For those of you who don’t care about hockey, you can probably just go ahead and ignore this post. New illustrations soon, though, so stay tuned.

I’ve watched the Edmonton Oilers get shit-kicked on more occasions than I’d like this season, but tonight it was a pleasant surprise to see things go the other way. The Oilers rolled into Colorado and barnstormed the Avalanche in an 8-1 demolition.

Sam Gagner and Robert Nilsson have been teamed up with new Oiler Ales Kotalik (acquired from Buffalo at the trade deadline) lately, and tonight they really clicked as a unit. Kotalik potted his first goal as an Oiler (technically his second, after his shootout winner against the Blues, but this is the first one that actually counted in his stats). He also proceeded to record three assists, as did Robert Nilsson, who played set-up man all night. Sam Gagner was the big story, though. After the hockey media spent most of the season all over him for being bitten by the dreaded “sophomore jinx”, Gagner has been on a tear lately and notched his first-ever career hat-trick, as well as setting up Kotalik’s goal. Incidentally, Gagner also tied his goal total from last season. Combined, these three managed to snag 11 points on the night as well as all three game stars (Gagner the 1st, followed by Kotalik and Nilsson).

If the Avs didn’t notice it before-hand, I’m sure they realized that they were very screwed when Jason Strudwick and Ladislav Smid were tapped to blue-line the power play near the end of the game. When the other team puts their lowest-scoring defencement out against you, you know you’re in bad shape.

The whole point of this thing was… uh… well mostly I’m just excited that the Oilers won a game in regulation for the first time in a couple of weeks. And I haven’t written anything in the blog for a while, hence you all get to read or completely ignore this.

To start, a bit of an update from the last “Comics you should be reading” post. I’ve since finished The Exterminators (the entire series) and the first five volumes of DMZ. I enjoyed The Exterminators quite a bit, although it felt like the ending was a little bit rushed. I think I would rather have seen another issue of the main story rather than the issue about Mrs. Perez’s son. A reader recommended that if I liked The Exterminators I should check out Maintenance by Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez, so I’ll have to check for that next time I’m at the comic shop. Thanks, Z.!

I’ve been enjoying DMZ quite a bit, although volume five fell a little flat for me. Volumes three and four (“Public Works” and “Friendly Fire”) featured long, well-developed, exciting stories about the civilian cost of war. Volume five, “The Hidden War” featured a series of single-issue stories about some of the peripheral characters, as well as some new ones. I like the idea behind it, but several of the stories felt rushed. “Decade Later”, “Wilson”, and “Random Fire” were interesting and well-paced, but “Amina”, “Kelly”, and “Soames” would have benefited from being longer. “Kelly” felt really out of place, though. It was a bit disjointed and seemed like it would have been much better suited for inclusion as part of a larger arc within the main story.

Anyway, on to new stuff. This time: webcomics.

Galaxion by Tara Tallan

I just started reading this comic after the campaign set up by members of The Webcomic List to plug the crap out of it. It definitely deserves the plugs, which is why I’m giving it one here. It’s a science fiction story about the crew of the Galaxion, which is a space ship that looks kind of like a nautilus shell. It’s easily one of the best-drawn webcomics I’ve had the pleasure of reading, and demonstrates some serious skill in black and white art. It’s practically a clinic on line-weight differentiation. I haven’t gotten caught up on the archives yet, but you should, because it’s good stuff.

The Battle of Dovecote Crest by Hailey Bachrach and Bridget Underwood

This is very likely the only webcomic about Civil War re-enactments. It’s also quite possibly the only comic about Civil War re-enactments, period. I’ve read more of this one than I have Galaxion, so I know a bit more about what’s actually going on in it. Charlotte is a history nut interested in the American Civil War. While many of her history-inclined friends have gone on to work at museums to further their research, Charlotte is stuck playing the part of a Union soldier during re-enactments of the Battle of Dovecote Crest at the site of the battlefield in Arkansas. I’m somewhat unclear on whether or not Dovecote Crest was an actual battle (the historical information part of the site says yes, but writer Hailey Bachrach’s profile in the About section says otherwise). Bridget Underwood’s art consists of lush watercolours (I think it’s watercolour, anyway) that give a nice, sun-baked Southern feel to the whole affair. Definitely give it a look.

First things first, I added a new illustration to the Illustrations gallery. I drew it yesterday for publication in today’s edition of the U of A Gateway. It was for an article by Managing Editor Conal Pierse about the current underachieving of the Oilers.

I’ve been thinking about the Oilers and their season lately, but one thing that I noticed in Conal’s article that I immediately disagreed with was a comment that 39 year old Dwayne Roloson was the wrong choice for a starting goalie. Admittedly, the three goalie system wasn’t a very good idea and was detrimental to all three netminders, but Mathieu Garon failed to keep his play at the level it was at the end of last season while Roloson got better and better with every game he played. At this point in the season, Roloson is the best Oiler on the ice 95% of the time. Unless the Oil manage to snag one of the big free agent goalies I expect to see Roli re-signed for next year, although I’d wager that he’ll play in a more even rotation with Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers to give the youngster the experience he needs to develop into a starter.

