January 29th, 2008 The Rambo Special

Yes you read it right, it's the Rambo Special. This week we have a special guest in the studio. Sly Stallone drops by to tell us all about his new movie. However things go wrong from the start and we never really get to talk to him directly due to his mood.

Once again Mike is having serious bowel issues and on more than one occasion throughout the show, Mike nearly craps his pants. Ryan is shocked and at one point is clearly suffocating from the lack of fresh air. Check out Mikes new hairdo and his manly chest hair.

Ryan and Mike review "She-Hulk" and discuss her relationship with Juggernaut. Did she bang him or not? We don't really answer this, but we talk about it.

Wizard is the "Whore Of The Week".

Michael

Reason why I read comics # 4,374

I just got done reading Gail Simone's Wonder Woman # 16. This is the third issue of her re-boot, and she's really starting to build momentum.

Simone is trying to delve more deeply into Amazonian culture and what it means to be Wonder Woman. And she's pretty darned good at it.

The Golden Rule for writers is always "show, don't tell". Wonder Woman was born into a world where the Gods are very close to the heart (and physical address) at all times. A less gifted writer would simply allow the history of the character to imply this religious relationship. Gail Simone is better than that.

Just before Diana engages in battle, we get to hear her internal prayer, and it goes like this:

"To those above, from those below.

I ask that my enemy surrender, or failing that, that he fall in battle, without further bloodshed and grieving from his loved ones.

I ask that you protect my allies, whose only folly is valuing my life above their own.

Do them no harm, I ask, with everything my heart is or ever will be.

But grant us victory, this above all.

For any other ending means the death of all I hold dear."

Is that not the coolest damn prayer you've ever heard in your life? Those are the words of a nurturing death dealer, my friend. It's flawless.

It's the feminine counter to Conan's wonderfully masculine prayer in the original Schwarzenneger movie - "Crom! I've prayed to you my whole life...if you don't help me now...then go get fucked." (I'm paraphrasing, obviously)

THIS is why I read comics. I know there are lots of reasons to frown and cry and pout - even in this book. I'm not in love with Dodson's art, actually. And yes, the gorilla back-up crew and the Nazi bad guys are a little over-the-top. Fine.

But for one brief moment this evening, I got to listen to what a warrior goddess prayed as she entered combat, and it felt...real. God bless Gail Simone, and to those above from one below - thank you for the comics.

- Ryan

Iron and the Maiden

From Jason Rubins, the creator of such video games as: Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot we get the comic book “Iron and the Maiden”. Rubins and his financially successful video game company Naughty Dog, which he co-founded, in 1985. After nearly 20 years of videos games he left the company in 2004. What he has done now is create an excellent quality comic book franchise in which he hopes to expand into a video game and possibly a movie.

CBR in its year-end Buy Pile column, which has placed every issue of the comic on its list of what they are buying voted across the board for “Iron and the Maiden”. Even CBR said, “Seriously, nobody else even competed at this level”. That’s some serious compliments for this comic book, especially with other strong contenders debuting in 2007. These including: Black Summer, Dynamo 5 and The Gunslinger series. Does this mean I agree with CBR? Well no, “Iron and the Maiden” is not the BEST comic book series of 2007, but it’s pretty darn good.

The story revolves around the hit man Michael Iron. He works for the Mob, or what they call the Syndicate in the book, but it’s the mob. The year is 1939 but we see some technology from further into the future. This part of the story reminds me of “The Shadow”, “Batman” and even some “Dick Tracy” elements. Michael Iron is sent to give a message to The Order, a 3000-year-old religious group run by a pope like figure named Kelvin. We don’t learn much about this group on purpose, I would assume.

After challenging Kelvin, Iron gets his ass kicked by the police who are waiting outside the church as he leaves. This is where we find out there are 100’s of warrants out for his arrest. Iron ends up surviving after killing a few police officers and when he goes back to his boss to tell him what happened they are naturally upset at him for getting the police involved. That’s when they send Michael Iron on his last mission. Sweet Joey Petunia is sent along with Iron to settle a gambling debt and collect a million dollars. The deal goes sour when Sweet Joey tries to kill everyone in the joint (he thinks he kills everyone). Michael Iron ends up surviving along with the daughter of the man who owed the million dollars, Angel Chase. (she’s hot)

She ends up saving his life and getting him in contact with a doctor who helps Michael recover. In the fight with Sweet Joey he arm is blown off. The doctor Angel set him up with fits Michael with a cybernetic arm. Angel explains the situation to Iron and they form a bond in getting revenge on the Syndicate for the wrongs done to each other, respectively. The story which follows begins in #2 and goes through the end of the series. You will have to read and find out how things turn out.

