Fellers and ladies, this podcast is the one in which the wonderful Tori Tyree, head of Big Monkey Comics' Women Group, joins us to talk about comics.

Listen in awe as The Amazing Tori talks about her love for all things Black Canary, fishnets and Kung Fu included!

Listen in amazement as two of comics' greatest minds, myself and writer Mike Carey (The Devil You Know, Lucifer, X-Men) discuss comics!

No ferrets were harmed in the making of this podcast.

Labels: Big Monkey Podcast

Want to see Donna Troy's new purpose as a "professional love interest" summed up in one page?

Labels: Kyle Rayner

This is the one in which I attack Ben, Skrulls, a Scot and a Queen all in the same breath and find a new use for Plastic Man.

Of, yeah. These people were there, too.

This is also the podcast in which Jon Carey waved sausage around and dared a man not to laugh.

Labels: Big Monkey Podcast

Remember how awesome Saturday's used to be?

If you're in your mid-twenties, you probably don't. You were probably at a soccer game or a ballet.

If you're like me and of a... certain... age, you probably were having none of this. You were probably participating in that wonderful ritual of watching Saturday morning cartoons. You knew the drill, waking up before your parent(s), forgoing the brushing of teeth, heading straight for the kitchen in order to grab the biggest bowl in which to pour your milk and cereal in which to fortify yourself for the day's mind-blowing events.

Would they show "(Verb!) That's What Happening!" on today's Schoolhouse Rock? Would Batman and Robin be smart enought to defeat The Moon Man? Would this be the week my fave episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, "Seven Little Super-Heroes" would re-air? What new way would The Super Friends find to let The Legion of Doom escape this week?

Saturdays were kind of magical back then. I was allowed to be in my own world. I was allowed to be quiet. I was allowed to be myself. It was the one day where I was allowed the privilege of truly being a kid.

Of course, I had chores to do. Of course, I went swimming too but the unwritten rule was balance and in that balance, there was the opportunity to make the day what you would make of it.

Today, I work about six days a week and I am thankful for it but sometimes... well... you wish for Saturday.

Last Saturday, I got a little of it back.

I came to work with a Super-Friends DVD set in hand. We (Big Monkey Comics) moved in April and in order to give one of our new rooms a sense of "movement," we put a TV and a DVD player in there. What usually happens is that someone walks in, watches for a few minutes, while commenting on how great cartoons used to be and then they remember that they some appointment to keep and they move on.

This Saturday was a bit different. Two little boys came in with their father. Now, these two little boys are let's just say... active. They just always seem to be on. Their father has been away from comics for a few years and has started to dip his toes back in and really seems to be enjoying it. Plus, he's a Blue Beetle fan so he's aces in our book. While he was off in one of the other rooms, we noticed something we hadn't heard before while the little folks were in. Other than the TV, absolute quiet.

As anyone who has or has worked with little boys knows, absolute quiet means two things:

One: They've managed to knock each other out.

Or...

Two: They're plain up to no-good and they don't want anyone to know they're up to no-good.

Quietly, I walked into the room, ready for whatever the day would bring and I was completely and utterly charmed.

There they were, these two little boys, lying down, their chins in their hands. Little legs gently kicking in the air, absolutely quiet, enraptured by The Super Friends.

It was Saturday morning all over again.


Also, have you been wondering, like I have, what Ted Kord's been up to in the after-life? Find out at The Bugle's Planet.

Labels: Super Friends

Recently returned from looting, pillaging and inappropriately fondling, The Viking Commando has returned to answer your burning questions or questions about burning sensations in the nethers.


You know the drill:

Leave your questions and The Viking Commado will give you damned answers in a future post! No question too stupid! All answers as brilliant as only a Viking Commando can provide!

Remember, help is only within an axe-handle's reach.

Labels: All-Out Living with The Viking Commando

Labels: Black Canary

Labels: On The Take

When I started this blog, simply wanted to give voice to the "inner fanboy" in us all. I wanted to have an outlet for that feeling one can only have from waking up on a Wednesday, knowing that it was "NEW COMICS DAY!"

I've written many posts on this here blog. I have surprised myself, even, with the depth of feeling I've managed to put across in some of these posts.

Some of these posts I've slaved over and worried about whether or not they were good enough for you all to not think me a madman.

Overall, I have been happy with nearly every word I've put down and sometimes, I have managed to write up to that "NEW COMICS DAY!" bar that I've set for myself.

I have no issue in telling you this, dear reader:

I am a proud man.

Why?

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007.

I provided no insight to anything. I simply posted two pictures and provided these five simple words, "Somebody lost their tube sock."

In less than one week, I have received more hits from the posting of a bulge than I had the whole month of May and June, combined.

Labels: Citizen Steel

1. Black Canary had an ex-husband? (Black Canary #1)

2. *pffft*!

3. Isn't had to believe that in sixty years of existence and a previous solo series and a re-surgence in Birds of Prey and JLofA, that it's taken this long for Black Canary to recieve a new series?

4. Isn't nice to see Black Canary artist Paulo Siqueira draw kids as something other than short people with round heads?

5. DC, why would you give away the new Batman and The Outsiders line-up in a house ad, a month before the Outsiders: Five Of A Kind weekly event?

6. Did you know that if you bought Action Comics #851 in 2D, you lived a little less that day?

7. How cool was it seeing Power Girl try and literally go upside Supergirl's head? (Supergirl #19)

8. Wasn't last week's Supergirl, in she apologizes for being a jerk, just the sweetest thing?

9. How creepy is it that Athena just walks the streets looking for women like Harley Quinn? (Countdown #42)

10. Black Mary's getting kinda creepy, isn't she?

11. Are Trickster and Pied Piper the Booster and Beetle of the villain set?

12. Wasn't Green Arrow as a male Paris Hilton priceless? (Green Arrow: Year One #1)

13. Wasn't it great to that despite all that, writer Andy Diggle still showed he possessed the moral center to become a hero?

