Dead and Deader

American Vampire 2: Skinner Sweet and friend

With the start of the new season of “True Blood” and next month’s release of the “True Blood” comic it seemed a good a time as any to tap into the current popularity of the undead – both newly dead and long dead.

In other words, zombies and vampires.

The real Henry VIII (top) and Showtime's Henry VIII (above)

My expertise in all things vampire stems mostly from reading all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels released to date and avidly watching “True Blood.” But that’s not a bad thing: For awhile all of my knowledge of Henry VIII came from the semi-pornographic Showtime series “The Tudors,” but that got me to read real history books about Henry VIII. And quite truthfully, if Showtime’s Henry

VIII looked like the real Henry VIII and not Jonathan Rhys Meyers, it surely wouldn’t have captured me quite as it did and I wouldn’t have learned all that history about the Tudors. So All I have to say to all those people who say TV rots the brain is this: Bite me.

So I’ll be camped out on Sunday nights to watch “True Blood,” just like I have every Sunday for the past two seasons, but really, vampires are so yesterday.

Zombies are the new vampires.

Admittedly, they’re not as glamorous as the pasty-faced beauties in “Twilight” or the über randy “True Blood” characters, but they do seem to be enjoying popularity lately. Consider “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” or the “The Zombie Survival Guide.” Most of what I know about zombies is from the comic “Living with the Dead,” which is a sort of “Bros before hos” look at the end of the world, and “Shaun of the Dead.”

All of this leads us to a couple of my new favorite comic book series: “American Vampire” and “The Walking Dead.”

'No, really, I'm NOT like all the other vampires.'

American Vampire

Each new issue of American Vampire has me bolting down to the comic book store to snap up the most current installment of this Scott Snyder/Stephen King collaboration that has great art by Rafael Albuquerque. It’s two intersecting stories in one: The first about Pearl who wants to be a movie star and the second is about Skinner Sweet, an outlaw-turned — you guessed it — American Vampire.

Sweet is a completely new species of vampire, and as an American, the first of his kind, turned by some Old-World bloodsuckers. And boy is he pissed.

Sweet (top) & Skarsgard (above)

In Pearl’s story it’s 1925 – 45 years later then the start of Skinner Sweet’s story. Pearl, who works three jobs in her quest for stardom, is delighted when she’s invited to a party at the posh digs of producer B.D. Bloch. Of course, she gets more than she asks for and is almost sucked dry by the old-school vampires who are hanging with Bloch. Do you think that’s a metaphor for Hollywood?

Anyways, she’s on the verge of death when Skinner Sweet, who’s been lounging around the swimming pool at her rooming house —and hasn’t aged a day — takes pity on her and turns her.

Pearl is another of the new vampire breed, an evolving species. She and Skinner aren’t the oversexed vampires of “True Blood,” nor are they the nauseatingly moral vampires in “Twilight,” or even the aristocratic Old-World vampires that originally turned Sweet in the old West. Sweet and Pearl have a taste for blood — both literally and figuratively — and they have big sharp teeth and razor-sharp long nails with which to extract their vengeance.

I haven’t settled on the casting of Pearl yet, but I’m thinking Alexander Skarsgard as Skinner Sweet in a movie version, should it ever be made.

The next issue comes out Wednesday.

The Walking Dead

“The Walking Dead” isn’t new, but it’s new to me, so I’m lucky enough to be able to gobble up the 11 TPBs one after another so I can enjoy the story without having to wait for a new installment every few weeks — at least until I finish # 11, anyways.

I just finished #5.

“The Walking Dead” is, of course, about mindless, flesh-eating, rotting, shuffling zombies and the few people who managed not to die and turn into the undead thanks to some unexplained – at least by #5 – phenomenon.

Rick sets off in search of his family

The main character is Rick, who was shot by a criminal and taken to the hospital where he lapses into a coma. When he wakes up almost everyone is dead and zombies are roaming the earth, trying to kill what survivors there are. Quick as a wink, Rick is off to find his family. On the way he finds another survivor who takes him to more survivors, which, lo and behold, include his bitchy, cheating wife and his son. A bit too neat for my taste, but hey, who knows how things will shake out during a zombie apocalypse.

Every time I buy one of these TPBs, I read straight though until I’m done. I can’t put them down. It’s always something new with these survivors; someone dies, someone hooks up, someone accidentally lets a

The reclining dead

bunch of zombies in. And apocalypse or no apocalypse, a lot of what happens is due to nothing more than the nasty side of human nature, which in “The Walking Dead,” doesn’t die with the death of civilization as we know it. Seems pretty realistic, if you ask me.

