4-14-08 In the Throes of Madness: Part III

I never want to meet Frank Cho because I don't want to find out he's a normal guy. I'd rather live in ignorant bliss that he's as weird and mysterious as I like to think he is. -Gint

4-4-08 What I Would Do

I'm a DC fan. At least 95% of my weekly comic funds go to DC Comics. But from 2002 to 2006, I was fully engrossed in J. Michael Straczynski's Amazing Spider-Man. The Straczynski/Romita Jr. issues were the pinnacle, but I loved the Deodato and Garney stories as well. JMS' run opened me to a world of Spider-Man that I never knew existed. I've read the old 60s stuff. I've read the 90s stuff. But this Spider-Man spoke to me. It was a natural and organic maturation of a character that was entirely logical. That is until the Marvel brass decided, "Eh, we like the Spider-Man we grew up with," and the good 'ol days were over. Just like that.

JMS put on a good face and stayed as PC as he could about leaving (being thrown off) the book. I know a huge company like Marvel won't miss my $4 every week, but I refuse to buy a Spider-Man book (Ultimate not withstanding) until they right their wrongs. If it takes until Joe Q isn't the EIC? Fine. I'll wait.

-Gint

4-04-08 Doctors Appointment

I really wish my medical insurance would allow me to go to doctors that didn't specialize in "World Domination."

-$

3-30-08 In the Throes of Madness: Part II

Does $oss really have the power and talent to kick down a door? If provoked properly, yes. Yes he does. -Gint

3-28-08 The Not So Amazing SpiderMan

Yes, Spider-Man REALLY fought a "Meth Smoking Sewer Monster." Don't believe me? Read for yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Brand_New_Day#Freak.
-$

3-27-08 Gone to TRU

Garth Ennis’ and Steve Dillon’s Preacher series is hands down my favorite comic series of all time. I was introduced to it at a time where I was slowly getting disillusioned with the "capes and tights" of the Marvel, DC and Image universes. The world of Preacher represented everything that I never knew comics could be. To this day I’m a sucker for anything Ennis writes. An all-girl unit of fighter pilots in WWII? Sign me up!
Also, guest appearance by the great Joe Saxman in this strip!
-$

3-25-08 Ghost Rider: The Review

I love all those old Nick Cage movies of the mid to late 90’s, Snake Eyes, Face/Off, The Rock, Con Air... if only Ghost Rider was half as good as any of those.
-$

3-21-08 The Evil Forces of

Transformers, for better or worse, has been a huge influence on both me and Gint. It was one of the first things that we really had in common back in '00, besides being miserable about girls, so it has a special place for me in the context of Mc$oss. This is one of the first of many strips that includes everyones favorite Robots in Disguise.
-$

3-20-08 The Mysterious & Downright Juicy

Another shout-out to our buddy, Radcliffe.
Do yourself a favor and check him out:
http://radcliffe.comicgenesis.com/d/20070805.html
-Gint

3-19-08 In the Throes of Madness: Part I

Much like the One Ring, Frank Cho's Women harnesses its own dark siren's song luring fans of beautifully drawn naked women to their ultimate doom. Take heed my friends, for I speak from experience. -Gint

3-17-08 The Mysterious and Downright Weird Houseguest

This strip as well as a later strip are both inside jokes between me and Gint. As we were weighing our options as per how to get Mc$oss on the internet one of the things we checked out was a web comic hosting site called comicgenesis.com. As we looked through the comics that this site had to offer we came across a strip called Radcliffe. We both found him and his pleasantly plump sidekick "mysteriously" humorous and I ended up putting him in a strip. You can check this dude out here http://radcliffe.comicgenesis.com/d/20070805.html.
-$

3-8-08 Clone Wars: Episode II

Now, I wasn't reading comics during the big "Image" boom of the '90s. So I'm not looking back through rose-colored glasses with affinity for those characters or creators from my youth. I can look back at those books, art and creators with an absolutely subjective opinion. And in my humble opinion, I think it all kind of blows. -Gint

3-9-08 The Madness of Didio

When early reports for the plotline of Final Crisis started surfacing in early '08 it sounded like it was gonna be another rough go for the Scarlet Speedster. Turns out I was totally wrong.
-$

2-24-08 I Dream of Geoff Johns

A brief story about Geoff Johns and Green Lantern: I started reading comics in 2001. When I started reading, Hal Jordan was the Spectre and Kyle Rayner was Green Lantern. "MY" Green Lantern. So when I heard some guy named Geoff Johns was bringing back Hal Jordan I thought, "What the fuck?! KYLE is Green Lantern! Not this 'Hal' chump!"

