Podcast Update 2/20

Two new casts out at 4shared to check out.

Digital Scribbles Max Episode 15
Actually came out some days ago but just in case... random reviews (which end as of next episode as I announce the permanent review cycle of DC, Marvel and other digital reviews.

Hasbro Days Episode 1
Premiere episode. Introductions and first reviews.

New Old Comic Addict Episode 4
The Revenge of Hipster Daken invoicing. Plus I review Action Comics and Superman #26, Ghost Rider #19-#20, Hellstrom Prince of Lies #1 and Ferret and Arrow One Shots.

Presently working on Equestria This Week Episode 55, New Old Spider-Man Comic Addict Episode 1 and Digital Scribbles Episode 16.

Podcast Update November 27th Thanksgiving Eve

A bit late but finally out!

Digital Doctor Who Podcast Episode 10
More IDW comic reviews (Series 3, Prisoners of Time, Assimilation Squared), and the first part of my Day of the Doctor review... details inside.

Equestria This Week Episode 44
At long last Season 4 begins and we review Princess Twilight Sparkle... the two part opening episode, not the pony. Check it out!

Coming up next is Digital Scribbles Max Episode 11 (Day of the Doctor... knock on wood), Equestria This Week Episode 45 and That Android Podcast Episode 6.

Podcast Updates 10/11

All new podcasts are up, and one correction...

All new episode and a back episode of The Digital Doctor Who Podcast is now up and available, so check both of them out please. New episode in 2 weeks.

Next up? That New 52 Smell coming up shortly.

First Impression : Superman Sunday Classics 1939-1943

It is the 75th Anniversary of Superman so, logically, everyone EXCEPT DC Comics is celebrating it. DC Comics is... trying to make Superman young again...again. But forgetting forgetting DC Comics insecurities with age age we got ourselves a blast from the Golden Age with Superman Sunday Classics 1939-1943 (collecting the color sunday strips which had their own stories seperate from the dailies which are collected in their own book).

Ah. Golden Age Superman, a title that reminds you of a far simpler time when the Man of Steel randomly spawned new powers powers and abilities at random for plot convenience, threatens people and property for effect and randomly killed bad guys without warning. Throwing them into the sky Team Rocket style, letting enemy fire blow them up and what not. Clearly the whole Superman as the world`s biggest boy scout does not originate from the Golden Age.

Presently reviewing it, will have it out soon, but right now I think you will enjoy this if you are a fan of the Golden Age. Stay tuned.

That New 52 Smell : First Unpacking Update

That New 52 Smell
The First Unpacking

Six weeks later and the first subscription issue finally arrived. My first review issue... and subsequently I finally had a few questions answered.

- Subscription issues start mailing after six weeks HOWEVER that only means they mail on the week they come out... which may mean it might take extra weeks for some first issues to mail.

- Oh yes, they seemingly come out a month behind. Its April... and I got March's issue.

- And they mail one issue at a time. That's good. Means I dont have to wait two months between reviews... I dont know why I was even worried about that. Really.

So April is going to be a slow month. This episode coming? Superman Issue No 18, featuring fallout from H'el on Earth, the realization the artwork reminds me of manga artwork which reminds me of the time Superman was drawn that way for a time in the 90's as a sales gimmick... and the threat of Hector Hammond, the new 52s worst ever evil bobble headed human... I mean wow! Just look at the size of his head! Sheesh... oh, and that is only the tip of the iceberg in this first ever New 52 Superman review.

After that? Waiting on Supergirl to come in. Hopefully not too long of a wait.

May is a little busier. Besides the second issues of Supergirl and Superman we also get the first issues of Action Comics and Teen Titans, doubling the monthly reviews to four.

For all intents and purposes it looks like a major trade will be resolved. So that means June and probably July will see the last of the first year content rolling in, setting the pace of the series in 2013 to 2014..

It took awhile, but we are finally ready to get That New 52 Smell rolling full speed ahead. And that can only be a good thing.

So how will we close up the first year of content? Good question... I am still fudging abit on the end admittedly. That is still abit up in the air.

