Images & Words – Jonah Hex #69

July 7th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

As of late, it seems that all comics-related discussions are concerned with the crumbling state of the industry. Headlines of doom and gloom are absolutely proliferating, inspiring fear in otherwise satisfied fanboys. DC REBOOT BLAMED FOR NERD SUICIDE! MARVEL MEGA-EVENT BANKRUPTS SINGLE FATHER OF FOUR! DIGITAL SALES THREATEN RETAILERS’ BUSINESS!

In the midst of all this bullshit, it’s easy to forget that worthwhile comics are being released every damn week.

And the newest issue of Jonah Hex is a necessary reminder of just how sick comic books can be.

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Images & Words – Uncanny X-Force #9

May 6th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

This post is specifically designed for jabronis and slutbags. Why is that? Why am I addressing such human wreckage? Well, simply put, Uncanny X-Force #9 is a comic that everyone should be able to enjoy.

Even the cretins of the multiverse.

Elder Brother Omega has been singing praises of this series for awhile now. Unfortunately, I’d mostly turned a deaf ear to these songs of jubilation, preferring instead to rely   on pre-judgments and close-minded certitudes. “Oh, an X-title about a team designed specifically to murder the most dangerous threats on the planet – it must be fanboy manual-masturbation. What a setback to the art of sequential narrative.”

Yes, I’ve be known to play the role of the unpersuadable asshole.

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Images & Words – Butcher Baker and Casanova!

April 17th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

It’s not usually a struggle for me to pick my favorite comic of the week. More often than not, a single funnybook will stand out, whether because of an incredible story, moving visuals, or some other quality. But on more fortuitous weeks, I’ll be presented the wonderful dilemma of having multiple candidates in my stack o’ panels. This is one such week.

And since both contestants are so damn appealing, I’m going to give both of them the grand prize! Open the vault, Seymour, these two are both going to spend a fabulous week at Images & Words! See, isn’t it great when one’s success isn’t defined by some other sap’s failure?! Ta-dah! Pop the champagne and slap a stripper’s ass! Huzzah!

Butcher Baker: The Righteous Maker #2 and Casanova: Gula IV are both phenomenal books and you should buy them. As soon as possible, dingbat! Don’t sit on your ass! Oh, what’s that, you want to know why they’re worth your hard(ly) earned cash?

Okay then, follow me into a diatribe that looks like that kooky cave on Dagobah….

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Images & Words – Orc Stain #6

April 10th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein
[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

The fact that Orc Stain is written, drawn, and colored solely by James Stokoe is fucking ridiculous, a wonder that should be put on the same level as the creation of penicillin. What’s that, you’re wondering why I’m spouting such hyperbole? Well, the simple fact is that in addition to having the most imaginative plot I’ve come across in eons, this book’s visuals are absolutely jaw-dropping.

Orc Stain is comic book dynamite.

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Monday Morning Commute: Gods Save the King!

April 4th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein

Baby, I don’t have time for foreplay tonight. So feel free to put down the bottle of champagne and NES controller. C’mon, hop right into the sack with me. It’s time to get frisky.

This here’s the Monday Morning Commute, the spot where I tell you what I’ll be doing this week. We’re all dealing with that pesky infirmity known as the work-world, and so a double-dose of entertainment is necessary. Administer as many times daily as possible. Let’s dance.

–-

Rockin’/Coloring Book EP – Glassjaw


I put off downloading Glassjaw’s latest effort for awhile, telling myself that they’d make it available for purchase. But they haven’t. In fact, the only way to snag a physical copy is to attend one of their shows, and unfortunately the Boston gig sold out before I got a ticket. So, promising myself that I’d give GJ money when they decide they want my money, I downloaded Coloring Book.

Some of the tunes have a real Latin vibe, with funky-ass claves and tamborines and shit. And then some of the songs absolutely crush. And, as though they knew exactly what I wanted, the band closes the album with Daytona White, a jazzier number complete with brushstrokin’ drums and Sunday-morning keyboards.

It’s fuggin’ sick.

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Images & Words – FF #1

March 27th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

After some deliberation, I’ve made the executive decision that OL is going to officially endorse FF #1 as the comic book of the week.

