Mad History

Hey kids, we're kind of on summer hiatus here.

Okay, we admit it. We've closed the offices down in favor of an epic bender. Fine. We said it. Are you happy now?

While we're gone, you should make time to read Jeff Weiss' history of the album that made Stones Throw: Madvillainy by Madvillain. Don't know what we're talking about? Read Weiss' blow-by-blow of how it came about and you'll be sold. It's hyperbolic, but that's standard for Pitchfork. And really, if it's not filled with purposely frilly sentences, it wouldn't be music writing, would it?

And now: "Searching for Tomorrow: The Story of Madlib and DOOM's Madvillainy"



We're going back to sleep for now. See you soon!

TL;DR -- Cage Loves Comics

Actor/force of nature/internet meme Nicolas Cage owns some pricey comic books. And nearly 15 years ago, some were stolen from his home. Read Sandro Contenta's story about the crime and how an LAPD detective with a name that sounds like a character from a Superman comic solved the mystery.

It's exactly as strange as it sounds.

Diana, Huntress of Bus Drivers

Ciudad Juarez in Mexico City may have a costumed vigilante, and she means business. The story, if it's true -- and this news report give it a squinty eye -- concerns direct and violent retribution against bus drivers in the city.

What did transit workers do to bring down the hammer of old-world justice on themselves? For years, it's believed that some drivers have been raping and killing female passengers, leaving their bodies in the desert.

But someone calling herself Diana, Huntress of Bus Drivers, alleges she's responsible for the recent shooting deaths of two drivers in the area. Each driver got two shots to the head, and police are investigating.

Read the story and cross your fingers that Diana has her targets straight. Her press release is chilling and righteous. And as has been pointed out elsewhere, if the police there put as much effort into stopping the rapes and murders of women as they are in attempting to find Diana, there'd be no need for Diana.

[Hat tip to The Stranger for the lead.]

Solid Advice

We can't stop watching the Fake Adam West videos.



There are just four videos, but it looks like FAW is just getting started. Per Bleeding Cool, where we found this, he had only 38 followers on Twitter when they posted on Jun 2. We're guessing he's got a lot more by now.

Whoa, Dude

When former Typing Monkey publisher/editor-in-chief/ombudsman S.L. Kreighton asked the staff to join him in a video conference this afternoon, we thought it might have something to do with May Day.

After all, our Fearless Leader, Emeritus, has taken to aimlessly travelling the highways and byways of the West Coast, so it's entirely possible that he'd take up with activists and bohemians, laughing on the inside the entire time, knowing that his deep pockets and secure retirement plan means he only sleeps on freight trains because he wants to.

What was it he wanted us to tell us? He had links for two websites that he "got from a friend from Mildred Street University." [What? -- ed.]

Before we could complete the orbit of our collective eye-roll, our mouths were shut for us by this:

and this:

The first is a John Buscema splash page, colored for maximum black-light ka-pow. It's part of Nick Derington's Flickr gallery "Marvel Third Eye Posters."

And the Dr. Strange splash, from the good doctor's brief run in his masked mystic costume, was drawn by Gene Conlan. That comes from Richard Guion's blog Giant Size Marvel.

Friend, both of these destinations are worth blowing off whatever chore you had planned. Sincerely.

Cartoons Can Be Funny

In March 2012, Cartoon Network debuted it's programming block called DC Nation. It's various animated series based on characters from the DC universe, to varying degrees of engagement for grown-ups who are willing to spend time watching this sort of thing. (Or, you know, want to.)

The real joy of tuning in to DC Nation's programming is that each Saturday they debut two new short 'toons from a group of creators who forgo any heroic posturing for the characters and instead aim for comedy. And they're all pretty funny.

The two stand-outs are Lauren Faust's Super Best Friends Forever, starring Wonder Girl, Batgirl and Supergirl doing things that we'd all do if we were them.



And Aardman Studios gives Superman, Batman, Catwoman and The Joker the Creature Comforts treatment by having them voiced by little kids saying things wholly unrelated to the business of crime fighting. DC World's Funniest is delightful.



Tune in for some of the other shorts, but do scour the Web for more of the DC World's Funniest shorts and, you lucky dog, io9 has all of Faust's Super BFF work up for your entertainment.

Time for Comics

Let us break up the long sad string of obituaries we've been documenting and mourning here and move on to something much lighter: free comic books.

The Digital Comics Museum is a great place to spend time getting lost in the public domain world of vintage comic books.

You don't have to love superhero tales, as the world of mainstream comics prior to the 1960s hosted any number of topics having little or nothing to do with boy scouts from other planets or deranged millionaires deciding to rid their cities of crime.

