One of my best friends/mentors is an intelligent, kindhearted family man who hates public speaking. He will be the first to tell you that as soon as he starts talking publicly, he blacks out. The end result is something between Michael Scott explaining his leadership strategy and Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney. This book, using that voice, summarizes fifteen pieces of classic Western literature. The end result is a clever, enjoyable stroll through the history of great books. In chronological order, Nagan truncates each of […]
Write More Comics, Chelsea Cain!
Going into this comic, the only thing I knew about Marvel’s superspy hero Mockingbird was that Tyra from Friday Night Lights (Adrianne Palicki) played her on tv. Smart, cheeky, and more than capable to beat up everyone in the room. Sounds good to me! That’s why I picked this one up from the library. A few pages in, I was hooked. The writing is smart and fun. I laughed so much in this book that I assumed Kate Leth wrote it. Nope – Chelsea Cain […]
Geoff Johns’ Reimagining of Batman Continues to Be Great
In a very recent previous post, I talked about how much I loved Geoff Johns’ take on heroes such as Booster Gold and Wonder Woman (movie version). While he’s a big deal at DC now, there’s a famous story about how we wrote a letter to DC suggesting a storyline that was soundly rejected as being dumb. Years later, as a DC writer, he fan-fictioned that story into DC reality. I love that, and I think it captures why I like Johns so much – […]
Thor: Goddess of Courage and Quips
I have no real knowledge of Thor other than the Marvel movies and some heavy metal songs that I kind of understand, so my background of Thor’s Marvel mythology is limited. Thor, that chiseled Norse god of the uncovered torso, can’t get it up. He can’t pick up Mjolnir, his hammer. It’s just sitting on a moon. He’s been trying for weeks to pick it up and it won’t budge. Thor won’t eat or sleep. Thor just wants to hammer, but he can’t. Finally, he […]
The West Texas Barbarian
I didn’t grow up a fan of fantasy, but I was vaguely aware of Conan the Barbarian. That’s because I grew up in Austin, where we have Conan’s Pizza. This very Austiny pizza place, which started in the ’70s, features a lot of Frank Frazetta-style Conan the Barbarian art in its decor. (Also Tomb Raider art, but that’s best saved for another post.) So, I growing up I was aware of the loin-clothed beefy man battling bad guys and holding onto ladies, if I was […]
The Platonic Batbook
My BFF Nate and I have been friends for twenty years. He’s been around for all of my hobbies and pursuits (woodcarving, video games, comics, Krav Maga, kayaking, alcoholism, podcasting, camping). He knows me better than almost anyone and knows all about my life-long Batman obsession. So when he said, “Halbs, this Batman comic is great,” I knew it would be great. And it is great. One of the reasons it’s great is the writer – Geoff Johns. He is the current chief creative officer […]
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