21: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 4

Due to internet issues, this post has been back-dated!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. 4
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Published: 1989

Why?: Can you tell I was born in the early 80’s? I fell in love with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, which was much cuter and fluffier than the original comics. The TMNT comics were a part of the 1980s black and white comic wave, and they’re much edgier than the old cartoon, but still with a sense that the authors know what they’re dealing with here is giant talking ninja turtles.


I had on the wrong setting and totally messed up the cover shot. Whoopsie.

Many of the early TMNT comics were collected into four main compilations; of the four, this is the best, though reading the others is the best way to understand the entire story. Much of this storyline was adapted into the first TMNT movie, which was admittedly more “adult” than its target audience (I remember, as a child who grew up in a no-cussing household, being uncomfortable with the number of times Raphael screamed “Daaaamn!” in the movie!).

The original Eastman and Laird compilations aren’t available new anymore, largely because of the break-up of the original creators, but they can be found used. These stories have a special feeling that later stories, largely written by Eastman alone, lacked. Although TMNT is pretty cliché these days, it was groundbreaking and fun for it’s time. (Also, my little nerd is still alive in my heart, it’s true!)

Gist: During a Christmas celebration at April’s house, Leonardo is nearly killed while traveling alone in the middle of the night. After April’s apartment and store are trashed, they escape to an old farmhouse, where each of the brothers has to come to terms with everything that’s happened. This is the first book to really establish separate personalities for the four boys, which would develop more as the comics progressed.



Screwed up settings = moody action shot?

Bonus Trivia: TMNT gave rise to a number of imitators and parodies, involving everything from mutant rabbits to hamsters. For more info, see my geektastic post here.

Perfect For: 13+, people with a strong sense of nostalgia

Genres: Fiction, Graphic Novel
Keywords: Adventure, Science Fiction, Drama


The gritty 80s style art really riveted Gomez's attention. Yes, yes. Definitely!

17: The Fables Series

I've been in a comic mood lately, largely because of all the press being given to the upcoming DC reboot. So, I decided to suggest another comic series today, though not a superhero series. This is one of my faves, and has maintained a high standard through the years, largely under the helm of the same writer and artists.

Fables
Bill Willingham (creator and author), Mark Buckingham (majority art), James Jean and João Ruas (covers), et al
Published: 2007-Present

Why?: Fables is a highly imaginative retelling of the folk tales from various cultures. The characters are engaging, the story lines vary (more in the past than they do at present), and they're even allowed to grow and change over time, which is a rarity in the comic industry. Since Willingham has stayed dedicated to the series, the characters get to stay more true to themselves than in more mainstream comics. Basically, it's a fun read and I enjoy it!


These are the collections, which are put together twice a year or so based on the individual comics. The series is released by DC, and was once part of their more adult-based, non-superhero Vertigo line.

Gist: Fairy tale characters are real, and they live among us. Although once spread across dozens of worlds, a group of them have been stranded in our "mundane" world since the first European settlements of North America. They were driven from their homes by the evil adversary, who serves as the faceless baddy for the first eight collections or so. These immortal characters have to survive in our modern world. The leaders of the society are King Cole, who serves as the face of the government, Snow White, who does the actual work, and Bigby Wolf, former Big Bad Wolf turned more-or-less full-time man, the Fables' sheriff. Those who look human live on a well guarded street in New York City; those who don't live in upstate NY at The Farm.

The early story lines changed genres, beginning with a noir-style murder mystery, moving into a conspiracy thriller up at the Farm, followed by a classic adventure story. Woven throughout these first seven books is the evolving relationship between Bigby and Snow, as well as Snow's contentious relationship with her twin sister, Rose Red.


Gomez is a fan, as you can see here. He thoroughly enjoys getting between me and my Fables collections while I'm reading.

Later on, the Fables spent a good amount of time at war, and the stories have continued to be strongly adventure-based. Some other characters who have great storylines include the frog prince (Ambrose, who is a sweet and nuanced character), the little-known but brave Boy Blue, Prince Charming (thrice divorced - Snow, then Cinderella, then Sleeping Beauty), Beauty and the Beast (still married after all these years!), and the Three Little Pigs. It's the characters who really make the series special, and the ties and nods to old folk tales, fables, and legends are huge fun!


I finally lost my patience after the last book and started buying the individual comics. *hangs head in shame* These editions are well made and excellent, though, and not ridiculously overpriced like some graphic novels.

Bonus Info: Some comic readers are offended by some of Willingham's conservative views, such as toward abortion and marriage/family (since I share his views on these, they doesn't bother me). However, in the same way that I can read mainstream comics which are increasingly liberal, I don't think your standard reader would have any trouble looking past the occasional politics in the story.

The last storyline, which will be collected for release in December, was a bit silly. I'm interested to see where he'll go from here.

Bonus Bonus Info: Television series based on Fables have died at the script stage both at NBC and ABC. :( It could make a good series with the correct writing, or it could end up just missing something, like the television adaptation of the Dresden books.

Bonus Info, The Trilogy: Fables has two spin-offs, Jack of Fables (which I'm not a fan of) and Cinderella (which is fun; she's Bigby's #1 spy/secret agent). One of the few Fables storylines I didn't care for required a lot of knowledge of the Jack series mythos, which was annoying since I don't care for the character.

Genres: Fiction, Comic
Keywords: Fantasy, Adventure, Drama


I turned one of the spare bedrooms into a book-lined office, but there are a few series that stay in my own bedroom for easy access. As you can see, Fables is one of them!

Women, Comics, and the DC Reboot

Is it just me, or is DC hella confused over what to do with their resident chicks?

DC isn't new to destroying its continuity and starting over (I'm a Legion fan, yeah? Rebooting LSH is essentially their hobby). Restarting doesn't hurt my feelings as long as they don't try to make Superman Red and Blue (anyone remember that? Anyone? Bueller?). I'm especially immune to the reboot in that the recently UNbooted LSH will be remaining in its current form, with Paul Levitz at the helm (and no, I'm not totally happy with what he's been doing, but at least we won't have to survive another threeboot).

(I seem to be abusing parenthesis in this post.)

DC has been giving out a lot of information about the reboot, and there's been interest in what female characters will make the cut. Female leads sell less comics, so it's understandable that some will be lost in the shuffle.

The list has been out for a while now, and while some small titles didn't make it (such as Zantanna), many of the big names have. Of most interest is probably Wonder Woman, who recently underwent an image upgrade which included *LE GASP* a pair of pants! OHMIGOSH!


I am totally a horrible human being and hotlinking this at the moment, but I'll fix it later. Promise.


Diana's bound to be saving a bundle on Monistat Chafing Powder Gel, amiright?


She will use the money she saved to buy pants for super powered adolescents everywhere!

The reaction has been, predictably, mixed. However, the positive feedback was so overwhelming that DC announced they would be changing other costumes in the upcoming reboot to be more respectful of women.

Sooo this is Jim Lee's idea of more respectful?



Booob escaaaape! He dropped the cap sleeves and jacket in favor of some incredible supercleavage. And that's not even considering that he's messed with her base colors, which is a whole 'nother rant.

But really, that's relatively minor, as is Supergirl's (ugh...Supergirl. She WOULD survive a reboot after Crisis couldn't keep her down. Sigh.) change from a skirt to panties, clearly...uh...covering more and...yeah.


She has...an Achilles' groin, which must be protected with armor!

So I thought, in their defense, here's an example that actually follows their new rule: Dawnstar of the LSH in her current costume and her New 52 get-up for Legion Lost.


Note the Giant Boob Cut-Out. I'm interested to see what they'll do with the currently-covered lady Legionnaires, like Saturn Girl and Chameleon Girl (who shouldn't even BE a Legionnaire...and again I digress. Again.).

But the point at which DC just took everything they've said about "more realistic" portrayals of women and threw it out the window is when they took woman with one of the least sexualized costumes:


Yes, it's skin-tight, but outside some of the new unboot Legion outfits, it COVERS the most skin.

And they've turned it into THIS:


Harley Quinn's New Costume. Yeah. Um. I'm...seeing how this is more respectful of the gender, aren't you?

Frankly, if DC wants to continue the historical precedent of women with all their personal private parts flapping in the breeze, more power to 'em. But they should NOT make a big deal about changing their image to be more respectful, and wanting to reach out to women readers while firing the majority of their female staff and putting Harley in an outfit that would make a professional companion blush.


Heck no, dude. I don't think so. You just take that g-string and be gone.

