Odds and Ends

Just a few quick notes here:

CCW Chew Contest:

If you have not entered our contest for a chance to win a copy of the breakout sensation comic known simply as Chew today is the last day to do so. What the hell are you waiting for!? Check out the details two posts down from here. These comics are signed and personalized to the CCW Nation by John Layman himself. We did you a favor by having him sign these comics so you wouldn’t have to go through the displeasure of actually meeting him in person. You’re welcome.

Our Doomwar #1 Review:

This review of ours made the rounds on the CBR Black Panther boards and for the most part the reception was quite positive. Thanks to those individuals who posted those links. The best part? Johnathan Maberry himself left us a great comment on the video’s board. You can check out that video review here.

Variant Girl:

VG’s comic blog is up and running again. Please do yourselves a favor and check out her new reviews. Wondering what a fangirl’s thoughts are on Marvel’s new Girl Comics #1? Click here to find out.

Gail Simone to Leave Wonder Woman:

And now for the worst comic news I have heard all week: It looks like Simone will be stepping down as writer of Wonder Woman after issue #600. Not very happy about this. I was quite looking forward to her and Nicola Scott having a lengthy Wonder Woman run together but I guess that’s just not going to happen. If DC made this choice in order to make room for Grant Morrison on the book I really don’t know if that will sit well with me. We shall have to wait and see. You can read Gail Simone breaking the news here.

No New CCW*TV Next Week:

Unfortunately we won’t be able to tape any new segments tomorrow. Elliott has a prior engagement to attend so he is the person to blame (doesn’t feel nice to thrown under the bus does it E.?). Because of this I (like I mentioned a couple of days ago) will try to post some more reviews for this week’s books on here. I hope that me posting more reviews will make up for the fact that Elliott clearly just doesn’t care about you guys.

J.

More “Life With Jose”

Jose posted this on my Facebook page today:

“If you’re looking for someone to blame for the turd-like sales of Ash Saves Obama you only need to look in the mirror good sir. You’ll be lucky if Dynamite releases an ashcan of the collection let alone a trade paperback.”

Wonder what brought THAT on?  Was it because of the things I said during our reviews of ‘The Siege #2″ and “Ultimate X #1” this past weekend?

I guess you’ll have to tune in and see.

Today’s “Life With Jose”

So, after a bit of a hiatus – and by hiatus I mean nothing got in the way of our sessions – Jose and I recorded some new episodes to post this week. This week was less about reviews and more talking about some things that have been going on in the industry. Lotsa rants this week, folks, so be sure to tune in.

But something funny happened. I was the one who got angry and ranted most of the time, whereas Jose was calm and collected.  In fact, he was almost…giddy.

When we finished recording he mentioned how strange it was that I got so angry while he stayed so calm.  He then paused and said ‘Oh wait, I get happy when you are miserable.”

And that’s another snapshot of Life With Jose.

A couple miscellaneous add-ons: The CCW “Create-A-Contest” Contest Poll is still running.  The voting is VERY CLOSE, so if you haven’t voted already, please do cuz every vote’s gonna count in this one.  Click HERE to go to the original post.

Also, if you missed my most recent appearance on ChicagoNow Radio, they just posted the podcast.  FYI, I’m currently involved in a ‘love triangle’ with two other bloggers.  The other male blogger plays the role of the ‘bad boy’ while I am the ‘geek’ trying to win the girl from him.  You can read the whole story here, here and here.  It’s some fun stuff we’re doing to promote our blogs, so we’re just playing it all up.

Okay, back to work on my super-secret-can’t-talk-about-it-until-it’s-approved project.

See you on the flip side.

Elliott

A Quick Announcement

Hey folks, Elliott here. Once you’ve recovered from your Christmas comas, I hope you listen to my appearance on WGN Radio this Saturday, December 26th @ 9:30 AM. I will be returning as a guest of ChicagoNow Radio, this time as a solo blogger. If you’d like to ask me a question, you can send it via Twitter to @ChicagoNowRadio or you can do it the old-fashioned way and call (312)591-7200.

