My Favourite Things: May 2013

I'm writing this on a train. The future is now, kids!

1) Commander Chris Hadfield

The video has had (at last count) 15 million views so the chances of this being new to your are slim-to-none but Commander Hadfield has been such an endless delight online since he started his mission on the International Space Station that I would be remiss in celebrating his return to Earth and sharing his wonderful music video. He has inspired a new generation of kids to explore space via his Twitter and YouTube accounts, and quite a number of adults too.

It is, to my mind, the only music video made in space. That's pretty damn cool. We salute you, sir!

Comics: 29th May 2013

I warn you now, I was a little over-excited for a particular issue this week. Let's see if you can deduce which one.

- Criminal vol 4: Bad Night (Trade Paperback)
- Written by Ed Brubaker
- Art by Sean Phillips

I got lucky and happened upon the volume of Criminal I was missing. These trades are very self contained so going back and forth really doesn't affect your experience.

If I wasn't able to sell you on the quality of these stories the last time I wrote about it here, the copy I picked up does a very succinct job of it on it's back cover. Written in a large thick white font on the top of the page is "WINNER OF THE EISNER AND HARVEY AWARDS FOR BEST WRITER TWO YEARS IN A ROW". And you know what? I don't think I can do a better job than that so I'll just quickly describe the plot and leave it there.

A man named Jacob works as a newspaper cartoonist after he was accused of killing his wife. He's an insomniac and one night he found trouble and everything goes to hell from there. It's noir, baby, so you know folks get killed.

- X-Men #1
- Written by Brian Wood
- Art by Oliver Coipel

I've been looking forward to this from the first day I saw the cover in the previews. Here are a few bullet points about why this is awesome and you should get it:

- Oliver fucking Coipel
- All female X-Men group. And the title isn't "Ladies of..." or "X-Men: Second Squad" or any bullshit like that. It's an all female X-Men comic and it's called "X-Men". That's a big fucking deal and I couldn't be happier.
- Jubilee
- Brian Wood gets it. He's writing the X-Men the way they need to be written. Exciting, young, and relevant.
- Oliver fucking Coipel. Why is he mentioned twice? Because nobody else could have launched this. Coipel doesn't draw cheesecake. He doesn't draw twisted boobs and butts figures. He draws women... really, really well.

Have you bought it yet? I'll just sit here until you do...

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #43: Inextricable

I Heart Graffiti: Creep

This little creepy guy is another stuck to an electrical box. It's only about the size of an A4 page but it's wonderfully drawn and has some great detail in there. Great stuff.

CLICK TO SEE LARGER

Comics: 22nd May 2013

Sorry about the delay this week folks, a rather nasty head cold meant that I couldn't think straight long enough to write this. Luckily though there are only two to review this week so despite still feeling a bit groggy I feel just human enough to get it done.

- Avengers #12
- Written by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer
- Art by Mike Deodato

Trips to The Savage Land are always a favourite of mine. Since reading about Spidey's trips when I was young and watching the X-Men's adventures there in the 90s cartoon it has been a comic destination of choice in my eyes.

This trip involves some of the typical local beasts but also some more mysterious brooding from Hyperion (I'm getting a whack of The Sentinel from him), some sinister Superior Spider-man-ing, and a big bad guy reveal, so as you can imagine I had a ball.

Interesting to see that the issue was part written by Nick Spencer. I feel like the parts with Hawkeye and Spider-woman were done by him but that's just a guess. Despite this story often feeling a little scattered I'm enjoying it a bit more than New Avengers.

- FF vol. 4 (Trade Paperback)
- Written by Jonathan Hickman
- Art by Nick Dragotta, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and André Araújo

The final volume of trades for Hickman's run on the Future Foundation. These collected issues read a lot like one-shots more so than the previous volumes but in a sense this was Hickman's farewell to Marvel's first family so more room was left to tying up loose ends and layering on the sentimentality.

There is a fun issue about Peter Parker and Johnny Storm's room-mate agreement, lots of Moloid madness, and a really sweet goodbye from Future-Franklin (that's right folks, it's not just Bendis on All New X-Men messing with our minds via time-travel).

I'm really going to miss this series. Hickman created such a fun group and got a tone so perfect I'm not sure it can be re-created by another writer. Genius stuff.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #42: Fuddling

Because sometimes you need to have video evidence of your own destruction...

