Comics Review: Alice and Red Sonja

So I went back to Zia Comics and bought some more comics.  My last trip to the store did not go well (and was kind of scary).  Most of the comics I’ve read lately have been disappointing (11-16-23 and 12-20-23).  (I have a small gripe against Archie Comics.  When I put in the order, they offered five free download comics, which I never got.  That’s okay.  Their giveaway comics aren’t usually that great.  Also, while I got a 22% discount when I put in the order, that discount code is now 40% for New Year’s.) 

 

This time I went right before Christmas.  I had business at the bank in the Downtown Mall.  I had no time to get anything to eat at any of the restaurants, unfortunately.  I had no time to go to Coas Bookstore, but just enough time to dip into Zia Comics.  I actually saw several comics on the racks that looked interesting.  From past experience, I knew they’d probably be disappointing.  I frantically looked over the trades section, but didn’t see anything I was interested in that wasn’t expensive. 

 

I finally settled on two comics.  Shockingly at the register, I noticed there were a bunch of kids at the store.  They weren’t buying American comics, of course, but they were there buying stuff.  That’s sort of heartening.  I should embarrassingly mention that the only reason I went to the store was because I was anticipating not getting anything fun on Christmas day.  That happened, but I did get a bunch of nuts, which I’ll enjoy.

 

Alice Never After #1

Great cover.  I’m sure it’s an homage to a classic artist, but I don’t know who.  I’ll also mention that the pages are really quality in substance.  They feel nice to the touch and seem very durable. 

 

Alice in Wonderland is an evergreen topic for media.  I don’t exactly know why, maybe it’s the pure whimsy element.  Whatever, I’m not immune to it.  This story takes place after the original stories (Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass), though it feels like this story is picking up from some story in the setting that I don’t know about.

 

Alice is still mentally going in and out of Wonderland, while her sister tries to find treatment for her.  Meanwhile, Alice’s father is visiting the two nefarious people who had been treating Alice.  In Wonderland, Alice gets lost in the woods following a mystery. 

 

It’s beautiful, but nothing really happens in this book.  I cheated and read ahead on an online “archive” site.  The story gets more interesting and involved.  And it’s not for kids.  The story hasn’t finished, but I can see where it’s going and it’s a bit dark, really dark.  The first issue doesn't exactly let you in on this.  Do I recommend this?  Sort of, but only to adults and only if you plan on getting more issues. 

 

Savage Red Sonja #1

It wasn’t until I opened this comic up that I suddenly realized that both of the comics I’d bought were written by the same person, Dan Panosian.  This was surprising, since these comics were featuring different characters from different companies.  Panosian did this excellent cover, which sold me on buying it.  He also did some of the art on Alice, the grittier-looking segments outside of Wonderland, which were very good. 

 

This is a straight-up fantasy adventure story featuring Red Sonja.  It has a good set up.  It gives you a good summary of Sonja and her feelings with spare text.  There’s good action.  It’s not a complete story, but gives you enough while leaving off at a good stopping point. 

 

My only crab with this is the artwork.  The samples I’m putting up look great.  The colors pop and the layout is sensational.  However, the artist can’t draw faces worth a crap.  This may be the only time I ever say this, but I think I could have done better in that aspect.  The artwork of people does show emotions, but not attractively.  I do recommend this anyway, even up to the point that I haven’t read ahead on the “archive” site.  I might be buying more issues and don’t want it spoiled. 

 

Sigh.  For both of these comics, I despair of ever getting a complete story in a floppy.  I appreciate giving stories enough space to be well told, but for the price ($3.99), I want more value.  Making individual issues a full story might fulfill that.  I actually turned down one Indy comic that I thought might read well (though the art didn’t look that great) because of the price ($4.99).  No more decompression.  No more writing for the trades.           

         

What have we learned here?  For myself, probably nothing.  I’ll likely end up back at the comic book store at some point to overpay for more abuse.  The only thing I really want in the store are some of these large hardback books featuring Conan and such.  It finally occurs to me that it would have been cheaper and better if I’d just bought one of these $100 books than all of these disappointing floppy comics over the years.  

Card Show: Christmas 2023

I'm not sure why I keep posting greeting cards, but it's seasonally appropriate at the moment.

