Slay: April 2008 Archives

Coming from Jeff Lemire and Vertigo.

And yes, I will gladly shill for Jeff Lemire.

Blueprint is a hometown hero here in Bustown, and he's a genuine talent behind the boards and on the mic, and anytime he releases new music, it's an event.

So, imagine my excitement when I received this email yesterday afternoon.

We are starting the preorders for the Blueprint vs Funkadelic CD. There are only 500 copies of the actual CD version of this release. The CD is $7.99 and will come with a 11x17 poster of the artwork and all the instrumentals. Pre-orders will be shipped out Thursday night (or first thing Friday depending on the order volume) and should arrive 2-3 days later depending on how far from Ohio you are.

For those of you wondering how you will get a copy of this release with when there's only 500 copies of it don't worry, starting next week on the release date there will be select websites that will make this album FREE to download on Tuesday, April 29th (specific sites to be announced later). The downloadable version will not include the instrumentals.

Exactly 8 minutes later I received an email receipt from CCNow. So, there are definitely not more than 499 copies left. Better act fast.

To order, CLICK HERE.

(There's even a YouTube preview right here.)

I got this today. If you're not reading these, I assume it's because you already have the whole series. I finished the first collection what seems like years ago and I've been salivating uncontrollably ever since.

It's maybe the best looking collection of it's kind of ever seen. And the comics are the bomb. Yes, I think that's the perfect word for them - the bomb.

Their last album displayed amazing musicianship, but was kinda weak on the song-writing front. Black Thought sounded like he was sleeping through some of the sessions.

This sounds much better.

It's an interesting moment for me in my comic reading-ness. I've got this little list of the titles I'm enjoying a heck of a lot, and it seems that most of that list is made up of titles that weren't around 3 months ago. How'd this suddenly happen? Did I luck out? Is it a publishing co-incidence. I had been pretty unhappy with my pull-list for the few months before this, and I kept weeding things out of it. Suddenly though, I'm more excited about going to the comic shop again. What are the titles that are pulling me back it? Read on.

Fantastic Four (Millar & Hitch version)
I was really into FF until the end of the Civil War. In fact, I thought they had some of the best issues of that whole darned Civil War thing, but then Dwayne McDuffie took over and they totally lost me. (Not to mention those horrible covers by Michael Turner. Lord!)

However, now FF is near the top of my must-read list again. It feels like a real comic book to me. It doesn't feel written for the trade. You get a nice taste of what everyone's doing each issue, and it's fun. And a storyline that features a second Earth really is appropriately sized for this group. I'm not sure I agree with Millar's assesment that Reed is the coolest guy on Earth, it's great to see him acting like a hero and a scientist.

Anyway.

It's fun every month, that's why I'm into it.