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DRUNK HULK’S TOP 10 TWEETS OF 2011

Here are the Top 10 most popular tweets by Drunk Hulk in 2011!

DRUNK HULK NEW YEAR RESOLUTION!

DRUNK HULK MAKE NEW YEAR RESOLUTION!

DRUNK HULK MOST SEXIEST PEOPLES OF 2011!

Drunk Hulk chooses the sexiest men and women alive for 2011!

DRUNK HULK MOST SEXIEST PEOPLES OF 2011!

DRUNK HULK DEBATE FAIL!

In less than :53 seconds, Drunk Hulk destroys his chances of becoming the next President of the United States. Sadly.

DRUNK HULK HAD 99!

Drunk Hulk steps in to do a little protesting of his own!

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Favorite Comic Book Pages: Transmetropolitan #19, Page 15

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on September 22, 2009 at 10:16 am

When someone described Transmetropolitan as “Hunter S. Thompson fighting the future”, I knew it was a book I had to pick up. Collected in 10 paperbacks, Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s Transmetropolitan tells the story of journalist Spider Jerusalem who comes out of retirement and isolation to fulfill the agreements of his publishing contract. From there, Jerusalem gets caught up in politics, corruption and violence as he attempts to expose a presidential conspiracy, all the while exposing himself to every drug imagineable. Jerusalem, like many of Ellis’ protagonists, is an abrasive and confrontational bastard, but it’s obvious that he is the way he is because he cares more than he’s willing to let on.

In Jerusalem, Robertson has created a character that is instantly identifiable, with the iconic red and green glasses and the intricate tattoos. Where Ellis provides the heart of the story, Robertson crafts the details to let that heart beat. Robertson’s art in the sixty issues of the series is gorgeous, with an attention to detail that a lot of modern comic book artists overlook. Robertson rewards readers with repeat viewings of his art.

Now, you may have noticed that while I enjoy comic book techniques and art when it comes to these pages, what really gets me is when a page can affect me emotionally, such is the case with Black Bolt’s despair on the moon or Fell’s suspect finally asking for help.

By issue 19 of Transmetropolitan, a lot of the world-building is finished and the seeds for the book’s meta-story have been planted, and while we’ve had brief glimpses of Spider Jerusalem’s sensitivity, this scene is the first time where we can see that he is as vulnerable as the rest of us:

What’s interesting about the scene is that while there is a sense of relief for the reader that Jerusalem feels like we do, there is also concern. This emotional outburst raises the stakes of the story, because the danger has been clearly established, and if our hero is to make it to the end, he’s going to have to be stronger than this.

And now we understand completely why he’s such a bastard.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Fell #5, Page 13

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on September 15, 2009 at 9:53 am

There really is a lot to love about Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith’s Fell, a sporadically scheduled 16 page comic book published through Image. While the format is certainly interesting (lower page count, more panels per page, $1.99 cover price), it’s the story of homicide detective Richard Fell as he deals with his reassignment in Snowtown, a decaying city that’s as frightening as it’s familiar. It’s been said that Ellis tends to gravitate to the same kind of male characters with his stories, but with Richard Fell, he has created the kind of detective we’d want out there in our modern world, someone who is smart and thoughtful to the right people and scary and shrewd to the wrong people, but either way, Fell’s sense of compassion is clear and determined. And Templesmith’s art really makes Fell come alive in ways other artists wouldn’t be able to.

The nine-panel page I’ve selected comes from issue #5, a story that is essentially one long interrogation scene. It’s a great sampler for someone who is on the fence with reading Fell, because it hits all of the right notes in terms of story, characterization, dialogue and art. Ellis’ dialogue is sharp and Templesmith’s art is on fire, making a conversation between two people feel like a car chase.

At this point in the interrogation, things have gone sour. The suspect being interrogated has revealed to have a gun and has taken Fell hostage. And if you’ve read the issues thus far, you’d know that some of Fell’s greatest weapons are his ability to listen and speak:

Perfect.

Next week I’ll be taking a look at another one of Ellis’ books.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Box Office Poison, Page 56

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on September 8, 2009 at 9:39 am

I always like showing people my copy of Alex Robinson’s Box Office Poison, especially to those who aren’t comic book readers, because the size of the book always gets a reaction. At 608 pages, the book is formidable, which I suppose either works for or against the book. On one hand, it might put someone off from reading it, and on the other hand, the weight of it gives one the impression that there’s something particularly epic about Box Office Poison. While the book is too down-to-Earth to be epic (in the way we imagine epics to be), it is certainly a classic that deserves to be read and re-read. In fact, this is one of those books that really rewards its readers with repeat readings, especially in the details Robinson puts in the background. Having read it three times now, I’m certain there are still some surprises in the book still waiting to be discovered.

