Bye bye, Countdown

Bye bye, Countdown

Jun 08

Maybe it’s just the fact that my fucking boss made me fucking angry this morning by asserting that comp time ISN’T company policy, and that if I didn’t want to travel FOR WORK all weekend, I should have said so and NOT gone on the trip. Yeah, I’m sure THAT would have gone well.

But I’m crabby, and so I’ve just dropped Countdown. It’s going nowhere yet, it’s not getting there all that quickly, and there’s enough annoying moments for me that it’s just a bit of a drag, to be honest.

With 52, I was drawn in by the sheer novelty of it, and that kept me interested even when the storytelling flagged. Working without a net on a weekly book, the four talented writers were driven into flights of fancy that I don’t think they would have attempted if they had the time and forethought that they would get on a monthly book.

Countdown just feels…lumpy. Flaccid. It lacks a certain spark. So all you’re left with are relatively disconnected scenes surrounding relatively uninteresting characters.

If it gets better–or rather, if the voices in the Comics Multiblogoverse say it gets better–I will probably return, and fill the gaps via dollar bins. Or at least pick up the trades. But right now, that’s $12 a month I’m saving.

(I also dropped Amazons Attack, for similar reasons, although it has a spark thanks to Will Pfeiffer’s scripting and Pete Woods’ pencils. It just makes little sense to me, there is WAY too much death and destruction for its own good, and it’s kinda jarring to be reading this big-ass apeshit event happening at the same time as Countdown. Bleah.)

Hawkeye Pierce on the Zombie Apocalypse

Hawkeye Pierce on the Zombie Apocalypse

Jun 07

Poking around the World War Z website, I made a strange discovery – if you go to the world map and click on Tao, New Mexico, you’ll hear a snippet of the book as read by Alan Alda. The site doesn’t say it’s him, but trust me, it’s Alda. After 34 years of M*A*S*H repeats (lovingly, I should clarify), I’d know that voice anywhere.

I can only assume that it’s taken from the audiobook version. I’m not a big fan of audiobooks – but given that this is an entire book collecting various first-person recollections of the war against the zombies, I think I might like this audiobook. I’ve downloaded their 10 part, expurgated podcast of the audiobook, so I guess I’ll know soon enough.

Plus, y’know, Hawkeye Pierce is in it, so it’s kind of hard to resist. I wonder who else will put in a vocal cameo.

[update] Thanks to Mark, I had to find out who the entire cast was. Max Brooks is on it, but then Brooks is a regular voice actor in Saturday morning cartoons, so that’s not a surprise.

Max Brooks as Max Brooks
Alan Alda as Arthur Sinclair
Carl Reiner as Jurgen Warbrunn
Jurgen Prochnow as Philip Adler
Waleed Zuiater as Saladin Kader
Dean Edwards as Joe Muhammad
Michelle “Mrs. Max Brooks and playwright” Kholos as Jesika Hendricks
Maz Jobrani as Ahmed Farahnakian
Mark Hamill as Todd Wainio
Henry Rollins as T. Sean Collins
Eamonn “Hey, It’s That Guy!” Walker as David Allen Forbes
and Xolelwa Azania
Ajay Naidu as Ajay Shah
John Turturro as Seryosha Garcia Alvarez
Dennis “Hey, It’s That Guy Too!” Boutsikaris as General Travis D’Ambrosia
Becky Ann Baker as Christina Eliopolis
Steve Park as Kwang Jingshu (I know the name, but a NASCAR driver is confusing google)
Frank “New York Theatre Dude – no good links” Kamai as Nury Televaldi and Tomonaga Ijiro
Rob Reiner as “The Whacko”
John McElroy as Ernesto Olguin (not sure – Speed Network dude?)

A Connection is Made

A Connection is Made

Jun 05

It always excites me when I find geek connections in seemingly non-geeky things. For example, my friend got me hooked on The L Word last year and there are so many fun things for nerds to spot within the show! Like, there are all these Battlestar supporting actors in bit roles. Chief plays an angry protester…Tigh makes a few appearances as Dana’s homophobic dad…Callie, Kat and Leoben all pop up in various capacities. Also, comic book author Ariel Schrag is a writer for the show. Also, Laurel Holloman!

Anyway, in a similar sort of instance, I recently got into the fine crime writing of Scottish author Denise Mina, and I went to her website, and she has a little Hellblazer graphic on there. So I click on it and hey! She wrote some Hellblazer! Did anyone read her stint with the series? Is it good? Should I add it to my wildly out-of-control mountain of graphic novels I need to read?

Pluggarino

Pluggarino

Jun 05

I’ve got a few new reviews up at ComicBloc:

First In Space is a terrific book from Oni Press, a historical graphic novel telling the story of Ham, the first monkey in space, basically from the monkey’s point of view. Well worth your time, and quite good for the kids.

Countdown 50 was, well, kinda crappy.

Conan #39 was reviewed as the result of losing a bet (no seriously!) but it wasn’t a “loss” at all; it’s actually quite a good little done-in-one tale of the sworded and sandaled barbarian.

Also, have I mentioned I wrote a novel?

I'm cold.

I'm cold.

Jun 05

Feel that chill in the air?

That dark, foreboding wind blowing through the trees?

It’s not a storm that’s approaching. It’s not a spooky ghost.

It’s just principal photography for Indiana Jones 4, which begins next week or June 18, depending on what you read.

I’m scared.

Hold me.