I'm Back

Hey look! I started writing in this again! Hooray!

Well, I'm not going to Comic Con in San Diego. I really wanted to but it's not happening. Trevor gets to go though, so scratch one friend.

I found out today that Justice Society of America, one of DC's best titles, is about to get a crazy new teammate: KINGDOM COME SUPERMAN! That's ridiculous, right? I've been catching up on all this Multiverse stuff lately since DC has brought it back, and this (along with Anti-Monitor returning) is the kind of stuff I want to see! Both have been done by Geoff Johns, and I'm beginning to think he should just write EVERY DC TITLE.

Tomorrow two long-delayed Batman stories com out: Batman #666 and All-Star Batman #6. Both are being written by maniacs who are doing crazy things with Batman and I can't wait to see what's next.

I wrote back in May that I would be following "World War Hulk" and counting the bodyslams. Well, every issue so far has had body slams, but it's the same one! Almost every issue so far has been different characters watching the same thing happen, so we'll see where else it goes since several more pieces of the story come out tomorrow.

I bought an Animal Man action figure. I'm pretty sure it's the nerdiest thing I've done, which is saying something.

I got the huge Madman collection last week. I read the new title, which is CRAZY and existential and stuff, but haven't read the old stuff before. I'm really looking forward to it.

This was kind of a boring post. Sorry I didn't come back with a bang.

Homework.

So it looks like Warner Bros. has started doing some cool internet campaigns for "The Dark Knight," the new Batman movie coming out next year. Going here shows you a Batman logo, and then clicking on it brings you to a Harvey Dent campaign poster. It looks like the movie will be about him becoming District Attorney, which, as with most positions of power,leads to him getting a face full of acid, which leads to him becoming Two-Face.

What we really care about in this movie, though, is the Joker, right?

Clicking here brings you to a defaced Harvey Dent poster that slowly decays, revealing something underneath. Put your email address (Yahoo and Hotmail ones don't work apparently) in the thing on the bottom and enter the code, then follow the directions. This will help deteriorate the picture more and show us what's underneath. I'm pretty sure it's a picture of what Heath Ledger will look like as the Joker, and I for one am a big enough nerd to go through all of this just to see it.

Hopefully he looks like a cool and different take on the Joker and not just Heath Ledger in a Jack Nicholson mask Actually, that would be pretty cool too.

Watch me on TV talking about comics!

Hey everybody! I'm gonna be on The Sauce on FUSE on Wednesday talking about comic books! Watch me nerd it up with Steven, one of the co-hosts of the Sauce! Watch the other host look on in horror as Steven and I say things like "X-Men" and "Batman!"

6pm ET!
Wednesday, May 16th!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE!

Tomorrow's Wednesday!

Not a lot coming out tomorrow that I follow, but the couple things that are being released are pretty dope. Or chill. Or...yeah.

Ghost Rider #11 - This title has been teetering on my "stop reading" list for months, but every month it keeps me on board with fun action and awesome art. And really, I don't think there's ever been a Ghost Rider title that was very good, so the fact that this is at least readable every month is pretty awesome. This one is pretty fun, and in this issue Ghost Rider fights an undead Jack-O-Lantern, this pumpkin-headed villain guy that the Punisher killed a while back. Should be good.

Punisher War Journal #7 - Speaking of the Punisher, this series is pretty kick-ass! Garth Ennis writes a series called "The Punisher" for Marvel which pits the Punisher against real-life foes like terrorists and slavers, but this one has Punny fighting ridiculous Marvel c-list villains like Stilt-Man and Shocker! The way Matt Fraction writes the Punisher is very similar to Ennis', but it's awesome that we get to see this bad-ass vigilante fight real-life assholes in one title and ridiculous jerks in costumes in another! I'm all for it, and someday I want to be the Punisher. Is that weird?

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2 - This is a fun little miniseries that takes place outside of Marvel continuity, where Spider-Man is all depressed and "back in black" and The Fantastic Four broke up. No, here we get a classic Spidey and a classic Four fighting a bunch of aliens bent on destroying the world. The setting is contemporary but the writing has an awesome old-school feel (it's written by Paul Jenkins, who also wrote the fantastic Agents of ATLAS mini last year)and it's only four issues, so why not?