Wonder Woman is still on the list most certainly, that is scheduled, but how to end? Hmm... I was thinking of several possible scenarios... my mind is basically stuck at this point, at a indecision moment, and while there is a bit of time left to resolve it... that time is running out so... what to end with. That I will save for an upcoming update.

So right now we will focus on upcoming episodes.

- Supergirl episode
While I am hoping that we will see the first issue arrive today (April 20th)... it might not. So first issue coverage coming soon.

There is also the digital content, but that is a topic of another update... stay tuned.

Podcast Update April 2nd 2013

All new casts are up and available! New OMGComics (Easter Edition), new That New 52 Smell (update on subscriptions) and new This Old Comic Addict (first unboxing two parter).

New stuff on the way, stay tuned!

This Old DC Swag Episode 2 Now Available

Since I was on a roll I cranked out another episode of This Old DC Swag. Today we talk about Star Trek #3-#4 (the wrap up of the Klingon Federation conflict) and talk abit of Batman (part 1 of 2, next episode we'll talk the bonus content like a preview of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 80's Edition and a back-up Robin I story!

That New 52 Smell Episode Zero now available

That New 52 Smell Episode Zero is now out and available! Four more episodes left to The New 52 Adventures of Superman and already I am launching That New 62 Smell... go figure.

Introduction statement, DC Comics and me public relations wise, Orson Scott Card controversy with Adventures of Superman... and for context? Another DC Comics character with issues Orson Scott Card can relate to, mainly Corrigan aka The Spectre and his long lamenting over his stance on the topic from the mid 90's! Check it out as I review the issue in question!

New episode in two weeks with hopefully our first New 62 DC review... and a very Spectre Christmas!

TOCA Journal 1 : That Unboxing Episodes

TOCA Journal - Waiting for Something Man

These days alot of my podcasts seems to rotate around the concept of... waiting.

And not just That New 52 Smell either in terms of subscriptions made or in negotiation. I also mean waiting for trades for This Old Comic Addict, or even This Old DC Swag... and even for Pocket Gamer.

Yup. Waiting to exhale, and do unboxing episodes, is universal. Boring and universal.

The longest wait is for two boxes sent for a giant trade. The unboxing of these two? Most definitely an episode of This Old Comic Addict will revolve around the unboxing. But really. It was sent via ground, and the longest part is the long ship trip between California and Hawaii... still it is almost here, so recording shortly.

Another trade, another opening episode for This Old Comic Addict. Not nearly quite as massive as what I am expecting in the first trade, yes, but still vitally important. This trade will provide fresh review content for my RKYV reviews, being fresher stuff. Timing wise this will probably arrive on a weekend I usually record an episode of This Old Comic Addict so that works out well for me.

But moving things is not just for This Old Comic Addict. Skipped a week of Waiting To Recharge over at http://www.rpgunite.blogspot.com  because I didnt have much to report on... this week I should have abit to say in that regard.

Finishing a trade for subscriptions for That New 52 Smell... still hoping for a positive outcome. Stay tuned.

So... anything else? Nothing to report on for now, but all of this does bring up the topic of unboxing episodes... who gets them.

Top of the list is This Old Comic Addict, and This Old DC Swag, two series that dig into the past is full of potential for unboxing episodes now and then.

I thought we would do more unboxing for a newer cast not That New 52 Smell... maybe we still could do that. Once I am of a higher level as a reviewer.

Finally less unboxing and more unveiling everytime a new subscription issue arrives. Something that will become more and more commonplace as the review titles all fall into place one by one. Still I wonder if, over time, we might not also see a more traditional unboxing of review content over time, and the advent of donations or... heaven forbid... finally meeting DC Comics criteria as a reviewer worthy of access.

Hmm... I think I will keep track every weekend of incoming trades and potential donations for unboxing episodes... starting next week. So stay tuned!

New Podcasts now available

Two new podcasts are now out and available.

This Old Comic Addict Episode 1
Coverage of comics 80's, 90's and early 2000's are covered This episode it's the start of coverage of Malibu's less successful super hero line, the Protectors' era, starting with Protectors #1-#2, The Ferret One Shot and Arrow One Shot.

