Likes and Dislikes for the Week of February 26th, 2020

It’s that time again, where I tell you what’s really grinding my gears for the week of February 26, 2020 (the first of this year).

Some weeks it’s mostly likes, other weeks it’s dislikes.

So what’s grinding my gears this week?

Once Upon A Time In France

Once Upon a Time in France Omnibus GNSo a few months back I was sent a full copy of Once Upon A Time In France from DeadReckoning Press. I’ve been so far behind on some of my readings it was definitely getting neglected, sitting on the corner of my desk out of the way. I regret waiting so long. I started to read this massive 360 page magazine size omnibus last night and it was hard to put it down after picking up.

Great story thus far and I’m likely going to have to read it in 50 or so page chunks as I got so much crap to do. Life, it gets in the way of the things we would rather be doing.

Anyways, this is one of my likes this week as it’s been awhile since the last Likes and Dislikes. I totally recommend picking up this monster read.

Winner of the Angoulme International Comics Festival Best Series Award. Based on a true story, Once Upon a Time in France follows the life of Joseph Joanovici, a Romanian Jew who immigrated to France in the 1920s and became one of the richest men in Europe as a scrap-metal magnate. During the German occupation of France, he thought his influence could keep his family safe, but he soon finds that the only way to stay one step ahead of the Nazis is to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. Though he plays both sides of the fence as a Nazi collaborator and French resistant, a tangled web of interests forms around him that proves it will take a lot more than money to pay for the survival of his family.

Punchline Hype and Chaos

2020 got off to a slow start for books and speculation. So I’ve been enjoying these past few weeks and the next few weeks on books, particularly with all the hype and hoopla around this new Punchline character.

So maybe 2020 won’t be so bad after all right? Batman #89 caused chaos at the local shops last week, retailers defending themselves on jacking up the prices while fools cursed out retailers for jacking up the prices. And now with Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 hitting shelves this week, are we going to see a repeat of books suddenly not showing up on shelves? With the amount of pre-sales for this book, there’s a good chance no shop will have any on the shelf cause they already sold to the FOMO crowds online at a premium.

Now even with Tynion claiming that Hell Arisen is still Punchline in the background but a full body appearance, is it even going to be a “real first full” where it’s more than a couple of panes, some more speaking parts? If it’s what DC has already sent out and nothing more than that, some could argue it’s not a first full. He, as in Tynion, certainly seems to downplay this next appearance now from his choice of wording and makes it seem as if Batman #92 is the real first full.

With another potential cameo type of appearance this week, I think ultimately Batman #89 will be the winner out of them all. If you have a bunch of cameo or brief appearances before the character really comes to the forefront as Tynion claims she does in Batman #92, then I think most will go back to the first appearance, which cameos are since they’re a type of appearance no matter which side of the fence you are arguing. Remember, most valuable does not mean first true appearance.

It’ll certainly be interesting how this all plays out and see what the market ultimately decides which book is the most valuable.

Still not a bad idea to pick up a few Batman #92 though. From what we know so far, this is also her first cover appearance (albeit, as a background character surrounding Bats) and I must say, I really dig this cover so I’m picking up a few just because of that reason alone.

Batman #92There is also a Mattina Variant but the artwork has yet to be released. Probably just another dark toned, gritty cover that’s not anything new. Talk about an artist that has fallen from grace and his heydays once upon a time ago..

265 Days Straight

That’s right, this post tonight is now my 265th day straight of posted articles on CHU.

Anthony and myself kept joking that I should shoot for a full year straight. So this would mean I’m in the home stretch of only needing 100 days straight now to make it a full year of posting an article at least once every 24 hours.

I must say, there have been a few times I’ve told Anthony I wanted to break the streak just so I can stop caring about it. He would break out the whip and tell me to get back to work and write, to stop whining so much..  so here we are, 265 Days into it.

I’m not sure if this is a Like or Dislike at this point, I can just say, all the shit around the house I should be doing is getting neglected…

That’s all I got this week. Tell us what’s grinding your gears in the comments or on the forums, where anything goes!

