Wednesday Interview: Gregg Schigiel

Chances are you are more familiar with Gregg Schigiel's work than you think you are. Not only is he the writer of Marvel's current X-Babies mini-series, he is also one of the official Spongebob Squarepants artists, and he has done an impressive mountain of licensing art for Marvel, DC, Nickelodeon, Disney, and other heavy hitters. He is also known as the guy who drew me a totally awesome Namor sketch at HeroesCon '09. X-Babies #2 drops this week, and I got to talk to Gregg all about those adorable little mutants.

How did you get to be involved with X-Babies?

By accident. Yeah, I had pitched something else entirely, a couple of times, with Jacob Chabot (the artist on X-Babies), a Spider-Ham mini-series. But because of other things going on that pitch wasn’t viable. The second editor we pitched it to, Nick Lowe, asked if we had any X-Babies ideas. In that moment I didn’t, but I went into brainstorm mode and came up with the story people are reading now. I ran it by Jacob and he was on board...and Marvel liked it to. Next thing you know, I’m being interviewed on Living Between Wednesdays.

Your Spider-Ham mini-series pitch to Marvel expanded the idea of Spider-Ham to create a whole Avengers team of animals. Although that wasn't picked-up, this X-Babies series is sort of in the same category of off-beat versions of Marvel heroes. Are you a big fan of the weirder elements of mainstream comics?

Oh, it was more than just an Avengers team of animals. The idea was the reinterpret the Marvel Animals (or AniMarvels, as I was calling them) as being essentially an alternate world/dimension where every Marvel Universe character had an animal counterpart, be they Avenger, X-Man, cosmic level dude...everyone. In the pitch I explained the equivalent of mutants on this world were birds, feared and hated for their feathers and flight...that sort of thing.

I like the weirder and more playful elements of superhero comics, and it seems as more and more attempts are made to prove how grown-up and realistic comics can be, much of even the basic tenets, like costumes, code names, using super powers, have become the weirder elements.

But if a concept or character are inherently weird or different, it’s fun to play them straight. If a character is a normal or typical thing, it’s fun to take them to weird places...if that makes sense. So the X-Babies...we’re playing this one relatively straight, but letting the quirkiness of these wee X-Men exist as they would. I don’t know if any of that made sense, but there you go.

I find it really interesting that you have done a lot of work for DC and Marvel, as well as Nickelodeon, outside of monthly comic books. You have done illustration work for colouring books, children's picture books, advertising, and guide books for both companies. For our illustrator friends out there, how did you get into that kind of work?

The terrible answer is the classic “it’s who you know”. While I was at Marvel as an assistant editor
I learned quite a bit about licensing art and that whole department and did work with them (there’s a drawing of Electro I did for them years ago that still pops up pretty regularly). So that was the first eye-opener to the world outside sequential comics specifically. Then, My old boss at Marvel, Tom Brevoort, knew someone at Nickelodeon looking, at the time, for freelance cartoonists to help out with licensing work. I was put in touch with that guy and that led to a full-time position there which eventually led to me leaving there to work as a full-time freelancer.

Though for the sake of our illustrator friends out there, the lesson should be: there are other opportunities to find work drawing for a living beyond specifically comics. I realize it’s hard to even think that way, especially when you love comics. And especially when the nature, at least of licensing work, is drawing to a style as opposed to in your own, personal style.

But it’s important to know it’s out there. And I think a way to approach looking for that sort of thing is contacting art directors and such at licensed publishing houses and asking to test for specific properties (which is to say you do samples to see how well you can draw something “on-model” (which is to specs so it looks like it does on TV, for example). That’s how they determine if you make the cut and then, maybe, there’ll be work there. A lot of companies might have in-house staff for their style guides and such, but you could still inquire with them as well.

I’m not saying it’s all a guaranteed pot of illustrator gold out there, but there are opportunities, certainly. You just gotta keep your eyes and mind open.

 

Who is the most adorable X-baby?

Of the X-Babies proper, Jacob’s version of Kitty Pryde is super-cute, no question about it. Of the Adorable X-Babies, who we first met in X-BABIES #1, Jacob’s design for Stormy, as she’s called in that form, is brilliant with the pacifier and onesie. But in issue one we only showed you some of the Adorables...