My favorite page comes early on in the story. When I first read this page, I knew right then that I was going to love this book. At this point, Robinson is still carefully establishing his characters, and this particular chapter is focusing on Jane and Stephen. We learn about Jane growing up and how she meets and falls in love with Stephen. We also learn that two weeks before, he had asked her to marry him, and for her own reasons, she had said no. The chapter is narrated by Jane as she attends her sister Gertrude’s wedding and it ends with this beautiful moment:

In less than 56 pages, Robinson not only created an emotional scene with a lot of weight, but created complex characters that you really care about. I’ve read way too many comic books longer than this one with none of these things.

A while back Robinson was selling the original pages from Box Office Poison, and I have to admit regretting not grabbing this page.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Inhumans Vol. 2 #11 Page 19

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on September 1, 2009 at 10:28 am

Last week we took a look at David Hine and Frazer Irving’s Silent War, published by Marvel. Before this particular chapter in the Inhumans history, Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee took a stab with the characters in a series called, unsurprisingly, the Inhumans. While Silent War is a worthy entry, the success of the Inhumans in the last ten years is because of what Jenkins and Lee accomplished in their 12 issues. Not only does it establish Black Bolt as a major player in the Marvel universe, it solidified the core concepts of the Inhumans for the 21st century.

Anyway, Jenkins put together an incredibly layered and beautiful story, and with Lee at his side, the Inhumans have never looked better. I know Lee gets a lot of love thrown his way for his Dark Tower books, but his work on the Inhumans is far more effective. I’m not suggesting that his work with Stephen King’s characters isn’t good, but there is something detached and unemotional about it that I find offputting, especially when he’s proven to be more than capable of conveying real emotion.

Such is the case with page 19 from the penultimate issue of the second volume of the Inhumans. The series has been leading to a major confrontation between Black Bolt and his brother Maximus, and this is the issue where all hell breaks loose (forgive me for being simplistic with the plot description). However, things don’t go the way you’d expect it to (especially with superhero comic books where anything can be solved with your knuckles), as Black Bolt finally confronts his brother:

Maybe it’s because I’m a brother too and I understand how difficult and complicated being a brother can be at times, but there’s something so wonderfully honest about this scene that takes my breath away. I’ll be a fan of Jenkins’ writing forever just because of that last panel (Lee too for that matter).

Next Tuesday: Box Office Poison!

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Silent War #4, Page 12.

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on August 25, 2009 at 10:38 am

Silent War was an issue that took me by surprise for a number of reasons. Some of that had to do with David Hine’s scripts, but a lot of the book’s success came from Frazer Irving’s phenomenal artwork. The real surprise was how much emotion Hine and Irving were able to mine from the concept of the Inhumans, a group of characters no one seemed to know what to do with for a long, long time (this changed, I believe with Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee’s Inhumans run a few years earlier).

In this scene, Black Bolt has just witnessed his wife kissing his brother. In a fit of rage, he storms out of his kingdom destroying everything in his path until eventually he comes to rest:

I must’ve gone back and read this scene a dozen times already. The pacing here is flawless, and Irving does all the work to show us Black Bolt’s pain and anguish. For a character who cannot speak, the art hear speaks volumes. This is quite simply the best Black Bolt scene in recent memory (which is saying a lot, because Black Bolt has been used extremely well in the last few years). The emotion here is honest and effective.

There is, however, one page with Black Bolt that rivals this one, and I’ll be sharing that one next week…

Favorite Comic Book Pages: The Amazing Spider-Man #33, Page 8.

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on August 18, 2009 at 9:48 am

Those early issues of The Amazing Spider-Man were gold on every level. Spider-Man was such a great character (still is, for that matter), the supporting cast worked, and the villains were just out of this world. As a kid, getting the Marvel Masterworks collection with the old Marvel comic books reprinted was like having Christmas on my shelf.

I loved these stories.

The Spider-Man stories, in particular, were really special. Issue #33 has a famous sequence where our hero finds himself trapped under a ton of machinery. Not only is the weight killing him, but the room is filling with water. Escape feels impossible. And to make matters worse, if he fails, his Aunt May is going to die. The “trapped” sequence is four pages long and is often cited by fans as one of the defining moments of the character.

I’ve selected only one of the pages because in these seven panels writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko reminds the reader what makes Spider-Man one of the greatest comic book characters of all time:

It’s not often that one page (an action sequence at that) can perfectly capture everything you need to know about the hero. Also, there’s the brilliance in Ditko’s page design, with the six tight panels to emphasize the claustrophobic setting, and finally the wide seventh panel to help reflect Spider-Man’s change in attitude and his perserverance.

This page is a thing of beauty.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: All-Star Superman 10, Page 8.

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Posted by Christian A. Dumais on August 11, 2009 at 9:27 am

When it comes to All-Star Superman, it’s hard for me to agree on what my favorite page is, thanks to both Grant Morrison’s surprising subtlety (The first page of the first issue is Superman’s origin in 8 words and 4 panels) and Frank Quitely’s brilliant art. That said, I always keep returning to page 8 of issue 10, where – like the aforementioned origin page – Morrison and Quitely manage to perfectly encapsulate the relationship of Superman and Lois Lane in just 6 words and 4 panels: