Deadpool Samurai Volumes 1&2 Manga

 Title-Deadpool Samurai Vols 1&2

Publisher-Viz Media

I had heard that Marvel was licensing out some of their caped heroes to a manga company in Japan. But never heard who it was or when it came out. Then early in summer I found these 2 volumes on sale. Want to say I paid 5 bucks each. Not bad.

VOL 1

Deadpool is in Japan and after running into what is basically Japan's version of Spider-man (Sakura Spider) he gets recruited to form an Avengers team in Japan. 

So you got Deadpool,Sakura Spider trying to find more members. No idea why none of the normal Marvel 616 Japan based heroes/heroines appeared. But we do get an Idol singer who just so happens to have a Symboite that she has control over. Yep a Japanese Venom... And Sakura Spider is a huge fan of the Idol Singer.

After setting up this 3 person team the rest of the volume is them facing Thanos. Yep Thanos... I know way to powerful to face this trio. But the writer makes it work.

Want to take a second to point out 2 things. One is that I have never given a shit about Deadpool. Read him when he first appeared and was just Marvel's clone of Slade Wilson. And read some of the later stuff that made Wade the 4th wall breaking Spider-man that kills. So  not really sure why I bought these two manga volumes about Deadpool. Might be that I will pick up any cheap comic I find locally hoping this will get the store to order more. Second thing is the writer of this manga is great at making Wade Wilson pointing out all the Manga Tropes.  Sure I haven't read much  Manga since the late 90s, but for about 8 years I wwwas reading piles of it. And even being disconnected from modern managa the tropes havent changed.

Overall this first volume was so  much fun. I started reading it  one night  while waiting on my sleep meds to kick in. Normally I can read for 10 to 20 minutes then get sleepy. Well I got sleepy but was so into this comic I had to finish  it. And it was hard to not just go ahead and read the second and final volume. 

The art is really well done.With Deadpool and the other Marvel properties appearing in  an art style that feels like a mixture of manga style plus that kind of IMAGE CLONE style Marvel was asking  artists to do back in 96.

Writing wise this was a fun fast read. Never did I have to go "wait what the fuck is he talking about". And besides the  normal getting use again to going from back to front,right to left,reading style manga uses this was a easy  read.

Also this volume 1  tpb contains a few pages that are exclusive to the tpb. 

Deadpool Samurai vol 2

Viz

Now Deadpool has his team,bootleg Venom and bootleg Spidey. They  won the  big fight in the first volume. But here in volume  2 they must face a villain so powerful that he caused the Avengers to form back in the 60s.

Yep Loki is the big bad guy in this volume. I love how Loki is drawn. Oddly unless I forgot I don't remember sseeing Thor show up in  this volume,not even near the end when the Avengers show up.

Not sure if the same artist/artists handled the pencils and inks on this volume. Because the art to me is more detailed and  has the appearance of thicker lines. 

Nothing really new in  this volume. Deadpool and his teammates face off againt a super powerful villain. And thanks to Deadpool's mouth they win. Yep Wade's smart aleck mouth defeats Loki.

Where as it took me close to 25 minutes to read vol 1 I got vol 2 read in like 15 minutes. But there was way  less writing and more battle scenes. Lots more 2 page spreads.

Seems these 2 volumes appeared in the weekly Shonen Jump comic. I  don't think this gets published physically anymore in the States,I did read it for close to a year in 2008. But I know it gets a digital release in the states. I do like how the art is bigger in  Shonen Jump,which is easier on my eyes. But It is way way cheaper to just buy the 2 volumes. And I never mentioned it but this series is only 2 volumes. Which is good. Most Manga seems to run FOREVER. So I hate starting in the middle of a series and  hate knowing the series might not get a proper ending. But with Deadpool Samurai you  got two volumess to buy.

Looked and these are $9.99 a volume. So 20 bucks to get the  full story,even though each of them can be read withut  reading the other. And keep in mind  I am not a fan of Deadpool and not  really that much into Manga.But if you  are a fan of either this is easily worth the cover price. And for someone that isn't,this is still good and if you can  find the two volume lot for say 13 bucks or less it is worth the cash.

Deadpool Samurai vol 1&2 Gets a B.

