Daryll B Blogdrops at Afropunk 2015 and manages to highlight Comics as well!

Books and Music!

Star Wars #8 by Jason Aaron and Stuart Immonen - Stuart Immonen definitely steps his artistic likeness game up here as he matches Quietly in terms of the known characters. Luke think he's Han for a second while Han has girl trouble. And oh yeah, Sana is DEFINITELY a mystery.

ASM Renew Your Vows #4 by Dan Slott & Adam Kubert - Slott again throws my guessing a curveball here...to my delight. Regent shows he's brilliantly stupid as a man who wants to takes down God and my heart goes out to The Spot. Through this all, I maintain that I still miss this MJ/Peter dynamic in the regular books.

Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies #3 by James Robinson and Steve Pugh - Last review I said humanity was screwed as it was resting in the hands of a Hank Pym who doesn't know Ultron. Well Robinson and Pugh had to one up me by deciding to create even more nightmare fuel than either The Deadlands or Perfection. Yeah...can't wait to see Pym's plan...

Spider-Verse #4 by Mike Costa and Andre Araujo - On the subject of brilliantly stupid men who want to take on God, hi Norman Osborn! And unfortunately, the Web Warriors discover this just as God does. Meanwhile, Peter and Gwen have a plan for Osborn... how sane the plan is definitely is questionable!

Runaways #3 by Noelle Stevenson and Sanford Greene - Somehow the kiddos can move in-between realms/zones in their ship. The true purpose of the test is revealed and Valeria has a crush? Oh yeah this book is frantic fun for me. Now can the kids survive?

Guardians of Knowhere #3 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato - Book still confuses me BUT I can't lie, the Gamora/Angela interactions have been intriguing. Does Gamora know about the nature of the world because the TRUE Thanos arrived elsewhere? Are her bonds with her "dad" that deep? Just a thought....

Howard The Human #1 by Skottie Young and Jim Mahfood - Speaking of confusing, yet fun, this was an interesting invert of the Duck's tale, invoking not only the Usual Suspects but also the famous "Almost Got Him" episode of Batman The Animated Series. A fun little one off in the insanity that we call Secret Wars.

Astro City #26 by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson - 20th Anniversary Issue. 20 years of reading a loving homage to comics and mythos of all types crammed into one amazing city and its denizens. Everytime politics of comics get me down, I can pick up an issue of Astro City and remember why I read them and love them. Here's to 20 years more... as far as the issue goes, remember issue #1 of the new run? Well one major mystery gets reintroduced subtly here. 

AfroPunk

Had a great time at what was my 4th time at the event Saturday in Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn. Suicidal Tendencies, Lion Babe, Kelis, Lauryn Hill, and Grace Jones were the acts I caught a majority of with bits of LetLive thrown in for good measure. DBurt and I had a blast but as always we ran into a little stupidity. So, as a public service, here's a little how to guide for survival.

1) Know your weather: This should be simple but I did see 4 or 5 people fall out due to heat exhaustion. Come on. If it a 90+ degree day, know that you need hydration BEFORE and DURING the event. 

2) Count on favorite acts being scheduled up against one another so prioritize: I had a list of the acts I wanted to see in my mind already and by sheer luck I only had one conflict. I had to sacrifice Death Grips in favor of Lauryn Hill BUT again I had a plan going into the event.

3) Count on everyone wanting to see what you want to see so get there early to get a good  spot. Try to get to your stage 10 minutes before showtime at least. Sorry I just not cool with in the midst of a jam packed performance, people trying to push through to the front. ESPECIALLY if you know that it is packed. Although after a couple of bad encounters, I did get folks that said excuse me and sorry.

4) BE POLITE! For an event predicated on coming together and awareness, there were certainly enough a$$holes from every walk of life that tested my patience.

5) As I say this, BE PATIENT! Yeahhhh if I'm the one saying this with my anger issues....! It going to be a long fun filled day with great music and beautiful women (people for other tastes) so be safe and be careful! I had fun but of course I had to come down from the energy high so...HELLO comic shop!

Post AfroPunk

Book of Death #2 by Robert Venditti and Robert Gill with Doug Braithwaite on art - Ivar proves that it isn't bravado. He ACTUALLY has thought hard about talking out Unity and proceeds to do so..painfully. The Puppetmaster stands revealed, more chaos, and are we really talking a tactical nuke on US soil? Wow these are desperate times....

