Reviews of books, comics, movies, and other random stuff.

Buzzscope / PopCultureShock Update

NOTE: We're slowly making the no-longer-secret shift back to PopCultureShock official, so please update your links and bookmarks accordingly: www.popcultureshock.com/comics.Finally dug out from under the NY Comic-Con/Speakeasy-induced backlog last night and, excepting Comics You Should Own (which will be back on track this Friday), we're all caught up. A quick recap for those of you who don't regularly check in over there:Discord #2: NY Comic-ConNYC Mech's Ivan Brandon returns almost a year later, with the second installment of his Discord column, his take on the NY Comic-Con, along with some great pictures, including a few from our after-party.(Also, check out…

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INFO: Managing Editor Wanted

Buzzscope is almost ready to officially complete its relaunch as PopCultureShock, and I'm now looking to bring another editor onboard to assist me with copyediting and trafficking of our recurring columns. We've seriously ramped up our comics content over the past 5 months, bringing on a wide range of columnists and ongoing features, and I need someone to help manage that content while I turn my attention towards getting our reviews up and running again and, hopefully, providing some more regular content myself.It's a great opportunity for anyone wanting to flesh out their resume and/or have a deeper connection to…

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On the Shelves: 2/22/06

Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month!My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 2/22/06. The full shipping is list available at ComicList.[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]PICK OF THE WEEKBluesman: Vol. 1ALIAS ENTERPRISES LLC Lions Tigers & Bears TPB, $9.99 Lullaby Wisdom Seeker Vol 1 TPB (AA), $9.99LT&B piqued my interest when it first came out, but I never picked it up. Interesting to see that…

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LINK: Runners & Special Clips + Top 5 List

One of my favorite comics of 2005, Runners: Bad Goods, has made the jump to the movies! Well, kind of...RUNNERS SCI-FI ANIMATED SHORT ONLINE!The highly-acclaimed sci-fi adventure comic Runners, by Sean Wang, is now a fully animated short! The 3-D computer-animated Runners feature from The DAVE School -- makers of the X-Men Minimates movie ”Darktide” -- is now available online.Produced by The DAVE (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) School at Universal Studios Orlando, the 6-minute short adapts the first issue of the Runners: Bad Goods comic, in which reluctant smuggler Roka Nostaco and his ragtag alien crew must board a…

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COMMENT: Valentino’s Black Emissary

Jim Valentino's latest project, Emissary, sounds like it could generate some interesting message board debates that would likely become a regular feature on Fanboy Rampage...if it lasts long enough.This May, Image’s Shadowline imprint releases a book that poses the question of how the real world we live in would react to an actual super-being. And what if he were black? Would he have been accepted, beloved by the world at large? Or would he have been feared, rejected, even hated? Would his near omnipotence cause governments to tremble or would they attempt to use him to advance their own agendas?…

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CBC Quickees: DMZ, G0DLAND, X-Factor and more

Snatching a handful of comics from the top of my most-recently read stack, in no particular order…

Teen Titans #32: Why do I torture myself? I picked up the Captain Carrot/Kid Eternity arc and was sorely disappointed, and this alternate angles/extended scenes edition of Infinite Crisis #4 was like a self-inflicted kick in the nuts. Here’s hoping One Year Later returns this series back to the strong character-driven stories of its first 18 issues, as Johns has claimed he’ll be doing.

DMZ #3: What do you do with a series that you really want to like, but find yourself continually disappointed with after each issue? You drop it. Period. Part of the problem, as with Local, is that I simply don’t like the lead character, Matty Roth. If I were a character in DMZ, I’d shoot him.

New Thunderbolts #18: A consistently entertaining read, Fabian Nicieza has such a handle on his characters that it allows me to ignore the fact that I’m unfaimilar with a lot of the series’ backstory. Lines like Nighthawk’s, “Y’know, even the weirdest day I spent with the Defenders was sane compared to you people…” make my inner fanboy smile. In a just world, New Thunderbolts would be outselling New Avengers.

G.I. Joe: America’s Elite! #8: Hate on 80s licenses all you want, but Joe Casey’s spin on the toys I used to shoplift from Caldor as a pre-teen is like cotton candy on the tongue. And I really like Stefano Caselli’s exaggerated faces.

X-Factor #3: You really have to wonder if Bendis had any clue what would become of his House of M deus ex machina, Layla Miller, if in fact he had any plans for her at all. Call me a hater, but I have trouble believing David isn’t simply making lemonade out of lemons here, as opposed to following some grand plan that was hashed out at one of those infamous retreats of theirs that begat Disassembled and Civil War. In one sequence at the end of this issue, David makes Layla the second most interesting character in this series, behind only Madrox. Good stuff!

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LINK: The X-Men (Vs.) Sneak Preview

The boys over at Metagame have an article up with pictures of the swag available at this weekend's preview tournament. Everyone gets a side-by-side stacker of Colossus and Wolverine doing the fastball special. Playmats, deck tins, and T-Shirts are random door prizes. The extended art Snikt! card is for top players in the tournaments. I've been to three sneak previews and each one was better than the previous. It's a great place to refine your knowledge of the game. You get 5 packs to build a 30-card deck, and you're on your way! Generally, seasoned players are really helpful to…

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