After getting home from the comic shop I took a look at my stack and realized that this was a very good week for comics.
In fact, I’d have to call it a phenomenal week.
After all, any week in which I get Fables and Jack of Fables is an especially good week (especially when the cover of Jack features Jack getting kicked in the junk by one of the lovely Page Sisters. Note: D’oh! Thought I could find a cover image online, but I was wrong, and am too lazy to scan it in myself.), but beyond that bit of wonderfulness, the rest were all books that I actually look forward to reading.
Oh, and Countdown to Final Crisis.
Since I was a kid I’ve always had a particular way of determining the order in which I read a given stack of comics. It’s all about delayed gratification, which is to say that the comic I want to read most is the comic I read last. So I start with the one I want to read least at the top and then go from there, basically from worst – which is kind of a misnomer, as the one on top isn’t necessarily bad (unless, of course, it’s Countdown to Final Crisis), it’s just the one I’m least excited about – to best.
This week’s stack was difficult to put in order. Naturally Fables was at the bottom, with Jack right on top of it, but it was tricky to figure out what the order would be between those to and Countdown.
This is what I finally decided on:
1.
Countdown to Final Crisis – It’s gotten better of late, and has, in recent weeks, managed to make its way to the second position a couple of times, but it will always be far from the bottom (which, in my inverted system, is the top in terms of quality). So why do I buy it? Well, I’ve committed myself to doing so, and have managed to grit my teeth through it so far, and besides, there are only 9 issues left (it’s a weekly comic running for 52 issues).
2.
Thor - Big jump in quality compared to Countdown. I’ve really been digging what Straczynski has been doing with the character, and the series earned itself a special place in my heart several issues back when Thor totally owned Iron Man.
3.
She-Hulk – It was a tough call deciding how to order this with Thor and the comic that got the number 4 spot, but ultimately my appreciation for Peter David’s writing narrowly edged out my appreciation for Straczynski’s.
4.
Justice Society of America – I’m digging the revisit of Kingdom Come so far, which is what gave it the edge over Thor and She-Hulk.
5.
Daredevil
and
6.
Captain America – Both are written by Ed Brubaker, and both are excellent, but I’m just more into the Cap storyline than I am into the Daredevil one.
7.
Jack of Fables – Just barely – and I mean barely – loses out to…
8.
Fables – While Jack has the same level of consistent excellence, Fables has been around a while longer, so it gets extra points for seniority.
Something that has really surprised me, and which my past self would never believe if I were to travel back in time to tell myself this, is that so far on the weeks when it comes out, Booster Gold is consistently close to the bottom of my reading pile. I just need to mention this as a way of saying “Nice work” to messrs Johns, Katz, Jurgens, and Rapmund.
Okay, enough of the geekery, I guess, though I don’t have much else to talk about.
I spent most of the day at work in a “webinar,” which is basically a fancy way of saying a conference call, albeit one in which I was able to view the same slide presentation being given at the actual physical meeting.
The three things I learned in the course of the webinar were that people don’t seem to understand how to mute their phones, and that one of the participants who was among the unmuted had gotten the results of her ultrasound and blood tests back and they were positive, and she loved whoever it was that she was talking to about her ultrasound and blood test results (“I love you sweetheart!”).
And that was pretty much my day.
My new lenses are in, but this time around I have to wear them for two days and then go in for an exam, and I couldn’t get an appointment for an exam until Tuesday, so, having already had to stop at one place on the way home, I didn’t feel like having to make another stop. I’ll probably pick them up tomorrow.
And that’s pretty much it for today.
Showing posts with label jack of fables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jack of fables. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Why I Love Fables (And Jack Of Fables) Reason Number 89
Goldilocks' tattoo:
--From "The Long Hard Fall of Hollywood Jack," Chapter One of The Nearly Great Escape
--From "The Long Hard Fall of Hollywood Jack," Chapter One of The Nearly Great Escape
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Excellent Timing, Extra Expenses, Exceptionally Creepy, And I'm Out of Words That Start With Ex
I woke up a bit after 8 this morning, thinking that I should get up, as my Wednesdays are always abbreviated due to my ridiculously early bedtime.
Of course, I also thought, “Fuck that,” and managed to stay in bed until a bit before 9.
In an unusual bit of motivation, I made my way to the kitchen and began making some breakfast. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal yesterday, opting for a sandwich for lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, so hunger was the source of my motivation.
I had just finished making my bacon and eggs and was in the process of setting my plate down on the table when my phone rang.
It was my mother. I opted to eat the eggs, figuring I could do that quietly enough so that she wouldn’t have to listen to me chewing, but decided that the bacon was just going to have to wait.
After talking to my mother – and eating my bacon – I did the whole shower and shave thing, got dressed, and headed off to the comic shop.
I spent quite a bit there, as I picked up a copy of the trade collecting the first five issues of Jack of Fables, as well as a copy of the Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall hardcover.
Beyond that I also paid for Scott’s comics (though he will, of course, pay me back), which was pricier than normal, as he’s opted to begin collecting Jack of Fables and Buffy: Season Eight and had requested that I grab whatever back issues of those I could find there, so that added some extra comics, and I grabbed a copy of the Jack of Fables trade for him as well, as it only made sense.
From there it was off to Super Target where, based on the wary looks most of the women present were giving me and their general skittishness around me, I learned that I must have been looking especially creepy today. Not sure what made today so special. Maybe there’s just something inherently disturbing about a guy buying toilet paper and paper towels.
