We’re Moving!

That’s right. We’re shifting this lil’ blog over to its own server. Join us at www.pastepotpete.com for all the Pete goodness. See you there!

Hunter Rose Returns!

‘Nuff said.  Read the article at CBR.

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It’s Knittin’ Time

Don’t let the Yancey Street Gang know about it, but Ben Grimm’s now into knits.  When the creator of this gem figures out how to make a flaming Johnny Storm, I’ll be impressed.

-From BoingBoing

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Good Hood Hunting

Usually these sets of JLU figures don’t interest me, but I might just have to purchase this one. Yes, it would mean owning yet another Batman, Superman and Flash figure (I think I’ll soon drown in them), and the Grodd figure, while cool, is nothing terribly exciting. No, the real reason to buy this set is for the Red Hood/Joker figure.  Has anyone seen this in a local Target (it’s an exclusive to them)?  If so, let us know if the Hood looks as good in reality as he does in this photo.

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Has Doomsday Come for Superman Again?

Reviews are coming in from around the net about the newly-released Superman: Doomsday DVD, and they are mixed, at best.  I haven’t seen it yet, but I typically have faith in Bruce Timm and his creative vision of the DC Universe.  Justice League Unlimited was outrageously good, though, admittedly, not everything the Timm/Dini team created was up to that same standard (the first season of Justice League immediately comes to mind).  For some unknown reasons, the creative team decided to ditch the usual voice talent (Tim Daly, Clancy Brown, etc) for what I can only guess are perceived as higher-profile voice talents (though I’m not certain anyone considers Anne Heche or Adam Baldwin to be A-List talent).

Have any readers here seen the DVD? What are your thoughts?

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Batman and the Anguish of Guilt!

Some things simply don’t require any further comment.  I never thought of Bruce Wayne as the Raskolnikov type, but maybe there’s something to the idea….

Dostoyevsky Comics Featuring Batman

from Laughing Squid by Scott Beale

Brian Hughes has a great write-up in Again With the Comics about “Dostoyevsky Comics” by R. Sikoryak, an amazing comic book adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” featuring Batman. It was originally published in 2000 as part of Drawn and Quarterly #3 and here are all the full scans of the comic.

via The Ephemerist

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Is Countdown Working for You?

Tepid reviews, lackluster fan interest, and a meandering plot have made a lot of folks just plain meh about DC’s supposed-to-be landmark Countdown series.  I had high hopes. I mean, when Darkseid showed up in the first few pages of the very first issue, my adrenaline started pumping. Now, I’m about 8 issues behind, and I’m not terribly interested in catching up.  What about you?  What’s your view of Countdown?

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Rack ‘Em Up!

I’ve only been playing around with this piece of software for a few minutes now, but I already see HUGE potential for the ComicRack freeware.  Essentially an iTunes-like environment for comics, ComicRack is already looking fairly sophisticated, and it is currently cataloging my entire collection of e-comics (which takes a while, so don’t be in any hurry when you first install it).  Nice features include a built-in comics reader, a database that tracks how often (if ever) you’ve read a particular comic, and user-defined star ratings for the comics in your collection.  Obviously I need more time to fully evaluate the software, but at the moment it’s love at first sight.  Start your downloads here:

http://comicrack.blogspot.com/

Why You SHOULDN’T Read Watchmen First

As a corollary to Peat Muppet’s scathing indictment of Alan Moore, read this excerpt from an interview with critic Douglas Wolk, whose Reading Comics seems to be a must read:

Wolk: I was talking with some friends recently about the common mistake of recommending Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, as great as it is, as a starting point for superhero comics–as one of them put it, that’s like recommending The Seventh Seal as someone’s first movie! For pure, unencumbered superhero joycore, I love Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman–if you’ve heard of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, you know everything you need to know to enjoy it, and it deepens with repeated reading. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’s cruelly witty Alias,
about a self-loathing ex-superheroine-turned-P.I., has lots of Easter eggs for the continuity-obsessed, but it probably works even better as a stand-alone story. And if you’re at all into Victorian literature and/or want to sample Moore’s work, the two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
(drawn by Kevin O’Neill) are hugely fun on their own, and also illustrate by analogy the way a lot of the best superhero comics and other pulp art work: providing metaphors to illuminate the central concerns of their moment.

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I’ll Watch the Watchmen. Will You?

After a MASSIVELY long time, it seems the fabled Watchmen movie is finally going to be a reality.  Comic fandom now holds its collective breath in hopes that the film doesn’t completely blow.  The cast looks promising, considering that the producers didn’t pander the thing to every starlet and mega-star-wannabe on the block.  I’m most hyped about Jackie Earle Haley playing Rorschach. Based on his performance in Little Children, this is a man born to play the role.  The Watchmen website is spare, but it does contain the new poster (released at ComiCon) with art by Dave Gibbons.  Have a look-see: