Comic of the Week

This week was close. I thought it was going to be easy, but after reading, it was more complicated. Four books this week:

Batman and Robin #5

American Vampire #24

Wolverine and the X-Men #6

Aquaman #6

Aquaman himself took a break this week. This issue was all about Mera, his wife, who apparently goes grocery shopping in a glittery spandex outfit. She breaks a lecherous store manager's arm because he was over the top harassing her. The first half was a little cheesy, but it got better towards the end. All in all, the art was a little stiff, as Joe Prado took over. You can tell the difference.

Batman and Robin was good. I've finally caught up with back issues and #5 finally got into some details about the villain Nobody. I like Robin. He isn't coming off as a smart ass brat so much as an extremely dark character who still holds on to a few morals. He's not as extreme as Nobody/Ducard, but on the edge and able to take care of himself.

Wolverine and the X-Men continues its frantic pace. Baccalo is still off of art duties, but it still looks good. Two stories going on, a crackpot scheme to scam money for the school at a casino, and Kitty being stalked by Brood from within and without. This was a good set up issue, lots of action leading up to next issue.

Finally, the best book of the week, American Vampire. I think it's easy to see why. Scott Snyder is still writing, and Rafael Albuquerque is drawing. When you keep the original team together, the book is amazing, and that goes for all of the books. When artists or writers take breaks, the book suffers. Albuquerque is getting BETTER i believe. The detail and texture in his work is amazing. A rough style but clean at the same time. This story arc has been great, the 50's feel is a good change and has a lot of depth. I didn't quite get the deal with Skinner getting stronger as the sun comes up, but then again, I haven't read the first series, so maybe Skinner is like a reverse vampire, who knows. Some day I'll get around to reading those.

So, good books all around, but my advice, stick with the original writer/artist teams. A big part of why I read certain books is the art and when it's not there, I start to get disinterested.

International Man of Mystery!

United States 87

Russia 10

Germany 2

Slovenia 2

Japan 1

Poland 1

Take a look, a breakdown of my page views by country. Apparently I am extremely popular in RUSSIA. Sweet. Spasibo da?

I am imagining a group of underground Russian mafioso hackers, looking at my page as a way to front a gun running operation.

Kampai!

Where have I been? I was on a roll there for a while, then things got a little busy. I got sidetracked. I've been scrambling for the last couple of weeks, preparing for an interview. This interview has been very important to me, more than any other interview I've had I think. I can't remember ever wearing a suit to any other interview. I can't recall studying so much for an interview either. The ones I've been to have been fairly mundane formalities, resulting in equally mundane employment. This Saturday was different, and it's not over yet.

I've applied to the JET Program, a teaching gig in Japan. I've been throwing this idea around for a couple of years now, half heartedly. This year I'd finally had enough of the school system politics and decided to pull a "crazy Ivan" and put in my application. This Saturday was phase 3 I believe, of the process. The interview. I've been studying Japanese politics, leaders, history, culture, artists, everything I could think of that could come up in an interview. Saturday I was happily cheated. They really didn't ask anything about any of that. Mostly they asked about how I would use my coaching in Japan, had me answer some questions in Japanese, and asked where I would like to go if I got a job. They were pleasant enough, no scary interview scene. I went in ready, not nervous, and left feeling pretty good. Only after I sat down in my truck did I start to feel skeptical. It felt too good to be true. I didn't get to speak about any of the stuff that I studied. Didn't get to tell any meaningful stories from my childhood. I think I even told them that I would be OK living in the radioactive tsunami destruction of northeast Japan.

Phase 4 comes in April, thats right, April. They will notify us then if we've got the job or not. Until then, I'm gonna live it up at the office and think positive. Gambatteimasu!

Comic of the Week

I just got around to reading last week's books. The Super Bowl, IKEA, and a 47" flatscreen through a wrench into my weekend routine. But, now thats taken care of, let's see what there was to pick from:

1) Animal Man 6

2) Swamp Thing 6

3) Batman and Robin 2

I finally decided to drop Action Comics. I have never been a big Superman fan and it was getting WAY convoluted anyway. I replaced it with Batman and Robin, I'm picking up back issues until I get caught up. Much better story.

My favorite this week was Swamp Thing. It's been good the entire series really. This week broke the continuity with Animal Man, the latter taking a break from the storyline this week to play with family relationships. Swamp Thing is still rolling strong though, as Alec Holland realizes that he has been a stubborn idiot all of this time and accepts that he IS the Swamp Thing. But it might be too late. The Rot has seemingly taken over the Parliament of Trees and its destruction is spreading. By the time Alec realizes he's made a mistake, there's not much help to be had.

Paquette stepped out this month and the art duties were taken over by Marco Rudy. His style is similar to Paquette and the panel layouts are kind of cool. He really nails the gruesomeness of the Rot and all of it's minions. As a horror book, this is really working.

The story progresses through the analogy of a chess game. Abby's rotten little brother William is proud to be the spreader of the Rot. Apparently he's used Abby as his queen and manipulated things into a checkmate. I doubt it is, but the final image has to leave you wondering, "Is this IT for the Green? Has the Rot really won?" Guess you'll have to wait until the next issue to find out.