Talking With Mar Thursday was Warren Ellis, Silver Surfer, and love

     A conversation from this morning as I was making us breakfast and Mar was getting ready for work and the cats were all "FEED US!" "STARVING HERE!"

     Me: I had a dream last night...

     Mar: It's too early in the morning for your dreams of space hero you, Warren Ellis as your sidekick, and a half naked Orlando Bloom in need of rescuing.

     Me: That was only one time. And I had eaten a ton of sugar, ate a whole pizza, drank two liters of soda- all during a Red Dwarf marathon. No, this dream was about aliens...

     Mar: Told you.

     Me: No. See there were these shape shifting aliens and they would turn into people you love to keep you from killing them. Then they'd strike while you hesitated. First one turned into Jesus. I killed it. The second one turned into you. I killed it...

     Mar: Thanks for the love.

     Me: Yep, but whatever, then it turned into Garfield.

     Mar: And you couldn't kill it?

     Me: Nope. It gave me that stare he has like Puss And Boots but with blind eyes.

     Mar: So you died?

     Me: No. I made a deal. It would spare Garfield and I would offer up your family and Salem in exchange. I became its Silver Surfer for love.

     Mar: I'm going to work. And it's Puss In Boots by the way.

other things of possible interest,

NEW!!! Tin Universe Monthly #13

     The monthly free Tin Universe story series continues as we get some back story on one of the universes youngest villains and hints about things to comes. Featuring moments with Joanna Osip, The Black Friar, and The Dead Of Nechiansmere.

     A new issue of Tin Universe Monthly is uploaded and ready to read for free on the 22nd of every month throughout 2014. Tin Universe monthly is a short story, vignette, flash fiction series that explores and uncovers the wider Tin Universe leading up to and between books.

Coming March 22nd 2014

Tin Universe Monthly #14

Tin Universe, Middle Grade Series #1
$1.00

     Someone is zombifying athletes at Clear Cut High School in Utah. Lucky the school has its own young superhero in the person of Mildred Betbeze to try and figure out what's going on. Pep rallies, cheerleaders, new kids in the neighborhood are just some of things our hero and her sidekick slash best friend Aisha have to deal with in the first book in Tin Universe's new middle grade series.

Talking With Mar Thursday was Warren Ellis, Silver Surfer, and love

REVIEW: SILVER SURFER - IN THY NAME

Marvel Comics

Written by SIMON SPURRIER

Art by TAN ENG HUAT

Color Art by JOSE VILLARRUBIA

Letters by VIRTUAL CALLIGRAPHY’S CORY PETIT

Covers by MICHAEL TURNER & PETER STEIGERWALD, GABRIELE DELL’OTTO, PAUL POPE & JOSE VILLARRUBIA, and TAN ENG HUAT & JOSE VILLARRUBIA

Editor AUBREY SITTERSON

So many people know of the Silver Surfer but I feel not enough people know how great of a character he is really is. In my eyes he is one of the top Marvel characters of all time. I haven’t been the biggest fan of outer space superhero comics but I do love reading Silver Surfer self contained stories every chance I get. I think that format of comic story telling works for the Surfer.  With the setting of a monthly ongoing series I think the shine of how unique of a character he really is falls off the board because most writers have a good Surfer story in them but most do not get the character enough to keep telling his stories on a regular basis.

Pun tried above.

Pun failure above.

And if you might ask me what outer space superhero comics I have enjoyed, off the top of my head I’ll mention The Annihilation stories at Marvel and Green Lantern stories at DC. There are many more but maybe that will have to wait until maybe a day when I have time to explore it more in depth in a blog entry.

I found Silver Surfer: In Thy Name at one of my local libraries on a random trip and took it home with a stack of books not thinking much about until I picked it up one day to read between editing one of my own stories and watching the MLS All-Star game.

When I started it the first thing I noticed was how much I loved the art of Tan Eng Huat and the color work by Jose Villarrubia. I think more than any other kind of story in comics a colorist makes or breaks an outer space tale.

This one once again finds the Surfer being very emo in space; which is his characters nature. He has always been a mixture of emo and hippy and when people attack that part of the character the criticism really doesn’t hit because that’s who he is. It’s like calling Tony Stark a dick. Really? Ok, yea, that’s him.

The Silver Surfer is very much a character about the very nature of life and living. Though I’ve sort of made fun of him for being by nature emo and hippified, The Silver Surfer is very complex in how in the hands of a talented team he can be used to explore such things as whether a utopia is possible and do so without jumping outside his character and standing out for being too preachy.

Like Superman the Silver Surfer is a very hard character for a lot of writers to get a hold of beyond the basics of how people see him. If you write his life an superhero then you are already going down the wrong track.

In the world of Marvel’s outer space stories he should be the key, just as Green Lantern is with DC Comics.

That’s doesn’t mean that they should always be the focal point of outer space adventures but they should be used to expand and tour that side of these universes.

The Silver Surfer can go head to head with the most powerful beings and situations the Marvel Universe can offer up against him but he is also such a human character that he never gets lost in seeing the very nature of not only life but living. And in being this way he should be one of the best characters Marvel has but it seems like so many has a hard time writing his outside of just making him a measurement of how powerful other characters are.

Silver Surfer: In Thy Name is great story whether you have read any Surfer stories in the past or if this is your introduction to the character. This book has great art without so much energy and life to it. The story goes into the deep lines of life that all stories involving the Silver Surfer should do.

And a final note. The cover to issue number 3 of the limited series is one of my all time favorite images of The Silver Surfer. Just love that and wish they had used that for the cover of the trade.

Ok, now I’m going to try that things called sleep.

SILVER SURFER: IN THY NAME

3 out of 5 Stars

REVIEW: SILVER SURFER - IN THY NAME

LOOKING FORWARD TO ALL OF THESE

MOVIES I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR:
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
GHOST RIDER
TRANSFORMERS
PIRATES 3
FANTASTIC FOUR: THE RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
SPIDERMAN 3
THE SIMPSONS: MOVIE
300

LOOKING FORWARD TO ALL OF THESE