Dick Burger has been hailed by fandom as the greatest comic book creator since Jack Kirby. Unlike Kirby, however, Burger retained ownership of his characters and became a media tycoon, complete with a private jet furnished with a hot tub and a mansion in Los Angeles. He is also an insufferable bastard.

Leonard Bates is a North American journalist who is conducting research for a biography of Burger. When he travels to Hicksville, New Zealand to visit Burger’s childhood home, he discovers that no one in the village wants to talk to him about Burger. For reasons unknown to Bates, they are downright angry at him for even mentioning his name. They are delighted, however, to give Bates access to the town library, which contains the greatest comic book collection on the face of the earth (including several copies of Action #1 which they casually pull from the shelves). It turns out that everyone in the village is connoisseur of comics and they’d all read Bates’ earlier biography of Kirby. What is going in here? wonders Bates, and what’s the big mystery about Burger?

It sounds fascinating to me. I do enjoy more “real” comics, in addition to the standard superhero fare. Joe Sacco is probably my favorite non-fiction writer (check out Palestine and The Fixer, and Ryan Claytor (now a fellow Michigan resident) has done some cool autobiographical stuff, as well as a wonderful, sad piece called The Machinist.

My expectation is that Hicksville is a bit of that kind of tone – obviously fiction, but much more real-world than the typical comic book – melded with a bit of meta-awareness.

I’m going to hunt this one down.

Via DC’s The Source

Bourbon Barrel aged beers from Founders. A brewery known for producing consistently high-quality beers, and sometimes brilliant high-gravity beers. Then sometimes, they decide to put them in oak barrels. That’s how you get these beers.

Backwoods Bastard: This is a bourbon barrel aged version of their Dirty Bastard Scotch ale. While Ian doesn’t normally like Dirty Bastard (not that into the style, to be honest), he happens to love Backwoods. Get a bottle and put it in your cellar. Better yet, get a few, save some, and drink some now. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you to get back from the store.

Brian isn’t particularly thrilled with Dirty Bastard either. Its good for the style, just doesn’t knock his socks off.

So Backwoods is quite remarkable. It takes a moderate beer, and turns it into something HUGE and amazing. A huge bourbon in the nose, and some roastiness in the flavor that isn’t there in the original. It is also WAAAYY darker than the original. Maybe that’s from the charring of the barrels? Hard to tell, but if we had to guess, that would be it. But its tasty.

Nemesis is a maple bourbon barrel aged wheat wine, and is particularly interesting in that its a lot lighter in color and mouthfeel than expected.

In a blind smell-test, Brian could barely tell the difference between the two. There is a very similar bourbon aroma to them, and a serious alcohol presence, but Brian detected a slightly greater sweetness in the Backwoods.

The Backwoods is more complex, and has a weight in the center of the palate. Brian almost wants to say its vanilla, but also knows that’s not quite it. Ian thinks its a darker flavor.

Brian has a theory: Backwoods Bastard has carmel corn in it, and Nemesis doesn’t. That’s it. Only difference.

In all fairness, that’s a decent (if unique) way to describe it. The high malt profile of the Dirty Bastard, paired with the vanilla in the bourbon, seems to give an effect not totally unlike carmel corn.

The difference is carmel corn.

Backwoods Bastard: 8/10 – the benchmark by which all other bourbon aged Scotch Ales are to be judged.
Nemesis: 8/10

But here’s the kicker: value. Is Backwoods worth the $5/bottle? Oh yeah.
Is Nemesis worth $7/bottle? That gets a little tougher.

VALUE POINTS:
Backwoods Bastard: 6.5/10
Nemesis: 4/10

Doesn’t seem like it should make that big a difference, but it does.

Via MajorSpoilers.

EDIT: NPH IS IN THIS TOO?!

I like Goose Island. On the whole, they make good beer in a variety of styles, and their regular offerings are great examples of what a brewery of their size and stature should be doing. They also make some more interesting limited brews.

Bourbon County Stout? Awesome.

Pere Jacques? Amazing.

And Sofie? They’re staying consistent here: also fantastic.

