Last week I wrote about the festering pile of dead and unfunny strips that comprise the current comics page. So is there any hope out there? At one point I would have pointed to The Boondocks, Get Fuzzy and Cul De Sac. Unfortunately, Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder shifted his focus to an animated series that… Read More Is there hope for the comics page?
I enjoy a good beer, and a good challenge. I’ve decided to combine the two for a potentially crazy idea. I want to try 365 Iowa beers in the next year. Are there 365 Iowa beers? I haven’t actually counted. The Iowa Taproom has 100 some available, then there are seasonals and smaller batch stuff… Read More 365 Iowa Beers: Beers 1-5
In April, the challenge was to read comics featuring Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman, due to a big movie getting released at the end of March. I decided to put my focus on some unread Baman that have piled up recently. In particular, I had a lot of Scott Snyder New 52 Batman comics. I… Read More My April Comics Reading List
When I was a kid, the comics page was my entry point into being a newspaper reader. There was a mini-renaissance going on thanks to The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes and Bloom County. Plus, Garfield was still in its first decade of lasagna-loving and Monday-hating. I loved checking out the comics page when I… Read More The comics page is a shuffling, humorless corpse that needs to be destroyed
There was a parenting moment I knew would happen eventually, but I foolishly hoped might bypass my family: an emergency room visit. My parents knew it well. I had seizures as a kid. My brother fell through a plate glass table top (one among many child/adulthood injuries). My sister got her pinky slammed in a door,… Read More Four-year-olds are the worst roommates
In my time with the The Register I would regularly post bands that might be possibilities to play the 80/35 Music Festival. I didn’t do that this year, mostly because I was helping to write the hints video, so I had too much inside info to make guesses. My son shows up early in the… Read More The Decemberists, Nas headlining 80/35
Wow, only one post in March. Sorry, I promise I’ll get a few more up in April. The March reading list was Marvel-themed. I didn’t read a ton, partly because I don’t have a lot of unread Marvel books in my collection and partly because I took some time to read The Martian last month.… Read More My March Comics Reading List
In February, my comic book challenge was to read award-winning and nominated books. It’s Eisner-themed (the awards, not the man who inspired the awards), but any award will do. For instance, Archive vs. Predator was nominated for a Ghastly Award. Confession time, I read AvP because for a moment I flashed back to reading for… Read More My February comics reading list
When I was covering Hinterland last year, I asked organizer Sam Summers who he wanted for year two. He mentioned a few possibilities for a second headliner, but only one for the main headliner: Willie Nelson. He got his wish. The red-headed stranger will co-headline the Aug. 5-6 with Ray LaMontagne at the Avenue… Read More Willie Nelson, Ray LaMontagne to headline Hinterland
I didn’t post a December reading list since nothing I read fit the month’s theme (holiday comics), but I feel like I did pretty well in January. The month’s theme was TV/movies. It’s a pretty liberal challenge, with books and characters that have been adapted counting, as well as comics featuring characters that originated on… Read More My January comics reading list
Live Local Man 