What Do You Mean They're Not Superheroes?!?: Reviews ... and an apology.

I'd like to start with my apology. I've been very lax on my posting the last few days and there is a very specific reason for it. Last Tuesday afternoon my cousin Trenton "Trent" Nathaniel Jiles, died in a car accident. He was 27. I'm 27. It took a whole lot out of me, you might have noticed that I wasn't myself on the most recent episode. I am getting better, a lot better. I'm going to live the rest of my life with a better sense of his desire for freedom in life. I bring a lot of myself to this website and to the podcast and I hope that everyone who listens to the show and reads the articles gets at least half as much out of them as I put into them. I think that if he had seen the site and read some of the articles that he would have laughed and if he had listened to the podcast he probably would have laughed a whole lot. A whole lot of my formative experience was informed by Trent and the man I am today is thanks in part to the things I learned from him while we were growing up, and he never got the chance to really know that ... so this message is for him and this life will be lived more fully in memory of him. So though none of you ever met him (as far as I know) I would like to take this moment to remember him.









Trenton Nathaniel Jiles 4/17/1981 - 3/17/2009


Nothing like a text version of a moment of silence.

And now ...


Living Up To Expectations!

Jack of Fables #32

Written by: Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges

Art by: Tony Akins
I took a nice sabbatical from Jack of Fables for a while ... I'll admit that it wasn't my proudest hour. But recently I sat down and slammed through about 17 issues of the book and am now all caught up ... and let me tell you, dear readers and kind friends, I have been missing the fuck out. This is easily as good a book as the book from which it spawned. The idea that we can follow a character through as interesting adventures as we have in the 32 issues of this book and all the while there be this underlying seriousness and have it be delivered in such a covert and subconcious way ... brilliant. Toward the beginning of the series we first saw Kevin Thorn and it was almost a throw-away scene and probably lead to more confusion in readers than it did anything ... but now as we've progressed for over thirty issues into this book I have to say that the groundwork that Sturges and Willingham have done leading up to the Literals crossover that starts in the next issues of Fables, Jack and the Literals mini-series is astounding. This is seriously one of the funniest books that I have ever read and at the same time it has this brilliant level of complexity and drama and incredibly interesting, and often endearing, characterization. Expect to hear more about this series on the show this week as I think that it is quickly becoming one of my favorite reads.

The Oracle #1 (of 3)


Written by: Kevin Vanhook


Art by: Julian Lopez & Fernando Pasarin

There has been a lot of controversy about this book on the internet, people who both think that it is great and those who think that it is drek ... I come in on the former as opposed to the latter. I thought that Vanhook did an admirable job with all of the characters in this story. I thought the characterizations were spot on and if not perfect for some people's tastes I think that they were great. This ... yeah ... this is going to be my pick of the week. For the first time ever I am announcing my pick of the week before the show is recorded ... Listen to episode 60 for more of my thoughts on The Oracle #1.