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Why?
WHY?
WHY?
Why is Rob Liefeld still getting work?
Not only can he still not draw feet, or any other portion of an actual human body, he’s Kirby-teched Thor’s penis!
More here, if you hate your eyes.
UPDATE - You know, I’m sorry I posted this. I really don’t know why I did it. Like I give even a picodamn what either Liefeld or Marvel are up to. I’m sorry folks, I’ll try to put together a decent entry soon.
Ha! Not really. Olsen could never afford those prices.
As long as I’m cracking on Olsen and showing off crude Gimpery (as opposed to Photoshoppery), I had wanted to mash up some dialogue from these Jimmy Olsen comics with some art from Chris Ware and create Jimmy Olsen, the Smartest Kid in the World, but alas, I’ve loaned out my copy of Ware, so you’ll just have to imagine the side-splitting hilarity that would result.
Tom Hanks sure likes his triple venti latte.
The actor is attached to star in “How Starbucks Saved My Life,” about an advertising executive who loses his job and family and has to work at the coffee chain to pay the bills. He befriends the young manager and learns about life and love.
Jeez, between the AOL-lauding You’ve Got Mail and co-starring with FedEx and Wilson Sports in Cast Away, whill Hanks’ next movie be called Damn, This Big Mac Sure Hits the Spot!?
She writes:
My husband and I are the youth sponsors for the high schoolers at our church. Every year, we take a group somewhere on a mission trip. This allows them to experience and help out in different areas of the country. Prior to Katrina and Rita, we had decided to go to Ruidoso, New Mexico. After a lot of discussion and consideration, we have decided to stick with that plan even though we know that the Gulf Coast area has been so hard hit. We decided that our kids are living the aftermath of those disasters every day, granted not as much as someone directly from those areas. Plus, they have in the past months and continue to work in the state doing mission work and hurricane relief. With the Gulf Coast getting so much media attention, we felt that other areas are being neglected.
But here’s the problem. Because our church housed hurricane victims from August until almost the end of December, we got a late start on our fundraising efforts. And we need all the help we can get.
Would you please post our situation on your blog? Your readers were so generous in their help with our shelter project. I was hoping that perhaps they would be again.
The church is First Christian Church at 8484 Old Hammond Hwy, Baton Rouge, LA 70809. Please have them mark any donation (large or small) with Youth Mission Trip.
Okay, I’m not kidding around this time. This month’s Previews is chock-full of goody goodness! It is so big, and my budget so small! And since a lot of what I’m looking at is trades of previously released material, I need advice on whether that material is worth getting.
Also, as usual, point me to good things I’m overlooking.
AS INCENTIVE, I’m giving away a FREE PRIZE to one person, chosen at random, who comments on this thread WITH USEFUL ADVICE. Feel free to talk about how much you like TV or pie, but only useful comics-purchasing advice comments will be in the running for the fabulous prize.
So, here’s what I’m looking at:
Concrete: Strange Armor TPB (Dark Horse) — I’m sort of getting these Concrete trades. That is, I got the first one and added the rest to my Amazon wish list. I’ll probably do the same with this one. I like Concrete.
Usagi Yojimbo TPB vol 20 (Dark Horse) — I’ve always depended on the kindness of TJs to supply me with Usagi, but dammit, I should be getting it for real. Usagi rules.
BPRD - The Black Flame TPB (Dark Horse) — Definitely a getter.
Showcase Presents: Elongated Man vol 1 (DC) — Don’t know much about this guy except his wife was in the news last year. These are almost always a solid value, though. Yea or nay?
Astro City: Samaritan Special (DC) — I didn’t really like the first arc of The Dark Age, but this seems more of what I want.
Manifest Eternity (DC) — Definitely a wait for the trade if a get at all, but does anyone know if it should even be on my radar in the first place?
Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct TPB (DC) — I loved the original Top Ten series. I’m guessing this isn’t exactly as good, but is it nearly so? Or will it merely make me want to re-read instead the original?
Sloth (DC) — Gilbert Hernandez! But…hardcover? I think not. Anyone know if this will eventually come out in softcover?
Fear Agent TPB (Image) — Ten bucks for a TPB isn’t bad, even if it’s only four issues. But is the series any good? Has anyone checked it out?
Jack Staff #12 (Image) — Ah, the cruel tease that is soliciting Jack Staff continues. Hasn’t this issue already failed to come out, or is this a new issue that will fail to come out?
Skyscrapers of the Midwest #2 (AdHouse) — I got the first issue and was kinda unmoved by it. Is it something you’d say I should stick with?