Green Lantern Corps #12 - One of my FAVORITE books right now! And it's totally underrated! This book is totally fun and is basically like "Law and Order" in space! The book follows six or seven different Green Lanterns on different adventures, and although it jumps from story to story several times an issue it never feels choppy. Dave Gibbons, the dude that drew Watchmen, writes this and proves that he can do TWO things, which I find impressive (I can only do one thing well and it's being naked).

Countdown #51 - The next huge DC thing starts tomorrow! I think they're gonna kill Jimmy Olsen, which normally I wouldn't approve of, but Paul Dini can do whatever he wants.

Countdown? Countdown!

Yeah, tomorrow DC starts their new weekly series Countdown. I'm not normally one to buy into big events; I normally just buy comics that are written by someone I really like, but this one is! Paul Dini is masterminding it, and supposedly it will contain every character in the DC Universe!

I hope Superman's in it!

But anyways, yeah, it sounds fun. I can't wait.

Speaking of big comic book events, I'm also thinking of maybe following Planet Hulk when it starts. The story is so simple and full of promise, I should at least check it out. Basically, a year ago the Hulk was shot into space by Professor X and other smart guys (Iron Man, Dr. Strange, etc) to keep Earth safe from his rampages. Now he's coming back with an army and he wants revenge. That sounds good to me, and since the Marvel Universe is now chock full of superteams following the Civil War, there should be tons of sweet fights. If not, then Marvel has totally lost it. Actually, they have enough good titles out there, that they won't have "lost it," but c'mon. If this Planet Hulk thing doesn't contain at least five body-slams per issue, I'm out.

In fact, let's up the stakes a little: I am going to buy Planet Hulk, and keep track of the body-slams RIGHT HERE ON MY NERD BLOG. We'll keep track of this thing together.

Me and Andrew WK talking about comics! LIVE!

This will be one of the crowning achievements of my life thus far. I not only get to go talk about comic books in front of a live audience, but I also get to do so with one of the coolest rocker/lecturers out there, Andrew W.K.! And to top it all off, I get to read a bunch of comic books tonight (in order to prepare for the show) and pretend that it's work! Yeah!

COMIC BOOK CLUB
A Live Weekly Talk Show about Comic Books

Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben

Tuesday, April 24th @ 9:30 PM

Andrew W.K. (The Wolf, Party Hard)
Timmy Williams (Whitest Kids U Know, Fuse TV)
& Musical Guest Leslie Korein!

Tickets: $5
Online: ThePIT-NYC.com
Phone: 1-800-838-3006
Questions? 212-563-7488

The Peoples Improv Theater
154 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor
Between 6th and 7th Aves.

This will be awesome.

I'm doing a show at the PIT on Tuesday. Look who the other guest is.

COMIC BOOK CLUB
A Live Weekly Talk Show about Comic Books

Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben

Tuesdays @ 9:30 PM

April 24:
Andrew W.K. (The Wolf, Party Hard)
Timmy Williams (Whitest Kids U Know, Fuse TV)
& Musical Guest Leslie Korein!

Tickets: $5
Online: ThePIT-NYC.com
Phone: 1-800-838-3006
Questions? 212-563-7488

The Peoples Improv Theater
154 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor
Between 6th and 7th Aves.

Check out our website:
http://www.popcultureshock.com/cbclub

Check us out on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/comicbookclub3

Tomorrow's Wednesday!

I know, I know, I haven't written in a week. Shame on me. Last week was my birthday, and I was distracted from my blog by un-nerdly things like parties and girls. I'm sorry.

Anyways, here's a look at what comics are hitting tomorrow!

There's actually only three titles coming out that I'm gonna buy.

"X-Men" #198 - So Mike Carey, who apparently has done a bang-up job on "Hellblazer," which I've never read, has been on this for about a year now. His stories are very fast-paced, sending a very odd team of X-Men all over the globe in a flying oil tanker. Yes, a flying oil tanker. He somehow makes it totally plausible though, so kudos. What I discovered with his first two storylines is that, issue-by-issue, they can be hard to keep up with, but once collected they tend to be nice, tight, action-packed coolness. Why is this team weird? Well, since Joss Whedon has a lockdown on the "A-list" X-men (Wolverine, Cyclops, etc) in "Astonishing", Both Carey and "Uncanny" writer Ed Brubaker have had to bring out some weird members, and in both cases this has made for some crazy and entertaining stories. This team includes Cannonball, Cable, Mystique, Rogue, Iceman, Sabretooth, Lady Mastermind, and some sort of sexy robot Sentinel lady who is now good. Totally crazy but worth checking out. It'd be nice to see some classic baddies and less new villains, though.

