Welcome back, Donist World Denizens! For those of you new to our site, I’m Donist, and I am joined by Donist World CFO the Reverse Obie* (my friends’ Boston terrier whose fur recently swapped colors) and by our marketing director / administrative assistant / party planner / healer Tulip (my dog, Reverse Obie’s sister). We’re keeping the intro short this week as I was pretty much bedridden Saturday through Monday and recovery this week has been slow at best. Thankfully, with Tulip’s love and care I’ve been comfortable and not without a curated list of comic book reading. Reverse Obie, on the other hand has been running the ol’ Donist World empire and has been studying the mysterious, mystical art of
bullet journaling in an effort to maintain our status as a Fortune 320,000 company. I just hope my puppy executive doesn’t go too deep down the bullet journal wormhole, for fear he might never escape from its tenacious grasp. So get plenty or rest, make some hot tea, take care of yourself, and check out some great comics. Take care. Thank you for reading!
*Obie, through his dabbling in arcane magics mixed with ancient corrupt business practices, has had not just the colors of his fur switched, but a complete overhaul of his work ethic as well…I think I’m kinda okay with the mishap.
***Possible Spoilers Below***
Friday Slice of Heaven
Written by Jason Aaron, art and color by Jason Latour, lettered by Jared K. Fletcher, edited by Sebastian Girner, published by Image Comics. Okay, I have to admit that I feel a bit of guilt about not putting
Southern Bastards on Part 1 of the 2016
Year-End Roundup, as this is fantastic comic book series. But…only three issues came out in 2016, and I’m quite sure I know why: the Jasons each have multiple comics they are working on, there’s the no-small-matter FX television series in the works, as well as comic conventions to attend. I get it. I guess I’m just bummed about the delays. You see…I positively love this series. At its core, it’s a football-based crime comic, which blows my mind that I love it so dang much. As I practically say with each release, I have a healthy dislike of sports in general, and the only upside to football I can see is attending a party loaded with beer and heaping bowls of “diablo” chili. That’s it. Football bores me to tears. Sorry sports fans, I’m just being honest. But this book, Denizens, I don’t think I’ve ever been so affected by a comic book in my life. The first arc left me so upset I wanted to shred issue four as an act to spite the antagonist, and to try to get even with his evil ass. The second arc calmed me down and made understand Coach Boss; I actually felt bad for the son of a bitch for a moment, but the feeling didn’t last. The third arc introduced those who Coach Boss wronged, and I was seething once again, ready to see this guy go down. And then Roberta Tubb finally arrived and I wanted to jump up and down and cheer and curse. Now this issue comes along and I want to sign up for the Coach Boss Beatdown Club. I’m pissed at this character. Seriously. I suspect we might be waiting for a while to see Boss get what’s coming to him and I am more than okay with that. Criminy, Denizens, the Jasons done made me care about football, which is something I NEVER thought could happen.