Robotika #4 (Archaia) — I like the artwork. I’ll finish the series out.
Flight vol 3 (Ballantine) — I loved the first two volumes. It’s pricey, but in my opinion worth it.
Little White Mouse Omnibus Edition (Cafe Digital) — I enjoyed the miniseries’ I got of this a long time ago, but man, between this and Flight there’s half my budget gone.
Digital Manga Publishing — I’m gonna put out a magazine for fans of their manga and it’ll be called “WISPY”.
Action Philosophers: The People’s Choice (Evil Twin) — As if I wouldn’t get this.
Dragon Head vol 3 (House of Milky) — I liked the first volume and I’m grabbing the second today.
Hikaru No Go vol 7 (Viz) — Again, an automatic getter.
Fortean Times #211 & 212 (Magazine) Hooray! TWO issues solicited for TWICE the budget-straining! No, I’m still not subscribed yet.
You can see why I’m having so much trouble! Any help whittling that down will make you eligible for an amazing prize.
But let’s Be Here Now (or at least at the comic shop soon) and look at what’s coming in today! There’s the aforementioned Dragon’s Head vol 2, in which we explore further the mystery of the wrecked train; there’s East Coast Rising, Becky Cloonan’s comic about, like, pirates or something; Banana Sunday TPB, in which monkeys are funny; and there’s
which is by Kevin Huizenga and therefore makes the world a better place.
Say it with me:
Last night Mike, Wayne, Craig, and I played the newest game from Avalon Hill, Rocketville. It was designed by Richard Garfield, who also invented both Magic: the Gathering and Robo-Rally, two games I really like. Garfield’s pedigree, plus the retro-futuristic stylings of the game had me intrigued.
Here’s what the ad copy says about the game:
In the retro-future Hometown USA known as Rocketville, there’s no greater honor or privilege than holding the office of Mayor - the goal of this fast-paced game of luck and strategy. Traveling from district to district via rocket, players campaign for votes - making promises, garnering endorsements, and recruiting robotic assistance - in a mad dash to win the popular vote and the game.
Here’s what Dave says about the game:
It sucks.
I think the game described above might be really fun. Rocketville is not that game. Let’s look at that description piece by piece:
“Traveling from district to district via rocket, players campaign for votes” — That is, there’s a rocket-shaped pawn that is moved one space each turn to a neighboring square.
“making promises” — Making promises means performing a simple blind bid. That is, each player picks a card from their hand that has a number on it and all the cards are revealed at once. The highest number wins. That’s all there is to it. The “strategy” mentioned consists mostly of knowing which numbers are high and which are low. And this is the same way campaigning is done in all of the districts, so the game is simply a series of thirty-six blind bids.
“garnering endorsements” — There’s a stack of, like, 20 celebrity endorsers. Some are good, some are bad. One of your cards is always a “Campaign Planning” card which you can play instead of a number card to get a number card from the deck. If you’re the only person who plays a “Campaign Planning” card in a vote, you get control of the endorser in play, for good or ill. Did I say “endorser” singular? I did! Because each game you just pull one of them out at random, and it’s the only one you use. So if you can imagine playing this game twenty times, you have this single random element that might shake things up a little. The one that was in our game had little to no effect on the game.
“recruiting robotic assistance” — On some districts, if you win the vote you get a robot card. These cards contain extra goals through the game (”Be the one with the fewest yellow districts.” “Control District X.” etc.) There’s nothing better than receiving a goal for the game halfway through it, when it may be too late to reach it, especially when the game is so random that you have very little control over what happens anyway. I had four of these things at the end of the game and scored points from none of them.
But I don’t want to make it sound like the game is nothing but monotonous randomness — it’s also poorly designed.
Here’s the back of the box, which shows you the components (you can click to zap it with an enlarg-o-beam). How many poor design choices can you spot? I’ll give you a moment.
Okay, ready? Here are the ones we discovered in playing:
In short, this is a dull, un-fun game that’s somehow made even worse by poor graphic design. It’s awful that not only is this allegedly designed by such a luminary as Richard Garfield, but that it’s published under the Avalon Hill banner, a company known for high-powered strategy games. We played through the whole thing wondering if there was something we were overlooking, but no, it was just a series of blind bids and some random goal cards. It’s a shame that so much promise is wasted on this thing.
I’d say that maybe this would work better as a game for kids, but I don’t think even kids would find it very interesting. There are far better things to play out there.
I’d really advise people to steer clear of Rocketville. It’s an election in which there are no winners.
