Welcome to another edition of TF Flashback, where we revisit some old content from our early years on the web. In this series, we’re reposting issues of an old webcomic we used to do that “chronicled” John, Moe and Hilden’s year of living together in college.

1125 Fremont #9-Turtle Shell Disdain

If you caught our live show a few weeks ago and managed to stick it out through the After Hours episode we did, you heard us talk about this story. There was a moment where Moe was up in John’s room playing video games a ton. I remember walking up there to watch him play Mario Kart and as I did so, I could feel the hooks starting to grab me again. At this point in my college years, I had left videogames behind me to concentrate on music and my future career. This was the start of that slide back into playing them.

The actual events happened much faster. I think it was just a few days from watching Moe play to me going out and buying a PlayStation. In the comic, however, this would be the start of an arc that would last for many, many episodes.

What I remember about this comic from a creative standpoint is that #9 represents when I started to get serious about doing these. I was a really inconsistent comic creator and I wanted to get better but knew I had to buckle down. So I committed to doing a comic a week starting with #9 and I lasted almost a full year before I finally wound it down. Starting with this comic, the style of the characters really start to develop and the look of the comic begins to form.

Welcome to another edition of TF Flashback, where we revisit some old content from our early years on the web. In this series, we’re reposting issues of an old webcomic we used to do that “chronicled” John, Moe and Hilden’s year of living together in college.

1125 Fremont #8-This Is Uncomfortable

The entire house laying on John’s bed, watching Seinfeld, was a tradition of sorts at 1125 Fremont. Well, all five of us at the same time was pretty rare but there were always a good complement of us on there. I remember that we used to watch Seinfeld two or three times a day. The only other show that got as much attention was a public access show called “Ride the Planet with Philip T. Watchwell” which, sadly, never made it to the comic.

I thought it was necessary to document the gathering in comic form, if only to remember those days when you COULD waste an afternoon on another man’s bed watching a comedy show. That came out wrong.

Anyway, more gay humor not so cleverly disguised. My favorite part is Moe simply saying “Damn it!”. That always made me laugh. At any rate, I remember liking the way the last panel came out. That’s about all I have for you this week on this one.

Welcome to another edition of TF Flashback, where we revisit some old content from our early years on the web. In this series, we’re reposting issues of an old webcomic we used to do that “chronicled” John, Moe and Hilden’s year of living together in college.

1125 Fremont #7-Harry

I’m not sure why I felt the need to introduce another character at this point in the series, after just finishing the introductions to the mains ones. Harry was a friend of John’s who was also going to the same college and I remember him just…suddenly being there. One minute the house was empty and the next, Harry was there in John’s room playing Goldeneye like he’d been there all day. I’m sure it was just me not paying attention but he was like fucking Batman in my mind.

So, I decided to make Harry a running gag. I figured it might be amusing to have the Hilden character be tormented by Harry just showing up at random times. The joke only “ran” for about three issues however and now it just sort of comes off as an unecessary comic that breaks what little flow I had.

The classic nineties Disney hero, Darkwing Duck, is back! Well, at least in comic book form. News over at the website Inside the Magic.net reveals that Darkwing Duck will once again return to comics via Disney’s BOOM! Studios in a series called The Duck Knight Returns.

Darkwing Duck was always one of my favorite Disney characters. Mostly because of the not so clever take off on a bumbling Batman clone. However, I always thought the villains were extremely cool looking and the stories had a neat comic book spin. Of course, it’s been awhile since I’ve taken a look at them. Nevertheless, it’s cool to see Disney taking some time to revisit some of their classic cartoon franchises in this day an age of Hannah Montana and whatever other drek they happen to be peddling to kids these days.

It’s been almost 20 years, if you can believe that, since Darkwing Duck made any sort of appearance. Be that as it may, a quick scan of YouTube will net you a bunch of episodes from the half hour cartoon that used to run in the 1990′s. For those that don’t remember this character from the old Disney Afternoon days, here’s a look at the first part of Episode 1:

For those of you who do remember this classic character, you should be happy to know that you can check out a preview of the first five pages by clicking here. There is also an interview with the comic’s writer and cover artist here.

Thanks to Justin for the link!

The creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev holds a special place in my heart. Before he went and fucked it all up with the abysmal Secret Invasion storyline, which managed to skew the entire Marvel Universe for a year, Bendis was the man behind the resurgence of one of my all time favorite characters, Daredevil. With the aid of Alex Maleev’s gritty and washed out line work, the world of Hells Kitchen became the playground for one of the most gripping storylines to hit a Marvel character in ages.