Archie #2 by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples - The trademark Andrews klutziness/bad luck follows him in the midst of a certain mansion being built. Betty has more skills than I have ever assumed and I think Archie's Dad has a plan. Now what exactly is Jughead up to? lol

Captain Britain and The Mighty Defenders #2 by Al Ewing and Alan Davis - Short and sweet this story ends after 2 issues. A lil fluff that served a purpose in fleshing out Faiza more AND being a great homage to Judge Dredd. Boss Cage? Really sounds like a tough character in Double Dragon..lol

Check The Technique by Brian Coleman - I already blamed Ed Piskor for me getting this at AfroPunk. I recognized the book from the bibliography of Hip-Hop Family Tree. Technique gives us 36 of the most famous albums of hip-hop's history with artists' first hand accounts of the stories, fun, and turmoils behind them. Book may be 8 years old but how could you profess to be a student of the game WITHOUT this information? Well done Mr. Coleman. Well Done! Special thanks to Greenlight Books for having it.

Thanks for reading! Great day! Great times! Until Next Time, Keep Fantasizing!

An Angry/Frustrated Blog Drop From The Uncanny Daryll B! Just a Fantastic (4) Disappointment

Sigh...ok AfroNerd Blog....Screw This!

Dear FOX, SONY, and Marvel Studios,

What is it about the original stories that you seem to hate? Why can't I ever get the essence of what I read on screen without you doing some drastic change to the mythos that is either incomprehensible or causes derision among the fanbase? The list of projects that you have done this to is extensive but after watching Fantastic Four, after seeing the Spider-Man news, sitting through Age of Ultron with a wise-cracking Ultron... I just couldn't hold back any longer.

Fantastic Four is a simple prospect: the First Family of Marvel! They are explorers of the fantastic. Through them, we young Marvel fans discovered at least 70% of the Universe we know and love. We met the Kree and Skrull through their exploits. We feared the Negative Zone and Annihilus. We sat in awe of The Silver Surfer and cowered in the shadow of Galactus. Through them we actually met The Watcher and his whole race, who were cosmic equivalents of us readers at home.

You want to know how to make a great Fantastic Four movie? No more origins or remakes. Don't
force Doctor Doom into the dynamic. Let's just join the team as they explore the universe and stumble across something where they have to use their powers in FANTASTIC ways to save the day! And get Mark Waid to oversee this instead of Mark Millar. You need a builder of mythos for The World's Greatest Comic Magazine Heroes rather than a deconstructor. The travesty in the movie theaters right now is proof of that if you don't believe me... Still if you need proof, I cannot recommend Waid's run on Fantastic Four with the departed Mike Wieringo and Barry Kitson on art enough. That run had family, fun, horror, dissent, heroics, guilt, AND inter-team dynamics throughout. That leads to another point...

Marvel I am SO not letting your a$$e$ off the hook here. Without a regular Fantastic Four book for folks to read, all they have left is...this. Sigh. Why punish the diehard comic book fans for YOUR mistakes? Yes I went there... Not even a Future Foundation book on the new schedule either? What the heck? So I see everyone getting pieces of the pie but I can't have the team book that WAS a true family back?

Growing up sucks....and so did this blog/rant...I didn't want to be negative but....I love the Fantastic Four, just about as much as I love X-Men, Teen Titans, Superman or Spider-Man. Times I couldn't talk to family growing up, I had the FF. This was a blow to my soul....

Hopefully I have a better week...at least I still got Mission Impossible and Ant-Man in theaters... BUT I wanted Fantastic Four to work. I really did...

Thanx For Reading! Until Next Time Fans, Keep Fantasizing!

Fresh Blog Droppings From Daryll B! We do listen to our supporters! Now Sniff and READ!

 

 

One Last Time in The Pit...

