NYC GREENWICH VILLAGE HALLOWEEN PARADE 2007 PART1

There are things I miss about not being back in NY this time of year. I used to go down just about every year in the late '80s til the mid-90s. You never knew what to expect.

Happy Halloween!!

Wassup 2008

When these guys were hot I loved the commercials. The one in the Japanese restaurant still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Sorry, it gets political at the end, since I try to stay away from that here. Still I don't think anybody should be surprised who I support!

Have a good weekend and vote early, if you can.

Four Color Fiend: Spending Time with the Time Lords!

I’ve been enjoying the two regular DOCTOR WHO books from IDW (Doctor Who & Doctor Who Classics), so was happy to see that they are putting out two more series featuring the Time Lord. The first book features new stories with the Doctor #10, while the other reprints earlier adventures beginning with the Tom Baker version.

I mentioned DW: The Forgotten last month (featuring the current Doctor, David Tennant and the first, William Hartnell) and I just picked up the second issue, which has adventures of the second & third regenerations (played by Patrick Troughton & Jon Pertwee respectively). The Doctor and his companion Martha Jones are still stuck in a mysterious museum and unable to locate the TARDIS, plus it seems the still unseen villain has begun to activate some nasty surprises for our duo. Writer Tony Lee and artist, Pia Guerra are doing a nice job capturing the personalities and appearances of all the Doctors. While Guerra’s style may be a bit cartoonish for some I find her perfect for the title.

The same week a had second DW reprint book, Grant Morrison’s DOCTOR WHO, with tales of the Sixth & Seventh Doctors (who were played by Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy on television). This is a two issue series featuring the DW stories Morrison wrote in the ‘80s, before he brought back the DC hero, ANIMAL MAN in popular and award-winning series. While the Baker two-parter is nothing special, the done-in-one McCoy story has the Doctor helping an entire race avoid extinction. It also shows the Time Lord at a low point being reminded of why he does what he does.
I’ll try to throw in more reviews later this week.

I'm still here!

I haven't forgotten about this blog, but I haven't been doing much posting anywhere. Heck, I think Alex over at Poplitiko is about to cross me off the contributor list any day now. :-)

I've actually been doing more reading than writing lately, not that I think I have much to add to the general conversation. I'm also getting lazy and finding it easier to link to something or toss up a video from YouTube on the topic of the day.

I'm still trying to keep up with SECRET INVASION and still finding most of the tie-in books pretty decent. MS. MARVEL and BLACK PANTHER are interesting enough now that I may stick around post-SI to see where the characters go from here. In both books we have seen the titular heroes take a number of lives, mostly Skrulls but still it is bound to effect them. I've previous BP series, but had to be brought up to speed when I picked up the title a couple of months ago. I had no idea that he was married to the former X-Men, Storm.

I sort of like AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, even though there are a lot of characters with whom I'm not familiar. I enjoy the fact that the 3-D MAN has become sort of a 'legacy' character with a new kid taking up the name & uniform of the retconned '50s hero. I'd never heard of the "Skrull Kill Krew" before and I'm not sure I care enough to do more than read the Wikipedia entry. On the other hand, if there are going to be Skrulls remaining on Earth after the end of all this, I might be interested enough to keep an eye on them. Of course, that depends on which characters might be part of that group at the time.

Speaking of Marvel, I really have liked the three "free" SAGA books that have been given out at shops. The DAREDEVIL issue pretty much centers on what has happened to the character since mystery/thrill writer, Ed Brubaker has begun writing the character. Still it was interesting. MARVEL: YOUR UNIVERSE covered a good portion of the last decade, filling me in on what led up to CIVIL WAR, SECRET WAR and background enough on what the Skrulls and other characters have been up to. There were also a few pages taken from the up-coming new MARVEL HANDBOOK, with the section on James "Bucky" Barnes (Winter Soldier & the new Captain America) especially helpful. Finally, last Friday I picked up MARCH ON ULTIMATUM SAGA, that had a great overview of the ULTIMATE universe at Marvel, something which I have not followed at all. Have to be honest and say that there wasn't much in the book that made me regret not buying the titles, except for missing the first appearances of the MARVEL ZOMBIES. I still plan on picking up the TPB collecting those issues, since there is a third mini featuring the 'undead heroes' coming next year.

Hope to have some more stuff on comics or television in a couple of days.