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Miko Sez: Go Buy Top Ten vol 2!
So I went to my comic book shop today. It was hot. I hate driving my car in this heat, but like the idiot I am I've let another weekend slip by without arranging to have my air conditioner recharged.
So I go in, and there's all these kids running around, getting in the way. It's not like Gabriel's shop has wide aisles you know. They're all into this war game of some sort that you play with small plastic hero figures based on DC and Marvel characters. "I only play with DC characters," one kid says. "Why would anyone want to play with Marvel characters?"
Probably it's a game I could have gotten into when I was a kid. I guess I'm a grumpy old man now. ^_^
Gabriel hands me a single comic and says it's a light week. There's one of those massive comic book collector people at the counter -- guy who is at least six foot six, maybe six eight, and probably four hundred pounds. I wander about the shop, dodging kids, hoping to find something else to pick up. I consider the dvd for Alien Nine, but I just don't know if I'd like the series or not. I've looked through the comic and haven't decided to buy it yet either.
I look on the comic shelves for a new Top Ten graphic novel, just like I do every week. I've heard that Alan Moore is going to stop writing all of his America's Comics titles except for League of Extraorinary Gentlemen, which he's going to do a third story arc for. This makes me sad because Top Ten is such a cool comic, too cool for words. I know they did more comics beyond the first graphic novel, but I've been slowly coming to the conclusion that they will never collect the rest of them into a second graphic novel. Maybe there wasn't enough to make a second collection. I don't really know, I never bought the comic, just the first novel.
And then, just as I'm about to give up and pay for my single comic, I look up on one of the walls. There on display is the Top Ten graphic novel -- volume one, and... another one?
Cool! It's volume 2, at last!
So I snatch it up. I made a side trip to Half Price Bookstore, where I got more books on cd: Ivanhoe, Moll Flanders, and I got Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit on cd, pretty good prices too. They had a boxed set of five or six of Shakespeare's plays on dvd, a Time Life collection, but it was $75 so I decided to pass on it. Had a lot of Comics One graphic novels upstairs for cheap, but they were either ones I had (Sarai 1-8, $4.98 each) or stuff I had no interest in (Weed, Redmoon, Offered, Wounded Man, etc.). They had Joan, which is a comic adaptation of the story of Joan of Arc. I have volume one, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted the rest or not, so passed on that too.
Then I stopped by QFC to do some shopping. I got home, made room in the fridge for my yogurt, made room for my Dr. Pepper, made room for the other stuff I bought. Our fridge is crammed with stuff, but since this is a 2-person batchelor apartment, you can make room by just throwing stuff out, because over 50% of what's in there is not safe for human consumption.
Then I brought in the big jar of sun tea I'd set out earlier, and made more room for that. Then I made salsa, opened a bag of chips, and read my Top Ten comic.
Salsa Recipe From Cynthia At Work
1 can of black beans, drained and washed (I was too lazy to wash them)
1 can of corn, drained
1 onion, diced (I used a HUGE walla walla sweet, probably too much onion)
2 tomatos, diced (I use Roma tomatoes which are small so I used 3)
2 avacados, diced (dicing an avacado is a slimy affair)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon tabasco (or just add to taste like I do and Cynthia did)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste... natch)
This produces a light, sweet salsa that is not tomato based. It's almost like a salad of sorts, but it tastes really good with chips. I added some chopped green onions and cilantro.
So. About this comic. Top Ten. It's like Hill Street Blues, if Hill Street Blues were set in a city where everyone was a superhero with a secret identity. Or NYPD Blues, set in a city of superheros. Or... well, you get the picture. This is not Miami Vice or CHiPs crossed with vintage Batman or Superman. This is gritty, character-driven stuff.
Very cool. You'd have to read it to know how cool it is. Alan Moore is a genius. It's just... way too frickin cool for words. And this is probably all there will be of the series, which makes me very sad. But I can read these two volumes again and again and still probably find new stuff that I missed the first times through. So many inside jokes and cameo appearances that only a convention of comic and media geeks could ever find them all.
I've been to conventions filled with comic and media geeks. Trust me, it's not pretty. You know the fat comic shop guy in The Simpsons? You know the smelly collector guy from Toy Story Two?
They're just the tip of the iceberg.
But anyway, we really don't want to go there, because we also know that we, meaning myself, and Alan Moore, meaning the coolest comic writer living today (or is it Neil Gaiman? I can never tell for sure) are also comic geeks. Just ones with better social graces and bathing habits... although really, I've never met Alan Moore, so I can't speak for him.
But then, he could be a smelly inbred monkey who flings feces at strangers, for all I care. Just so long as he keeps writes stuff this cool.
Sez Irma to her cyborg companion: Y'know, this makes me sick. What's his lifespan? Three hundred years? And he'll be out in fifteen, tops.
Irma: He'll just keep on doin' it, messin' with kids. These guys never stop. We ought'ta just...
Joe: Ooops.
Irma: "Ooops?" What did you do?
Joe: With typical machine CLUMSINESS, I seem to have disabled my inbuilt audio TAPING system. That means that if, for instance, a fellow officer should suggest something ILLEGAL, I won't have a RECORD of it.
Joe: Darn
.
.
.
.
(a few minutes later)
Irma: Damn, Joe, I was serious earlier. I'd like to kill this guy.
Joe: But they you'd go to jail.
Joe: Listen,I think I can override his INTERCOM. In Neopolis legislation, have you ever come across ASIMOV's laws?
Irma: Huh? Never heard of 'em.
Joe: That's good.
Hehehehe...
