Cherry Smoked Rib Roast

Having written about enjoying prime rib at Lawry’s and elsewhere, I thought this week, I would share my adventures in smoking my own rib roast. I’ve made one before, but this is the first time I took photos to document the process.

I Make Some Hot Wings

I’ve written about the foods that make me happy before. While I love trying new and different things, my comfort foods are pretty basic: hot dogs, steak and prime rib, and fried chicken sandwiches. I also love chicken wings. However, unlike all those other foods, I had never made my own wings, instead getting ready-made ones from restaurants or grocery stores, or frozen ones. Part of the reason is that my wife doesn’t share my taste when it comes to wings. She doesn’t like spicy foods, nor does she enjoy food with bones in it. However, that all changed just a few short months ago.

The Disney Designer Collection

Over the last several weeks, the Disney Store has been releasing a series of limited edition dolls called the Disney Designer Collection. The dolls feature six Disney princess characters, not dressed in their traditional outfits, but in clothing inspired by the fashion of the years in which their movies were released. Released one a week, the collection featured Snow White from 1937, Cinderella from 1950, Jasmine from 1992, Ariel from 1989, Tiana from 2009, and Belle from 1991. The dolls sold out within minutes of their release online, and my wife and I were lucky enough to purchase three of them. They are gorgeous, so I thought I would share photos of them online.

Section Zero

There is no Section Zero.

That’s the tag line for the comic book series from writer/inker Karl Kesel and penciler Tom Grummett. The book tells the story of a team of United Nations operatives tasked with investigating the weird and unexplained. It’s kind of like the X-Files, if the X-Files had been created by Jack Kirby along the lines of Challengers of the Unknown and Fantastic Four. It’s a big, bold, beautiful comic full of intriguing characters, larger than life monsters, high adventure, drama, mystery, and humor. And, for too long, it felt like “There is no Section Zero” was sadly more than an apt tag line.

Trekker: Chapeltown

Earlier this year, I wrote about Ron Randall’s Trekker, a longtime favorite science fiction series telling the adventures of Mercy St Clair, a future bounty hunter, or trekker. At the time, Randall was raising funds on Kickstarter to self-publish—for the first time—the latest volume in the series, Chapeltown. That campaign was a rousing success, and the resulting publication is a fine one indeed. He is currently raising funds for the next volume. That campaign blew past its initial goal in less than a day, so its success is already a sure thing. But the more money he raises, the nicer the book will be. So I thought this would be a good time to talk about Chapeltown, to help shine some more light on the series.

Spoilers after the jump; this book has a bunch of pretty drastic changes to the status quo of the characters, and I don’t think I can discuss the book effectively while trying to tiptoe around those.

Magnum PI: The Remake

Today, I wanted to talk briefly about a couple of TV shows that have made me feel pretty happy the past couple of weeks.

First, we are loving the new season of Doctor Who, particularly Jodie Whitaker as the new Doctor. I’ve been a huge fan of Doctor Who since I was a kid, but in recent years, my enthusiasm had waned a bit. With this new season, though, I feel completely reenergized. Jodie Whitaker brings a similar kind of energy and enthusiasm to the part that I loved in David Tennant, and Peter Davison, and Christopher Eccleston. With just two episodes broadcast, she is completely and totally the Doctor in my mind. 

The other day, despite having been almost completely turned off by the trailers, I decided to watch the first episode of the remade Magnum P.I. As a kid, I avidly watched the last 3 or 4 seasons of the original show (followed by Simon & Simon), and I HATED the idea that it was being remade by the producers who—to my mind—got the remake of MacGyver so wrong. The previews showcased big, explodey car crashes, making it look more like The Fast & the Furious (F&F director Justin Lin directed the new Magnum pilot) than the Magnum I knew. And it looked like they had just cast a typical Hollywood pretty boy as Magnum, and really, who could replace Tom Selleck, anyway? 

But, I loved the original so much, I felt compelled to check out the new one. I mean, what if it wasn’t awful? And who was I to judge without watching at least one episode?