What other projects are you working on now?

These days I’m working on the last chapter of my 5-part back-up comic, PIX: TEENAGE AMERICAN FAIRY, for Chris Giarrusso’s G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS mini-series, which is a really great book that I’m very pleased and honored to be a part of...the fourth issue of which I believe is on sale next week.

I’m also starting work on some books in the animated Batman and Superman styles for DC Comics’ licensed publishing group, some early-reader chapter books, as well as working on a comic for a fast food chain that’ll be part of their kids meals in summer 2010 (I can’t say which chain though, yet). There’s some SpongeBob stuff around the corner. And I’m sure there’s something else I’m forgetting...

Baby, The Reign Must Fall.

 First off, let’s make one thing perfectly clear: I don’t much care for this Dark Reign business coming out of Marvel. Even though it’s only been going on for about a year or so, it feels like about a decade, due to the crazy overexposure of Norman Osborn and his team of Dark Avengers. One week, I swear to Galactus, there was something like 18 issues that featured appearances by those jerks. I’m not exaggerating, I’m pretty sure the number was 18. Anyway, with the announcement of Marvel’s Siege event, it looks like the whole thing is coming to an end, and not a moment too soon for me. As glad as I am to see the ass end of this crossover/event/cash grab, I’ve noticed a funny thing lately—some of the tie-ins to this series have actually been pretty good. REALLY good, in some instances.  Take the series of one-shots that make up Dark Reign: The List, for example. These special issues all focus on Norman Osborn’s Nixonian “Enemies List”, and detail his plans to incapicitate or destroy those who would stand in the way of his evil plans. I scoffed at the books when they were announced, even though I was intrigued by some of the creative teams. Now, however, when all of them but one has been released (still waiting on the Spider-Man special, but Adam Kubert’s drawing it, so that could take a while), I find that most of them have actually been pretty cool. Not all, but most. Let’s have a look at these awkwardly-named issues, shall we?

Dark Reign: The List: New Avengers: See what I mean about awkward? Anyway, everything got off to a bit of a rocky start here, with this Bendis-written, Marko Djurdjevic-drawn issue that sees Ronin (AKA Clint Barton) attempting to carry out his promise to kill Norman Osborn. Not much happens here—it’s pretty much a sterling example of how today’s writers take an entire oversized issue to achieve something that would have taken a few panels in the Sixties and a few pages in the Seventies, Eighties, or Nineties. Basically, Ronin (AKA Clint Barton, but don’t get me started on that) breaks into Avengers Tower to kill Norman Osborn, but is captured instead. It doesn’t really fit with what’s going on in the main Avengers title, and it’s a pretty unsatisfactory read overall. I’m not a big fan of Djurdjevic’s interior art either—I prefer his painted covers--so there really wasn’t much here for me to begin with.

 Dark Reign: The List: Daredevil: This issue serves as a kind of unofficial issue #0 to incoming writer Andy Diggle’s run on the monthly Daredevil, who has the unenviable task of following up Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark’s outstanding run with ol’ Hornhead. Thankfully, it proves that he is more than up to the task.  This one-shot was drawn by Billy Tan, who I’m not such a big fan of, but the story made up for it. As of issue #500 of Daredevil, the most put-upon superhero in comics is now the leader of the ninja clan known as the Hand, which is not nearly as awesome as it might sound. Norman sends his pal Bullseye to keep DD and his new army of ninjas out of his hair while he consolidates his power, which, of course, involves the deaths of a lot of innocent people and even more guilt being heaped upon Matt Murdock. A promising start to Diggle’s run, for sure. His first issue (drawn by new series artist Roberto De La Torre) came out a few weeks ago, picking up directly from the events in this issue, and it shows that the book is still in good hands.

