Comics Interweb - You Have The Ability To Inspire Great Joy

So, check these awesome images out! (both courtesy of Ragnell)



The above is from an upcoming Marvel Series called Girl Comics. This series will feature some of the best and brightest female talents in the biz jamming on whatever they think is awesome. Clearly, this is great news (just ignore the rabble-rousers in the comments section at the above link to stay in a good mood).

And also? We all know about the Disney/Marvel merger by now but this giant picture by T Campbell and John Waltrip is beyond stupendous. I especially like Emma Frost and the Disney Princesses expressions.

A Splendid Surprise

So, the talented artist known as Neil Cameron is doing an gloriously geeky A-Z of Awesomeness over at his blog. The main idea is that you go and suggest the most "awesome" geeky combination you can think of and bam! He draws it! I really should have mentioned it earlier to you all, considering how hilarious they've all been, but I didn't want any of your suggestions as to what he should draw to beat out one of mine. Mwoo-a-ha-ha-ha! Mine is an evil laugh.

Ah, but now that my Machiavellian scheming has worked, I suggest you get over there toot suite to give him your suggestions. And oh, yes - I am also proud to present the talented Mr. Cameron's use of my suggestion for the letter "S" . . .



Suck it, Second-place Sims! *ahem*

And many thanks again to Neil for drawing a guaranteed smile a day. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for U-Z.

The Tibetan Graphic Novel of The Dead

While I know most of you come here for the Batman-jokes and a wistful hope that I will post more about Emma Frost (be it naked or clothed), I have decided to help you all understand spirituality instead*. No need to thank me - the look on your faces is more than enough.

Please enjoy this very witty comic book style breakdown of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, courtesy of a gentleman named Thomas Scoville.

*For what it's worth, I think Emma Frost is a Protestant.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Remember folks - Easter isn't all about sitting on the laps of men in bunny costumes or finding dyed eggs on your lawn. There's a reason for the Season, gang! This day actually began because the Christian-type churches wanted to stomp out the ongoing Pagan fertility celebrations of Spring's return that were spread across a variety of cultures. Or something (cut me some slack, people - this isn't "Look Out! Here Comes a Comparative Religions Blog!").

And how did they do this? They spread the heartwarming tale of a lovable zombie named Jesus Christ. Sometimes by force, but always with love. Go to Scaffer The Darklord's MySpace Page and click on Night of The Living Christ to hear this beautiful story . . . Nerdcore-style.



But hey, remember folks, there's no such thing as a War On Easter.Sure, there were the occasional burning of heretics at the stake, but mostly? The only things that got warmed were people's hearts. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww. And not many people realize this, but Spider-Man helped out too!



Yay, Spidey!

And now we have chocolate rabbits, big and bigger. More importantly, Easter gave birth to those most blessed of creatures, Peeps! Say what you want, I love these sweet, gentle creatures. Especially when they fight to the death:



I hope that all of you enjoy this special day, be it filled with making Marshmallow creatures Fight to the Death or a hearty feast. And enjoy the worship of whomever you hold dear - be it the sacrifice of a loving Zombie, a gentle Pagan celebration, or Buddha. Buddha really loves Easter, you know. He'll eat all your honey-baked ham if you don't watch him like a hawk. Your yams too. Seriously. I'm not even kidding. If you meet the Buddha on the road, don't invite Buddha to Easter Dinner. Dude's kind of a tool - unlike our resurrected ZJC, who also slays Vampires in his spare time:



Like, a LOT of Vampires, actually:



Go Jesus! Zombie defeats Vamipres FTW!

So mainly, the lesson here I'm trying to impart is this - Easter Kicks Ass!



And don't piss off the Easter Bunny.

ETA: Polite Dissent also loves Peeps and Comics - and like an Easter Mad Scientist, he's combined the two!

Comic Book Fashion?

This link about comic book nerds being "Brashly confident avatars of cool" has got me curious . . . so indulge me, Dear Reader, by answering the following questions for me - either in my comments section or in your own blog!

1. How many comic book related shirts do you YOU wear/own? What are they?

Batman, Superman (original logo & colors), Superman (on fire logo, black background), Powers (Retro Girl outline on Black), Milk & Cheese Bowling t-shirt, Bone (Phoney Bone's face & logo), Spider-Man (black background)

2. Which of these shirts are your favorites?

The Milk & Cheese one is well-made, extremely comfy and hilarious. Hands-down my favorite. Of course, I wear all of the above regularly, save for the Spider-Man one, due to it having shrunk in the wash.


3. Which of these shirts get the most comments when you're out and about?

Original Logo Superman and Batman always guarantee comments from strangers and occasional wide-eyed stares from kids. The Milk & Cheese is a surprisingly strong third, especially when I wear it out to bars. All three generate a lot of fun and I've even started conversations that way.

