Read the real life stories and experiences of freelance writer Mike Gagnon.

Alrighty then folks, get ready for some reviews, and my next top 10 list..

Mainstream Review

Uncanny X-Men #133 - This puppy came with the Marvel Legends Wolverine figure my sister gave me for Christmas. It's a somewhat solo tale of Wolverine trying to survive being hunted by the elite guards of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, after the rest of the X-Men have already been captured. While Wolvie dooks it out with the goons there is a side story where Cyclops uses his mental bond with Jean to battle mastermind on the astral plane. This is during the time when Mastermind was controlling Jean and she was the Hellfire Club's Black Queen. Meanwhle in reality Wolverine hacks and slashes his way through an upscale dinner party trying to find his captured teammates, who include Cyclops, Storm, Colossus and Night Crawler.

Indie Review

All Attitude - This fine anthology series features the work of young comic creator going by the name of Nobody's Press. I'm serious, no foolin'. Anyway the series revolves around a rotating cast of characters such as Little Tim, Bob the Tatooist, Bob the Tatooed Man, Angie, Satan, Randy Longlegs, and many more. Stories range from subject matter involving sex, alcohol, TV, and more. Some stories are psuedo horror, others are tales of young adulthood, and some are introspective slices of life. I find the stories involving Little Tim consist mostly of social commentary and introsopection. They are also very well written. The art still needs a lot of work, but this kid sure has a knack for writing. The only real criticism would be what I call his over enthuasim in scripting. That's when there is way way too many words crowding out the image, just in order to tell the story. Likely this is just from inexperience and the author hasn't yet learned when enough is enogh and it's time to cut things out. It'll come with time. A great flair for design and expressive art as well!

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Top 10 Indie Comic Creators

Alright folks. There are people I know on this list. If they or anyone else doesn't like my list that's fine and they can tell me so, but please no getting pissed at me for my opinion or violence okay? BTW, there is no offense towards anyone on here. You should be glad dammit! You made the list!

Honourable Mentions

15. R. Crumb

14. Kagan McLeod

13. Andrew Barr

12. Sean Bieri

11. Chip Zdarsky

Top 10

Jesus CRAP! I wrote the rest of this entire blog and then my internet cut out and I lost it all. DAMN! Now I gotta re-write. Please excuse me if this isn't as well written as it should be.

10. Joe Meyer - A great guy. Always positive and supportive to fellow creators. He inspired me to get a motivational tatoo..that I'm still designing...

9. Joe Ollman - Shortly after getting into the indie scene I found Joe's "Chewing on Tinfoil" at a local Chapters. A great work that helped mold my creating approach.

8. Matt Faezell - Proof that any kind of artwork, when used properly with the story, can be "good". He also did an amusing and usefull mini-comic called "Understanding Mini-Comics".

7. Jim Mahfood - It was Mr. Mahfood's work that taught me that a comic with a social and moral message doesn't have to be packed full of activist dogma. Mahfood always have a straight forward message and gets it accross simply and convincingly.

6. James Kochalka - I'm ashamed to admit it, but I disliked this guy before I ever read his work. Comic bud Jason Marcy convinced me to give him a try and I realized that he was a genius. That's when I first realized that I was a Kochalkaholic...

5. Drew Hayes - I discovered Drew's work at a time in my life when I had fully embraced the indie comic scene, but still yearned for my old mainstream favs like The Punisher. When I found Poison Elves I realized that I could have the best of both worlds and more! Horror, violence, intrigue, fantasy, and more!

4. Richard Collier - Collier is what all non-fiction comic creators should aspire to be. I discovered Collier's work at a time when I had begun making indie comics, but was still mainstream oriented in thought. It was Collier's "Portraits from Life" that finally proved to me that comics could have literary value. I've bought everything of Mr. Collier's since.

3. Andrew Foster - By far one of today's brightest rising stars. His book Everyday Comics is a deep, fun, insightful, and humorous look at the creator's own true life. His work on fiction mini-comics like "Flaming Wing-Nut Presents" is really good too.

2. Paul Quinn - I met Paul at the first ever comic con I attended as an exhibitor. He was hocking his original print run of his smash hit mini-series "Suspension of Disbelief". Since then we've done work together and I hope I can call him a  friend. His work was the first great slice of life story I ever read. His books still hang above my drawing table as a reminder of what I can achieve if I can just apply myself.