I Heart Graffiti: Empty

This stencil piece is rather covert in it's position but I like the sentiment. There are quite a few bins in the area with different slogans on them but this is my favourite.

CLICK TO SEE LARGER

Eurovision: What's it all about?

Every year I throw a party for The Eurovision Song Contest. The party itself is called The Blur-o-vision Shot Contest and is a post unto itself for another day. The reason why I mention it is because the big night is tomorrow night and often my American compatriots have no idea what all the hubbub is about. It's not the easiest thing to convey as it's kind of Europe's guilty pleasure but hopefully I can give a bit of a background essay that may be able to help.

The annual competition started in 1956 and was created to be a kind of World Cup of music. Countries from each European country would submit one song to represent themselves, they would be performed on television in a once-off broadcast and then a winner would be crowned. The winner would then host the competition the next year.

Comics: 15th May 2013

Another slow week for comic releases (at least, the ones that I'm interested in anyway) so I picked up a trade of a series I love.

- Criminal vol. 5: The Sinners (Trade Paperback)
- Written by Ed Brubaker
- Art by Sean Phillips

I'm a sucker for a good noir comic and the Criminal series is one of the best. Each volume is pretty much stand-alone (although there are nice links throughout like the bar that everyone frequents) so despite having read 1, 2, and 3, but not 4, I knew it was OK to grab this one while in the store.

We follow Tracy Lawless (a dude, despite the name) as he tries to work off his brother's debt with a mob boss, investigating a slew of executions across the city's underworld. Not noir enough for you? Well we also have a dame who he shouldn't be sleeping with, a military cop out to bring back our AWOL anti-hero, and a fatal meeting with some Triad members. Yup, I'm pretty much in heaven with this thing.

Not only is it superbly written but Sean Phillips understands the importance of shadows and gets the tone right all the way through to the bloody end.

- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe #2
- Written by Keith Giffen
- Art by Pop Mhan

Of lesser quality is this thing that I continue to buy but can't explain why other than "it might be a laugh".

This thing is exposition heavy. I mean, it's exposition obese. And the dialogue is painful. The art is mostly pretty though and I must at least give credit that they're trying to get a lot of stuff in there.

Right now we're being presented with a whole "Mystery of Adora" kind of story, which is a little silly considering all the fans know she's She-Ra but let's go along for the ride and see if it's worth it in the end, eh?

I'm betting that it won't be.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #41: Tenebrous

Big thanks to @Omegawill for donating this week's word!

Mars Needs Podcasts #211- Iron Man 3, No Jokes.

So here is the deal: Myself and JJ used to have an in-depth discussion about each Marvel movie, as soon as we've both seen them, on his podcast Mars Needs. It's kind of what inspired our movie commentary series, The Drive-In of DOOM.
Iron Man 3's release was the first one since we had started that show, just over one year ago. We hummed and hawed about whether or not to do another for this, that is until I saw it. And then I needed to talk about it. Or, should I say, I needed to rant about it.

What you're about to hear is a 90 minute argument between myself and JJ Hawkins in regard to the movie Iron Man 3. I hope you enjoy.

To listen CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

I Heart Graffiti: Blockheads

It's quite common to see shutter doors on shops painted. They're often just further advertisements for the store but this particularly colourful piece is a real eye-catcher. It's done by the folks at evolveurbanart.com and you'll see a lot of their stuff on this blog in the coming weeks as they've been busy little bees lately.

CLICK TO SEE LARGER

Comics: 8th May 2013

It's a slow week for comics. Only one issue I wanted to pick up. So I used this as an excuse to pick up a trade along with it.

- Spider-Men (Trade Paperback)
- Written by Brian Michael Bendis
- Art by Sara Pichelli

You may have noticed, after five months of writing this, that I don't normally buy Spider-Man comics. There is a reason for this; Spider-Man is my favourite comic book character. "Oh, but Aaron, that makes no sense". Try reading a lot of the recent Spider-Man stories and you'll probably understand why.

I have never read any of the Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man comics either. Not out of disdain, just purely because I never bothered.

So taking these two points into consideration, it's rather a surprise to say that I absolutely loved this story. It's pretty much perfect. You don't have to be up-to-date in either character's stories to enjoy it, you're filled in with everything you need to know. It's just a wonderful one-off (read as: 5 issue) story, self contained and beautifully told. Well done.