My favorite moment with the Superman shirt was when I was in Vegas. My friend Jim and I were strolling down the entranceway into the Excalibur Casino where we were staying, after having a very disappointing day. Being that this is Ye Olde Medieval Times Casino, they have two trumpeteers who blare out a welcome for guests as they arrive. They gave us a perfunctory bugle call and I tried to cheer up Jim by quipping "Hey, at least these guys knew we were coming!", and giving them a thumbs-up.

Not two seconds went by before they began playing the John Williams Superman Theme in tandem. :D I burst out laughing - and then made sure to strut the rest of the way down the entranceway in a "Superman" pose, preening like an idiot.

(On a side note, my friend Kay tends to get tetchy whenever she asks somebody with a Superman t-shirt questions about, say, Action Comics and gets met with a blank stare. Luckily, I'm authentically GEEKCORE - you know, as opposed to all these wanna-be playas co-opting Geek Culture. :P)

4. Feel like posting a pic of yourself in one of your Comic Book T-shirts, looking oh-so-fashionable?

Not right now, but I'll edit this later to add one . . .
Behold! This is from many moons ago but the shirt remains the same. Gotta say, Clark Kent is/was the easiest five-minute Halloween Costume I ever put together.



(Ye Gods, I forgot I even owned that goofy-looking Buffy poster. I'd always wished whomever gave me that B-Day gift went with a more fandom-y black background Buffy/Angel or the Buffy Season 2 Cast poster. Instead, I had to constantly convince people I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not SMG inexplicably squatting in poison ivy. *sigh*)

On Necessity, Iron Man and Matt Fraction

Me: "Oh, God, they're doing another Iron Man title? Is that even necessary?"

Kay: "I thought that was out already and called Mighty Avengers-"

Me: "Wait, hold on - it's being written by Matt Fraction."

Kay: "Oh! Okay."

Me: "Yes. So, yeah - it is necessary. My bad. All things Matt Fraction related are necessary."

Seriously, folks, this is the the third best Iron Man news I could have ever imagined reading!
(The second best being that this title would be "Iron Man and The Order" by Matt Fraction and the hypothetical best thing being that Iron Man's new ongoing writer was going to be Adam "Hypervelocity" Warren. With art by Adi Granov.)

This Just In

-Wonder Woman/Nerds OTP!!1!



-And over at the Invincible Super-Blog, the always excellent Chris Sims has introduced the world to Helen Killer. The comments section of Chris' thread on this topic has become an instaclassic. But what is Helen Killer about, I hear you ask?



“In 1901, twenty-one year old college student Helen Keller, with the aid of a fantastical device invented by her friend and mentor Alexander Graham Bell, regains her sight and hearing as well as near super-human strength and agility. Helen is enlisted by the Secret Service to protect Presdident William McKinley, who has been targeted for assassination by anarchists.”

The only logical thing to do with this book is to buy it. Possibly two copies.

Chocolate CAIN!

The always dapper and tasteful BeaucoupKevin has found some excellent film news. Apparently, they're making a movie out of the life of Cassandra "Batgirl" Cain!




(Go here if the above isn't working.)

Okay, so I'm a total liar. The movie is actually named Chocolate and has nothing to do whatsoever with Cassandra Cain. You know, except for the part where both her Mom and Dad are both deadly fighters and she grows up being able to fight like a ninja tornado.

Still, this? Equals AWESOME.

(And I apologize if the title of my post got that terrible song stuck in your head. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm actually very proud of how horrible that pun is. Whee!)

The Conservation of Awesome

So, it has come to my attention that Marvel is canceling the best new series to come out of all this Initiative/Civil War Malarkey. Yes, after only 10 issues, The Order is going away.



*moment of silence for the best comic to feature the punching of bears in jetpacks that I have ever read*

I was enraged but then realized that a new and funny version of Damage Control by it's original author, Dwayne McDuffie, was coming out this very Wednesday. Presumably this will redress the idiocy that occurred in Wolverine where they were made to be the bad guys. More importantly, it will make me laugh and sing with pure joy (I pray).



All of this then falls under my most depressing law . . . "The Conservation of Awesome".

The Conservation of Awesome clearly states that there is a finite amount of Awesome in the world, so if one Awesome thing happens, another Awesome thing must suffer as a result.*
*For further proof of this theory, please see Buffy Season 8 Vs. Runaways, The Order Vs. Nextwave, so on and so forth.

Yes, the lack of The Order makes my soul grumble with fanboy rage. Still, tomorrow morning, I'm going to be able to read more funny from the man who dared to bring us Wolverine getting a pie in the face from Groucho.



And that alone, my friends, makes the pain so much less.

Y: The Last Party

Now, more than ever, do I wish I lived on the West Coast.

Joss Whedon is the keynote speaker at Brian K. Vaughn & Pia Guerra's wrap-up party for Y: The Last Man? And all proceeds go to the CBLDF? As they say here in the Americas - Fuck, yeah!

Man, I'm extremely tempted to use some vacation time and add to my credit card debt just to attend this.