Big congratulations to Progressive Ruin for ten years of comics blogging! [31 December 02013]

Happy Birthday today to Stan Lee! [28 December 02013]

For Doctor Strange, 02013 ends with lots of dud appearances:

Infinity: Doc punked and controlled by Ebony Maw (New Avengers #9); led Maw to Thanos's son Thane (New Avengers #10); some other dude removed a mind web "leftover from a possession" from Doc's head (New Avengers #11), i.e., Doc didn't even help himself. Talked big, summoned tentacles and survived Black Bolt in Infinity #6. Scared Wong with "Blood Bible" talk, said he's tired of watching others make choices of consequence while he does nothing (we can hope), in New Avengers #12.

Mighty Avengers: Also while under the influence of Ebony Maw, Doc summoned Shuma-Gorath to Earth (#2); Mighty Avengers defeated 'He Who Used To Sleep Before A Thousand Appearances' without Doc via mystical (White Tiger) and physical (Spectrum, Monica Rambeau, the light-based Ms. Marvel) means before full manifestation (#3). Kaluu makes an ongoing appearance in the series- wow! Also, The Wings of Needless Sorrow appear (someone's been reading the late 80's Strange Tales).

Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe: Doc punked again, got taken over by the white/order half of the In-Betweener along with Deadpool, Scarlet Witch, and Ghost Rider (#2); at least the In-Betweener is an extremely powerful entity, and said Doc is difficult to contain; nothing else.

Thunderbolts Annual #1/02013: Doc punked once again, and replaced by The True Fairy King Of The Old Ones; sad enough, but thankfully it's not actually Doc running around in his undies.

Daredevil #34: Follow-up appearance to "not being the biggest Darkhold expert" in #32; Doc seems to know more this time, but now he's pathetically walking with a cane and overly sensitive to NYC's materialism?

All New X-Men #18: Magik says she's under Doc's tutelage, but this must be related to when Magik goes back in time to before Doc was an Avenger or even knew Magik, in Uncanny X-Men #7.

A+X #15: Doctor Strange + The Beast; fun but kiddie.

Wiccan is shown to be the Sorcerer Supreme of the future, with the Eye of Agamotto, in Battle of the Atom #2 and Wolverine and the X-Men #37.

[27 December 02013]

Highly-regarded altcomix publisher PictureBox to close shop [Dan Nadel statement] [Comics Reporter obit] [50% off sale] [Sean T. Collins: "The alt/art comics infrastructure depends on the heroic efforts of individuals"] [8 December 02013]

Alex de Campi's Grindhouse: Doors Open At Midnight at Dark Horse on the radar [ThinkProgress interview: "And, you know, my grindhouse books aren't ironic or a deconstruction of the genre or hipster grindhouse or whatever. Nope, they're straight-up tits and gore, the way nature (and Russ Meyer) intended... Spaceships make *everything* better..."] [CBR interview: "the reason the Comics Code was invented"] [Panel Patter interview: "We've seen so much ultra-violence and sexual violence and horror/darkness/paranoia in mainstream cape books, done so badly (as a vehicle to add 'excitement' and 'legitimacy' or 'grittiness' to a white male character's arc) that we forget how it was really used in these films. I'm making it a guilty pleasure again."] [preview chunk of #1; preview chunk of #3] [#1-2 Bee Vixens from Mars, already out; #3-4 Prison Ship Antares, women in space prison, out now; #5-6 Bride of Blood; #7-8 Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll] [7 December 02013]