 

Dark Reign: The List: X-Men: Now this was just plain awesome. I’ve been dipping in and out of Matt Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men run, stopping in to read the Terry Dodson-drawn issues but getting the hell outta Dodge whenever Greg Land draws an arc, so I’m only sort of peripherally aware of this whole Utopia-X jazz that’s going on now. However, that did not detract from my enjoyment of this issue one bit, where Osborn uses Namor’s ex-wife Marrina, who has been transformed into a sort of sea dragon that is actually much closer to her alien origins than the humanoid form that joined Alpha Flight, to destroy as many Atlanteans as possible. Namor and his new teammates in the X-Men (makes sense that he’d join the team—after all, he’s technically Marvel’s first mutant, I think?) draw the beast into a final confrontation. Fraction seems to have a great grasp of how to write this kind of multi-character slugfest—the mutant combatants all get appropriate little introductions and cool interactions, and the way they fight together as a team is well-handled and pretty exciting to watch. Fraction’s Namor is proud, arrogant, and hates to ask anyone for help even when he really needs it, which is a combination of traits that makes him very enjoyable to read. And the art is by Alan Davis, who, unlike many of his contemporaries from the Eighties, seems to only get more dynamic and versatile with age! This was a great stand-alone read that not only made me interested in how Fraction’s X-Men run was going, but also made me want a Fraction/Davis Namor ongoing.

 Dark Reign: The List: Secret Warriors: I gotta confess, I haven’t followed the ongoing Secret Warriors title at all—the covers by Jimmy Cheung are nice, Nick Fury is, of course, supercool, but there’s not much else in the concept that interests me. I really only looked at this issue because it’s drawn by Ed McGuiness, who has a real talent for getting me to read books I would otherwise avoid like the plague (Hello, Jeph Loeb’s Hulk!). I didn’t really get much out of this issue, as it turns out. Fury and Osborn team up to interrogate a suspect who is involved with something called Leviathan. The issue culminates in a surprise assassination and several boring pages of graphic design detailing the inner workings of the Leviathan organization, which I gather is somehow connected to the old crime ring known as Zodiac. This sort of design-heavy jazz is clearly writer Jonathan Hickman’s thing, but it’s not really a great way to end an issue. However, this one-shot did pique my interest, since it featured John Garrett, the mustachioed cyborg S.H.I.E.L.D. agent from Miller and Sienkiewicz’s classic Elektra: Assassin series. I had no idea he was running around in the Marvel Universe proper again--I recall he turned up in D.G. Chichester’s Daredevil run in the early Nineties, but I have no idea where he’s been since. I may have to have a look at some Secret Warriors issues to investigate further. Also, as I suspected, Ed McGuiness draws a really cool Nick Fury.

 Dark Reign: The List: Incredible Hulk: Yes, I know these titles are getting annoying and repetitive, but I have to look at it on an invoice every time one comes out and you will all know my pain! I haven’t been following Greg Pak’s Incredible Hulk either, and sadly, this issue didn’t really make me want to start. Bruce Banner is permanently puny these days, having his Gamma radiation drained out of him by the Red Hulk in issue #600, but he’s more or less playing Rick Jones to Skaar, Hulk’s son from another planet. Ms. Marvel (AKA Moonstone) and Osborn’s assistant Ms. Hand confront Banner and Skaar, and I kind of tuned out before the end. The art by Ben Oliver was cool, but I couldn’t get into this. It feels like much more of a complete issue than, say, the New Avengers one shot, but it didn’t really hold my interest. My complete unfamiliarity with (and complete lack of interest in) the Skaar character probably didn’t help.

 Dark Reign: The List: Punisher: I keep dipping in and out of Rick Remender’s Marvel Universe-set Punisher series, but I always seem to enjoy it, so I should really get caught up one of these days. Frank Castle is using a bunch of stolen superhero tech to wage war on the Hood’s army of Osborn-affiliated supercreeps, while the Hood is using a bunch of resurrected Scourge victims to try and take the Punisher out. In this issue, drawn by John Romita Jr., Osborn dispatches Wolverine’s jerky son Daken to destroy the Punisher, and well, without ruining anything, Wolvie Jr. is, er, surprisingly successful. Guess I did spoil it, but you really need to see it for yourself. The gory finish to this issue leads directly into the upcoming Franken-Castle arc on the monthly, non-Max Punisher, illustrated by Remender’s Fear Agent co-creator Tony Moore. After the way this issue wrapped up, I definitely want to see what happens next.

