Martian Tripods by Tony Millionaire (review roundup)

Tripods and Ringwraiths from The Art of Tony Millionaire (blame the low quality images on me):

Prepare to set sail on a drunken fever dream of dollies, apes, and exotic mysteries that, once seen, can never be un-seen! The Art of Tony Millionaire collects illustrations, comics, stories, photographs, and anecdotes from the man once referred to as "Beefy McManus" by the late rock star "Rocky Stardomes". . . the one and only Tony Millionaire! Thrill to never-before-seen illustrations that have made women gasp and grown men gasp, too! Partake in the beautiful genius of the only cartoonist in the history of mankind to have won five Eisner Awards, three Harvey Awards, and an Ignatz! He also won Best Marksman at summer camp when he was twelve, but lost the Art Competition in high school to a girl who drew a lovely ear of corn! Stand in Awe that a 200-page book by the creator of the Cartoon Network's Drinky Crow Show will cost you only $39.95! Now, finally, more than ever . . . The Art of Tony Millionaire.

I enjoyed the book much more than I expected since I was never a big fan of his strips from the LA Weekly. Partly, that's because there's quite a bit of art in the book that has little to do with Maakies. But the best part of the book is actually the autobiographical photos and text. Tony's a very interesting guy (to the extent the text is truthful), and talks about being raised by hippies, selling prints in Rome by scamming tourists, begging for work, and drinking too much. Also, he wore an admiral's uniform, with sword, to his senior prom. The Art of Tony Millionaire is 34% off at Amazon.You'll have to buy the book to see a photo of Tony and his prom date.

And a few more reviews:

1. I've only read about thirty pages of SuperFreakonomics, and I've already learned that Indian women have an unusually high risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease because condoms are simply too big for the average Indian man. Also, there used to be so much excess horse manure that it would be piled sixty feet high in vacant lots. Now, it's a valuable commodity. This won't be a surprise to anyone who's familiar with Dubner and Leavitt, but the book is fascinating and easy to read. (However, the book's cover is possibly the ugliest in my home.) 46% off at Amazon.

2. All-Star Superman Volume 2: Well, I certainly give an A+ to the art by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant. The writing's fine (although a little Bizarro speak goes a long way), but in light of how much I disliked the last few comics I read by Grant Morrison, I have to give most of the credit to the art team. 32% off at Amazon.


3. Fantastic Four World's Greatest: Best Fantastic Four story I've read in years, but that's not saying very much. Not as good as Millar and Hitch's run on Ultimates. For the record, my favorite FF story was when Reed and Sue journeyed through a black hole with the Silver Surfer in search of the Elders of the Universe. (Of course, that was really a Silver Surfer story...) 22% off at Amazon.

4. Real Heroes Firefighters for the Wii: The controls are a little unforgiving, and the mission objectives can be a tough to figure out, but all in all, at $30, it's a no-brainer purchase for anyone with a young boy. The missions are surprisingly varied (collapsing bridge, amusement park, museum, and more), and you get to use saws, the jaws of life, and various other tools in addition to your trusty hose. We've been playing daily for over a month and my four year old still begs for more - - sometimes I play and he watches, and sometimes I control the nunchuk (movement) and he controls the Wiimote (everything else). $30 at Amazon.It's part of the current buy two get one free promotion.

5. Belkin RockStar 5-Way Headphone Splitter: One of the heroes of my recent vacation - - use it to connect up to five headphones to a single device. Came in handy after I discovered that the splitter that came with the digiplayer I rented on the plane made the audio unintelligible. $13 at Amazon.

6. Duracell Instant Power Charger for USB Compatible Devices: You charge the rechargeable power charger by connecting it to a computer's USB port, and once it's charged, you can use it to instantly and repeatedly recharge a USB compatible device such as my three-year-old iPod and it's less-than-fifty-minute life span. 22% off at Amazon.

And on that last point, has anyone actually tried replacing a fifth generation iPod Classic's battery? Was it worth the cost and labor?

Umbrella Academy Dallas - - best comic of the year

The first volume of Umbrella Academy - - Apocalypse Suite was excellent. Volume 2, which is named Dallas, is even better. If you haven't tried Umbrella Academy yet, think of it as the X-Men plotted by Mignola. Or as Grant Morrison has said, "It's the X-Men for cool people." I don't want to say any more about the story because it would be a shame to ruin any of the surprises. But you can read the first five pages of the story here - - the team fights the Abraham Lincoln monument.

I have the limited edition hardcover, so let me tell you what that version includes. First, let me say that I'm generally not a big fan of limited edition hardcovers. In my experience most trade paperbacks hold up great through multiple readings. And I couldn't care less if what I own is "limited." In fact, I've only ever bought one limited edition that I was satisfied with - - Kingdom Come. (By comparison, the Earth X limited edition was a tremendous disappointment.)

So anyway, the Dallas limited edition. Here's what you get: it's oversized, so the pages are huge and really show off the art; the pages themselves are remarkably thick; and there's a relatively uninspiring special illustration with overlay by Gabriel Ba. None of that's probably worth the extra price. But you also get a long concept art section featuring character designs and rejected covers. And the real revelation is that Gerard Way is not only a gifted writer, but he's also a fantastic artist. Here's his design for one of the new characters featured in Dallas:



All in all, I'd say the limited edition is only for diehard Umbrella Academy fans. You can order it for 37% off at Amazon. But anyone else who likes comics should order the paperback immediately. It's 33% off at Amazon.

All of this gives me a good excuse to feature some Umbrella Academy oddities:


Umbrella Academy movie poster. (Part of a set of fake movie posters.)





Hazel and Cha Cha cosplay.