AMC has six episodes of the story in production and the TV adaptation of the series is set to start in October. According to press reports, AMC’s not going to hold back on the gore — and it will probably look even more gory in color as opposed to the black and white of the comic book. I’d suggest keeping the kiddies away from this one.

For your viewing pleasure are a couple of early photos that have been released. Bon apetit!

Rick sets off in search of his family

The reclining dead

B is for Batman

Well this certainly didn’t go as planned – I was supposed to do a weekly blog item on comics, based on a different letter each week. By now I should be up to about ‘I’ or ‘J’ but instead I’m at ‘B.’

I guess Batman was a no-brainer, although it required Ian to suggest it because I was frozen with indecision.

So he lent me his copy of “The Dark Knight Returns,” which was really quite nice of him, and, although it’s been two months since he loaned it to me, hasn’t asked for it back yet. Then again, he’s been holding my Issue 1 of “American Vampire” and my hardcover copy of “Kickass” as ransom. Well played, Mr. Clark. Well played.

“The Dark Knight Returns” takes place sometime in the future, yet at the 80s at the same time. There is a Ronald Reagan-esque president, Robin is dead and Batman has retired, is 55 years old and facing his own mortality. And things aren’t going so well in Gotham: There are Mutants running amok, Two-Face is on the loose and the Joker is up to his usual pranks.

Gotham needs a hero, so Bruce Wayne returns to crime-fighting — some guys buy a sports car when they hit mid-life; Batman goes back to battling the bad guys. But he’s not quite in the shape he used to be. It’s like “Take that mutant! Oy, my hip.” What do you expect, the guy IS 55 after all. My husband is 55 and I’m trying to picture him in a cape and cowl fighting crime on the mean streets. I’m having a little trouble with that. But he does grill a mean steak and makes a killer Margarita, and really, that’s a pretty good talent that makes the world a better place, too.

Fortunately for the Batman, help is at hand in the person of Carrie Kelly, a 13-year-old who wants to be Batman’s sidekick although I don’t know why she’s so eager to get the job. Seems to me it’s a job that doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of job security. But she’s definitely up for it — she buys a Robin costume (oh the irony!), leaps a few buildings for practice and saves Batman’s life. Holy Halloween, Batman! She’s the new Robin – albeit with a with a wicked pompadour and funky Bono glasses.

The bad guys are all pretty over the top, which is a Batman hallmark. There are the Mutants, a group of retro-futuristic bad guys that look like something out of the “Road Warrior,” which, by the way, I saw for the first time while in London in the early 80s at a bar on Queensway. The bartender loved it and seemed to have it on an endless loop.

That really has nothing to do with anything but it is kind of a nice memory.

Meanwhile, Harvey Dent/Two-Face has returned to a life of crime and while Batman defeats him, all the TV talking heads start debating the merits of vigilantism and pretty much don’t shut up for the rest of the story. Then the Joker wakes up from a catatonic state and wrangles his way out of Arkham Asylum only to start driving people crazy with a weird lipstick that obviously wasn’t approved by the FDA. The Joker gives Batman a run for his money, but as the caped crusader closes in, he breaks his own neck. You gotta give props to someone who can break their own neck. He does it so people will think Batman did it, the police will arrest him and the populace turn on him. But Batman gets away.

“The Dark Knight” returns doesn’t have the lush artwork of some comics and it’s densely written – meaning there’s a whole lot of writing – so it’s a bit meatier than some of your everyday comics. It’s a dark, gritty novel that I’m told, like “Watchmen”, changed the comic landscape — it was named among Time magazines 10 best English language graphic novels ever written. Although not everyone agreed with that assessment. Mordecai Richler, in his 1987 review in the New York Times, wrote: “If this book is meant for kids, I doubt that they will be pleased. If it is aimed at adults, they are not the sort I want to drink with.”

Critics. What do they know? There aren’t that many people I’d want to drink with anyways.

What I read this week

Gosh, it’s been a long time since I was here. This new job involves a lot of hours, leaving me little time (or energy) to do this blog.

When I first learned of the promotion, my initial thought was “If I get a raise, I can buy more comics.” I just didn’t realize that I wouldn’t have time to read them.

Fortunately, this weekend I was able to catch up on a few comics (AND go to Granite State Comicon, where I got a couple more). So here for your reading pleasure is some of what I read this week.

I promise to come back soon.