 Dark Reign: The List: Wolverine: First off, this issue is written by Jason Aaron, which is always promising. Secondly, it features interior artwork by Esad Ribic, who usually paints but shows here that he’s equally adept with good ol’ fashioned pen and ink. These are both compelling reasons to check out this issue, but as a fan of Morrison’s Marvel work circa nine or ten years ago, this issue had special significance for me. Logan takes a backseat here, while the real stars of the issue are Fantomex (the Diabolik-esque gentleman thief from New X-Men) and Noh-Varr (from Morrison’s awesome Marvel Boy mini, more recently seen serving as Captain Marvel in Dark Avengers). The two Morrison creations team up to save Wolverine from a viral attack triggered when Norman Osborn tries to take over The World (the crazy environment that is home to the Weapon Plus program, also from Morrison’s New X-Men). A funny, action-packed issue that features a great odd-couple pairing and some terrific art. Also, Norman Osborn does his best Daniel Plainview imitation on the opening splash page:

 

So there you have it.  The Spider-Man issue is still pending, but it’s written by Dan Slott so I’m not too worried about it. Otherwise, not a bad crop of issues—out of the seven we’ve seen, two of ‘em (X-Men and Wolverine) were great, two of ‘em (Daredevil and Punisher) were quite good, two of ‘em (Hulk and Secret Warriors) were so-so with nice art, and only one of them (New Avengers) was, for me anyway, kind of a waste of time. Two of them (DD and Punisher, again) were quite important to those characters’ ongoing series, and three more (X-Men, Secret Warriors, and Punisher yet again) made me curious to check out a monthly title I wasn’t currently following. All in all, not bad for an event I first turned my nose up at. It’s also a pretty decent “State of the Union” kind of event, for readers curious to see what the heck’s up with the Marvel U these days. I guess the lesson here is to never underestimate the healing power of a nice cleansing Reign!

 (I’m terribly, terribly sorry for that, I just didn’t know how else to wrap this up. Once again, my humblest apologies.)

The Return of the Robots!

I've been ever so nostalgic since reading Doom Patrol this week, as the Metal Men are now all set to have a scrap with another group of robots - robots with their own sassy theme, yet! This is the classic Metal Men plot, along with anti-robot racism and forbidden robot/human love. In honour of the return of one of my very favourite things, I'm going to revisit the old days and offer up another review of the various crazy elemental robots that used to pop up from time to time in the old Metal Men series.

BISMUTH

I am left with a lot of questions after viewing this panel. Questions like: Is this a robot made of bismuth or a fountain shaped like a robot made of bismuth? If it is a robot, is this his day job or some sort of terrible punishment? Where does the water pipe come in? Is bismuth really that water soluble?

Further, how do robots feel about drinking water that another robot has just vomited out? Why would a robot child eat apples in the first place? Do green apples really give you gut pain? Did someone build a robot child and thus doom him to an eternity of condescension, or does this panel imply some sort of robot/robot sexual reproduction? If robots can have babies on their own, is humanity doomed?

I fear that I will never know these things. NOT APPROVED.

MAGNESIUM

Further muddying the waters vis-a-vis the mysteries of robot reproduction are robotic temptresses like Magnesium here. Are all of the good metal men robo-taken or robo-gay, or is this evidence that love knows no boundaries or barriers, even across species positions on the Rockwell Hardness Scale.

One thing is certain, however. Based on my observations of various military-type friends, family members, etc I will without hesitation state that flares in the shape of attractive, coquettish dames would raise the rate of maritime rescue an immeasurable amount. JOHN APPROVED.

STEEL

Taking a break from the mysteries of robosexuality, here's poor Steel. One panel of fame was more than most elements get, and alloys seldom even get that much, but Steel managed to screw it up. Perhaps thinking that there were already plenty of grey robots running around, Steel showed up the entirely wrong dang colour. Even his freakishly long arms couldn't save him from being blacklisted after that. It's okay, though. I'm pretty sure that Steel was the result of Doc Magnus wanting some alone time one rainy weekend - just whip up a quick robot and have the Metal Men run a series of "experiments" on it with some of your spare tools and voila! time to watch Braveheart without getting interrupted during the good parts.

Steel, of course, was melted down soon after.

NOT APPROVED.

ZIRCONIUM

Is Zirconium the only robot that I've ever seen wear a t-shirt? yes he is.

