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Saturday, December 30, 2006

The 2007 Thirty Second Recap Contest!

And with this post, the ISB bids a fond farewell to 2006.

That's right: I'm taking the next week off, but since you guys seem far more likely to let me catch up on sleep when I'm giving you something in return, I'm happy to announce the Second ISB Contest!

And since this is both the second contest and the event that'll close out my second year of (near) daily blogging, I thought I'd take a cue from the ISB's second most popular post: my crayon-drawing recap of Infinite Crisis in 30 Seconds (Done, of course, in the stick-figure style of Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick)!

This time, though, I'm going to let you guys do all the work, so grab a box of crayons and get started with your own "30 Second" recap of a comic book story. When I return next Saturday for the ISB's Two-Year Awesomeversary, I'll pick the one I like the most to recieve an amazing selection of fabulous prizesĀ¹!

The Rules:

  1. They don't necessarily have to be crayon drawings, but some artistic work is necessary. I'd prefer them to be hand-drawn, but if you don't have a scanner and knocking something out in MSPaint is more your speed, feel free. Using panel scans or any other published artwork is right out. Lettering can be done by computer or by hand. In case you're curious, I usually use Blambot's Letter-O-Matic font, which is offered for free, but use of Comic Sans will be grounds for immediate disqualification.

  2. Entries can be posted on your own blog or website and linked to in the comments section of this post or, if you don't have the hosting or just want them to be a surprise, sent to me directly using the email address in the sidebar. Rest assured, I will read and post everything I recieve, so if you're going to email them to me, try to keep the filesize manageable, and make sure to put something like "30 Second Recap Contest" in the subject line.

  3. Entries should contain no more than eight to ten panels. Brevity is the soul of wit.

  4. What you choose to recap is up to you, but please, don't do anything that hasn't actually finished yet (which knocks out Civil War and the first Justice League of America storyline, which as we all know would just be eight panels of people sitting around a table saying each other's first names). Spoilers, of course, will be the order of the day around here once I post these.

  5. Not only does the art for your entry not have to be good, but by all rights, it should appear hastily done and pretty low-quality. Take as much time with it as you want, but if you can't get Batroc's legs to work quite right, don't sweat it. What matters is that it's fun.

  6. Cap'n Neurotic and Brian: You guys are welcome to enter, but since you won the last contest I had, I'm afraid I'm going to have to let somebody else win this one. No hard feelings?


The Swag:

The winner of the 30 Second Recap Contest will recieve, via the United States Postal Service, one signed copy of CRACKED Magazine #3, featuring my Laugh Audit review of the best and worst Romantic Comedies Hollywood has to offer, a crayon drawing of the comic book character of your choice, and various back issues hand-picked by me for being awesome. Last time, Cap'n Neurotic walked away with a full set of Wild Dog! What could you win?!


And just to get you started, here's a panel from my forthcoming recap of Civil War, which is posted here in flagrant violation of Rule #4:



And that's all there is to it. Thanks largely to you guys, 2006 has been one of the best years I've ever had, and hopefully you got a kick out of it, too.

Happy New Year, Everybody! Now get to work!




1: Prizes will be neither fabulous nor amazing.

Friday, December 29, 2006

The Annotated Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

Like any serious comics fan should, I have a great amount of respect for Jess Nevins. His annotations to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume One and Volume Two are incredibly entertaining and informative, and if you've got any interest at all in 19th Century heroic literature, his Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana is absolutely fascinating.

I, on the other hand, tend to set my sights much, much lower.

Yes, Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #3 hit stands yesterday, and so tonight, I'm devoting the ISB to an exhaustive, scurrilous set of notes on what may actually be the most awesomely terrible comic being put out by a major publisher today.

Grab your own copy and read along!


1.1: This issue's opening line, "My skin crawled with the memory of small furry bodies sliding over me," in addition to being a handy reminder that Anita was in dire peril of being murdered by vermin in the last issue, is also highly reminiscent of erotic fan-fiction concerning Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers. Considering that this is a story where the main character eventually has to have sex with the undead to gain super-powers, that might actually be a step up.

