Casanova!

I'm really ill, but seeing this article about the return of Casanova totally made my morning.

I haven't read the whole series yet, my search for the elusive issue #11 is as yet unsuccessful, but the issues that I have read totally blew my mind. Presumably, it'll be published by Marvel's Icon imprint, but I guess we'll just need to wait for an official announcement that is probably months off.

Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 1/6/2o1o!

So, as 2o1o begins and I read my huge pile of unread comics from 2oo9 and re-read my almost equally huge number of bought and read comics of 2oo9 here's my quick first 'Looking Forward To...' post of the new year!

This week of the Wednesday, the sixth of January in the year two-thousand-and-ten we have:

The books...
"The Chill" (maybe)
The idea of a series of crime graphic novels from Vertigo, the 'HBO of comics', is really awesome, but the first two failed to really grab my loins, if you know what I mean...

"Town of Evening Calm Country of Cherry Blossoms" (maybe)
This looks beautiful.

"The Box Man" (maybe)
Well... that sounds crazy, right?

The weeklies...
"Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot" #1 (maybe)
The chances that this won't leave me feeling lukewarm are slim, but you never know!

"Cable" #22 (maybe)
The last issue wasn't bad. I took a chance on it. I like Hope as a character and I really enjoy the way she interacts with Cable. It's kind of a 'Lone Wolf and Cub'-thing, but it's also a kind of a 'Leon, The Professional'-thing.

"Siege" #1 (definitely)
It's a story that's been seeded as far back as "Secret Invasion" in 2oo8, if not "Avengers: Disassembled" waaaay back in 2oo3. And it's only a commitment of four issues. Why not buy it?

"Siege: Embedded" #1 (maybe)
Well, I don't know if this one will turn out to be one of the titles I'll regret not buying when the event is over and done with so I'll at least look at the damn thing.

Right now, you're thinkin' "Damn that's a lot of maybes." And you're right. What can I say? I'm doing sporadic file clerk work now for cripe's sake! And reading all the comics from 2oo9 I bought and DIDN'T read is making me think hard about the way I spend my money.

Check back and see who wins: the Gorga or the Wallet!


UPDATE: 1/10/2o1o

The Wallet doesn't pull its punches and achieves a knockout folks, he weaved left, he weaved right, he...
I didn't pick up anything this week.

"Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms" turned out to be 2 stories in one and left me confused as to its publishing history, which has left me burned a few too many times lately for me to pick it up and get disappointed that there was a cheaper, earlier version out there.

Quick Amazon.com research shows that there was indeed a cheaper paperback version published in 2007.

"The Box Man" looked like a damn mess of pop-surrealism. That's all I gots ta say about that.

The first issue of the new "Jackpot" mini looked like so much crap. So much rigamarole just to introduce the actual character of Jackpot and not someone pretending to be Jackpot, only to have her be someone who doesn't want to be Jackpot. And now the writers change their minds, have her change her mind and now she's Jackpot.

"Siege: Embedded" looks like something I wouldn't mind reading, but it's not a must read.

And "Siege" itself? Yeah, it's really good. But do I need it?
I read Clare's copy like a Moochie McMoocherstein.

Next week... I'll probably buy something.

Already Tired of Tuesday...Siege!

Hey guys!

After an extended holiday break, it's good to be back- although I had a nice time sitting around and doing nothing, it's time to get back in the game.

The book of the week is, of course, the first issue of Marvel's new event book- Siege! I'm something of a Marvel fanboy, so it's no surprise that I'm picking this up, particularly because it looks to be the conclusion of the publisher's almost decade long macrostory. Trying to figure out where we go from here (and what exactly the promised Heroic Age is all about) is definitly part of the appeal here. Icing on the cake is the art of Oliver Copiel who, at the very least, drew the best Thor of the decade and is one of the best comic book artists at the House of Ideas. Needless to say, it's going to be a lot of fun, if not necessarily great comics.

I've decided that, although I'm not going to buy all of the tie-ins, Siege: Embedded #1 will be on my pull-list for a couple of issues, at least. I've always liked Ben Urich and, inasmuch as I think Embedded will be able to deal with the consequences of the event for the real people of Broxton, it'll have some interesting stories to tell.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to Sweet Tooth #5, which is the end of the book's first arc.

Finally, I just wanted to thank all of you fine readers for stopping by in the first few months of the site. Hopefully, in the new year, our readership will only continue to grow.

Have No Fear, True Believers!

Please do not take the relative quietness of the blog as sign of our demise for we are hard at work creating new and intriguing posts for you, the Long and Shortbox Readers!

Some things coming up on the horizon for 2o1o...

Our personal best comics of 2oo9 lists!

Compendium lists of what The Long and Shorbox Of It! loved in 'o9. We have got a LOT of sifting through OUR shortboxes to do...

A retrospective on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, two years in!

The pros, the cons, the ret-cons! The blank-faced surreality of the strange 'New' experiment one of the most popular superhero characters in America has been set into for the past two calendar years.

An article on the evolution of comics coverage in national periodicals!

Where does comics criticism begin and comics reportage end? Is the language used to describe comics in the wider world evolving and is it helping or hurting?

The end of series wrap-up review of "Ex Machina" #50!

A final farewell post to Mayor Mitchell Hundred and Brian K. Vaughan's remarkable series about his former life as a superhero and current life as mayor of New York City.

And (probably) tag-team reviews of "Strange Tales" #3, "Daytripper" #1, and our first triple review of the "Sugarshock" one-shot!

Plus more pull-lists, news, and reviews of comics of all kinds!

So you have good reason to stick with us yet!

P.S.

You don't want to miss the sale happening at St. Mark's Comics in the East Village right now. Every back issue $10 and under... is a buck. And all the ones over $10 are half off.

You can't beat that. You just can't.

The sale lasts until Tuesday, Jan 5th.