White Violin cosplay.




The Rumor cosplay.





Plush Hazel and Cha Cha and Seance.




Hazel and Cha Cha shoes.



Umbrella Academy paper toys.









Umbrella Academy custom action figures by Rust This World.




Umbrella Academy custom action figures by lemondrop.

And finally, did I mention that the author photograph of Gerard Way that graces the end of the book features him and his wife Lyn-Z reenacting JFK's assassination?



*Previously: Playmobil toys used to reenact JFK's assassination.

*Buy Umbrella Academy toys at eBay.

In which I praise the caketrix (and make some truthful comments)

(Meet Jen Yates*)

If you’re looking for a blogging role model, you can’t do much better than Jen Yates. From her humble beginnings as a “Jungle Cruise skipper” and “cash office accountant” in Florida (I’m pretty sure those titles are euphemisms for “drug mule”), she’s ascended to the lofty and exclusive rank of successful professional blogger.

And what’s truly incredible about it is that her site isn’t built on intellectual property theft, she doesn’t owe her success to shady link exchanges or Digg manipulations, and she isn’t one of the people who got popular largely by being first on the web. No, she found a niche, and through consistent effort and a good sense of humor, managed to become an award winning blogger with a huge and enthusiastic readership.

Of course, finding the niche is often the trick, and Jen’s origin story is a good one. She ordered a wedding cake in her own likeness, and was thrilled with the result:



When her husband John informed her that the cake was actually heinous, and would quite likely ruin their wedding, Jen was briefly shattered. But she pulled herself together, and dedicated her life to walking the Earth and finding the worst cakes out there. Her husband can be regularly found at Cake Wrecks, helping her on her quest.**



Now, Jen has a book out based on her site. And it’s good! Hard cover, photos of 150 hard-to-believe-they’re-real cakes, plus Jen’s witty commentary. $10 at Amazon. If you’re familiar with Cake Wrecks, then I don’t need to say anymore. And if you’re not familiar, go visit and put a smile on your face. The book will make a perfect holiday gift, and I’m sure we’ll all be hearing much more about it thanks to the clever contest that will be part of the book tour - - Jen has invited people to bring cupcake wrecks to her appearances.

So, congratulations on another victory Jen. I think your days as a cash office accountant are firmly behind you.

*Photo does not actually depict Jen Yates.
**I made that all up.

Review roundup

I was beginning to think that I was simply not interested in modern comics anymore. The last few I read were:

-Secret Invasion: I expected a story about subtlety and betrayal. I got eight issues of heroes hitting lookalikes in the face. The Embrace Change ads were good, though.

-Ultimates 3: Were Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira given the task of making a comic so bad that no one would ever look fondly on Millar and Hitch’s Ultimates run again?

-Batman RIP: The kind of comic you immediately put up for resale on Amazon when you finish it. And then you feel guilty when you see someone else has bought it. Devoid of merit, aside from maybe a panel or two featuring Bat-Mite.

-Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader: Fine, I guess, but the same concept was done much better by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday in Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth.

But, it turns out that I’m simply lousy at picking comics for myself. I received a few tremendous Dark Horse Comics to review.




Grandville: This one started with two strikes against it. First, the last Talbot comic I read was Alice in Sunderland, which was a chore to read. Second, wow, what a horrendous cover. It misleadingly makes it look like Grandville is a black and white comic about some stupid looking badger-man. The cover really does a disservice to the comic, which is excellent, and in color. Imagine a steampunk version of 24, where almost all of the characters are anthropomorphic animals. The art is solid, the story is good, and the use of animal-people makes a relatively overused concept feel fresh. This is what the reimagined version of Sherlock Holmes should be (maybe aside from the animal-people). $12 at Amazon.








The Goon in Calamity of Conscience: I’ve never tried a Goon comic before because the main character looked so lame to me. But this was excellent. Sort of like a cross between the absurd world of Beetlejuice and the gritty plots of Sin City. It took me maybe half the book to really get used to it, because the world is so strange, and there’s no introduction or exposition to help new readers get their footing. But once I started to comprehend the rules of the Goon’s universe, and figure out who the characters were, I found that I loved it, and quickly reread the whole thing. Even the introduction was unusually good - - Steve Niles tells of how he befriended Eric Powell when they were both trying to break into comics, and Niles spotted a cybernetic gorilla sketch by Powell on eBay. I’m absolutely going to buy more volumes of Goon. Definitely another example of a comic book betrayed by a weak cover. $10 at Amazon.






3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man: An excellent comic for people who aren’t interested in super heroes. 3 Story is a coming of age tale set during the Cold War, about a boy who grows very, very tall, becomes a spy, and finds love, albeit briefly. Good art, good story. I'd describe it as a melancholy version of Planetary. $13 at Amazon. Coincidentally, author/artist Matt Kindt recently posted some commissions he had completed, including a propaganda image for the Green Lantern Corps. And Amazon also recently posted a review of 3 Story.






Mister X: Condemned: The kind of comic where a redheaded city planner named “Roark” eats at a restaurant that looks suspiciously like the Nighthawks diner. The plot is about a serial killer loose in a city designed by architect/cultists and built by robots. The various architects subscribe to incompatible ideologies, and as a result, everyone living in the city has developed exotic mental problems. Good enough that I’ll look for more work from Dean Motter in the future, but Mister X is not quite as good as the other comics I’ve mentioned above. The story-telling felt a little rushed. $10 at Amazon.





Finally, I noticed that Motter also has an Alice in Wonderland-themed art book called Through the Glass Darkly on sale at Amazon.

*Previously: American McGee's Alice cosplay.

*Buy Alice in Wonderland toys at eBay.