"New Comics, Elections, Etc."

Won a copy of the TPB "Gang War" , which reprints the Miller issues of Daredevil 169-172 & 180 (already had the TPB of "Marked for Death" which reprints 159-164 minus 162). I really outta just break down and buy the three volumes of "Daredevil Visionaries" by Miller which reprints ALL of his DD's (including the What If? & Bizarre Adventures). I guess you'd have to call me a "Miller fan", since I have so much of his work reprinted in TPB format around here. Got like the first 7 volumes of "Sin City", the reprint of his "Wolverine" min-series, the "300" hardcover, "Born Again" (which is also DD), the "Ronin" TPB, "The Dark Knight Returns", "Batman Year One", an original set of the "Daredevil The Man W/Out Fear" mini-series (as well as some others in their original comic book formats). Miller's work is one of those few who never disapoints me with his writing.

After getting frustrated with the wind blowing all my leaves I'd raked into stacks to mulch, I cooled down a bit and mulched up what I could anyway to just eliminate what I could of this always present "leaf problem" in my yard. In a couple of days I'll have to do it again, of course. Wish these leaves would just all fall at one time, get rid of them at one time, get it OVER WITH at one time.

In the next larger city (of sorts) a few miles from here they will be voting this Tuesday to see whether or not it goes wet. I think the majority doesn't want it to as when I was driving around over there last Saturday, I noticed at least a dozen signs saying "Vote NO!", and only 3 or so in opposition. They seem to think making someplace "wet" will bring in businesses and more jobs, but it sure didn't help Cave City (KY.) where I work. Since they started selling alcohol in various restaurants, the first such restaurant went out of business, and the new owners eliminated alcohol when it was re-opened. There's been absolutely no new businesses, jobs, etc. simply because they can now sell booze. Plus, since they can only sell alcohol in a restaurant, this doesn't eliminate the illegal "bootlegging" which goes on in these parts. The closest liquer store is 35 miles away in Bowling Green, which has remained a wet city for many, many years. In fact, when the county voted out alcohol sales, BG stayed wet because it'd been so for so long. Doesn't bother me one way or the other. I gave up drinking beer, etc. a good 25 years ago. In fact, I still have two of the 4-Pack of wine coolers in my fridge that have remained there now for at least 10 years (ought to be good and aged by now!)Sunday:11-04-07

Pakistan's president revolks its constituion , and arrests human rights lawyers. The U.S. needs to walk on pin & needles with this one and not have another "Shaw of Iran" situation happen lest they turn yet another ally into one that hates our guts. The biggest fear is terrorists occupying areas in Pakistan where they've developed nucleur tech.

One of Fred Thompson's campaign people resigns after it's discovered he has a criminal background (no real surprize with that one).
Oprah has problems with her all girl's school with a teacher suspended for being chanrged with being physically abusive to the students. Oprah's thinking maybe individual cell phones for each student programmed with her own number in case they have trouble.

Tomorrow's the election for a new governor here in KY., which, with the coices, is yet another "shall we trade the devil for the witch sort'a thingy.

Gasoline prices on the rise, and not just due to competition from other countries, but speculators using gasoline and oil now as a commodity for trade. Prices may be at least $3.50 per gal. by Christmas, and over $4. by sometime next year.

Duddy day here, today. Rained off and on, and hard. Had a couple of thunderstorms, and now the temperature's going to drop. It's only suppose to be 25 degrees Wednesday night, in fact.

Nothing in the mail today, and I got outbidded on that lot of "Super Goofs" ("natch"). Didn't get a notification from eBay until 2 days after the auction ended (Gee...thanks, eBay!). Pulled several pages of tools today at work and put them out, waited on customers, put together a "cherry picker:; same-ol'same-ol'.(Monday:11-05-07)


With the election here in KY. now over, it appears we have a new governor, who approves of casinos, etc. I'm not at all suprized.

I was somewhat surprized that Glasgow voted in alcohol in the restaurants there. That's been up on the ballot so many times and it seemed like a very strong opposition to it going over there.

In other things... we finally heard back from the lawyer regarding my late father-in-law's estate, and it went into probate on July 2nd., so it'll be in probate until January until the money's split up to the various people in the will. We'll have to wait about another 3 months to see how all of that turns out.

Away from all of that, I got in the copy of Captain America The Classic Years TPB yesterday, which reprints the Gold Age Captain America Comics #'s 6 thru 10, and already having the first volume I now have a set of reprints of ALL of the Simon & Kirby issues of that title.