1.3: This issue marks the first appearance of The Rat King:



It's unclear as to whether his tiny, tiny denim cutoffs are representative of his rank, or if they're just a curious personal affectation.

2.3: Anita's "Apparently, I was being rescued, not that I had need of it," seems pretty thoroughly at odds with the fact that exactly three pages before, she was shouting for a vampire in a frilly poet-shirt to save her from Certain Doom at the hands of the wererats. From this, we can infer that Anita Blake is a total jerk.

4.6: When Theresa claims that the rats were meant to frighten her, Anita claims that she doesn't "frighten that easily." Again, I refer you to last issue, where Anita screams for help, apparently while completely calm.

5.5:



At least two people got paid to write that down on a piece of paper. The mind boggles.

6.1: Hey, check out THIS shocking and wholly original concept! Nikolaos, the evil vampire capo for the entire city... IS ACTUALLY A LITTLE GIRL!



Did that blow your mind?! Because that just happened!

8.4: In a caption explaining how her mystical vampire-sense works, Anita claims that she "knew vampires like some people knew horses." Given what I've heard about her relationships later on in the series, that line is frigg'n hilarious.

8.5: Nikolaos apparently has the same tailor as Spawn.

9.5:



According to the text, this expression is meant to convey mind-shattering terror and not, as you might expect, exasperated boredom.

12.5: Jean-Claude is upset:



Clearly, this is serious business.

12.8: Just in case you didn't think this comic was super-awesome yet, then stand back: Two full pages of Anita Blake interrogating a monosyllabic zombie used car salesman begins now.

16.1: Okay, now I've read this comic at least four times, and I have no idea why Nikolaos and Jean-Claude suddenly go apeshit and start fighting each other. Normally, this sort of thing wouldn't present a problem for me, as I am all about people suddenly freaking out and throwing down, but really: Even OMAC has the courtesey to explain why he's going to destroy your section. Maybe Master Vampires are just a moody, capricious lot.

18.6: The Sword of Omens has given Anita Blake sight beyond sight:



19.5: Anita's line, "This was why I jogged, so I could run like hell when something was chasing me. Thinner thighs was not incentive enough," is pretty ironic, considering that on the previous page, she's depicted as some kind of satyr, or possibly someone smuggling a pair of new-style Volkswagen Beetles in her pants.

20.3: Sweet Flippin' Christmas.



Okay, what we have here is Winter, who appears to be an idealized version of Frank Miller (on the right), whose horrific, sub-Michael Turner-level anatomy is not nearly covered enough by a mesh wifebeater and a pair of tiny running shorts with slits up the sides.

Further commentary should not be neccessary.




More ISB Fun With Anita Blake:

| The Bloodsucking Battle You Demanded! Anita Blake vs. Dracula! |
| The Rumble in the Concrete Jungle! Anita Blake vs. Batman! |

Thursday, December 28, 2006

The Week In Ink: 12-28-06

You know, it seems like just yesterday that I was posting the first-ever kick of the week back in January, but tonight marks the last new comics day of 2006. So please, join us as we bid farewell to 2006 in the only way we know how around here:

Hey Matt Murdock! Why do you kick people so much?



Fair enough!


Yes, it's the fifth week of December, and there's a stack of comics on my desk that isn't going to review itself. But unfortunately, the Christmas shipping delay and my rigorous self-imposed update schedule both mean that I've had to read and review everything in a pretty short amount of time, so if tonight's snap judgements seem a little snappier or more judgemental than usual, that's why.

But enough talk! Follow along with the list of what I bought as I slug it out through the last Week In Ink of the year!




Comics

52: Week 34: With one of the better issues in recent memory, I'm going to go ahead and say that 52 has closed out the year on a pretty strong note. It's not without its flaws--and in fact, this issue sees a recurrenence of the biggest flaw of the series--but scenes like Lex Luthor's interrogation of Clark Kent are really helping to sharpen things up as we head into the final three months. For me, of course, the biggest thing about this issue is the apparent death of the Question, and while it's a well-done scene, one thing in particular struck me about it.

