37 1/2 things I’ve been meaning to blog you…

Hey, it’s been a while.

I’m still recovering from my St. Patrick’s Day reunion with college friends in Philadelphia (it’s been 10 years since I’ve seen many of them), but there’s a ton of things that have been on my mind, so in no particular order, here’s a pick-up truck full of stuff you should check out:

PHILADELPHIA
City of Brotherly Love? Birthplace of Independence? Right on both counts, but it’s also home to some amazing bars, restaurants and tons of stuff to do—including cheese steaks at 1:30 a.m. at Jim’s on South Street. (Pat’s is the best, but not walkable.) Remember: You always want Wiz With (that’s liquid cheese spread and grilled onions). Ketchup is optional, but appreciated.

BLUE BEETLE
Along with Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man, this is without a doubt the best teen superhero book on the racks, with just as much focus on the personal dilemmas of this fledgling hero as the crazy-cool cosmic madness he’s messed up in. Writer John Rogers has crafted on hell of a teen-centric superhero soap; take a bath with it ASAP.

STARMAN
Though it’s been off shelves for a while, I had the chance to go back and read the first couple of trades for a “Bookshelf” review I’m working on of the upcoming Omnibus that hits in May. Let me tell you: If you’re looking for one of the greatest heroic legacies in the history of DC Comics, you’ve got to read James Robinson’s Starman. Not only does it feature sensational art by Tony Harris, it chronicles the entire arc of Jack Knight’s turn as a reluctant superhero, while weaving in and out of the DC continuity to include ties to both the JSA and the Legion of Super-Heroes. If you like self-contained, literary comic epics like Sandman and Preacher, Starman is their superhero equivalent.

GHOST RIDER

Jason Aaron and Roland Boschi have turned a corner with Marvel’s Spirit of Vengeance, and it’s got my engine revving to maximum RPMs. Their first two issues set up a rad new status quo, as Johnny Blaze learns he’s not a demon, but an angel of vengeance and he wants God to answer for what’s going on. Throw in the small redneck town that’s home to a cannibal coroner, a haunted highway and warrior nurses that want to kill the Ghost Rider, and this is on biker gang you’ll want to join ASAP.

WEEDS

I got Season 2 of this amazing Showtime series for Christmas, but haven’t started watching it till now. What was wrong with me? I have the biggest crush imaginable on Mary-Louise Parker, whose dysfunctional family is only more complicated by the fact she’s her town’s biggest pot dealer. My favorite scene so far from Season 2 (I’m halfway done!): Uncle Andy takes 11-year old Shane to a “massage parlor” for a “hand” in sexual instruction! Classic! I’ve GOT to get caught up on the rest of the series.

Peel open your head, pour in some “Scalped”

I don’t ever want to know what it feels like to have a diminutive, one-armed psychopath pull out one of my eyes with a painfully sharp instrument.

However, for some reason, writer Jason Aaron decided to put me through that very scenario in the most recent issue (#15) of his DC/Vertigo series, Scalped with artist R.M Guera. And I just about messed myself the same way the poor victim soiled himself while enduring said torture.

Is there any doubt as to why I love Scalped? Aaron is without a doubt the real deal, the next great graphic novelist, another treasure in the mold of Gaiman, Ennis, Azzarello, etc.—a comic book writer with literary sense.

And the fact that he dabbles on the dark side with his crime thriller—set on a desolate Native American reservation and starring an undercover FBI agent as a cop on the take, working for a crimelord who runs the rez with an iron fist, which sounds like the perfect recipe for an HBO series—appeals to my baser nature.

Check out the most recent arc: Titled “Dead Mothers,” it finds said FBI agent Dashiell Bad Horse investigating the murder of a dead prostitute—and caring for her oldest son in the interim—while dealing with the brutal killing of his own mother (whom he apparently detested), which in turn pits him against the godfather of the rez, Chief Red Crow, who was in love with Gina Bad Horse, Dash’s murdered mother.