When Bendis and Maleev announced they were leaving Daredevil in the hands of a new creative team, I not only mourned their departure but also became really curious as to what they would be doing next. Much to my dismay, it seemed the partnership would be splitting. Bendis, it was announced, was moving to the Avengers to sow the seeds for what would become the Secret Invasion arc. Maleev, it seemed, was simply dropping off the face of the planet, with only a guest shot here and there to satiate my thirst for his fantastic artwork.

Much to my surprise, I got wind a year or so ago that Bendis and Maleev were not split but simply working on a rather ambitious new project to be revealed at a later date. Earlier this year we were finally treated to the fruit of that secret labor in their newest partnership, Spider-Woman. More than just a comic book, this run also attempts to leap into the future of comic books with a motion comic on iTunes. Whether or not it succeeds or not is up to you but I found the results to be well worth the time, if not the cash.
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I’d like to think Steve Thomas comes off as a professional well-known artist who has worked on many recognizable works of the past, but had decided to “come down to our level” to peddle his downtime works on a simple blog. With most commercial artists, the offbeat personal works are probably better than anything he’s ever made serious money on. My backstory is all speculation though. Steve Thomas is such a common name, my google fu knows not how to narrow down these Steve Thomas biographies. Every artist instance of Steve Thomas says hes died 9 to 120 years ago. Rapper C-Murder of TRU apparently killed them all.

Steve Thomas makes posters. Really good posters. His style reminds me of those old generic Spanish/French/Latin framed quasi-advertisement oil posters that say random words like “Fentaru!” and “Irrradio!” that don’t make much sense to Americans, but “one level above dive bar” bars think it’s classy to keep them around. These posters types are somewhat classy until you end up at a craft store that actually sells them and you come to learn you can pick up seven prints of this nonsense for a dollar.

He has some neatness about beer, Star Wars, Tron, and The Beatles, but his great stuff is his Arcade Game Propaganda collection. I really like this guy because he functions on subtle references. It’s up to the audience to either appreciate the standalone art or understand what he’s talking about. It’s mature. Throwing a big ‘ol “Galaga” logo in the corner takes away from the art like industry does to ruin just about every gaming t-shirt for the past ten years.

Many of these artworks are purchasable for suitable framing. They would sit well with the Shmopera prints.

Have a look around.

The wait is over, the movie is out, and the reviews have been somewhat mixed.  Does the next chapter in the Tony Stark Sage live up to the hype, and is Iron Man 2 something I want to spend my money on this Mother’s Day weekend?  The answer my friends is quite simple YES, YOU WANNA SEE THIS MOVIE!!!  Director John Favreau proves once again how one can stick with characters and lore that was written in the comics and make something that not only appeals to comic fans, but the masses as well.  Iron Man has arrived…

The movie takes place shortly after the events of the first film.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has launched his own world fair called the “Stark Expo.”  He has his own cheerleaders (The Ironettes), and he declairs himself the baddest mother on the face of the planet.  He single handedly takes responsibility for a decline in hostile actions around the globe, and the media loves him.  But all is not well with Mr. Stark.  The US Government wants to take his suit away from him, his arch rival Justin Hammer (played wonderfully by Sam Rockwell) wants to crush his business and destroy his legacy, he still can’t seem to win the heart of his secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and what is even worse, the very device that has kept him alive and brought him so much power may be slowly killing him as well. 

If Tony didn’t have enough to think about, a Russian physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), is planning his own revenge against Stark’s legacy.  Vanko is the son of his father’s old business partner, disgraced Russian physicist Anton Vanko, who collaborated on the first arc reactor and has passed the technology on following his death. Ivan blames Tony and Howard Stark for his father’s fate and so he creates his own arc reactor with electrical whips that can slice through metal.  Vanko believes that if he can disgrace Tony Stark, people will no longer believe in Iron Man. 

Thus begins our journey as Tony wrestles with being Iron Man, maintaining his relationships, and wrestling with an incurable disease; unaware that his enemies Justin Hammer and Vanko have teamed up to destroy him. 

What makes Iron Man different, and one of my favorite super heroes, is how we are welcome to watch Tony Stark grow into being a hero.  Stark is a wise cracking narcissist, who most of the time cares little for what he does, unless it can benefit him in some ways.  We may not like it, but I believe all of us can relate to that in some ways.  As parents, we have to teach our kids to be giving and sharing. Some of us do ok, and other fail miserably.  Just visit Wal Mart on a Saturday and you’ll see what I mean.  But Tony is also a brilliant scientist and he uses his genius to help him overcome predicaments (many he has created) in unique ways.  Each time he steps up to the plate and pushes himself for an answer I find myself cheering for him, and I am rewarded when I see that Mr. Stark has indeed grown just a bit from it. 

