The Ramblings of SketchyKG

My Grandfather

2006-03-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

This is quite a way to resurrect this blog, with a tribute to my Grandfather. The picture pretty much sums up the image of him I have to this day. That was him doing the things the rest of us couldn’t quite do. Gutting fish… not quite necessary on that day to make sure we would be fed, but he could do it better than the rest of us. If we wanted to eat fresh fish that day, it was up to him to do the job.

Just as I said, that is the image I had of him. Working, doing the type of things I never had to do. I honestly can say that he never had much or any advice to give me, but just being the person he was, watching him as an old man, still working, is something that had a huge impact on me. I remember him walking out of the woods with freshly cut wood on his shoulder, past our house to his own next door. I remember seeing him walking down the road to go to the church to go to work. Never driving, since he never had a license, never asking to be driven despite the fact that there were plenty of family members around who drove.

It was about 10 days ago when I found out that he had finally passed. After the toll the Alzheimer’s took the past few years, then a more recently a blood clot, stroke and bout with pneumonia, it was almost a relief to hear. Almost. It still doesn’t feel right that he’s gone. But, then I realized a few days later that with the mental deterioration he has undergone, I had mourned him about 9 months ago, when I spoke to my parents on the phone. My parents told me that he was in the hospital, but he thought he was in the logging camps that he worked in many years before. That tore me up, I got off the phone and just cried for the loss. Then the last time I saw him, about 6 months ago, he looked the same, a little plumper, but it was my Pop. But he didn’t know me. He didn’t know where he was. And it was just a really sad time for me, since he was lost to me and himself

That is the worst for me. I’ve been away from home for almost 8 years now, and in that time, that appears to have just flown by. I left with home with a quiet, happy, rock for a grandfather and then during the snippets I’ve had over the years, the changes were too drastic. But it is what it is. We make our own paths. Unfortunately, I lost my grandfather too quickly along the way on mine.

I love you Pop. I hope you are whole again upstairs and will have some fish waiting for me.

The New CBG Is Out

2004-10-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

And The Incredibles is on the cover! What a surprise!

Comics Buyer's Guide - New Format

2004-09-20T23:01:00.000-04:00

Slow going on the comic readings lately. Most of my new issues are now on order via a montly shipment on the web, so I don't have much to add. What I missed via my subscription vender, that I've been picking up hasn't moved me to write about so on to something that has.

I got the Fourth issue of the new format of CBG tonight in the mail and while I mostly like the new format, there are a few things that REALLY annoy me.

First and foremost is that every issue has and will have a Comic Book related movie on the cover. We've had two Spider-Man 2 covers, an AvP and now a Sky Captain cover, with the majority of the NEW color pages devoted to Sky Captain. I thought this was about comic books, NOT movies. I understand that they are trying to move this on the newsstands now, and that the average Joe will most likely pick it up if it has a Sky Captain cover rather than a "Green Lantern: Rebirth" cover, but guess which this subscriber would rather read about! It's getting a little much, but I think can guess what the next covers will most likely be:

#1599 - The Incredibles
#1600 - Blade: Trinity
#1601 - Elektra
#1602 - Constantine
#1603 - Batman Begins (but early, could be Smallville or something)
#1604 - Sin City

About the rest of the contents, it’s generally good to really good, but do we REALLY need another freaking price guide? I’m guessing it’s another tactic to entice Mr. Average Joe into a comic shop or onto eBay, but it’s a waste of space for the most part. Thankfully there are additional reviews on the price guide pages that doesn’t render that part of the book to a waste of tree pulp.

Finally, the CGC emphasis is pretty annoying, but again it’s presented to Mr. Average Joe that comic book INVESTMENT and collecting is now worry free thanks to the fine folks at CGC. Case in point is “The Basics” strip on pages 139 and 141 in the current issue, which is their rational while CGC is good. They follow up on page 143 is their Black and White grading section which is USELESS.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to like in the current format. I think that overall I get A LOT more bang for the buck. Before I subscribed, it would pick it up at the comic shop about once a month anyhow. Also, there are so many comics reviewed in it from current issues to older silver and bronze books. The columns are for the most part really good. It’s just a little annoying that more attention is paid to the possible newsstand buyer, rather than the guy who’s actually picked up fairly regularly in the past.

