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What's WRONG with you?

But don't judge the man until you read his Punisher MAX series-- start with the first paperback "In the Beginning". That run is one of the greatest modern runs on a comic. And this from someone who hated his Marvel Knights version of the character.

Does the book have its problems? Yes. Would it be better off without Ennis' fratboy sniggering about dirty parts and buggery? Absolutely, as would anything he's ever written. But that doesn't mean it's been completely without merit, and I actually like a big enough chunk of the story to stick with it. There was a lot to hate about PREACHER, but if I hadn't finished it I would have always wondered and gone back anyway, and I feel the same way here.

If you want Ennis at his best, though, you have two options: HITMAN or PUNISHER MAX. They're the best things he's ever turned out.

I liken him to Jim on The Office (or Tim for all of you across the pond). The only character able to step out of the insanity of their world.

I’ll also say that The Butcher has yet to play all of his cards, I can feel it my third eye (the clairvoyant one, not the one in my pants).

Could I do with a little less super fucking and dildo play? Yes. Does it make appreciate the true moments even more though? Yes.

We all have dark places in our souls and THE BOYS is just enough to fill mine on a monthly basis.

being a sucker for any What If stories I collected every issue up until he ruined it.

So...new writer -- yea or nay?

] Those little fuckers can be vicious.

I neither know nor care whether I'm supposed to blame Bendis or Hickman: either way, the book sucks thus far, and unless the next issue or two kicks major ass I'm out, cuz the book's a turd so far. It's only the suggestion of big Hydra/SHIELD doings that have me sticking around that long; otherwise this issue woulda been my last.

Where the fuck is Captain America WHITE #1? Its been a YEAR since #0 came out, in a 6 issue run, so I guess they'll have it finished by 2015!

Like I said,,, FUCK MARVEL!!!

Probably the best (and one of the few) good lines from Zac & Miri. "Fleshlight -- a flashlight you fuck."

Brilliant in its simplicity.

Chances are, if they can't put out a good comic book, a good issue, they can't put out a good series.

But, Buzz, you'd abandon a COMIC BOOK just because you didn't like the first issue?

Yep, and I'll stop watching a TV show because I don't like the first episode. I'll toss a novel if the first few chapters don't grab me (See, he said he'd read a few chapters of a novel but he won't read a few ISSUES of a comic -- well, they don't sell me the novel by the chapter, it's one price) and if a movie sucks in the first half hour, I always get a pass for something cool.

You don't owe a comic book publisher or writer or character anything. They owe you good work. If they can't deliver, I say they step aside because YOU, and YOU, and YOU and yes, even YOU with a little practice could do the job, right? Right!

They want me to stick around reading their crappy comics I want the comic free, delivered ahead of time to my door and I want $50.00 per issue plus a Cuban cigar for wasting my time.

Due to my emotional immaturity, I remember exactly what it was like being a 12 year old Marvel Zombie. I gotta tell ya, I never once said, "Ya know, Eriglione, we COULD shoplift these comics, but I'd like it better if it was called YOUNG MARVEL TEAM UP. And until they change it to SANDBOX OF DRACULA, I'm not interested. Oh, here's one GIANT SIZED KID-THING. It's about a pile of garbage ... that's a kid. You know, like us."

I will agree that comic books are serial, and that the best comics use subplots and shadowing, so that even a one-shot issue will have some sort of buildup before it occurs. Nothing should really occur in a vacuum.

Why does work keep distracting me from what is important?

I sometimes help my LCS count in stock and just noticed Marvel did this. Is this a first?

You can try and make it personal and imply it's because I don't know how to read all you want--it's what we've all come to expect from you. After all, why respond to my actual criticism of the title when you can just potshot me? It would be too much effort for you to try and demonstrate, after all, the ways in which this series has succeeded as well as any of the other three or four titles I've mentioned.

In the case of Secret Warriors, I thought the last issue gave us a lot of insite into a few of the other characters, but it did drag a lot. I'm not dropping it yet, but if there are two issues like that in a row, you bet your ass I will be dropping it.

Also, after a crappy issue, I do usually just read the next one before buying it. If it gets better, I buy it. If it's still shitty, I drop it. Seems to work fine for me.

Same thing with comic books. You know during a big event comic like Secret Invasion, shit is supposed to happen so you never really feel the impact of the death of someone like the Wasp. But imagine the shock and surprise comic-goers in the 70s felt when they picked up an issue of Spider-Man and suddenly Gwen Stacy is killed, and in the very next issue the Green Goblin buys it? In just two issues they did a story that had more impact than Secret Invasion, Civil War, or Final Crisis ever had.

In fact, I always thought Frank Castle would have been better in the DC universe to act as the filpside of Batman (our old "why doesn't Batman kill" debates). Question to someone out there: does Batman have someone in his rogues gallery like the Punisher? Someone who actually makes a legitimate argument about the use of deadly force and vigilantism? If not, they should make him.

I'm the guy who dropped NEW FRONTIER after issue one even though it had some of the best art I'd seen that year. Ah, superhumans in history, doing superhuman stuff, time travel, etc...fighter pilot who won't fire his guns and is still effective and not court marshalled or given the mother of all blanket parties by the rest of the squad. This thing isn't going to get any smarter and I'm not spending however many issues going, "Stupid, stupid, stupid..."