Up first is actually a photo from my Aunt Judy.  They're in Springfield, Missouri and this the main Bass Pro Shop store done up for Christmas.  

Here's her card.

Her dog, Tucker, also sent a card.  He's a great dog.

And I thought the envelope was cute.

These are a couple of cards from thoughtful co-workers.  

One of my other co-workers gave everyone in the department a pair of socks with pictures of her face on them.  They even came in the little plastic gift box.  She definitely "won" Christmas.  We're loosely planning on all wearing the socks for a meeting sometime.  I'll update the post if I get a group picture.  

And this is a card from my dad's neighbors, who had us over for lunch on Christmas.  That was very nice of them.  Their two dogs and their cat also signed the card, which was a nice touch.    

And these are from some various charity giveaways.  

MLB Hot Stove and Texas Rangers Victory Celebration

Thank goodness the Rangers won the World Series this year, because the Dodgers made moves this offseason with the intention of winning it for the next decade.  They picked up Shohei Ohtani ($700M), the biggest free agent available, Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325M), the most sought after available pitcher, traded for Rays’ ace, Tyler Glasnow (and signed for $136M), and picked up the hatred of the fans of every other team (they got that one for free).

 

The deals to Shohei and Yamamoto are long-term (10 and 12 years respectively).  Shohei deferred most of his money to allow the Dodgers to swing deals like the ones they made (and possibly avoid California taxes).  The Glasnow deal was for five years and is considered a risk given his health.  For all the hype about Shohei, he seems even more fragile to me.  Yamamoto has a tremendous pedigree from Japan, but hasn’t pitched in the MLB yet.  The back of these guys’ bubble cards says they should be really good, but given the money, they have to be great.

 

With all of this money being thrown around, why is it that it’s other teams in financial trouble?  The Padres traded Juan Soto to the Yankees, probably mostly because of monetary issues.  The Padres’ baseball network went bankrupt and wrecked their balance sheet.  They ended up having to take out a loan to finish the season, because they didn’t get the postseason money they were been expecting.

 

How about those Rangers?  They spent a lot over the last couple of years and were rumored to be in the hunt for Shohei.  Suddenly, they pulled out.  They lost their TV partner and suddenly weren’t sure what their broadcast income was going to be.  There was a deal with the current TV rights holder for several teams to prop them up for another year, but that didn’t include the Rangers.  The Mariners are in a similar situation as their network has bumped their coverage up to premium cable. 

 

Not everyone has been hamstrung.  The Royals have picked up several free agents with their owner opening up his pocketbook.  They’re also trying to get a new stadium.  (Maybe they should have tried swinging that deal the last time they won a World Series.)  They did pick up Will Smith, which means they’ll win the World Series next year (because he’s been on the last three teams that have won).  Orioles picked up Craig Kimbrel to help their bullpen.  If they were willing to trade some of their great minor leaguers, they could probably bolster the team a lot more.  The Diamondbacks are trying to prove this year wasn’t a fluke.  They signed Eduardo Rodriguez and resigned Lourdes Gurriel Jr.  The Dodgers might be meeting the D-Backs again in the playoffs in the future.   

 

The Giants finally landed a big free agent, Korean star Jung Hoo Lee.  Only a foreigner would consider signing with San Francisco without having been there.  They reportedly offered Shohei the same deal the Dodgers did and were turned down for quality of life issues.  Even Buster Posey, who recently moved back to the City, admitted the place has problems.  (When is Buster gonna be a manager?  I’m tired of waiting.)

 

I don’t know if I should be rooting for the Dodgers to fail catastrophically, like the Padres and the Mets, and be a laughingstock, or for them to win the next four World Series and ruin the league from their profligate spending.  Certainly the worst case scenario for the Dodgers would be for them to win the NL West for the foreseeable future, but fail to win the World Series.  

But, forget about that.  Let’s instead celebrate our champions: the Texas Rangers!

I celebrated by going out and getting this ESPN commemorative magazine that was on the racks a couple of weeks after.  I was glad it was available in my area.  I don’t know if it was distributed nationwide.  This was $15.  The pictures inside were good quality shots.  There were a couple good articles on manager Bruce Bochy and GM Chris Young assembling the team.  After that was a recap of the postseason.