More importantly: how lucky is he that this panel was printed back when zirconium was still actually used in flashes?Although my limited research indicates that zirconium is used in all kinds of cool places like nuclear reactors and spacecraft and so forth, I'm pretty sure that the poor guy would be having his face rubbed in the chintzy fake diamond aspect of his heritage if it were to come up today.

Sorry man: NOT APPROVED.

NICKEL

See, now that's more like it. A robot's love for a robot, and no risk of squashing a poor hu-mon in the throes of passion (or, say, bursting into white-hot flame).

I wonder if metals that don't alloy well are discouraged from dating by their peers. Is it kind of like a zodiac thing for them or do they approach it scientifically ("Oh, gross. Your children will be all crumbly and brittle.")? Either way, I hope someone is out there fighting the power.

As for Nickel herself, well, I could never say no to a robot in a miniskirt. JOHN APPROVED.

And that's pretty much it for my stock of images from "Metal Facts and Fancies". I'll leave you with a few left over pictures of various Metal Men finding love, metal or otherwise. Next time I do this: crazy Metal Men villains!

Lead has a Mer-fan

Mercury: Evidently needs to get out of the kitchen. What I'm saying is, he can't take the heat.

Mercury again: What a lech.

Fun with Romance Comics: Fun with Dave Madden!

If you're confused about why girls lust over Robert Pattison, try and wrap your mind around who they crushed on 30 years ago.

Free poster of Dave Madden? Best known for his role as Reuben Kincaid, the harried agent for The Partridge Family, according to Wikipedia? No way!

  

Huh. Well, there it is. I don't know if I see the appeal. He was sort of a father figure, right? A dark, looming protector?

So, maybe Robert Pattison is the modern Dave Madden.

John Buys Comics and Then Buys Comics Again

That's right, I have returned. I let myself get distracted by such things as "making my Hallowe'en costume" and "going to Saint John" distract me from the comical books that I love so well, and so have a pretty big damn pile of things to read through. How many will I get through? Nobody knows!

World’s Finest No. 1 (of 4)

This is a neat concept for a comic! I like it when comics have neat concepts!

Uh, sorry. My lack of sleep/hot brown liquid stimulant ratio was slightly off when i wrote that. I shall take a step back and tell you about the concept in question, since you, like me, might have completely missed this one until it was directly in front of you.

The concept in that I am speaking of is tied to the fact that Batman and Superman, being respectively dead and banished from Earth, are unavailable to fill the role of World’s Finest Team, and so the folks who are filling in for them are getting up to a series of team ups. This issue: Red Robin and Nightwing. Uh, the Kryptonian Nightwing.

It looks like this will be a series of one-off stories with some sort of interconnectivity and a pan-series payoff at the end, or possibly a series of one-offs that feed into one another. Either way, I approve. Get a couple of guys together, have a few fights, solve a problem… what a nice formula. Plus this is - as far as I know - the first time that a member of the Bat-family has met a member of the Super-family named Nightwing and Sterling Gates did not miss the chance to have them talk about the weirdness of the shared alias.

Tim Drake must be getting pissed, though. This is, like, the third time that his Bat-quest has been interrupted in the last couple of months, and as far as I recall, all while he was in Germany. Was he in Germany for very long?

“Ah, the next phase of my quest is beginnin-”

“Dude, come back to Gotham! Zombie parents!”

“Finally back to finish my ques-“

“It’s me, Superboy! I need to pal around!”

“Back again. Now down to busines-“

“You’ve never met me but I need your help!”

I reckon that the next person that shows up asking for him to drop everything and come with them (and how are they all finding him, anyway?) is getting a Red Robinrang to the ear.

Superman: Secret Origin No. 2 (of 6) 

Superboy meets the Legion of Super-Heroes! Yay! Geoff Johns expands on the scene that we got a glimpse of in Legion of Three Worlds, as Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad sneak back in time to meet their hero and end up inducting him into their club. Sadly, no goofy original costumes are in evidence. I really like the way that this is being played: as in the recent cartoon, the transition that Clark Kent is making from being a regular kid to being a super-powered alien crime fighter isn’t going as smoothly as it could be, and the appearance of the Legion in his life is a key formative event, giving him both a peer group and a costumed, crimefighting example to follow. And incidentally exposing him to dames who are into capes. It’s too bad that Lana Lang already knows about Clark’s powers, though - a real Superboy book needs more snooping.