Penny Century Issue 5

 

Penny Century Issue 5

Published by Fantagraphics

So  while I have heard a pile about Los Bros Hernandez and Love and Rockets I have only read a small handfull of issues.

But over the past 15 years I am finding  piles of the Love&Rockets spinoffs in cheap bins. So if it is by any of the Los Bros Hernandez and  under 3 bucks an issue I will grab  it. Planning on  reading it fairly soon. No clue  when or where I got issue #5 of Penny Century. But after reading it a few hours ago I am glad I got it.

Hopey is working a polling station,and learned more about her friends.

This is  your normal L&V comic. Slice of life stories. With great art with dialogue that sounds like  it is coming  from real people.

So far I have read this issue and all of the Mechanics mini series,which  IIRC reprints in color for the first time a few stories from the early issues of volume 1 of Love and Rockets.

Penny Century #5 gets a Buy.

Lobo Portrait of a Victim

 

TITLE-Lobo Portrait of a Victim

PUBLISHER-DC Comics

Oh Lobo. DC's 90s era bad boy. For about 5 years Lobo was huge. He had a monthly title some mini series and a pile of one shots. There was even a 16 bit video  game  made for Lobo,that never got an official release.

He is a intergalactic bounty Hunter. Lobo loves to  drink booze bang woman and kill people.

Back when Lobo was at his  peak  of popularity I read a few issues. But by 93 when this one shot hit the stands,I was too busy buying  piles of indies comics to bother with some "capeshit" from DC.

Like most Lobo comics the story is simple. A husband is tired of his screechign wife and screaming kids. So he goes to join some of his old buddies for a night  out on the town.

They happen to stumble into a bar where Lobo is drinking. And Lobo joins them for their poker game.

Of course stuff keeps happening which angers Lobo. And causes Lobo to attack the dudes his playing cards with.

The late Alan Grant is the writer,and he wrote a pile of  90s Lobo stuff. Val Semieks does the pencils.

I am guessing Lobo made DC a pile of money during the 90s comic boom. Like this one shot,cover price is $1.50. By 93 most comics were a buck or $1.25. DC knew  the diehard Lobo fans would pay whatever for a new Lobo Book. 

Hell I remember DC putting out a TPB collection. IIRC it was 3 trades,one contained the first Lobo Mini series. The second trade contained the second Lobo mini series. Then that third trade,which has never been reprinted,contains THe Wit and Wisdom of Lobo. This is a 80 to 100 page TPB that is full of blank pages. Cause hell it is  Lobo there is no Wit and Wisdom.

Lobo Portrait of a Victim gets a B+

Punisher War Zone Issues 20 Thru 22 Showcase

Reading some Cinema Sewer out on the pier as the sunsets #sunset #cinema...

Captain Atom Issue 83 Modern Comics Reprint Flipthru

The Permanent Tape Collection

 

6 Dvd cases 5 different feds do any of them make the Permanent Tape Collection?

Back when I first started recording wrestling off tape,and then copying tapes I rented from various stores, I just planned on keeping every wrestling tape I had. Be they Betamax or VHS,yes I was one of those traders that offered both.

Then as the collection grew and grew,the addition of 3 hours each of CMLL and AAA on tv channels I got didn't help that at all,I just figured I would keep this big huge former tv box full of like a couple hundred VHS and 17 Betamax in a spare room.

Thankfully I was introduced to the Permanent Tape idea in 1998. The ones that no matter how huge the collection gets and you gotta get rid of stuff the ones you will never part with. My Premanent Tapes was 6 Betamax of Mid South TV and close to 50 VHS of just all kinds of stuff. 

When I got all my tapes transferred to DVD part of the deal was the person  doing the transfer work got to keep the tapes. So by 2004 the Permanent Tape Collection became the Permanent DVD Collection. 

The first 6 years of DVD was the wild west years of the format. So much stuff got released. Like when VHS first hit mass acceptance there was a need for so much product to fill shelves. And some halfway smart promoters/footage owners got stuff out there. The infamous 4 vols of Grandmasters of Wrestling,which were DVDs of two sold shows held to help booster the career of the Mighty Macabee,a fencing Jewish wrestler. Filled with 80s legends that were not working  the big leagues during these shows. These 4 dvds in slimline cases,priced at  a buck from Digiview,might still hold a few positions in the top 10 best selling Pro Wrestling DVDs. 