We saw a little of this in the first movie, and we see a lot more of it in the sequel.  Perhaps that’s why the reviews have been mixed, watching someone use science to solve a problem isn’t as much fun as blowing stuff up.  I for one enjoyed it a great deal, especially when the performances are this good.  Robert Downey Jr. was born to play Tony Stark; he is the embodiment of that character brought to the screen.  It’s so much fun watching him get into his characters these days that I get excited when I see he’s in a new film. 

The bad guys in the film are equally as good.  Micky Rourke captures your attention within the first five minutes and you’re hooked from then on.  Many times Vanko has no dialogue at all, and yet Rourke can say so much with how he looks at the camera or how he positions himself within a scene.  He completely steals the one scene where Downey is interrogating him, and that’s not easy to do.  Sam Rockwell just as good as Justin Hammer.  He plays the sad second fiddle to Tony Stark so well, being sure to let everyone know where he got his exotic items and how much they cost.  His insecurity is portrayed so well that one begins to wonder almost immediately how it will be his downfall. 
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Welcome to another edition of TF Flashback, where we revisit some old content from our early years on the web. In this series, we’re reposting issues of an old webcomic we used to do that “chronicled” John, Moe and Hilden’s year of living together in college.

1125 Fremont #6-A Simple Guy

Okay. A story goes with this one. First off, let’s investigate just WHY John is portrayed looking like a starving African child in this comic, shall we?

Way back when, I wrote a column for the old GamingWorldX.com called Week in Review. The column had more than a few writers over the years and my spin on the WIR ended up being more of an Onion style videogame news column. I brought the same kind of article over here in the Zeitgeist feature we used to have up on TeamFremont.com. John, at some point, had given me shit over something. Most likely it was in his old blog called Cooking with John and I decided to take revenge in my own space. We were such children.

Anyway, I drew a picture of a really fucking fat John in a Lara Croft costume. Not sure exactly why I did that or what the context was but nevertheless, there it is. Fat John in a ladies costume. Mature, I know. For some reason, from then on, whenever I drew John he was a fat ass. Again, not sure why. Over time, John started calling me out on it and I had no answer as to why I kept drawing him as a tub. I started to feel a bit guilty over it and I think this comic was me overcompensating for all those Fat Johns I used to draw.

Fat Johns makes me laugh. It also sounds like a restaurant chain. Moving on.

The whole idea of John being the ladies man of the house was actually how I thought of him we first started living together. I remember a bunch of chicks used to stop over and go up to John’s room and participate in what I can only imagine was a lot of anal sex. Turns out I was right.

The last line “What are you, a cop?” was a a phrase John and one of his old high school friends used to say all the time. At least, I think that’s the story John told us all a long time ago. It’s getting hard to remember where all these pieces go.

Looking back at this one now, I realize just how much the look of the John character changed as the series went on. I remember never being pleased with how he was drawn until the fortieth comic or so. It’s only when I finally draw the hoodie that became the standard costume that I was satisfied. These next few issues really start to show the style transition I would start making on this comic.

Bloom County represents one of those comics that has always seemed a part of my childhood days, even though I didn’t understand a lick of what I was reading at the time. Berkely Breathed’s seminal comic strip of the 1980′s lampooned just about every facet of entertainment and politics of that decade. While Opus and Co. were taking jabs at Reaganomics, the Iran Contra Affair and Jimmy Swagert’s infidelities, I was simply entertained by a talking Penguin and a guy in a wheelchair who pretended to be playing out Star Trek. I remember two of my uncles were big fans of Bloom County and I would take time at family gatherings to pour over the collections that sat in their bookshelves. As such, when it comes to the culture of the 80′s it seems pretty well captured in every line of Bloom County. Now, thanks to IDW and their fantastic new hardcover series, I get to have the whole series from the very start.

For a start, the collection is presented in a beautiful hardbound book with heavy weight paper that really shows off the comic strips nicely. The book is the kind of thing that would look fantastic on your coffee table. The comics are laid out in chronological order with a few that have never been in print or haven’t been seen since the seventies. The books begins with a brief interview with Berkely Breathed regarding the start of the series and even has some of his old comics from his college strip to show where some of the Bloom County characters originated.