Next Episode - The other part of Malibu's heroes, the Ultraverse first episode coverage.

This Old DC Swag Episode 1
Same as This Old Comic Addict, focused on DC. This episode I begin covering DC's first run of Star Trek (in the 80's) with Star Trek #1-#2 (and the many reasons why you should be reading this if you haven't yet)

More stuff (including the launch of That New 52 Smell) coming soon, stay tuned!

FYI - Countdown to That New 52 Smell

FYI
Preparing for DC content

First off lets get the unpleasant stuff out of the way.

DC Comics? They're just not going to respond to me, even after the DC themed podcasts launched. So I just need to plan accordingly.

News? Gathered by me for the New 52 cast.

Interviews? None. Sorry.

Review materials? That is all on me and my burden most certainly.

On the plus side... well I am sure being able to set my own pace, and review schedule is a plus if nothing else... oh well.

OK. Now onto actual progress. Trading for subscriptions is moving slowly apace, and while I do not want to jump ahead of myself until everything is all set up... I think we can at least mention progress.

To date two subscriptions have been put to bed set, Supergirl and Superman, a new trade is just starting that, if successful, add two more subscriptions to the schedule.

After that? April should hopefully see another two titles added for a total of six... so progress is definitely being made. Maybe too much progress, to much by far considering I am not getting so much as the time of day from DC... but I guess that is OK. Realistically a large dose of realistic expectations has to be applied in attempting to contacting a large publisher like DC.

Was the silent treatment expected? In some respects yes, sadly yes. I could stand for a higher profile, a bigger presense, more experience and seniority... or a Scrooge McDuck Money Vault.

Why is it I think only status and money gets a response? In truth even I think its exposure and readership, and I need to work harder to build up my readership. Still would it be such a thing just to send me a form email saying you have insufficient presense. Please build up your readership and observe the 12 to 24 month cooling period before resubmitting. Thank you for your interest, salutations and end email. But I dont even have that to show. It is just my opinion that I am insufficient to meet DC's standards for who has access. Well lets close out on a high note, what may be the final word on the review slate of the cast... ready? Yes voting is still ongoing and we are presently at the 40% mark, but... here is how I am seeing it... yes, this is subject to change.

Superman block
Reviewing Action Comics, Supergirl and Superman. Would have rounded it out with Superboy... if it was a subscription title.

Justice League block
Aquaman, Flash and JLAmerica

Finally Ladies Block with Batgirl, Catwoman and Wonder Woman.

Voting is still pending so stay tuned for updates.

OK things are falling into place but we are just waiting for the first arrivals and off we launch That New 52 Smell, so stay tuned.

See you next week!

Daily News Valiant Edition

Master Darque (remember him?) is in Shadowman #5... and the issues before that if I remember my Only The Valiant reviews right... anyway have you some of that cut and paste stuff.

"Valiant is proud to present an advance preview of Shadowman #5 – the FIRST ISSUE of an all-new arc by acclaimed creators Justin Jordan and Patrick Zircher with Lee Garbett (X-O Manowar) and Roberto De La Torre (Age of Apocalypse)! Start reading here as the new Shadowman dives headlong into the dark side of the Valiant Universe – only to find himself caught in the crossfire of a demonic turf war engineered by the unspeakable evil of Master Darque!

Jack Boniface has just been to Hell and back. After surviving the horrors of the Deadside, Jack is taking his new abilities to the limit and discovering more about the legacy of the Shadowman with each passing night. But what if he wasn’t the only thing that managed to escape back to Earth? Something dark has arrived in New Orleans, leaving death and madness in its black wake. What’s more, the city’s deadliest cartel assassin is after Jack, and he refuses to die – literally!

Be here on March 6th as Valiant's best-selling hero begins a brand new chapter in Shadowman #5 – the perfect entry point into the series that Comic Vine says "delivers on every level."

For more information on Shadowman, X-O Manowar, and the rest of the Valiant Universe, visit Valiant on Twitter, on Facebook, or at ValiantUniverse.com.