Thoughts?

And can the NHL and NHLPA sit down and try to reach an agreement?

Another Week.

2004-09-03T13:04:00.000-04:00

I have to start updating this more than once a week. Well considering the previous update was a month ago, one week isn’t too bad. Anyway, time to get on to the goods.

Another nice stack of books this week, and I’ll cover the indie books that I got. First was Video #2 from Stephen R. Buell. From a first time creator I’m getting more and more impressed by each issue. The issues that have shipped and that are solicited all have killer covers. It was the simple yet great cover of issue #1 in previews that caught my eye, and the premise that made me order it. In a nutshell it’s about the second coming of Christ, the chaos that ensues and a group of four friends reaction to the event. I thought that the first issue was pretty good, but I was left with the feeling that the story wasn’t going anywhere, but #2 has upped the ante considerably and it looks like it’ll be a great tale. Buell’s artwork takes a little getting used to, due to the interesting style, but it’s pretty polished. It’s good in black and white, but seeing the killer color covers makes me think that if the series was in color the art would be really eye catching. I highly recommend it to anyone who was intrigued by Chosen, but felt let down like I did or anyone looking for a companion book to The Walking Dead

Next up is Awakenings #2 from Eric Hobbs and Gabe Pena. This book unlike Video had a superb first issue. Great premise, a futuristic whodunit, where detective Spencer Straight is trying to track down a serial killer and it turns out that he might be the prime suspect. However, the second issue stumbled a little bit. The story was a still strong, but I felt a little out of sorts while reading it. Most of the story is told via flashbacks, and the scene transitions were a little hard to follow at times. Because of that I didn’t really get the whole plot until I finished the issue. Maybe if there was a little “what previously happened” paragraph, it would have jogged my memory and would have made for a much better read the first time through. In addition, Gabe Pena’s artwork is very strong here. I still recommend the series, and it looks like it’ll be a terrific ride. In a great move, Hobbs had the entire first issue available on the website and if anyone wants to contact me, due to me switching comic shops, I have two copies of #2. I can probably pass it along to an interested reader for free.

The World Cup is on and two games into the tournament and the USA team is 0-2, after two disappointing performances. They looked very outclassed most of the game by a skilled Russia team last night, and were lucky that Robert Esche had a second strong game to keep them in it. If their play doesn’t soon improve, the USA will be done in two more games. And since they won the previous World Cup in 1996, it would be a huge disappointment for the team.

Finally, to the NHL and NHLPA: SETTLE THE COLLECTIVE BARGINING AGREEMENT!

It's Never Enough

2004-08-27T14:40:00.000-04:00

Whew. I feel like I'm just getting back into the regular swing of things, one month later. I finally got some of my auctions restarted on eBay again and that's a sense of normalcy. Moving out some of the books that I've read and I'm ready to move out of the limited space I try to keep for my collection. It's currently up to about 9 long boxes, so it's time to move some stuff.

I guess it's pretty funny that I sold my NYX issues #1-4. I finally got fed up with the waiting on the subsequent issues, and now that the series is finished with #7, I'm dropping it. Now, if I could cancel my preorder of #6, I'll be all set.

With the move to the our house and the immediate vacation, I had a pile of 20 or more comics to pick up at my comic shop a couple of weeks ago. I'm after reading a lot of it, and there was a few gems in there that I took a chance on. First, the first two issues of Small Gods was in there, and I must say I'm enjoyed them quite a bit. So far it's a pretty damn good mix of police procedural and psychic abilities. However, the urban myth "humans only use 10% of their brains" was used as an explanation for the psychic abilities. That is a little annoying, but for the most part it's OK to use common misinformation for this premise.

There was also issues 8 and 9 of The Walking Dead. This is probably my favorite series being published today. Robert Kirkman has put a real atmosphere of danger in this comic, and the interaction between the cast is terrific. It is no holds barred every issue. The cliffhanger ending to #9 is proof of that. If you are not buying this comic, I feel sorry for you.

