Just sort of all over the place on this one

Good morning everyone. I am sleep deprived and a little bored today. I've just been channel surfing the web between bits of working while waiting for that coffee to kick in.

So I thought I would share a few things that I stumbled across today.

Tom Spurgeon wrote a piece over at The Comics Reporter called "25 Emblematic Comics Of The '70s", and his comments on the late 70's X-Men were awesome:

"X-Men #94-128, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum And John Byrne, Issues Of A Marvel Comic Book Series
This was the first hit in comics fandom (its sales success until the mid-1980s is debatable) after the nadir of 1970s newsstand sales troubles and its concurrent adherence to old ways of publishing nearly brought to an end the mainstream comic book as we know it. Just being the first hit of modern superhero comics fandom might be enough to recommend it, as would being the most successful re-launch of an old concept with new characters. X-Men crystallized a lot of what was entertaining about 1970s superhero comics into portable formula: the plunge into outright soap opera, the slow-burning subplots where it didn't matter if they were resolved or not, the mysterious characters whose backstory was doled out Lost-style in inconceivably tiny, logic-defying increments, the way that the superhero's mission was recast for all time as one of noble struggle as opposed to good winning the day over evil. It also introduced us to the soon-to-upstage-everyone Wolverine, as inexplicable a character to comics as the Fonz was to television sitcoms. Danny DeVito's star-turn on Taxi a possible exception, never have more young people enjoyed someone with that much back hair."

Good stuff there, though just about anything talking about Claremont and Byrne's X-Men will win me over.

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The only web comic I check in with daily is Questionable Content, by Jeph Jacques. Right now, it's in the middle of some dramatic tension, but it has a tendency to swerve into the absurd as well. Also, it creepily has a was of mirroring my life, day for day. In order to fully get it, you have to start from the beginning, but the art steadily improves as Jeph finds his groove. It's good stuff.

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Dark Horse is reprinting a few of the old, Gold Key "Mighty Samson" comics from the 60's. My uncles read this comic, and my grandfather kept them for years until I was a kid, so even though I'm younger, I read these things growing up. They are seriously weird, and I'm kindo of excited that they're being re-issued. They have a preview here.

Penny Arcade: The Halls Below

I just finished off the sixth volume of the Penny-Arcade collected editions, The Halls Below. This one collects the 2005 strips.

2005 was not the strongest year in PA to begin with. Switching publishers from Dark Horse to Del Rey was also a mistake, as the book itself just felt... cheaper as I was reading it. There was less insight to the strips, and there were these weird splash pages that really just seemed like filler. Add to the mix that the trade dress is different (so now they don't look like a nice, neat series all lined up on my bookcase), and I should probably have just given this book a pass.

It's a shame, too. Penny-Arcade is one of those comics that you really want to like, and want to like it all the time. Some times it delivers and delivers hard, but other times it is just uninspired and sort of blah. This volume, as I mentioned previously, does have the fantastic Skeletor strip, but in this case, visiting it on the web is more gratifying than holding it in your hands.

Gabe's art is very good throughout the book, though. That's worth noting. If nothing else, the strips are pretty to look at. I just think, that as a whole, I've enjoyed this edition the least so far, and I can't really recommend it. It's not like I get comps anymore, so I always feel bad when I go out and buy a book only to be disappointed as I finish it up. Ah well.

Hellboy II images

Over at Dark Horse, they've released a few preview images for the upcoming Hellboy II: The Golden Army movie. They look pretty awesome, and they also state: "Hellboy II is set for release on July 11, 2008."

Pardon the pun, but that Liz picture is smokin'.