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve and Rex Splode No. 1 (of 3) - It’s a dream come true, really: one comic bringing me both the incomparable team of Benito and Nate and the much-mourned Rex Splode. This issue retells and expands upon Rex’s origin from way back when. And with two issues left, dare I hope for some hot Teen Team action?

Ambush Bug Year None No 7 (of 6) - So... something went horribly wrong with Ambush Bug No. 6? Or something? This was a fairly confusing issue, I gotta say. And not a funny one. And a really bitter-seeming last page. What's the deal? (Aw, nertz. Nobody on the Internet seems to know either). 

Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink No 6 (of 6)

And what was the raison d’etre of Ink, when all is said and done? I think that it was either to build up the Tattooed Man’s supporting cast and so forth or to back him up from being a full-on super-hero and put him in a greyer place. Maybe a combination of the two? It’s the only one of the four that segues directly into another series (no, not a Tattooed Man series. Titans), so it’s very possible that both of the above are true. Of course, given the somewhat dues ex machina feel and super-speed plot of this last issue, the whole Titans thing might be a result of some last-minute decision-making. All I know is that I will always like any character, hero or villain, who gets around on a giant flaming bat-winged skull.

Final Crisis Aftermath Aftermath!
RUN! Was fun.
Escape was confusing and great.
Dance was entertaining but ended poorly.
Ink was way more entertaining than I expected it to be.

Good job, spin-offs!

Green Lantern No. 47 - Ah. Do you feel that? My soul is at peace once more. I am only buying/reading the three core Blackest Night books and I feel good. I feel entertained. I am calm.

Now the question is: will free rings be enough to quell my murderous rage next month when Black Lanterns start cropping up in the ongoing series that I’m reading? Wait and see!

Or see right now: Doom Patrol No. 4

Hmm. this might be an unrepresentative sample. First off, the comic hasn't really been going for long enough for this sudden intrusion of crossover to be terribly disruptive. Sure, the confrontation between Elasti-Girl and Steve "Has Gotten Steadily More Pathetic Since the Sixties" Dayton will have to wait until everyone stops being zombies, but that's probably for the best for ol' Mento.

Secondly, this seems to be one instance in which the appearance of Black Lanterns is more interesting than irritating. The Doom Patrol's history is littered with corpses as well as continuity breaks, so it's fun to see exactly who is getting resurrected and which iterations of the Patrol are being acknowledged. Zombie Tempest is a product of the Morrison run - does this mean that all of that is in-continuity? Lord I hope so. Plus: the closest that we are ever likely to get on the whole Caulder/Arani thing!

As for the Metal Men backup: is there anything more enjoyable than a story where the Metal Men fight another group of themed robots? No there is not.

Abe Sapien: The Haunted Boy

Oh, fun. These Dark Horse Quick Shots are the perfect cure for my poor diseased brain. They soothe me with their complete stories. I didn’t have anything intelligent to say about Sugar Shock last week, but that was real, real fun. They are so. Good. For to read.

Man, you can’t really go wrong with an Abe Sapien story, especially a creepy one about a ghostly drowning victim (although I’d really enjoy seeing him investigating something out of his element in his next solo story. Abe Sapien and the Mountain Climbing Snake Men, maybe, or Abe Sapien: Desert Fulla Vampires. Or Abe Sapien Flies to the MOOON!). Patric Reynolds draws one heck of an Abe, too.

The most disconcerting thing about this issue, though, was that it was set in 1982. Evidently, I have grown so used to the sliding timelines and ageless protagonists that seeing one of the stars of a current book do something twenty-seven years in the past weirds me out. I really hadn’t expected to see the early 80s in a comic book again until I was old enough that super-heroes’ parents' younger days might be set then. Thomas Wayne all dressed up for the disco, wearing a neon bat-suit...

Batman No. 692

I mentioned last time that this would be a six hundred and ninety-SECOND ISSUE OF JUDGEMENT, so here goes.

See, I've been enjoying Batman okay. Two-Face was being all devious, Two-Face's goon was unusually smart, etc, etc. And then, last issue basically drove home the fact that the whole purpose of having Two-Face around was to get him into that split-down-the-middle Bat-Suit for a couple of pages, presumably to justify it having been in the house ad for Battle for the Cowl. That's garbage.