The one cool story element I found is this book is the lack of romance between the two characters. We don't see them fondle each other or hop right in the sack, as a matter of fact there is no hint of sexual tension between the two them, which is refreshing.

The artwork in this comic is incredible to say the least. It’s not groundbreaking or something totally new, it’s just fucking great. I like Francis Manupul’s and Joel Gomez’s pencil work especially. The depth of some of the artwork is worth a second and third glance in most cases. They can do people, especially woman quite well. There was a slight swelling in my pants when I saw Angel Chase for the first time. I would say this is a borderline mature content comic book. Lots of blood and the idea of some skin with no actual nudity....dammit.

All in all I love this book. It’s a simple storyline in a genre more and more full of complicated stories that just don’t hold a candle to a good old fashioned “guns and blazin” tale. Don’t get me wrong I love the stories of Pax Romana, Black Summer and Doktor Sleepless, but lets face it, it takes some serious studying of the book to get everything out of it. I want to escape into a comic book, not feel like I am taking a college English course. Sometimes you just want to curl up with a good basic story and enjoy the world in which it sucks you into. If you are a fan of Dick Tracy and The Shadow then give this series a try. I hear rumors of the trade coming out soon, so you might want to wait for that.

Artwork – 4 ½ Nearly a 5 in my book. It’s fucking brilliant.
Storyline – 3 1/2 Not the deepest book in the world, but all books don’t need to be, and this doesn’t.

Michael

Johnathon Hickmans, "Pax Romana"

Pax Romana means Roman Peace. Certainly this book is going to explore it's meaning in great depth.

Now lets get something straight here, I don’t really understand this comic book completely. Let’s just say it’s pretty deep. It’s very wordy and if you aren’t paying FULL attention to it, good luck absorbing all of its’ flavor. That being said, the storyline in this comic book is fucking brilliant.

The Roman Catholic Church in the future gets the technology to send a warehouse full of supplies and people back in time to change the events that lead to the downfall of the Catholic Church. WOW! Talk about an interesting topic for a comic book. The Pope as his disciples choose the time of Constantine, during the Roman Empire and send their soldiers and equipment back to change the future.

One thing that might turn some people off about this comic is the structure in which it’s written. It’s not a normal or even semi-normal panel-to-panel style book. Each page is unique to what is displayed on the page itself. This comic book is extremely wordy and a little hard to figure out what is supposed to come before and after a previous sentence or word bubble. This just makes you pay that much more attention to the story and for this book that is a good thing, because it’s quite rich.

I won’t give away anymore about this comic because I really want you to go out and get this comic and give it a read. It will be worth your time and money. If you’re not a person that can wait month-to-month for each issue to come out, you could wait for the trade to come out in a few months. Either way you owe it to yourself to give this book a serious read.

Artwork – 3 stars It’s interesting but often times distracting and difficult to follow.
Storyline – 4 stars This is one hell of a deep book, very wordy however.

Michael

MEW!

Mary. Elizabeth. Winstead.

In the immortal words of William Ocean:

Get out of my dreams...

Get into my car.

Behind the Show Monday January 21st, 2008

I thought you might like to see some behind the scenes photos of the show we did on Monday night January 21st, 2008. As you can see we have a great time doing the show. We record the show in a dark and dingy basement at my house. I use Garageband on a Mac G5 and for an example we used over 23 tracks of audio to create the show. On average, if we don't do anything special for the show, i.e. use a theme or have a special guest, it takes us around 90 minutes to record a 35-45 minute show. We don't redo much of anything, so what you hear is live and almost always unscripted. We might stop the recording and say a few quick things to each other, but mostly it's done off the cuff. What you hear is what you get with us.

Ryan and I have been doing things like this for nearly 25 years in some fashion or another. I remember the first time we did an audio recording. It was in my room at my parents house when we were in the 6th grade. Yeah you heard me right, Ryan and I have been friends since 1983. For those of you keeping track at home, Marcus Allen was a rookie in that year for the Oakland Raiders. I have that rookie card actually, well more than one.

Our first recording was called, wait for it, "Being Stupid". We were 11, give us a break, the title sucked but it was a blast to do. From that point on we were basically unstoppable. Moving forward with at least two full length audio tapes each year. We switched recording locations to my parents basement cause my father built me my own room there. At this point there were NO parents to hear what we said so we went nuts. This was the "Radiation Tools/Paul Michealson" era. We truly spun off the rails at this point and never looked back.