Drum Roll..duh..duh..

1.  Henry H. Fink..NO! Jason Marcy! - I met Jason Marcy at the same time that I met Paul Quinn. Jay's autobio trade series, called Jay's Days, is some of the funniest, deepest, emotional work I've ever read; even heart wrenching at times. The book Jay's Days Vol.2 (the first one I read) has by far been the book to get the most emotinal response from me ever. It's the only comic I've ever read that had me laughing my ass off at one story and crying like a baby at the next. Jay has also shown nothing but friendship and support since I got into this thing called comics.

Well that's my list. please appreciate that this was very hard to do. I have re-writen this list 5 times. the last two while I was typing in my blog template. Hope ya'll enjoyed.

Peace out and HAPPY NEWYEAR!...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 18:01 | link | comments

Well hello there!

Woohoo! After hours of work I finally have my new Foosball Table I got for Christmas assembled and standing in this very room. It is beautiful. I've played an hour on it by myself already. can't wait untill Pam gets home. Also got the digital camera all figured out last night. I'll be sure to post up some snaps of Scooter soon!

No comic or movie reviews today, just my next top 10 list. Please don't kill me Jay. This was another really tough one. This was actually harder than yesterday. I've already changed the order 5 times and I'm still not happy, but for the sake of expediency I'm posting the list as is.

Top 10 Favourite Mainstream Writer/Creators

I should also mention that I completely went beyond breaking the rule today and included many influential figures who are now retired or deceased.

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Honourable Mentions

15. Neil Gaiman

14. Brian Bendis

13. Barry Windsor-Smith

12. Grant Morrison

11. Mark Waid.

Top 10

10. Chris Claremont - Quite a stellar career, but his innovative and groundbreaking work on just the X-Men alone earns him his place here.

9. Will Eisner - The man was a pioneer and inspired many trends and ways of story telling popular today. He did some amazing work and created characters like The Spirit. among many others.

8. Kevin Smith - One of my favorite modern creators. His jovial personality alone makes him likeable. He is also good at what he does and not afraid to shock the audience, or make unpopular choices in story telling in order to maintain the integrity of the story itself.

7. Frank Miller - Outstanding creative work. The amount of now classic work he's done with characters like Batman, Wolverine, and Daredevil make Frank Miller a living legend.

6. Roy Thomas - As hard as it may be to believe I was once an innocent idealistic young man. In fact I didn't like indies, black and whites, gore or violence. It was during that period I discovered Roy Thomas's work. Much of it is what inspired me to stick with creating comics untill I discovered self-publishing and indie comics. Roy has proved he can take second rate JLA teams like the Infinity Inc. and the All-Star Squadron and make them great reads.

5. Stan Lee - The man was a driving force in creating many early Marvel characters. Spider-man, Daredevil, Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men.  He changed the modern comic book forever. 'Nuff Said.

4. Bob Kane - The late Bob Kane was inspired to come up with the next hot character by Joe Shusters succesful Superman character , but also a polar opposite to the cheery Superman. Thus was born the Batman. This is a pivotal moment in comics. Batman has endured and inspired more generations of comic creators than nearly any other...

3. Joe Shuster/Jerry Seigel - The only character more time tested and inspirational in young creator's lives than Bob Kane's Batman is Seigel and Shuster's Supeman. Superman's debut really launched the first boom of superhero comics and brought them into the mainstream. The entire industry owes it's success to this duo and their creation. The term Super-hero didn't even exist untill the world fell in love with Superman.

2. Fabian Nicieza - This may be a surprise to some. Nicieza has done plenty of books, mostly Marvel, for years now. What I really want people to do is read his forgotten epic, "Forever Yesterday", found in issues #11-13 of the original New Warriors series. This was a terrific work. I'm a fan of alternate universe epics, and this was the first ever full one which I read. You can't tell me that this didn't help inspire sopme aspects of "The Age of Apocalypse" found in the X-books some years later. I'm a big fan of that too. Anyway it was this story by Fabian which inspired my to begin writing and drawing epic stories about my own characters at a young age. This in turn helped me to build character and story structure which is importnat today!

Drum roll please..duh duh dum da..