Sounds juicy, doesn’t it? Like an eyeball plucked from your head while you’re totally conscious.

Put some Scalped in your head ASAP. The first two trades, “Indian Country” and “Casino Boogie” are available now, and issue #15 just hit this week. What are you waiting for, kemosabe?

How to be a (Thursday) Quarterback

Big Jim Gibbons (whose own blog you can read right here) suggested I blog on this timely topic: Thursday Morning Quarterback, which seems even more appropriate this week with the announced retirement of Green Bay Packers signal-caller Brett Favre, one of the best football players to ever play the position or the game. He’s one cat who knew how to play QB.

The question we’ve been getting is: How the hell do you put this thing together each week? Glad you asked!

STEP 1: Scouting report
Every Monday, I check out various retailer Websites to see what’s coming out. I usually print out a list, target what books we can discuss in the main bar discussion, then try and get an idea of what Quick Hits I can get a jump on.

STEP 2: Gameplan
Since these days we get advance copies and PDFs from publishers, it’s a lot easier to get a jump on the review process. So Monday and Tuesday, I usually grab a half-dozen or so books I know will be Quick Hits, read the hell out of them, and whip up my reviews on those and get them out of the way.

STEP 3: Gameday
Wednesday means game time! The research gang picks up the books from our local retailer around 11 a.m.; as soon as the stack comes in, we pull our three main bar books, assemble our review team in the conference room, grab our grub and get to reading!

STEP 4: Call the play
After about an hour or so, the three reviewers for the week close the door and hunker down. Yours truly tries to type along and transcribe the entire conversation (or at least as I can best remember it), while making sure we recap the book and focus on both the good and bad of whatever we’re reviewing. We keep the discussions tight, about 10-15 minutes, I’ll make occasional fart noises or do little dances to keep things light, then we move on to the next book.

STEP 5: Get it together
Cleaning up the transcript and putting together the document of reviews is the toughest part of the gig, because there’s so much text, a bunch of different voices and a literal TON of HTML code that has to be input. And trust me, when you’re Fred Flintstone living in a George Jetson world, it AIN’T the easiest thing in the world. QB ends up running anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 words in a single week; this week for example, the Word doc was roughly 18 pages. So since I’ve been running this shebang (about five, six months now), I’ve put together almost a novel’s worth of comics reviews. Whoa! That’s crazy!

STEP 6: Finishing touches
Once all that’s out of the way on Wednesday night, I usually take a stack of books home with me, around 12 or so, just to check them out and see what we can put in or new section, Extra Points, where we give little shout-outs to the stars of the week. Thursday a.m. when I roll in the office, I get the images and covers together, design that bear in our Website design program, then hand it off to Big Jim Gibbons to check it out and make sure all my HTML works and get another set of eyes on it too. Sometimes we’re up by 10:30 a.m. publish, other times we hit the 12:30 p.m. publish time, depending on how much art, etc.

STEP 7: Pass out
That’s pretty much what I do at lunch on Thursday. But don’t tell my boss; he still hasn’t found my secret nap spot yet!

Thanks for reading; check out Thursday Morning Quarterback every week. Hell, you can check out this week’s edition right now; just click here right now!

Put on your ‘War Paint’!

So, my all-time favorite band in the whole universe put out their first studio album in a few years earlier this week: The Black Crowes released “War Paint” on Tuesday, and it’s been playing in my car stereo non-stop ever since.

(Yeah, I know I’m old when I still buy CDs; I don’t even know what an iPod is.)

At any rate, the album’s funky, folksy, rocking and inspirational all around. The Crowes, who bill themselves as “The World’s Most Rock-n-Roll Rock and Roll Band” are a very polarizing group; you either or love them or hate them. I’m with the former camp; I’ve seen them live at least a half-dozen times, I own all their albums and the DVDs to boot.

Kick back, pick up a buzz however you like and give “War Paint” a try. You can check out all the album tracks at this Amazon link here.