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The Adventures of LOLBAT

I link to this partially because it’s pretty funny, and partially because I miss when PvP did funny strips instead of long, drawn-out storylines that sacrifice good daily punchlines.

WALL-E Easter Eggs | /Film

WALL-E Easter Eggs

The pizza truck was right where I thought it’d be, yet I missed it.

Nike Finally Releasing Back to the Future Part II McFly Sneakers, Sort Of

Nike Finally Releasing Back to the Future Part II McFly Sneakers, Sort Of

The Lego Mega-Guide: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego

The Lego Mega-Guide: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego

Pull List

I try constantly to limit the number of comics I read regularly, but it’s a losing battle. If I find I’m not enjoying a series, I cut it. Strange as it may sound, most comic fans read for the character and, if the book’s not good, they just complain but keep spending money on the series. For your entertainment dollar, a comic book is just too expensive for how long you spend enjoying it to read anything that you’re not really into. (In my opinion, NetFlix provides on of the best dollar-per-hour entertainment value you can find outside of the public library.)

Here are the books I’m reading right now. The list is too long, and I wish I weren’t such a sucker for superhero stories, but then again why read comic books if not for super heroes? Other genres are well served by other media.

Regular Ongoing Titles

• Action Comics
• Astonishing X-Men
• Batman
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Captain America
• Echo
• Fantastic Four
• Green Lantern
• Green Lantern Corps.
• Invincible Iron Man
• Justice Society of America
• Mighty Avengers
• New Avengers
• Scalped
• Superman

Ending Soon

• All Star Superman
• Booster Gold
• Omega the Unknown
• Matt Fraction’s Thor One-Shots

Mini-Series

• Final Crisis

Plus tie-ins Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, Final Crisis: Resist, Final Crisis: Submit, and DCU: Last Will and Testament

• Kick-Ass

• Secret Invasion

  • Ultimate Origins

Reading in trades

• Powers (trades)
• Ultimate Spider-Man (trades)
• Walking Dead (hardcovers)

Infrequent Shipping

• All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder
• Rasl

On Hiatus

• Casanova
• Fell
• Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk
• Umbrella Academy
• Young Avengers

I’m not reading Fables, and I know I should be. I own the first two trades and will pick up the others at some point. Ditto Runaways. My basic rule is that I try to read everything as a monthly unless I came in so late that it very difficult to go back and find the singles. This occasionally leads to me finding out about a series I realize I’d really like and scrambling to find the back issues to catch up, as I’ve done recently for Casanova, Immortal Iron Fist, and Scalped.

Looking over the list, there are a few writers who are strongly represented. Artists are important, but for me I care much more about the story’s content than its pencils. I’ll read anything at all that Grant Morrison writes (and in fact own most everything he’s done). Same for Joss Whedon, excepting that I need to catch up on Runaways. I’m reading all of Geoff Johns’s current output based on the strength of his Flash a few years ago and currently Green Lantern. I’d really rather not be reading Superman, but his is good. Likewise for Brian Michael Bendis. He’s a great writer whose work I adore. I’m reading a few Matt Fraction series, but I can’t bring myself to care about Punisher so I’m skipping that, and his Uncanny X-Men will have to be amazing to make me tolerate Greg Land’s artwork. Ed Brubaker’s in a similar vein as Fraction. I don’t care much about Daredevil, so I haven’t read his work on that series, and his Uncanny stuff was too much of a love letter to an era I’m not interested in, but his Captain America is a must read.

If I had to cut things from the list, I’d lose Astonishing X-Men, as Joss Whedon’s run just ended. Warren Ellis might do great things for the series, but I’m not too into the X-Men right now so I’ll give him a try, but there’s a nice clean break after Whedon. JSA is Johns’s weakest book and Mighty Avengers is Bendis’s. Mark Millar’s Fantastic Four has been fun but nothing memorable so far. Green Lantern Corps. has been hit and miss, but it worked so well with its sister title that I’ve been keeping it around. Same thing for James Robinson’s Superman. He’s a good writer so I’m going to try it out.

Two quick recommendations. Of everything from the past year(ish), the two things are sure to become classics are All Star Superman and Casanova. Check those out if you haven’t read either.

IMDb Resume for Troy McClure

IMDb Resume for Troy McClure

Sol 30

Earth’s summer solstice (the longest day of the year) was last Friday. Today is the Martian summer solstice. Mars has 668 Sols in its year, equivalent to 684 of Earth’s Days, but its moons don’t create separate seasons. New blog The Big Picture has some amazing landscapes of Mars, including a sunset, and a breathtaking view of Earth from there.

Newsarama.com : Animated Shorts: Back to the Futurama with Billy West

Newsarama.com : Animated Shorts: Back to the Futurama with Billy West

I had no idea the next Futurama DVD was out today.

Tit-for-tat by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely

Tit-for-tat by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely

Neat, ostensibly true, story about Mark Millar’s grandfather fighting the British in Ireland.

News: Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths About Wii Play, Boom Blox, More

News: Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths About Wii Play, Boom Blox, More

Looks like this could be a very effective way to see what games are worth your time.