1. Garth Ennis - 3 words for you. Preacher and Punisher. Ennis has done lots of good work, but there are no stories I am more entralled by than when Ennis writes Punisher, or his own creation The Preacher. In my adult life I have never enjoyed any two books more than the Preacher or The Punisher. If you've ever been a fan of gritty, intelligent, and edgy writing you need to check out this mans work.

Well thas it for today..

Tommorow I'll finally talk about some indy stuff..Woohoo...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 18:08 | link | comments

Well, got the new printer and digital camera hooked up today. Sweetness! Also the title bout for the LRWL happened tonight. That's right. The Living Room Wrestling League. I lost my title belt to the new champion, Scooter!

URL - Also I promised i'd tell you folks where to find the TCJ weblog called Journalista! from my weblog yesterday. Well I didn;t lie, so here's the URL www.tcj.com/journalista

Movie Review

X 2: X-men United - Well I have to say that this movie is good. I heard before hand that it had more action and less story than the first which is true. I could have done for a little more story on some of the new characters and a little more details on Wolverine's past. Background on Nightcrawler, Lady Deathstrike, and Colossus would have been good. Other than that though this movie was great! It had everything. Asside form the original cast (minus the Toad and Sabretooth dead weights), We get to see more of Bobby Drake/Iceman who is now dating Rogue. We also get more cameos from Shadowcat and for the first time Siren. There was also a great short battle scene with Colossus. Lady Deathstrike was the hired goon of sorts in this one, and best of all we got to see Nightcrawler in a major role joining the team. Although they completely changed his name and origin we got to see a different take on the Mastermind character as well. Magneto and Mystique are back and forge an uneasy alliance with the X-men against a larger foe.

Left To Right: Ian McKellan (Magneto), Halley Barry (Storm), and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) on the set of X2.

The new villain is military man William Stryker, who wiill stop at nothing to destroy all of the mutants on earth. You have just gotta watch it. I also noticed that in the scene where Mystique is hacking the mutant files in Stryker's office there is a file named Remy LeBeau. X-fans will recognize that as the real name of popular X-man Gambit from the comics. Could he be in part 3? I don't know, but thanks to the bonus features on the DVD I have some educated guesses on who will be added in the next movie. Heroes like Angel/Archangel and Jubilee, and enemys like none other than the Sentinels. Sounds good already. I have heard that Halley Barry has stated that she will not be in the third installment . I think that's fine. I like her and all, but I though she was really weak in the first X-Men movie. Be sure to watch "The Secret Origin of the X-men" in the special features.

Mike's Top 10 Fovorite Mainstream Comic Artists

This one was a lot harder to do than I thought it would be.

Honourable Mentions

16. Todd McFarlane

15. Dale Keown

14. Frank Quitley

13. Steve Dillion

12. Joe Madureira

11. Howard Chaykin

Top 10

10. Jack Kirby - Now before anyone goes nuts, this list is supposed to be of modern artists still in the biz. Because of his tremendous talents, inspirations, and influence on today's industry the late great Jack Kirby earns himself a spot on this list.

9. Jim Lee - Jim's art has graced many a project. The work that comes to mind when I write this is the beautiful artwork he did on his recent Batman stint, and the long run of X-men which he did in the early 90's. Look at those early issues of X-Men and look at his work today in Batman. Just try and tell me this guy isn't getting better every year.

8. Tim Beatty - Maybe a surprise to some, but I find Tim Beatty's work a continuing pleasure to look at. If you like animted style work of Batman you need to check out his run on Batman: Gotham Adventures. Plus I've met him and he's a great guy!

7. Barry Windsor-Smith - Through the years this revered comic vet has done some terrific work on books like Conan, Wolverine, Rune, Dracula, and many more!

6. Frank Miller - Throughout the 80's and early 90's Mr. Miller did some of the most thought provoking and influential work that inspired comics to come. Evidence is his work on characters like Batman, Wolverine, and Daredevil.

5. Alex Ross - This guy outranks #'s 6 & 7 strictly on the fact that his artwork is so good and so beautiful. I feel like I'm looking at a museum full of masterpieces when reading his books. Read anything of his and tell me I'm wrong.

4. Steve Rude - This guy fought out the 80's in obscurity and known only to the indie scene before he ever got the respect he deserves. I believe Steve Rude is one of the best artists today. Not only does he have his own amazing and unique style, but when asked to he can mimick the styles of a plethora of other big name comic folks from all kinds of eras.