There are plenty of hero titles, but some are war stories or Old West glories. Horror and suspense/mystery titles abound, as well as quite a few jungle-adventure serials.

Other titles embrace the "comics" aspect in the traditional Sunday comics sense, where the punchline and the sight gag rule.

The romance titles from publishers such as Charlton, Prize and Ace can be quite fun too. Some dare to document genuine romantic problems facing women and men, others go scandalous and some, as in issue 70 of "Young Romance" from Prize go the romance novel route.

And the previously mentioned Charlton Comics hosted a number of now legendary artists and writers at a time when they were just trying to get started in the industry. The cover of Charlton's "The Thing!"  (issue 14) was done by Steve Ditko before he was Steve Ditko. [What? -- ed.]

Either way, you get an army of grotesque bat-men attacking terrified humans as a group of ancient Egyptians give chase. Neat!

Dig in and have fun. It's free.

A Few More Things the Intertoobs Taught Us in 2011

Before 2011 drifts too far from memory, we’d like to call out a few non-musical things that made the year worthwhile.

MOVIES
The weeks never have enough hours for us to watch all the films that we want to see and every year our catch-up list grows. Here’s the scant few titles that left an impression, some of which we actually saw.


TROLLHUNTER – Released in Norway in 2010, this clever horror film reached the United States in 2011 and breathed some life into the overused and overspent faux-documentary gimmick. It’s the rare combination of horror and comedy that delivers on both.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL – We haven’t even seen this yet but we’re putting it up here because the trailer is pretty exciting. Every genre flick is looking for a fresh angle and it appears that the inventive director Nacho Vigalondo may have one by framing that tired old alien invasion story through the bleary eyes of a one-night-stand couple shaking off what may be their last questionable decision.

On that same note, we also hold hope that Attack the Block does the same trick with the same trope with a different but equally promising execution. And it was a complete surprise to us how much we enjoyed the remake of Fright Night. Against all sense, it justified its existence. Sadly, that may convince Hollywood to keep on remaking things that are better off left alone.

GAMES
WONDERPUTT -- Keep your Xbox and "Words with Friends", this free online PC game from DampGnat is the shiny, candy-like button we keep pressing. Get a Slushee and some stale tortilla chips with orange cheese sauce to make the miniature golf experience complete.

RADIO ENDURANCE TEST – Invented by our own bastard publisher, S.L. Kreighton, RET is simple: Get in the car, turn on the radio, find a song you know but normally avoid, and listen. Repeat this exercise until madness sets in, or worst of all, win by coming around and learning to enjoy a song you thought you hated. For two or more players, take turns finding a song you know one or more of the other players hates, set the dial and watch them squirm. Okay, so not a game really as much as a form of torture. It’s free though and it really happens.

COMICS
HARK! A VAGRANT – Kate Beaton has been drawing her clever comic strip for a few years now but we only just discovered it this year. The Canadian artist with a history degree squeezes laughs from literature, history (duh), pop culture and everyday weird stuff that inspires her consistently funny work.

THE DEFENDERS – We hadn’t touched a mainstream superhero comic in years, but Marvel’s revival of this late Silver Age title intrigued us enough to buy the first issue and was good enough to bring us back for the forthcoming second issue. The debut has a “getting the band back together” feel and doesn’t shy away from mild humor in the service of a Lovecraft knock-off plot.

Worth a Mention -- We missed the first few issues of DC’s Wonder Woman relaunch but word on the street is they finally figured out what to do with the Amazon warrior princess.

Similarly, we missed the start of Image’s Mudman, but from what we’ve seen, it’s one of the better takes on the tired superhero concept.

Perhaps both the new Wonder Woman and Mudman will soon be collected in a trade paperback and we can eat it all at once the same way we tackled Ultra, The Walking Dead and Great Lakes Avengers.

Put Some Clothes On (Again)

Some true believers also have a sense of humor about reading superhero comics because, well, muscular men in tights and capes. Also most comic book consumers are grown-ass men. Therefore:

That's right, bunkie, it's a t-shirt.

Mighty Fine does other pop-culture tees too but we've a particular affinity for their Marvel line, which has some serious and some silly depictions, but digs fairly deep into the character well too. Where's the company credit card ...

[Post script: Does Daniel Dumile know about this?]

They Got Our Letter!

Zoidberg vs. Aquaman?

