Nerd Alert!!!

Thought I'd step aside off the cancer blog and answer a question I'm getting email on. For those of you who may/may not know, DC Comics has rolled all of their titles back to issue #1, essentially rebooting the whole line of 52 comics with a promotion called "The New 52".

Thanks to Steve at Comic Headquarters, I've been able to get ahold of most of the major ones, and thought I'd offer my opinion as to all these new comic books. I've got a cancer blog to run as well, so I'm going to keep it pretty simple. If you want to know more, email me, and I'm happy to answer your comic-related questions (or root beer questions, or where is Crystal City, MO, or well...just about anything, I have a lot of free time)

Anyway, here we go by ranking, and these are limited to the titles I've read:

5 stars *****
Action Comics 1 - Grant Morrison has the magic again, this time with the man of steel.
Batman 1 - Scott Snyder's run on Detective Comics dovetails nicely into the main Batman book.
4 stars ****
Green Lantern 1 - Geoff Johns is slowly losing the magic that made him the iconic comic writer of the decade. Frankly, I think the guy's overworked.
Justice League 1 - see above, although the Jim Lee artwork kicks ass.
Green Lantern Corps 1 - Tony Bedard's consistent writing continues.
Batman & Robin 1 - Pete Tomasi's an awesome writer. You never know where he's going to go next. I love it.
3 stars ***
Justice League International 1 - no idea where this title's going, but it better start going somewhere FAST. Good roster, though.
2 stars **
Batgirl 1 - Sorry, Gail Simone, you're a well-regarded writer, but I'm not liking the direction here, with Barbara Gordon being scared of bullets. That's not going to work for long.
1 star*
Green Arrow 1 - From the "Smallville" looking costume to the overall dud narrative, JT Krul disappoints YET AGAIN. I can't keep track of how many of this guy's books I've dropped over the last 2 years. DC needs to cut this guy loose.
Batman: Detective Comics 1 - Not enjoying Tony Daniel's current writer/artist spin on Batman, but he's killing off one of last year's best books. Thumbs down.
0 stars
Superboy - total crap. What a waste of time. I want 20 minutes back. Sorry, Scott Lobdell.

By the way, don't get me started on all the Marvel books losing momentum during this "Fear Itself" promotion they're running across their whole line. If it wasn't for Ed Brubaker's Captain America right now, I might be done with Marvel for a while.

Casey Returns to the Stage w/Solo Show

For the first time in about a decade or so, Casey made an appearance at an open mike night at the City Club in St. Charles, MO, including some YARN favorites that haven't been heard in quite a while.

Set 1 (Electric)
Gridlocked (YARN) / Listen to What the Man Said (Wings) / Don't Look Back In Anger (Oasis) / Peace, Love & Understanding (Elvis Costello) / Sunflower (Paul Weller) / What's The Frequency, Kenneth? w/guest Brian Kious on vocals (REM)

Set 2 (Acoustic)
Take The Skinheads Bowling (Camper Van Beethoven) / Wouldn't Need A Song (YARN) / Ride Like The Wind (Christopher Cross) / The Concept (Teenage Fanclub) / Center of Gravity (YARN) / See No Evil (Television)