3. John Romita Jr. - Regular readers of this site already know about my affinity for Romita Jr. There's just something I really enjoy about his work. There is none else who can do the Punisher and have me love it as much as him. Great work on Batman, Spider-Man, and Hulk too!

2. Jim Aparo - It's just to entrancing. I find every pencil line almost hypnotising. When I read a Batman comic with Jim's illustrations I feel like I'm a fly on the wall watching the events unfold before my very eyes.

Drum Roll...duh duh duh duh

1. John Byrne - although this choice is disputable and not easy, I had to choose John Byrne. After Looking over his work on books such as Incredible Hulk, Batman, X-men, and the Fantastic Four among many others I'd have to say that I enjoy John Byrne's work as my #1 mainstream artist.

Well thanks for readin' and see you again tommorow....

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 22:15 | link | comments (2)

Hey there, hi there, ho there!

Well we stayed at Pam's parents last night. We rented Jeepers Creepers 2, and here is the review and other stuff:

Movie Review

Jeepers Creepaers 2 - Well this one is a little iffy. I never saw number 1 so you'll have to excuse me. This movie wasn't horrible or anything. I found however that it was really hard to define the monster in this one. Is he humanoid, or is he an animal or huge bug or something? He certainly looks and acts very human, but then he never speaks. For an ancient beast he certainly has a lot of modern mannerisms and body language. I also found that there wasn't enough explaination or background story. There could have been a lot more to explore with the girl who has visions and dreams about the creature. Other than that it was your run of the mill sub average scare flick. Also I found that the timeline was a little hard to follow. I can't honestly say I could guess which era in modern time the movie, or the end scene takes place. All in all, it was your traditional monster mangler film.

Mike's Top 10 Favorite Comic related websites

Well why not start with the easy one, here goes!

10. Journalista! - The official weblog of The Comics Journal Magazine. Although we don't always agree, the writer consistently points a little spotlight at this page when he feels that there is something important. He mentions Bud Jason Marcy too! I'll get that URL tommorow

9. www.toddbot.com Website of Todd Web. Quality web comics and funny stuff.

8. www.40ozcomics.com Website of comic creator Jim Mahfood. Just plain good and thought provoking stuff.

7. www.dimestoreproductions.com One of my distributors, but also a great place to find news and info on the comic industry. Even some illustrated DIY comic guides!

6. www.digitalwebbing.com A great site for comic news and reviews. You can even find work here or find talent to work for you. Plus any indie publisher can send in press releases for their consideration!

5. www.americanelf.com website of indie comics creator James Kachalka. This guy is not only a geniius, but also hilarious.

4. http://everydaycomics.motime.com This entry is actually interchangeable with #3. This is the weblog of good bud and indie comics self-publisher Andrew Foster. Tales of his life and work make me laugh and cry.

3. www.d-generation.ca/jd/daze.html Like I said # 3 & 4 are interchangeable. This page is the weblog of friend and indie comics vet Jason Marcy. Full of ups and downs, it is also very insightful and stacked with tidbits of indie knowledge.

2. www.actorcomicfund.org This is the official websie of the ACTOR organization. They provide work and pensions for old comic creators who were screwed over. This earnes them a #2

1. www.cbldf.org This is also another charity. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund fights for the freedom of speech and expression in the comic industry. CBLDF provides legal help to creators as well as retailers and therefore we all owe them for the work that they do to protect us creators and the folks who sell our work, as well readers owe a debt of gratitude to them for continuing to be able to purchase any books worth reading.

Well gotta go watch X2!

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 21:58 | link | comments

Well, today I was going to start a series of top 10 lists to close out the year, but I didn't have time to do that today, so I'll fit in everything else that I've wanted to put in. This may be long. We are at Pam's parents right now and I am on Danny's computer.

What we got for Christmas...

Well me and Pam got some sweet stuff for Christmas! Lesse. I got X-men 2 , a Hulk tree ornament, and 2 Staples gift certicficates. A sweet Marvel legends Wolvering figure with an awesome base and a re-print of Uncanny X-men #133. I'll have to read that soon. The figure has an awesome pose. Anyway, I got tons more stuff than I can fairly fit into this area. I also got a foosball table! ROCK ON! Pam got me some sweet GI Joe playing cards and a haunted house book too! Pam got a coffee maker, a huge tranquility fountain, a digital camera, and more!

