Falling back to comics!

I AM RESTED! Its Sunday, November 6, 2011, I fell back, and this is The Side! I love this weekend. I get a whole extra hour to sleep. It used to be fun when I work at the bar and was telling everyone it was time to go. There'd always be at least one person who would try to say we'd be open an extra hour. The clocks actually roll back at 2AM (that's the facts, Jack!) and that was when the bar closes. One woman looked at me aghast and told me she had a whole limo of people coming. Too damn bad.

I never liked that annoying broad anyhow.

COMIX!!

USAGI YOJIMBO #141 tops us off this week. This is a very significant issue because its the 200th issue of comic Stan Sakai has done. That puts him in a very elite spot that he shares only with Dave Sim with his work on CEREBUS. And the great this is, the book is just as enjoyable after all this time. The back cover features all 200 covers of the comics and is really neat stuff. On to the book itself, its a fun read. This issue is a stand alone but it touches back to the "Murder at the inn" story that wrapped up last issue. The bandit in that story kept talking about his brother and how tough and terrible he was. Seems the brother has taken over a town with his gang. There's also a neat bit here in that a sculpture in this town had a dream that the town would be rid of the bandits if he sculpted 200 little statues, called Jizo. By the end of the book the sculptor is asked if he would continue to make the Jizo since he completed 200, and he said he would as long as his hands let him. Here's to that.

THE GOON #36 pits The Goon and Frankie up against one of their toughest opponents yet: The Queen of Burlesque! The drinkin', smokin', strippin' machine! Roxi Dlite! Dlite is a real life burlesque performer and here she is guest starring. This was a hoot and a half. Ridiculous sex. Ridiculous violence. A bunch of laugh out loud moments. Its a goof caper story with a stolen knick knack. Eric Powell always knocks it out of the park. Its hard to give much detail because every time you turn the page, two things smack you right in the face: its wall-to-wall nuts, and its a really great comic.

The boys from Primal Paper are back with THE BAKU #1. Mike Fererali (THE SKYROCKET) teams up with Drew Moss for this one. This is flat out the best book Primal Paper has put out yet. Yes, I do have a soft spot for these because I know most of them. Yes, I do know Mike and Drew. I like Mike and Drew. Its hard to give a review on something from people you like especially when its not the best thing ever. Fortunately, I have no problems here. Mike's writing is his sharpest yet. Drew is probably one of the best artists you haven't heard of. This book is great. Its a supernatural western. The main character, Baku, reminds me a lot of Jaeger Ayers, from Carla Speed McNeil's FINDER. Baku isn't knock off though and has plenty of his own quirks. The first issue gives us a great introduction to the character and the world without reading like an instruction manual. Its fun and weird and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this series.

We'll wrap things up with an early review of 41 #4 which will be available this week. This is also from Primal Paper, and I did say that THE BAKU was the best book they've put out so far. This comic is one hell of a follow up. This is the best issue yet. It wraps up the ongoing story in brutal fashion. I'm reminded a bit of the anime feature X in which we have all these character pop up and is obvious that they all have their own stories and are interesting, but with what they're up against you know they don't have much of a chance. Still, if Bill and his crew are going down, they're going down swinging and with lots of company. The production on this comic has gone way up since issue 3. The book looks great. The writing by Bob Frantz is tight. There's still a couple of holes here and there that I have questions about, but they don't hold up the story at all. Its a last stand story for this arc's last issue, and it goes out in style. Great work.

MUSIC!!

That's right! I'm posting a song by a violinist! Because I'm classy, and tasteful, and shit.



That's a wrap for me. Hm, with all my extra rest, does that mean I don't need to brew an coffee?

MADNESS!

See y'all Wednesday.

No comments: