Happy Birthday Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby would have been 91 today. The entire comic industry owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Kirby and his amazing talent.

Con Anti-Harassment Policy

Go to this site and read.

This is important.

I've read the arguments that a con shouldn't have to have a specific policy spelling out that it's wrong to grope a woman, that it's already against the law and should be common sense, but unfortunately some fans (and it's a small fraction) don't have that common sense. It's like a company has anti-harassment policies in its human resource policies. It just makes good sense that a con has something spelled out and some sort of policy to follow when someone has a complaint.

Cons are supposed to be fun and no one should have to worry about things like this.

A Lot of Copies

A picture from next year's release of The Watchmen movie. Looks really good. DC has reportedly printed over a million copies of the paperback of the series. I can't recall that any of the big super hero movies like Batman, Spider-man or Hulk sold that many extra copies of their comics and Watchmen is doing it based just on its trailer. Does this mean that this movie is going to be a big hit, I'm sure DC and Warners was worried since outside the comic community Watchmen isn't as big a name as Batman or Spider-man. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

And In This Corner...

The big summer match up between Marvel and DC. I have to say that this is the best issue of "Final Crisis" so far and it's made me decide to pick up the next issue...probably. I'm still on the fence on this series. I read an issue and seem to be more lost than when I started it. I'm really not a big fan of the current DC universe so maybe this book isn't for me.

On the other hand I am enjoying "Secret Invasion" quite a bit. While I think the previous two issues kind of were drug out and could have been combined into one issue, this issue the action starts moving again. But I have to ask, what was the point of the space ship that landed in the Savage Land with all the Marvel Heroes from the 70's. It seems like they all were skrulls, so what were they up to? And didn't the previous issue of SI end with Captain America? Did I miss something? Still I am enjoying this series and really like what they're doing with it.

Take Two Asprins and Call Me In The Morning

I take a back seat to no one in my geekiness over Buffy, but the new issue just made my head hurt. Maybe it's because I've never read "Fray" Joss Whedon's future take on the Slayers, but trying to read the future speak of hers just made my head hurt. And I hope they really didn't think that the future big bad was a future Willow was a surprise. I figured it out from her first appearance in the shadows. There was some good scenes in the book, Buffy's dialouge was true to form. I really enjoyed her "Boy, The English Language is just losing it....I should have treated it better." And Dawn and Xander had some great lines. When Dawn tells Xander that he has to ride her, well that was a classic Buffy moment.

Kids Comics Aren't Just For Kids Anymore

I've just realized that two of my favorite comics are supposedly for kids. I just picked up the first issue of "Spider-man Loves Mary Jane" written by Terry Moore. Terry is also the writer/artist on another favorite comic of mine "Echo." The art is by Craig Rousseau and is also very good. In fact I really liked the art in this book, it's cartoony without being too cartoony but not realistic, it fits the story perfectly. I never picked up this book before, but have heard it was good also before Moore took it over. I may have to go back and hunt up past issues. This book was fun, but you get the feeling that there is a seriousness just beneath the surface.

The other book has been out a little longer. It's "Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam" by Mike Kunkel. Mike does the writing and art on this book and his style is very cartoony but I love it. This book is really so good.

These books are being targeted for kids, which is great, I'm glad to see some really good comics being done for kids. But they can also be read by adults. They've leapt to the front of my list of comics to read for sure.

I'm also looking forward to the new Supergirl comic. It's called "Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In The 8th Grade." And Supergirl looks like Supergirl, not some extra from the Playboy channel. This is also a comic aimed at kids, but from what I've seen and read it looks like it'll be a great read.

(And I'm going to take a deep breath and not post about why it seems all comic females have to be dressed like they're auditioning for a role in the new Cheetah Girls video.)