Turns out, I really enjoyed it. And nobody is more surprised at that than me.

Penelope

After writing about the cats we currently have living with us, I feel like I need to write about Penelope, who lived with me from 1997 to 2013. Growing up, we had a cat named Pongo, but Penelope was the first pet I had on my own, as an adult. My relationship with her lasted longer than any other in my life to date, except for those with my parents and brother. I will never forget her, and I want to tell you a little about her.

October Treats at Disneyland

Obviously, it’s been more than a week since my last post. And this post isn’t going to be about our late cat, Penelope, as promised a month ago. It’s been a busy, frustrating month for me, and when I didn’t have other obligations getting in the way of blogging, I just didn’t have the energy for it. 

One thing we recently did that wasn’t so frustrating was spending a few days at Disneyland. We had planned on our trip last January being our last trip to Disneyland for at least a year, but circumstances conspired to bring us to the LA area a couple more times, making this latest visit our third one this year. And I’m going back in a few weeks for a fourth, but that really will be the last one until 2020. Unless it isn’t. This time, we set a specific goal of trying as many of the Halloween special snacks the parks are currently serving, so this week, I’ll be talking about which ones we ate and what we thought of them.

The Bozz Chronicles

In today’s comics industry, most creators working for Marvel or DC come there after proving themselves working on their own creations. That wasn’t so much the case in the 1980s, when I became a comics fan. At the time, I was fascinated to see what the creators working on corporate-owned superhero characters did when they had the opportunity to do their own creations. Surprisingly to me at the time, most of them didn’t choose to create their own superheroes, instead creating work in other genres. Jim Starlin and Bill Mantlo did science fiction epics like Dreadstar and Swords of the Swashbucklers. Chris Claremont did historical fantasy like Marada the She-Wolf and The Black Dragon. Walter Simonson also did science fiction with the Star Slammers. And David Michelinie, perhaps best known at the time for his work on Iron Man, fused the Victorian mystery genre with science fiction, creating one of my favorite series of the time, in collaboration with artist Bret Blevins: The Bozz Chronicles.

What's in the Box?!?: August Marvel Collector Corps box

As I have mentioned earlier, Funko is no longer producing their subscription boxes on their own, instead licensing them out to other retailers. I think the Disney Treasures box has been licensed to Hot Topic; I wouldn’t know for sure, since it was sold out from their site before I even heard about it. They haven’t announced who is taking over the DC Legion of Collectors box or the Star Wars Smugglers Bounty box yet. However, the first new Marvel Collector Corps from Amazon.com arrived the other week, featuring Deadpool, and here’s what’s inside.

What's in the Box?!?: July Funko Smugglers Bounty

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, Funko is discontinuing their subscription boxes, instead licensing them out to other retailers to put together. Already, Amazon.com has released the first of their new Marvel Collector Corps boxes, and I’ll talk about that soon. Hot Topic released a Disney Treasures box, but it sold out before I could order one, and I’m pretty ticked about that. I don’t know where the Smugglers Bounty box will end up, but I hope I’ll be able to continue getting it. In the meantime, I received the Revenge of the Sith box last month, which will be the last one coming directly from Funko. What’s in the box? Let’s check it out!

Back to Lawry's The Prime Rib

It’s been another rough week in terms of staying positive. At work, some recent stresses finally came to a climax. Hopefully, things will go more smoothly from here on, but it was a struggle getting to and through this point. At home, things are getting a little better, in that for the first time since January, we don’t have any pending repairs at this time (knock wood). On the other hand, the repairs this year took a financial toll, and that necessitated cutting back on some travel plans. On top of that, my wife discovered some sort of repetitive motion injury to her wrist. Considering that she needs to use a computer mouse for work, this is of some concern to us. Fortunately, she consulted with a doctor, and we have a plan to manage that problem.

It hasn’t all been bleak, however. This month marked the 80th anniversary of Lawry’s The Prime Rib, and they were celebrating with a special $80-for-two meal, and we decided to take advantage of that offer. I wrote about Lawry’s on this blog just a couple of months ago, but we tried a couple of new items this time, so I thought I would share this most recent visit with you all.

