WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? (TBP)

The concept is pretty funny. Take classic comics of all types and completely rewrite all the dialogue and exposition to create a new comic with tongue firmly lodged in cheek. We get war stories, space stories, western stories, heck, there's even a Bigfoot story. The Bigfoot story actually reminded me of a similar story done by Robert Crumb.
Some of the stuff is laugh out loud funny. The cover to one of the issues has a guy explaining these big foot tracks to his friend who has a look of fear on his face and he pauses to say, 'It's right there isn't it?' No idea why this tickles my funny bone so damned much, but I laughed just now while typing it.
I think they rely on the gay card a little too much in some of the stories. It's like they couldn't come up with something witty so they just went with everyone being gay.
Also, give credit where credit is due. Tell us who wrote the original stories and give credit to the artists. I like to think that the group that is doing this would get pretty ticked if they weren't given credit for some of their artwork. Give props where they deserve to be given, folks.
so, What Were They Thinking? Probably not much, but as long as I have that Bigfoot cover I will be laughing for a while.
Brought to us by the lovely folks over at BOOM!Studios who I must say have been putting out some seriously good books lately. Go check out their website for more info.

NEW TITLES FROM VIRGIN COMICS

Got a mini pile of things to review from Virgin a couple of days ago and thought I would run them down for you peoples.
First up we have Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter. I have to hand it to Jameson. She knows where her bread is buttered and is so diversified that her empire will run long after she is gone. She may be one of the most famous modern porn stars on the planet and you know what? Good for her. At least she's not one of those skanky porn queens that get scarier by the minute.
But how's the comic?
Pretty good. The idea that she hunts these shadow thingies that are part of a parallel universe seems cool. The artwork is pretty good as well. Will I buy it? No, but I can think of a lot of fans of things like Witchblade that are going to make this comic pretty popular.

The Stranded is next on the list and, well I'm not impressed. It's got people with superhero powers, but not all of them know they have them and there's some huge conspiracy thing going on. Sounds trite and contrived? Yeah, that's because it is. The artwork is reminiscent of all that horrid, over muscled artwork that Marvel foisted on us in the nineties. This one is definitely on the miss list.



Dan Dare is last on the list and this time I saved the best for last. The British master of space is back and Virgin has him. Dan is retired now, but it doesn't take long before an alien threat is going to destroy us all. Who is gonna save us? Dan Dare, that's who. Virgin has managed to keep the feel of the original Dan Dare and update him for a new generation while keeping him true to the roots that we all remember and love. Of the three books I received this week, Dan Dare is the outstanding entry in the field.

JUSTICE LEAGUE; NEW FRONTIER CONTEST!!!

That's right kiddies, the disc you have all been waiting for has three of them available for giveaway here at Penguin Comics. All you need to do is send off your address and name to dwaltzwriter@yahoo.com for a chance to win one of the three discs we have waiting here for the lucky winners. Nothing fancy, we'll do a drawing from all of the names we receive. Be sure to put JUSTICE LEAGUE in the subject line of your email. The drawing goes until Feb. 26th.
Good luck to all.
Now, for a little review of the disc;
Inspired by the best-selling graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke and produced by the multiple Emmy® award winning animation legend, Bruce Timm, The New Frontier is the epic tale of the founding of the Justice League. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are all here of course, and so are Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Flash - whose incredible origins will be told for the very first time. Strangers at first, these very different heroes must overcome fear and suspicion to forge an alliance against a monster so formidable, even the mighty Superman can not stop it. If they fail, our entire planet will be cleansed of humanity.
This is a great piece of animation and perfectly captures the feel of the original series by Cooke.