Defenders #5 hit the stands on Wednesday and was pretty solid, in my not-so-humble opinion.  Sal Buscema guest-inked over Erik's pencils because Klaus Janson is leaving the book for other projects (what those projects could be I do not care).  With Defenders #6, Al Gordon is coming aboard to be the permanent inker. 

Is it me or is that title getting longer and longer as this series trucks along?  Anyhoo, this issue was pretty neat, and sports a cover by Michael Golden (he also did the cover for one previously, as well as the covers for Body Bags by Dark Horse Comics).  Uhm...... Not... not much else.  The Watcher shows up and breaks his "just observation" rule for the bazillionth time.  Good ole Stan & Jack type fun going on here.

Yeah, yeah, this news is old as baby Jeebus, but I might as well put it up anyways.  A couple of weeks (re: MONTHS) back, Erik talked smack about Marvel's Ultimate line in a recent issue of Wizard Magazine, and said that it was basically just a waste of time and resources that would better be put to service with the current continuity (one this writers whole-heartedly agrees with).  Some fans got irked about this, and went all half-cocked claiming that Erik was just attacking the fans, but these guys just weren't able to see the forest from the trees and acted just..... dumb.  But yeah, to read what Erik said, in it's ENTIRETY, click here.  This was taken from WizardWorld.com, where they ran the whole letter that Erik sent, UNEDITED, because the final draft.... oh, you HAVE to know it was just too real for them flakes at Wizard to publish. 

Because there's not enough news to warrant a whole front page, this is just taking up some space really.  So.... how about that XFL, eh?  What?  Come up with something better?  *sigh*  Oh, alright.  How about this, Erik Larsen is NO LONGER giving out sketches at conventions.  How about them apples?  Yup.  So if you were one of the lucky ones (like me) who were able to get one before he said this, consider yourself blessed.  The reason Erik cited was because it was just too much work for him...... and a bunch of jerk offs were selling the sketches on ebay.  Way to ruin it for the rest of us, you freaking poseurs.  Oh well.  If you REALLY want some original art, here's a plus.  Erik's SELLING his original art from his Marvel titles.  For full details, email Mr. Larsen personally.  I'd put his email address here, but I'm not, because I figure if you're a real Larsen fan and NOT some lousy two-bit swindler looking to make a fast buck, you'd already know his email address.  So.... yup.  That's it for this week.