First things first: I hate team sports. Childhood experiments with baseball and soccer were a mixture of boredom and anxiety, and I got out of them as soon as I could. As a result, I never expected to have any interest in sports manga.

With that background, I was surprised by how much I liked the preview of Daisuke Higuchi’s soccer manga, Whistle!, in a recent issue of Shonen Jump. Great characters managed to overcome my disinterest in the subject matter, and I put the title on my “to try” list. I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone, because Whistle! is a real charmer.

Shô Kazamatsuri has transferred from the prestigious, private Musashinomori School to Josui Junior High. An avid soccer player, Shô was confined to the bench at Musashinomori because of his size. Driven by a desire to actually play the game, he makes the surprising switch to the lesser school in hopes of being a real member of the team.

Unfortunately, the Josui team’s coach makes incorrect assumptions about Shô. Eager for a more competitive team, Coach Katori mistakenly praises Shô to the skies as a Musashinomori star come to change Josui’s fortunes. She pressures Shô into a scratch game at his first practice, and he’s trounced. Things get worse when one of his team-mates, Tatsuya, reveals that Shô never made it off the third team at his old school.

Shô never meant to be dishonest, but he got swept up in circumstances and couldn’t find an opportunity to correct the misconception. He’s humiliated by his lack of skill and Tatsuya’s revelation. Coach Katori feels terrible about her role in the events, but Shô runs off before she can make things right.

Not to worry, as Shô has determination to spare. After the initial sting of embarrassment wears off, he commits himself to being a worthy member of the team. He undertakes an exhausting training regime, impressing Tatsuya with his passion for the game. When Tatsuya comes to admire Shô’s approach – hard work and clever strategy to minimize his disadvantages – it leads to a shake-up in the team’s status quo. Tatsuya, one of the team’s best players, takes a group of alternates under his wing to challenge the complacent seniors.

That illustrates the premise at the center of Whistle! Heart and discipline, Higuchi argues, are just as valuable in a player’s arsenal as skill and physical strength. It’s not a wildly original premise by any means, but Higuchi conveys it with wonderful energy and sincerity. The cast of underdogs is uniformly appealing, and Shô in particular is a marvel.

He’s just a great kid: optimistic, decent, and willing to work hard to achieve his dreams. It’s easy to believe he’d be an inspiration to his team-mates. He wants to play soccer because he loves it, and that love has an infectious quality that transfers to the people around him (and to readers). Tatsuya is a fine foil for Shô. He’s a great player and a natural leader, but he’s got a blunt manner that puts people off. At the same time, it gives him the freedom to shake up the status quo, which drives the events of the first volume.

Higuchi doesn’t skimp on the supporting cast, either. Shô lives with his older brother, Kō, who works as a male escort. He’s amusingly sleazy, but he’s also unfailingly supportive of Shô’s dreams. The brothers have a great relationship that’s touching, funny, and believable. Coach Katori isn’t fleshed out quite as well yet, but she has a delightful scene with Kō that hints at a lot of spark and charm. During Shô’s private practice, he befriends a crusty old stall chef, Oyassan. Even this taciturn codger sees something special in Shô and does his best to help him.

The illustrations are filled with energy and detail. Higuchi supports character development with a real facility for facial expressions. Scenes of practice and competition are exciting and always clear, even to a soccer ignoramus like me. The visuals really balance humanity and action well, which is just what a title like this needs.

The best feature of this story is that you don’t need to know anything about soccer to enjoy it. Heck, you don’t even need to like soccer to enjoy it. The enthusiasm and determination of the characters and the believable scale of events make for an almost ridiculously engrossing story. Is it formulaic? Well, sure, it’s a “root for the underdog” manga. But even a formulaic story can soar when it’s told with this much craft and care.

Okay, I’ve gone to the comic shop. I’ve bought the long boxes. You’d think the least the comics could do is to sort themselves neatly and hop in. After all I’ve spent on them, this is the thanks I get.

