J. Caleb Mozzocco

@jcaleb.bsky.social

Library clerk by day, semi-professional comic book critic and comics blogger by later in the day, asleep by night. Author of the upcoming book "Giant Monster Movies: 100 Years of Big-Screen Behemoths" from McFarland.

Which do you think is Alex Ross' horniest redesign of a female character for MARVEL DIMENSIONS, the all-fishnet Spider-Woman, seen engaging in an upside-down sapphic embrace with Mockingbird (left), or sexy nun Elektra, seen fighting Evil Daredevil (right)...?

An image from Alex Ross' Marvel Dimensions graphic novel, depicting Spider-Woman wearing a fishnet bodysuit, thigh highs and long gloves, hanging from the ceiling, while Mockingbird strokes her head. An image from Alex Ross' Marvel Dimensions, part of a bigger battle scene. In the foreground a woman dressed as a sexy nun and wielding a pair of sai combats The Inquisitor, an evil version of Daredevil.

While obviously a nice image, I don't think this is a very good cover, as it doesn't give any indication of what the book is: Alex Ross doing Marvel versions of JLA: SECRET ORIGINS and KINGDOM COME, during which he invents a Marvel Earth-3 and redesigns the majority of the Marvel character catalog.

The cover of Alex Ross' Marvel Dimensions graphic novel, featuring a bunch of Marvel's most popular and iconic characters posing together.

I somehow missed that he told a “sir” story about his wife. This is maybe the least believable “sir” story of them all because 1.) No one’s wife calls them “Sir” and 2.) It’s not like his wife talks to him anymore.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 4d ago

Trump: "My wife told me, 'Sir, do me a favor. You have to do me just a little bit of a favor. It's not vagan. It's vegan.' I don't know about that stuff...How the hell would I know? I like steak."

Today on the blog, I have a not-at-all-related-to-comics post reviewing some recent prose books I've read: Bruce Cameron's THE BIBLE: A GLOBAL HISTORY, Dan McClellan's THE BIBLE SAYS SO, Philp J. Senter's THE REAL STORY OF DINOSAURS & DRAGONS and John Fugelsang's SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE.

Here are some non-comics books I've read recently:

The Bible: A Global History (Basic Books; 2024) I've never really understood the concept of Christian fundamentalism, the idea that the Bib...

everydayislikewednesday.com

The Bulwark included a screenshot of the below post from the bad micro-blogging site in their "Morning Shots" newsletter today. Fun fact: This is how the Foot Clan brought The Shredder back to life after he was blown up while falling off a building at the end of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #1.

A screenshot of a post quoting a paragraph about an experiment involving planarian worms.

While I liked some of the PLUS books, I had skipped this. Deacdes later, a friend told me it is about Supergirl and Mary Marvel teaming up to fight a child molester at the mall, and I thought she was joking, or at least exaggerating. She was not. What an extremely strange comic this is.

The cover of 1997's Supergirl Plus #1, featuring Supergirl and Mary Marvel in flight, drawn by Gary Frank and Cam Smith.

I can't imagine what their rationale for appearing in this might be—They're pro-fascist? They have the worst agents in the world? Ben Shapiro kidnapped their loved ones?—but I guess I have to move Harvey Keitel and Danny Trejo from my mental Seem Like Pretty Cool Guys list to my Dead To Me list.

Montana Locals Protest Daily Wire's Pro-ICE Film Inspired By Renee Good

Daily Wire's new pro-ICE movie production has attracted local protesters in Livingston, Montana.

deadline.com

I saw someone mentioned this comic on Bluesky today, which reminded me that I haven't publicly asked DC to collect Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck's 10-issue, 1992 JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA series in a while. Please DC Comics, for the love of God, collect this series.

The cover of 1993's Justice Society of America #10, featuring art by Mike Parobeck depicting the team rushing towards the reader in various action poses.

By the way, I ultimately went with the image of Tomax and Xamot in the earlier post because it shows off the flight pods better, but it was down to that image and the part where Cobra Commander shrieks "Retreat!" over the theme song while clinging to the top of one:

An image from the opening of G.I. Joe: The Movie, in which the screen splits into four panels, showing Cobra Commander clinging to the top of a flight pod piloted by a Cobra Viper from two different angles.

I recently finished G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO COMPENDIUM 3, which means I have read the first 113 issues of the original comic (and the entirety of its sister comic SPECIAL MISSIONS) produced between 1982 and 1991. And I just realized something conspicuously absent from all those adventures.

This Wednesday at 7pm! Join me for the official Cleveland book launch of THE DISSIDENTS, hosted by MacsBacks Books at the Grog Shop, just up the street. There will be a visual presentation packed with goodies about the making of this book, followed by a signing. I'll be drawing in title pages.

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Still thinking about Marvel vs. DC in terms of their current trades and graphic novel offerings. Tonight I stopped at the nearest bookstore. This is their one Marvel shelf. There's a lot from their Ultimate line, some STAR WARS, Spidey and Wolverine (Including Tsutomo Nihei's WOLVERINE: SNIKT!)...

An angled photograph of a bookshelf in a bookstore featuring Marvel trade paperback collections of comics (with the store's cardboard separators in the middle).

So if they published this to coincide with LANTERNS, do you think they will do one for that Jimmy Olsen/Gorilla Grodd show…? If so, what would it reprint? Three Jimmy Olsen comics and two Grodd ones…? Maybe the best Jimmy Olsen comics featuring gorillas…?

A picture of a Green Lantern magazine on a rack of other magazines. The cover features an image by Jim Lee, and the cover copy reads “Five Acclaimed Comic Book Stories By All-Star Writers And Artists!”

You know those magazine format collections of reprints dedicated to Batman, Superman, Supergirl and the Justice League…? Today I saw one featuring Hal Jordan and wondered who THAT was for…until I remembered that LANTERNS show exists…and comics people seem to like it okay, right…?

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This Friday is payday, and I'm thinking about all of the comics I could be buying and ordering this weekend if I WEREN'T currently spending almost twice as much on gas every week as I was last year. I'll get you all eventually, I swear...!

I just started reading this book yesterday morning, drawn in by the sub-title, which promises the intersection of an aspect of the occult/supernatural/religion with environmentalism. That's a real sweet spot of my interests (Besides, you know, comics). It's pretty great, so far...!

The cover of Nancy Brown's book Looking for The Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth.