Showing posts with label Bill Mantlo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Mantlo. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Meg Myers - Children of Light II

 

New Meg Myers! Her stuff is getting weirder, but she still delivers those pulse-pounding hooks.




Watch:

Oh shit, I forgot ALL about this:

 

No release date yet, but the announcement says "Soon."

 


Dollar Bin:


I don't know much about Micronauts, other than it was a toy property from just before my era - before the era where cartoons and I always came across stray figures and playsets at garage sales in the early 80s and wondered what they were (same with Shogun Warriors). Last year though, when Chris Saunders and I interviewed comic artist legend Kelley Jones, he mentioned he started at marvel on the Micronauts book. 


I have developed a bit of a phantom nostalgia for toys and comics from just before my era, and finding these in the ol' dollar bin proved impossible to pass up. This falls in line with the weird, TSR, Hobby-Shop genre of SciFi and Horror that I feel existed as a kind of 'quiet zeitgeist' in the early 80s - a pop culture texture that has been mined and revitalized by Stranger Things perfectly. Anyway, I'm hoping to find more Micronauts, or maybe snag some on eBay. I'd like to read a solid run of a handful of consecutive issues, just to get a feel. 

Also, they're written by Bill Mantlo, and I've really come to see him as a kind of underappreciated genius in that Hobby Shop Sci-Fi thing. 




Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten
Mike Doughty - Live At Ken's House
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Testament - The New Order
Sparks - Hello Young Lovers
Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues




Card:


Once again, the ways of peace are strong in me, even in the midst of adversity.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Crowded House at the Crossroads

 

The newer guys at work are all in their early 20s, but they can seem to get enough of 80s pop radio. I think I've heard Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" everyday for a least two weeks, and the fact that I seem to just love it more and more - after loving it for most of my life now - really says something about what a great tune this is. Kinda has a similar feeling to Tears for Fears, and it makes me wonder how much it was influenced by Orzabel, Stanley and Hughes, whose Songs From The Big Chair came out about a year before Crowded House's eponymous debut. Either way, great song.




NCBD:


Dude! It has felt like a goddamn year since the previous issue! Seriously, Jed McKay's masterstroke of bringing in the House of Secrets as Moon Knight's new Midnight Mission has me 100% over my wishy-washy attitude toward this title. ALL IN!


Am I just sucking Marvel's dick at this point? Maybe. But I have to admit, I'm curious as hell.




I've missed Vault. The moment I saw the title and cover, I knew I'd be giving this book a shot. 


I've been geeking out so f*&king hard over Immortal X-Men that I almost forgot the tapestry of interstellar espionage, politics, and betrayal picks back up this month where S.W.O.R.D. volume two left off a few months ago. 




Read:


I was not lucky enough to score this variant when Symbiote Spider-Man: Crossroads issue #1 came out. I didn't even know it existed until I just did an image search for this post. However, after finally tracking down the fifth issue of this series, I did a re-read and can tell you, THIS is my favorite era of Spider-Man. Black costume, pre-Venom, 80s NYC. And it meshes perfectly with one of my favorite Hulk eras - his exile to the Crossroads, circa early 300s, written by the inimitable Bill Mantlo. All that Hobby Shop SciFi stuff I was attempting to explain in the previous post? Mantlo was definitely one of the architects of that for me, and it makes perfect sense that the man who inherited The Incredible Hulk from him - Peter David himself - wrote a story that perfectly meshes several major eras of these characters into one really cool story. And yeah, it has Devil Dinosaur in it, too! Can't beat it, 'nuff said!




Playlist:

Quicksand - Slip
Year of No Light - Consolamentum
M83 - You and the Night OST
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
The Mysterines - Reeling
Orville Peck - Pony




Card:

Yes. I need Strength. Long day.