"Post No. 627"

Today begins my first day of vacation, and I use that term very lightly because, just being off from my regular job for 7 days doesn't mean anything at all "about" relaxing.

In fact, I may not even get out of this town the whole week.. Just depends on the weather, and that's a shame 'cause this Saturday is "Free Comic Book Day" at many of the local comic shops and there looks like some interesting books being given away this time, including an "Avengers", "Green lantern" and a John Stanley "Nancy". Things are sort'a iffy since there's a 50% chance of rain just about every day through Saturday here, and Fri-Sat I had plans for a huge yard sale. If I still want to have that I'll have to cover it with plastic and tarps and then uncover it between showers. (Naturally, LAST week the weather was beautiful when I wasn't off from work.)

This weather may also put the whompum on a "city-wide yardsale" in a neighboring town that my wife wanted to attend. It's Spring and one never knows what the weather will do.

In the meanwhile, I've gotten in a number of modern comics which include: DC=Brave New World #1, Doctor Mid-Nite L.S. #3, Gotham Girls #'s 4 & 5, Hawkgirl #'s 62-64, 66, Omega Men L.S. #1, Salvation Run L.S. #1, Just Imagine Stan Lee's (w/Walt Simonson)"Sandman", Secret Six L.S. #1, Seven Soldiers of Victory #0, The Spectre L.S. (2006) #1, The Next L.S. #1, Vext #'s 1 & 2, Viper #1 / Marvel=Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #29, Silver Surfer V3 #9 / Harris=Vampirella/Shi #1. I've had a chance to read a few of these.

The Just Imagine Stan Lee's Sandman was certainly different from any previous version of the character, and of course, is one of those "Elseworlds" type stories which has no actual continuity inside of the DCU. A child's nightmares of a distance plane of existence where he's constantly chased and terrorized by an evil being becomes his reality as he becomes an adult, and he is that dimension's only chance of salvation. Walt Simonson's artwork was its usual very good, and Stan showed he can still write. More interesting to me was the 4 back back up by artist Richard Corben, who we simply don't see enough of these days. Back cover by Adam Hughes.

Vampirella/Shi (by Harris Publications) would have been better had they let Billy Tucci draw the "Shi" figures. Typically it turned out to be your "bad girl VS. bad girl" epic and we already knew neither would win in a fight so it was completely predictable.

The Doctor Mid-Nite L.S. is written by Matt Wagner. Not his best work by far, but still better than 99% of what's out there at the time it was published (late 1990's). Difficult to make Golden Age characters play well in current times.

The Secret Six L.S. #1 didn't in particular impress me, but it's nice to see "Cat-Man" being used "somewhere" as he was always a favorite Batman villian of mine even though he had very few appearances back in the early 1960's. (Nice cover.)

Silver Surfer V3 #9 looks so much different from the previous volume mostly dominated by Ron Lim's artwork it was barely recognizable, and the story itself focused more on other characters, so hard to say whether I would like reading more issues of this. The artwork (to me; sorry Ron) is an improvement.

Seven Soldiers of Victory #0 is a little eratic for Grant Morrison's usual style, but my God what beautiful artwork by J. H. Williams! The craftsmanship behind that is work the price of admission.

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #29 was a surprize, figuring it to be on the level of "Spidey Super Stories" or other such juvenile efforts from Marvel, it actually was a fairly good read, but moved a bit too fast to make a complete story in one issue. The FF battle The Hulk, and ol' green pants is thrown back into the "Hulk Stomp!" era I suppose to tone down the violence for a younger readership. For what it was, it was okay.

The title that impressed me the most so far is the Salvation Run L.S. #1 from DC where all of the Flash's villians have been exiled to another dimension asa prison with just their brains and wits to survive. Towards the end of this issue we see that a multitude of 0ther DC villians have been exiled there as well, and Flash's rogues are the only ones that know how to survive after doing so already for a couple of weeks beforehand. The artwork was acceptable and the cover stood out from the others. I'd like to read the rest of that run.(see above cover)

It's early in the morn', folks, so excuse the typos.