I think the thing that strikes me most about those original 1940's stories is how crude they are artwise compared to today's comics. It's not that Kirby's artwork isn't good, because it it. Plenty of imagination and action there, but it's typical Golden Age fare when it comes to artwork and stories, most of which, naturally, revolve around nazis and oriental villians. Par usual, the orientals are depicted with pointed ears and fangs (much like those in Lev Gleason's "Daredevil" title at that time). It's classic stuff, but far from anything you'd consider politically correct by today's standards. But that's just part of the mystique about comics published during WWII when patriotism was at an all-time high in this country.

The main difference between WWII and today's foreign wars and involvemnts is pretty much the "time frame" and length of the war itself. WWII lasted, for us here in the U.S., basically four years, whereas we've been involved now in various wars in the middle east since the 1990's. One tends to see patriotism wane after a number of years unless something major happens to stire up this country again (aka, 9/11). Now that once bold patriotism we displayed with the thousands of U.S. flags flying seems to become tattered as much as those original flags that may or may not still be flying.

And this isn't going into a commenary about our own current patrotism, but it's supposed to be a review of that CA TPB, so I'll close it at that.

In the way of new comic books I've picked up, I got 6 various titles yesterday: 4 DC's, one Marvel and one Bongo.

Fantastic Four #550. Once again we're treated to a nice Michael Turner cover, and although still somewhat just symbolic of the group, at least it held true to their appearance and was a pretty nice group drawing. I started picking up the FF again about three months ago, just to see what was happening with Marvel some these days. I've been out of the loop with that company for some time now, and was curious about what they were doing. Since the whole "Civil War" thingy was finally over there I felt it a good time to see how one of my all-time old faves, the FF, were handling their super-hero chores currently. And it started out with The Black Panther and Storm (who I didn't kow had gotten married) being part of the group as Sue and Reed were taking a bit of a vacation. But the original four were all there, plus BP and Storm as they attempted to halt the destruction (once again) of the universe.

This issue pulled out all stops with plenty of guest-stars from The Watcher, to Doctor Strange, to The Silver Surfer as they tried to save Doc's old aquaintance, "Eternity" from being destroyed due to his own creations. It was a decent enough story until the end when The Watcher enlisted the aid of "some" super-hero in the MU that I'd never heard about..and then I was lost again with what the hell's going on in that company these days. (*sigh*) Oh well...at least it looks like at the end of this tale that BP and Storm will be leaving and the original group now has full reins back in the title. (Give it a "B".)

Futurama (Bongo) #44 was a lot of fun, from a parody of the old 1950's sci-fi flick, "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman", to the various cameos of such super-heroes as "Antman" and "The Atom". This issue concentrated on "Amy", which is nice to see some of the secondary cast get some exposure. As usual, "Bender" steals the show. (My usual "A+" for this comic!)

(And, if there's a certain regular reader of this blog looking in, there's a LOSH's cameo!)

Supergirl #22 was a better issue this time, with cameos and app.'s of "The Legion", plus Superman, and with decent artwork by Renato Guedes. Unfortunately it appears that this will be the last issue for this creative team, and just when they were settling in with the title. I grow very weary of new teams trying to "get a handle" on a book I enjoy every 4 or 5 issues. But at least their efforts were top-notched and I give it also an "A+".

JLA Classified #45 still continues the "Ghosts of Mars" storyline with "J'onn J'onzz", and I'll be glad to see this finally conclude next issue. It's gone on waaayyy too many issues. ("C+")

Superman #669 was a bit of a disapointment. It's not that I dislike Leonardi's artwork, but I just don't care for it on Supes. The Busiek story involves yet another survivor of Krypton, and the cover would lead one to believe we'd also be seeing Supergirl and Krypto in this story, but it wasn't the case. that won't be until the next issue when we also have "Power Girl" join in. (Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Krypto, Kandor, The Phantom Zone villians and now this new one? Did everyone survive the "big bang' when Krypton exploded?) "B".

Justice League of America #14 continues the JLA's battle against the "Injustice League". This is sort'a neat story, with the IJL's headquarters being in an undeveloped piece of the Everglades and looking much like the old "Super Friends" version. Lex Luthor even has on a battle-suit which brings up memories of his various fights with Supes in the 1980's. Ed Benes may have that Image Comics look to his artwork, but he DOES draw a great version of "The Joker". And, frankly, McDuffie's script is fairly good. I still give this book an "A". (Wednesday:11-07-07)