While enjoying the feast of art at Monster Brains, we came across the collection of old Aquaman comic book covers posted there. It was this cover in particular that commanded attention:

Take a closer look at the beastie in the lower left corner:

Is that a distant relative of everyone's favorite Decapodian scene-stealer from Futurama, Dr. John A. Zoidberg? It resembles Zoidberg midway between phases of his lifecycle, a bit urchin, a bit cuttlefish and a whole lotta squid-faced crustacean. Observe:

Crossover? We'll keep our fingers crossed. But who do we root for?

Mmm. Comics.

We have been posting many links to Websites, news items, and other media lately. (Some might argue that's the entire point of The Typing Monkey.) Soon we'll publish something that requires a little more effort, but until then, blow too much time enjoying the following:

Beware ,There's A Crosseyed Cyclops In My Basement!!!

It's a blog by Zen Tiger that offers hundreds of comic book downloads, with a book for just about every taste. Honest, just start scrolling down the alphabetical list on the right nav of Crosseyed Cyclops and start clicking -- television, film and cartoon characters; mainstream superhero titles; and underground political conspiracy comix all piled up in one place.


Don't thank us, thank Zen Tiger and Datajunkie.

Holy Smokes!

Datajunkie is back. At the start of the year, we removed his link from the "Monkey Love" section, because it seemed he'd stopped posting. And that was sad, but understandable. A blog like that -- hi-res scans of comic book, fan magazine and horror magazine covers, plus text discussing the artifacts on display -- means more effort than anyone at The Typing Monkey can fathom.

As promised, Datajunkie will return to our Love list post-haste. In the meantime, go there and see what's cooking since he returned. (Fresh content showed up there right around the Ides of March. Hmm.)

Also, he put up some pirate-themed covers earlier in April. Probably for the same reasons we've been reading Robert E. Howard's pirate-themed short stories lately.

The Monkey Reads: Pow! Wham! Ka-BOOM!

Who Can Save Us Now? -- Brand New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories
Edited by Owen King and John McNally
Illustrations by Chris Burnham
(Free Press)
The minor boom in superhero lit over the past couple years -- Soon I Will Be Invincible, Superpowers, et al. -- rolls along. This collection of shorts may be the ideal format for prose about characters generally more comfortable in the full-color panels of a comic book.

Will Clarkes' "The Pentacostal Home for Flying Children" and Scott Snyder's "The Thirteenth Egg" leave the biggest impression. Both stories have the stacked, portentous pacing necessary to allow the reader to completely suspend disbelief so far that every supernatural element, including a pack of flying juvenile delinquents and a living atom bomb, becomes thoroughly believable.

Elizabeth Crane's tale of a boy fixated on a real-life hero disappoints by doing little with a promising idea. And there's a batch of puzzling entries in the section called "A Shadowy Figure." The mercifully short "In Cretaceous Seas" is bitter for no apparent reason and despite being a good character sketch "Roe #5" never lifts off beyond cheap Twilight Zone tricks. "The Snipper" plays cute so much that the weighty moments stick out awkwardly.

The last two sections, "Behind the Mask" and "Super Ordinary" deliver the most consistent quality story-for-story. The authors of those shorts dig into the sticky normal things that happen to all of us, letting the superhuman abilities be the life-complicating annoyances they actually would be in reality.

Reference material: There's plenty of goodness in Who Will Save Us Now? to merit a recommendation. Reliable sources also suggest Soon I Will Be Invincible and Superfolks, which apparently did all of this a few years before the most recent attempts at meta-lit about men in capes and tights.

Distraction of the Innocents

Nobody on The Typing Monkey staff keeps up with the world of comic books. There are simply too many titles on the shelves these days. When we finally got our hands on the complete Black Hole series by Charles Burns last year, The Typing Monkey realized how far things have come since that issue of The New Mutants where Nightcrawler helps Cannonball learn how to use his powers.

Now then, they'll put anything on the internets these days and some of it is actually worth looking at. While in the midst of online research recently, we discovered several comic books available for free on the Web. All the titles are of the action/superhero/sci-fi variety and are designed to lure readers into buying the actual physical product. Still, you can't beat free comics online, and there are worse ways to squander time.

Some of these titles have been around for a few years, but we already addressed that in the opening paragraph. So don't e-mail us with sarcastic indignations about how out of touch we are.

Maintenance
(Oni Press)
This absurd title depicts the mundane tasks performed by two janitors who work for a company that supplies weapons of mass destruction to super villains. The black and white art meets the cartoonish concept at its level, and the dialogue and humor pack a fair snap.

Night & Fog
(Studio 407)
An aborted military experiment strands a few humans on an island where the locals are not terribly friendly. The online teaser packs much into 10 pages. That's still too short, but the hazy coloring classes up the affair.