So I bought Green Lantern: Rebirth because it was kind of an event, and I was curious. I didn't know anything about Hal Jordan or why it was so awesome that he was coming back. Until Page 22 of issue #4. In that one page (rendered beautifully by Ethan van Sciver, Prentis Rollins and Moose Baumann), Hal Jordan became MY favorite hero, and I knew why he was always referred to as "the greatest Green Lantern." Geoff Johns hooked me and I've never looked back. -Gint

Ps. I only had that dream once.

02-23-08 Tonights Listings

Back in early '08, NBC rolled out a lineup of shows that resembled the shows that where on the airways when I was 8 years old. The results were not very good and I'm pretty sure all of these shows were canceled after 1 season. They tried for "Ultimate Spider-Man" and ended up with "All-Star Batman and Robin" Like I said, bad results.

-$

2-22-08 To The Movies

As a comics fan, its been awesome seeing so many great comic movies come out over the last few years. As a DC fan, it burns my ass that more (any) of them aren't DC movies. Granted, they hit a couple home runs with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but I think those were largely on accident. Seems like they might have some positives coming down the pipeline, but I'll believe it when I see it. -Gint

2-22-08 The Fantastic Marriage

I've always had a feeling that living with The Invisible Woman would be a royal pain in the ass.-$

RED, White & Blue

I always imagined that there would be some tension between Cap and Bucky after Mr. Barnes spent the better part of the last 50 years in Siberia.

-$

The Old Smoothie

When you have the natural talent to fill the boots of Lando Calrissian, I think you should run with it. -Gint

The Clone Wars:Episode I

This strip came to me in the middle of the night in early February 08. I was so excited about the basic premise of this strip and I wrote out a whole 3 strip long story. But I never seemed to get back to actually COMPLETING this story arc. To this day it’s still unfinished, but don’t worry loyal Mc$oss fans, I’ll finish it for you!

-$

The Penis Finger

This is all true. Except the Empire Strikes Back part. And I can't validate that the doctor was really into tube steak. But I did need 4 stitches in my finger and had a bandage shaped like a wiener for about a week and a half. -Gint

Why So Serious

Early in 08' the awful news that Heath Ledger had passed away proved to be motivation for this strip. I knew The Dark Knight would be great, but had no idea how much of an impression Ledger's rendition of The Joker would leave on the pop culture landscape. I’ve had people that have never picked up a comic in their entire lives ask me "if I’d like to know how they got these scars" or ask a room full of people if they know where Harvey Dent is.
-$

The WB & David Goyer

With all the good writers out there with the talent to bring DC's heroes to theatrical life, I can only imagine Warner Bros. PURPOSELY prevents these movies from seeing the light of day. -Gint

Greg Land Tribute

Ah, Greg Land. Does his art look like it's traced from photographs of models? Yes. Yes it does. But lets be fair. I still really enjoyed his issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four. -Gint

Observing the Holiday

This is one of my personal favorite strips. The humor is just what I was looking for and the art was coming along pretty good too. $oss and Gint would later repaint the walls blue and hang posters. -$

Custody Trial

I wrote this strip shortly after Grant Morrison introduced Damian, Bruce Wayne's illegitimate son, in the pages of Batman. Let’s just say that I feel Mr. Wayne is not the most qualified person in the world to be taking care of children.

-$

$oss' Women

No one draws super hot chicks like Frank Cho. Adam Hughes and the Dodsons come close, and I have a particular affinity for Bernard Chang's Wonder Woman, but we here at Mc$oss believe Frank Cho is the unabashed master. I raise my glass to you Mr. Cho. Keep 'em coming. -Gint

Countdown Halloween

Ah, Countdown. With Paul Dini overseeing the writing I thought, "How could this go wrong?" I learned a hard lesson those 52 issues. -Gint

Outrage

This is a quick one that I did at work one day. As you will come to learn, I hate Rob Liefeld, not as a person or even as an artist, it's more based on the trends that he set in motion in the early 90's (glowing eyes, gigantic guns, lots and lots of pouches, etc.). I'm apparently not the only one that feels this way http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html. So naturally I was thrilled to hear that a new version of Youngblood was being released.

-$