If you can’t get WGN-AM 720 on your radio, you can listen to the livestream, and later on download the podcast. This is another chance for us to interact live, so please give me a tweet or a call if you’d like.

See you on the flip side, folks!

Psyduck = The Devil? I Wish I Could Say I’m Surprised

What Every Good Writer Should Know

Hey all, Elliott here. Being a comic-book writer, sometimes I’ll get an e-mail from a CCW*TV viewer asking for tips on how to write a script or advice for coming up with ideas. Generally I’ll respond with the answers that I’ve been given in the past by more experienced writers. Those days are gone, since now all I have to do is refer all you budding scribes to this video:

I had NO IDEA that Sarah Palin was such a sage author! :::winks:::

See you on the flip side,

Elliott

Sorry, No New CCW TV This Week

Elliott gave me a call earlier today and canceled our video taping session. Something about how now that Ash Saves Obama is a huge hit he is cutting some dead weight to help him rise to the top even faster (with the dead weight being me and our little show I assume). Actually, it was either that or that he had to take his dog to the vet. I can’t remember.

Because of this I will TRY to get some more reviews up tomorrow of stuff we would have talked about on the show today. See which one of us cares about you more? Remember this when our eventual divorce comes along and you need to decide who you want to live with.

J.

Capsule Reviews: Ash vs Zombie Superman with a Pinch of Invincible

Title: Blackest Night: Superman #1
Writer: James Robinson
Art: Eddy Barrows and Ruy Jose w/Julio Ferreira

After what I thought were some minor setbacks last week with Blackest Night #2 and BN: Batman #1 it seems that the tone for this series is back on track. What I really liked about Blackest Night #1 was the “horror flick” feel to it and that’s exactly how this book plays out. A small town being attacked by an alien threat. It reminds me of the film Slither and even the Luna Brothers’ comic Girls. Except instead of slugs and naked women attacking the townsfolk you have a zomiefied Earth-2 Superman.

There is another dead DC character which comes back as a Black Lantern but I really don’t want to give away who it is. Most of the book has Superman and the formerly dead Superboy teaming up to take on Earth-2 Supes. What they weren’t expecting though was for E-2 Supes to have an ace up his sleeve and it makes for an interesting cliffhanger.

I am interested about this fascination the Black Lanterns have with the once dead DC heroes. Wonder where DC is going with that. And though it hasn’t been explained yet I am assuming that the Black Lantern’s rings power levels are being charged by the murders that the ring bearers are committing. The book read a little to quickly but that’s my only real complaint.

Title: Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama #1
Writer: Elliott Serrano
Art: Ariel Padilla

What can I say about Ash Saves Obama that hasn’t been said already. It is quite terrible and hackneyed in every sense of those words. And by “terrible and hackneyed” I mean quite well done and surprisingly entertaining. I think Elliott did the best he could do with what he was given and to be honest his best was more than enough.

I mean, come on, it’s another Obama comic. But Elliott wrote the story being fully aware of how out of hand this trend has become and that’s why it works. I do like how you don’t see Obama’s face throughout the interior of the book. It’s a good gag that makes Obama’s “appearance” seem a little less exploitative…but not really.

In my opinion the art on this book is the best art that has ever graced the pages of an Elliott Serrano comic. Whenever the art doesn’t detract from the story, that‘s a good thing. And that’s all I got to say about that.

You guys don’t know how much it pains me to give this book a decent review but there it is. Anyway, Comic Book Club already gave this comic a thumbs up so what the hell more do you need to know? Those guys are never wrong.

Title: Invincible #65
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Art: Ryan Ottley and Cliff Rathburn

If the Invincible comic was a cute, nerdy women who wore glasses and excepted me for the full on geek that I am then, with consent of course, I would make sweet, sweet love to it 24/7 until I died with a smile on my face.

And that’s my review.

J.

Look for a much more detailed review of Invincible #65 next week on the CCW Video Channel.