Admittedly, some of the early comics don’t look as fantastic as those in other collections you might already own. The Calvin and Hobbes books are a few that come to mind. Both Breathed and the editor mention this in the preface to the book as well. The reason for this is that many of these old strips had to be pieced together after being found in old newspaper archives. For something as awesome and important as this comic was, it’s almost shocking to find out that Breathed never took care to save his Bloom County work. Many of the comics in the collection had to be pulled from cardboard boxes in the creators garage. The result of this is a collection of comics that visually appear uneven throughout the book. Nothing that makes it unreadable or not worth the price. However, for those looking for a pristine presentation, you’re not going to find a set without visual flaws here.

However, I’m of the opinion that these visual faults actually work in favor of the set. Breathed’s early work is a study in inconsistancy and creative direction finding. Breathed himself notes this in many of the sidebar comments he’s added on every page. Many of these comics were finished on the plane ride to the editor as he made a last second dash to meet his deadline. Many of the jokes and characters are complete rip-offs of early Doonsbury, one of Breathed’s biggest influences. The great part is, he doesn’t hide it and even takes great pains to tell you just how rough and early these comics are. I think one of the greatest things about this collection is how much of an open window this is into a creators mind as he develops his work in the early stages. It’s candid, raw and ultimately brilliant.

A great study in the early run of Bloom County and a must own for any fan of the comics scene in the 80′s, IDW did a fantastic job on this set. The best part is that we get more volumes in which we see the true zenith of Bloom County. Rumor has it that Breathed’s follow up, Outland, will also be getting a similar treatment. We can only hope.

The best price for this book can be found at Amazon.com. Follow the link below to check it out:

Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 1: 1980-1982 (Library of American Comics)

Sadly, it’s been awhile since any sort of comic thing graced this site and that’s a damn shame. I’m not sure exactly why the Comics/Manga category has been such a wasteland, as we’re reading them all the time. I suspect it has to do with the fact that we’ve been busy with other things.

It time to remedy the situation and I know of no better way than to talk about the latest storyline being crafted by the great and mighty pen of Ed Brubaker in the most recent issues of Captain America. We’ve already said a ton about our admiration and respect for Brubaker’s work. We are all big fans of what he’s brought to the table as far as Captain America goes as well. In all honesty, this may be the greatest run that Cap has ever seen and may ever see. This particular storyline does a great job of demonstrating why that is.

The greatest thrill, for me, in the current run of Captain America is the effortless way that Brubaker has taken the over-the-top aspects of Cap lore and brought them into modern times. All this without making them seem too “out-there” or cheesy. No small feat. Brubaker is once again weaving the legendary Captain America characters into the fabric of our modern day events in his latest storyline called “Two Americas”. In it, Brubaker makes the bold choice of taking on one of the most interesting and vexing stories in our news day; the Tea Party movement.

One of the more interesting characters that Brubaker has resurrected over the years is a forgotten villain simply called 1950′s Cap or Bad Cap. Years after the original Captain America (aka Steve Rodgers) was trapped in ice at the tail end of World War II, a school teacher in the 1950′s underwent plastic surgery and mimicked the Super-Soldier syrum that created the original Cap. While the procedure did create an exact likeness of Steve Rodgers, the process made the new Cap insane. Of course, when Steve Rodgers retuned, the Bad Cap was quickly put down and presumed dead. Thanks to Brubaker’s use of him during the Death of Captain America storyline, Bad Cap is alive and a fully fleshed out antagonist, ready to be used. It is indeed he who is causing all the trouble in this latest story.

Following the events of the Captain America: Reborn storyline, James “Bucky” Barnes continues to wield the costume and shield of Captain America. Word is sent that Bad Cap has resurfaced and become disenchanted with the current state of America. As a result, he has become a leader for a homegrown militia group called the Watchdogs. Rallying members of the Tea Party movement (or Marvels version of it at any rate), Bad Cap creates an army hell bent on sending a message fueled by anger. Of course the message comes attached to a series of devastating bombs that are meant to go off at key government facilities. As Bucky attempts to infiltrate the Watchdog group, he is discovered by Bad Cap and is forced to don his old Bucky costume and work as Bad Caps “sidekick”.

The story is well paced, the characters are, once again, used to great effect and the series of four comics takes what could be horribly cheesy and infuses it with a good mix of drama and action. With another round of absolutely stunning art by Luke Ross, this storyline is both relevant to current day events and another engaging use of the Captain America characters. Brubaker does it once again and I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s also not too late check this book out. Two Americas would be a great story to jump in on if you’ve never checked out the series.