After a couple of years Ryan followed suit and moved down into his fathers basement. At this point we proceeded to destroy pretty much that whole basement. Ryan bought or got a boombox for Christmas which we turned into the stunt recorder and it flew down the stairs at least a half dozen times. Somewhere in the archives there is a picture of a very young Ryan lying next to his prized stunt boombox.

A few more audio tapes followed. A couple of them we actually did on our own away from each other. I had a couple that seemed really fun at the time, but turned out to be giant turds after hearing them many years later. One thing I was proud of in that time was a thing I did called, "Mothers of Demention" of course a copy of Frank Zappas band from the early 70's. It really had nothing to do with music, but I still liked the name. I basically mixed up a whole bunch of shit into tiny little clips onto audio tape. Little snips of audio from here and there for a whopping 45 minutes. This might sound strange even to todays standards, but it was, and still is, very interesting to listen to. I must say it was so far a head of it's time that it's still outdated. Ryan of course tried to do something similar, and he had similar results. I will let him tell his side of the story in another blog.

Then we come to the year 1990 when my parents helped me by a Sony Hi-8mm Camcorder. This was the beginning of the end for the advancement of film in my book. We destroyed anything that might have once been common and turned it into a sick and twisted show we called, "Chronic Insomnia". The pedigree for this podcast was born. We worked on Chronic Insomnia steady for the first few months from January of 1990 to sometime in the late summer of that same year. After that off and on for about the next year and a half with many attempts to bring the show back, but the fire was gone, and we were gobbled up by things such as Magic: The Gathering and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. At this point, having been out of High School for about a year it was time to get serious about a job and get some cash flowing, so "Chronic" took a back seat.

From 1991 to 1995 or so we basically role-played, bought Magic cards and did spotty work at best on the show. A couple of attempts at audio tapes and some video work including a couple of movies that basically only worked and played well for the two of us and those that were involved. Sometime in there Ryan and I decided to matriculate at North Hennipen Community College. Well we never really made it to school that often cause on the route there was a Rocky Roccocos with awesome pizza and we often times failed our saving throw vs. bread sticks and skipped out on school.

In 1996 Ryan and I split up, filing for divorce in the district court of Saint Cloud MN. For about a year we went on pretending to still like hanging out with each other, but honestly neither one of us could see much past our uniform or the girlfriends which were controlling our lives at that point. I should mention I ended up marrying that girl, so I regret only one thing from this time in my life. Not talking to Ryan more and hanging out with him, but hindsight is 20/20 and I have two beautiful children and the best wife I could have ever hoped for.

Until about 2000 this was the norm in our relationship. This is the area where things get foggy as to what really happened to get us back together. I think it might be something Ryan will have to fill in at this point. The one thing I know is I actually cried not being able to invite Ryan to my wedding and ask him to be my best man. I just thought he would say no and I wouldn't have been able to take that rejection. I wanted him to stand by me on my wedding day, but I never got up the guts to call and ask him. I was a chicken shit and I regret that everytime I think, or look at photos from my wedding. Anyways...

Ryan and I decided to get together and we started meeting in weird spots to talk. It was VERY awkward but I plowed through it cause dammit I wanted my friend back and I wasn't going to let my discomfort get in the way. I remember the first time I met him in Saint Cloud. He seemed nervous, but I can't be sure cause I was so nervous myself. It was a little like meeting an old girlfriend from High School or something. It was strange and it shouldn't have been. We used to be the best of friends. We literally hung out DAILY for over 10 years. It wasn't even a question of, "what are you doing tonight man?" It was more like, "what are we doing tonight?" Honestly my life right now is incredible, but those times were something I will never forget.

After a while of these forceful meetings, mostly by me by the way, we started to hang out again. Ryan would come down here and just bullshit with me for a while talking mostly about the past and all the cool things we used to do. Basically feeling each other up mentally from our lack of contact over the past 5 years or so. I have to give my wife credit, she was the one that kept pushing me to talk to Ryan. I thank her almost daily in my head for that.

Then one day things just seem to click back into place and we were like peas and carrots again. We started working on a couple of ideas for audio comedy and things progressed from there. Ryan and I started to hang out more and more often. He was still hard to get a hold of at times, cause he hates talking on the phone, but it was as good as it was going to get for the time being. I was having a blast hanging out with my best bud again.

