ATOMIC ROBO Vol.2 TPB

The trade paperback for Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War is out this week. A whole week late thanks to a screw up at the printers, but it gave me a chance to recover from last week and still have time to  hassle you good people about buying the damn thing! Within its covers ye shall finde: all five issues of Vol 2, all five back up stories, and last year’s 16-page FCBD story in case you missed it or, if you’re like me, just prefer to have a whole series in trade ’cause they look so fine on a shelf.

“ATOMIC ROBO lands on the front lines of World War II against the science freaks and devastating weird weaponry of Nazi Germany — from invincible walking tanks to atomic-powered weather cannons to the Monster Soldiers of the Third Reich. Can ROBO and THE SPARROW, Britain’s greatest covert operative, complete their mission and turn the tide of the war without killing one another?”

Still not sure? Well listen to these amusing British guys who can’t quite say German names. If you’re still not sure you want this, then take a look at Michael May’s review on CBR’s ROBOT6. If you’re STILL not sure, well you’re just to dumb to read my comic book. So there.

As for other ROBO stuff, Issues 3.1 and 3.2 are in the can as they say. The Lovecraftian horror continues (of course) in 3.3 and beyond, though in 3.3 we jump ahead in time to the late 1950’s. While I’ve been waiting for my Torch script from Marvel I took care of the humongously boring work of thumb-nailing the entire issue and then laying out all the panels. There is nothing quite so tedious as marking out 3-7 rectangles on a page, for 22 pages. I think it took me about two hours. Thank god for James Burke. I think today I will get the cover for ROBO 3.4 done so that I don’t have to worry about it in the  middle of Human Torch.

In non-Robo news we’ve got some stuff going on. First of all, I’m still sort of sick! In fact I am disease itself. I just want to go back to the gym. Please Universe, hear my plea!! The Widget has the week off from school which is stupid. Not because February Break is stupid . . .though it is. But because it wasn’t cancelled after all the school closings in December. The kids have just gotten back into the swing of things (sort of) and now they get a week off. There’s going to be a lot of catching up in the third grade I think. Speaking of school I’d like to say hello to all the parents and teachers who are apparently reading my blog. Boy is that weird. I guess in my head there was my comic book life, and then my regular life. I was quite happy to learn that at least two teachers agreed with me that the Holiday Concert in January was pretty dumb.

Anyone in the Boston area should head over to LAB BOSTON on Saturday, February 28th for the SPACEGIRL Show. The show is from 7:30-Midnight, 21+, directions are on the website. A certain Redheaded poet, who I may or may not be sleeping with, dusted off her old fashion model moves and reluctantly agreed to get in front of the camera for the first time in a shit load of few years. I found the entire thing extremely exciting. Like the first time I saw Erin Gray in her Buck Rogers lycra space suit (ooh, shiny!) I think I said so a dozen times on the way home. But when I tried to bust my own moves later on I was cut off at the knees and left to bleed out on the living room carpet while Dorinda took and shower and went to bed unmolested. So as a form of revenge I am once again posting the grainy disposable camera picture of my wife (back before she was even my girlfriend) that made me decide to join her Away Team.

Welcome back to Brian #792 who decided to drive his Mini (along with a bunch of other Mini nuts) up to the Arctic Circle. Moose Factory was the goal but they didn’t quite make it. I figured Global Climate Change would do them in and I had images of my friend (and more importantly, his beautiful car that really should be mine . . .and his iPhone too while I’m at it) drifting out to sea on some dirty chunk of snow as the ice sheets broke apart beneath his wheels. But instead it was good old fashion Human Stupid that got in the way. Still, the 3,000+ mile trip seems to have been a really good time, and as anyone who drives a Mini will tell you (until you want to poke them in their eyes, again and again) it’s the journey that matters, not the destination. When I was looking for a car a few years ago I really REALLY wanted a Mini. Dorinda said no. I had to find something with 4 doors, because, at the time, we had a toddler in a car seat. So I settled for a Scion xA. All in all I love the Scion. On the rare occasions that I am allowed to drive it. Mostly I’m just stuck with the POS Honda with a bajillion miles on it. Still, the license says ROBOTZ, so it’s not that bad.

One thing I always found laughable about the Scion line was the marketing. Because just like the Honda Element and Civic it was advertised in America as a hip young person-mobile. Yet 90% of the people who buy them are 30yrs old or above, and are just looking for a good deal on a super-efficient vehicle. The Tuner kids don’t buy new. They buy crappy old cars and trick them out -all the real money goes into the work you do after you buy the car. So when I bough my Scion I was in this special “Scion Room” full of club music and flashing lights. The only other customer in there -a 50ish looking woman who looked like a model for the United Librarian’s Union. Nice one Toyota.

Okay one last thing before I go. Twitter. I am a Twit.

RANDOM SPLENDOR

-Dinosaurs Fucking Robots. Seriously.