"The Spirit" #5 - This series kicks ass. Go buy it. Darwyn Cooke writes and illustrates this, and basically what he has done is bring Will Eisner's classic comic strip character, a masked crime-fighter who has risen from the grave, into modern times. The mixture of Cooke's classic-looking pencils with stories involving cell phones and terrorism and hyped-up, FOX News-style journalism is funny, involving, and full of suspense and mystery. It's good. Also, the fact that a hot blonde character is desperate enough to date a dead guy is awesome. What a gal!

"Justice League of America" #8 - After taking seven issues (seven? really?) to set up the new team, Brad Meltzer now teams them up with both the Justice Society and the Legion of Super-Heroes for a few issues. This should be awesome! The JSA and JLA have been around forever but have never had a proper team-up story before. Seeing Batman and Sandman team up to solve a crime in Arkham Asylum will be almost as cool as seeing Vixen and Power Girl have a ridiculous-amount-of-cleavage-off.

10 songs to listen to while you're walking down the street that will make you feel like you're the Punisher:

Now, these aren't the only songs that will make you feel like you're Frank Castle walking down the street with an M60 looking for perps to kill, but it works for me...

10. Iron Maiden - The Trooper

9. Misfits - Where Eagles Dare

8. Nazareth - Hair of the Dog

7. Robert Rodriguez - Grindhouse (Main Titles)

6. Slayer - Angel of Death

5. Rare Earth - I Just Want To Celebrate

4. Danava - Longdance

3. Jack Nitzche - The Last Race

2. Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up to Boston

1. MU330 - The Punisher/Downtown

What's Good

Here is a list of comics that I'm reading right now all of which I vouch for if you want to try it:

Superheroes!

Detective Comics - Paul Dini, the guy that wrote the Batman cartoon in the 90s, writes this and it's AWESOME. It's just Batman being smart and solving mysteries. And punching.
Runaways - Awesome series about little kids who find out their parents are supervillains. Joss Whedon just took over writing it and it's only gonna get better.
Irredeemable Ant-Man
Green Lantern Corps
Omega Flight - This just started. It's about Canada starting a superhero team again. We'll see.
Superman
The Spirit - This genius named Darwyn Cooke is reinvigorating Will Eisner's old comic strip hero. It takes place now and the Spirit is fighting terrorists and stuff and it's really cool.
X-Men - This series is pretty good but a little too crazy. Something big is supposed to happen in a few issues so I'll stick it out and see.
Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil - How could you not read something with that title?
Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America
The Initiative - This is a Marvel series about each state in the Union having to have it's own superhero team. I'm really only reading it to see who South Dakota gets (c'mon, Sleepwalker!).
Newuniversal
Punisher War Journal

Stuff that is really awesome but only comes out once every solstice:

Right now there are a lot of great creators making a lot of stuff, and sometimes things get really really delayed. The following are all really good but don't come out often enough. They all have really great art, which probably leads to the delays. They're all worth checking out and will be easy for you to catch up on as they only come out a few times a year (seriously).

All-Star Batman and Robin - It's Frank Miller writing Batman! And Jim Lee drawing it! Sounds awesome, right? Well, the last issue came out in AUGUST.
All-Star Superman - This comes out every few months and is AMAZING. Grant Morrison writes and Frank Quitely draws and it's pretty much the best Superman stories ever done.
Astonishing X-Men
Action Comics
Batman - Okay, so this does come out every month, but the main story being done by Morrison and Kubert keeps getting delayed so they fill it in with lesser (but still good) stories.

Ed Brubaker!
One of my favorite writers.

Uncanny X-Men
Daredevil
Captain America - He was assassinated in the last issue, so who knows what happens next.
Criminal

Garth Ennis!
A crazy Irishman who writes really good hardcore violent stuff.

