Friday, September 12, 2008 2:33 AM

Well folks, as you can see above the The Comic Book Guy.com Blog is available to read. There are three links on this one page alone so it shouldn't be hard to miss.

Monday, July 21, 2008 1:49 PM

And here we are with another update. As promised while new reviews won't be as frequent as they used to be, when updates DO accure there will be multiple reviews posted! The reviews posted today are for "Serenity: Those Left Behind," "The Incredible Hulke" (movie), and "The Dark Knight" (movie). I'll try to update at least twice next month. Jaya has submitted another review for me to post, and I have one still sitting on my hard drive that I wrote, so chances are there (should) be another update soon. I'm still working on the re-design of the site, and having recorded a few podcasts for my movie site The Movie Wizard.com I want to try and make a podcast for this site. I'm still trying to figure out what I would talk about during it, but I'll let you know what the progress is. Also I want to bring up something that I've been giving a lot of thought to: I'm considering eliminating the letter grade and switching it over to the star grade.

I've been seriously considering this for awhile now because the star grading is more universal and less confusing to most readers, and while the letters were a fun idea at first, it gets a bit murkey when a C+ ends up being a passing grade despite being so low. I would appriciate any feedback you guys could give me on this as I want to know what you think before I make such a drastic change. Well, I've got to update my other site now, so talk to you guys later.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:21 PM

Happy Summer, everyone! Go outside, attend summer courses, watercolor, eat good food, and relax. This is your longest vacation of the year, so use it well. And while you're at it, read today's review of Real Life's first comic strip collection. In light of it, the creator has recently moved to Texas in order to work on the comic full time. Go to his website and support him."

Friday, May 2, 2008 2:06 AM

Hey everyone, I'm still moving forward with my plans to properly ressurect this site. Jaya will be back in the summer as a full-time co-reviewer, but for now she's given us a review of "Confidential Confessions Vol. 3." Speaking of that series, is it still in print? So many manga are going in and out of print these days, that these reviews are beginning to feel like strange forms of history. Popular series on this site that are now out-of-print are "Maison Ikkoku," "Lupin III," and "Kodocha" (the latter of which, I might add, received one of our rare A+ grades). Oh, and just to let you know, I'm not laying around while I let Jaya write catch-up reviews, I've been hard at work too. Once school ends in a few weeks, I'll be back with a review of one of the most popular manga's in the past two years. Likewise, it will also be one of my most controversial. That said, looking back at some of my previous reviews, I was a bit of a jerk. I was giving bad grades to popular series for no other reason then because it was cool. No, this does not include "Fruits Basket," but my future reviews will be less nitpicky and more fair. Also, while new reviews will be sporadic for the time being, I do plan to launch a new feature starting next week called "Let's Chat Answerman" (name is not in stone).

This feature will revolve around the open questions that Zac Bertschy asks for his "Hey Answerman!" colum. Basically, these are good questions that are being asked, and I've written Zac a response to every one of them. So far none of them have been posted. I'm not bitter about that, he gets lots of e-mails on this. That said, I do want to share my responses with you guys, so starting next week I'll post these responses for all you to read. Not every response will be manga related, but there you go. Anyway, I've got to go to sleep now, but see you guys in full boom in a few weeks.

Saturday, April 12, 2008 1:27 AM

Alright, alright guys, I know. An update every several months is not a way to treat readers. Well, I know. I know this, and I'm sorry. The truth of the matter is that running a site like this is, more or less, a thankless job. That may seem strange considering it's a review site, but it is. You don't make any money off of it, readers tend to write to you when they disagree with you, and once in a blue moon the site can feel like a job. This site is not my job I'm sorry to say, so when it feels like it I tend to steer away from it. After years of reviewing comics I wanted to review something else. I started reviewing movies. At The Movie Wizard.com. That site has not been as sucessful as this site I'll admit, but that's to be expected; there are tons of movie review sites, but only a handful of decent comic review sites. Not saying this site is one of the better ones, but it's on the web, for better or worse. Working on a different site has had a possitive effect on me. I got to write about different things, I got different offers, and I even got to see a big comedy opening soon...which I can't tell you what it is or the studio can sue me. It's been fun, is still fun, and since I've never lost my love for movies it will most likely continue to be fun.

But I have to be honest: I miss this site. I miss it dearly. Since I've last updated I'm much wiser. Since I wrote my last review my writing skills have improved considerbly. And now that both "Love Hina" and "Maison Ikkoku" are finished, I reflect upon those reviews and feel that maybe the reviews and grades should be switched. This is another good example of why reviewing something based on the first volume isn't always the wisest thing in the world. But the point I'm trying to make is I want to get back to working on this site. Not only do I want to start updating again, but I want to see if I can switch to a database system and update the look of the design. I'm also implenting a new feature: Comic Book Show Reviews. Yes, when I feel like it, I will review shows that are based off comic books (or resemble comic inspiration closely like "Heroes"). As a way to show this is more then just talk the first one is up: "Maison Ikkoku." I started with this show for two reasons. 1) I just finished the show. 2) I wanted to give "Maison Ikkoku" the respect I feel I didn't give it in my initial review of the comic. It may seem like a step in the wrong direction for the first review in almost a year to not be a comic book, but comic reviews ARE coming!