That picture at the top,with 6 DVD sets of 5 feds? That is all from what is now my Permanent DVD Collection.

On top ya saw this great 5 DVD set of Continental Wrestling. This fed had it's original roots in Eastern TN but by the time I started watching it they were mostly running Alabama and eastern MS. For decades fans  have tried to find good looking copies of the Continental stuff. Usually it aired on low powered UHF stations in the deep south. Not many people recorded it. So this set coming out was a great thing. The footage,some which has  been out in tape trader hands for years some that I don't think was,looks really good for Continental. 

I haven't watched all of each  of the 5 DVDs in  the set. I have skipped around and watched some footage off each disc. This isn't full TV episodes. This is matches. Not in any kind of order. 

Rumor I kept hearing is a fan in the UK had high quality COntinetal footage from when it aired on  some satellite network. And that was discovered and used to make this set. 

I love it. But I watched this fed every Saturday from about 85 till it ended in the tail end of the 80s. This is gonna stay in the Permanent DVD Collection.

Southern Indy Wrestling Vol 2

This is how you package your DVD to get sales..... Well it worked on me. I was spending a Amazon giftcard I got for my birthday and had 3 bucks left. Saw that cover and it was 3 bucks and without reading the rest of the description I ordered it.

LOok at that amazing looking Disc too! Guess what? It is a Burnt DVD-R. 

It is 4 matches. One is a tag with Rock N Roll Express in about 2005 vs Rick Link and someone. One with The Maestro vs Super Duper Mario. One with Dick Foley,a Mick FOley ripoff/tribute,and another match that sucks.

I was thinking cause the cover sucked and the disc was generic who ever put this out knew the matches ont the disc would be so good there was no need to use the cover to sell the product. I was thinking wrong.

There are DVD-Rs from tiny local indie feds in the Permanent DVD Collection,that  are better than this pile of shit I got from Amazon.

Since I got this a few years ago I haven't seen any more copies turn up. Which I think is a good thing. Avoid this outlaw mudshow of a wrestling DVD.

Ring of Honor Global Wars 2 DVD set

                         &

Ring of Honor Global Wars 4 DVD set

I rarely buy ROH DVDs. I had 2 before these. Both of which I got for buy 2 get 1 free deal at a show. Those two I got signed by a few people that worked on the events.

These 6 DVDs of Global Wars were got for me cause ROH was having a HUGE sale. I have only watched all of the 2 DVD set but these are like most ROH shows from this era. More than enough good matches per set to make them part of the PDC.

Reto Lucha De Campeones

Even though when DVD became a thing I was living in Texas I rarely saw Lucha DVDs. I know they are a thing in Mexico. But they rarely seem to get a release in the States. So like with Southern Indy Wrestling Vol 2 I was spending the last of a Amazon giftcard,did a search for Lucha DVD and this showed up for under 5 bucks shipped. 

It appears to me some indie lucha show held in 2017 or so. The matches appear to be full not clipped or JIP. Of course this is in Spanish. Only Lucha DVD I have found with English and Spanish commentary is the Big Vision Rey Mysterio Jr in Mexico DVD.

There being so few Lucha DVDs means it is easy for them to get into my PDC. And this one is in there.

Heels Season 1 

And the last one in that stack. The most recent addition to the PDC. I watched this show each week when it aired on Starz. Lots of the Wildkat wrestlers got used in the show so it was fun spotting say Danny Flamingo or Bu Ku Dao.

Too many friends of mine don't have Starz. And I knew I would watch this show over and over. Found it cheap  at a closeout store. Working my way through the first disc still. But having watched season 1 when it aired I know this set is PDC bound.

TNA DVD Board Game

 

Now while I have watched Impact since it hit tv almost 20 years ago,I never bothered much with the weekly PPVs but did watch the Foxsports Weekly show. When the show started bouncing around the oddest channels ever I t so happened to have each channel so each week I would record and watch Impact later on. Been not that long ago to a Impact TV taping,my goofy looking ass was on the tv screen way too many times....

