Free Imagine Blogs

I watched in dismay this week as my ill-coordinated doppelganger inflicted serious damage upon the Justice Society of America.

This does not, however, indicate any degree of feeling on my part toward the team. Even my pathetic nephew Damage fails to elicit warm feelings in my heart. Why would I care about any of the other losers on that team?

No, I am displeased because my replacement is showing me up. Or at least he's trying to. He's stolen my name (though it is now innacurate), copied my powers, (though to a lesser degree) and is apeing my costume (to a hideous degree). Now he wants to steal my reputation! Seize for himself a place of glory as one of the villains who "took down the JSA."

I will not allow it! If I have to step in and fight side to side with my whiny, college-dropout nephew then I will do it. Anything to show "Mister Polaris" who's boss...

You'll have to forgive me. I'm not feeling particularly great tonight. I'm so tired I can barely think. But that won't stop Thursday Night Thinking!

Continuing our long tradition of using throughts from classsic Silver Age covers here's Hal Jordan from Green Lantern #7:

I'm thinking Hal's only making her dress invisible...

I love that sometimes a hat can still be worn without the hipster irony of "oh, look I'm wearing an old-school hat."

The other day I posted a photo of Renata wearing this same type of sweater-wrap, skirt look. Apparently she made this her look of the Summer, and showed up to many of the shows in some variation of this theme. This is really making a look your own.

Y'know, DC really should get Len Wein to write more comics. Really. I mean, look at this week's Justice League of America. It may not have the "Big Guns" but it sure does have a lot of things that have been missing from JLA these days.

There's action, villainous reveals, and quipping. I mean, I'm starting to remember why I liked Red Tornado in the first place (namely the dry wit of his Young Justice mentoring days).

We want more Wein.

I've been sorting my comics as I prepare for my big move. Earlier tonight I found myself delving into some of the earliest comics in my collection. And let me tell you: some of these things are beat to hell.

They're missing covers, they've got creases, and they're falling apart. Obviously this is because they've been very well read. I'm not one of those people who sees comics as an "investment" or a "collection." Hell, if I didn't read the damn things over and over I probably wouldn't even bother keeping the old stuff.

My question is this: are there any of you out there who also have comics that look like they've been through the wash? Are they beaten and broken with love? Or is your stuff carefully sealed in plastic bags and stored in a climate controlled vault?

Share with me your stories, for I am interested.

So, we had ourselves a comic-con last weekend, did we? Obviously I didn't go, but I did try to follow the news on the Internet. It's got to be good for something, right? Here's what I took away from the con (so to speak):

The Good: Geoff Johns on a new Flash ongoing! It's not a suprise; I think everybody expected this. But it's still a very good thing. Johns has turned Green Lantern into a top book. If he can work his magic on the Flash (a character I've always preferred to Green Lantern) I'll be a happy camper.

The Bad: JSA All-Stars! I know, that sounds like a strange thing to be "bad." Especially since I do like Matt Sturges' work. But I'm not made of money, people! Now if I want to read about guys I like -- the Flash, Wildcat, Stargirl, etc. -- I've got to buy two different books! And I'm still stuck with Magog...

The Good: T. H. U. N. D. E. R. Agents in the DCU! I've never actually read a book about them but I remember reading about the aborted DC series from a few years ago. I remember putting it on my pull list and being very excited about it. And I remember being disappointed when it never materialized. Now I'll get another chance.

The Bad: Yaaah! That T. H. U. N. D. E. R. Agents book is going to cost me money! And aren't those guys kind of redundant now that Checkmate works out of the United Nations?

The Good: James Robinson's Justice League of America! Now that we've got a tease of the team I'm even more excited than I was before. Mon-El's new costume is snazzy, and I'm curious to hear what his new "super" name is...

The Bad: Donna Troy is on that team.

When done right, this could be really cool.
I want to try it with a pair of hard denim APC jeans.

So last night I had a really weird dream. Well, weird for normal people. Not so out of the ordinary for me.

Anyway, the dream was very likely kicked off due to a late yesterday sighting of this Justice Society of America cover:

It doesn't take a Hector Hammond to figure out which part of the cover kicked off my dream. It was, of course, that poorly colored image of one Doctor Polaris.