Proximity Effect
(Top Cow/Spacedog)
Superheroes whose powers only work when they're within 30 feet of each other -- both Marvel and DC comics have danced around that concept, but neither exploited it as well as Proximity does. The plotting doesn't go beyond standard X-Files conspiracy territory, but this is worth further reading.

***

Sibling duo Jonathan and Joshua Luna have worked on other writers' and artists' books, but really shine with their own collaborative titles. The first issue of each series they've created is free online at the Lunas' site:

Ultra
(Image)
With all the meta superhero stuff out there, Ultra can seem common at first glance. But the Lunas are a lot like Joss Whedon, in that they actually have the ability to write believable female leads in a pulp genre not known for such feats. So do give it a look, and remember it debuted in 2004.

Girls
(Image)
Girls is just plain great -- the ideal first-issue structure. With just enough back-story, mystery and sci-fi weirdness, it hooks the reader immediately, the way sci-fi subtext disguised as serialized fluff should.

The Sword
(Image)
While not a comic-book adaptation of the occult adventures of the '70s metal revivalists from Austin, The Sword is in fact another great potboiler. In it, a parapalegic woman learns the hard way that her family may have deep connections to the titular weapon -- a mystical blade with strange properties.


If these introductions don't yank your eyeballs to the remaining issues of the Lunas' work, then we can't help you.

Honorable mention:

Last Blood
A group of vampires must protect the last remaining humans on earth from a zombie horde. The vampires are not acting altruistically -- they need a fresh blood supply. This online comic is intended as public storyboards for a planned film. We encourage readers to ignore scripter Bobby Crosby's work-in-progress comments on each page, which hamper the flow of the story. Just enjoy the stoner/gore-fan concept and the artfully rough sketch-art by Owen Geini.

Links to the non-Luna titles were culled from Den of Geek's mind-numbing list of 75(!) comic book titles that are currently in line for cinematic adaptations. (Good luck, Hollywood.) And the AV Club interviewed the Luna Bros. this past summer.

The Monkey Reads: Hey Now, You're an All-Star

Superpowers
by David J. Schwartz
(Three Rivers)
This story of five modern day University of Wisconsin students who suddenly gain superhuman abilities tries valiantly to squeeze an epic into the skimpy costume of a summer beach read.

Every character is accounted for by the last page, but the broad strokes necessitated by a large cast in a comparatively short tale leave some of the more interesting supporting players underdeveloped. (The non-superhuman roommate of two of the superhumans enters the story too late to complicate things the way he should.)

All of the heroes, dubbed The All-Stars by local media, are blandly likable in a television way, without leaving a lasting impression. They abuse their powers a bit but when one of the meekest characters finally goes too far, the story is nearly over, diminishing the aftermath.

Schwarz imitates comic-book dynamics by giving each hero abilities that conveniently strengthen the team’s efficacy, while providing readers easy choices for a character to identify with.

While that’s ideal for a serialized work, the device dilutes the reader’s focus within the limits of a novel. And by giving The All-Stars such complimentary powers, the reader can’t help but wonder why one of the heroes didn’t end up with a less impressive ability.

The telegraphed tie-in to Sept. 11, 2001 feels both forced and ill-placed since Schwarz placed his All-Stars in a Midwestern college town so far from Manhattan.

As homage to Marvel’s X-Men and Spider-Man -- superheroes with personal problems just like us normal folk -- and to modern takes on the sticky collateral damage that supernatural beings in the natural world can cause (hello, Watchmen and The X-Files), Schwarz hits all the right buttons.

Yet it seems as if he might have had more story to tell. Had this been junvenile fiction -- and the potential for that is strong -- Superpowers could easily be the launching point for a richer, more compelling series. But the story ends and as a result feels incomplete.


Reference materials: There are worse summer reads out there, and The Typing Monkey does not regret giving eye-time to Superpowers. But as our first dip into the world of literature about superheroes, we regret not tackling Soon I Will Be Invincible first. And if young adults coping with their superhuman abilities is intriguing to you, the Chris Claremont/Bill Sienkiewicz run of The New Mutants is top notch.

Spoiler Alert!

We are delighted to bring you this Typing Monkey exclusive:

The Typing Monkey, in cooperation with Frenzy of the Visible, has acquired more than six minutes of footage from the forthcoming summer blockbuster The Incredible Hulk. Ang Lee can keep his angsty, existensial 2003 film, with its vaguely disturbing CGI green giant, and critical disappointments. This new version looks action packed!




Special thanks to Dr. Fred Beldinstein, without whom, none of our ideas would be stolen.

Excelsior!