Tuesday, May 13, 2014

BIG WOW Comic Festival San Jose CA. Greg Rucka


On the DC end of this weekend's con in San Jose I'm hoping to get a chance to have a few words with Greg Rucka. In a way Rucka is almost as synonymous with The Suicide Squad as John Ostrander thanks to his work on Checkmate (volume 2) and on the OMAC Project story line. But in general I've always loved how his writing interweaves history and contemporary geo-politics into his stories which always gave his writing a very "real" feel for me. Needless to say I'll be sure to mention if I get a chance to talk to him is that the New52 Squad title would be way better if he were writing it. As it turns out Rucka was born in San Francisco and grew in the Monterey area which is about a two hour drive south. Ironically San Jose is pretty much at the half way point between the two regions.


By the way at the end of this review for #29 the reviewer mentions that the series is getting cancelled. I found out that #30 is the final issue and a long over due mercy killing for this series but I also found out that it will be relaunched YET AGAIN (volume 2) as "The New Suicide Squad". Ever heard that term "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"?

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Wild Things

Let me go off the beating Suicide Squad track for a bit with a 1988 Action Comics Weekly (#615) I recently grabbed from a 3 for $1 box. It had a Wild Dog on the cover and I hadn't read anything with him since his debut late 80s mini-series. The Action Comics Weekly issue was a short story and it was just the first part of an ongoing story line to be continued in the next issue but I dug it. It's a shame this character never really caught on better I do think the full page promo for him back in the day did generate a fair amount of initial interest in the character. I know speaking for myself I didn't like the art work in that debut mini-series it wasn't bad per se but it just didn't suite the feel and theme of the character and story line. It's kinda like try to imagine steve ditko drawing the Punisher instead of Mike Zeck and I think you'll see what I mean.

Left click to enlarge
There was another short story in the issue for the Teen Titans that focused on Cheshire. Talk about somebody who's able to compartmentalize their emotions she goes from being a sadistic assassin to the eternal loving mother later in the story when she goes home to her daughter Lian. I barely knew of the character before Young Justice but since that series I've picked up quite a bit of back issues from discount boxes with titles that have her in it. I'll end this posting with my customary fuck you to Cartoon Network and DC Comics for letting Young Justice get cancelled after just two awesome kick ass seasons.