14. Wasn't John Stewart's assessment of The Green Lantern's battle with The Sinestro Corps exactly what needed to be said? (Green Lantern #21)

15. After reading Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps #1, Green Lantern #21 and Justice Society of America #7, Geoff Johns is truly back in fine form, isn't he?

16. How wild was it seeing Superman nonchalantly eating Sloppy Joes in an insane asylum? (Justice Society of America #7)

17. How cool was it seeing The Justice Society of America's former leadership thinking they were helping out Citizen Steel by giving him what he wanted?

18. How much cooler was it seeing Power Girl, not tip-toeing around Citizen Steel, zeroing in on the problem aand giving him what he needed?

19. Aren't we glad that The Lightning Saga's over so that we can have more stories like this one?

20. She's gonna make a great leader, ain't she?

Labels: 19 Questions

You know what makes this page from Justice Society of America #7 so damned awesome?

Is it:

A. The Justice Society's former leaders banding together to help a new member.

B. The return of the Steel legacy to the DC Universe.

C. The brilliant page composition of artist Dale Eaglesham.

D. Hawkman wears his freakin' Hawkman mask under a welder's mask while wearing his huge ass wings while working a forge!


Why would Hawkman wear his mask under a mask?

Don't ask.

He's HAWKMAN.

Labels: Hawkman

Labels: Citizen Steel

Labels: Kyle Rayner

Rom The Spaceknight could... COULD but not definitely... also be a Skrull.

*ahem*

After reading this week's Countdown #43, I remembered that I wrote this like SIXTEEN MONTHS AGO!!!!

I know stuff.

Six months ago, I said they'd blame it all on Skrulls.

At the time I was joking, though.

Labels: Countdown, The Bleed

Labels: Uncle Sam and The Freedon Fighters

After reading last week's Blue Beetle #16 with its "oh-so-WONDERFUL!" appearance by Traci Thirteen, I wondered, "How does it feel to create a character and watch someone else teach it to walk?"

Let's again look at Traci. She was created four years ago in the pages of Superman #189 by writer Joe Kelly. Joe Kelly has written, at one time or another, Superman, Superboy & Supergirl along with stops at Daredevil, X-Men, Deadpool & JLA.

Pretty impressive resume'.

I admit, at the time, his creation of Traci Thirteen, the daughter of "not-seen-in-years" ghost breaker, Dr. Thirteen, seemed a bit out of the ordinary. She was a legacy to a character without any sort of true legacy. It was a bit like giving Vibe a brother.

Once Kelly left the Superman title, Traci pretty much disappeared for three years into that place where all "forgotten heroes" reside.

That was until last year's Tales of The Unexpected. The unexpected happened.

Brian Azzarello, whose runs on Batman and Superman, respectively, didn't exactly set superhero fans hearts aglow, did the impossible, breathing new life into 9 of DC's neglected heroes, chief among them, Dr. & Traci Thirteen.

Under Azzarello, Traci developed a can-do attitude seemingly trademark of DC's blonde 'tweens, Wonder Girl, Stargirl and Supergirl.

Last week, I read as Traci Thirteen walked into the pages of Blue Beetle, smack-talked Eclipso's crazy ass damned near to death and made a book that was already one of my favorites even better.

"How does it feel to create a character and watch someone else teach it to walk?"

I imagine it must feel pretty good to create anything, period. I imagine it must feel even better to see it grow and become better than you could have imagined, at the time.

I mean, Bob Kane may have created Batman but I believe that we're all in agreement that he didn't ultimately create Batman. Others did.

Other creators came in, crafting onto the character bits and pieces, helping it go on to what it is today.

In that and Traci Thirteen, I just might have found why I love DC Comics so much.

The act of creation and its inherent acceptance of possibility just may be DC's greatest of legacies.

Labels: Traci Thirteen

Sorry! Last week kinda got away from me. Here we go!

1. Are you still as disappointed in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13 as I am?

2. Jimmy Olsen's a bit of a douche, isn't he? (Countdown #44)

3. In the midst of a war, when'd Holly have time to get hair extensions?

4. Have the words, "Welcome home, Holly." ever been more of a clarion call for slash fic?

5. When did Captain Atom start speaking like Magneto?

6. When's Keith Giffen coming on to do layouts and art continuity?

7. Was there ever a more clever title for a comic than Blue Beetle #15's? (Blue Beetle #15)

8. Wasn't Jaime's deepest desire the greatest thing ever?

9. Like a freshly picked strawberry, doesn't Traci 13 make everything just that much sweeter?

10. Were you as annoyed by Wonder Girl and Supergirl's actions as I was? (Teen Titans #48)

11. So, Nemesis doesn't mean "idiot?" (Wonder Woman #10)

12. Is Nemesis the enemy of women writers?

13. Do you know what I liked most about Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps #1? (Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps #1)

14. Was it actually seeing Kyle, Hal and John in an actual Green Lantern Corps comic?

15. Was it Guy Gardner's good-bye to Superboy-Prime?

16. Was it artist Ethan Van Sciver's drawing a bit of age on Kyle especially after everything that's been done to him over the past year?

17. Heck, was it the sheer love of everything Green Lantern Van Sciver showed in every line he laid down?

18. Was it the sheer evil of why Kyle's mother never got better?

19. Was it the "no-good-will-come-from-this-ness" of the last page?

20. No. It was this... perhaps the single greatest comic panel of all time... a villain... Superboy-Prime, encased in a panel-within-a-panel, simply saying, "Heh." How... villainous.

What can I say? I enjoy "meta."

Labels: 19 Questions