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Trade Review

Batman: Year One - This is another great classic Batman work by Frank Miller. This book is good. Not as good as "The Dark Knight Returns", but it is good. This story takes us all the way back to when Bruce Wayne first returned to Gotham after travelling the world, and trying to find his way before becoming Batman. This story actually shares the spotlight between 2 central characters. Batman/Bruce Wayne is one, the other is a new addition to the Gotham police force, Lieutenant Jim Gordon. Jim will later become the beloved police commisioner and ally all Batman fans know. I really enjoyed the look from Gordon's perspective and private life in this. There's planty of action, detective work and intrigue.

Cover: Batman: Year One

Lieutenant Gordon is given the duty of bringing down the Batman, but also being terrorized by crooked members from all levels of his own police force. Origianlly Gordon believes the Batman to be a menace and wants nothing more than to bring him in. On the other hand Bruce is a rookie masked hero and would just like to live long enough to make it through the first year. Readers will get a whole new insight into what inspired the Batman's guise as well as what could turn two enemys into the friends readers know today. There are also some good side stories and supporting characters such as prostitute turned thief Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Assistant D.A. Harvey Dent, chum of Bruce and future enemy by the name of Two-Face. A great read for any Bat-fan.

What we bought since Christmas...

Well since Christmas we went to the Movie Gallery in Port Elgin. That's like Blockbuster. Anyway, they had a big boxing day blow-out so Pam and I used some of our Christmas money to buy previously viewed DVD's of Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, Road to Perdition, Darkness Falls, and A Man Apart. There are plenty of other movies there I would have liked to get. Today we also went to Staples, I used by gift certificate to get a new printer to replace that piece of shit that we have at home.

Movie Review

Finding Nemo - Pam got this movie for Christmas. It was actually pretty good. It was obviously geared towards kids and used plot elements found in every animated feature. Ellen Degeneres did a great job as Dorrie and Willem DaFoe was great as Gill. The story had many humourous scenes, and also a heavy dose of excitement and family emotion. Nemo is an only child raised by his paranoid father. His father was unable to save his mother and siblings from a dangerous predator. Now Nemo has been stolen and his neurotic father must brave the expanse of the entire ocean to save him. Fun for the whole family.

Left: Dorrie from Finding Nemo voiced by Ellen Degeneres

I'll have to cut this blog short now because it's so loud with everyone taling here i can't hear myself think.

Top tens and more start tommorow...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 21:50 | link | comments (2)

Semi-Penance Blog...

Why am I writting this log late? At 3 am? Well even though we had a busy day and a late night I planned on doing my blog after we watched finding Nemo. Then I discovered that Scooter had chewed through my phone line. Leaving me unable to log on the net. So I spent the rest of the evening splicing the phone line together. Before I could do this blog though I discovered I had a violent case of the bad shits. I think it's from the pizza we had for supper.

More reviews and Christmas updates tommorow...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 04:01 | link | comments

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Whether it be Christmas, Chaunika, Kwanzi, or whatever else you celebrate.

Speaking of Chaunika, Whilst at Pam's parents we took in a couple of flicks on TMN, one of them being Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights.

Movie Reviews

8 Crazy Nights - I don't know what the critics were thinking when they bashed the hell out of this movie when it was released. I thought this was really good and funny. Now you have to accept that this movie is meant to be adult humor even though it's a cartoon. SO it's not for kiddies. Therein lies the only thing that tripped the movie up. First, there were way to many musical scenes for an adult themed movie, secondly, the line was often blurred between lines that would only be used in an adult movie, and then leaning on old animated movie cliche's and devices found in every Disney block buster. At times the movie seemed as if it couldn't decide what age segment that it was written for. There are obvious elements that only a child of the 1980's would understand, and then low and behold they'll come out with something you'd expect to see or hear in The Lion King or something. It really has to be seen to be understood.

Dave Stone (Right) and his friend Whitey (left). Both lead characters in 8 Crazy Nights ans both voiced by Adam Sandler.

