And Tomorrow We Carpool

Tomorrow is the first rehearsal for my elder son's band, and guess who's lucky enough to chauffeur a group of excited 14-15 year olds about town?

Yup.

Me.

Actually, this is great. He's been talking about forming a band since he picked up his guitar, and now the next step in that dream is about to take place.

A Long Overdue Review of THE HERO BUSINESS

Bill Walko's THE HERO BUSINESS is a grand satirical romp happily skewering standard tropes of superhero comics. His art work is clean, appealing, and personable. Most importantly, the art compliments the writing and vice versa.

Walko uses a cartoony approach to his world: bright, vibrant colors, highly stylized figures and minimal backgrounds. But this choice makes the satire all the more evident. The reader is instantly immersed in the world of style consultants to the spandex set with wink, a nod, and tongue firmly planted in cheek.

The first arc admirably establishes the characters through the eyes of the newly hired receptionist, Parker (who has a few secrets of her own), working with a Paris Hilton-esque character with newly procured fire powers. Procured? Yes. Bought. Hilarity, naturally, ensues.

After the appropriately named ORIENTATION storyline, Walko treats his readers to a series of "One and Done" pages rounding out some characters while providing commentary on the goings on of the actions and antics of the print comics industry. Keeping with the theme, he calls his interludes "Coffee Breaks".

THE HERO BUSINESS has everything you need for good comics: good art, good writing and good characters. THE HERO BUSINESS updates on Thursdays.

Is This Thing On?

Been a long time since I picked up the blog again, and it's time I start writing on it.

Besides mired in rewrite hell, I've been helping my teenage son acclimate to high school, even found a rock band. He's grinding away on his ax even as I type, with me, his father, proud of the fact the goober paid for the guitar with his own cash. My tweener started piano lessons so the house is full of what could occasionally be called music.

For those who don't know already, I pay the bills as a baker, and that's been taking up a lot of my efforts and focus. Anyway, that's more excuses than anything else. Time to relax a bit and start writing again.

Starting with this very blog.