So while yea I saw Impact on Spike,Destination America,Pop!,The Pursuit Channel(watched TCW on this years ago with Tim Storm) and now AXS,but I never expected to find and find for cheap a TNA board game. And never expected a DVD board game.

Thanks to a dude posting at a wrestling forum I learned Amazon had copies of this game,sealed and new from 2008,for under 10 bucks. Grabbed a copy,and finally not so long ago played it and saw that this is one of the better Pro Wrestling video games.

You pick out a wrestler or knockout,or create your own,and go around the 6 sided ring making money and trying to work your way up the card winning belts.

The rules are 1 double sided page. And it took 4 different people reading this to get a good understanding of them. Yea the game is a bit too complicated for it's own good.

What makes this game so much fun is they got a huge roster of wrestlers/knockouts. Plus the ability to create your own. First game played with this two wrestlers were created and 2 wrestlers got used. Created was Butt Sweat and Ass Crack who had to deal with Sting and Kurt Angle.

There's all the pieces. The four pawns,and I dont see why you couldn't add more pawns and play up to maybe 8 players at once,are generic. Same with the dice. But the big black non-6 sided dice is the Foreign Object Die. The TNA cash is what cracks me up. This being from 2008 shocked they ain't called Dixie Bucks. And you can spot the cardboard chips the represent the various TNA belts..

Overall this aint a bad game. For the 8 bucks I paid I enjoy it enough to keep it and not sell it at the next indie wrestling show for 15 bucks "cause that is vintage and out of print sir".Made by GDC,Game Development Company at www.gamedevoco.com,based in Toronto Canada. It aint a bad game from a smaller company. Plus it being a niche subject. Pro Wrestling isn't in the days of The Rock and Stone Cold and 8 million people watching each week. We are in the days,even when this game came out in 2008,of 3 million tops a week watching. Plus at least in the US TNA Impact has never been huge or super popular. Glad I got a copy,when I ordered mine last year Amazon said they had less than 10 left. 

Good Friday Movie review

WWE Then Now Forever Vol 1 TPB

WWE Then,Now,Forever Vol 1 Comic Book

Written and drawn by various

Published by Boom Studios

I have this odd relationship with WWE,which was WWWF when I first saw them.While they are the first wrestling fed I remember seeing,I have vague memories of seeing George The Animal Steele vs some jobber from around 78,except for two short periods in my 40+ years of watching wrestling,WWE is rarely the fed that I love the most.

But with WWE being the biggest wrestling fed in the English speaking parts of the world,and in a few areas where English is a second or third language,that means they get the most variety of  merch. 

Which means there is been quite a few different attempts at doing WWE comic books. The first I know of were from what became Valiant comics. These came out in the early 90s and not only contain art by the legend Steve Ditko but also contain early work from Dave Lapham,Joe Quesada and a few other names. For years no one wanted these comics and you could get them cheap. Now they are sought after and becoming harder to find. Most of the issues hadd stories like Virgil trailing Ted Dibiase all around his mansion. And attacking Ted,to keep Ted in fighting shape between matches. One of my favorites has Big Boss Man keeping a close eye on the Undertaker. He is thinking Taker is really killing people. IIRC this story was drawn by Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko.

Then in the late 90s Chaos Comics put out a few comics based on various WWE wrestlers. I know Stone Cold,Mankind,Undertaker,The Rock and Chyna got comics. These comics right now are in the place the Valiant produced WWE comics were 20 years ago,in that they are fairly easy to find. Fairly cheap when you do find them. Not that long ago I got a lot of close to 30 of these Chaos era comics and love how most of them had photo cover variants. Sold most of these at indie wrestling shows,where I will film matches and set up a table to sell various old wrestling merch I have found.

Now the most recent WWE comics. Put out by Boom Studios,a company that I only know cause of the various licensed comics they have put out. No clue if they still have the WWE deal,but they put out at least one monthly WWE title. Plus piles of mini series and one shots. While they rarely had writers or artists I had heard of,what I have read from this run has been pretty damn good. Usually having unique art plus stories  that really connect with you if you are a life long wrestling fan. Not so long ago I found for a decent price an ex-library copy of WWE Then,Now,Forever Vol 1 TPB. I got this TPB for way way under cover price. 

