The Best Super Characters Ever?

Hey loyal readers. I'm back after a long absence spent trying to launch my professional comic-book writing career. It went okay - maybe I'll tell you about it some time. Right now though I'm here to feed my rabid starving YOUARECOMIC followers with the witty comic-book related shenanigans you've grown to expect from the folks here at YAC.

Okay so after my extended absence you may find it unwise to kick things back into motion by talking about a comic-book based on a video game. It may seem even stupider when I tell you that it's a video-game I've never even heard of let alone played. But that's just what I'm going to do.

Strap youself in and hold on tight as I talk about American McGee's GRIMM.

Never heard of it have you? I thought as much.

Anyway the game is about an evil little dwarf named Grimm who travels through various fairy tales making things worse for everyone and generally being a real jerk. In American McGee's GRIMM #1 the stunted little A-hole turns his attention to super-hero comics and concieves the diabolical scheme to have the bad guys win for a change!!

Hardly original, or in fact very exciting. It even has some freaky, hard to stomach artwork. It even goes as far as to take a back handed swipe at the intelligence of those noble, heroic souls we here at YAC refer to in hushed reverent tones as 'comic-book fans'.

Why then would I want to talk about this book on my comic-book blog I hear you cry?

Well it's quite simple. This book stars the best super-heroes and villans ever created by mortal man.

Before Almighty Stan strikes me down with a Jack Kirby rendered lighning bolt for such blasphemy allow me to present your eager eyeballs with:

That's right folks - that dude's name is Headless Skeleton

Headless freaking Skeleton for crying out loud! How awesome is that....the answer...is lots.

So distracted you may have been by the awesomosity of Headless Skeleton that you may have missed the fact that the green guy with the metal chin in the second panel is named...Westseid. Holy Tupac Batman!! I almost peed my pants at that one let me tell you.

Yeah so all these characters are parodies of existing super-hero/villans. Big honking deal. That doesn't take away from the fact that:

Metal Head is a big pile of awesome

That's really all I've got to say on the subject. You should rush out right now and buy this book even though you don't really care about the story, the art or the video game from which it's licensed. You should rush out and buy it because it features a titantic confrontation between those bitter rivals:

Fruit Bat and Killer Cock

A dude called Killer Cock = Awesome.

You heard it here first.

Laters

PS: While you're online, go vote for my project Devil's Music in this year's Small Press Idol contest. Much obliged

Small Press IDOL: VOTE FOR ME DAY 2...

Me Again...

In case you missed yesterday's post

Devil's Music is in Round 2 of Small Press IDOL and it needs your votes!!!

You want metal bands with cheesy names don't you? You want dudes with Nikki Sixx style hairdos don't you? You want to see monsters getting beat-up with Gibson Les Paul's don't you?

Well get off your keister and vote meester!

Here's the links:
Sign up here.

Then login and vote here.

Here's another little taster to whet your rock N roll appetite:
A Bazillion Thank Yous to all who have already voted from all of the reprobates here at YOUARECOMIC.

Shameless Self Promotion: Small Press IDOL 2010

Loving Readers...

My lowly comic-book project 'Devil's Music' has made it through to Round 2 of 2010's Small Press Idol contest (with an artful assist from my pencil-packing compatriot JohnnyBoyBaptista). It is the story of a hapless rock band who inadvertently unleash Hell in the middle of Manhattan. A story where the day can only be saved by busting monsters in the chops with a Flying V guitar!!

What we need now to make this dream a reality in Round 3 is votes!

YOUR VOTES!

So sign yourself up for a free (and SPAM free) SPI forum account here.

Then login in and give us your vote here.

The very survival of the YouAreComic universe depends on YOU!!!

Want a little taste of what you're voting for? Check out some delicious concept art:
Thanks for your support. It will be remembered fondly when world domination is finally ours!!

Shameless Self Promotion: Zarjaz #09

That's right folks it's time once again for me to hock some more of my work. Check out the sweet Dredd cover for Zarjaz #09. Zarjaz is the sanctioned 2000AD fanzine from the same guys who do the jewel of the UK small press crown Futurequake.

If that cover isn't enough to make you buy it. How about the fact that it contains a four page story written by yours truly starring Judge Dredd's very own Angel Gang? On top of that you've got the truly fantastic art of the one and only Dunk! Nimmo. Don't believe me, check this out:

I encourage any and all to rush over and pick this baby up from the Futurequake HQ shop.

That's Why You Don't Let Your Evil Brother Babysit!!

Sea Scum! Tee Hee Hee!

(Today's childcare advice comes to you all the way from Aquaman #37 wherein Aqualad gets his Silver Age awesome on by playing keep-away with Mera and Arthur's baby son and using the phrase 'Holy Herrings'. It also sports this bitchin' Nick Cardy cover.)

Words To Live By...

You tell 'em Mol!

(Today's childish temper tantrum was brough to you from those fine folks at Runaways v3 # 10 wherein Molly Hayes a.k.a. Princess Powerful uses the Danger-Room as the professor originally intended...to make pretty unicorns and butterflies. Also there's a Fraggle Rock reference. Remember Fraggle Rock?)

That Sumbitch Writes Good Ghost Rider...

Over the weekend I read Ghost Rider #33. Wow. Just Wow. Jason Aaron has now officially joined that fraternity of upstart creators who I think should just be handed the reins of Marvel Universe to do with as they please.

