In order to entice readers and get them excited for Drew Goddard’s upcoming four-issue arc on Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy: Season Eight (as previously mentioned here), the publisher has now put another of Goddard’s Buffy stories, "Antique", online for your no-cost reading pleasure. The story, which has been posted in its entirety at the site, is part of the Tales of the Vampires anthology released a few years ago written by various former Buffy: The Vampire Slayer writers including Goddard, Ben Edlund and creator Joss Whedon.

Centered around Whedon’s story about a group of young Slayers in training, the anthology explores the history of vampires and the world of the Slayer, taking place at various points in history including medieval times, the great Depression and today. Goddard’s particular story concerns Buffy’s rematch with the evil Dracula and her attempt to free her pal Xander from the vampire’s hypnotic spell.

Reading "Antique" reminded me why I like Goddard’s writing in the first place. It’s dark, it moves and its funny. Three qualities I look for in a story.

Not that I really need another reason to read Buffy: Season Eight, though.

Goddard’s arc, "Wolves at the Gate", has its first issue drop on March 8th.

We’ve gotten glimpses of what the Hulk and the Abomination may look like in the forthcoming Incredible Hulk movie thanks to the toys produced for the film, but now we can get a closer look.

Bad Taste has posted some new promotional artwork for the film that depicts the Hulk in various states of rage. This is the artwork given to licensers to demonstrate what the green goliath will look like in the movie. If you squint hard enough, you can kind of see the resemblance to Edward Norton.

The website is in Italian, but the brute force of the Hulk’s smashing translates any cultural and linguistic barriers. If you’re desperate to read the site, be smart like the Leader and use Babelfish to translate it!

The stack of manga to be reviewed has been getting shorter, down to the point where trying to put together a theme is difficult. So, this week, it’ll have to be random reviews. It’s all from Japan, and… that’s probably all it has in common.

Andromeda Stories, Vol. 3
Keiko Takemiya; story by Ryu Mitsuse
Vertical, 2008, $11.95

The epic conclusion of the SF manga series from the early ‘80s ends with a scene familiar from many derivative tales of the Planet Stories era…but I won’t spoil it. As you may recall from my review of the previous volume, a race of intelligent machines, called "the Enemy," has been conquering an unnamed planet in the Andromeda galaxy, and Prince Jimsa of the Cosmoralian Empire, our hero, wants to stop them.

However, being as this is a manga for girls from the early ’80s, most of this book has to be taken up with the relationship between Jimsa and his long-lost twin "brother," Affle. The two share a psychic connection – they feel each other’s pain and their not terribly well defined psychic powers work much better when they’re in close proximity – and they also are strangely drawn to each other.

(Need I mention that the "brother" is not what he seems? This will be important for that very familiar ending.)

Other relationships are equally as central, such as those involving “the Elder,” who was an important advisor to the rules of Cosmoralia but turns out to be More Than He Appears. He was Jimsa’s mentor, but turns his attentions to Affle in this book, as part of his general megalomaniacal plans to utterly destroy the Enemy. Since this is a shojo manga, it’s much more about emotional scenes and relationships than about actually fighting against killer robots.

(And the Enemy’s function is to put whole populations into a kind of cold sleep – entirely willingly – so that they can live in a virtual world of peace and plenty. This, as is common in pulp SF, is seen as horrible and effete, a fate worse than death – so slaughtering the millions or billions the Enemy now warehouses and cares for is the only possibly option. It would have been nice to have seen a little thought given to that background, and a recognition that it might not be all that bad just because it’s different.)

I’m not the audience for Andromeda Stories: I’m too old, of the wrong gender, and I’ve read far too much science fiction. But, if you’re not me, you might like this.

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That’s right, two of DC Comics’s most powerful mortals, Superman and Captain Marvel, have their birthday today! Of course, for the Man of Steel it’s just the Earth equivalent to his Kryptonian birthday, while Captain Marvel dates his “birth” to the night young Billy Batson uttered the name “Shazam!” and was transformed into the World’s Mightiest Mortal.

Still, those are some powerful candles…

Up to now I was on the fence about whom I was going to vote for in the Presidential election. All I knew for sure is that I was going to vote for whatever Democrat won the nomination. If Charles Barkley won the nomination I would have voted for him. So, yes, no matter what Democrat wins I’m casting my ballot his or her way. 

Even though I am running for President myself (I announced that a few columns ago) I am realistic enough to know that I may not win. I am going to take a stand like Ralph Nader. I’m in it to make a point like Nader. I’m in it to be a huge pain in the ass with no godly chance of winning… like Nader. If you ask me It’s just as much Nader’s fault we are in a war in Iraq as it is Bush’s. If he did not take votes away from Gore then we would be worried about a sex scandal right about now not fighting a war we have no business waging. 

I like Both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama and would have been happy to vote for either.

Until last week. Last week I decided whom not to vote for.

Before I give my endorsement (which will surely decide the nominee as I carry so much weight) let me share a bit about each candidate. There is a real chance that Barack Obama will come to Comic Con International this summer. His campaign contacted me last year about setting that up and it still may happen.

Why me? Let’s just say that’s how I roll. 

I like Obama but did not know if I was ready to vote for him. I was very impressed that his campaign thinks that Comic Con is a smart place to reach young people. That move earned him serious points in my book.

To be frank I was a huge fan of the Clintons and was leaning in Hillary’s direction, mainly because I loved Bill Clinton. I have met quite a few notable people in my life. From heads of state to rock, hip-hop and movie stars to world leaders. When I say meet I’m not talking about some random street meeting or autograph signing I’m talking about being in business with them or being invited to their home or inviting them to mine. Most of these well known people I meet are impressive but three impressed me to a point where I was speechless.  (more…)