Right before the stroke of midnight, the Question--who has been deleriously quoting from his old series for a solid week now--starts weakly singing Danny Boy, and while that's neat in and of itself, Question fans and long-time ISB readers will recall that that's the same song that he sang when he came back from being beaten with lead pipes, shot in the head, and dumped in an icy river to die in one of the most badass moments in comics history. Whether this signifies the rebirth of the Question with Renee Montoya under the mask, or just an appropriate close to Vic Sage's second life, I don't know, but either way, it's a very nice touch.

The stuff with Osiris, however, left me feeling pretty cold. Not the plotline itself--that's been telegraphed for weeks now, and it's not like anybody's going to miss that version of the Persueder--but the graphic way that it was executed could've been done so much better. Believe it or not, I'm actually a firm believer in the power of subtlety, and there's a good reason why the best death scene in comics history only has a tiny little "snap!" to go with it, so a gory, entrail-filled shot of a low-rent bad guy getting torn in half--while oddly appropriate for the nigh-schizophrenic way that DC's been pushing for a brighter and more horrendously brutal editorial direction--was probably a bad idea.

Brian Bolland drawing Zatanna, however... That is always a good idea.


The All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12


Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #3: As always, expect more details to follow tomorrow (although not in the form of a match-up this time), but trust me on one thing: This book is gloriously horrible. Never before have I read a comic where the plot points have come in such a seemingly random order while the characters react to life-threatening situations with bored, slightly dyspeptic expressions and self-contradictory dialogue. It's like the whole thing was assembled with magnetic poetry and a blender, and it is beautiful.

Seriously, I love it. I hope it runs for years.


Astonishing X-Men #19: A few months ago, the fine folks over at Marvel's marketing department cooked up solicitations for this issue--which starts "Unstoppable," the last storyline of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run--that stopped just short of saying that if you did not read it, you may actually die. Admittedly, that's their job, but now that the issue's actually out, it really doesn't read like anything out of the ordinary for the title. Fortunately, "the ordinary" on Astonishing X-Men involves a highly entertaining story from Whedon and some truly phenomenal art from Cassaday, so it's got that going for it, along with the promise of all-out action for the next issue and a pretty fantastic moment for Collossus thrown in for good measure. It's excellent work, but from a title I enjoy as much as this one, I really expect nothing less.


Batman #661: TRUE FACT: All across this great nation of ours, flags will be kept at half-staff for the next thirty days in memory of Johnny Karaoke and his Geisha Grrls. Truly, he was too, too solid for this world.


Batman and the Mad Monk #5: I've mentioned before that with titles like Phonogram, Beyond! and BPRD: The Universal Machine, 2006 has been an awesome year for mini-series, and there's really nothing that exemplifies that more than Matt Wagner's recent work with Batman. Hands down, these are some of the best stories the character's seen in years, and this issue falls right in with the rest, kicking off as it does with Batman in dire peril of being killed by an old favorite of mine, the crushing wall trap (with optional spikes). It's amazingly fun, and with great scenes opposite Alfred and Jim Gordon, there's literally something on every page that reminds me why I love Batman so much.


Blue Beetle #10: After what felt like a pretty shaky start, it finally seems that Giffen, Rogers, and Hamner (along with various fill-in artists) have finally hit their stride here. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for a story involving the New Gods, but the past few issues have been a heck of a lot of fun, especially where Giffen's new direction for the Peacemaker's concerned. If you haven't already checked it out, the first trade's available, and while it's nothing all that spectacular, it's worth your time to give it a look if you enjoy, say, Firestorm, especially with the improvement it's shown over the last few issues.