The day the TPB got to my house it was a nice day. It felt like spring outside,a pleasant wind and low humidty with a full bright sun shining. Ever since I learned to read I have always enjoyed sitting outside when it is nice and reading. I grabbed the TPB and headed down to the pier. Over the next 45 minutes I sat on the pier with some fairly quiet music playing and read vol 1 of WWE Then,Now,Forever from Boom Studios.

The TPB collects a pile of all fairly short stories,there is a pile of 1 or 2 page stories in here. Each deals with the past of WWE. Sometimes a story will focus on a wrestler that is still wrestling,like say a Kevin Owens. But then you have stories where the main focus is a legend from the past like say Macho Man or Dusty Rhodes.

Table of contents lists like 18 stories,but I saw they count all the one page stories as just one entry. Which means there is more like 32 stories in this trade.

A story about Tugboat is the first one to stand out to me. Done in  a style that reminds me of the old Fleisher Brothers cartoons,for you younger folks think of Cuphead,it is a short cute story about Tugboat and Earthquake.

All the one page stories are good. The best is the comic adaptation of an infamous American Dream Dusty Rhodes promo. Even though I was never much of a fan of Dusty's in ring work,this promo is one I have always enjoyed.

This 10 page story about the Razor Ramon,RIP Sir,vs HBK ladder match is the best of the long stories in the tpb. The writer and artist manage to tell the story of the match and include some things that just add to the fun. Like the cut aways to Bret Hart in the back watching the match.

Growing up where I did,about 15 minutes west of Mobile Alabama of course I am a fan of William Moody aka Percy Pringle aka Paul Bearer. This is the last page of a dark story about the Mankind and Undertaker boiler room match. Look at that scratchy art. With some thick dark lines the artist manages to capture the kind of horrid appearance of Paul during that time period.

Not all the stories in this TPB are based on actual matches. One of the other longer stories stars the New Day. Who build a time machine to travel to time getting rid of things that are BOOTY. If you know of the New Day you know that this story will get wacky and still be fun. For me the best part is the above pictured part. They travel back to caveman days and get to see a stone age Ric Flair vs what I am sure is a hybrid of Brock Lesner and a T-rex.

Growing up I would watch WWE,which was WWF by the time I am talking about,but my favorite was Mid South(later known as UWF). Jake the Snake Roberts was one of the ones I had to see each week in Mid South. Once he went to WWF he was the guy I kept hoping would dethrone Hogan. Yes I was one of the few kids in the 80s Rock N Wrestling era to not like Hogan. I love the art on this Jake story. It is realistic but has a tiny bit of cartoony touch to it.

Now one sad thing about modern comics is the dreaded variant covers have come back. During the mid 90s comic boom then bust,a bust so bad it almost killed the US comic market,you had variant covers. There would be one cover that was on say 90% of the copies of let's say Heroman issue 4. Then on 8% of the covers of thaat comic would be a variant cover,usually drawn by a big name artist.And on that final 2% of the covers would be the ULTRA RARE variant cover. These could be another cover drawn by a big name artists or sometimes they would be the same as the 90% cover but with the color of the background changed. Boom Studios does lots of variant covers. The art of Sting up above is a variant cover to one of the issues that is in this TPB. Thankfully most companies are smart and include the variant covers in the TPB.

As I flipped past the page that had the above cover on it I knew I had seen it before. I looked to the side and yep I was right. That is a variant cover done by Jim Rugg. Jim Rugg is a pretty good indie comic artist/writer. It's become an inside joke between myself and Bat32 of Sleaze Fiend Magazine that Bat will buy any comic if it has  Jim Rugg Variant cover. Plus I couldn't pass up on a cover with George The Animal Steele,Macho Man,Ricky Steamboat.

Now the final 2 pages of the TPB. On the left is a nice sepia tone variant cover. With piles of superstars and legends. On the right is a I'm guessing airbrushed variant cover with The Boss Sasha Banks as the focus.

Combined the affordable price,good stories and unique and beautiful art and I have already started looking to see how many more TPBs there are in the Boom Studios WWE Then,Now,Forever run. If you are a wrestling fan or know someone that is.Plus are a comic fan this is worth tracking down.