Of course, in reality, the Punisher wouldn't have survived his first few missions, but we have to suspend some disbelief.

When the Punisher did interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe, it was always surprising and interesting, on par with, say, the issue where Alan Moore had Swamp Thing interact with the DC Universe.

So, first page, we got the Jackal and the Tarantula throwing a chained Spidey off a bridge while a stoned looking, mini-skirted blonde babe watches. All of those elements caught my interest and nobody explained who anybody was.

Spidey breaks his fall with a web line but screws up by slamming into the bridge supports. They didn't do THAT in Super Friends. Then, a police boat takes Spidey down and they're going to arrest him. Arrest a superhero? He's not best friends with the Chief O' Police? Yeah, bay-bee. But he breaks the chains and decks most of the cops! And the head cop blasts at him with a machine gun as he dives into the water! Why is he at odds with cops? I didn't know, but I wanted to find out.

A stoned looking Peter Parker(everybody looked stoned in the 70s, probably from all the marijuana we smoked) staggers up to his apartment building and kind of a slutty looking redhead in tight pants with a bare mid-riff is waiting for him. I liked slutty looking readheads with tight pants and bare midriffs! And she's not trying to figure out his secret identity either! She's just pissed and giving him bitch bites because he's not paying any attention to her and the blonde, whose name I learn is Gwen, is back from the dead! Okay, I don't know what's going on, and I don't care, because this is getting good! And Pete slams the door in the redheads face! Clark never did that to Lois!

Pete tries to soak away his pain in a scuzzy looking bath tub but a reporter friend of his shows up with info on back from the dead Gwen! You can tell that Pete and his friend don't really like each other, and Pete makes him instant coffee, all of which seemed like how I'd observed real young adults interact. At 10, you can't imagine having friends you don't really like. Anyway, Pete and his friend head off to see this college professor who took some cell samples from his classes which included Pete and mystery Gwen. But Professor Warren thinks his former assistant, who suddenly vanished, took them.

Spider-Man breaks in to the apartment of the assistant (which is even scuzzier than Pete's apartment) and finds it empty ... except for the Tarantula. We get a big fight which carries them onto the night time roof tops. Spider-Man both makes fun of the Tarantula and goes off on him ... neither of which I'd ever seen Adam West or Burt Ward do. Finally, he beats the crap out of the South American villaindito and is about to drag him off to the nearest cop car, when the Jackal cuts him down with drugged claws! The Jackal takes off his mask and he's the Professor that Pete visited at the University!

Actually made me want to read more. Made me want to read what came next, and what came before.

But, Buzz, you say, they had to build up to this, right? You might have found the beginning of STORY ARC slow. No, I say back to you. Years later, when I finally tracked down back issues, the story started (because the didn't have STORY ARCS until the college boys took over comics)with Pete in a fetal position on his front stoop because he'd come home from fighting French supervillains to find his dead girlfriend alive and waiting for him. Dig it! Now, we'd have 2 full issues of a non-costumed Parker's reaction! Then, we got the whole picture with a trembling Parker losing his mind on the splash page.

We didn't have build up in the 70s and were better for it. We just had pot. And comics.

I will be ordering the graphic novel along with my Dollhouse DVD.

HTD was one of those great collaborations of writer and artist in synch. Although Val Mayerik co-created Howard with Steve Gerber, Mayerik's talent lay in horror and fantasy art, while Gene Colan, who drew most of the HTD series, specialized in realistic to noirish art with a true cinematic flair. His stuff was almost three dimensional and, to me, gave off the closest approximation of motion I've ever seen in comic book art. All this made a cigar smoking, violence prone version of Donald Duck stranger and funnier.

Also, Colan was an odd pair with HOWARD creator and writer Steve Gerber. Gerber was probably only in his late 20s or barely over 30 when HTD ran, while Colan was a seasoned pro from the Silver Age. Reportedly, they worked great together, considered HTD to be one of the best collaborative experiences either had ever had, and both sort of got shafted when Jim Shooter became EIC.

The stories were funny, unpredicitble, and beautifully gonzo. I've been sort of misunderstood with the whole "stand alone" thing. I'm not talking single issue stories. I'm talking issues, whether they are part of an ongoing story or not, that hold up as good reads. Too often, we see murky, poorly paced first issues (and I'm not asking for more fights, although nothing wrong with a good fight) and are told "Well, you gotta read the entire two year arc." Uh-uh. But HTD had both continuing stories and single issues and they all hold up. We had Howard running for President as the candidate of the All Night Party (only to be ruined by assassination attempts and scandal perpetrated by Canadian villain Le Beaver. Or OMEN FOR AN EXORCIST in which Howard has a nervous breakdown, beats up an old lady on a bus, causing the bus to crash and ending up in a mental institution run by Hitler. There, Howard helps a young woman he has befriended who is possessed by the rock group KISS. And who could forget Howard's encounter with the perfect '70s villain Dr. Bong?