Imagine Jason Aaron, Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin, Matt Fraction and Fred Van Lente in control of everything - - the mind boggles. It would be goodbye to the dour, stiff-upper lipped seriousness of the reign of Brian Michael Bendis and hello to the wacky, fun, plain cuckoo-bananas era of the crazy gang! Don't get me wrong I do enjoy Bendis stuff at Marvel but these guys would turn the MU on it's ear and fill it full of crazy fun, laugh-out-loud gags and that good old fashioned comic book goofiness we all know and love.

So what's so good about Ghost Rider #33 then? Well ironically this issue is what most other series would consider a 'filler' story. The lead character does not appear, the story is instead about a supporting character, Caretaker's daughter Sara. Also there's not a lot of action involving Sara, instead the issue is focused on her struggling to make the decision whether or not to follow in her father's footsteps.

In Aaron's hands however this 'filler' is weaved into pure gold with little vingettes that show us the many different Ghost Rider's there have been down through the years.

Yeah, I know it doesn't sound all that great but trust me - it is. These guys are equal parts awesome and hilarious. I was hard pressed to pick which ones to post here because they're all so great. I'd buy a mini-series based on any one of these guys:Like Big Chief Blazing Skull here. He sticks it to toothless yankee baby scalpers with his hellfire bow and arrow and his bad-western-style indian war-cry - and how! And how! How! Get it?

Anyway...

...how about this guy:That's right folks no morally reprehensible Prohibition era gentleman's club was safe from the firey righteous wrath of Undead G-Man and his side-car riding sidekick Knuckles O'Shaugnessy. Those guys brought the thunder to crime-commiting mooks everywhere with the most sophisticated weapons in the afterlife's arsenal: a hellfire Tommy Gun and a baseball bat with nails in it.

Those guys are great and all, but are they better than:Smokey and the Hellfire Bandit? Not only is this a Ghost Rider who drives 18 Wheels of Justice but it's a chance to bust out all that old CB radio jargon we haven't seen in comics since the disappearance of CB-radio enthusiast and sometime Spider-man foe Razorback. And the fiddle playing devil on the side of the Devil's Rig? That's some funny shit. I can't remember the last time I read a comic with a good Charlie Daniels Band reference in it.
To appreciate the full glory of this page try reading it with the theme from the movie 'Convoy' playing in the background.

Still haven't had your fill? How about Penance Fist?He's a foul-mouthed, redneck Billy Joe Shaver fan, dressed in a cowboy shirt embroided with pentagrams, having a bar-room brawl with a bunch of zombies armed with nothing but his ten gallon hat and hellfire brass knucks. That good buddies is a big tall drink of awesome!

As I said, apart from these little 'Ghost Rider Hall of Fame' vignettes not at a lot happens to our heroine Sara in this issue, but what little does happen, like everything else in this freaking book, is awesome.

I mean everybody knows that for your horror comic to truly shine you really gotta shoehorn a convent full of dead nuns into your story somewhere.

Mr Aaron knows this, but he does us one better.

His convent full of dead nuns was no ordinary convent. This convent was populated by an order of badass, fighting nuns! An order of badass, fighting nuns who died locked in mortal combat with a supernaturally powered engine of destruction called the Deacon armed only with their trusty....nunchucks!!Nuns....with NUNchucks!! BWAH HAH HAH HAH! Funny funny funny.

I could go on and on and on about how fantastic Jason Aaron has been on this series (and this issue in particular) but frankly I'm a little tired out from all of this pure unadulterated awesomeness.

If M.O.D.O.K. had've shown up I may have just keeled over.

Til next time you crazy sumbitches.

You Thought I Made It Up?

I wasn't kidding about the Blue Snowman in my last post. There is an honest to goodness DC super-villain named the Blue Snowman. He has a long and storied history that began that time he showed up in Sensation comics all badly coloured and whomped Wonder Woman in the back of the head.

As if the fact that he's named the Blue Snowman isn't reason enough to love this guy and flood the DC Editorial Offices with demands for a Blue Snowman mini-series there's so much more to him than just a snow-man looking outfit, funky pipe and whomping unsuspecting chicks with wrenches.

He...is actually...a she!

A super-villain named the Blue snowman....who is also a cross dresser?! The hits just keep on coming!
You see if the Blue Snowman is actually a woman it makes that time she trussed Wonder Woman up and used her as a footstool a lot less creepy......or maybe not.

Anyway as you may have noticed from the previous post a new age of awesome has begun in the world of comics. As of Power Girl #7 the Blue Snowman....is back.

He/she is still a cross-dressing super-villain with a funky sci-fi pipe that shoots weather and a thoroughly stylish bowler hat but this time she's got an awesome Amanda Conner make-over.That's right bitches, the Blue Snowman is for real.

You better recognise.

Woo The Ladies Just Like Vartox Of Valeron...

Lesson One: Persistence

(Today's Valerian Lesson Of Love was brought to you by the fine folks at Power Girl #7. If you want to see a Kryptonian hottie team up with a blind owl-fancier to battle the malevolent menace of the Blue Snowman, it's the place to be!)

Happy Holidays...

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our loyal YouAreComic readers out there in blogland.

Normal service will resume in three festive weeks time.

Christmas cheer and peace on infinite earths to you all!