Well I’ve met to post this for a while now but it’s pretty bloody obvious that this blog is on a hiatus now.
This blog has a history that was tied to a certain comic book store in Vancouver, Canada (You know, where the 2010 Winter Olympics were) called ELFSAR COLLECTION COMICS & TOYS. Sadly Elfsar had to close down in May so in many ways, it’s closing has also put the final nail into the coffin of this blog. If I had ANY thought of returning and sparking this sucker up, it’s all gone now. Elfsar was the spark that had me start REALLY bad reviews over on Happy Harbor Comics website. That went on for a while until I thought, why not just start my own blog doing the same thing and ranting about whatever else I wanted. So I did and BtS was born. It went through many looks & feel until finding the latest incarnation. Now don’t get me wrong, I do miss it at times but overall I think running this blog took a great deal out of me in ways I haven’t still realized. I managed this blog almost as much or more than working 8 hours a day and that got to be too much in general. That and I feel my appreciation for comic books lately has been at an all time low so I have little to talk about.
I know many friends I know wished I kept the blog up and running but never truly understood it was like feeding a forever hungry zombie… and I FUCKING HATE Zombies!
So for now the blog is again on a Hiatus. If you feel the fucked up strange need to listen to my rambles, you can catch me on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/RobertParizek
I’m not closing up shop as I like the digital footprint this leaves so feel free to browse and lick the carpet, you might find something you like. That said, I’m closing the comments now for the entire site and all older posts.
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Yes. It is back! The Hartley Show is back on the air and we got it right here for all your comic reviews PLUS Hartley talks Batman RIP! Check it out, good fun! As always shot on location from POW Comics!
I hope to one day go see a “filming” of the show and/or get Hartley on BtS blogging when he’s not busy with Hollyweird and all! Was great to see Hartley at the Vancouver Comicon a few weeks ago with William S!
Part II continues here…
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BTW – This is NOT Work Safe to watch (f**cking swearing and what nots)!
It is too bad that Hartley loved Batman RIP but hey, can’t be right all the time about books! 
Hehee… we all know Hartley is wrong ’cause RIP was as For the Love of Comics blogged about how it was more like Batman RIP-Off (Kudo’s to Dustin for being on Thoughts of Batman RIP post for Blog@Newsarama.com)!
I have one big point to make on what Hartley said – Yes Batman is a serial and things need to keep moving but that did not stop older Batman comics to come to a fricken conclusion. Batman: Kightfall, we didn’t get a vague sense of WTF happened, we saw Bane break Batmans back. Batman: Death in the Family – was it a kinda huh wha? when Robin died? Nope, it was right in your face with the conclusion. No, no, Grant Morrison failed in Batman RIP. Enough with the vague mythos and give some solid f**cking storytelling please OR piss off and let someone else take a shot!
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Hartley dishes out his love for Superman, Batman, Action Comics, Geoff Johns (gah, I do hope Johns doesn’t end up a DC version of Bendis for me) and then his dislike for Checkmate #29 along with the rest of his reviews on Action Comics #868, Brave and the Bold #15, Flash #243, The Last Defenders #6, Green Lantern Corps # 27. Since most of these titles, I do not pick-up, I can’t say if they are good / bad so yeah.
I did love both The Last Defenders #6 & Green Lantern Corps # 27 so we agree on those books!
Here is Part II with Booster Gold #11, Justice League of America #24, FireBreather #2, StormWatch #13, and the Midnighter trade vol. 2.
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Hartley is too nice on Justice League of America #24 — the Zatanna bit where she just appears out of no where was LAME and I am huge Dwayne McDuffie fan but yeah, I think I ranted about this issue on this BtS Best Bang Reborn here (scroll down, I gave it two leafs outta five!)! That said, I completely agree with regarding StormWatch: Worlds End book. Hartley’s review of the Midnighter trade has me interested in the book, might pick it up now.
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Oh goodie goodie goodie, more Hartley than you can shake your Secret Invasion & Final Crisis variant covers at! If you are tired of reading my bite-sized reviews then kick back, crank this up and enjoy Hartley’s reviews!