The merits of this movie is that it covers the holidays and traditions of Judaism and how people of that faith feel around the holidays surrounded by a society devoted to Christmas. I can't think of many other holiday movies that are "Chaunika" movies as opposed to "Christmas" movies. If your up for a laugh this one's a good idea to check out. Also it has a new version of Sandler's Chaunika Song.

National Security - Honestly I avoided this movie for a long time because I thought that it was going to be crap. But as it turns out Dave decided to watch it and it was actually good. The commercials led me to believe that this was just a goofball buddy comedy about security guards, but as it turns out this movie is a full fledged action/comedy flick. Oh, and it's actually more Cop than Security Guard element, but you'll have to see it to know what I'm talking about. Martin Lawrence was hilarious and Steve Zahn was good, but I found that he was really played down and more subdued that the comedic characters which he usually plays. It was different to see him portrayed as a serious cop with a brush cut and a moustache. If you like your comedies with a heavy dose of action than National Security won't dissapoint.

Martin Lawrence in National Security

Anyways, more stuff to do...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 00:27 | link | comments

Wow folks, I just finished reading another motime blog this morining and let me tell you I am enthralled. It can be found at http://hookemup.motime.com It's a journal by a dude who is either a lawyer or a cop, I haven't read enough to be sure, but all I can say about what I've read so far is WOW!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas......

Well, as usual, by the time I got on here I forgot half of what I was going to write about. Pam and I had our own Christmas here last night. We were just going to do one present each, but then we decided to do all our presents to each other instead of lugging them all to my parents and then back here again. SO that was cool. I got an awesome Hulk stocking, a collector tin with 2 decks of GI Joe Playing cards. A big Simpson's tin full of Doritos, A book about haunted houses (score), and other cool stuff. Scooter even got me the DVD of Brotherhood of the Wolf. Now how did he know? And where did he get the time to shop?

I got Pam some good stuff. Some I cannot mention =) Also, a bottle of Arbor Mist (the only wine she'll drink), A digital camera (I'll have fun playing with that too), new slippers, a velvety pillow,  Matchbox 20 Cd, and the Thirteen Ghosts DVD. There's other stuff too but I can't remember.

Scooter got his sweater early already, like a week or more ago. Last night he opened a new figure 8 style rope tug toy. He loved it! We're saving his stocking for mom & dad's to keep him busy. Baron got 2 gourmet tins of catfood, one of which he ate last night. He also finally got his very own cat bed. Although I think Scooter has been using it more than him.

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So today we are going to maybe go to town, maybe not. We'll be going to my mom & dad's to drop stuff off. Then going to my Grandma's for Chritmas with my family and Aunt's and uncles. We'll have dinner and presents there. Then we're going back to Mom and Dad's for our own family Christmas. Then either tonight or early tommorow morning we'll be heading over to Pam's mom and dad's for Christmas there. Geez!

Anyway, I gotta get going.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 12:29 | link | comments

A Micellaneous potpurri hodge podge of various stuff this afternoon...

I am a Christmas nut...

Yes it's official I am a nut when it comes to Christmas. An insane spending nut. Always have been. It's insane really but I can't help it. I guess it makes up for my lack of spending all year long.

Ozzy...

I just wanted to point out how the entire nation suddenly fell in love with Ozzy Osbourne when his TV show became a huge hit. Sure even then we knew he was a burnt out semi-senile comical form of entertainment, but he was one that everybody loved. Now since his ATV accident I have seen and heard nothing but Ozzy bashing. It's all over the news, radio, newspapers. It's like kicking the man when he's down. You're all a bunch of hypocrites.

Home Christmas...

Strangely enough, although Pam and I have been together for years, this is our first actual Christmas together with the two of us. We're celebrating our Christmas together with Scooter and Baron tonight. This year is the first time we've had Christmas close to our parents, it's the first year we've even had our own tree...I think Scooter's really looking forward to opening a present.

The memory of an 80 year old...

My brain must be slowly dying. I've been naming off a list of things I want to write about all day long. Now that I'm doing it I can't remember. Geezus!...

Trade Review...

Batman & Dracula: Red Rain - I had the pleasure of re-reading this puppy over the last couple of days. This story is an elseworlds tale, set in an alternate dimension very similar to the one where the Batman that we all know and love is from. One slight exception is that the environmental pollution in Gotham has caused the rain to become acidic and red colored. In this world there is a series of serial killings being perpetrated against the homeless. The police and the politicians are covering it up, and even Batman hasn't been able to crack the case. On top of it all Bruce Wayne is being troubled by strange dreams of a beautiful woman covered in blood.