Daredevil #92


Detective Comics #827


Hawkgirl #59: You know, there's not a whole lot that'll make me want to read a comic book less than a cover blurb like this issue's promise of "The Never-Ending Battles of the Rann-Thanagar War!" Believe me, I read six issues and a special of that little interplanetary conflict, and that's as close to "never-ending" as I'd ever like to get. Even beyond that, though--and you have no idea how much it hurts me to say this as someone who regards Walt Simonson's run on Thor as the pinnacle of modern super-hero comics and thinks that his Fantastic Four work has a good shot at being the most underappreciated run in Marvel Comics history--Hawkgirl is terrible. I've tried to make it work for the better part of a year now, and while there was a faint glimmer of hope when Chaykin left the book, there really hasn't been any improvement to speak of. So in the interest of starting the new year with a slightly smaller pile of comics to read each week, Hawkgirl's gone.


The Immortal Iron Fist #2: I don't know how you guys read comics, but the fact that I can go into a shop and walk out with two top-notch Marvel series featuring at least a guest appearance by the Night Nurse just thrills me to no end. Anyway, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction--two guys who have pretty much gotten to the point where until further notice, they can do no wrong with me--continue fleshing out an interesting, compelling legacy for Iron Fist, while keeping things moving with a nod to Civil War and a highly enjoyable look at Danny Rand as the avenging kung fu disco businessman that I like so much in his earliest appearances. It's an excellent read, and with the plot lines of three different eras converging around Danny Rand, it makes for a surprisingly dense one compared to a lot of what's on the shelves, too.


Jack of Fables #6: With this issue's detailed explanation of the four seasonal queens, Willingham and Sturges are bringing Syksy back. And yes, that is the most awesome joke you will hear about this comic today.

Anyway, it's another fantastic issue of Jack of Fables from Willingham, Sturges, and new artist Steve Leialoha, and while gags like Priscilla Page's fourth wall-breaking interruption to offer up the backstory make it easy to think of this as the "fun" counterpart to Fables, the original series isn't exactly a chore to get through itself. Still, it's enough of a difference in tone and technique to make Jack feel like a more lighthearted take on the same themes, and it's working out to be every bit as awesome as its predecessor. Excellent stuff.


ISB BEST OF THE WILLENNIUM




Nextwave: Agents of HATE #11: If you subscribe to the Bad Signal--and there's really no reason not to--it's abundantly clear that Warren Ellis spends a lot of time thinking about page layout, panel structure, and the actual ways that his comics are formed. So when he decides to have a twelve-page fight scene consisting of the most mind-bogglingly awesome enemies imaginable--including Evil Communist Monkeys, demonic chimney sweeps, and for the love of all that is good and holy, MODOK Elvii!--it should come as no surprise that he does not fuck around.

There's really no need for me to go on after that, but seriously, it's pure comics joy. Even the setup to the fight scene only just meets the minimum amount of plot to keep the story going, and manages to contain multiple explosions, the undead, and what is without a doubt the single greatest panel of Monica Rambeau's entire existence. Trust me: It's a fantastic piece of fight comics.


Public Enemy #2: Yes! The rhythm, the rebel! Without a pause, I'm lowering my level! The hard rhymer! Where you've never been I'm in! You want stylin', you know it's time again: D, the Enemy, tellin' you to hear it!

Or, in this case, read it. As you might know if you've been keeping up with Ye Olde lately, a signing for Public Enemy the comic turned into an impromptu concert by Public Enemy the band, and I'm willing to put money down that says that's the most awesome thing that hs ever happened in a comic book store parking lot by far. Either way, that alone is a reason to pick this up, even if I have to cop to enjoying it more than a little "ironically." But considering that it's got Flava Flav's astounding use of ninjitsu, it might not be as ironic as I think it is.


Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #13: Along with the new issue, Marvel put out second volume of SM <3 MJ in incredibly affordable digest format today, so if you haven't been listening while I've shouted its praises over the past year, there's really no excuse left for not reading it. One of Spider-Man's greatest strengths as a character has always been his rich supporting cast, and Sean McKeever's scripst read like he's having an absolute blast playing off of them, especially in this issue. There's a fantastic sequence illustrated by Rick Mays that's narrated by a teenage Gwen Stacy, and it's exactly that kind of enjoyable stuff that makes this book easily the best Spider-Man title of the last year. It'll definitely lose something when Takeshi Miyazawa leaves, but it's a fantastic little comic.