Sigh...Not exactly how anyone wants to begin a blog or anything actually but Rest In Peace Rowdy Roddy Piper! One the men who fostered a love for Pro Wrestling within a young me, Piper was the definitive bad guy. Classless, remorseless, yet intelligent and funny, Piper helped teach me how to respect others every week on WWF Programming. Piper's Pit was not only must watch viewing but probably was the arch-type for current daytime talk shows. He starred in They Live, one of my favorite movies of all time. Actually got to meet him at a couple of wrestling conventions/shows and the man was as intelligent in real life as he when he was "on". As you have heard me say on air or on my Facebook/Twitter feeds, Piper can be summed up in one famous wrestling phrase:

"Everytime you got the answers, I change the questions!"

Rest In Peace Rowdy Roddy Piper! Losing you and Dusty within months is certainly a body blow that young Daryll won't recover from anytime soon.

BISON 4 LIFE'S CHALLENGE

Two shows ago, stalwart Afronerd supporter and friend, Bison4Life challenged us to spotlight new books and almost on cue this week's Comic Shoppe News came out with chock full of books that will come out in October. So Bison, I hope you got these on your radar. These Image books I wrote about in previous blogs but now I can  give you full descriptions...

Ron Wimberly has Sunset Park and Slave Punk coming out. Sunset Park looks like one man's fight against gentrification in Brooklyn as he finds news and notes in a studio to create a story. Slave Punk seems to be right up AfroNerd's alley as it tells the story of a genius slave sparking a civil war against King Cotton to end slavery.

Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott's Black Magick is the story of Rowan Black, a detective who is also a witch in Portsmouth. Unfortunately those two worlds are about to come crashing together!

Virgil OGN by Steve Orlando and JD Faith sounds like a revenge tale straight out of Payback. A cop in Jamaica is outed in newspapers and outcasted by his police brethren. So what can he do now? Anything he damn well wants!

Shane Davis' Axcend I have mentioned before. What happens  when a video game comes into reality to play? And it is just a lil more violent than within said game? Hopefully this washes out some of the bad taste left by Pixels...

Jimmie Robinson and Richard Pace hits me right in sick mind with Expired. I have to copy this word for word because you'll then know EXACTLY why this is going to be a Daryll book:

"A homeless war vet ends up helping a ghost who's connected to an old coin operated parking meter. He can only see and communicate with her as long as he feeds the meter. He has to solve the murder before the city replaces the meter with a modern version...and the killer finds him!"

Yep pure Daryll....

In December, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep 24 issue run gets collected in one volume by BOOM! just for AfroNerd! lol

IDW is stepping up their licensing game this Fall/Winter with a Back To The Future anthology/alt-history book, a Street Fighter/GI Joe crossover with CAPCOM, AND they got the rights to Micronauts AND ROM SpaceKnight!!!

Special Thanks to Bison for the suggestion and for full solicitations, find Comic Shop News #1467 that arrived in comic shops last week.

DARYLL's HAUL

Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies #2 by James Robinson and Steve Pugh sees alliances formed on the sides of life and the not alive...? And Humanity's hope is a Hank Pym who DOESN'T know what an Ultron is??? Oh we're screwed....

Mark Waid's and Paco Medina's SHIELD #8 sees Coulson pairing up Melinda May and Bobbi Morse aka Mockingbird up to take down a genetic part/grafting organization. I get violence AND the closest thing to a dream pairing so far.

Thors #2 by Jason Aaron and the art team of Chris Sprouse & Goran Sudzuka sees the police force mourning then investigating the death of one of their own last issue. The thing even more interesting than the main story is the re-introduction of a character close to the Thors who MIGHT remember the way things used to be...

Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi's Star Wars #7 tell the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi about 10-15 years before the first movie. And exactly how does Jabba The Hutt fit in with the whole thing was interesting. Aaron does show his knowledge of the material because I totally forgot some of the details surrounding Luke's Aunt and Uncle and their farm.

Miles Morales The Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection Vol #1 by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee, & David Marquez contains Ultimate Spider-Man #1-12, Spider-Men #1-5 and some of Ultimate Fallout #4. The early career of Miles Morales is collected here as he gets his powers, finds out about darker aspects of his family, and learns how to be a hero. And with all of that, he meets the adult version of his predecessor, Peter Parker, from the "normal" Marvel Universe. Was fun the first time I read them, and still is engrossing. You sure we can't have a Miles Morales Spidey movie? Hollywood Sucks!

LOL Thanks for reading folks! Until Next Time, Keep Fantasizing!