I, Zombie #1

Loved it. No surprise there since I’ve been eagerly awaiting I, Zombie’s release since it was first mentioned on Vertigo’s blog many months ago. It seemed like such a — pardon me — delicious concept: Gwen works as a grave-digger. Her best friend is a ghost and, oh yeah, Gwen’s a zombie. Here’s the twist: When she eats a brain, she “sees” how the person died. In this first issue, as she chomps away, she “sees” that the recently deceased was murdered and she vows to find out who did it. Kind of like Nancy Drew meets Night of the Living Dead.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #91

I got this one at a flea market and it’s hilarious. On the cover Superman is holding Jimmy up in the air by the collar and Jimmy’s saying “You don’t scare me, super-fink. I’m no stoolie.”

Turns out that “Superman” is a robot owned by the dreaded biker gang the Dragons. Jimmy’s trying to infiltrate the Dragons so he can get a big scoop for the Daily Planet. What pluck! Robin – yes, that Robin – even crosses over to lend a hand. I hope I’m not giving anything away by telling you Jimmy gets the scoop.

In the last strip he’s seen riding off on his motorcycle a la The Wild One with a babe on the back. Quite a stud, that Jimmy.

The Return of Bruce Wayne #1

In this time-traveling Batman story, Bruce Wayne mystifies the locals – mostly because they’re cavemen and he’s crash-landed a rocket, which they refer to in their droll way as his “sky-cart.”

Bruce Wayne seems pretty bewildered and we find out later his superhero buddies are looking for him. They reveal to us that Bruce Wayne has no memory of who he is and what’s happening to him. I know the feeling; I’ve had a few days like that myself.

Here’s the kicker: According to Superman, if Batman returns to the 21^st century on his own everyone dies. Yikes! Things could get tricky.

I can’t wait to get the next issue, especially since at the end of issue #1 he ends up in the time of the pilgrims. Expect a little bit of culture clash.

Girls’ Romances #135

This is another flea market buy. It was hard to resist this wonderfully over-the-top cover. Inside it’s just as side-splitting, although I suspect it wasn’t meant to be.

The issue has several suspenseful (not) tales of romance, all with happy endings, except for the last one which is a cliff-hanger. “Is this the end of the road for Karen and Kip? … You learn the answers in Part 2 of this heart-rending story, in the next issue of Girls’ Romance.”

Whatever. I thought Kip was kind of a creep anyways.

The two best things about the issue were a center spread on “Mad, Mad Modes for Moderns” that showcases some pretty groovy fashion ideas and “Julia Roberts, Romance Counselor.” What training do you need to be a romance counselor, do you think?

The Dark Knight for Mothers Day

Being something of a geek mom means I get pretty non-traditional gifts from my family.  At Christmas, among other things, I got a Green Lantern ornament from my husband and a glow-in-the-dark Green Lantern T-shirt from my son. For my anniversary, my husband gave me gift certificates to the comic book store.

Mothers Day was no different. Last night we all went to see Iron Man 2 in IMAX to celebrate, and yesterday, on our weekly trip to the comic book store, my son bought Brightest Day and gave me the white power ring for my collection. Nothing says “Mom” quite like a power ring, no?

But my big gift was something my husband and son saw at an auction and knew would be perfect for Mothers Day. Here it is in all its awesomeness:

Holy light-up effigy, Batman!

Does my family love me, or what?

It is a numbered Headlights Wall Sculpture from 1992 and I think it’s the coolest thing ever. Now I just have to decide where to put it. I’m thinking it would look perfect in my new office, but maybe that’s a little over the top. What do you think?

Stark Reality

#127

To get in the spirit of the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie, I’ve been reading a little vintage Iron Man this week — in this case, issues #127-130 of The Invincible Iron Man from 1979.

First of all, this 1979 Tony Stark is no Robert Downey Jr.

Tony Stark, meet Robert Goulet.

He looks a lot more like Robert Goulet – so much so that I kept expecting him to break out in a comic book version of “Those Were the Days.” He didn’t, but I kept an eye on him.

In issue #127, Tony Stark is a very wealthy industrialist who lives in a fabulous house, designs high-tech stuff, woos women and drinks. This guy is the Barbie of superheroes. He has everything.

#128

Occasionally he shucks his leisure suit and dons an armored suit and cruises the world as Iron Man. In this one, Iron Man fights off a whole super army (a woman villain named Man-Killer? Really?) , clears himself of a murder charge, stands up his bodyguard girlfriend Bethany and sinks into a deep depression realizing that, despite the good he does as Iron Man, without the suit he’s just a rich, drunken cad who brings trouble on himself.