And then I had to make more room to put my big bowl of leftover salsa in the fridge. Damn, that fridge is full of junk.
So I go in, and there's all these kids running around, getting in the way. It's not like Gabriel's shop has wide aisles you know. They're all into this war game of some sort that you play with small plastic hero figures based on DC and Marvel characters. "I only play with DC characters," one kid says. "Why would anyone want to play with Marvel characters?"
Probably it's a game I could have gotten into when I was a kid. I guess I'm a grumpy old man now. ^_^
Gabriel hands me a single comic and says it's a light week. There's one of those massive comic book collector people at the counter -- guy who is at least six foot six, maybe six eight, and probably four hundred pounds. I wander about the shop, dodging kids, hoping to find something else to pick up. I consider the dvd for Alien Nine, but I just don't know if I'd like the series or not. I've looked through the comic and haven't decided to buy it yet either.
I look on the comic shelves for a new Top Ten graphic novel, just like I do every week. I've heard that Alan Moore is going to stop writing all of his America's Comics titles except for League of Extraorinary Gentlemen, which he's going to do a third story arc for. This makes me sad because Top Ten is such a cool comic, too cool for words. I know they did more comics beyond the first graphic novel, but I've been slowly coming to the conclusion that they will never collect the rest of them into a second graphic novel. Maybe there wasn't enough to make a second collection. I don't really know, I never bought the comic, just the first novel.
And then, just as I'm about to give up and pay for my single comic, I look up on one of the walls. There on display is the Top Ten graphic novel -- volume one, and... another one?
Cool! It's volume 2, at last!
So I snatch it up. I made a side trip to Half Price Bookstore, where I got more books on cd: Ivanhoe, Moll Flanders, and I got Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit on cd, pretty good prices too. They had a boxed set of five or six of Shakespeare's plays on dvd, a Time Life collection, but it was $75 so I decided to pass on it. Had a lot of Comics One graphic novels upstairs for cheap, but they were either ones I had (Sarai 1-8, $4.98 each) or stuff I had no interest in (Weed, Redmoon, Offered, Wounded Man, etc.). They had Joan, which is a comic adaptation of the story of Joan of Arc. I have volume one, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted the rest or not, so passed on that too.
Then I stopped by QFC to do some shopping. I got home, made room in the fridge for my yogurt, made room for my Dr. Pepper, made room for the other stuff I bought. Our fridge is crammed with stuff, but since this is a 2-person batchelor apartment, you can make room by just throwing stuff out, because over 50% of what's in there is not safe for human consumption.
Then I brought in the big jar of sun tea I'd set out earlier, and made more room for that. Then I made salsa, opened a bag of chips, and read my Top Ten comic.
Salsa Recipe From Cynthia At Work
1 can of black beans, drained and washed (I was too lazy to wash them)
1 can of corn, drained
1 onion, diced (I used a HUGE walla walla sweet, probably too much onion)
2 tomatos, diced (I use Roma tomatoes which are small so I used 3)
2 avacados, diced (dicing an avacado is a slimy affair)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon tabasco (or just add to taste like I do and Cynthia did)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste... natch)
This produces a light, sweet salsa that is not tomato based. It's almost like a salad of sorts, but it tastes really good with chips. I added some chopped green onions and cilantro.
So. About this comic. Top Ten. It's like Hill Street Blues, if Hill Street Blues were set in a city where everyone was a superhero with a secret identity. Or NYPD Blues, set in a city of superheros. Or... well, you get the picture. This is not Miami Vice or CHiPs crossed with vintage Batman or Superman. This is gritty, character-driven stuff.
Very cool. You'd have to read it to know how cool it is. Alan Moore is a genius. It's just... way too frickin cool for words. And this is probably all there will be of the series, which makes me very sad. But I can read these two volumes again and again and still probably find new stuff that I missed the first times through. So many inside jokes and cameo appearances that only a convention of comic and media geeks could ever find them all.
I've been to conventions filled with comic and media geeks. Trust me, it's not pretty. You know the fat comic shop guy in The Simpsons? You know the smelly collector guy from Toy Story Two?
They're just the tip of the iceberg.
But anyway, we really don't want to go there, because we also know that we, meaning myself, and Alan Moore, meaning the coolest comic writer living today (or is it Neil Gaiman? I can never tell for sure) are also comic geeks. Just ones with better social graces and bathing habits... although really, I've never met Alan Moore, so I can't speak for him.
But then, he could be a smelly inbred monkey who flings feces at strangers, for all I care. Just so long as he keeps writes stuff this cool.
Sez Irma to her cyborg companion: Y'know, this makes me sick. What's his lifespan? Three hundred years? And he'll be out in fifteen, tops.
Irma: He'll just keep on doin' it, messin' with kids. These guys never stop. We ought'ta just...
Joe: Ooops.
Irma: "Ooops?" What did you do?
Joe: With typical machine CLUMSINESS, I seem to have disabled my inbuilt audio TAPING system. That means that if, for instance, a fellow officer should suggest something ILLEGAL, I won't have a RECORD of it.
Joe: Darn
.
.
.
.
(a few minutes later)
Irma: Damn, Joe, I was serious earlier. I'd like to kill this guy.
Joe: But they you'd go to jail.
Joe: Listen,I think I can override his INTERCOM. In Neopolis legislation, have you ever come across ASIMOV's laws?
Irma: Huh? Never heard of 'em.
Joe: That's good.
Hehehehe...
And then I had to make more room to put my big bowl of leftover salsa in the fridge. Damn, that fridge is full of junk.