Chronicles of Wormwood
Punisher - It's Punisher in the real world. There's no supervillains, just Punisher killing drug dealers and slavers and stuff. One time he pulled this dude's guts out and strung them up in a tree while he was still alive! Good stuff.
Barracuda

And, the Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman is totally radical.

That's it.

I Read Comics

So how about a brief history of me and comics? Sounds boring, let's do it!

I started reading comics in the late 80s and early 90s when I was nine years old or so. I was mostly into the Spider-Man and X-Men titles and for some reason I totally boycotted DC titles. I'm still not sure why I refused to read them. The part of my brain that made me do that is probably the same part that made me inexplicably dislike the Beatles from 1999-2004. I should probably find it and get it removed.

Anyways, as most nerds are aware, the 90s were a crazy time for comics. They started selling so well that the publishers went CRAZY. Every major character had like nine different titles every month, and every other issue had like variant chrome hologram covers and shit to try and sell more copies. This, of course, led to a huge decline in good stories, as there were so many titles that pretty much any dude with a half-assed idea could write one of the EIGHTEEN Spider-Man or X-Men titles. Spidey's in particular got really bad. First his parents came back, then they were revealed to be evil robots, and then it turned out that Spidey was actually a clone of himself and yawn etc. Basically, the stories were so dumb that I lost interest, and even if I wanted to keep up, I was having to buy like twelve things a week. Ridiculous.

So I stopped buying comics, and apparently Beatles records, altogether in the late 90s and never really looked back.

Then in 2005, my old friend Casey VanHeel moved in with me in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Casey had briefly attended college for comics illustration or something and still followed a lot of titles and stuff. One day I just went through his collection of paperbacks and started reading. Amid all the clones and robot parents and shit I had forgotten about the Alan Moores, the Frank Millers, and so on. I read all kinds of great stuff and even discovered some new writers that were just totally amazing: Brian K. Vaughn, Grant Morrison (by no means new, but I had never read him), Joss Whedon, and Ed Brubaker. These guys were all doing really solid, fun stuff, some of it having to do with characters I was familiar with, and some of it totally indie.

So, long story short, I started slowly picking up a few things here and there, and it slowly went from there. Every month I started discovering new things that were great. I now follow about 25 titles a month, and I enjoy them all. Sure, there have been a few misfires along the way (the miniseries "Bullet Points" and "Eternals" spring to mind), but I can safely say that everything I read is good. I know it won't last forever; in fact, the good stuff may stop sooner than later. Superman's death started the downfall in the 90s, and now that Captain America is dead I'm starting to get flashbacks. I'm going to enjoy the ride while it lasts though, and when Batman's parents come back or Ghost Rider becomes an angel, I'll honorably withdraw.

Captain America: Dead for a While

So by now, pretty much everyone has heard about Marvel Comics' killing off of Captain America in "Captain America" #25. It's been in every newspaper, magazine, TV news show, and pretty much everywhere else. They did the same worldwide coverage thing for Superman, but you think they would have learned their lesson then.

See, Superman came back after five years or so, and I'm sure Cap will do the same thing, so I don't know why the uproar. We should be familiar with these gimmicks by now. They'll clone him or bring him out of an alternate universe or something. Coming up with an excuse for why a character's alive again has never been a challenge. What may be more of a challenge is the current Marvel staff's insistence that Cap is dead. Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada has said that he is indeed dead, and the way that Ed Brubaker wrote that last issue indeed makes the death seem final, but those guys won't be at Marvel forever. Someone new will come along and bring him back, and that'll be that.

I would do it. Steve Rogers was a cool character, and while it will be interesting to see what they do in a Marvel Universe without him, I just can't see them letting a classic and historical character like that sit in a grave for too long. And if they do, then kudos to them for having the balls, but I just don't see it happening. Pretty much every major comic book character has died and has come back in one form or another (DC even recently brought back Jason Todd, the Robin from the 80s that the fans voted to kill off) so I'm betting that we haven't seen the last of Captain America.

In the meantime, I'll totally fill in for him if they'll have me.

Welcome, Dorks!

Well, I've been talking about this for a while, but I've finally decided to start a "Nerd Blog." This is actually going to be all about comics, so if you don't read those, then fugoff. Being a "comedian," this will probably be funny sometimes, but that's not really the goal here. The goal here is to be a huge dork and talk about comics all the time. So here we go!