I expended all of my productive energy early and gave the dog a bath. (The other one went to the groomer this week, so she was spared.) Usually, this makes him kind of gloomy and reserved, like he’s spending the day figuring out what he did to merit this kind of torture. Today it had the effect of making him a total spaz. He’s barked at everything that moves, and I’m ready to give him another bath just to try and bum him out.

So, in short, I blame my dog for the fact that the comics are still unsorted and unboxed. Bad dog! Bad!

I took rude advantage of the write-in feature over at the Wizard Fan Awards. Will it make any difference? No, but I’ve thrown my vote away before.

Favorite Writer: Gail Simone (Birds of Prey). Her scripts are consistently entertaining and thought-provoking, and she always meets the “bang for your buck” standard.

Favorite Penciler: Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life). This is some wonderfully expressive, imaginative work, hilarious one moment, sweetly romantic the next.

Favorite Inker: Darwyn Cooke (New Frontier). Okay, so this is a consolation prize. Cooke was a very close second to O’Malley (with Cameron Stewart an almost-as-close third), so I slid him into this category. Hey, Cooke inked New Frontier. It counts, all right?

Favorite Painter: Pass. Painted comics just don’t work for me, though I can’t quite put my finger on why. Maybe it’s the fact that painted comics tend to carry the ponderous burden of Importance.

Favorite Colorist: Laura Martin (Astonishing X-Men). Wow! A vote I didn’t have to write in!

Favorite Letterer: Studio Foglio (Girl Genius). Okay, I can’t precisely remember who got credited with the lettering, but this book showcases consistently appealing, imaginative lettering work.

Favorite Editor: James Lucas Jones (Oni). He’s got a terrific track record of taking risks and promoting quality material.

Favorite Male Hero: Adam Strange (DC). That wouldn’t have been my answer last year, but after the first chunk of Andy Diggle’s mini-series, the fin-headed geek has moved right up the list.

Favorite Female Hero: A tough call, as there are actually worthy candidates on the list. I love Dan Slott’s take on She-Hulk, and I think Simone is doing great things with Black Canary, but I’m going to have to write in DC’s Huntress. She’s a much more interesting character to me, and I think Simone is crafting something really special with her.

Favorite Villain: Okay, that’s just insulting to put the Scarlet Witch on there. Bitch crazy, not evil. Think I’ll leave this one blank.

Favorite Supporting Character: Awesome Andy (She-Hulk). Every office needs an Awesome Andy.

Favorite Ongoing Series: Fallen Angel (DC). There are plenty of titles that could take this slot if they came out more regularly (Street Angel, Amelia Rules, etc.). But in terms of consistently published titles, this one takes the prize. Meaty, interesting stories filled with colorful characters give this book the edge. Of course it’s on the block.

Favorite Mini-Series: My Faith in Frankie (Vertigo). I forgot to put this title on my Year in Fun list, and it really should have been up near the top. Totally charming. (And yes, I do love Adam Strange, Madrox, and We3, but they aren’t finished yet, so I can’t say anything definitive. Maybe next year.)

Favorite Publisher: Viz. Can I say Viz? Hell, who’s going to stop me?

Favorite Breakout Talent: Dan Slott (She-Hulk). Maybe he’s just a breakout talent to me, but he did a lot to make the year in comics for me, and he wasn’t on my radar before.

Comics Greatest Moment 2004: Awesome Andy chooses the right path during the Big House break-out in She-Hulk. An incredibly funny, endearing montage of Andy comparing his highly regarded work at the law firm with his unappreciated servitude to a jerkwad super-villain. (Second place goes to a totally unexpected musical number in the middle of Scott Pilgrim.)

Favorite Television Series: If “Blind Date” had aired last year on Justice League Unlimited, that show would have probably gotten the nod. (When the hell does that episode air?) As it is, I’ll go with Teen Titans, if only for the introduction of Bumblebee. Love. Her.

Geez, that was a lot longer than I’d intended. Sorry!

Two more titles jumped off the reserve list this week.