18 thoughts on “Likes and Dislikes for the Week of February 26th, 2020”

    1. If you mean for hyping up books that most in the know collectors have at their fingertips and then list for huge profit margins then I agree.

  2. Change of subject but was just looking in some of my boxes.What happened to 451 media group?They put out some good comics

    1. Website still exists.. doesn’t look like it’s been updated in quite some time either. I guess Michael Bay and the rest of the management team running it are just too busy doing shows instead of comics.

  3. You’ve got a pretty good revolving schedule of posts..pretty much 7 ongoing themes you chair.

    Sunday = Likes & Disliks
    Monday = Spec & Drek
    Tuesday = Variants of the Week
    Wednesday = One Week Later
    Thursday = Throwback Thursday
    Friday = Poyo’s Trade & Hardcover
    Saturday = FOC Highlight (Last Call)

    You don’t stick to this schedule exactly…you always seem to have an option announcement or some other rumor or book heating up to fill the gap. And I know if you were in EST (vice UTC) the streak would technically have ended a long time ago.

    Keep up the good work!

    1. “And I know if you were in EST (vice UTC) the streak would technically have ended a long time ago.”

      How’s that? UTC still operates on a 24 hour time schedule. I’ve posted once every 24 hours regardless of timezone, if I set the clocks to CST or even EST, I would have posted the same times, making it 265 days straight… I fail to see how it would have ended if I was in EST? SMH..

      1. You’re telling us you’ve never had more than a 23:59:59 gap between posts in 265 straight days?

        I thought you were just looking at the UTC as the “official day of the week” and going by that.

        For example a first post at 00:00:01 UTC Monday and a second post at 23:59:59 UTC on Tuesday would qualify as two posts in two days, but EST they would occur on late Sunday night and late Tuesday night.

        1. I likely would have changed the scheduled post dates.

          Most of our posts are scheduled at 00:01 which falls at 6PM CST and 7PM EST. But yes, if you kept the posts the same time not in UTC but according to UTC, you see discrepancies but that’s not the case. I’ve posted in each 24 time frame when using UTC as the timezone. If we were using EST or CST, I would have likely readjusted the scheduled post times. A lot of my posts are scheduled in advance.

          You can ask Anthony, I’ve had up to 2 weeks scheduled in advance at times for some articles.

        2. “You’re telling us you’ve never had more than a 23:59:59 gap between posts in 265 straight days?”

          No. Servers are set to UTC timezone. I have posted within each 24 hour time blocks 265 straight days straight.

          The WordPress App keeps track..

          Why are we even debating this?

          1. Because inquiring minds want to know.

            And I debate because i can.

            If you debate it, they will come.

            Give me debate or give….ah, never mind…I’m over it.

            But I am watching you… ?️‍♂️

            1. Shouldn’t that say.. an inquiring mind, not minds? You’re the only who questions me streak.. which makes me sad, makes me want to quit.. 🙁

  4. If you watched Birds of Prey you probably just stopped buying anything with the DC logo punchline included, and gave up all hope for DC films. My 9 year old enjoyed It but she would of enjoyed any R rated movie in the theatre.

      1. I could of watched it for free for the last month but figured good for the kids to get out the house. I do own 14 Harley Quinn statues and put the movie off for 3 weeks. So I wasn’t going in impressed, I got to say Woder Woman 1984 looks horrible too from the trailer I saw at Birds of Prey.

        1. If it makes you feel any worse.. I saw the trailer and don’t even want to watch it for free. You’d probably have to pay me to watch it and even then, I’d have to write up a contract that says despite you paying me to watch, I’m still entitled to fall asleep during it. 🙂

  5. first off i am the masterdebator around here #testify that’s right the masterdebator of comic speculation second comic tom 101 is the beter you tube show jim comics and jim are dorks just kidding but i do enjoy jims stuff have a great dayblind adam out

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