Immortal Hulk & The Amazing Spider-Man (not a team-up)

While this past week has been another big pain in the butt, both in terms of the news of the world and in my own life, I’m feeling a little bit happier than I did last week. For one thing, it turns out our water softener doesn’t need repairs at this time, which means for the first time since January, we don’t have something in the house that needs repairing. For another—and this may seem like a little thing, but sometimes it’s the little things that get you through the rough patches—I’ve found a couple of new Marvel comics to feel excited about. I mean, I feel excited about all the comics I read, otherwise I stop reading them, but Marvel just relaunched a couple of favorite characters in new books that have me even more excited than I had been. Those two comics: The Immortal Hulk and Amazing Spider-Man.

Some spoilers after the jump.

TV Themes

Apologies for not posting anything last week. Things have been crazy here for the past few months, particularly in terms of stuff needing repair in our house. For those of you playing “Problems with Andrew’s House” Bingo at home, you can now fill in the “water main needed replacing,” “sewer main needed replacing,” and “water heater broke and needed replacing/water damage to garage” squares. This would be in addition to the “turns out most of the wiring in the house needed replacing and probably caught the attic on fire at one point” and “water leak in dining room ceiling with evidence of previous, undisclosed leaks from previous owner” squares you could have filled in earlier.

Catching Up, and ATA Girl

Welcome back! This week, I want to talk about a recent audio drama from Big Finish Productions that I think is worthy of some attention: ATA Girl. But first, some follow-ups to previous entries.

Morticia

This week, I want to round out my series of blog entries about my cats by featuring our middle child (both in age and in terms of when we adopted her): Morticia. Morticia (or Tish) joined our family in August of 2014. Unlike Rumplestilskin or Gizmo, Morticia tends not to do the sorts of cute things that make for cute pictures. She’s playful, but not in the same ways that the boys are. She’s also a bit difficult to get good photos of, because of her coloring. So my options for this entry were a bit limited. But don’t let the relative lack of photos of her at play give the sense that we love her any less.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Apologies for not posting anything last week. I know my regular readers (hello to you both) will have been disappointed. Last weekend was pretty busy (I had a dentist appointment and tickets to Hamilton), and also we discovered a leaking pipe in our house. So things were a bit crazy, and time to sit and write simply wasn’t to be found.

I also am pushing back the post about our third cat, Morticia, by a week. This week, what I really feel like talking about is Solo: A Star Wars Story.

(Spoilers after the jump.)

I’ve talked about my Star Wars fandom before. I feel like the franchise’s revival by Disney has completely revitalized my passion for Star Wars. I enjoyed the prequels enough to see them all in the theaters, but now, I not only find myself really looking forward to each new movie, but also excitedly reading the books and comics and even watching fan shows on YouTube. For any number of reasons (but mainly one, dating back to November 2016) I’ve been feeling down. Star Wars is my happy place, and my wife and I eagerly went to see Solo: A Star Wars Story on the morning of opening day.

Short version: I loved it. To be clear, this is not a review. (For more on why I don’t write reviews on this blog, see my welcome message.) This is me, talking about having a really fun time watching a movie. 

From the first moment we saw Alden Ehrenreich jumping into the speeder and looking anxiously over his shoulder, I thought, “That’s Han Solo.” He really held his own in a movie full of great performances. I never believed I was watching Harrison Ford, which is fine; the movie is called Solo, not Ford. I did believe I was watching a younger version of Han Solo, at the beginning of the process of having the galaxy beat the crap and the idealism out of him on a regular basis, until he reaches the point we see in A New Hope. 

As much as I enjoyed Ehrenreich, I think I was maybe even more impressed by the other performers. For maybe the first time, Chewbacca really had a lot to do in a Star Wars movie. I felt that new Chewbacca performer Joonas Suotamo conveyed a great deal of character and emotion through his makeup. I watched him as a character, not as a guy in a Wookie suit.

