing and humor of this show is as high of a level as you are going to find. There have been people in the world that gets their news from the Daily Show.
Jon Stewart is truly one of the best interviewers you are going to see. He is so intelligent and well-read, I would hate to try and debate Stewart. Just ask Bill O’Reilly.
Jon Stewart left the show and spent several years away, as comedian Trevor Noah took over the desk. Noah was a solid host too. Stewart has returned to The Daily Show for once a week.
I am finally back in Maquoketa, Iowa from my trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to attend the SiouxperCon Comic Convention.
So day three of my first ever comic convention experience came and went. Todd and I did not intend on spending any money on the third day… a goal that we both failed at.
Sunday was much lower key with fewer bodies everywhere, and that was nice.
I got to see Keith Champagne once again. I really liked him. Tom Nguyen finally arrived today and signed some books for me.
I had a TON of books signed by the comic creators and we had some fun watching the cosplayers. There was one girl dressed as the Lorax sitting at the resting table. As I was walking across, I saw her there and I thought to myself, “Someone is dressed as Hulk Hogan.” Orange with bug yellow mustache… it was a funny moment. I wish I had a picture. There were not as many as the day before, but it was still worth it.
I am happy I went, but glad to be home. I am way behind on the TV and movies reviews and I have So MANY comics to read for the Comic Cavalcade… ooooh
I had heard some positive things about this Apple TV + show, but it turned out to be one of my favorite new shows of this year.
Murderbot is a futuristic sci-fi show where a personal security unit robot winds up getting a mind of his own and that mind has some potential violent tendencies.
Sec Unit was played by Alexander Skarsgård and he goes rogue. He is assigned to a team of researchers who were on a dangerous mission to another planet. Sec Unit does the voice over for the show and he is both fascinated and repulsed by the humans and their decisions.
Sec Unit is obsessed with an in-universe TV show called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. As viewers, we see some of the scenes of this show making it quite meta.
I did not expect to love this show as much as I did, but it was gripping, extremely funny and full of great action.
After a stop off in Fort Dodge, Iowa on Friday night, we made our way to the Sioux Falls Convention Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for our first, but officially the second, day of Siouxper Con.
Speeding along the roads of South Dakota at 80 + MPH was somewhat stressful, but Todd and I arrived around 10:50.
The con was underway and we dove right into getting books signed and finding some new gems. Todd introduced me to several comic creators that he knew from years of convention hopping, which helped ease the anxiety of the moment.
Some highlights: I spent much of the day hanging out at Keith Champagne’s booth. Keith was one of the best guys I got to meet and he made me feel extremely welcome and respected.
I loved getting to speak to some of the creators and to express how much I loved some of their work. There were a couple of moments that stand out. One was when I told Zander Cannon how much I love Sleep. I told him it was one of the most original ideas in comics. Another one was when Kyle Higgins and I were talking about No/One. He asked me if I listened to the podcast. When I told him that I loved the podcast, you could see how much it meant to him. He told me that he is directing a movie version of No/One that excited me to no end. These moments shone in these creators eyes. You could see the sincere gratitude they held for my words. That made me happy.
The big moment came when we got to meet Gail Simone. She was so awesome and I got a cool foul Batman comic that was remarkably rare. Gail made me feel right at home. I also picked up a script she wrote for an issue of Savage Wolverine. So epic!
It was so fun watching all of the cosplayers at the con. We saw representations of Marvel heroes, DC heroes, movie heroes and villains, anime characters and much more.
I really enjoyed my discussion with Eliot Rahal, who had his daughter, Olive with him. I watched them approach an animatronic fox (I can’t remember its name. It was dressed as a king). It was a wholesome moment that I am pleased to have witnessed.
Day two was not perfect. I am tired of walking and we just did not have enough comic retailers with back issues for sale, but there was so much joy and engagement that any drawbacks were minimal!
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 