This is a Belgian style ale that pours a paler color than the golden color that it ends up once fully decanted. It also has a serious sticky head.

The initial aroma is good, funky and Belgian. Citrus, and plenty of candy sugar here, too.

What is interesting is that there’s something familiar but unexpected right there with the orange flavor. Then it hit me, “Didn’t they age this in Cabernet barrels?”

No, not exactly. My memory was telling me so, but in actuality, they blended it 80% straight, and 20% “aged in wine barrels with orange peel”, as the bottle kindly reminded me.

I suppose that given that, I would have expected a bit darker color, maybe a hint of red? But there’s none of that. Just a hint of the flavor in there with the citrus. So there you go.

This is a great, easy to drink Belgian. At $8/bomber, I won’t buy it a ton, but I will be revisiting this. Probably from my cellar, at some point in the future.

8/10

I can’t believe that the only review I’ve ever given of it was this:

“Val also wrote a great book, Memoirs of an Occasional Superheroine, which you can buy as an ebook from her website. I need to get a proper review of it written up, but I will say that its a worthwhile read if you want an insider’s view of the comics industry, and some of the less-nice things that happen to good people sometimes.”

Wow. I must say that I regret not reviewing it sooner. It really is a great read, and if you check it out while its free, maybe go and click the “donate” link on Val’s site and send a little thank-you her way.

Val used to work for DC. She probably had some great times there, but without a doubt she experienced some really dark ones. I don’t feel like I can adequately describe or do justice to everything she experienced and described in her book, but let’s just say that she’s been handed a lot of shit in her life, and after everything, she’s managed to come through it all with a pretty healthy outlook.

Anyway, her blog and this book have secured her in my mind as a writer and person that I like and respect, and her book is worth your time.

She also has some books coming up with Marvel that I’m excited for:

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD.

Its all coming to a head, and its all going down, and hitting the fan as all great Punisher stories tend to.

I’ve been loving Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon on Punisher. Ennis and Dillon were great too, but this is telling me a badass story with characters we’re all familiar with, but in a new light. Its the kind of refreshing that Marvel’s Ultimates brought to those characters.

This story in particular is showing just how far outside of the mainstream Marvel U we are. Wilson Fisk is just becoming the Kingpin. And if we’re to believe that this is in the same timeline as the book titled simply Punisher on the MAX imprint was (which I think it is, if references to ‘Cuda and others are to be believed), then this is happening in a world that is today. Not the past, but today, in 2010. So not the Marvel U we know.

I like this. I like Ultimate Spiderman. I like DC’s Batman Confidential. I like them because they don’t care about continuity and baggage, just good stories.

This makes me even more excited for Val D’Orazio’s take on this book.

Get on board now, ’cause Punisher MAX is getting better and better, and shows no sign of letting up.

It poured a delicious brick red/ruby/brown type color, and left a very weak head.  All of this expected for an 11.5% ABV barleywine.

As for smell, I managed to grab a whiff before I hopped in the shower, and it was very thick with syrup and molasses, and cut with a hefty dose of ethanol.  It smells as a barleywine should, although I’d prefer a bit more hops.  Then again, I prefer all beers over 50 IBUs.

The taste was really upsetting at first.  I was less than thrilled.  It was just alcohol and a teensy sweet.  Not bad, necessarily, but the cost is not worth it.  However, once it warmed up a bit, and I was half way through, it really opened up.  It was quite sweet…  it really balanced out the alcohol well.  I have to admit, it almost leaves you with a vanilla or bourbon finish, but not quite.  My tongue actually begs for it.  Pop this beast in a bourbon barrel for a few months, and this beer would be a 9.  As it stands, it’s only a 6.

-brian

The photo below doesn’t do the head justice, as it poured with a nice one, but that quickly dissipated.

It smells like a German lager. Malty, but lighter than a standard bock.

The mouthfeel is pretty lightweight, and modestly bitter for the style. Again, lighter than your standard bock, but tastey.

A decent session beer, if you want something a bit different than you standard english pale or ESB.

All in all, 5/10. And a fair price to boot.