I only knew Emilia Clarke from her work in Game of Thrones (in fact, I jokingly call her character Mother of Porgs). Here, she plays Qi’ra, young Han’s love interest, at two very different points in her life. We first meet her as a young woman on Corellia. While not necessarily an innocent—she and Han are part of a gang of thieves, and the implication is that she pulled herself up to that level from even more dire circumstances—she’s still a young woman who believes she can change her life by running away with the man she loves. Only it doesn’t work out that way, and while Han gets away from their old life and their planet, it’s only through her sacrifice of herself.

When we meet her again years later in story time, she’s the same woman, and yet different. It’s clear that she has seen and done some stuff in the meantime, stuff that was maybe necessary for her to escape her old life, but also stuff that maybe she wouldn’t have chosen to do. It’s also clear that while she’s no longer a thief on the streets of Corellia, she isn’t really any more free working for gangster Dryden Vos. And you can see that on her face and in her body and in her eyes, even though the only real physical change is in her hairstyle.

Woody Harrelson really surprised me with his performance, too. I guess I went into this movie thinking that he’s not the kind of actor who does Star Wars movies, and I kind of assumed he wouldn’t be playing it straight. I was wrong. His character, Tobias Beckett, fits completely into the movie and the Star Wars universe. As a criminal mentor for Han, he brings so much charm and personality to the character that even though you know he’s never going to be up to any good, you kind of end up hoping you’re wrong.

In fact, all the characters bring a great deal of charm and honesty to their roles. While I’ve seen Qi’ra described as a femme fatale, she is never less than 100% honest with Han. Beckett is less so, but he makes everything seem so cool. Beckett’s original team—Val, played by Thandie Newton, and Rio Durrant, a four-armed alien voiced by Jon Favreau—make it instantly clear why Han would want to desert from the Imperial army and join up with them. In a lot of ways, while Alden Ehrenreich brings the swagger and bravado to the role of Han, he also makes it clear that this is still a young guy who has a lot more attitude than experience. Consequently, you totally buy that he’d want to hang out with these other guys, who all seem to be the sort of people he’s trying to pretend to be.

And then there’s Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Like Erenreich, he has the difficult task of taking over a role best known for being played by someone else. Glover somehow manages to make this Lando feel completely like Billy Dee Williams’ character, without doing any sort of imitation. He brings so much confidence and smoothness to the role, it’s like he was born to play this character. Let’s hope this isn’t the last we see of him as Lando. 

In fact, I’d love a prequel featuring him and his droid co-pilot, L3-37, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. L3 is maybe the first female droid to be featured in a Star Wars movie. She really brings home the notion that if droids are sentient and treated like property, then it’s basically slavery. Previously, Star Wars has either tiptoed around or ignored this subject altogether. Certainly, droids in Episodes 7 and 8 and Rogue One are treated as friends, not property, although there is the notion that K2-SO is a rebel droid, not by choice, but because he was reprogrammed. With L3, though, a Star Wars movie finally addresses the issue head on, as does Solo companion novel Last Shot. I’m curious whether this is something that will be explored any further.

Obviously, the script gives us a lot of early Han Solo moments, whether it’s how he ended up joining the Empire, how he ended up leaving and finding himself a part of the galactic underworld, how he met Chewbacca, and how they acquired the Millennium Falcon. Written by Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan, those pieces all feel organically like part of the story being told, rather than a story being wrenched and bent out of shape to incorporate those beats. So, to me, this felt like an entertaining story being told that also illuminated Solo’s past, rather than a fan-service checklist.

I genuinely enjoyed this film. With the exception of one friend who writes movie reviews for a newspaper, every person I know who saw it, and every comment from writers and artists and others I follow on social media have liked it. Unfortunately, the overwhelming story being reported is that it isn’t making money, and is therefore a failure. Since those headlines started appearing literally the afternoon it opened, it doesn’t surprise me that people might have chosen not to go see it. I mean, if you have a movie that is the number one movie in the country, but the headlines are “Solo is Star Wars’ Biggest Failure Ever!” that’s going to influence the audiences.

