I have 10,000 words to make up for the heartbreak.

*New comics aren't out until Thursday around here, so that's why the new comics post isn't going to be up until Tuesday night.

In the meantime, I recently (finally) posted the rest of my two part look at Manga - it's an early '80s anthology book that purported to introduce the magic of Japanese comics and culture to English-reading audiences, although the differences between manga then and Manga then are telling, as is the state of manga in North America today. Lots of pictures in this one, probably a few artists you'll recognize and several more that have gone on to interesting things. Enjoy!

Oh heck, that half of the year again?

*Yes sir, ma'am! Like a profoundly unmotivated werewolf, My Life is Choked with Comics has risen again to cast off the bonds of decorum and write an awful lot of words on the internet at The Savage Critics! So many words this time, I opted to cut the thing in half; part 2 (of 2) will arrive later this week. The topic is a curious comics anthology with no cover price and no date of publication, though it has been traced to sometime from 1980-1984. It's titled simply Manga, and offers a curious and revealing vision of how Japanese comics might be seen in the days before very much was available at all. Check it out here; lots o' pictures, many more paragraphs.

What in god's name...

*New column! By which I mean my Savage Critics column! You remember...?

This one deals with Smurfs, specifically the 1965 book King Smurf, by creator/artist Peyo and writer/editor Yvan Delporte. It's one of the only bona-fide Smurf comics to have made it to English, which always strikes me as a little odd; the Smurfs were a hell of a lot more popular than Tintin (just to name another Belgian icon of the funnies), but so little of the original material made its way over. I suspect that was part of the toll of extreme popularity, though - the Smurfs were so hot they could only be a 'fad,' and what's a fad if not for selling all kinds of shit? Who needs the original comics?

Not a lot of critical writing around (in English) on the stuff either, as you can guess. I only found out about how wild this book was supposed to be when Kim Thompson started raving about it in the translation notes to that Lewis Trondheim serial that ran in MOME; and where better a place to find useful tips than the translation notes?

King Smurf really is something too - a kid-friendly anti-authoritarian screed in the form of a slapstick adventure, dripping with acrid political satire. If you thought the Smurfs were nothing but sunny days and songs, take a look at the early stuff. If you can read French, I guess. Hope you enjoy the column.

WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?!

*A... a new column? Do they still make columns? Looks like it's all true, and it's all about Jamie Delano's work with a man named Constantine, special emphasis on The Horrorist. Do have a look while I sort my Paul Chadwick Dazzler collection; only one issue left, and I haven't paid more than a dollar total!

Well, look what the cat dragged in.

*I'll admit it, readers - I was lost. I didn't think I had it in me to return to my comic book column over at the other site. Truthfully, I was ready to pack it in. Move to the woods, live the sweet life of stealing honey and gnawing on bark. The real life.

But then, I got a very special letter in the mail from eight-year old Becky out in the breadbasket of our nation (provided we live in the US). I'd like to share it with you.

***

Dear Jog,

How are you doing? I'm doing good now! I wasn't doing too good yesterday, because poppy and mommy didn't have money to feed me, and I was dressed in a potato sack with potatoes still in it and the potatoes were too hard to eat. I had no friends and I was really sad. But then I read your thrilling exegesis on Batman: The Cult and my dolly came to life and started dancing, and poppy started puking Sacajawea dollars instead of Hennessy! Now everything is great. I love you.

Best,
Little Becky

***

Well, this one's for you, lil' soldier: the life and times of Hideshi Hino, master of manga horror. Dance with your dolly. Dance.

I hear lists are in demand in today's successful publications.

*Things I did today:

- Got two cavities filled. They had to bust out both the clamp and the wedge.

- Finished up a new column, this time dealing with Sunday Press Books' new Little Sammy Sneeze thing. Learn about the creations of Winsor McCay and others! Many pictures!

- Ate soup.

- Er, this was just a way of announcing the new column. Sorry.

- Completed this post.

It's still tomorrow somewhere!

*Here we go, another new column - this one explores my impressions of one Tony Wong, a legend of Hong Kong comics, and how his Jademan Comics line of the late '80s and early '90s projected his unique image. Enjoy!

Man, Jog... didn't you, like, have a column on some site?

*A holiday pie is here for your teeth - a new column. This time, the topic is Dr. Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, and special holiday pictures are provided, one of which acts a political joke that virtually nobody outside of the US will understand. Go me.

It's bi-weekly now!

*This week's column is taking us way back! To 1917, when a superhero stalked the silver screen without regard for the fact that the genre wasn't invented yet! What scrapes might he get into? Also: All Star Batman's shameful secrets - revealed! The Shadow - unmasked! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Impressionists? Judex knows! Click link for more!

Two Out of Three?

*This column is getting totally nuts. I thought this installment would be shorter, but it's the longest by far. It's about the manga and (to a lesser extent) anime versions of Tekkonkinkreet. I hope you all enjoy it, and I guess I'll have Monday's planned post up later today, because it ate all my time.

What Tuesday?

