Waiting for Wednesday, Issue 25

Today's a nerdy day of celebration for us here at Exfanding. Nathaniel and I both have the day (well, most of it, anyway) off, and we plan to spend it like any two good dorks should. We're driving over an hour away to go to a comics shop that we haven't been to in several months.

First we'll be sure to hit up our LCS to get this week's newest books, but then we're off to a not-so-local shop, to...spend more money. Which is fine, since we're both filthy rich bloggers.

Seriously, you should see the revenue that this blog generates each day. It's staggering.

Anyway, before we head out, here's a list of some of the best offerings this week has to offer. Now, there are some big books that hit this week, such as Daredevil, issue 500 from Marvel, and Blackest Night: Superman, issue one, which will both be big sellers. And darn good reads.

But, I'm all about the lesser known books, and I have two must-read comics for fans of horror and mystery.

First up is a hardcover graphic novel from Vertigo, featuring John Constantine, called Dark Entries. Now, this graphic novel is not a collection of previously published issues, but an all new story, released much like last year's smash hit Joker (by Azzarello and Bermejo--if you haven't yet read this gritty, violent take on the Clown Prince of Crime, then go buy this ASAP!) was.

Back to Dark Entries, though.

Written by crime novelist Ian Rankin, this is a book that Vertigo's been pushing for a while now. I'm a big Hellblazer/John Constantine fan, and I have to say, this plot seems very interesting.

Here's the blurb from Vertigo:

Occult detective John Constantine has seen his share of strange things in his career, but nothing could prepare him for the horrors of...reality television.

"Haunted Mansion" is currently the hottest show on TV, but when the macabre house actually starts attacking the contestants, Constantine is hired to be the ultimate mole. Locked inside with a cast of wannabe-celebrities, his every move being monitored by a deadly figure from his past, Constantine must figure out who (or what) is pulling the strings before he gets cancelled--permanently.

DARK ENTRIES is a classic locked-room mystery starring HELLBLAZER's John Constantine from Ian Rankin, the #1 international best-selling crime writer best known for his "Inspector Rebus" novels.

Rankin has won numerous awards, including the Edgar Award in 2004 and is joined in this graphic novel by Italian artist Werther Dell'Edera, the illustrator of a number of American comics--most notably Vertigo's LOVELESS.

Like I said, interesting premise. I haven't read any of Rankin's prose, so this is one of those near-blind recommendations, so I'll proceed with the following caveat. The book is a hardcover graphic novel, and the price is $19.99.

A bit steep for a previously-unpublished-in-comics author, but Vertigo must think that Rankin's celebrity will bring the people out. Expect this to be a bookstore seller, so if you wanna give it a go, consider buying from your LCS to show your support.

Next up we have a great (GREAT!) horror/mystery book from BOOM! Studios, called, simply, Poe. This is issue two, and after reading issue one, this new series is at the top of my pull list. A great, dark story, moody art, and an outstanding and unique premise make this title a keeper, in my opinion.

In case you missed issue one, here's the blurb from BOOM!

Everyone knows that Poe created the detective genre, but did you know he was a detective himself? Finally the secret can be revealed for the first time! Enter the world of POE and follow the famous author of darkness as he tracks the killer of his brother’s friend. Supernatural adventure for fans of books like HELLBOY!

The book is written by J. Barton Mitchell, and features art by Dean Kotz. It's one of those books that likely flew under the radar of many retailers, so you might have to ask your shop to re-order either (or both) issues. I'm glad I decided to pick up issue one, though, and I am looking forward to seeing how the series plays out.

So, on a week filled with Dark Reign and Blackest Night tie-ins, we give you two alternatives to the mainstream-y tights and capes (not that there's anything wrong with the mainstream, of course). If you decide to pick up either book, I hope you enjoy the suggestions, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

That's all I've got time for this morning. Like I said, the comics shop is a-calling! All that's left is to ask, what are you Waiting for?