I had originally thought I would rant about the injustice of the movie’s low box office receipts, but I don’t think I will. Because that’s not the story for me. For me, the story is that I saw Solo, and I thought it was great. I want to see it again, and I want to see what happens next to some of the characters who we met here. (Or see what happened to them before, in the case of the ones who didn’t make it out of this story alive.) 

And that’s it for this week! Come back next week, when you will—hopefully—meet our cat, Moticia. See you then!

Rumplestilskin

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Gizmo, the youngest of our three cats. I love them all equally, so today, I would like to tell you about Rumplestilskin, our oldest.

My Birthday Meals: May 2018

So yesterday was my birthday. We had some pretty cool plans in mind, but for a number of reasons, none of them came to fruition. For the first time in years, instead of taking a birthday trip, we stayed home. However, we did go out to eat a lot, and most of it was pretty good. So I thought I would share it with you.

Gizmo

Happy Mother's Day! 




Gonna change things up a little bit this week. Usually, I talk about a comics series or TV show or movie or book that makes me happy, because those are things that readers of this blog can also experience, if they so choose. This week, though, you’re just going to have to take my word for it: my kitty Gizmo makes me happy.

What's in the Box?!? Funko Marvel Collector Corps April 2018

I’m feeling a little down today, I have to admit. It’s just been a crazy week, with another crazy week ahead, and a busy weekend in the middle. However, yesterday, I got to take a break and go see Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War with my wife. I thought it was a great Avengers movie. The filmmakers managed to capture on the big screen the same feelings I got reading comics like Infinity Gauntlet and Crisis on Infinite Earths and all those other great superhero crossover stories when I was a kid.

Tying in with the release of the movie, Funko delivered what appears to be their final Marvel Collector Corps box. The theme this time around is Infinity War, and when I picked it up off the porch, it was a big one. (You’ll have to take my word for it; for once, Gizmo wasn’t interested in jumping inside the box to show the scale.) Do the contents live up to the excitement of the huge box? Is the Marvel Collector Corps going out with a bang? Let’s check it out!

What's in the Box?!?: April Funko Disney Treasures

Welcome back! Sorry I missed posting last week; once again, I was feeling overwhelmed by the world. I did finally get to see Black Panther with my wife, though, and we loved it! This week, I’ll be talking about the contents of the latest Disney Treasures box from Funko. Is this the last box  they’ll be producing in this subscription? I’m not even sure what’s going on with their subscription boxes any more, to be honest. Just taking it one box at a time any more.

What's in the Box?!? Funko Star Wars Smugglers Bounty April 2018

This past week has been frustrating for a number of reasons. There’s the general atmosphere of the world around us, which just depresses and upsets me. Then there have been more than a couple of personal frustrations, both at home and at work. On the other hand, my wife has been trying a new job from home, and it looks like it might be starting to pay off. And today, we had my car washed at a student fundraiser to raise money for a local high school’s robotics club. I felt good about that. 

Overall, though, I’ve been feeling pretty stressed out. I took an extra day off from work, which helped a little. I’ve also been retreating into my happy place a bit, which—as you can probably guess from last week’s entry—is Star Wars right now. So when I got a text from my wife the other day that the new Funko Star Wars Smugglers’ Bounty box had been delivered, I was pretty excited.

Star Wars Rebels

I first saw Star Wars in 1977, when I was eight years old. My parents took me to see it at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco, and it changed my life. I had loved other things—Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, I don’t even remember what else—but Star Wars was the first thing of which I became a passionate fan. Over the years, my interest waxed and waned; I drifted away after the first trilogy ended and came back when the second began. Now that we are getting annual Star Wars movies, I’m very much obsessed again. However, it may come as a surprise that my favorite iteration of Star Wars isn’t any of the nine movies (although I love them all, to a greater or lesser degree) but the animated TV series, Star Wars Rebels.