The Pulse #7 continues to stumble around the fringes of the Secret War mini-series. Secret War (which I would also cut from my list if its chronic lateness didn’t render such a gesture meaningless) barely has enough content to sustain itself, let alone a protracted crossover. There’s a revelation in this issue about how media outlets deal with SHIELD that strains credibility until it snaps right in half. (My inner journalist bristles at the irresponsibility of that tacit agreement, too.) Sad to see such a promising series toss itself off a cliff.

Ultimates #2.2 finally convinces me not to waste any more time or money with this smug exercise. I can hardly recall another title so convinced of how cool it is. Other readers find the craft of the comic able to overcome the essential unlikability of its characters. I come down on the other side of that equation, which probably means I “don’t get it.” I think I can live with the shame.

Highlights from yesterday’s trip to the comic shop:

• Much geeky rhapsodizing about the Project Pegasus storyline from Marvel Two-In-One, which led to invented nostalgia of Marvel’s much-loved but non-existent League of Minority Goliaths.
• Much geeky quibbling over whether there was a Spider-Man/Human Torch series back in the day or if it just seemed like there was because Johnny was always the guest-star in Marvel Team-Up.
• Much commiseration over the fact that we would have to put up with John Byrne to enjoy Gail Simone on their upcoming Action run. (Gail has a very loyal following in my corner of the Mountain State, which is reassuring.)
• Delayed arrival of the third volume of Case Closed, compensating for the absence of the fourth volume of Imadoki!
• Doom Patrol-related schadenfreude, leading to agreement that no book written by John Byrne should outsell a book written by Greg Rucka, even if that book is Wonder Woman. (I actually like Rucka’s WW a lot, but I feel I should accurately represent the tone of the discourse.)
• Purchase of what may possibly be the best worst comic ever. We had guests last night, so I didn’t have time to do more than skim it, but it was written by Howard Mackie. And it features a scene of a scrappy asthmatic arming himself with a Dustbuster. (Much as I love this comic, I may have to send it to Dr. Scott for study.)
• Mysterious arrival of a number of military officers wanting to hold a video game promotion in the store, which I took as my cue to leave.

I might not make it to the shop today, what with errands and house guests, but if I do, here’s what will put a spring in my step on the way to the cash register:

• From Atomeka, the team behind DC’s Formerly Known as the Justice Leage delivers Hero Squared. Preview reviews can be found at The Comic Treadmill, Pop Culture Gadabout, and Johnny Bacardi (and lots of other places that didn’t show up on the first page of the Google search results, thus not making my laziness cut-off).
• I bought the single issues, but I’d recommend the Birds of Prey: Sensei and Student trade to anyone who’s been meaning to try this terrific title. Black Canary fans should note that it’s a strong story arc for Dinah (and her mom). But really, the nifty writing by Gail Simone should be lure enough, shouldn’t it?
• It’s a Dan Slott-stravaganza over at Marvel with She-Hulk 11 and Spider-Man/Human Torch 1. Still on the fence about She-Hulk? Perhaps Dave at Yet Another Comics Blog can persuade you with his review of the first trade, Single Green Female.
• I’m undecided on the second volume of Love Fights from Oni. I thought the first was okay, but it didn’t exactly set my world on fire. We’ll see what lurks on the manga shelves.
• Speaking of manga, Viz offers the fourth volume of Imadoki! Do I really need to go over the whole Yu Watase thing again? Because I will if you weren’t listening the first three hundred times.

And now, on to a little therapeutic snark:

• Publisher attempts to meet customer demand. Film at 11. In any market other than comics, would this be considered laudable as opposed to just barely meeting the standards of economic common sense?
• The V casts a critical eye at the preview of Uncanny X-Men 455. The verdict? “It should come with an old sports sock affixed to the cover.”
• Speaking of PopCultureShock, it’s back to normal. For a brief while, it was showing previews of interesting titles by people like Bryan Lee O’Malley. Today, naked jungle babes. I wonder if that had anything to do with the site crashing?

Okay, so I promised to cut back on the snark this year, but you can’t expect me to go cold turkey.