I mean... just look at our favicon, there's nobody here who doesn't at least like Batman and I personally could name more Arkham inmates than Prime Ministers, but blech. I know that the creative team has shifted, but basically this book is going to have to look amazing for me to pick it up again. Involving the Falcones and their old-school mob types might do it, I don't know.

JUDGEMENT: DROPPED. FOR NOW.

Batman Unseen No. 3 (of 5) - In contrast, this remains great. Batman wrestles naked greasy invisible man: how much slash has already been written about this?

Eternal Conflicts of the Cosmic Warrior No 1

Paul Grist presents the further adventures of the Eternal Warrior, a guy who has gotten almost zero face time in the pages of Jack Staff. There is nothing that is not delightful about that.

By his very nature, the Eternal Warrior doesn't say much - he's more of a "talk with your sword" kind of guy. This leaves a lot of the responsibility for being entertaining in the hands of the bad guys of the story, and they're great. Some of the most entertaining evil in fiction is done in the name of doing good, so Bernadette (seemingly an eternal foil tot he Warrior) and her high-tech sword fighting lackey Captain Uriel are pretty satisfying in that regard. Add on a messiah named Leonard and an opening scene with a king, a soothsayer and a pit and you have a very happy Johnathan.

North 40 No. 5 - I missed number 4 and so had a double-length dose of this this week. Everyone: go buy this comic. It's so good, I swear.

Hunter's Fortune No. 1 (of 4)

So: a down on his luck dude and his shiftless friend, thrust into a life of adventure and archaeology by a mysterious will?

A globe-trotting quest for Excalibur? Conniving dames? Unlimited cash? A villain who evidently fights bears for a living?

This is going to be great! Fans of adventurous fun, take note.

Age of Reptiles: the Journey No. 1 (of 4)

I know that at least 80% of the people who read this thing were at one point human children, so there should be no need to stress this too much: DINOSAURS.

Wait, I want to stress it a little: AWESOME DINOSAURS. Dinosaurs in great numbers, traveling and acting like actual animals, instead of eating and combat machines. That said, there is a classic confrontation of Triceratops vs carnosaur in this issue, although without the usual puncture wound to the thigh. Plus: at least one dinosaur having a poop.

If this was already out in trade, my nephew would be getting it for Christmas. I wonder if I can hunt down the first two...

Okay, there you go. Buy North 40.

Halloween 2009!

Another Halloween has come and gone, and that means another successful Strange Adventures Halloween Party has come and gone. I finally found my camera cord, but I can't find my photo editing software, so I had to leave all the red eyes in. But that's Halloweeny, right?

Here is your Living Between Wednesdays team! L to R: Tiina, Johnathan, Me and Dave.

Ok, here's the thing: I had spray painted some boots red, but they wouldn't dry so I had to wear black ones. But besides that, and the fact that Bizarro isn't a tubby pregnant woman, not bad, eh?

Tiina has her glasses on here, but most of the night she was cold bumping into stuff. Johnathan's MODOK costume actually lit up which is awesome. Dave's Hawkeye costume was great. I was hoping for one of the sleeveless versions of the costume, though, but I guess Dave didn't want to show off his guns.

Here's the winner of Best Male costume: KANG!

He looks pretty happy about it.

And here's Best Female, everyone's least favourite comic character, CATHY!

That's just a well-executed good idea.

I unfortunately don't have a good picture of the Best Overall winner, which was an amazing Dalek costume. BUT you can go to the Strange Adventures site to see lots of great pictures of all the costumes, including that one.

Here are some more of my favourite costumes:

ANT-MAN AND WASP! (again, better pictures on the Strange Adventures site)

GREEN/BLUE LANTERN!

IRON FIST!

LEGO MAN!

Get ready to have your mind blown...MA HUNKEL! THE ORIGINAL RED TORNADO!

CAPTAIN MARVEL AND MARY MARVEL (actually BLACK MARY)

PETER PARKER AND JIMMY OLSEN!

DRUNK TONY STARK!

There were so many awesome costumes, and again you should head over to the Strange Adventures site and check them all out. I love comic nerd Halloween parties because everyone goes all out.