And to this day, the only one I've ever sent a letter to.


Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #25


Wetworks #4: It occurs to me that I don't usually give Wetworks a whole lot of attention during my weekly reviews, which can mostly be traced to the fact that I write them in alphabetical order, and I don't usually get around to W until, oh, daybreak or so. But the fact remains, Mike Carey's been doing a fine job on the title ever since it relaunched, and much like parts of his amazing run on Hellblazer, it seems like it's picking up steam as he gets further and further into the supernatural plots that are going to drive the series. If nothing else, it's a solid read, and while this one's all over the place--what with a vampire assassin, a ruined parallel Earth, and a flashback to a trial--it's the kind of inconsistency that comes off more charming than anything else as Carey moves quickly from one idea to the next, keeping the momentum of the story up as he goes. As for Whilce Portacio, well, I'm not a fan, and the nicest thing I can say there is that he's far more suited to this book than he was on Batman Confidentail, which only leads me to wonder how much more excited about it I'd be if Wetworks was drawn by Marcelo Frusin or Leonardo Manco.


Winter Soldier: Winter Kills: If you told me five years ago that Bucky was going to come back as a renegade Soviet super-assassin with a cybernetic arm and that I'd absolutely love it, I would've lookeda t you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears. And yet, here we are in the final days of 2006 with an absolutely incredible one-shot to back all that up. Such is the power of Ed Brubaker.





Trades

Cromartie High School v.9


Lankhmar Book 1: Swords and Deviltry





And that, my friends, brings the new comics of 2006 to a close. As always, if you have any questions about something I didn't mention, or if you're wondering what my exact thoughts on this week's issue of Justice were, then feel free to leave a comment. As for me, I'm going to go read about Japanese delinquents and, time permitting, the Gray Mouser.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Year-End Meme-O-Rama!

Last week, noted raconteur and bon vivant John Holbo "tagged" me for the meme that's going around where you tell five things about yourself that most people don't know, and since I always try to keep on the cutting edge of things, I resolved to do just that once I'd been forced by the calendar to stop writing about Santa Claus.

The problem, of course, is that I've been writing a daily blog for almost two years, and with my love of throwaway jokes, there's not a whole heck of a lot that people don't know about me already, and if you're a loyal ISB reader, it's not really going to come as a surprise that I was really into the Cartoon Network's Totally Spies! over the summer of 2004, or that my heart was broken when I found out Roddy Piper isn't really from Scotland. So with that in mind, I've racked my brains to come up with things that I haven't used as the punchline for a joke about the Teen Titans.

Let's see what I've got!

  1. In High School, I was voted "Most Unique."
    I'm pretty sure this was based entirely on my teenage love for Hawaiian shirts and a purely nonsensical column I wrote in the school paper called "Hardcore Journalism." Also of note, almost everyone who signed my yearbook included a line about sticking with my writing, which really discouraged me from continuing with my childhood dream of being a zombie-battling male model rock star.

  2. I have an intense, almost pathological fear and hatred of mold.
    It probably has a lot to do with my intense love of breads and cheeses, but whatever the case, I cannot stand it, and if I see some creeping onto my food, it's all I can do to bring myself to pick it up and throw it away without developing a debilitating case of the jibblies.

  3. I'm the only member of my family who can actually tell a joke.
    It's not that my relatives don't have a good sense of humor--although a good 73% of them don't--but they'll meander their ways through five minutes of setup, backtracking three or four times just to get to the end of a light bulb joke.

    The exception, of course, was the joke my mother told on the way through the door to my dad's funeral. That one, she nailed.

  4. I really, really like the movie Love Actually.
    I covered this one in the Christmas Comedy Encyclopedia for Cracked, but it bears repeating: That scene where Bill Nighy goes to his producer on Christmas Eve so that he won't have to spend the holiday alone? I get so choked up there. It's ridiculous.