What's in the Box?!?: DC Legion of Collectors March 2018

As I write this, last week’s post about Neil the Horse has been viewed 432 times. I’ve never had anything I’ve written read by so many people before, and I’m pretty happy about it. You all can definitely expect more stuff about 80s comics in the future. However, this was never intended to be just a blog about comics, so if you found me last week through the Neil the Horse post and stuck around for more of the same, I apologize. As the title blog implies, this is meant to encompass everything that brings me joy. This week, I’m going to talk about what may be the final Funko DC Legion of Collectors box (which actually features a tie to one of my favorite DC comics from the 80s, so there’s that.)

Neil the Horse

I don’t believe in “best” lists, at least not the way they are presented as some sort of objective final word. I get that we all understand that they just represent someone’s opinion anyway, but even the notion that somehow you can compare, say, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen to Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge to Art Spiegelman’s Maus to Walt Simonson’s Thor to fill in whatever comic you think is the best comic ever is ludicrous. Having said that, if we are going to have lists of the best comics ever, one that should always be on those lists is Neil the Horse, created by Katherine Collins

What's In the Box?!?: Marvel Collectors Corps Animal Instinct

While it’s been a while since I’ve blogged about a Funko subscription box here, I still love them. Sadly, the boxes in their current form are coming to an end. Funko has announced that they will be partnering with a retailer or retailers for a new iteration of those boxes, but there are no details yet as to what form those will take. Hopefully, it’ll still be something we will enjoy. However, while it’s a bit bittersweet, here is my unboxing blog for what may be the final Marvel Collector Corps box, whose theme is Animal Instinct.

Matinee

I love the 1993 movie Matinee, starring John Goodman, directed by Joe Dante, and written by Jericho and Charlie Haas. I saw it in its original theatrical release (one of the few who did, it turns out), and owned it on videocassette and laser disc. However, I hadn’t seen it in quite a few years, until Shout Factory released a special edition blu-ray. When it arrived, my wife and I watched it together. It was her first time viewing it, and I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen it. It absolutely held up to my memories, and she really enjoyed it as well.

Ron Randall's Trekker

Recently, I was trying to remember how many creator-owned comics from the 1980s are still being produced today, still being created by their original creators. I could only remember a handful, and I was embarrassed to see that not only had I forgotten quite a number of them, like Mage by Matt Wagner and Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini, but they were all titles I am still buying and reading. What prompted this question? The launch of a new Kickstarter campaign to bring the latest volume of Ron Randall’s Trekker into print. I’ve enjoyed Ron Randall’s work since his early days, on a science fiction backup in the pages of DC’s Warlord, called The Barren Earth. And I’ve been a fan of his series Trekker, featuring a female bounty hunter in the future, since it first appeared in Dark Horse Comics Presents #4, from 1987. Seeing new stories coming out today, over 30 years later, makes me extremely happy, and I want to share some of that joy with you.

My Valentine's Day Dinner

Recently, I’ve been writing about restaurant and theme park food. We enjoy going out to eat, but we also enjoy staying in and eating. And the more confident I become with my cooking skills, the less interested I am in going out to eat. Too often, that involves driving down to the Strip, walking through a smelly casino, and paying tourist prices for good food and mediocre service. So, for the last couple of Valentine’s Days, instead of going out for disappointing meals, we’ve been staying in. The last two years, we had the exact same meal, and both times, it turned out great.

Winner, Winner, Chicken... Sandwich: Jack in the Box's Asian Fried Chicken Food Truck Series Sandwich

While we had a great time on our recent Disneyland trip, things have been a bit stressful since we returned. In addition to dealing with some health issues, we also learned that the wiring in our house was done pretty cheaply and shoddily. The repair guys we hired said we were lucky that a fire hadn’t been started in our house… and then they found evidence of a fire in the attic. So, having dealt with all that, I don’t have the energy for a big entry this week. Fortunately, Jack in the Box has come to my rescue, with a brand-new, limited-time chicken sandwich: the Asian Fried Chicken sandwich, part of their Food Truck series. 