Over the next couple of years we just basically chatted things up and hung out and role-played off and on with our other friends. Along with Ryan I gained another of my awesome friends from the past back, basically through osmosis. Dave was now a viable friend again and I hope even now that he understands how messed up woman can make you in the head, and what kind of things they can have you do, even though you know it's the WRONG thing to do at the time. I regret a great many things from those days, but in all honesty I might not be as happy today if those things wouldn't have happened. I am not sure I have ever apologized for all the things I did, but that's because honestly I don't really know what it was, I was blinded by poon and in love at the same time, so I was a lost cause. Some of us move away to other states for woman, and some of us turn our backs on best friends. I am not sure it's worth it in most cases but in mine it was, JUST BARELY.

2005 brought us together for our first of two consecutive audio tapes for a thing Ryan was organizing with our friends called, "The Devils Muse Expo". We were to bring things we created to this and show them off to others. I wrote and played a few things myself and Ryan and I got together to record a few ideas. At first we were pretty choppy, but after a while we started to flow and we churned out some decent, not great, but decent recordings.

2006 was much the same with more recordings and theme audio albums. One was called "Magical Clitorismas". This was something I really loved recording and was as back to true form as we had been since around 1991. It was like strapping on an old pair of sneakers and realizing how great they still fit. I couldn't help but smile inside. I was having a blast and I wanted more. I was a crack addict for more and I came up with the idea of a podcast.

2007 January, I bring to Ryan an idea of making a podcast radio show. At the time I was naive and I didn't realize you couldn't just play "Alice In Chains" on your podcast. There were such things as copyrights and I wouldn't be able to have the type of radio show I wanted. In February my love of Comic Books came back into my life when I went to my local comic shop and picked up a Spiderman Civil War trade and it was all downhill/uphill from there. I still wanted to do a podcast and Ryan said we should do a Comic Book podcast. At first I was like, "oh man, how can that be fun to do?" So I rejected the idea. I said we could do a segment of comic books on the show and Ryan said that would be just fine. At this point, sometime in May of 2006 I was turning my brain over and over thinking about what to do on our show when I suddenly realized that a comic book podcast would be a great idea. I called up Ryan and told him we were a go.

June 2007, we start recording our first show. I had to wing it with the programs for the show and didn't really know what the fuck we were going to do or say. However that has never stopped us in the past so we plowed forward and finished up the first of what is now 28 shows. Admittedly the first shows were not as good as they are today. Mostly this is because I was so focused on the production I was barely there mentally for the show at all. I hardly remember anything from the first 5 episodes or so. I was working with the computer trying to expand our abilities with the limited program were using. Once we recorded the "Harry goes to the Doctor" skit I was full on in the game again. The program was easy to use and we were on top of our game again. I was and still am having a blast doing the show on a weekly basis. I get to hang out with my best friend and work on something creative each week. Life with the show couldn't be better at this point.

Wow where did all that come from? I was just going to write a simple little thing on the show so you could see some behind the scenes photos, but it turned into a retrospective/heartfelt novella about me and show. Go figure.

Michael

The Final Frontier/The Hedge Knight TPB

We've finally stepped into the world of Star Trek on the show. This weeks show is definitely the strangest most experimental to date. If you don't like this weeks show, then we can't help you. It's 40 minutes of insane comic book mayhem. Crank this one up and let your speakers sing with the sounds of Star Trek while learning a hell of a lot about Comic Books.


I read the Hedge Knight TPB this weekend and I have to say it was pretty incredible. I know this is an older TPB and by doing a review on it now I am about 4 years behind the times, but I have to express my opinion to anyone who has not read this wonderful graphic novel.

This is the story of Dunk the Lunk, a squire to a relatively unknown Hedge Knight in George R.R. Martins luscious world of the "Song of Fire and Ice" series of books. This story takes place 100 years earlier than that storyline. Dunk ends up burying his mentor and deciding to enter the tournaments in "Kings Landing". On the way he meets a young kid who would like to squire for him. Dunk denies the kid what he wants but the kid won't take no for an answer and follows Dunk to the tournaments.

I don't want to ruin the whole story for you but the kid is a huge part of the outcome and Dunk the Lunk manages to get into plenty of trouble once he arrives at "Kings Landing".

The artwork and script are both top notch in this TPB. At first I thought the artist was playing it a little safe but once I got deeper into the book I realized this might have been done on purpose and he was just keeping himself in the background to the great storyline. This is of course the best part of the book. The dialog is nearly flawless along with the flow of the story. I found it an easy read, which in my mind makes for a great comic all around.

