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Gulliver is sad today because Koko, the famous sign-language gorilla, has died at the age of 46. She was one of a kind 🙁

I don’t usually shill for people on my blog, but I’m making an exception in this case. Ron Randall is doing a Kickstarter campaign to bring his latest Trekker adventure to print. I’ve already donated, and he’s getting close to his target, so I thought I’d spread the word. Trekker is a cool sci-fi story about interstellar bounty hunter Mercy St. Clair, who’s trying to make her way in a dangerous world while learning some hard truths. The art is great and the characters are compelling, so check it out.

Okay, sales pitch over!

Apparently, long-time comics writer Len Wein has died at the age of 69. I’ve read a lot of Wein’s stuff over the years and most of it was pretty good. Of course, he’s probably best known for co-creating Swamp Thing and the All New X-Men, but I remember some of his other work fondly: JLA (he’s the one who brought back the Seven Soldiers of Victory); Batman (with some classic villains); Amazing Spider-Man (where he used plenty of classic baddies like Molten Man, Shocker, Hammerhead, Doc Ock, Silvermane and brought in some new ones, like Will o’ the Wisp and the third Green Goblin). He had  fairly long runs on Incredible Hulk, Thor, Deadman (in Adventure), Green Lantern, and wrote all of the first Blue Beetle series. He also wrote the Legends miniseries, which helped redefine the DCU after the Crisis.

I haven’t read all his stuff, but what I have read I generally like. Wein respected history, but wasn’t afraid to give long-established characters new personality traits. I’ll be reviewing his late 70s/early 80s Batman run next year and I’m looking forward to re-reading those issues; I seem to recall liking them. Len Wein will be missed.

I’ve been watching Iron Fist (through Episode 10 so far) and it’s not absolutely horrible like a lot of the reviews seem to be painting it. It’s slow at times, but overall I think it’s pretty good.

The idea of making Danny Rand Asian-American makes sense and I wouldn’t have had a problem with it, but having seen Lewis Tan—who originally wanted to play Iron Fist—as the drunken master in Episode 8, I think he would be perfect as Shang Chi. I don’t know if Marvel has any plans for Shang Chi, but a series with him as the lead, great supporting characters (Leiko Wu, Black Jack , Reston, Shen Kuei), and villains (Pavane, Fah Lo Suee) would be so cool, and Lewis Tan would be spot on as Shang. He’s even British!

Make it happen, Marvel … make it happen.

As I said in my first post, I’ll be reviewing comics month-by-month, starting in January 1977. Why 1977? It’s the earliest I can remember reading comics, so I figured I’d go back to where I started and read some old favourites, as well as check out some stuff I missed the first time around.

Of course, I can’t review every comic that came out in 1977—I just don’t have the time. So, I had to choose where I wanted to focus, and I ultimately decided to go with DC comics. I read DC and Marvel as a kid and I generally like both, though if pushed I’d probably lean slightly toward Marvel—which is why I’m concentrating on DC for these reviews; I’ve already read 90% of Marvel’s Silver/Bronze Age output. Now, a lot of those are great comics, and I wouldn’t mind reading ’em again, but there are lots of DCs out there that I’ve never read, so I figured why not give ’em a shot? Plus there are already a couple of sites that examine Marvel month-by-month: Marvel University and Supermegamonkey’s Marvel Timeline and I don’t think I can compete with them (nor would I want to).

So, I’ll be reviewing DC comics here … not all of them (again, just don’t have the time); I’ll be concentrating on comics that I either read as a kid, would’ve read if I’d known then what I know now, or should’ve read because they’re staples of the genre. In my next post, I’ll go into which comics I’m reviewing, as well as my review style. I hope you’ll join me as I revisit some classic (and not-so-classic) stories, and discover some new gems that I’d previously overlooked.

(And for the non-comics fans out there, I’ll also be doing reviews of TV shows, starting with Lost Girl. Why? Cause it’s a hell of a good show!)

Yeah, I hate it when people shout “First!” in comment sections too. But in my case it’s true. Not only is this my first post, it’s my first blog. I’m a geek from way back, currently trying to become a published writer. You’re probably thinking “Oh God, not another writer chronicling their journey to publication!” Well, you’re in luck. While I may mention my writing from time to time, this blog will mostly be about comics and other geek stuff (because there aren’t nearly enough blogs about THOSE things).

So welcome to the Erudite Gorilla. I recently decided to go back to my comic book roots, which started around 1977, when I was a kid. I’ll be reviewing a number of comics, starting with those that are cover dated January 1977 and working my way (hopefully) through the years. I’ll also be reviewing episodes of the TV show Lost Girl every Wednesday. I hope you’ll join me and add your two cents from time to time. It should be a lot of fun.

And just what (or who) is the Erudite Gorilla? That would be Gulliver, whose face is plastered across the header. He’ll be popping up from time to time (and if comments get too rowdy, I’ll let him moderate … he has a low tolerance for humans, so everyone better behave). But to kick off the blog, Gulliver has a message for everybody:

MERRY APE-MAS!