"New Comic Book Reviews of The Week"

Want to begin this review of new comics with Bongo's Futurama #32 which is a NEW Beatles mention in a comic book! (And has already been added to the list over on my other blog site, "Beatles & Bizarros". Futurama is a pretty funny comic, and this issue is a parady of "Dr. Who" (titled: "Dr. What?") where The Professor invents a new porta-potty which looks like The Doctor's Tartus time/space vehicle. And everytime the toilet gets flushed it speeds the inhabitants of the porta-potty to some new world or dimension.

On page six of this story the Futurama crew ends up on a world that looks like a scene out of "Yellow Sub-marine", complete with "Jeremy", "The Yellow Sub" itself, and a sea of holes. "Bender" refers to Jeremy as a real Nowhere Man!

And in each of the various places they visit, "Zoidberg" accidently ends up being a hero and saving that particular world. They finally end up 25 years in their future which is now ruled by a clone of "Fry" and "Leela" who has detached his own head and stuck it on Bender's body. Oddly enuff, Zoidberg saves them all again, and they finally get back to their own time where The Professor sprays them with a gas that makes them forget the whole trip. Ian Boothby writes the script, and Mike Kazaleh/Andrew Pepoy does the art, which are fine jobs to the point that it's much like watching a Futurama episode (in fact, ALL of the Bongo titles are well-written and drawn to that point). Give dis sucka an "A+".


The other NON DC title I bought this time was The Last Fantastic Four Story #1 (Marvel), which is a one-shot by Stan Lee and John Rominta, Jr.. This has a bit steeper cover price of $4.99, but since I had that Border's coupon for $5., I got this one free (at Waldenbooks) and was glad I decided on it as my bonus comic. If this is indeed Stan's last "hoorah" on the F.F., he did a fine job. In this over-sized issue we have guest-stars galore, including The Avengers, Spider-man, Dr. Doom, Namor the Sub-mariner, The Silver Surfer & Galactus, The Watcher and The Inhumans.

It's one of those "undefeatable-aliens-about-to-destroy-the-earth" tales, which finally falls on the head of genius "Reed Richards" to save humanity. This was a fine read and a good release for Marvel, and I'll give it an "A".


And in the DC pile, Batman #668 is definately the best of the lot, with a Grant Morrison script and J.H. Williams III art. It's an "A+" issue and I don't want to ruin a single word of it for anyone simply because it IS so good. You'll find this creative team is nostalgic for newsprint (but, aren't we ALL???)


Detective #835 is another fine Batman book, and this issue deals with his old nemesis, "The Scarecrow", but with somewhat of a different approach to the use of that villian's powers. It's a continued tale, written by Rozum and art by Mandrake, and I recommend you picking this one up just not to miss anything. 'Tec has had some very nice covers here of late as well. a "B+ issue.


Superman 666 is, as one would guess, full of evil intents. IS Supes dreaming, or is it all real? Busiek keeps you guessing in this script with the distinct artwork of Walt Simonson keeping you glued to the panels. Special guest-stars and cameos this issue by Animal Man, Hawkman, Zatanna, The Phantom Stranger, plus some demonic versions of Supergirl, Batman and Wonder Woman, making this a "B+" in my opinion.


And finally, Wonder Woman #11 of this new series is the first issue of the 2006 run I've read so far. I like what I've seen in this, but just not enough history on previous issues to really "rate" it. As it stands on a one-issue-read, it was pretty good, and would give it a B".




And here in my new feature called: "Stink Loads", I give this award, NOT to a comic book, but a MOVIE (IF one can call is such), and this time it goes to "Balls of Fury". Please folks...if you haven't already wasted you money going to see this mess, then don't. It's really an unwatchable flick. Don't insult your own intelligence and don't waste 2 hours of your life with it. I can also beg Chris Walken to make at least one more flick before he dies because this is certainly not something to leave as his final legacy.


And lastly today...remember all of those old newspapers my late father-in-law told me to take? The majority of those were religious newspapers ( such as "Our Sunday Visitor" and "The Catholic Record"). But upon a closer examination of those there were several that I kept, mostly ones from the 1930's that were the Elizabethtown, Kentucky town newspaper. I also kept just a small handful of the religious ones with WWII notations, a couple of Courier-Journals from the 1930-40's with comic strips, and maybe a half a dozen copies of the Louisville, Ky. "The Record", which were dated 1881! (Don't worry; there were still PLENTY to donate to St. James Church's Library. Probably 200 such from the 1920-40's.)