On the verge of going mad Bruce is able to confront one of the killers as the Batman, and the mysterious woman from his dreams, Tanya, reveals herself to be completely real. Tanya tells Bruce the tale of being the former concubine of the prince of darkness himself, Dracula. It seems that the killings are all part of the lord of evil's plans to harvest all human life in Gotham. Tanya and a small group Dracula's other former minions need to recruit the Batman into their fold if they are to have any hope in defeating the prince of darkness, but victory may come at a very high price for everyone involved!

Cover of Batman & Dracula: Red Rain

I really enjoyed the writing job by Doug Moench. I would have liked a little more history and characterization on Tanya, Dracula, and the other vampires though. Kelley Jones' pencils can take a lot of getting used too. Even regular human features are often exadjurated to the near grotesque, and torsoes are drawn dispraportionatelty tall and skinny. I do appreciate Jones' art, and it does fit this story in this context very well, but sadly I wouldn't want to see it used for Batman comics on a regualr basis.

 

 

Don't forget the true meaning...

Hey all. I don't wanna come across as a grinch or a scrooge or anything so don't take it that way. I just want to remind everyone about what's really important this Christmas. And what it all really means. No, I'm not going to go into that cliche'd definition about the birth of christ. That's really not what Christmas is to me, and that definition does not apply to everyone anyway. Conversely Christmas is not all about getting presents and being excited about getting more presents.

What I think everyone should remeber that the holidays are really about are the time we take to share our love and be with our family and loved ones. It really is the giving that's important. At least to me. I don't wanna sound like I'm on a high horse, but I am really sincere when I say that I enjoy Christmas because I get excited and glad to see other people open the gifts that I have given them. Sure getting gifts is great, and I always get cool stuff, but I'd still feel the same way if all I got for Christmas was the joy of being with loved ones. I've noticed a lot of people nowaday's being caught up in all of the material shit that the world has to offer. I've seen people stay miserable together and with the world, all the while buying more and more things. I just want to remind everyone that it's not the things that will make you happy. It's the people you're surrounded and touched by that really make the difference.

Well my brains drawing a blank now and I need to finish the laundry, so...

Happy Holidays to all...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 16:58 | link | comments

Penance Blog...

Yeah yeah shut up, I know. It's the holiday's I've been busy.

Last Night...

So last night I was just getting ready to sit down and write my weblog for the day when Sonya, the girl from downstairs, came up and told us it was her birthday. She said that she didn't have anyone to celebrate it with and wanted to know if Pam and I would want to celebrate it with her with some drinks. So she came in and we had some Smirnoffs with her and talked about shit. She also told us she's getting a dog soon, so Scooter will have a new playmate in the building. We barely know this girl, but hey she brought drinks so what the hell. By the time it was all over I cajolled Pam into wrapping some of the Christmas presents she hasn't wrapped yet with my help. Then we went to bed.

The New Maintenance Manager...

The new maintenance manager for our builiding is a dink...oh no wait.. what I mean to say is its me! Yeah, I'm the new maintenance dude for our apartment building! It's only a part-time thing, but it basically means that my rent is free! Whoopee!

Scooter...

My dog tried to mug me...

Often when I wrap presents I will do so standing on my knees on the living room floor. Well the other night I feel this tugging at my ass while I'm wrapping a present. I turn around and see scooter with his face in my ass. I swatted him away and told him to get. I figured the little bugger was sniffin my ass or sumpin'. But then he kept doin' it. Finally without moving, doing or saying anything I reached around behind me, planning to grab his muzzle. Instead I finally felt what he had been doing. Trying to pull my wallet out of my back pocket! oh you little bugger...

The Playstation is stayin'!...

This year I had entertained the notion of selling my Playstation. I even listed it in the buy and sell newspaper. No one called though. SO then I thought I'd give the system and a couple games to Dan and Kev, and the rest of the games to Jeremy for Christmas. But then I tried to divy up the games and I realized that I've got some pretty good ones. I don't think I can part with Ready 2 Rumble, Marvel Vs. Steeet Fighter, Gunfighter, and the other stuff too. SO the Playstation is staying. Sometime or another I'll hook this back up to the TV and start playing it again.

