Thursday, June 30, 2011

He's Back!

After about a year since the last Goon story, nearly two years since an issue was released, and close to two and a half years since there was a regular schedule, The Goon made its return yesterday with an issue devoted to beating on sparkly vampires and tween girls.

Anyway, The Goon is one of my favorite comics so I just wanted to give you all a heads up in case you missed this. If you're not reading, pick it up. It's new-reader friendly. If you want to go back, the beginning's a fine place to start (actually I started at the beginning of the Dark Horse series, I've never read the early stuff reprinted in vol 0-1), but the absolute best stories are the Chinatown Hardcover, and the 12-issue arc from Goon Year in 2008 (all of those are collected in vol 6-9).

Oddly enough, Criminal Macabre recently returned from a two year hiatus. A few months back, Steve Niles self published the Cal MacDonald prose short The Y Incision and brought the character back to comics in the Free Comic Book Day Criminal Macabre/Baltimore split.

Where am I going with this? Well two years ago these were two of my favorite books, and I'm hoping 2011 brings these titles back to their former glory. Next month the two characters share a one-shot. I know those things are never as awesome as you imagine. But fuck. I'm looking forward to it.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Thursday, June 23, 2011

You're Gonna Die

Just a quick heads up. Louie returns tonight. If you missed it last year, check it out. The episodes are all self-contained so you can start here. It's his stand-up meshed with vignettes. It's dark. It's uncomfortable. It's not even always comedy. It's absolutely brilliant, and the best new show in a very long time.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Friday, June 17, 2011

A Whole New World

Well hello there. It's been a while since I've posted, and it's been a really long time since I've actually written anything here. It's not that I haven't had any ideas. I just haven't had any time. Well as of two days ago the NHL playoffs and the job I was working ended. So I have nothing but time, and I plan to get back on this site. And since YDLH originally started as a comicbook blog, I'm going to kick it off with a comicbook post.

News broke a couple weeks back, but if any of you don't read comics, DC decided to reboot their entire line this September with 52 first issues (which, a friend pointed out, means there will be 52 number twos in October). As far as I know, DC hasn't stated whether the old series will continue or if everything's starting over. As with anything, a lot of people are pretty upset by this. But let's be honest: This will make things better.

Hear me out. I know there's a long tradition with a lot of these titles. A couple months back, I was talking about how cool it was that Action Comics reached its 900th issue without any renumbering or gimmicks. But let's face it: This is a business. A struggling business. Sales boosts are good. The more books sell, the longer DC will publish them. And really the big two are really only putting out books as something to sell when the movies come out. Although there is some really quality stuff coming out that I enjoy quite a bit, it's hardly art.

I think my only problem with what they're doing is that all 52 books are coming out in one month. That's a strain on the wallet. There's a lot of interesting-looking stuff coming out at once, and I'll have to pick and choose. As of now, there are seven books that I think I'll be picking up in September.


Action Comics
All-Star Superman is the best Superman and just one of the best comics ever. I'm very excited to see Grant Morrison writing Superman again. Although this series will be in continuity, and Frank Quietly is replaced by artist Rags Morales, I have high hopes for this series.






OMAC
Although this title looks so awful that I might pick it in a DCNU deadpool to be the first comic cancelled, it's a reworked Kirby character co-written and co-penciled by Keith Giffen, and for that I will give it a chance.







Swamp Thing
Although I'm not as in love with his Detective as everyone else seems to be, Scott Snyder's American Vampire (or AmVamp I feel should be the official brev) is a very solid book. It's cool that they're bringing these characters back since Vertigo isn't really using them.






Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE
I've never read anything Jeff Lemaire has written, but I'm a sucker for anything with Frankenstein except for the Mary Shelley novel where he hides in a hovel the whole time crying and learning to speak. Boring.







Red Lanterns
I'm not a big fan of Peter Milligan's mainstream work, but I do love the Red Lanterns. They're fueled by rage, come from Sector 666, and vomit a napalm-like blood on their enemies. What's more metal than that?







Resurrection Man
This is the one comic in the batch that I'd stake my reputation on. Abnett and Lanning returning to a character they created. This should be really great.








Wonder Woman
I don't think I've ever really read much Wonder Woman, but the creative team of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang is pretty stellar. I'm curious.