Organizing Comics..and Lovin' It!

SO you have a comic collection? I bet it's in those little plastic baggies, stuffed into cardboard boxes, right? If you've been collecting for more than a decade or so, they're probably in acidy, un-archival-safe bags, with old style cardboard backboards. So were mine...until recently.

I haven't seen much about these comic pages by BCW Supplies, but I think that's mostly because the comics industry is filled with either (a) kids who toss them in the bottom of closets or (b) traditionalists who HATE CHANGE! I, however, am loving these pages and the ability to make my collection more accessible (yes, I still read them from time to time!) as well as feeling like they're a lot safer.

Here we have the traditional style of organizing comics:

When I got my first scanning printer, I immediately made fancy labels for my LSH boxes. Clearly, my priorities are in order, right? I wonder how many years ago that was...hmm...

And here we have the notebook method. I still have three full boxes to convert, and it's not going to be a cheap process, but it's still worth it to me!:

On the shelf; the notebooks take about the same amount of space as the old boxes, but are easier to put on the shelf.

BCW makes special notebooks for use with their pages, but the notebooks are more expensive than these, which aren't exactly cheap (I wanted heavy duty and was picky about the...clamp? style - $8 a piece at Office Depot), and they only hold 20 comic pages a piece. While these binders are larger than strictly needed, I don't have to special order them and each can hold 30-50 comics, depending on how you place them in the sleeves.


The more delicate comics from the 60s I placed with only one comic per page. I also bought all new backing boards, making sure they're archival safe.


Here is my favorite old corny issue! I love you baby Brainiac 5! Awwww. On an unrelated note, no fun nail polish because we're in dress rehearsals for the play I'm singing in, and as a general rule sharecroppers in the 1910's didn't wear Funky Dunky. Go figure.


The newer issues, which are printed on thicker paper, I doubled up. There's plenty of room for two regular comics and a sleeve in each page. Of course, we'll have a NEW number one in October when DC does its full-reboot. Just to be confusing.

Naturally, the conversion process is being overseen by my feline assistants: Bronte and my roomie's cat Fred.




We prefer to think of Fred's mustache as a "reverse Chaplin," thanks. XD

02: Who Killed Captain Kirk?

I wasn't planning to introduce a comic so early, but yesterday StarTrek.Com announced a crossover event between Star Trek and the recently unbooted Legion of Super-Heroes - the one comic series I love to distraction. I'm sure it'll be corny and possibly horrible but I don't care! I'm still at ubergeek excitement level at the moment!!

Who Killed Captain Kirk?
Peter David, Tom Sutton, and Ricardo Villagra
Published: 1993


It finally started raining down here, and now the grass needs cutting every five seconds or so.

Why?: I enjoy impressing people, from time to time, with my knowledge of Dante’s Inferno or one of the lovely speeches from Cyrano de Bergerac. I remember quoting such a speech at a dinner where a kind woman commented on how nice it was to meet young people (I was a teen at the time) who are versed in the classics. I didn’t tell her I knew the scene because of Barclay’s recitation of it during the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Nth Degree.” Nor am I likely to confess that I learned the levels of hell from reading Who Killed Captain Kirk in jr. high school! (Just as a note, I do have a degree in English lit now, so my nerdiness has grown)


See?! Into hell!

The Star Trek comics might not be great works of literature, but this storyline is a heckuva lot of fun. Not only does it take you through the levels of hell courtesy of an ill telepath, but it also comes with a murder mystery that ties back to the original series. This is certainly the best of the comic stories I know of, and a guilt-free, fun read for an afternoon.

AND EGADS all of the comics are available on DVD-ROM for SEVEN WHOLE DOLLARS on Amazon. It's a bit of a pain to navigate, but it's still fun!

Gist: Someone has murdered Captain Kirk – at least for a short time. As he recovers, the crew searches for answers. Hampering the investigation are an unusual wedding, a seriously ill telepath taking over the ship, suspicion among the crew, and the discovery of an abandoned Klingon child.

Quote: So! I finally got the last word again. ~Leonard McCoy

Perfect For: Trekkies, ages 12+


Bob the Shaved Pom was determined to look totally doofy in his book shot. Dooooofy doofy doofy!

Genres: Fiction, Graphic Novel
Keywords: T.V. Tie, Science Fiction