SHADOWMAN #5 - ON SALE MARCH 6th!
Written by JUSTIN JORDAN & PATRICK ZIRCHER
Art by PATRICK ZIRCHER, LEE GARBETT, & ROBERTO DE LA TORRE
Cover by PATRICK ZIRCHER (JAN131302)
"Blackout" Pullbox Exclusive Variant by PATRICK ZIRCHER (JAN131303)
Variant Cover by DAVE JOHNSON (JAN131304)
Linewide Variant by RAFAEL GRAMPA (JAN131305)
$3.99/T+/32 pgs."

It should be out this coming week so run on down to the shop and get yourself a copy! I plan to... once I am all caught up and to date on Valiant reviewing.

Book Em' Danno : Darkhold #1-#2

Book Em Danno!

Darkhold #1-#2
Publisher : MARVEL (1992)
Writer : Christian Cooper
Pencils : Richard Case
Inks : Mark McKenna
Colors : Glynis Oliver
Letters : Phil Felix
Editor : Bobbie Chase
Managing Editor : Kelly Corvese
Editor in Chief : Tom Defalco

With word of an upcoming Dr. Strange movie somewhere in 2016 or 17 you might think now would be a good time to roll out a dark supernatural chain of MARVEL movies! The leap of logic here isnt a big one, I assure you. You just have to completely ignore the first two underwhelming Nicolas Cage Ghost Rider movies, as well as the fact you cant use both Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze in a Ghost Rider and Spirits of Vengeance movie series as long as Fox has the movie rights.

Who has the rights to Blade? By now it should be MARVEL again, right?

Well we're talking Midnight Sons, a rather short lived nitche of the MARVEL Universe dedicated to the Supernatural. Prior to the crossover event we had the 2nd ongoing Ghost Rider but once it launched we had new titles. Titles like Spirits of Vengeance, featuring Johnny Blaze teaming up with the newest Ghost Rider in his second title.

We had Spider-Man villain Morbius the Living Vampire get his own title. Years before tragic mistakes in fiction like The Glittery Vampire Quadrilogy aka Twilight would scar Morbius' modern release.

We had Nightstalkers. A title revolves about the popularity of one character, Wesley Snipe's Blade.

And of course X-Files knockoff Darkhold.

OK, as Issue One starts its Part 4 of the Rise crossover. We just met Morbius, and Nightstalkers premiere next time... so lets see if I can say this with without laughing.

A midget in a tux not related to the guy who runs WildC.A.T.s (Image in this decade) is wandering the country playing matchmaker. However he is not so much trying to find love as he is matching severely stereotypical Friday the 13th the TV Series character types with pages of the Darkhold. Enter one Vicki Montesi, who rather clichely finds herself drawn into a blatently ripped off plot stolen from same Friday the 13th the TV Series after her best friend is horribly injured in a bomb blast meant to kill our lead character.

And so haunted with also cliche visions of Issue one's baddie she must hunt the pages of the Darkhold and stop whatever curse they carry and whoever uses the... no really could this be anymore of a Friday the 13th TV ripoff?!? Come on!

Do I need to go on? This series didnt make it past 25 Issues! Guess why!

A series that could have been far better, this is a sad sad shallow wading pool of been there, done that, could have should have wasnt isnt. Even when a story has an original notion (Issue Two and its ties to the Hulk) they never really run with it and make said ideas work for them. If the title was better thought out? It could have been a hit. As it stands its 1 out of 5 overdue fines on Mephisto's library card.

Next - Updates.

This Old Comic Addict : X-Men Evolution Part 1

This Old Comic Addict
X-Men Evolution Part 1 (#1-#2)
Publisher - MARVEL (2002)
Writer : Devin Grayson
Art and Colors : UDON with Long Vo, Charles Park and Saka of Studio XD
Lettering : Sharpfront's Randy Gentile
Editor : Ralph Macchio(*)
Associate Editor : Brian Smith and C.B. Cebulski (Issue #7)
Editor in Chief : Joe Quesada
President : Bill Jemas

(*) - I had to be told by Ninja High School creator Ben Dunn during an interview that this isn't Daniel-san from The Karate Kid movies.