Anyway, that’s been my day so far. It’s not likely to get any more interesting.
I’ve often mentioned that there are certain movies that, when they’re on, I feel compelled to watch. One such movie is Tim Burton’s black and white cult classic Ed Wood, which was on IFC the other night, and which I watched.
(As an aside, people think that, because of my feelings about his Batman movies, I don’t like Tim Burton. It’s not true. With the exception of the aforementioned Batman movies and the complete waste of two hours of my life – time that I will never be able to recover – that was his Planet of the Apes remake, I’ve liked most of what I’ve seen.)
I really enjoy Ed Wood in large part because of the performances of Martin Landau and Johnny Depp, but also because the real Ed Wood was an utterly fascinating man in so many respects.
As terrible as his movies were, you just have to love the cockeyed optimism of the man, and his total commitment to bringing his singular vision to life. Sure, his movies sucked ass, but he put everything he had into making those shitty, shitty movies. Nothing could deter him from following his dreams.
His awful, tacky dreams.
How can you not admire someone like that?
In the Burton movie much time is spent focusing on the making of his movie Bride of the Monster (originally titled Bride of the Atom), and in reading the Wikipedia entry on Wood I learned that, unsurprisingly, Bride of the Monster had been featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
So naturally I hit the MST3K newsgroup and downloaded the episode.
It was kind of interesting to watch the movie after having seen the fictionalized version of its making so many times. Seeing an actual scene rather than Burton’s version of the scene often made it rather jarring, particularly if there was a big difference between the two, though conversely it was interesting to see the scenes that Burton had really nailed.
The casting difference were also kind of jarring. I was watching it and thinking, “But that’s not Juliet Landau playing the part of Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton, it’s actually Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton!” or “Hey, that’s not Sarah Jessica Parker.”
Knowing at least some of the backstory – or at least some version of it – surrounding the making of the movie also added to the experience.
And of course it all made the comments of Joel and the gang that much funnier.
Oh, and the movie itself? Absolutely terrible, but then, how could it be otherwise?
Of course, I also thought, “Fuck that,” and managed to stay in bed until a bit before 9.
In an unusual bit of motivation, I made my way to the kitchen and began making some breakfast. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal yesterday, opting for a sandwich for lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, so hunger was the source of my motivation.
I had just finished making my bacon and eggs and was in the process of setting my plate down on the table when my phone rang.
It was my mother. I opted to eat the eggs, figuring I could do that quietly enough so that she wouldn’t have to listen to me chewing, but decided that the bacon was just going to have to wait.
After talking to my mother – and eating my bacon – I did the whole shower and shave thing, got dressed, and headed off to the comic shop.
I spent quite a bit there, as I picked up a copy of the trade collecting the first five issues of Jack of Fables, as well as a copy of the Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall hardcover.
Beyond that I also paid for Scott’s comics (though he will, of course, pay me back), which was pricier than normal, as he’s opted to begin collecting Jack of Fables and Buffy: Season Eight and had requested that I grab whatever back issues of those I could find there, so that added some extra comics, and I grabbed a copy of the Jack of Fables trade for him as well, as it only made sense.
From there it was off to Super Target where, based on the wary looks most of the women present were giving me and their general skittishness around me, I learned that I must have been looking especially creepy today. Not sure what made today so special. Maybe there’s just something inherently disturbing about a guy buying toilet paper and paper towels.
Anyway, that’s been my day so far. It’s not likely to get any more interesting.
I’ve often mentioned that there are certain movies that, when they’re on, I feel compelled to watch. One such movie is Tim Burton’s black and white cult classic Ed Wood, which was on IFC the other night, and which I watched.
(As an aside, people think that, because of my feelings about his Batman movies, I don’t like Tim Burton. It’s not true. With the exception of the aforementioned Batman movies and the complete waste of two hours of my life – time that I will never be able to recover – that was his Planet of the Apes remake, I’ve liked most of what I’ve seen.)
I really enjoy Ed Wood in large part because of the performances of Martin Landau and Johnny Depp, but also because the real Ed Wood was an utterly fascinating man in so many respects.
As terrible as his movies were, you just have to love the cockeyed optimism of the man, and his total commitment to bringing his singular vision to life. Sure, his movies sucked ass, but he put everything he had into making those shitty, shitty movies. Nothing could deter him from following his dreams.
His awful, tacky dreams.
How can you not admire someone like that?
In the Burton movie much time is spent focusing on the making of his movie Bride of the Monster (originally titled Bride of the Atom), and in reading the Wikipedia entry on Wood I learned that, unsurprisingly, Bride of the Monster had been featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
So naturally I hit the MST3K newsgroup and downloaded the episode.
It was kind of interesting to watch the movie after having seen the fictionalized version of its making so many times. Seeing an actual scene rather than Burton’s version of the scene often made it rather jarring, particularly if there was a big difference between the two, though conversely it was interesting to see the scenes that Burton had really nailed.
The casting difference were also kind of jarring. I was watching it and thinking, “But that’s not Juliet Landau playing the part of Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton, it’s actually Loretta King playing the part of Janet Lawton!” or “Hey, that’s not Sarah Jessica Parker.”
Knowing at least some of the backstory – or at least some version of it – surrounding the making of the movie also added to the experience.
And of course it all made the comments of Joel and the gang that much funnier.
Oh, and the movie itself? Absolutely terrible, but then, how could it be otherwise?
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