Finally, I picked up Type O Negative's The Least Worst of Type O Negative, which is well worth the price of the CD for 12 Black Rainbows, It's Never Enough and Stay out of My Dreams. I can't believe I waited so long to pick it up.

The Money Pit?

2004-07-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

Well, hopefully not! But today my wife and I took "big plunge" number two and finally closed on our first house! And the downside right now is that I have to start mowing our new lawn, and after years of not having to worry about lawn-care as a tenet.

But at least now we'll have a home and not watch all our housing money go tax benefit free to a landlord. It makes me ill to think of all the money that I paid out in rent over the years. Now, at least some of the money that we'll be paying will be paying off our house wit some tax benefits.

The bottom line is we really like the house and we're looking forward to moving in. That said I'm not looking forward to the painting and cleaning over the next few days.

Who Watches Aronofsky?

2004-07-23T19:51:00.000-04:00

So the good news today is that Darren Aronofsky is now attached to direct Watchmen and he looks to be a great fit. Looking at his last two movies, Pi and Requiem For a Dream, one wouldn't think that his work screams super-hero. But from these two great movies, one can easily see that Aronofsky is a gifted director with great vision.

But, he was attached to the upcoming Batman Begins initially. He is also attached to another comic book based movie, Lone Wolf and Cub. From an old interview he talks about how he went to Frank Miller to initially adapt Ronin and then Batman. He also mentioned that "Watchmen was a great piece."

So it looks like Aronofsky is a good director who loves and has respect for the source material. Which is usually the best place to start.

Ready for the Outrage!

2004-07-23T19:17:00.000-04:00

Take a real world political figure, and put him in a comic book and if the American Power flap tells us anything, it should be instant controversy.

John Kerry is going to be fictionalized in Sword of Dracula. Get ready to not hear a peep. It's sad really.

Great News From SDCC!

2004-07-22T23:29:00.000-04:00

Another Batman mini-series is on the way! The race for the most overexposed character continues and I'd have to think that Bats is pulling ahead of Spidey!

More Manga!

2004-07-22T11:35:00.000-04:00

This is something that drives some people crazy. The announcement of a Warcraft Manga. Only is it really Manga? TokyoPop claims it is. And of course it's in their best interest to do so. I'm sure that one of the company's future business plans is to produce "Manga" for distribution back to Japan, and actually I think they currently are doing so.

So what's the problem? Well I have no problems here. However, some folks get really upset if one calls a non-Japanese produced comic Manga. And as the story reports, it'll be written by Richard Knaack, who's Dragonlance novel The Legend of Huma is getting hacked up pretty good by DBPro. Jae Hwan Kim, a Korean, will be handling the art. So we have an American property, an American company, an American writer (I'm pretty sure) and a Korean artist creating a "Japanese Comic."

So is this Manga or just a comic? Should we care? Probably not since the current grandmasters of Manga, TokyoPop, calls it Manga so it must be.
And the funny thing I guess if they just called it a "comic" the eventual end sales wouldn't be as good.

What's worse?

2004-07-21T22:51:00.000-04:00

Well, what's better? A Green Lantern movie staring Jack Black or no Green Lantern movie? We what to see all our super-heros on the big screen, but the adaptations MUST be exactly like the funny books right?

I liked the Green Lantern for quite a few years. And my favorite Green Lantern was always Guy Gardner. Was he the prototypical do-gooder? No. He was an jerk. But a fun jerk. Hal was great too, but I always had more fun reading Guy's adventures.

So now, a movie is in the works that is going to turn the Green Lantern mythos into an off the wall comedy. Well, its not too far from some of the uses of the ring powers. Giant baseball bats, and fly-swatters. A weakness to a sharpened HB pencil.

So will it suck? Maybe, but I don't think it's time to start an outcry against it the second the initial details are leaked.

First Post!

2004-07-21T22:01:00.000-04:00

You see it on all the comic news sites... like it's a badge of honor.

Electric Blue Superman is Back!

First Post!

Well this is the first post to my BLOG. Or is it blog? Whatever. More to come I guess.