Not much to plug today. There is just my regular Comic Roundup column over on Geekadelphia. This week I review the new issue of Fear Itself, the first issue of the Spider Island tie-in miniseries Cloak & Dagger and the final issue of Booster Gold.

So I’ll take this opportunity to let you guys know about my plans for the blog on Thursdays.

When I relaunched the site, it was important to me that I give you some kind of new content 5 days a week. That way you would always have a reason to stop by. Tuesdays I have pretty much decided was going to be for plugging my other writing and updates about the comic. That meant I had to get creative for whatever was going to appear on Thursdays. Starting this week you will see the launch of one of the two ways I plan to entertain you when there isn’t a new comic.

The first is called Longbox Diving. I’m going to pick a random back issue either out of my collection or from the back issue bins at my local comic shop and offer my thoughts about it and a review. It’s similar to the Comic Roundup, just not as relevant. Back issues are fast becoming a lost part of comic book collecting, with digital comics and trade paperbacks becoming so prevalent, and I really feel it is important to remember what used to be a key part of the hobby.

The second is called The Cerebus Project. After reading Tim Callahan’s recent When Worlds Collide column on Comic Book Resources about his Cerebus reading marathon via the collections, it got me thinking. Cerebus really was an amazing comic (at least until the last 100 issues or so) and I already own a good sized chunk of it. I had always wanted to do something similar and read Dave Sim’s aardvark odyssey from start to finish, except I want to read it in issue form, instead of the massive phone books. That way I get to read the letter columns and all the extras plus I get to complete my Cerebus collection and have all 300+ issues all bagged, boarded and boxed. The Cerebus Project will be a chronicle of my quest to complete my run, read all the issues and put my thoughts about them into words.

So that is what you can expect on Thursdays here at New Book Day. And remember, the comic now updates three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I thought I would let everyone know have a new article up on The Geekery Online called The Forgotten Comics, I go over some of the titles that will probably never be collected in trade paperback and are thus very hard to find. It has a similar theme to an article I wrote on Geekadelphia called The Top 5 Most Underrated Writer/Artist Creative Teams In Comics. A lot of these are personal favorites of mine and titles I still look for at comic book conventions.

Check it out and let me know if I missed anything.

Way back when, the original Alpha Flight was one of the first #1 issues I ever bought. John Byrne was still riding high with the Fantastic Four and seeing his name in the credits was more than enough to get me to buy the comic. However, once he left the book after issue #28 to work on Incredible Hulk, the glow faded a bit and I slowly lost interest in the title.

After Byrne left Alpha Flight, I would check in every now and again, and one of the later issues I remember buying was issue #51 from 1987. Written by regular writer Bill Mantlo, it featured an all-new team and a new artist who nobody had ever heard of named Jim Lee.

Yes, that Jim lee.

Flash forward to 2011. My comic book store is unloading most of its back issue inventory for $1 each and I end up rooting through its bins, looking for something that might catch my eye. I find the Alpha Flight books and see that they have issue #53 by the creative team of Mantlo and Lee. It guest stars Wolverine and for a dollar, I just can’t pass it up.

After reading it, what really got me was what a relic of the time this issue was. Mantlo crams what would nowadays easily be a 4 or 6 issue arc into 23 pages. We get:

- The debut of a new villain named Bedlam
- Alpha Flight getting a new headquarters
- The resolution of 2 ongoing plotlines
- The formation of a new super villain team named The Derangers

Talk about getting your money’s worth. No decompressed writing style here. Sure, there is a ton of dialogue and exposition, but talk about a dense story. And every issue of Mantlo’s run was like that!

As far as Jim Lee’s art, there are definitely glimpses of the iconic artist he was going to become and his Wolverine looks amazing, but he is still raw in some places. The issue has lots of small, crowded panels and you can see he is still learning his trade. But there was no doubt that this was an artist to watch.

I find it incredible that Marvel hasn’t collected these yet. Maybe it’s because Lee is DC exclusive, maybe it’s because they think no one cares about Alpha Flight anymore. But if you can find these issues, check them out and learn where the term “old school” came from.