The major plague the Oilers have been suffering from this season has been a complete lack of consistently competent forwards. Aside from Ales Hemsky there’s a decided lack of offence from the front-end, and with Visnovsky out of the line-up for the rest of the season, they really need the forwards to step up. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch. Some nights they seem unstoppable, but much more frequently it seems like they have no idea where they are or how they got there. The Oilers are consistently outshot and it seems like the Oil’s forwards just don’t want to work to get the puck. Aside from Andrew Cogliano, last year’s Kid Line has been awful. I feel like Gagner can produce in the future, but Nilsson kills plays dead practically every time he touches the puck. The Oil’s defensive corps, on the other hand, is responsible for a ridiculously disproportionate amount of the team’s offence. With a plethora of coveted puck moving defenders (Souray, Gilbert, Visnovsky, and Grebeshkov) and great stay-at-home meat grinders (Staios, Smid, Strudwick, and Peckham), the Oilers are as stacked on the back end as any team in the league. If only the forwards could get going. With some notable exceptions (Hemsky and Cogliano), the only forwards who are making a good account of themselves are the grinders, especially captain Ethan Moreau, scrapper Zack Stortini, and minor league call-up Liam Reddox. Fernando Pisani’s return from injury further bolsters the grinder gang.

With the trade deadline coming up next week, I’d really like to see the Oilers making some moves. Ideally, I’d like to see Atlanta’s Russian star Ilya Kovalchuk come to the Oilers. He’s a proven sniper and I think he’d be an excellent complement to Ales Hemsky’s prescient passing and Shawn Horcoff’s dogged puck retrieval on the top line. In exchange I could see Dustin Penner being shipped off, as he’s lacked willingness to use his size and skill to open up opportunities and put the puck in the net. He’s also overpaid, and would free up a lot of room in the salary cap for Kovalchuk’s hefty fee. The Oilers would probably need a package deal to get Kovi on board, which I could see Marc Pouliot, Robert Nilsson, or J.F. Jacques being part of. Pouliot and Nilsson are incredibly streaky players, but they’re young and have some offence in them, which could make them attractive. I’ve only seen Jacques play once, but the guy is huge. Actually, in an ideal situation I’d like to see all four of those guys dealt to Atlanta in exchange for Kovalchuk and former Oiler workhorse Marty Reasoner. Reasoner is a dutiful penalty-killer and exceptional in the face-off circle, which is an area where the Oilers are hurting this season (Shawn Horcoff has taken more draws than any other player in the NHL, mostly because he and fourth line centre Kyle Brodziak are the only Oilers that can be relied on to win more than half of their face-offs).

In summary, Kovalchuk and Reasoner to Edmonton for Penner, Nilsson, Pouliot, and Jacques would be fantastic, at least in my estimation. In any case, the Oilers need to do something, because at this point they’re throwing away very winnable games (like tonight’s pitiful 1-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets) because they can’t put points on the board.

Before I start rambling, I’d like to point out that there WILL be a new comic tomorrow, and next week will follow the usual Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.

I say this all the time, but I want to use the blog part of the site a little bit more often, especially for non-shilling-for-my-own-merchandise purposes. So this time I’m going to shill for other people’s merchandise, and talk a bit about comics that I’ve been reading that I think you should too, because they’re really freaking good.

The Exterminators (Vertigo/DC), by Simon Oliver and various artists

From the title I assumed this was some kind of really brutal superhero book in the same vein as Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys. I was a little surprised to find out that it was about actual exterminators. The pest control kind. I’d consistently  heard really good things about it, though, and so I picked up the Vertigo: First Cut trade paperback, which had the first issue in it and found that it was strangely fascinating. The story follows Henry James, an ex-convict getting back on his feet while working for his step-father’s pest control company, Bug-Bee-Gone. Which would be all well and good if he didn’t end up in the middle of a corporate conspiracy, a vermin insurgency, and ancient Egyptian mysticism. Yes, it’s as weird as it sounds, but it’s also one of the most compelling books I’ve read in quite a while. I’ve read the first three volumes and am going to be starting the fourth fairly soon.

DMZ (Vertigo/DC) by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli

I found out about DMZ from reading the first issue in Vertigo: First Cut. Wood and Burchielli tell the tale of the second American Civil War, which has seen rural America rise up against the government that they feel is ignoring them. The war has reached a stalemate in New York City, with the US on one side and the Free States on the other, with Manhattan Island stuck in the middle. The book isn’t actually about the war, but about photojournalist Matty Roth, who finds himself stranted in Manhattan Island and makes it his mission to document life in the DMZ as it really is. There’s a whole lot of political and social commentary present, but I didn’t find it to be the obnoxious kind. Burchielli’s art is a weird mix of cartoony and super-gritty, but it fits the story perfectly. I started the third volume last night.

Some of you may have noticed that the website was down for a while last night and today. I tried to upgrade WordPress to version 2.7.1 (from 2.5-ish) and messed it up. Not sure how. Then, after some panicking, I fixed it. Not sure how I did that, either. Actually, more unsure of that than how I messed it up in the first place.

Anyway, fixed.