My dream featured a very strange comic scene. Even stranger was that I saw it as though from a great distance, but it was still a comic page. There were panels and word balloons and everything.

The specific scene was taking place (for reasons unknown) on a Japanese-style subway train. A bunch of villains were sitting on the seats chatting (likely on their way to assault the JSA).

One villain (I don't remember which one) turned to a guy who appeared to be Doctor Polaris. Now, this Doctor Polaris didn't have his colors all messed up like that cover. This was the proper Doctor Polaris.

Anyway, the unknown villain turns to the apparent Doctor Polaris and asks him: "Are you the original Doctor Polaris or the new one?" Doctor P turns his head and says something like "I'm the real deal." But here's the trippy part: the costume was completely empty!

That's right, there was no one wearing the costume. It seemed that through sheer force of will the spirit of Doctor Polaris had returned to the land of the living and used his awesome magnetic powers to create a semblence of form for himself by magnetically tying together a costume made of metal. I can only assume the hair was a wig.

The one consolation about being as weird as I am is that at least I know I'm weird...

To me this look is all about the belt

The belt is such a simple accessory, and yet I am just now really learning how to use one successfully.

A blur of orange and green... A mighty "whoop!"... It must be... Thursday Night Thinking!

This week, a rare thought from Aquaman on the land.

Those are certainly some unique thoughts...

I don't know about you, but Green Lantern #44 scared the crap out of me.

Not in the most literal sense, of course. I didn't cower in fear at the sight of the book and run away screaming in the middle of reading it. No, it scared me in the sense that it was at its heart objectively frightening.

That's the thing about this whole Blackest Night event. Sinestro Corps War may have been about fear, but Blackest Night is the story that really has the potential to inspire fear.

The things going on here are just too terrible, too horrifying for anyone to honestly read it without admitting that it gives them that queasy fear feeling in the stomach. "Zombies" have been overdone. But the Black Lanterns aren't zombies. They are something far more sinister.

Are you afraid?

I really love what DC is doing with its Annuals these days.

If you read comics much back in the 90's then you know that the Annuals usually served a very specific purpose. Mostly they were the method by which every monthly would tie into whatever ridiculous or contrived summer event was going on (such as Eclipso: The Darkness Within and Bloodlines). So the creative team of the book had to find some way of making it work. And sometimes it didn't work at all.

But in recent years DC has really shifted gears on their Annuals. Now they're using them smart. Annuals in this day and age serve as "one-shots" that fill in missing pieces in an ongoing story, tell a side story, or kick off something new. They can do it with the annual without interrupting the flow of the main story.

The recent Action Comics Annual was a good example. It told us the origin of the current Nightwing and Flamebird. It was the sort of story that you couldn't tell in one issue of a regular series -- there wouldn't be enough pages. And if you did manage to squeeze it in it would completely sidetrack the main story.

But in the Annual it can work. They've got the pages for a self-contained story that's still connected to the larger tale. And if you don't want to pay the money you don't have to read it to enjoy or understand what's going on in Action. It's really a win/win situation.

DC is trying something a little different with October's Batman Annual #27 and Detective Comics Annual #11.

Here they are using a pair of Annuals to both tell a self-contained story and kick off the Azrael series that begins the following week.

It makes good sense; if you're a Batman fan then chances are you'll pick up the Annuals anyway. If DC is lucky you'll like the story and be tempted to try Azrael #1. I'm still on the fence, but things like this have a way of pulling me in...

I love the jacket, shirt and tie combo - but for me it is really about the cool slim jeans.
It's so hard to find jeans that are slim, but not Cheap Monday slim.
I have to remember to ask this guy who makes those jeans.

I'll be in Toronto tomorrow (Wednesday the 22nd) and I'd love to meet some of my readers!

I will be at Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street from 12:30 PM - 2 PM (on the menswear floor) on Wednesday afternoon.

Also tomorrow evening we will be having a very non-organized gathering at the bar in The Drake hotel (1150 Queen Street West), starting around 9:30 or 10pm.