Dining at Disneyland: Table Service Restaurants

Welcome back to my series of posts about Disneyland food! In the first of three parts, I wrote about Eat Like Walt, a book about food at Disneyland while Walt Disney was still alive. Last week, I wrote about the quick service meals we ate on our recent trip. This week, I’ll talk about the table service meals we had this time around. How do those experiences compare to our quick service meals? The answer may surprise you!

Dining at Disneyland: Quick Service restaurants

Posting pictures of food and meals online has become a bit of a cliche slam against social media. “I don’t want to know what people are eating,” whine the snobs. Yeah? Well, maybe I don’t want to see a zillion photos of your kids, or of your vacation, or your memes. There are only a few experiences that everyone shares with everyone else: eating, pooping, and dying. Of those three, I know which I’d rather see photos of. So, following on from last week’s blog about Eat Like Walt, this week and (probably) next, I’m going to talk about the foods we enjoyed on our recent trip to Disneyland.

Eat Like Walt: The Wonderful World of Disney Food

While my wife and I love visiting the Disney Parks, we haven’t been to Disneyland for about a year and a half. We’ll be correcting that shortly, and to prepare for the trip, I read a great book that my brother gave me for Christmas: Eat Like Walt: The Wonderful World of Disney Food by Marcy Carriker Smothers.

Winner, Winner, Chicken... Sandwich: McDonald's Classic Chicken Sandwich

(Just a quick blog this week while I get back into the swing of things.)

I love fried chicken sandwiches. It’s a go-to comfort food for me. The first one I ever ate would have been a McDonald’s chicken sandwich from back in the 80s, when they were introduced. So when I heard McDonald’s had introduced a new item called the Classic Chicken Sandwich, I had to try it.

12 Blogs of Christmas Day Twelve: The Silent Night of the Batman

For my twelfth and final Blog of Christmas, I’m going back to an old favorite: “The Silent Night of the Batman” from February, 1970’s Batman 219, by Mike Friedrich, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano.

12 Blogs of Christmas Day Eleven: Klaus by Grant Morrison and Dan Mora

Welcome to Day Eleven of my 12 Blogs of Christmas! Today, we’re looking at a comic of more recent vintage: Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus! This premiered as a seven-issue miniseries a few years ago (collected into a nice book), followed by two annual Christmas specials the last two years. According to interviews that I’ve read, the plan is to do one more single-issue special next year, because the three will make a nice-sized book. Then, Morrison and Mora plan to follow that up with another longer miniseries. Whatever the plan, I’m on board, because I’ve come to love this series.

12 Blogs of Christmas Day Ten: Paul Dini's Jingle Belle

On today’s Tenth Blog of Christmas, we take a look at Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle. I first became aware of Paul Dini’s work through the Batman animated series, which he script-edited. I loved his episodes, and it was always a treat when he contributed to DC’s Batman Adventures, the comic based on the show. However, it was even more of a treat when his own character—Jingle Belle, Santa’s rebellious teenage daughter—began appearing in stories of her own. 

(Apologies for the poor scanning quality. I don't own an electronic version of this book, and it's really pretty thick and hard to scan easily.)

12 Blogs of Christmas Day Nine: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (The Comic)

I can’t say for sure what my first Christmas-related comic was. It might have been a big, fat Walt Disney Christmas collection. Or it might just as easily have been a big, treasury-sized edition of Sheldon Mayer’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stories, collected in DC Comics’ Limited Collector’s Edition C-42. Disney Christmas comics are still coming out today from IDW, whereas the Rudolph stories live on mostly in my memories. So I’m going to talk about the Rudolph comics.

12 Blogs of Christmas Day Eight: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum

Today’s blog features another Christmas novel: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum. Baum is probably best known for the Oz series, which I love. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus displays the same far-reaching imagination as those books. I suppose, in its own way, it’s as all over the place as Hoffman’s Nutcracker and Masefield’s Box of Delights, which shows what I’m looking for in a Christmas story. (I also love Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, though, which has a laser-like focus, so there you go. When you think I’m going to zig, I zag.)