So why the hesitation? Well, I guess I was concerned that my choice would be scrutinized, determined to be nothing more than a declaration of pure fanboyism. After all, I did award the Images & Words honors to the final issue of Fantastic Four. And then I interviewed Nick Dragotta, said comic’s illustrator. And since I’m coming completely clean, I might as well admit that I featured the penultimate issue of Fantastic Four, as well.

So I didn’t want to come across as yet another Internet mouthbreather, shamelessly celebrating his current favorite bit of entertainment.

But after reading and re-reading FF, there’s no denyin’ that Jonathan Hickman has got me hooked. Indefensibly. The dude scripts the First Family with an earnestness that makes me weep. Forreal. As I read this issue, I can feel my heartstrings being yanked on with a violent fervor, reminding me that at its best science fiction is a genre concerned with the human condition. Hickman understands that the most outlandish of scenarios can resonate sympathetic.

Hell, even interdimensional conflicts and premonitions from the future can be imbued with familial strain.

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Images & Words – Captain Swing #3

March 12th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

Sometimes a narrative’s theme is so compelling that the accompanying flaws and lapses  itself can be forgiven. Hell, sometimes the golden idea, the kernel of truth lodged in the ventricle of the story, is so powerful that the plot becomes secondary. It’s welcomed to ride shotgun, but sure as hell ain’t wrestling away the wheel from the thematic content.

Such is the case with Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island.

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Images & Words – Joe the Barbarian #8

March 5th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein
[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

Congratulations, Joe the Barbarian! Not only did you beat Jonah Hex and Sweet Tooth in this week’s triple-threat comics cage match, but with your final issue you’ve become one of my all-time favorite limited series. You’ve earned a spot in my Best Of list and, if there’s any damn justice in the world, comics history as well.

So how did you do it, Joe? How did you never tire while running for eight issues over the course of a year? Brandishing a tale of a hallucinating youth in the midst of insulin-shock, you easily could’ve devolved into incoherent drivel. Your parallel narratives (wandering through a house looking for sugar and traversing the most hidden recesses of childhood imagination) could have slugged each other out: DOUBLE KO!!!  And yet, with each appearance you became more effective.

More affective.

So how did you do it? It was, beyond a coffee-stained shadow of a doubt, that intangible, unquantifiable quality for which all art should aspire. It’s that warm little nagging at the forefront of excitement, the pinch on your ass that makes you giddy, that informs the reader/viewer/listener that the artists at work care. Necessarily, this quality defies definition and rears itself only in terms of gut-instinct. But it’s undeniable. Unshakable. Motherfucking unstoppable.

For lack of a better word, let’s call this quality heart.

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Images & Words – Fantastic Four (Final Issue)

February 25th, 2011 by Rendar Frankenstein
[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

At this point, it’s old news: Johnny Storm bit the dust. All that remains of the Human Torch are embers, flickering reminders of a hero that lit up the Marvel Universe for the better part of fifty years. Dedicated readers of OL know that both my brother and I have been wholly enamored of Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four epic. In addition to covering nearly every Hickman-penned issue, I sang praises for The Last Stand of Johnny Storm and then Caffeine Powered offered his own pontification.

So at this point, one has to wonder: can anything else be said?

In reading what is being billed as the final issue of Fantastic Four, it’s clear that Hickman has nothing else to say.

But he’s got plenty to show.

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Images & Words – S.H.I.E.L.D. #6

February 19th, 2011 by Caffeine Powered

[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. // caffeine powered note: I begged rendar to let me write about shield #6. I had such a hard-on I needed to ejaculathink about it. He'll be back next week.]

The final issue of the first volume of Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver’s Shield came out this week, and it struck me at the very core of my philosophical soul. An imbecile dabbling in impracticality, I spent a good portion of my twenties floundering through school and accumulating credits in various philosophy classes. Modern philosophy, medical ethics, existentialism, Ancient Greek, Medieval, and Social Ethics among others.

I absorbed them all but I did so with a problem lingering in the back of my head. The brightest philosophers, the most powerful thinkers, my very heroes; they were all, to an extent, full of fucking shit.

In ways both gorgeous and clinical, Hickman and Weaver make this argument in the final issue of the first volume of Shield. In a way I never could. I don’t have the components, I lack the wiring. But I know a classic when I see it.

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