A few years ago, while working in a nearby college town, I happened to discover that their library had an amazing array of graphic novels and comic trade paperbacks. Since my job allowed for reading time, on occasion, I made great use of their collections, including one collection of Will Eisner’s Spirit comic strips that was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. It’s been nearly ten years since that job ended, and I’ve never been able to locate that particular volume again, even on auction sites, which proved to me that it was as powerful to others…
Browsing: Question Of The Day
Recently, during a heated Playstation 3 wrestling match, my daughter opined that it was “stupid confusing” that I had two separate wrestlers nicknamed ‘The King’. I attempted to explain to her that there were only a limited number of call-signs available in the game, and that King Cobra and The Lizard King were two vastly different personalities when she dropped the real bombshell: The REAL King is the race-car voiced by Richard Petty from ‘Cars’. She then changed her mind to say that Michael Jackson, The Late King Of Pop, was the real king, then waffled again to address King…
My latest comic review got me thinking about comics history: When Jack Kirby left the halls of Marvel Comics at the dawn of the 70s, the King was welcomed soundly at what his partner Stan used to call ‘The Distinguished Competition’. His first foray into the DCU burst out of that pages of ‘Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen’ of all places, but quickly set itself apart from anything seen on the comics page before. Though there were forays by Darkseid into the greater DCU (a JLA/JSA summer crossover, the original Crisis On Infinite Earths and others), the Fourth World stayed relatively…
Recently, a website which shall remain nameless (mostly because I don’t have a lot of respect for ’em, and I figure if you really want to find out their name, it won’t be particularly difficult) posted a long screed opining that adults who read fiction aimed at Young Adults should be ashamed of their taste in reading. It hit a very personal nerve for me, reminding me of my teenage years when several of my comic-reading friends suddenly became ashamed of their taste in things, and began openly mocking those of us who still read comics and watched cartoons. The…
Today’s image is of a Ferrari Millenio, a car taken directly from the mind of my 12-year-old self and given form by automotive designer Marko Petrivic. Equal parts Batmobile, Speed Racer’s Mach 5 and Hot Wheels car, it’s exactly the car that I would drive if I had the scratch and would fit in the driver compartment. Interestingly, my most recent vehicle, a turn-of-the-century Chrysler LHS, is the first car that I’ve actually CHOSEN to purchase, rather than just buying what is available in my meager price range, and it has a little bit in common with that Ferrari, like……
When it comes to the sweet science of super-heroing, there are a few old chestnuts that pretty much tell you all you need to know: Great power, great responsibility yadda yadda. Superstitious and cowardly lot blah blah blah fishcakes. Bald, fat or ugly people will always turn evil, especially if they have a funny or humiliating name. (Please remember: I don’t makes the rules, I just explains ’em.) But the one that has been getting the most mileage in the modern storytelling oeuvre is the theory that ‘the villain is the hero of her own story.’ Indeed, protagonists such as…
As a life-long fan of professional wrestling, I love occasionally dipping into the well of squared-circle history for Major Spoilers purposes, if only to let the cynical snarkers get some meanness out of their system. It reminds me of a discussion I had with a professional sportscaster around the turn of the century, wherein he admitted to enjoying the spectacle and athleticism of the entire affair, but when asked why he wouldn’t cover it in his segments had the perfect response: “I don’t cover movies about football, either.” He also had a theory that a wrassler like The Rock would…
In the wake of the final episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’, my friend of many, many years, Otter Disaster, remarked on the Twitter (you really should follow the Major Spoilers crew, we are delightful) that I should be happy that Ted Mosby dumped Victoria, otherwise she might have ended up dead at the end of the series. (Also: Spoilers.) Still, though, as much as I hate to admit it, the Otter has a point: I am glad that Victoria didn’t end up with Ted, just as much as I’m glad that Nightwing and Starfire didn’t actually go through…
During the 1980s, Marvel Comics writers began using a plot device that any Doctor Doom appearance that didn’t fit into their interpretation of the character would be explained away as a Doombot, masquerading as the real deal. I remember thinking how clever the idea was, but little did my 13-year-old self know what horror awaited us on the other side of the Retcon Chasm. These days, writers don’t even have to create their own retcon explanations, as we fans will do it for them, leading to a peculiar situation of scurrlious fandom theories being widely believed to be TRUE. Before…
Having worked in a comic store for more years than I care to consider, I’ve heard the question hundreds of times: What’s a good book to start getting into comics? Often times, I find that the answer has a lot to do with the person asking, but I’m usually pretty confident pointing out Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’, or for superhero enthusiasts, a little of Kurt Busiek’s ‘Astro City.’ But today, after new store employee Alex and I got to discussing comic books she enjoys, I actually got to go to the book that I like to recommend to the appropriate weirdos:…
As a nerd of long-standing, I’m required by contract to never admit to liking or knowing anything about sports. Fortunately my attorney, Miss Van Pelt, informs me that the contract was never notarized, allowing me to pretty much do whatever the heck I feel like, so long as I don’t curse, spit, or pull hair. That lack of rules carries over into many realms of fiction, especially the game of Quidditch, whose rules don’t particularly seem to gel into a real coherent game (but do lend themselves to some pretty spectacular CGI work, so it all balances out.) Here at…
I’m proud to say that, thanks to a mutual love of the many names of David Ryder during the episode ‘Space Mutiny’, my kid has become an aficionado of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. This is a point of pride with me, even after the point where she wondered how they made such realistic robots back in the 1990s (and to be honest, the personalities of Servo and Crow are such that it’s understandable she might make that mistake.) Last night, during ‘The Final Sacrifice’, known also as the finest hour of Zap Rowsdower, we started brainstorming about what sort of…
Yesterday, on the Twitter, our very own Chris Wilson, review snaker extraordinaire and all-around knockabout guy, posited a posit that shook the very foundations of Major Spoilers: Could Aquaman control C’thulhu? Stephen, with his arcane knowledge of all things Lovecraft and pulp, insisted no, while I with my reverence for the world of comics, maintain that the math should work. While I certainly understand the counter-argument Stephen threw at me (‘Aquaman can’t control people who live in houseboats!’), I think that the true measure of any theoretical is what makes for a better story afterwards, and for my money, the…
Lately, I’ve been in a mood to watch movies, and since there’s pretty much no chance that I’ll be venturing out to our local theatre on a holiday weekend, that means I’ve been perusing the greatest hits of 2012 current in rotation on my pay cable channels. What I’ve discovered is that Emma Stone makes a pretty fine Gwen Stacy, Katherine Heigl makes a pretty terrible Stephanie Plum and Argo, while a serviceable thriller, was somewhat annoying by the end of the whole affair. Most interesting of all, despite warnings that a 40-ish comic nerd from the Midwest wouldn’t have…