If you haven't read or picked this up yet, I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good sword and sorcery tale. For those of you who love George R.R. Martins "Song of Fire and Ice" books, then can I just say, "What the fuck are you doing NOT reading this?" This is a must have for you.

I give this TPB 4 stars out of 5.

Michael

Character Assassination

Comics are a mixed blessing. I tell anyone unfortnunate enough to listen that we are simultaneously experiencing the best and the worst work that comic books have ever seen. Case in point - Penance: Relentless # 4.

Before I get to the bitching and wrath part, let us be clear about one thing: this Penance mini-series is terrific. If you aren't getting it, you need to immediately backtrack the floppies or order the trade.

Penance: Relentless is a remarkable character study on a guy who should be suitable only for loathing. Paul Jenkins is creating a compelling character study (Robbie Baldwin is absolutely CREEPY) that also blends action into a well-paced cocktail. And here's where it gets extra special kids - he's actually using the events of Civil War to tell a story that follows logically and emotionally from said crossover. By Jove, it's just crazy enough to work! Somebody over at Marvel should be taking notes.

So now that we have the Love Fest out of the way, buckle up while I rant about the continuous mishandling of Reed Richards. Class, please turn to pages 2-3 of Penance: Relentless # 4 (or look at the caption at the top of the column) and follow along as we dissect some dialogue between Tony Stark and Reed Richards:

Tony Stark: Scale of one to ten, Reed: How much damage have we done?

Reed Richards: So far? About five. Would have been about thirty if Penance had actually used the stolen nuclear launch codes. We can all be thankful for that small mercy. I'm being facetious, of course, Tony. Thirty would be a statistical impossibility.

I can handle the fact that the current Marvel dictum is to make Reed Richards a giant D-Bag. As a "Rational" on the Myers-Briggs personality chart, I'll accept Reed making cold decisions based upon his data analysis and then pursuing some objectives that aren't warm, fuzzy, or popular.

But Reed Richards would NEVER utter that line of excrement. Paul Jenkins does to Reed what every hack seems to: plant some absurd vocabulary in his mouth in place of actual intelligence. Instead of having him say something that represents real thinking, Jenkins has him say "facetious" because it sounds "smart".

Then comes the real embarrassment - that crack about statistical impossibilities. Boy, that sounds sciency and geniusy, don't it? Of course not. No NT would ever close with that thought, because it's obvious. Two things that NTs hate more than anything in the world are inefficiencies and the obvious. He would simply never say that, at least not with a straight face.

But there he is on the page, looking haughty and pretentious, and delivering the line cold. I don't have any problem with Mr. Fantastic being a stone dick, but does he have to be a humorless dick?

Look, I recognize the difficulties that come with trying to write the world's greatest intellect. Unless you are the smartest person on earth, you have to fake it out a bit. It won't always ring true. But what Marvel has done is turn Reed Richards into the worst one-note Charlie in their stable.

What should be one of the most entertaining characters in the universe is never anything more than a stretchy statue who spouts ill-considered vocabulary and can't tell or take a joke. It's character assassination by hackery, it's unnecesary, and it needs to stop.

Ryan

DCBS = Crack

Holy crap this site is going to drive me into poverty. I love this site now. I am NEVER going to buy a trade paperback from a retail store again. At least not a new one. This site is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP, especially when you buy a shit-ton of it. Shipping was only a few dollars and I am not sure if that means I don't get ANYTHING until it all ships, then that kind of sucks, but sometime in the near future I am going to get a huge present in the mail.

I am so glad that my friend told me about that site and all the money I am going to save in the near and distant future. If you haven't been to the site here is the link, check it out and save your self some serious money.

http://www.dcbservice.com/

Check out the pre-order section and see what kind of trouble you can get your bank account into by just simply clicking the mouse button. Hell it's only money right?

Michael

New Warriors TPB

I read the New Warriors TPB this weekend and I have to say I really liked it. For those of you who like "The Order" this might be something you want to pick up. I found Paco Medina's artwork very satisfying. At times I even found myself trying to look up Sofia's skirt in each of the panels. I even found myself attracted to her in a silly cartoon sort of way. The way she was drawn made a special part of my lower region come to life for a few seconds, which from a comic book point of view is HARD to do. I have a good friend, who shall remain nameless, who likes to masterbate to Erin Essurance commercials, so feeling a little swelling in my pants over this character in the comic book, makes me feel as abnormal as him. Is that a good thing, probably not, but I'm on the twelve step program, with pills and injections.

