4-color Fri. - Read my lips: "No Chuck Austen"

At the time I'm writing this, there have been a total of three votes for my comic book reviews in the survey . . . which, to be honest, is about two more than I'd expected. Hope today's sparse comic-reportage doesn't let all three of you down.

I still haven't made it down to Plano to pick up my comics, which means I shall be seeing Serenity tonight without having finished the mini-series that was supposed to help bridge the gap between the last ep of the TV show and the movie. Not that big of a deal, just had to find a way to work Serenity into this post.

You may be wondering why I buy my comics in Plano and not Denton. The answer is simple: Lone Star Comics has a really nice online ordering system, which helps insure that I don't miss any of the books I want, and which also provides a pretty nice discount for pre-ordering. Yes, it's a bit of a drive, but when I first moved down here from OK, most of the Great Parkerite Exodus had settled into the Plano, and I would usually make it down there at least once a month, if not more.

While I haven't made it pick up any new comics, I have been availing myself of the renewed energy most libraries are making in adding TPBs to their collections. The local library has a pretty nice collection, including quite a few Essential Marvel collections, and just about anything Wolverine has ever appeared in. They also have several JLA collections, including the one with Chuck Austen's run. After checking that one out, I think I can safely say that I will never, ever, ever waste my money on a Chuck Austen series ever again. Ever. I am constantly amazed at how easily the man can butcher every single character he touches.

In addition to the public library, I've also started to use UNT's Interlibrary Loan department quite a bit. The highlights of ILL have been Chuck Dixon's Nightwing run, Peter David's Spyboy, Darwyn Cooke's DC: the New Frontier, and Fabian Nicieza's Cable/Deadpool. The lowlights have been Paul Jenkins and Mark Millar's Spider-Man runs, both of which, while not reaching Chuck Austen levels of "that character would never do that!", still drove me crazy with character inconsistencies.