Mike Pirnat

I’ve really gotten into comics again since my daughter was born; I can easily fit a few issues or maybe a trade paperback into one of her naps. And there’s not the same level of commitment necessary with comics that there is for Serious Literature–you can generally get a sense of whether or not something’s going to suck within an issue or two, rather than having to slog miserably through someone’s thick prose while you wait for it to get good. I find that I’ve lost such track of what’s on bookstore shelves that I don’t want to take the same kinds of risks with books (expensive! time consuming! with misleading marketing!) that I can take with comics.

To give myself an excuse to blog more often, I’m going to start sharing some quick notes, on a weekly basis, about anything noteworthy or interesting that I’ve picked up. Here are my highlights from last week…

• 
  

  The Weird World of Jack Staff: #2

  Issue two takes us deeper into the mystery of Jack Staff (Britain’s greatest hero), his history, and apparent amnesia. The art’s breezy and fun, and with a revolving cast of novel and cleverly-named superheroes, I’m getting a bit of a Venture Brothers vibe, though with less acidity than VB. I’m really looking forward to more.

• 
  
  

  King City: #7

  One of the weirdest but best things I’ve read, King City seems like what would happen if Möbius and Phil Foglio made Transmetropolitan. Joe uses his skills as a cat master (with the right injections, a cat can put Batman’s utility belt to shame) to pull off bizarre heists in a run-down cyberpunk metropolis. It’s cheeky, though with heart, and full of fabulous little details that have me scouring every panel for hidden jokes.

• 
  
  

  Electric Ant: #1

  In this adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story, Garson Poole has a great life until he discovers that he’s artificial. Thus begins the inevitable slide into trademark paranoia and unease as Garson seeks his true function and the identity of his owner/creator. If you like Blade Runner or any of Dick’s other stories about identity, this is worth picking up.

• 
  
  

  Turf: #1

  In my opinion, the first issue of Turf is the big winner this week. I saved it for last (a cherished spot in the weekly comics reading order) and was well-rewarded by the choice. It’s 1929. Powerful mobs rule New York, while corrupt police help keep the system in place. A noir tough guy and a scrappy young reporter are about to be caught up in a major power struggle as a family of eastern European immigrants makes a play against a mafia don. It could be a typical crime novel… except that the immigrant gang are vampires. And a spaceship crashes.

  Okay, so the concept may be a little goofy, but the art and writing take it so seriously that what might have been a campy misfire is instead a mature, gritty thriller. I can’t wait for more!

comic-books, comics Electric Ant, Jack Staff, King City, Philip K. Dick, Turf

Popped out at lunch today to pick up the new NIN album, and the Return of the Sith soundtrack. NIN is pretty good. Haven’t listened to Sith yet–considering trying to keep at least a tiny bit of “prequel purity” before The Big Day comes, even though I already read the silly kids’ storybook version at K-Mart the other week. (Lucas should just cut out all the dialogue and make it a silent film, because what’s in the storybook looks pretty freaking sweet.)

Also, finally got off my butt and ordered tickets for VNV Nation (June 7 at the Cleveland House of Blues, in case anyone feels like being social in a bouncy EBM-synth-industrial sort of way).

Also also, this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!

Excitement abounds! Excelsior!

comics, geekery, movies, music, retail-therapy, star-wars, vnv-nation

Once upon a time (not quite a month ago), I was going to mention a few notable items from our Christmas loot, but then there was that whole tsunami thing, and I felt weird about bragging or something, and then I realized that it was silly to restrict myself like that, and then I got swamped at work, and, well, now it’s almost February. So, I figure it’s now or never. I’ll be good and keep the loot list to a minimum…

My dearest Liz got me the signed, hardback, single-volume edition of Bone. Just as soon as I clear some bookshelf space (so that I can have the headboard room), I’ll be tearing into it with glee.

I got Liz some fancy wine glasses–four-packs of the Riedel Bordeaux and Burgundy stemware. It’s not just hype; they do make a rather astounding taste and smell difference.