I’ve always been a morning person. It’s a behavior that seems to get more and more pronounced with age, and I wake up ridiculously early. While I wouldn’t mind a normal sleep cycle, and while I think genetic engineering should be used to identify and eliminate the infomercial host gene, low-grade insomnia has allowed me to reconnect with one of my favorite series.

The N shows an hour of Daria at an ungodly hour of the morning. Daria originally aired on MTV. Since the show was intelligent and genuinely funny, MTV didn’t seem to have any idea what to do with it. It isn’t like they had any comparable programming to pair it with, since part of the pleasure of Daria was its jaundiced view of youth culture. Honestly, can shows like TRL and Daria peacefully coexist on one network? Probably not for long.

But it did run a respectable five seasons with two movies (Is It Fall Yet? and the series-capping Is It College Yet?). It was one of the rare television series that managed to hold onto its initial promise, and the quality of the writing rarely dipped. One could even argue that the whole run of the series could be viewed as a sort of televised novel, with incremental character development, credible and rewarding milestones, and a beginning, middle, and end. (It starts with Daria’s first day of school at Lanwdale High. It ends with her graduation.)

And Daria is a terrific character, despite her unsavory past with Beavis and Butthead. She’s a conscientious objector in the popularity wars, too smart and caustic and observant to take high school seriously. She’s an outcast who views her status as such as an inevitability rather than any kind of badge of honor. It beats the alternative (embodied by her aggressively shallow sister, Quinn), but it’s nothing she’s particularly proud of. And she does manage to make one good friend, fellow outcast and budding artist Jane Lane. (They meet in self-esteem class.)

One of the first episodes I saw on MTV was “The Misery Chick.” A Lanwdale alum dies unexpectedly during a return visit to campus. Shortly before his death, the jock hero manages to alienate, insult, or revolt everyone he comes across, and the repercussions of his passing are a lot more interesting than you might expect. Daria’s stock skyrockets. As daft cheerleader Brittany puts it, “I mean, you’re used to being all gloomy and depressed and thinking about bad stuff… So I thought that maybe you can give me some tips.” Jane puts it a bit more directly, characterizing the group think as follows: “When they say, ‘You’re always unhappy Daria,’ what they mean is, ‘You think Daria. I can tell because you don’t smile. Now this guy died and it makes me think and that hurts my little head and makes me stop smiling. So, tell me how you cope with thinking all the time, Daria, until I can get back to my normal vegetable state.'”

And the character arcs, while gradual, are really rewarding. Daria inches a bit out of her shell of irony and detachment. Quinn’s shallowness reveals itself to be at least partly a facade. (The sisters’ relationship is one of the highlights of the series, especially in later seasons.) Their parents, Jake and Helen, evolve as individuals and a couple. The cast is large and varied, and everyone gets nice moments. There’s a surprising amount of fiber for an animated series.

This is one of the few series I would actually buy on DVD, so naturally MTV hasn’t released it yet. They’ve made the two movies available, but not the regular season episodes. And while it’s nice that The N is airing this terrific show, it is kind of grating to see some of the edits they’ve made, either for content or for timing. (Seriously, it’s not that salty that you’d need to edit it in the first place, unless you were made paranoid by a draconian moral authority that… oh, wait. Never mind.)

It’s antithetical to my usual way of thinking, but I’m happy the weekend is over. It was pretty crappy all in all, a stream of irritating, energy-sapping chores that couldn’t be avoided. Fortunately, the ick was mitigated with some really interesting manga reading. And gin, but that’s a different post.

Given my usual aversion to violent and shocking comics, you’d think I would have hated Battle Royale. That wasn’t the case, and I found this grisly, twist-a-minute comic really compelling. As with Planetes, it’s not hard to imagine how the particular future portrayed in this story might come to pass. As a result, the violence is justified by the narrative circumstances, and the sociological implications are much more interesting. (I guess I’m going to have to qualify my previous thinking: I don’t mind violence and shock when they actually serve the story instead of try to distract you from how empty it is.) I definitely want to read more of this, though it doesn’t seem like it should be consumed in large doses.