*Finally, through hell and high water, came trudging the new column. It's a magic look at the Elaine Lee & Michael Wm. Kaluta opus Starstruck, and what it might teach us about the connections between creation and works. From the gang at The Savage Critic(s): Your Home for Long Posts.

Say, what's that?

*New column, you say? Later than ever? Today we look at two Vertigo titles from the mid-'90s, the Grant Morrison-written Kill Your Boyfriend and the Peter Milligan-written Girl, and how they interact. Kill your free time by clicking!

FOOD IS DONE

*For all my RSS readers, I shall never release a placeholder post again. Here's the new column. It's all about Batman: The Cult, a slice of decadence from the year of our lord nineteen hundred and eighty eight. Another post looms tonight...

Hey there, Jog - welcome back to the land of internet posting!

*What do you mean it's not really 11:59 on Tuesday, but well into the wee hours on Thursday?! The nerve! Anyway, here's the new column. It's on the horror anthology Taboo, specifically the 1989 second volume. Don't be scared!

Yeesh.

*God, finally the new column is up. Stuff needed rewriting. And I needed to go to work and stuff too. The subject is Soldier X #1-8, by Darco Macan and Igor Kordey, although it's the artist and his time that's my real focus. Go read!

Buy the comics today.

*OMG, new column! It's the French sci-fi classic Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent! Only at The Savage Critics! Yee haw!

So Much

*New column is ready for eating. This time it’s the 2005 Gilbert Hernandez public access epic The Naked Cosmos. Which is not primarily a comic, but don’t worry, there’s a tie-in comic so it’s all good.

*Uh-oh.

*God, I can’t get the cosmos out of my head! Why, I think I’ve somehow developed the power of precognition! Concerning a comic out this very afternoon! Watch out, there’s big SPOILERS coming!


Black Adam: The Dark Age #1 (of 6)

***SPOILERS AGAIN***

This debut issue of the new miniseries for the beloved genocidal Marvel family cutup is written by Peter Tomasi, with pencils by Doug Mahnke. Maybe the inks (by Christian Alamy & Norm Rapmund) have had a sort of calming effect on Mahnke’s pencils, because they don’t seem quite a distinctive as they have in the past. Odd, but still very sturdy. Anyway, here’s a quick rundown of what to expect in this toe-tingling superhero saga, depicting Black Adam’s attempts to steal his wife Isis’ remains out of her grave and drag them in a bag up to a Lazarus Pit in the Himalayas:

- A delightful ‘secret identity’ disguise for the main character, attained by having his grief-stricked followers beat him so badly that his face is disfigured beyond recognition.

- A man hung from a tree by a cheering mob after being beaten to death in a case of mistaken identity, with superheroes basically sneering in the people’s faces over their error, while being met with icy indifference.

- Middle Eastern occupation by foreign sources. Relevance!

- A bloody gun melee, with corpses laid out in a row in the aftermath, a skull split open to reveal what seems to be brain matter, though the coloring isn’t specific.

- A hasty grave robbery that leaves an important plot point/portion of the deceased’s anatomy behind for covert collection.

- A nice meaty close-up of cannibalism, flesh being chomped right of an arm in the raw.

- A fellow sliced in half, his intestines spilling into the snow. To be fair, this is part of the cannibalism bit too.

- A rotten, broken-apart corpse dumped into a Lazarus Pit, piece by piece.

- And finally, just when you thought things were getting a wee bit overbearing, good ol’ Isis rising toned and curvy from the pit for some wet, steamy, fan-friendly nudity. God bless America and DC Comics.

- Wait a minute… something’s wrong with this nudity…

- Oh my god, the Lazarus Pit failed to regenerate Isis’ nipples!! THIS IS A TOTAL CATASTROPHE.

And that is really the long and short of the plot. There's pained narration in captions too.

So, in conclusion, yes, I know the comic is subtitled The Dark Age, but this first issue bears resemblance to nothing so much as some embarrassingly misconceived post-Watchmen shot at ‘dark’ superhero relevance. It’s neither compelling nor shocking, just ugly and pandering. Please buy something else.

And what's happened to Tuesday?!

*My birthday ate it. But then it puked out my latest column. The topic this week is Marshal Law, that of the newly-announced Top Shelf omnibus, although I mostly focus on the initial Fear and Loathing trade collection. Hope it kicks off your August in style.

Gah! Hide the children!

*It's the newest installment of My Life is Choked with Comics! This time the topic is the pamphlet format, and the comic in question is Gipi's Ignatz series Wish You Were Here. I also talk a little about Marvel's The New Invaders from a few years back, but that's mostly a vehicle for jokes about huffing fumes. Also included are one billion helpful links. Hope you enjoy it.

HA HA, I DARE TO DREAM!!

*Ok! The virgin edition of My Life is Choked with Comics, my new weekly thing, is now up. The book is Rogan Gosh. Let's see if it all sinks to the bottom of the page quickly, and if I need to change my day of posting for the future. Hope you like the stuff.