Guy stuff.

Happy Holidays from CBC

Best wishes to all for a happy holiday season and a blessed new year. Be sure to take a minute from your own festivities to wish the same for our soldiers abroad...Thanks to Dave Carter of Yet Another Comics Blog for the downbeat but appropriate cover idea, the February 1992 issue of Sgt. Rock, by Joe Kubert, which I believe would have been on the shelves in December of 1991, the end of my first year in the Army.Tuesday begins my intended vacation reviewathon. See you then!

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Time’s Person of the Year: Me!

Well, okay, all of us, actually, and I couldn't agree more. The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year. ...look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never…

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Shadowline Slimline Offer Less for More

With the publication of Fell, Warren Ellis started a mini-trend with what Image has now branded as their Slimline format: 24 pages @ $1.99. Fell has been very good, and a solid success story from a sales perspective, while Casanova has been a critical darling with respectable sales for an Image Central title without a well-known creator attached.Shadowline, Image co-founder Jim Valentino's personal imprint, has recently latched on to the format with their mini-series Sam Noir: Samurai Detective, but has taken a rather odd approach with it by...well, let Shadowline editor Kris Simon explain it:Sam Noir is done in that…

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Rocketo Love from Junot Diaz

Today's N.Y. Daily News, in their monthly Viva New York pullout section, included a feature called "Authors Pick Their Favorite Reads of 2006", wherein Junot Diaz (of the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Drown), gave Rocketo a shout-out:"A comic book of extraordinary power, with a Cuban hero, written by a Cuban writer. I've read nothing like it before and can't imagine anything like it ever being written again."High praise indeed! And with Diaz being one of three featured authors in the article, his selection, the only comic book picked, really stands out. (Drown was an excellent read, highly recommended,…

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Delays Ahead for newuniversal?

Newsarama's interview with newuniversal artist Salvador Larroca suggests it might be yet another high-profile series Marvel is unable to ship on time:NRAMA: Could you tell us what was your first impression when you read newuniversal script?SLR: I loved it. It was water clear that Warren Ellis would write a solid script, but I really got impressed with the visual strength of his writing: I could really see the movie inside the story and drawing it was not only easy but a real pleasure. After more than 14 years in the comic industry, the script got me so impressed that I…

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Creator Directory is Up

Instead of writing any reviews today, I decided to finally get one of the "resource" aspects of the site up and running, focusing on the Creator Directory, which is now available.It's a somewhat selective list, a mix of well-known and upcoming creators whose work I've enjoyed in the past and who have a legitimate web presence (where the hell is Frank Miller's web site?). One of the more frustrating things, both as a fan and journalist, is trying to track down solid information on certain creators, or information on their non-Big Two projects, so hopefully the directory will become a…

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