  5. I have seen neither Commando nor Predator.
    And yet, I love to shout "Get to the choppah!" at every conceivable opportunity.


So there you have it: Five things that you probably didn't know about me, but most likely could've guessed if you somehow had to.

And one day, you will have to.




BONUS MEME: The Algorithm Revealed!


Over at Random Panels, Brandon Bragg has dared to investigate the extent of my sinister master plan for total internet domination!



I will have vengeance!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Boxing Day Special: May The Best Man DIE!

Despite the fact that I plan to keep humming "Jingle Bells" until sometime in mid-January, Chistmas is finally over. But fear not, holiday fans, for a quick glance at the calendar will show that the day after Christmas has its own special designation among the Godless heathens that populate England and the Canadian wilderness. So tonight, the ISB celebrates Boxing Day in the most appropriate way I can imagine:

With everyone's favorite geriatric prizefighter, Wildcat.



Yes, crashing fist-first into the pages of the Bob Haney/Jim Aparo Brave and the Bold--one of the finest runs of comics ever if you happen to enjoy things that are awesome--we have "May the Best Man DIE!", and even discounting the fact that there's really no reason offered up for how Batman's able to hang out with Wildcat when they're supposed to be living in seperate dimensions (because Bob Haney, that's why!), it may be the most nonsensical adventure of all time.

The whole thing kicks off with Mike Dubceck, who, before his current stint in the big house, was hired muscle in the employ of the Joker. At present, though, he's being kept isolated in solitary at the behest of Batman and Jim Gordon until he finally cracks and gives up information on his old boss, which just begs the question of why exactly are they still gathering evidence against the Joker? Once you go on your third or fourth public, clown-themed murder spree, I'm pretty sure they can just go ahead and close the file.

Regardless, being kept in solitary's starting to get to Dubceck, so--in a move that has a good shot at entering the Top One Stupidest Moments In Criminal History--he writes a letter to the Joker where he explains that he's about to crack and give up all the evidence against him.

Quick! Guess who doesn't make it to page fifteen!

This, for the record, is where things start to get convoluted. In a surprise twist, Ted Grant--alias Wildcat--is going to be boxing an exhibition match at that very prison the next day, but instead of bringing in another professional fighter to put on a good show for the guys in lockdown, the Warden has apparently arranged it so that the former Heavyweight champ will just throw down with one of the prisoners instead. Clearly, this plan is flawless.

Fortunately, the prisoner they settle on is, of course, Mike Dubcek, who almost beat Wildcat for the title before he turned to a life of crime. And incidentally, that's also the exact plot of Rocky Balboa.

Thus: Fightin'!



I've said it before, and Haney's dialogue here bears me out: When drawn by Jim Aparo, being punched is like being shot in the face.

Ted Grant wins the fight, of course, but in yet another surprise twist, Grant's volunteer corner-man is actually working for the Joker, and ends up spiking Dubceck's water with a rare, highly infectious tropical disease that spreads to the rest of the prison in a couple of days, marking what would stand as the most convoluted organized crime hit until Snakes On A Plane hit theaters 31 years later.

Luckily for all that evidence that we're still supposed to need, Jim Gordon has a plan:



I've already emailed Polite Scott about this, but while I'm not a doctor, I am almost certain that a small dog "crammed full of antibodies" cannot possibly be the proper way to battle an epidemic.

What follows could pass for the most surreal Benny Hill sketch of all time: Batman puts Spot the Anti-Bacterial Wonder Dog in an armored car, the Joker hijacks it, and Batman and Wildcat spend seven pages trying to track him down. What's really interesting about the sequence, though, is that at one point, Spot runs across a wino, who--recognizing that the dog can do simple tricks--decides that he's going to get rich off a Jack Russel terrier that can both sit and roll over. He feels so strongly about this, in fact, that when Batman rolls through the alley asking if he's seen a dog, he feigns ignorance.

