Cheap Thrills - THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER #224

Author's Note: This Column originally ran on Comics Bulletin

In these economic times, finding inexpensive entertainment is difficult. Thank goodness for the local comic shop and a slew of comics nobody cares about anymore! Each week Daniel Elkin randomly grabs a comic from the bargain bin (for 50 cents) to see what kind of bang he can get for his two-bits. These are those tales.

August 10, 2011 – paid 50 cents for:
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER #224
Published by: DC Comics
Written by: Bob Haney
Art by: Dick Ayers and Romeo Tanghal

BUT I NEED THE BEST! AND WAR IS NEVER FAIR!

So it’s February, 1979 and you’re trying to figure out the world. Sid Vicious has died, Ayatollah Khomeini has taken power in Iran, Patty Hearst has had her sentence commuted by Jimmy Carter, Rod Stewart’s all over the radio with “Do You Think I’m Sexy”, and Jennifer Love Hewitt is born.

The average cost of a new house is $58,100, your average annual income is $17,500, a gallon of gas costs 86 cents, and a Sony Walkman costs $200.

In February 1979, you walk into your local convenience store and there on the spinner rack is The Unknown Soldier #224 from DC Comics. Joe Kubert’s cover art catches your eye, as does the text box in the corner promising you that “The Soldier fights his strangest battle on ‘The Plane That Never Lands!’” You pay your 40 cents for the book (along with whatever a can of Coke and a Snickers Bar cost at that time), walk out the door, and head on home.

You open the first page of the comic and are quickly thrown for a loop. Your excitement to read “The Plane That Never Lands” is quickly supplanted by the confusion you feel by being presented with a story called “Welcome to Valhalla!”

REVIEWING NEW COMICS

The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury Volume 1: Time Runs Out

Writer: Brandon Thomas

Artist: Lee Ferguson

Publisher: Archaia

Reviewer Rating: 4.5 bullets

Author's Note: The Review Originally Ran on Comics Bulletin

For the most part, we conceive time in a linear fashion. What happened a moment ago is what we call the past. What is happening right this moment is what we refer to as the present. The countless experiences we are going to have to endure after this moment, we call the future. But the more we learn about how we conceive of time, the more fluid our definition of it must become.

Why am I beginning a review of the new hardcover collection of The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury from Archaia Comics with a discussion about our understanding of time? Because time is what this book is really all about.

Sure, on his website Brandon Thomas, Miranda Mercury’s writer/creator, will say this about his main character:

She’s the greatest adventurer in this, or any other galaxy, the kind of old-fashioned, classic science-fiction heroine that can successfully defeat The Time Raiders of Xaxium, brave the wonders of The Glass Planet, survive The Perils of Yor, and battle The Infinity Class to a veritable standstill!

And this is a fairly accurate description of the character. Miranda Mercury does, indeed, kick some serious ass. She’s got the moves, the sass, the smarts, and the strategy to make her a great action hero, and the stories in this collection have plenty of action and are really fun to read. I don’t want to make a big deal out of the fact that here we have a comic book hero who is both female and black (although in the wake of recent events this is certainly something that should be acknowledged), but it is truly refreshing to have this character be the sort of hero she is, neither in spite of or because of her gender or race.

Sometimes Chickens wear Boots

Nice Boots, Chicken.

New York Telephone Conversation

New York Telephone Conversation (unofficial) from Merlin Nation on Vimeo.

Your Chicken Enemy

Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities

How can cities help save the future? Alex Steffen shows some cool neighborhood-based green projects that expand our access to things we want and need -- while reducing the time we spend in cars.

LOU REED IS YOUR CHICKEN ENEMY!

Lou Reed - Modern Dance - Director of Photography - Scott Galinsky from scott galinsky on Vimeo.

Cheap Thrills - FOOLKILLER #6

CHEAP THRILLS

Random Pulls from the Bargain Bin

This Column Originally Ran On COMICS BULLETIN.

In these economic times, finding inexpensive entertainment is difficult. Thank goodness for the local comic shop and a slew of comics nobody cares about anymore! Each week Daniel Elkin randomly grabs a comic from the bargain bin (for 50 cents) to see what kind of bang he can get for his two-bits. These are those tales.

August 3, 2011 – paid 50 cents for:
FOOLKILLER #6
Published by: Marvel Comics
Created by: Steve Gerber, J. J. Birch, and Vincent Giarrano

FISHY, FISHY, FIH- HIH—

On March 2, 1991, Del Ballard Jr. threw a gutter ball during a PBA match. This was also the day that the Gulf War, for all intents and purposes, ended. The next day, March 3, 1991, LA Police beat Rodney King in front of a camera for all the world to see.