Newsflash: Alex Likes DC Comics, and Other Things I Learned Today

Lately, I haven't had much time to do much of anything that isn't work or work-related. So, yesterday when I managed to block out a couple of hours in the afternoon to devote solely to reading comic books, I was like a little kid again. It really was a great, old fashioned summer afternoon--me, my comics, and nothing but free time.

And there might have been a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

I have to say, I'm going to try and make a point of it to spend more afternoons doing nothing but reading comics, because the mountain of material that I need to get around to reading is pretty embarrassing at this point. "The Stack," as I like to call it, actually had to be divided into two separate Stacks, to avoid catastrophe.

In The Stack(s) were successive issues of many series, like Dark Avengers and Ms. Marvel and Buffy. There was even a Goon issue that I hadn't yet read.

I know. Someone check my pulse.

It was kinda cool to read issues 42 and 43 of a series in one sitting, and having a seemingly never-ending pile of books to read made the experience all the more fun. Knowing that there was just no way I could get through everything in a couple of hours, it was nice to just sit and read and never have to worry about running out of words and pictures.

But I will say this. When you're as far behind on books as I am, avoiding spoilers online (or in the comics shop, or in the newspapers) is pretty tough to do.

I always hear creators talk about how the element of surprise in comics is something that we'll never get back, due to the up-to-the-second nature of fan sites, and comics news sites, and message boards, and Twitter.

But I have to say, I was so completely unplugged from the world of comics over the past few weeks that it was just really refreshing to sit down with books I hadn't even looked at in almost three months.

And I just read the stories, and looked at the pictures, and never at any point did I think, "Geez, I wonder why that guy on the Newsarama forum hated this so much," or "Wait, why was everyone so mad at the way this book ended?"

Having the disconnect from the Internet fan community was, I'd imagine, very similar to reading comics before the early-to-mid-1990s.

"Holy cow, Jean Grey is dead!"

Or, "Oh, my goodness, Ozymandius was the bad guy all along!"

[Um... Spoiler alert? --Ed.]

And the funny thing is, I never make it a priority to check the news sites, for fear that something might get spoiled. But, especially over the last couple of years, it seems like all you need be is on the Internet to have something spoiled.

I honestly don't know how publishers (or movie studios, for that matter) keep anything secret from the fans. It seems to me that, if you really wanted to know how DC's Blackest Night ends, brew yourself up a pot of coffee, and start surfing the Web.

Eventually, I'm sure, someone, somewhere, will have figured it out.

Not exactly a revelatory statement that the Internet spoils story lines, but still. It was just very refreshing to read the books as books, without any publisher hype, aside from maybe a promotional blurb in Previews.

And speaking of Blackest Night, in my Stack(s) there was a huge chunk of unread DC books. Not that I buy all that many DC books, mind you, but it was just that these were DC books I had purchased and let sit for three months or so.

And I don't mean DC as in, Vertigo. Because I LOVE Vertigo, and I feel that, especially recently, that imprint is returning to its former glories with books such as Madame Xanadu, House of Mystery, and Greek Street.

No, what I'm talking about here are mainstream, in-continuity DC Universe titles. And I enjoyed them all, and I especially liked Red Robin, a book that follows former Robin Tim Drake in the wake of Bruce Wayne's death. Now, as I've mentioned previously, I just don't...get...the whole "let's kill Batman thing."

But Red Robin deals with the issue in a mature, thoughtful way, and I highly recommend checking the series out.

With that, I have to run. Time to get back to work. But I'll be back tomorrow with another installment of the always riveting, and ever popular Waiting for Wednesday. See you then!

Review: Mighty Bomb Jack

Though the enjoyment I get out of writing video game reviews is reason enough to do them, the reviews I write for GameFAQs are specifically for games that have little or no review coverage on the site. Sometimes my reviews help to publicize the games I like that haven't received enough mainstream attention, but sometimes my reviews act as a big warning flag to any potential players.

Plus, I'd like to think my reviews are at least a teensy bit entertaining.

That being said, I'm proud to present my review of Mighty Bomb Jack, an NES platformer that is one of the worst games I've ever played. I had a great deal of fun writing this particular review, and you don't need to know anything whatsoever about the game to get a kick out of it. If you've got the time, please give it a read!

Our Geek Claims to Fame

As I talked about earlier this week, I believe everyone should have at least one geek claim to fame, no matter how minor or common that claim to fame may be. If you're proud of having seen one single episode of Battlestar Galactica while the rest of your family members have never heard of the show, then bully for you; you've got a geek claim to fame.

Alex and I have achieved a level of geekiness where we have many geek claims to fame, and they tend to be reasonably uncommon and fairly impressive; if you're a non-geek and view our accomplishments as something of a waste, or if you're an übergeek who can one-up us on any of our claims to fame, then we're doing things right.

Major or minor, impressive or not, collected here are some of our favorite geek claims to fame, all of which are true. We do new geeky things all the time, so you can expect this list to grow in the future. We encourage you to share your own geek claims to fame!


Nathaniel rode the big ferris wheel used in the James Bond film The Living Daylights. He also visited the concert hall and the fancy garden seen in The Sound of Music. Furthermore, he's been to Naboo--at least, to the Plaza de España in Seville, Spain, which appeared in Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones as a place on Naboo.

Alex owns five original comic art pages from The Goon.

Nathaniel visited the bridge of the Enterprise-D, sat in the chairs of both Captain Picard and Captain Kirk (replicas, at least), and has seen the actual Enterprise model used for filming on the original Star Trek.

Alex once hung out in a comics shop from open to close.

Nathaniel has on his computer the music to nearly every video game he's ever played for more than about 5 minutes. Almost 8000 tracks and counting!

Alex has more books on his "to read" pile than he does on his bookshelf.

Nathaniel beat Mega Man X (SNES) in exactly one hour, he has done several one-day Mega Man marathons in which he played through every classic Mega Man game he owned at the time, and he has more Mega Man-centric claims to fame than there's really room to mention here. But you can see those for yourself in his YouTube videos.

Alex has heard of Mega Man.

Nathaniel has dressed up for Halloween as Luigi, Mega Man, Geordi La Forge, Sonic the Hedgehog, a white wizard from Final Fantasy (before 8-Bit Theater infected the public consciousness with the notion that the white mage is a girl), a California Raisin, and a LEGO person. He attended Otakon dressed as Crono from Chrono Trigger one year, and another as Gaspar, the Guru of Time. He also participated in the midnight launch of the last few Harry Potter books at his local library by posing as Gilderoy Lockhart.

Alex saw each of the original Star Wars movies...ONE time EACH!...and 30 years late.

Nathaniel watched all six Star Wars movies back-to-back in a single day with his friends, and he has also watched nonstop marathons of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Matrix trilogy (with snippets of The Animatrix thrown in for good measure), Neon Genesis Evangelion (the entire series plus both movies, broken into two sessions), and the extended editions of all three Lord of the Rings movies.

Alex once saw Neil Gaiman eating french fries at a convention.

Nathaniel has memorized and can recite the "Weird Al" Yankovic semi-gross song "Albuquerque," and for a short while, he could also recite Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant."

Alex got into a politically-charged argument with artist Mike Netzer. (Look him up.)

Nathaniel used to sing in the choir with Spencer Clark. (Look him up.) He went to church with novelist Joan Bauer. He also possesses a dollar bill that was signed in person by Ben Stein--basically, he won Ben Stein's money.

In addition, he has autographed pictures of David Graf (Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry from the Police Academy movies), David Newell ("Speedy Delivery" man Mr. McFeely from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood), and James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek). Plus, he's got official photographs of real astronauts and space shuttles and satellites... taken in outer space.

Furthermore, Nathaniel has met and received autographed somethings from Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Bill Amend (FoxTrot cartoonist), and got them both to hold up a sign celebrating this very blog.

Alex is friends with Nathaniel.