Quick Note for the Population of Gotham City: If Batman is looking for something, it's probably very, very important that he finds it in a timely fashion. (See Also: Every single Batman story ever).

Eventually, Batman and Wildcat realize that the Joker got the bright idea to check with the dogcatcher, and end up trailing him to one of Gotham's scenic abandoned arenas, where they're forced to fight to the death Aparo Style!--in a scene that would later be re-imagined by Beau "The Bro" Smith and Chuck "Pass The Fixins" Dixon for Batman/Wildcat, with this hanging in the balance:



Huh. All the sudden, I have the urge to buy a copy of National Lampoon.

Anyway, Batman and Wildcat beat each other half to death, but the day is saved when Spot bites the Joker and, for reasons that I can only attribute to the fact that we're on page 17 of an 18-page story with no resolution in sight, the Joker flips out, jumps into a nearby river, and then begs Batman to save him from drowning, thus saving the day.

Well, for everyone except for the increasingly irrelevant Mike Dubcek, anyway. But he was a snitch, so dying in a hellish prison from an exotic tropical disease contracted during a boxing match with a senior citizen was pretty much to be expected.

After all... isn't that the true meaning of Boxing Day?




More Haney-tastic Fun From the Brave and the Bold:

| The Crank File: B&B #81 |
| Haney's Got A Gun |
| The Crank File: B&B #115 |
| APARO! |

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!

Click the image below to open up this year's ISB Christmas Card!



On behalf of MODODGE, I'd like to thank everyone who's already stopped by with kind words, and wish you the happiest of holidays. Merry Christmas, everybody!




More Tidings of Awesome and Joy From the ISB!

| The 2005 ISB Christmas Card |

| Season's Creepings From Terror, Inc |
| The Senses-Shattering Horror of Tarot #41 (Or: Yule Be Sorry!) |
| The Batman's Last Christmas! |
| The Howard the Duck Holiday Special (With Bonus Hollywood Pitch Meeting Game!) |
| A Holiday Message From the Heroes For Hire |
| Christmas Belongs To Gunther |
| The Most Highly Improbable Christmas Of Them All! |
| Santa Fronts For the Mob! |
| An Alarmingly Violent Christmas With Sgt. Rock |
| Hooray For Santy Claus! |

Saturday, December 23, 2006

S-A-N-T-A! C-L-A-U-S! Hooray For Santy Claus!

It's Christmas Eve, and for me, that means only one thing: Tonight, Jolly Old St. Nick'll be making his rounds from the North Pole to spread a little bit of holiday cheer to the rest of us. So please, pour yourself a tall glass of eggnog, download the unbelievably awesome theme song from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1.8 MB mp3) and sing along as the ISB salutes the Big Guy, the Connection, the one and only...

SANTA CLAUS!



S-A-N-T-A! C-L-A-U-S!
Hooray For Santy Claus!



You spell it
S-A-N-T-A! C-L-A-U-S!



Hooray for Santy Claus!

Hooray for Santy Claus!
Yeah yeah for Santy Claus
He's fat and round, but jumpin' jiminy!



He can climb down any chim-in-y!

When we hear sleigh bells ring
our hearts go ting-a-ling
cause there'll be presents under the tree!



Hooray for Santy Claus!

Now all year long at the North Pole
He's busy making toys



but he knows just what you're doing
so you better be good girls and boys!



Hang up that mistletoe!



Soon you'll hear ho ho ho!



On Christmas Day
You'll wake up and you'll say
Hooray for Santy Claus!

[Awesome Horn Solo]

Yeah Yeah
Yeah Yeah
Yeah Yeah
Hooray!

Hang up that misteltoe!



soon you'll hear:



On Christmas Day
You'll wake up and you'll say:
Hooray for Santy Claus!



S-A-N-T-A! C-L-A-U-S!
Hooray for Santy Claus!



You spell it
S-A-N-T-A! C-L-A-U-S!
Hooray for Santy Claus!



Hooray for Santy Claus!



Hooray for Santy Claus!