I imagine you've all read Blackest Night #1 by now, yes? I wasn't all that interested in seeing it ("cosmic" isn't really my scene) until a reader (you know who you are) pointed me to this:

You recognize that? That me in a ring projection of all the heroes that Barry missed dying.

What does this mean? Does it mean I will be coming back as a Black Lantern? Know that I'd have a pretty hard time fitting one of those rings onto my three-fingered glove.

Still, I'm a little confused. As another reader mentioned (you also know who you are) there's no way either Hal or Barry should know about me! After all, I joined the hero scene and died during a period when they were both in the grave. The only thing that makes sense is that maybe Hal peeked in on me a few times when he was the Spectre. I really hope he wasn't scouting me out for ironic punishment...

During the men's shows in Milan and Paris I did a little double duty and shot a story for Italian Elle with Eva. She is truly a charmer and the only woman I know that can wear the kookiest hat (or bunny ears) while working very hard and not give the hat a second thought all day.

I'll post a few of the "behind the scenes" shots from the shoot in the evenings this week.

Well what can I say - the book is starting to roll off the presses.

Penguin just sent me one of the first printed copies.

It is so crazy to actually be holding the book I have been working on since January.

I know I took all of the pictures, I remember taking each one, but I still can't believe I took all of the photographs.

Tracy is holding the paperback version, and soon I will have a copy of the limited-edition hardcover with slipcase to show you.

This has been a labor of love. Taking the pictures, editing the pictures, arranging the pictures, doing most of the writing while I was still in Phoenix after my Dad died. It's hard to put into words how one feels looking at their own work presented like this - so I won't even try.

I hope you enjoy the book and I will keep you posted about the book signing tour, the SartoriaLUST pop-up shops, and any other events surrounding the launch of the book.

Below are links to some sites where you can pre-order the book. It comes out August 12th in the US, and worldwide by early September.

Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Amazon (FR)
Barnes and Noble

I only had one day in Bologna, but I made it work for me. I think Bologna is a really beautiful city and I look forward to making it a regular stop on my way from Florence to Milan. It is so easy to take the train between these cities, but next time I think I will take a car. From the train it looks like the most perfect region of Italy.

To put it simply, Blackest Night #1 was awesome.

Now before I go into more detail I would like to quickly address these were less than pleased by Blackest Night #1. Yes, most reviews I've seen have been overwhelmingly positive. But there are a few people who -- for whatever reason -- have taken a contrary opinion. I don't understand these people.

It's not that I don't recognize that some people have different tastes in comic books. I just can't see why some people can't accept Blackest Night for what it is: a fun super-hero story. Is the "Rainbow Corps" concept a little silly? Maybe so. But no more silly than anything else in comics.

Some of the detractors, I think, just don't like Geoff Johns. They don't like how he uses continuity or some such thing. Fine. Say that. Some people can't enjoy a comic unless reading it makes them feel smarter than other people. That's not cool, but whatever. Still others are upset about an imagined "rise in violence" and "overuse of death." I've addressed that before. Super-hero comics have always been that way.

For whatever reasons a few people haven't liked it. But it seems pretty clear that they're going to be in the minority. In my eyes Blackest Night is shaping up to be a far better event that Final Crisis ever was. Blackest Night contains the three most important elements of a good super-hero event. It's got emotion. It's got interesting characters. And it's got really nasty villains.

Is the conept of characters rising up as zombies to take revenge on the living unique? Not really. But there aren't really any new stories under the sun. Only how those stories play out. And there are shocks and surprises galore in the pages of Blackest Night.

I think the most succesful thing about Blackest Night (aside from Ivan Reis' art, which is stellar) is that it leaves you wanting more there are a few questions answered in Blackest Night. But there are even more questions to ask. What is the significance of the skull from Batman's grave? Who is Black Hand's mysterious master? What happens when the Black Lanterns' collective power levels hit 100%?

We'll get these answers as the story goes on, even as we're posed further questions. And all the while there will be fantastic fights, brutal acts of villainy, and heroism of the highest level. And if you don't want that, why are you reading super-hero comics at all?