Oh and stay tuned, Hartley maybe “blogging” here (if I can pry him away from all his fun tv/movie work and/or City of Heroes addiction) also maybe a BtS appearance on an upcoming episode of The Hartley Show? You just never never know (and never is a good word for me since my days can turn to sh’yate in a phone call)!
Books reviewed: Hawkman Special #1, Astonishing X-Men #26, Iron Man: Director of SHIELD, Fantastic Four #559, Avengers / Invaders #4 of 12, Ghost Rider #26, Batman / Superman #51, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #17 and Fray trade paperback from Dark Horse.
My thoughts / two-bits: I have to agree with the Hawkman special (which I flipped through and don’t understand why DC is messing up Hawkman). I liked AXM but I agree that often Warren Ellis are more miss than hit for me. FF just does not flip my boat anymore, it is a mess, it is not the Fantastic Four that I want to enjoy. Avengers/Invaders, I am trade waiting that book so I can’t say.
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So last week it was Secret Invasion, this week it is Hartley on Final Crisis. I wonder if Hartley will go into how much FC feels like its talking down to us peons?
Here is part II:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5f-ELX8cOk
Oh and if you want to hear what Grant Morrison thought about Final Crisis #3, check out the good interview by Matt Brady @ Newsarama:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090808-MorrisonFC3.html
Good questions but I still felt that GM has missed the point of making a book that does not need offline / online references as such to understand it. I went and did a quick read of FC #3 this weekend (before the Newsarama article) and I still feel that there is SOOO MUCH going on that the casual reader would have NO IDEA of the frig is going on. This harks back to what Robert Kirkman was saying on his recent vidcast about how the Big 2 (DC & Marvel) are writing comics to the elder geeks and not the casual fan. Sure FC can come off that is it a great book when a casual fan learns about all the bits and pieces but generally it comes off like a art house movie for a small audience (the elder geeks) rather than giving a solid, straight-forward story.
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Hartley talks Batman R.I.P. and I like his suggetion of Hugo Strange as the big bad! I have to disargee that Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is allowed to become The Punisher which breaks the character for me, no matter how messed up his head is. I agree with Hartley’s thoughts on Dini’s work on Detective Comics!
Re: Red Hulk. I was extremely happy to see Red Hulk beat the sh**t outta Thor (Hate Thor as much as I hate Cyclops, bring back Thor-Frog!), I could care less about the hammer bit, any time a beat down can be handed to Thor, I love it!
Oh , wait, look the Hartley show continues here with part II…
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Okay so my feedback after watching the vid, X-Men #501 was blah. Cyclops sucks balls and not in a good way – EVER! Pixie does nothing for me and why does Greg Land have to always have woman in so many sexy shots, maybe it gets boring to see.
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Enjoyable as always but I would prefer Avengers: The Initiative over any Superman book or better yet the yawn that was X-Men #500. DMZ is awesome and good to see it getting pimped out, last trade didn’t work for me but I will see how the next is. Sorry I am not more engaging but feeling very blah today.
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A new Q & A episode of The Hartley Show with Hartley’s thoughts on Secret Invasion, The Avengers books, the shows format and POW Comics website. I missed hearing from Ronald Dario on the show but I am hoping he comes back in future episodes. Always enjoy these shows, hope you do as well!
If you have questions, do not ask them here (as I will be lazy ass to repost / forward them along) but go to The Hartley Show website and ask’em there in the YouTube site here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4mZ9Mjg2G4
Yeah yeah… Best Bang is coming but here is some more of The Hartley Show for yah…
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRuiVIkrjks
Part II continues here once you finish watching that episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMu001MKlkI
I LOVE that Hartley is also suspecting that Dr. Strange could be a SKRULL. William S and I were ranting about that for a while now. I love the Secret Invasion spoiler in the show!
Also check out the POW Comics here:
http://www.pow-comics.com/
Oh and if you like seeing / listening to Ronald Dario on The Hartley Show, you should check out this web comic End of Nothing here:
http://ronalddario.com/comics/EndofNothing/endofnothing00.html