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A Novel Review

Ew! How novel...he he ha ha hee hee

The Secret - The secret is a 390 page epic written by author Adrain Malone and published in 1984. The story deals with the physical and spiritual evolution of the human race and spans 6 generations. The human race has managed to throw itself off of its predestined evolutionary course and will slowly spiral into extinction. A malevolent force within the galaxy has decided to intervene and has chosen the Devlin family as its tool to redirect the wayward citizens of Earth. Each generation has at least one member who will be lead into a position that they can influence the human race for the better and for all of history. I'd have to say that this is one of my favorite stories to ever have read so far. It is extremely well written and convincing, even though the subject is sci-fi. It will really make you think and question your beliefs, motives, and how the world works. A lot of theories in this book, though fictional, actually make quite a lot of sense. It will have you turning the pages unable to move quick enough. The tension is built very well and will have you on the edge of your seat yearning to discover this terrible secret in the mystic ether. My only criticism of the book is that the climax was a bit of a let down. Many things were simply explained away or left unanswered. It also seemed confusing and disjointed. Like the author had to think of a way to just end the novel quickly. The entire final chapter was a bit out of left field. I would have much rather had the author scrap that final chapter and put in another one, even two or three, in order to draw the story to a real conclusion. For what it's worth though the rest of the book is completely worth it. The entire story was enthralling ansd even had me questioning my beliefs. If'n you can find "The Secret" by Adrian Malone it's well worth the read.

I'll be back on tonight! Woohoo...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 11:13 | link | comments

So I'm back. Pam and I finally finished all of our Christmas Shopping in Port Elgin today. We put some more decorations on the tree, we got groceries today, watched "Home for Christmas" on TV. Wrapped presents, walked Scooter. Pam is watching Titanic on TV now. Yeehaw!

I talked to Andrew too! We may or may not get together sometime during the holidays, so I'm sending his Christmas present to his parents place.

Indie Reviews...

Grand Gestures: Convention Preview Special - Well Rob Ullman has decided to do this book using his same cast of characters featured in "From the Curve". This series is really well written and interesting. Rob is really able to make me care about the characters and what happens to them. This makes me want to find the full version. I may have to buy it off his site at www.lurid.com Art is very good and has an animated style to it. All in all it deserves a more thorough review of the full version of the book.

A self portrait by Robert Ullman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Danger Funnies -   I may have reviewed this before, not sure. Anyway, Lance tooks does a fantastic job creating 2 different tories which are still similar entiscing. Both stories are about young people, relationships, racism, and sex. Lots of explicit nudity. Each story has a very important message. THe book also slants and appeals towards the black community and dealing with the reality of living day to day in the african american culture. Whether that's your cup of tea or not this book is worht the read, the second story, "April Fresh", has a particularily good message for everyone from all walks of life.

 

 

Well that's all for tonight. I need to go relax before my nose returns to the grind stone tommorow. Tons of stuff to do.

Good night to all..

Posted by: lightning at 23:02 | link | comments

Penance Blog...

This is a penance blog for Saturday, not Friday. I was all ready to do my log on Friday, but the motime server was down so there was no way I could, therefore I am off the hook for that one.

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Brief update...

Well this week I got all the flooring in the upstairs screwed down, we ran electrical stuff, and Jeremy and I got all the ceiling drywall done. I can feel my muscles returning from all the hard work. So that's good. My arms are still sore though. And my back. knees, hip, shoulders...eyebrows. Anyway, so we only worked half a day on Saturday. After that we had lunch at Granma's and then Jeremy went Christmas shopping. Dad and I went back to mom and dad's I packed my stuff and took a shower. Dad decided to go out to the bush property and do some stuff. SO awhile later Pam picked me up and we headed off to Owen Sound to finish our Christmas shopping. What a fuckin madhouse. Anyway, I'm done, except for a couple of small items. Pam still has some stuff to get. We came home and watched "The Santa Clause" and wrapped a couple gifts. I wrapped a lot of stuff this morinig too. I think I'm going to wake her up so we can go into Port Elgin and get this shit finished.

Other than that I'll be back again later today with some new reviews!

TTFN...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 12:07 | link | comments