In the back was a listing of Ranger greats from the past.  I showed this to dad and he had a moment of nostalgia for Frank Howard.  Honestly, I’d never heard of this player before, but dad had fond memories of him.

I had to over-do it and I ordered another one online from Lindy’s Sports.  I have a couple of other commemorative World Series magazines from them.  This one was $13.

 

I just like this picture.  The magazine has a history of the franchise, a regular season review, profiles of Bochy and several players, and a game-by-game recap of the postseason. 

 

Which one is better?  The ESPN one is probably the better picture book.  The Lindy one is more detailed.  You might look for a Yearbook, which would be produced by the team.  I have a couple of Dodger ones and a Yankee one.  Yes, I hate those teams, but the yearbooks are kinda cool, especially that Yankees one.  It’s huge.  (They were bought for me by friends who were in LA and New York.)

And here I am looking like a total geek.  Boy, khakis and dress shoes do not go with team t-shirts and baseball hats.  My boss went to the Dallas area on a business trip in November.  I asked him to bring me back something from the Rangers.  By luck, the lady he went with wanted to go to a sporting goods store to get something for her son, who is a Rangers fan, so that gave him the opportunity. 

 

It was really nice of him to get the hat and t-shirt for me.  The hat is my new favorite with the World Series Champion patch.  (I have a whole crate-full of hats.)  The shirt is a bit small on me and it’s actually an ALCS t-shirt, but it looks good.  I look forward to wearing this ensemble (with blue jeans) out to an Aggie ball game this spring.  

Comics Review: An Archie Christmas Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

In the Archie Christmas store, they were offering a couple of Christmas digests for $5.  Unfortunately, the Christmas digest I bought last month was also listed for $5, which was half price of what I’d bought it for.  (For that matter, they were offering a 22% discount when I made my order, which mostly paid for the shipping.  A couple of days later, it was 26%.  Right now, it’s 30%.)  When I got these digests, I couldn’t help but notice the prices on the covers.  The one from 2021 was $7.99.  The one from 2022 was $8.99.  The one I’d just bought was $9.99.  I don’t like where this trend is going.       

 

The two digests I got were Archie Showcases.  At my Barnes & Noble, they stock the four monthly-ish Archie and Betty & Veronica digests and Archie Milestones digests, but for some reason, they don’t stock Showcase.  This has been too bad, because there have been several issues I would have liked to have gotten like these two Christmas issues. 

Archie Showcase Digest #6: Archie’s Christmas Stocking

The first thing I noticed flipping through this digest was that it looked awfully familiar.  It was.  A lot of the material had been in had been a trade, The Best of Archie Christmas Comics, that had come out a year before this digest.  That’s pretty lazy effort and this material wasn’t that great to begin with.  That said, this did have some highlights.   

The volume starts off with a classic 50’s story.  I wish they’d reprint more of this material. 

 

There’s a fun Kennedy Brothers illustrated story. 

 

The centerpiece of the digest (literally, it’s in the middle) was my favorite story out of all of the new comics.  Noelle and Sugarplum are fighting over Archie and he ends up taking a trip to the North Pole.  Its 12 pages of pure fun.  Mostly because of this story (and the nice cover), I’m not completely disappointed in this digest.   

 

Archie Showcase Digest #11: Archie’s Christmas Stocking

This was the last comic I read.  Thankfully, it features almost all material I hadn’t seen before.  It was generally pretty good.  I’ll hit some highlights. 

It starts off with a Harry Lucey drawn story from maybe the early 60’s and features Jingles. 

 

The first story with Sugarplum.

 

Jughead macking on Ethel.

 

Santa (Reggie) macking on Veronica and Betty.

 

Yet another great panel by the Kennedy Brothers.

 

Reggie wearing a shirt that might induce blindness in real life.

 

A fun little story with Jughead and Santa by Fernando Ruiz.

 

Here we go!  It’s the magic battle of the century: Jingles vs. Sabrina.

 

Finally, a nice Al Hartley Christmas panel.

 

This was a sort of disappointing order altogether, but with some bright points that I enjoyed.  Reading these over two days was probably an overload of Archie Christmas. Given how much of this material I’ve read and how similar a lot of it is, I may not need any more.  Just as a practical matter, I suddenly found out afterward I don’t even have room for any more digests.