Santa was also especially kind, topping off our stockings with a gift box of Tres Sabores Zinfandels–three distinctly different bottles, made by three distinctly different winemakers, from the same vineyard. This looks especially nummy.

Additionally, Santa dropped off a Harmony 688 remote control. I love, love, love this remote; it is, finally, everything I was looking for in a universal remote. Mostly, that means that it has fully programmable hard buttons for pretty much everything you would ever want, in a decent enough layout to be usable and comfortable, is shaped vaguely like the nigh-miraculous Tivo remote (which has the best remote ergonomics EVER), and can cope with an arbitrary collection of hardware without being pesky or capricious. Oh, and it’s cross-platform too–it fully supports being programmed on MacOS X as well as Windows, and Linux software is on the way. In the few weeks since Christmas, it has allowed us to retire the seven remotes that were necessary to drive our family room, and it’s delightfully easy to customize to our needs. Major kudos to Santa, this one gets five out of five!

Okay. Enough of that. I’ve got to get back to complaining about the snow, or something.

comics, geekery, holidays, liz, retail-therapy, wine

Haven’t posted in a while–been busy chasing after the kittens, taking photos, and trying to sleep while they play on us at all hours of the night. Oh, yes, and there’s that silly work thing too. The good news is that I had a Day Without Meetings yesterday; coupled with an extreme case of Just-One-More-Thing-itis, it means that I got a lot of stuff done yesterday. So, hopefully there is time for new kitten photos to be posted today.

Gave myself a lovely great cut on the tip of my left middle finger last night whilst cleaning cheese leftovers off of a sharper-than-expected knife. Got the bleeding stopped within a couple minutes, and I can tell that, three bandages later, that it’s starting to get a bit better, but it’s still a bit scary looking. Hopefully there will be no need for stitches.

For those with iTunes and large music collections, you may find Smart Playlists.com to be of some not insignificant interest.

Liz and I slept horribly last night, but that is largely due to our own silliness. Kaufman’s was running a huge sale on down comforters, and Liz has been wanting a down comforter for years, and both of us agree that, given the current kitten situation, a bed covering without any sentimental value is a Smart Idea… Thus, a down comforter and cover set was acquired for a ridiculously reasonable sum, prepped, and placed onto the bed to be used last night. Of course, neither of us paid a whit of attention to the unseasonably warm weather, so by three o’clock in the morning, when the house still hadn’t cooled past 70 degrees, we in our flannel sheets and flannel PJ’s were sweaty little piggies. I spent the next few hours being awake for 20 minutes, asleep for 30-45, awake for 20 minutes, asleep again, and so on. Miserable.

The sleep experience was not helped by the fact that I had one of my trademark Red Wine Dreams, and this one was just as bizarre as most. Liz and I were visiting Canada, and working on a farm to help pay for the fancy dinner we were going to later that night. I was going to watch my Star Wars DVD’s, and the generous farmer let me use his DVD player to preview them. I was aghast to find this beloved film 100% replaced by CG animation, and the cast were all Lego minifigs. At chapter breaks, the movie was interrupted by dumb Spongebob Squarepants games that were not skippable, and there was voiceover narration throughout. This upset me greatly, and we immediately left the farm, swearing about how Lucas had completely raped my childhood. We were on our way into town when I realized that I had left some things back at the farm; when I returned to the farm and was unable to locate my lost items, the farmer consoled me by taking me inside to visit his well-stocked comic book store.

I’m still not sure what it all means, but I’m bloody glad that I woke up at that point.

cats, comics, dreams, health, liz, music, retail-therapy, star-wars, wine, work

texodore, this one’s for you… With the strangely coincidental storylines in this week’s doonesbury and comic_getfuzzy, there’s been a lot of speculation that Trudeau and Conley might be setting up a crossover. Though Doonesbury’s B.D. is most probably named for Brian Dowling, a Yale quarterback from Trudeau’s college days, it is intriguing to consider the possibility that the B is for Bill, and short for… William.

comics, thoughts