By issue #128, Tony Stark is deep into the bottle and he’s in trouble. You think you’ve got problems? Tony Stark’s butler quits on him. Now that’s a real problem. It’s hard to find good help. Especially when you’re drunk.

#129

The guy’s a wreck, but still, he puts on his costume. Then he crashes through the window and “helps” at a train wreck where he drops the car that happens to be filled with deadly chlorine gas (he forgot to check the car’s weight ratio with his sensors) and causes an evacuation. No one is amused. Fortunately Bethany comes to the rescue and gets him to dry out, but by the end of the comic, he’s lost control of Stark Industries.

#130

In the next two issues, he gets his company back and battles Dreadnought, goes to Hong Kong and defeats a supernatural/high-tech “demon” and once again, saves the world. Tony Stark’s a busy guy.

For some reason, nobody seems to notice that every time Tony Stark disappears from the scene, Iron Man shows up. Luckily he keeps his suit in a briefcase and he can change in a flash. I just don’t understand how he can fit that suit in there with all the stuff it has. It’s kind of like all those clowns they jam into the little Shriner cars; there’s no way they can all fit in there, but they just keep coming out.

Check this out:

Repulsor rays, sensor scan and plexiglass shields ...

... built-in foam ducts and image projector

You’d think having all the money in the world PLUS an adamantium, electric-powered, refractory-coated armor suit that has repulsion rays, sensor scanners, super strength, an image projector and reverse magnetism (to name a few) would make Tony Stark a happy man, but it doesn’t. Like many good superheroes, he’s conflicted – much like Bruce Wayne, but with a sense of humor.

Iron Man 2 opens May 7. Here’s the trailer for your viewing pleasure:

Great Comic Book Moments

And now, a nod to next week’s Iron Man 2 premier:

An iPad iMpasse

Tax time has come and gone and the IRS was kind enough to give us back some of our hard-earned money this year in the form of a tax refund. My husband, being the swell guy he is, has suggested I take some of the refund to get the one thing my heart desires: an iPad.

The object of my desire

Hey some girls like diamonds; I like shiny things of a more mechanical nature. And the iPad is currently the shiniest thing on the block.

I want one.

Or do I?

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been poring over articles on the ‘Net in an effort to determine whether I should buy or wait. The husband says wait until the next generation. He’s an IT guy who believes in the sanctity of the PC and loathes Apple computers, dismissing them as “toys.” So I have to take his advice — even if in my heart I know it’s sound —with a grain of salt.

So I read. I read things like “Should I buy an iPad” (my score says absolutely); “Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either)”; “I Bought an iPad and I Love It. Everyone Else Loves It, Too”; and “Apple iPad Review: 9 Worst Things About The Apple Tablet.”

I am conflicted.

So I break it down to pros and cons. Cons: No camera (meh, I don’t care), no Flash (could be a problem), no multitasking (is that a pro or a con?), no USB (that means buying an adapter that’s going to add to the price).

Pros: C’mon it’s an iPad for goodness sake!

And, of course, it has what is, from all I’ve read, a pretty awesome comic app. Which, at first seemed like a plus, but now I’m not so sure it is. Sure it’s a nice delivery vehicle for crisp, colorful pages and it’s probably great for the comic book publishers, but what is it going to do to comic book stores — you know, the comfortable, homey place with the nice people who help you out and let you browse all day long through racks and racks of comic books. The place where they order special orders issues for you, stock action figures, T-shirts and TPBs. At least that’s what my comic book store is like — I know not everyone is lucky enough to have the same experience. But those of us who do have a great store nearby have a very real interest in what the iPad does to the local comic shop.

These people have built a business from the ground up and it has to be a little scary for them to consider the possibilities the iPad holds. Free delivery, $1.99 comics. On the surface it sounds great, but there’s something it doesn’t offer me and that’s human interaction. I suppose that’s fine if you’re, like, agoraphobic or something, but it’s important to me. Every weekend my son and I head to Double Midnight Comics in Manchester, N.H.,  for our weekly comic book fix. My son is 16; he’s becoming an adult. He doesn’t have much time — nor should he — for his mom, but he makes the weekly trek with me, we get something to eat and we talk. It may only be for a couple of hours a week, but it’s a couple of hours a lot of parents aren’t able to get at this point in their kids’ lives. And it’s thanks to comics and our local shop. Can an iPad do that?

So will I buy an iPad? I still don’t know, but I do know that no matter how slick the comic book app is, I’m inclined not to buy into that part of it. I know, I’m probably swimming against the tide, but this is one time I’m choosing low-tech over high-tech.