Lots of stuff to talk about in today’s Write Stuff, so let’s get to it!

On The Geekery Online, my look back at Superman on film is now live. Called “Will the New Superman Movie, Man of Steel, Suck?” I go over the various live action incarnations of Superman in the hopes of trying to see whether the new Zack Snyder reboot will be worth seeing or turn out to be another Sucker Punch.

Over on Geekadelphia, I have a trio of article for your reading pleasure.

- First, as always, the Comic Roundup is now up and waiting. This week I review Avengelyne #2, Captain America #2 and The Dream Eater Saga: Sinbad one-shot.

- Next, on Wednesday, August 24th, I interview the minds behind the great new podcast Cleaning Plates. It’s a great show about cooking awesome food and restaurants in and around Philadelphia.

- Finally, on Thursday, August 25th, I interview Andrew Gaska, the author of the hit Archaia book Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes. He is a great guy and a fun interview and you really should read it.

That’s all for this week. See you tomorrow as we continue the countdown to New Book Day #200.

Few comic books have as special a place in my heart as Grant Morrison’s run on The Doom Patrol. While I knew comics could be literary and smart before reading these books, I had no clue they could be this cool at the same time.

Now, this needs to be said up front; for me, The Doom Patrol is Morrison’s definitive work. Yes, Final Crisis, New X-Men, JLA and Batman are all good and The Invisibles ranks as another personal favorite, but nothing even comes close to what Morrison did in the pages of The Doom Patrol. He thought completely outside the box and redefined what a comic book could be. No one had ever read a comic like this before and I dare say they never will again. If you go back and reread the entire run, you can see it had a definite beginning, middle and end and in between we get some of the best stories ever put to paper.

Issue #22 was the concluding issue of Morrison’s opening arc, Crawling from the Wreckage. In it he completely dismantles the old Patrol and in its place stood the new, weird, anything-can-happen version. We get Crazy Jane (one of the most original characters ever), Rebis and, ever the center of the team, Cliff Steele, a.k.a. Robotman in their final battle with the Scissormen from the world of Orqwith. In the end, The Chief (Niles Caulder) convinces the group to stay together and fight the madness that others won’t, or can’t, deal with. It is vintage pre-Vertigo all the way and just the smallest hint of what was to come over the course of the next 50 some odd issues.

Morrison worked almost entirely with Richard Case during his time on the book and you can actually see Case grow as an artist issue after issue, panel after panel. I really don’t think any other artist could have pulled off what Case did with Morrison’s scripts, other than maybe Frank Quitely. If you need further proof, check out the Doom Patrol vol. 5 – Magic Bus trade paperback and see if you disagree then.

Look, I love Morrison’s Doom Patrol. I feel it should have a place in everyone’s collection along with Optic Nerve and The Dark Knight Returns. No one has ever been able to catch what made this book so special in a bottle and replicate it, even Grant Morrison. So do yourself a favor, put down the Avengers and Justice League and go read some real comic books. Your brain will thank you.

Today is a very special day for me and my webcomic. Today, I posted the 200th New Book Day strip to the web. I know in terms of webcomics, 200 is really no big deal. Hell, the comic has been going off and on (mostly off) since 2006 and I only have 200 comics in the archive. Some might say that’s kind of pathetic.

But for me, reaching 200 is a pretty special. In comic books, reaching issue #200 used to mean that the book had a sense of permanence; that the book in question was going to be around forever. Of course that’s not the case anymore, but I still like the thought of it.

But not only have I reached a milestone, but I have also managed to post new content every day this month and not missed a day. That alone is worth a party, in my opinion. And it’s going to continue for the foreseeable future. The reaction to the return of the comic has been great and the page views are slowly going up. That means everything, since without you guys, NBD wouldn’t mean nearly as much.

So raise a toast to New Book Day on the posting of the 200th comic. And here’s to the next 200 and beyond.

It’s Tuesday and that means a new edition of The Write Stuff!