- Avengers #11
- Written by Jonathan Hickman
- Art by Mike Deodato

Shang Chi is a hero that I'm not too familiar with. He has always just been a Bruce Lee knock-off in my mind. This is the first issue that we get a little bit of spotlight on him since his drafting in to the Avengers and while the knock-off title isn't untrue, it's also not necessarily a bad thing.

In fact, I quite enjoyed the whole team together on this one. Cannonball and Sunspot make a good comedy double team. Jessica is the consummate spy opposed to Black Widow who is a little/lot more ruthless. Capped off with Captain Marvel as the tough-as-nails leader. It's a great mix.

This is a nice one issue mission that they have and there are so many little moments of goodness I'll have to limit myself to mention only one. AIM agents going drinking with two super-heroes because, fuck it, they're in Vegas. Pretty golden moment that would feel more at home in something like The Venture Bros so it was brilliant to see it here.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #40: Agastopia

A little behind the scene note: When I sent this to Widge for NeedCoffee he responded with "A History of Ogling in Popular Culture, TEDtalk by Aaron".

Mars Needs Podcasts #210 - ImprovFever

It's your lucky day, internet people. TWO podcasts featuring myself and co-hort JJ Hakwins for your ears to listen to. This time I make a guest appearance on his own podcast, Mars Needs.

We talk about stage names, stages, and performing and such. We travel on this line of conversation due to my recent debut performance with the new Improv Comedy Group called A Suggestive Biscuit (which is what I was doing in that picture and why I'm making a weird face).

To listen CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

The Drive In Of DOOM! – X Men: The Last Stand

And so we're back, from the bottom of a lake, to bring you the commentary for X-Men 3. Myself and JJ are joined this month by a special guest to guide you through this mess and bring you out the other side alive.

We talk about characters that do nothing, characters who just shouldn't be there, and characters who disappear for half the film. Oh, and the only cool thing (pun intended) is in the picture to the right.

To listen to the podcast CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

I Heart Graffiti: Profile Pic

Check out this super sexy awesome portrait on an electrical box beside O'Connell bridge.

Weekend Justice #193: Where's My Mojito, Jelly Bean?

Yes, I have returned briefly to the longest podcast known to man. I haven't appeared on Weekend Justice in months but this week I'm back to participate in such madness as:

The bounce to the ounce

Clap for Aaron. Or else.

What Widge does on his desktop

ScottC's terrible connection and much suffering

Defiance

Game of Thrones: destroying the incest bell curve

Catching up with The Following

Keith Richards, Snoop Dogg and science!

Dissecting Hannibal

Aaron's Iron Man 3 review

Reflecting on Thor and the life of the Marvel Cinematic Universe under Disney

Man of Steel, Zod and the sorority

Doctor Who and Pearl Jam

And more!

I join the usual band of misfits, Widge, Jon, Rox, Leigh, Scott, Serv, and Rob!

To listen to the podcast CLICK HERE or to download it directly CLICK HERE.

Comics: 1st May 2013

Loads of comics this week, including a graphic novel lent to me by my friend Tom who is an indie comic aficionado (despite his tendencies to only call them graphic novels).

- The Underwater Welder
- Written by Jeff Lemire
- Art by Jeff Lemire

I hadn't read anything from Lemire before but this came highly recommended and I'm glad I was given a lend of it. The eponymous character is awaiting the birth of his first child and is simultaneously going through a bit of a nervous breakdown as he struggles to deal with the death of his father when he was 10 years old.

The story is a wonderful character study with a bit of a Twilight Zone style story. Jeff's obsession with diving, his father's profession, is also the crux of everything that goes on. It's what he uses to distance himself from his wife, it's the cause of his father's death, and it's what causes his dreams where he tries to piece back together his mind.

There is a nice metaphor of the pressures associated with sea diving and and it's connection to the pressure of becoming a new father and starting your own family. This is a personal story told perfectly.

My Favourite Things: April 2013

NOTE: This article was originally published by me on ASiteCalledFRED.com

It's the first of May. Our friend Jonathan Coulton is no doubt receiving an endless amount of bad jokes on Twitter today. I however have decided to instead dedicate my time to bringing you my favourite things from last month. You know, because I'm awesome like that.

1) Thumb Snatchers From The Moon Cocoon

This is a rather mental short film from Bradley Schaffer. It a hand-made stop-motion story of a Texan Sheriff taking on a bungling alien invasion. It has deservedly won a ton of awards, maybe not specifically for being bat-shit insane but I'm sure that is a big part of it. Think Axe Cop meets Mars Attacks and you're half way there.