I'm not going to be as bold as to say updates will be coming fast and furious though. Chances are it may be another week or two before another update as I get everything in order, but hopefully it will be business as usual. That said, when updates do resume chances are it will be one update a week instead of two, but hopefully multiple reviews will be posted on that day. It will take awhile for everything to get in order, but spread the news: The Comic Book Guy is back in action.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:40 AM

Whoa, what is this? An actual update for the site? Sorry guys, not really. Yeah, I know: It's been three momths since I've updated this site and, if you've been keeping track of my other site (The Movie Wizard.com) then you'll know I'm not dead. So what's going on? Truth be told, I don't know. Honestly though, I think I may have an idea: I'm getting slightly bored with this site. Keep in mind I'm not getting bored with comics as I still read them on a frequent basis, it's just the actual reviewing them that's starting to get a little boring. I don't know why, I'm just kind of losing the spark at the moment. I'm not shutting the site down yet, mainly because I don't know whether or not this is a "phase" that people talk about, and in a couple of months I may be back on the saddle tapping out reviews like it's nobodys business. For now though, I'm kind of tired. It makes a little sense though. My third anniversary is coming up, and three years seems to be the max anyone runs a personal website these days. After three years, they just seem to lose the spark they once had for it. Sad, I know, but that just seems to be how it goes sometimes. That said, I AM updating for a reason: It's time for our annual "The Comic Book Guy.com Really Cool Stuff Sale!" Yeah, I know, coming on the site and reading about how there's no updates on the site but that I'm selling stuff is a little frustrating, but you all know I tend to sell some great stuff through this sale. And this year I've topped myself, I don't know if I'm ever going to get the sale to be this cool again. Some of the highlights include:

• First Day Covers of all the Marvel stamps, stamped at the 2007 International Comic Con. These stamps are the rarest of the rare, so don't miss your chance to get them.
• Various anime DVD's and CD's that are out of print, mostly from Geneon.
• Penny Arcade lithographs. No only do I have the Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood lithograph up for sale, but I still have one more Cardboard Tube Samurai litho on me that I'm selling, which has become so rare it's actually sold for over a thousand dollars at some places (though my reserve isn't QUITE that high).
• A copy of "The Last Emperor," the 1989 Bernardo Bertaluchi film that walked away with nine Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. Out of print for several years now, this is a great movie you'll want to add to your collection.
• A "Heros" book, signed by author and artist Yoshitaka Amano. Yoshitaka Amano has done many things, but he's most famous for designing the characters in almost all of the popular Final Fantasy games. This sigature is actually authorized by a major autograph authorizing company, so you can be sure it's genuine.
• Kwik-E-Mart goodies from 7-11. While the 7-11 promotion for "The Simpsons Movie" may be over, I still have a few of those rare items they sold for only a few short weeks before everything sold out. This includes (but is not limited to) Buzz Cola, Krusty O's, Squisee cups, and more.
• Arina Tanermura autograph. Signed on a collectable pencil board that given out only at the 2007 International Comic Con, this autograph is a must have for people who loved either "Gentlemen's Alliance" or "Full Moon o Sagashite."
• And much, much more...

So click on the link above, or the eBay link to the side, and start bidding. The auctions started a couple of days ago, so don't want too long. I'll also keep you up to date with the status of this site shortly.

Saturday, September 1, 2007 5:39 PM

Sorry guys, there's no review today. Though school did start recently, I can't say the lack of a new review today has anything to do with school. No, the reason there is no review today is because last week I started working on a project. It was a project that many people felt I should do, but I didn't know if I had the time to do it. What's the project you ask? Well, you know all those movie reviews I've been posting on MySpace? Well, if you saw them, then you know how big a movie fan I am. I think I actually watch more movies then I read comic books, and my time at the Comic Con is split between the comics Q&A panels and mainstream Hollywood commercials presentations. I can easily spend up to $100 in tickets at the box office, and my personal DVD collection is up to 1,013. Anyway, I've written enough movie reviews on MySpace, that i decided to compile them onto their own website. So now I introduce to you The Movie Wizard.com, a website that is similar in design to The Comic Book Guy.com, except it focus's on movies and uses the star grading system over the letter grading system. Obviously some of the comic movie reviews are now on both sites for cross promotional purposes.

So does this mean less updates for The Comic Book Guy.com? I don't know. Truth be told the updates have already been kind of slow, so I don't know how much slower they could get. One thing to consider is that I've recently been put in charge of writing reviews for my college newspaper, which means I'll be writing more movie reviews in general because...well, because it's homework. Homework I can then publish online. So if the lack of updates here frustrate you, then just go to that site. I know it's not comics, but everyone enjoys a good movie now and then. Just to let you know, for both sites I'm going to abolish the "update scheduel" beacuse I don't think I'm hitting my mark for either sites deadline. Plus I find I update more when I can update the sites whenever I feel like it, so maybe we'll see more reviews if I don't have to worry about a deadline. Either way, spread the word with your friends: The Comic Book Guy is now also The Movie Wizard. Be very, very afraid!

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