Every week I do a column full of comic book reviews as I’ve done since March 2003 and currently published at Comic Book Resources. Then, after the reviews post, I try to come over to my blog and expand on the thoughts and ideas listed there. Sometimes it’s profound, sometimes it’s gibberish, but it’s always about comics … let’s see what we get this week!

What? This week’s reviews …

I’M NOT ALWAYS THERE WHEN YOU CALL … On time for a change, putas! Love it!

BLAME IT ON THE ALCOHOL: One day, when somebody is teaching a class on “how to make a comic work for new readers and long time fans,” they’ll have Invincible Iron Man #500.1 as some of the class material. I was chopping it up on Facebook with Vito Delsante, who was worried that it was a little too insular. “I wonder if a new reader will get lost in the juxtaposition of art & text,” he said. “I have the benefit of 30 years of Iron Man knowledge.”

Before Matt Fraction came along, I was not an Iron Man fan. I’d owned the Demon in the Bottle issue and a random one where Tony poke French, and of course I saw him in the Avengers, but I never thought much about him, nor retailed many details. Now? I feel I know dude inside and out. IMNSHO, the issue got the job done … while making me want a drink.

Also, given the last page, it seems as if Tony’s just swapped one addiction (booze) for another (girls) and each is merely an opiate, a temporary solution, that never fixes anything. The only names that’s even close to resonating with him romantically in my experience are Bethany Cabe (predominantly) and Rumiko Fujikawa. Neither stuck, and neither could if this is Stark’s opiate. He’s a fascinating, flawed character given life by Fraction and Larocca and I argue that this will become known as the defining run on the character.

WHAT’S A GOBLIN TO A GOON? Got that Eric Powell TPB in my backpack, which I hope to start reading next week. Support creator owned, sure. I’m all for that. New voices, new ideas. I did it, and I hope — should I ever get product to market — that people will support me as well.

THAT’S THE NEWS, AND I AM OUTTA HERE: I’m sleepy as hell. Gonna call it there. Hasta!

Playing (Music): “Somewhere In Brooklyn” by Bruno Mars

One month from today, I return to social networking.

Twitter. Facebook (with considerable reluctance). Pumping up the mobile site on Tumblr (if you’re not catching my #musicmonday blogs there, you’re so missing out on so much free music). Even MySpace and possibly even Apple’s new Ping (as well as my old Ping, which I still use). Not just broadcasting but interacting (some) with you, the people.

How many days until Hannibal Tabu returns to social networking?

In an ideal world, I’d have two big announcements to make for January 20th — the 38th anniversary of my birth, as well — but I know one won’t be ready and the other has been dragging its heels, but I’m always working on things, moving forward.

In any case, this is as close as you’ll get to a warning for when I plan to break the internet in fifths. Maybe twelfths. Haven’t decided. Hold on to your wigs …

Watching (Hulu): The Sing-Off Rock Songs and Guilty Pleasures

… you’re one of the “syndicated” readers I have who are (know it or not) experiencing the wonder of RSS during my yearlong sabbatical from social networking. Despite the fact that you are on Facebook (or wherever else, but that’s the one that leaps to mind), I am not. I left an automatic setting to seed my random rantings there from my actual blog, where I broadcast unabated. I’m in your living room/phone/cubicle without ever leaving wherever I am. Cool.

That said, I am also aware of conversations happening around these writings, conversations that I am not taking a part in. Why? Well, as you could find out easily if Ping.fm’s shortcut URLs lasted longer than Lindsay Lohan’s sobriety, I’m still in my year-long self-imposed exile from social networking and, to be honest, I’ve learned some things.

• I miss Twitter. A lot. I’ve come to get a gang of news from the 126 subscriptions in my Google Reader feed (which feeds my linkroll on the web and on my mobile site) but the immediacy of Twitter, the pithy interactions with my people like Ja Bir or my wife or Craig or Ritch or Encyclopedia Black or Chinedum even Tax Hitler (also known as “Senor Sidekick”) … I won’t lie, I miss it.
• I don’t miss Facebook. At all. Facebook’s mobile site went through more alterations than Heidi Montag (yes, I’m keeping up with even celebrity gossip … kind of ), taking away the most useful functionality points (remember press “4″ for new notifications?) while becoming more of a beyotch about privacy and generally annoying me even without my presence. Moreover, I’ve seen and participated in some of the dumbest conversations (Roman Polanski leaps to mind) on Facebook, stuff that I’d have been embarrassed to be seen in were it Usenet or some more civilized locale. I won’t abandon the site when I come back, but it won’t be my “home” online.
• Laugh if you want … I kind of miss MySpace. The same people were closer, had less fleeting interactions, had less privacy worries while having more of a public platform. I’m just saying.
• I don’t need to have a conversation on LinkedIn unless it’s about money. I love that.
• No, I don’t miss Friendster or wish I’d have enhanced myself on Bebo, Hi5 or anywhere else “ghetto” like that.

More lessons learned when I get back, I’d wager. I just wanted to apologize if you’re trying to interact with me and it seems like I’m ignoring you. I’m not really there, you see. I’m just a pigment of your emancipation. Or a fragment of your intoxication. Something like that. Work it out for yourself, I’ll be back in four more months to discuss it.

Playing (Music): “Dynamite” remix by Taio Cruz feat. Jennifer Lopez