By Beau Smith
A Comic A Day Keeps Boredom Away There's a new blog up that may be of interest to you, it's done by a former TV producer and lifetime comic book reader, named Chuck. Chuck has decided to walk a path that few in comics have yet to tread. He is decided to review a comic book for every day of the year. That's right, all 365 of 'em. The blog is located at http://comicoftheday.blogspot.com It's called Chuck's Comic of the Day. It's kinda got a neighborhood diner sound to it and that's okay with me. In my opinion, Chuck writes really good, well thought out reviews. He has already interested me into checking out some titles that I usually don't. He has also kept me from paying hard earned money for books that would've ended up wasting my time. I appreciate that. His reviews are fair, balanced and throw in just enough wit without going over the border into Snarky Town where the intolerant and ignorant dwell in their mother's basement. I hope that you give Chuck's Comic of the Day a try. Please tell him that Beau sent you. I don't know if I'll really benefit from it, but it's a nice thing to do. YouTube Me  Back in the 1980's I was one of the founders of a radio show about comics called ComiCast, along with Clint McElroy, Doug Morris and Chuck Minsker. As technology progressed, ComiCast turned into Comics Vision, a video/TV show about comic books. Comics Vision would go to conventions, publishers and the homes of comic book creators to do in-depth interviews as well as cover news. Comics Vision was also hired by Eclipse Comics to produce videos for direct market retail and distribution ordering meetings. Here, we informed retailers and distributors of each month's product by showing advance art, interviews with the those that made the books and to keep folks from being bored, we would have what we thought were comical intermissions where we would show "The Video Adventures Of Beau LaDuke-Real Man". (Based on the character that Tim Truman and I created in Tim's comic book Scout) Beau LaDuke was based on ….well…me…John Wayne and any other semi-cowboy hero you could think of. Beau LaDuke was Walker, Texas Ranger before there was a Walker Texas Ranger. The bits were cheesy, super low budget and we poked some serious fun at ourselves. I was much younger then and hadn't become the urbane sophisticate that you know me as today. Anyway….recently, Doug Morris, of Comics Vision, decided that he would really dig up my past and dip me in public humiliation by posting some of these Beau LaDuke video adventures up on YouTube. Little did he realize that in all these years my ego has only grown to Ego The Living Planet size and I am more than happy to let others see me in all my manly glory as well as youth (Grizzly Adams beard is thrown in for free.) If you get the time and want to loaf at work or find out where Chuck Norris was inspired to come up with Walker Texas Ranger, just click on any of the links below and see for yourself the horror that is BEAU. More episodes will be posted as Doug digs them up. Leave a comment, pass the links around and don't hate me because I'm BEAUtiful. Remember, these were done in the 80's, ad-libbed and I had no shame. (Hmmm…still don't.)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3oK74EO0yQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZHFxmb30DQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3JDNmEF-J8 Busted Knuckles Babe of the Week: Dania Ramirez Actress This was a no-brainer as the cliché goes. Dania Ramirez is one of the stars of the NBC heavy hit, Heroes. She's originally from the Dominican Republic and now makes her home in Hollywood. She's already been in some of TV's most iconic modern shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos and was Callisto in the hit movie The X-Men: The Last Stand. Her shapely 34-26-33 figure will soon be seen in the horror film Quarantine.    Busted Knuckles Manly Cover Of The Week: The Black Hood #9 And The Adventures Of The Fly #3 Archie Comics Remember when heroes were really heroes and did heroic things because it was the right thing to do as well as the manly thing? If not, maybe these two covers will remind you. Frank Miller's Batman may be dark and gritty, but these guys were all guts and glory.   The Roundup I watched the Heroes premiere episode. I have to say it was like a very bad comic book come to TV. The dialogue was over dramatic and over the top. There was enough angst to sink something bigger than a battleship. After the first hour I was hoping Sylar would kill all the characters and then do himself in. I found nothing entertaining about it. They tried to do waaaaaay too much with waaaaaay too many characters. So many of the characters went against what made them interesting from the start. Waaaaay too many sub-plots that went nowhere I wanted to go. Much too confusing and uninteresting even for me and I've seen every episode. A new viewer will never be able to jump on. It was a real trudge for me to sit through the 2 hours and I fast-forwarded through the ads. The narrative is so over dramatic that it was laughable…well…cryable. (if there was such a word) Again, some of the most constipated dialogue ever, none of the small bits of humor that the first season had. Same "save the whole world" thing as before. The threat shouldn't have to be so world heavy. It's kind of like having all of these comic book events back to back. It takes away from the impact. This episode seemed like someone had told them the network was going to cancel the show and they were trying to cram in as much as they could before the curtain fell. Another comparison to an overused comic book trick is to take the characters that are good of heart and dress them in black and give them a dark side. Why not try something new and show Sylar's "other side" by dressing him in Dockers and a Hawaiian shirt? Sylar is a character that they shouldn't have brought back in the second season. He would have had more impact by appearing in the last episode of this season. This episode had about every bad comic book cliché I can think of. This is a great tasting plate of spaghetti that has been dropped on the floor and turned into a mess. Let's see if they can clean it up and make it a meal worth eating again. Of course, this is just my opinion. (I should read the first section of this column and practice what I preach about being civil.) Politics, Pop Culture, what sacred cows can I turn into hamburger next week?  Your amigo, Beau Smith The Flying Fist Ranch www.flyingfistranch.com beau@flyingfistranch.com |
The election run and election coverage just gets worse every four years. There's no unbiased media to report the news anymore. You've got the left trying to convert the right, you've got the right trying to convert the left and in reality it's just a Jr. High spit fest of "You suck! I rule! " going back and forth. It's an internet message board argument where there's no common sense, courtesy, civility, manners or dignity. No matter who ends up as President one side will gloat and the other side will bitch for four years. The media spin will rotate into whatever direction will give them the most ratings. Just watch any of the news talk shows on CNN, FOX, or any of the main networks and all you'll see is a lot of yelling, people stepping over each other's lines and every now and then some "deer in the headlights" moments. Rarely does any topic get fully discussed or debated in a civilized manner. It's a lot of heated backseat foreplay interrupted by time police with a commercial flashlight before anything can erupt from these snarky sneer orgies.