The story is something I shall refrain from ruining, but it centers on the Registration Act and how a group of young super heroes want to abolish it. For those of you who have little background in the Marvel universe, like me, this will be something of a mystery for you. Throughout the book they talk of the "Old" New Warriors who caused the incident at Stamford. The whole superhero community wonders if they are back from the dead, or if this is just a group using their name to garner attention. Either way this is a good read and I recommend it to anyone who is a Marvel fan, and if you liked the Civil War garbage then this is truly written for you. I find it a great stand alone story, but it still references a lot from the pages of Iron Man and anything with the Civil War tag on it, which for the first part of last year, was nearly EVERYTHING from Marvel.

I give this comic 31/2 out of 5 stars.

Michael

Still in the Wild, Wild, West

I'm still completely unable to do my TPB research on eBay with their new search format from my home terminal. That makes Hulk mad.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find the old search format still up and running when I sat down in front of mom's computer this afternoon. This is a serious WTF situation. Why is my mom the lucky one? How did my computer magically attract this new nonsense without my permission? Must be some bad karma I picked up in a previous life. I knew I shouldn't have peeled one off into that nun's tea. But it seemed like a good idea at the time.

At any rate, the good news - hell, the GREAT news is that I was able to do my research this afternoon just like the good ol' days. I still have warm fuzzies in my cockles just thinking about it. You know you're beyond redemption when the desire to search through 30 screens of sales data far exceeds your desire for sex. I'm a sick human.

I'll tell you about some of the new gems I uncovered on the podcast, and mention another little nugget here on the blog: we are still very much in the Wild, Wild, West when it comes to the trade paperbacks.

Case in point - I just watched the first three collections of Rick Remender's Sea of Red go for nearly $50??!! Here's the scene of the crime if you want to look at it yourself:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sea-of-Red-Vol-1-2-3-Graphic-Novels-tpb-lot-K-Dwyer_W0QQitemZ280189894695QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280189894695

Naturally that result got me curious, so I headed straight to Amazon and found that these books are not scarce and very available for less than $10 a throw. It's still the Wild, Wild, West people. There is no price guide, there are no rules. Well there's still one rule. If you have to date one of the Legion of Superheroes, stay away from Infectious Girl. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess.

So what's going on here? Is this the beginning of a new trend? Can you post this yourself and repeat the results? I wouldn't be on it. I'm guessing it's just an aberration - somebody REALLY wanted those books and doesn't know about Amazon. (sucker) It could be some schill bidding gone crazy and not even a real result. Life is too crazy in this market to be sure about anything.

And that's a good thing, quite frankly. Sure, sometimes the bottom will drop out from under you if you're not paying attention. Marvel goes back to press on that Uncanny X-Men Omnibus and all of a sudden that dictionary you thought you were getting $150 for now brings $50. Did you pay $100 for it? Oops. But sometimes you can throw up a couple of crappy Rick Remender books and score $50, too.

Until the world wakes up and starts tracking results with an easily accessible price guide, out of print TPBs are the best market in comics, hands down. It's fun, it's exciting, it's cutting edge, it's dangerous. And it's the best game I know.

Incidentally, If you like yourself please do avoid reading Sea of Red or any other Rick Remender book for that matter. Well, you can read Fear Agent if you want. If you touch Sorrow I wash my hand of you, though. Yikes.

Stay tuned and I'll keep you as up to date as I can on the Wild Wild West. It helps to listen to the show, of course. You must brandish Market Spotlight like a trusty six shooter, or you'll wind up at Boot Hill. I dont' even know what that means, but I'm sure it isn't any good.

Ryan

Sickness

I hate being sick. I have been sick for nearly a month off and on now. The bad thing about my sickness is that it effects my speaking voice. I just can't seem to shake the amount of snot running down the back of my throat. It's so lovely sitting around feeling the sludge sliding down my irritated esophagus. It definitely makes for a rather disgusting hack. I have a feeling a lot of my sickness is due to being dehydrated and not letting the snot flow as well as it should. If I were at all a healthy-living type person I would probably know how to get over this sickness. I don't get good sleep, I eat terrible, and I NEVER exercise, unless of course you count chasing the kids around.

I hope to get better for the show we have to do on the 14th. That leaves me two more days to clear up my speaking voice. Regardless of the shape of my voice, we will be doing a show and working towards our goal of a year end special.

Michael