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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #33
18 January 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
THE ALL WEB SITE REVIEW
One of the great things about being your own columnist is in following your
own muse. So this week I'm not going to review any comics in-depth. It
was a slow week, due to the ice storms in the Northeastern corner of the
United States. It allowed me to catch up on a few things, but I'm just
not feeling verbose about them right now. Here's a brief run down on
everything I picked up this week, though:
* THE INCREDIBLE HULK #462 is another great issue. It's good to have Peter
David back on a track again. Adam Kubert's art is terrific and this title
is starting to show signs of the brilliance it lost long ago.
* THUNDERBOLTS #11 was written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley, as
per the usual. Good issue. A rather extended, thought-out fight sequence,
but I'm left wanting more.
* Jim Valentino's A TOUCH OF SILVER #6 is depressing. Really. It's on
hiatus now, though. This would be a good time for that. Any more of this,
and I may start pitying Jim - something I don't really want to do.
* TRANSMETROPOLITAN #7 is another taste of Warren Ellis and Darick
Robertson's futuristic mind-bender. This time we get a taste of the
afterlife, more or less. Well thought-out stuff, again. More on Warren in
a minute.
* BIRDS OF PREY #1 was written by Chuck Dixon (doesn't he write
everything?) and drawn by Greg Land and Drew Geraci, graced by an elegant
Gary Frank cover. There's some nice character bits in here, a solid pace,
and a serviceable plot.
* Kurt Busiek returns with Sean Chen for IRON MAN #2, in which Tony Stark
turns into James Bond, thrust into the middle of a high-tech spy thriller,
complete with a Bond girl. I liked it.
So let's get to what I want to talk about this week: Web Sites. I've been
doing some extra surfing this week as I updated my own web site:
COMIC BOOK FAN-FICS AND OTHER WRITINGS
http://www.nic.com/~augie/fanfic.htm
Here I keep a few scripts I've written starring the characters from Erik
Larsen's corner of the Image Universe. Three of them star Freak Force,
while the most recent stars The Savage Dragon's partner, Alex Wilde doing
battle with Mako. Please note there aren't any real "other writings" yet,
but I like to keep my bets covered.
I've also put together a listing of links to web sites devoted to Comic
Book Writing. I've found quite a few more than I originally thought extant
through here.
There are also two different e-mail comic book writing workshops you can
link up to. I'm torn, myself, on joining one. I'd like to, but it's a lot
of work. I still have to get through this last semester at school. Maybe
after that, I'll join one. My brain usually fries from all the reading I
am forced to do with school. Forgot about reading comic book scripts and
commenting on them.
DIGITAL WEBBING
http://www.digitalwebbing.com
Right up there with TONY'S ON-LINE TIPS ( http://www.wfcomics.com/tony ) is
the daily-updated Digital Webbing, which features a checklist of websites
which get updated everyday concerning comic books. It's worth the
thirty seconds it might take to read it every day. And I also believe it's
the NCRL Site of the Month this month! It's well deserved win. There are
also links to classified ads of comic book companies and related web sites
looking for writers and artists, as well as a pretty healthy set of links.
SMOKE DAMAGE - WARREN ELLIS
http://www.warrenellis.com
Warren Ellis has run a pretty nifty website through CompuServe for awhile
now, updating it at the beginning of every month like clockwork. Well, now
he's gotten his own domain name and is in the process of relocating. The
whole shebang won't be done until 01 Feb, but there's some pretty good
stuff up at the new site right now. And if you're an interested publisher,
you can even take a look at the wares Warren is peddling.
BRIAN'S WB EPISODE SCHEDULES
http://pages.nyu.edu/~bpc200/fels.html
Not strictly comics-related, but... This is the invaluable web site I
check up on every Saturday morning to see what cartoons I'll be taping
before I head off to work. (There are also listings for the weekday
episodes.) Brian manages to keep the Future Episode Listings up to the
date, and is always accurate. There's also a wealth of news articles and
updates on what is going on with my favorite line-up of Saturday morning
cartoons. (They just announced the new Pinky and the Brain series -
starring TTA's Elmyra! YAY!) The layout is simple and mostly
graphics-free, so it loads up quickly, thankfully.
COMICS SITES ALLIANCE
http://www.wvinter.net/~phlipcat/csa/
I just put in my "application" to join this wonderful site. It's basically
one-stop shopping for all your comic book related web site needs. It's
undergoing a bit of a revamp now in order to better organize the gargantuan
listing, but still offers a treasure trove of sites to pick from.
JONAH WEILAND'S COMIC BOOK RESOURCES
http://www.comicbookresources.com
The main competitor, as far as I see it, to the CSA is Jonah's web site
here. Not only does it have an impressive listing of web sites, but it
also has a Site of the Week, Real Audio Interviews with comic book
creators, and news articles. The links listings aren't as nicely organized
as I wish they could be, since they're organized by publisher instead of
classification, but there's still a lot to be seen here.
THE LURKER'S GUIDE TO BABYLON 5
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html
With the Babylon 5 comic written by creator J. Michael Straczynski and
script-writer Peter David (whose 5th season script apparently didn't pan
out) just around the corner, what better opportunity to point you all in
the general direction of the most comprehensive and most awe-inspiring web
site devoted to a TV show I've ever seen? Not only does this thing have
plot synopses and comments from the creators, as well as links and
behind-the-scenes stuff, but it's also easy to use, quick to learn, and an
invaluable reference to any die-hard Babylon 5 fan, like myself. Babylon 5
can now be seen on TNT weeknights at 7 p.m. EST, and season 5 starts this
Wednesday night at 10 p.m., EST. Watch for it. You won't be disappointed.
-Augie
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