On the 14th of March, 1991, Kurt Browning won the Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Munich. Later, on the 21st, Tatsumi Fujinami defeated Ric Flair for the NWA Wrestling Championship.

One day later High School teacher Pamela Smart was found guilty of getting her student/lover to kill her husband. Then, on the 31st of March, 1991, in Phoenix, Arizona, former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce attacked a transvestite prostitute.

Do you see where I am going with all this?

Neither do I.

But it does provide an interesting backdrop for the release of Foolkiller #6, this week’s Cheap Thrill, and let me tell you, it’s the perfect backdrop.

This comic is brutal. I mean really brutal, especially for a mainstream publication.

See This Movie: COLONY

Sometimes the most universal truths can be found in the smallest slices of life. That’s what makes independent documentaries so powerful, engaging, and entertaining.  Not only do they show you little worlds to which you’ve never had access, but they oftentimes also tell the larger story of what it means to be human. Armed with this intellectual conceit, a bag of Funyuns, and a couple of Miller beers, I curl up in front of the TV and delve deep into the bowels of Netflix Documentaries to find out a little bit more about all of us.

Today I found 2009’s Colony: The Endangered World of Bees by Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell.

Colony is a movie about beekeeping. It is a documentary about the still as yet unexplained phenomenon that is killing millions of honey bees worldwide known as Colony Collapse Disorder and its ramifications on our food supply. It is a film about our current economic meltdown and what people are going through in order to survive. It examines questions of our faith in both religion and science. Colony is also about how humans interact with each other and provides insight into our shared humanity.

When we think of beekeepers, often times we think of those sweet smelling grizzled hippy looking gentlemen we see at Farmer’s Markets selling their hand bottled artisan honey and offering the kids free samples of dripping honeycomb chunks. Colony is not about those beekeepers.

Your Chicken Enemy

Creativity.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared from This Is It on Vimeo.

Cheap Thrills - G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES #1

CHEAP THRILLS

Random Pulls from the Bargain Bin

AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON COMICS BULLETIN

In these economic times, finding inexpensive entertainment is difficult. Thank goodness for the local comic shop and a slew of comics nobody cares about anymore! Each week Daniel Elkin randomly grab a comic from the bargain bin (for 50 cents) to see what kind of bang he can get for his two-bits. These are those tales.

July 27, 2011 – paid 50 cents for:
G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES #1
Published by Blazing Comics(part of Argosy Communications)
Written by: Chuck Dixon
Art by: Sam Glanzman

HOLD THE RUMPUS, YOU TWO.

Do you remember twenty years ago? 1991? It was the year the Soviet Union collapsed and we fought the first Gulf War (bringing the words “Scud” and “Sortiee” into the national lexicon).

The Dow Jones closed above 3,000 for the first time ever, Mike Tyson was arrested for rape, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for murder, the Minnesota Twins won the World Series, and “The Perfect Storm” ripped up the northeastern United States.

Remember 1991? The Super Nintendo was released; as was Nirvana’s Nevermind (which I still think is somehow more than coincidental). 1991 also saw the deaths of Serge Gainsbourg, Doc Pomus, Klaus Kinski, Freddie Mercury, and Dr. Seuss.

In 1991 the average cost of a new home was $120,000, the average US citizen’s annual income was $29, 430, the average US rent was $495, and a gallon of gas cost $1.12.

1991 also saw Blazing Comics releasing the Chuck Dixon/Sam Glanzman atrocity, G-8 and his Battle Aces #1, and a little bit of all of died because of it.

G-8 and his Battle Aces was apparently based on characters which appeared in the novel, The Green Scourge of the Sky Raiders by Robert Hogan, which itself was originally published in the May 1940 issue of G-8 and his Battle Aces Magazine. I know this because the front flap of the comic tells me this. How an entire novel was published in the pages of a pulp magazine is a concept I am having difficulty wrapping my head around, but I accept it as a matter of faith because I am convinced that Chuck Dixon would never lie to me.

I must warn you up front that in the opinion of this humble reviewer, the front flap of this comic is its high point.

You have been forewarned.

Now let us continue. I will try to make this as quick and as painless an operation as possible.

Julian Treasure: 5 ways to listen better

In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, "We are losing our listening." In this short, fascinating talk, Treasure shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening -- to other people and the world around you.

Your Chicken Enemy

Contains no Chickens, but Makes up For this Absence with Toast and Eyeballs.

Now that you've seen this everywhere else, why not see it here?