NOTE - As of this review I didnt have X-Men Evolution Issue #8 to review.

Continuing our trip down comic book memory lane, specifically comic book adaptations of animated series. This time out the MARVEL adapt of X-Men Evolution, basically a weird prequel X-Men universe mixing up younger X-Men from a smathering of different decades and teams... oh, and Storm now has a nephew named Evan Daniels aka Spyke.

X-Men Evolution. That weird hybrid of teen angst, school drama and comic action. Oh. And as your about to see it also does a rewrite of established X history on occasion.

OK. Lets see. These eight issues basically kick off the series from the beginning. In Issue One we find Wolverine lying in the snow in Canada, apparently missing both his shirt and his memory. Head on over to America and Xavier is meeting and recruiting Ororo aka Storm... well I did say Evolution tends to rewrite X history... next up Xavier is having a cup of Earl Grey with old frienemy Magnus aka Magneto. The subject of the so called "Wild Man" of Canada comes up and suddenly Xavier has to cut short his usual human mutant talk with Magnus (and a disguised Mystique playing the role of a cute maid) in order to do his thing. Which lead to both Xavier and Magneto trying to recruit Logan at the same time... given the choice beteen peace and war by the two, Logan chooses peace... then spends the rest of the series being the character most likely to break things first and give peace a chance later. Go figure.

Issue Two introduces Cyclops. A well meaning good soul who had a bad break when his parents die in a plane crash... only for his dad to come back later as a space pirate... sheesh.

But that, and people's general fear of people who uncontrollably shoot lasers from their eyes wont get him down, even if he does save a kid from bank robbers only to be shunned by the girl's retard mom and assaulted by a cop for being different.

I am sure there is a friendship lesson there somewhere for Cyke to write.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle

Sometimes people are jerks.

Your faithful student Cyclops

Oops! Out of words! Come back next week and we will wrap up with our look at X-Men Evolution Issue 3 to 8.

See you then!

This Old Comic Addict featuring Justice League Adventures #1

This Old Comic Addict Blog
Justice League Adventures #1 (2001)
Publisher : DC Comics
Writer : Ty Templeton
Penciler : Min S. Ku
Inker : Dan Davis
Letterer : Kurt Hathaway
Colorist : John Kalisz
Seperations : Heroic Age
Assistant Editor : Steve Wacker
Editor : Dan Raspler

(Apparently it does take a village to produce a substandard comic)

In the never ending battle between DC and MARVEL (animation edition) DC and MARVEL tend to excel in opposite sides of the equation.

In this case? In this case DC puts out some great animations, but MARVEL does great comic adapts of animations.

As we count down to March and the demise of Green Lantern and Young Justice the animations, we look at the best and worst of comic adaptations of animations.

One of many examples of the bad is Justice League Adventures, based of course on Justice League.

In "Disarmed", a nice marathon sitting and staring session of the League is interrupted by a female bug alien claiming to be from an organization of female aliens going around cleaning up the messes made by male... no, no, I mean the messes that usually get air time on cable news... you know, ones that don't involve Republicans and things utilizing words like "legitimate", "socialism" and "is that camera on?" and "do I sound crazy to you?"

Yes, things are not what they seem, even if there seems to be an obvious "device" that may be a bomb... a rather awkward looking green glowing thing that is supposed to be a bhomb... and the alien that showed up yes turns out to be probably evil... or just bored... which is what you'll be reading this. It has no real story past a cookie cutter paint by numbers thing, even the heroes seem boring, and there are the little people, like the girl obsessed with getting autographs of supers. Nothing here to even make you think of the Justice League animated series, but maybe you'll think of the old Superfriends show... it actually seemed like something you'd see from that. And the rest? The artwork is toonish... way way too toonish down to the level of Superman or Batman Adventures (comic) toonish... and there is just nothing here to even tell you to go and find this if your curious.

So... luckily this comic didn't last long so I won't have much to review in the future. A 1 out of 5.

Next time, hopefully on time, we'll look at something a little better... not much but it won't rate a 1 out of 5... the X-Men Evolution comics, which for some strange reason had even less issues than this!... wow... really? See you next time!