Southern Bastards is damn-fine storytelling, with damn-fine art and colors, and is for everyone who wants to get legitimately enraged at a villain, while becoming immersed in the seedy ongoings of one Craw County. You can catch up with the
hardcover (which covers the first two arcs), or pick up the three available
trades. Dang, I need to update the Year-End Roundup to include this phenomenal comic after all. Damn, this is a great comic. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Nicola Scott, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr., lettered by Jodi Wynne, published by DC Comics. Thus ends the “Year One” storyline. As much as I have been enjoying the present day adventures of Wonder Woman (the odd-numbered issues), I have been loving the look into her past (the even-numbered issues) even more. I simply adored seeing her try to learn our ways through her introduction to malls, snacks, margaritas, and crowds, as well as her time falling in love with Steve Trevor. Rucka and Scott made Diana so utterly charming that I wanted to both shield her from our world while simultaneously wanting to introduce her to its treasures (frozen yogurt, cookies, beer, Boston terriers, etc.). To be honest, I would have loved twelve more issues of seeing Diana and Steve’s budding relationship, of her testing her powers, and of her experiencing the good and bad of the outside world, but the battles and the fighting had to come eventually and thus concludes “Year One.” This is not to say that watching Wonder Woman and Ares duke it out wasn’t cool, it’s just I adored what the creators had been doing with the character, and wished for it to continue a little longer; I’m okay with not seeing a punch thrown in a superhero book, just so long as the story is compelling. I’m not sure if Scott’s tenure on the series is over or not, but I will say that she brought a certain magic to the series that will be difficult to match going forward. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Written Scott Snyder, illustrated by Jock and Francesco Francavilla, colored by Matt Hollingsworth, lettered by Steve Wands, published by DC Comics. You all know I have a special place in my heart — and in my collection — for Snyder, Jock, and Francavilla’s “
The Black Mirror” storyline from
Detective Comics back in 2010. The trio manage to capture the dark, creepy tone of their past work even though the artists cover separate storylines in this book as opposed to intermixing their work as they did before. I have to admit that each of the stories in this issue left me a tad confused as to what was going on, but I pushed through and enjoyed what I read mostly because of the art. I also have to say that Hollingsworth’s halftone-dot patterns on the Mr. Freeze story are awesome as are the reds in Freeze’s goggles on his ghouls’ eyes. <brrrrrrr> So creepy.
All Star Batman is a dark, fun Batman series with stunning art from a variety of DC’s best artists. RECOMMENDED!
Slice into the Woods for 2016
Since I did a Year-End Roundup (see Parts 1 and 2 here and and) for the things I loved from 2016, I guess it’s only fair I did the same for some of the things I hated.
Too Many of My Heroes Died in 2016
Far too many of my heroes died in 2016. Here are some of the amazing and talented people who touched my soul:
- David Bowie (Singer, Musician, Actor) - died January 10
- Alan Rickman (Actor) - died January 14
- Harper Lee (Writer) - died February 19
- Merle Haggard (Singer, Musician) - died April 6
- Prince (Singer, Musician, Actor) - died April 21
- Darwyn Cooke (Comic Book Writer and Artist) - died May 14
- Muhammad Ali (Boxer) - died June 3
- Gene Wilder (Actor, Writer, Director) - died August 29
- Steve Dillon (Comic Book Artist) - died October 22
- Leonard Cohen (Singer, Poet) - died November 7
- Sharon Jones (Singer) - died November 18
- George Michael (Singer) - died December 25
- Carrie Fisher (Actoress, Writer) - died December 27
Everything Involving Donald Trump
Not only did this orange piece of shit win the electoral vote while losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, he is installing a base of corrupt, bigoted, inexperienced, destructive, and truly evil a_holes to his cabinet.
No experience in teaching or in public education whatsoever? Are you are a champion of vouchers and want to divert public funds to religious (and by religious I mean Christian) schools? Are you the wife of an heir to the criminal Amway empire? Sure thing, Betsy DeVos, secretary of education for you.
Do you make a crapload of money for falsely stating that global warming is a myth? Did you sue the EPA? Heck, Scott Pruitt, why don’t you run the EPA!
You know what, let’s make a climate denying racist like Jeff Sessions attorney general.
And while we’re at it, let’s make Russian super-buddy-ol’-pal Rex Tillerson, a billionaire CEO from Exxon, the secretary of state. No conflicts of interests there.
Secretary of emergy…enirgi…how is that spelled? Oh, yeah, energy. Rick Perry can be secretary of energy…just don’t make him spell it.
Not to mention a deluge of tweet rants, flat out lies, and allegations of dealings with Russia, the worthless (this is quite possibly a literal use of the term as he refuses to release his tax records) President-elect Donald Trump continues to damage America, and the fool has not even taken office yet. If there is a higher power, this pussy grabber will not only be impeached in the very near future, he will end up behind bars for all the fraud, failure to honor contracts, sexual assaults, and possible treason this evildoer has been committing for years.
Friday Slice of Heaven, Slice into the Woods 1/13/2017