Over on Geekadelphia, there is my Tuesday Comic Roundup column. This week I give the once over to Kevin Smith’s new series The Bionic Man, the latest revival of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the kick off to the new volume of The Ultimates from Marvel.

And on The Geekery Online, you can read part 2 of my look back at Superman on film. In “Will the New Superman Movie, The Man of Steel, Suck?” I flashback to Superman: The Animated Series, Smallville and Superman Returns.

That’s it for this week. See you tomorrow for an all-new New Book Day.

Hi everyone.

Unfortunately, there won’t be a new Longbox Diving article today. Between the hurricane that hit the area I live and various other issues, I’ve gotten a bit behind and need to play catch up.

Longbox Diving will resume next week and New Book Day comics continue, as always, tomorrow. See you then.

This week in The Write Stuff I have a couple of articles to let you know about.

Over on Geekadelphia, this week’s version of the Comic Roundup is live. I review Uncanny X-Force #14, the first issue of Top Cow’s new miniseries Epoch and, of course, the first issue of the all-new Justice League.

On The Geekery Online I have an article I’m particularly proud of. Entitled “Too. Much. Stuff.”, it is all about geeks and our obsession with stuff. Stuff such as books, action figures, cards and how they can easily overtake our lives. I really like how it turned out and I hope you enjoy reading it.

See you tomorrow!

The Legion of Super-Heroes is kind of a funny title in the history of comics. As long as it’s been around, most people either love the Legion of hate the Legion; there has never been a lot of middle ground. Numerous times over the years I tried to get into the book, but to no avail. That is until DC relaunced the title in 1989 with a new #1 and I found a version that I actually liked.

See, after what seemed like forever, comic legend Paul Levitz left the writing duties of the Legion and Keith Giffen, with some help from Tom and Mary Bierbaum, stepped in to take over stewardship of the series. Giffen was no stranger to the Legion of Super-Heroes as he had drawn a large number of issues and even done some co-plotting with Levitz. The difference here was that under Giffen, the Legion took a decidedly darker turn.

Picking up 5 years after the final issue of the previous volume, the universe we are introduced to in Legion of Super-Heroes #1 is one without hope, a grim, gritty place where the economy has collapsed and the Legion has disbanded. No reason is given as to what happened to the Legion and the members have scattered to the far corners of the galaxy. But one Legionnaire remembers what is was to stand up for what you believe in and want to make the world a better place. And he is going to begin to reassemble the Legion of Super-Heroes and bring peace and hope to the galaxy.

Giffen uses a lot of small panels (9 per page) to tell the story and the result is a claustrophobic sensation that really adds a unique dynamic to the issue. You can really feel the weight of what happened and the hopelessness of this new world. The art is classic Giffen, some of the best he ever did on a Legion title. The Bierbaums do a good job with the dialogue but the plot and story in all Giffen. What I really liked about this version of the Legion was that everything wasn’t resolved all neat and tidy in six issues. The narrative plays out in a gradual fashion that takes it’s time and gives us a chance to really get to know the characters. I think that’s one of the reasons I liked the “5 years later” Legion; instead of quick blurbs introducing the cast, we really get to know them over the course of the story.

Of all the various Legion reboots, this is the one most fans like the least and I can see why. The Legion of Super-Heroes was always a very light, positive title where the future is a pleasant place that we should all be looking forward to. This Legion was darker, serious and almost depressing; in a word, very un-Legion like. But that is the reason I liked it so much. It was different, new and exciting. All bets were off and Giffen used that to great advantage during the time he worked on the title. When the series ended and the Legion was rebooted yet again, I stopped reading and haven’t really been back since.

The real shame is that this version doesn’t even “count” anymore (like that means anything at this point). Geoff Johns wrote the “5 years later” Legion out of the title’s continuity all together during the Legion of 3 Worlds miniseries. That means that the chance of ever seeing these in trade paperback is slim to none.

However, if you are interested in reading these issues (and you really should), most of the time you can find this version of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the quarter bins of any good size comic book convention. I highly recommend you give them a read. It’s a Legion you won’t expect and a story you won’t be able to put down.