I did consume a large dose of Iron Wok Jan! over the weekend, thanks to a sale at DollarManga. I’m quite smitten with Celine Yang, the Asian-French upstart from Kobe who brings her Nouvelle Chinoise stylings into the mix. I think it’s really smart of creator Shinji Saijyo to keep a balance between volatile, obnoxious Jan and dutiful, customer-focused Kiriko. Their rivalry is still engaging because their philosophies are so different. (Jan may be more inspired and technically proficient than Kiriko, but that doesn’t help if everyone hates you.) One point of concern extends to both Celine and Kiriko: these girls are stacked, and if they’re going to spend their working lives standing at a stove, they are facing a world of back problems beyond the litany of physical ailments that typically plague professional chefs.

Othello is an engrossing shojo title that demonstrates what can happen when a teen sticks too closely to societal norms. Protagonist Yaya has struggled so hard to fit in that she’s repressed almost every natural impulse she has. Her desire to avoid conflict has left her stuck with two venomous bitches as “best friends,” too, which compounds her problems. Enter Nana, Yaya’s aggressive split personality, who emerges to right the wrongs committed against her other self. A question lurks around the story’s edges: is Nana’s aggression really any better than Yaya’s passivity? This manga seems to be heading in a fairly complex direction, not just as wish-fulfillment or revenge fantasy.

Junji Ito’s Tomie is another unsettling offering from this creator. In Uzumaki, Ito presented a fairly sympathetic cast of protagonists stuck in circumstances beyond their control. In Tomie, everyone’s a little bit guilty of something. It adds a nice edge to the proceedings and creates an interesting level of reader ambivalence. I can’t really say much more about this manga without giving away too many unpleasant surprises, but I can say that it demonstrates Ito’s ability to find profoundly creepy imagery in the mundane.

Let me tell you, comics shops are not the place to come to grips with your mortality, even slightly.

The shop in town absorbed a collection and was clearing out some of it with a 50-cent sale. As I’m looking through the long boxes, snarking to myself on this person’s taste (lots of Liefeld, Byrne, and Claremont — even a full run of Sovereign Seven), it hits me. Someone’s going to be doing this with my long boxes someday.

Somewhere down the road, geeks like me will be dismissing my choice in reading material, muttering things like, “Well, somebody sure liked The Defenders,” and “The Chapmions? Who the hell are The Champions?” and, worst of all, “He bought the full run of the Heroes Reborn Avengers! How sad is that?”

It was jarring. I couldn’t even bring myself to pick up Captain America in: The Return of Asthma Man. (Though I reserve the right to go back later and see if it’s still there.)

But, it has made me wonder if I shouldn’t be more tolerant to the reading preferences of others, just in some kind of pay-it-forward bid for posthumous charity.

The newlyweds at Peiratikos have just returned from their honeymoon, and they’ve got me thinking about my favorite places.

They picked New Orleans as a destination, a city I love for many reasons. My first trip was in high school, taking the bus down with the marching band for a Mardi Gras parade. It was 90% awful, as one might expect, but those hours when we ditched our chaperone to scurry around the French Quarter definitely made an impression. I’ve been back a couple of times since, and I hope to go back many more times in the future. The food is incredible. I can honestly say we’ve never had a bad meal while there. The sense of equal-opportunity debauchery is wonderfully disorienting, and I love how it manages to be beautiful and historic and seedy at the same time. If you go, take the streetcar out to the Commander’s Palace for brunch. The prix fixe menu is an amazing way to sample incredible food cheaply, and the Bloody Mary’s are not to be believed. (They top them off with more vodka after you’ve had a couple of sips.) Warning: obituary cocktails have not been named whimsically.

While there’s something really artificial about the debauchery of Las Vegas, I’ve still had a great time there. The people-watching alone is worth the trip, and the gaudy horror of it all is really awe-inspiring. It also lends itself to weird and unexpected experiences (like taking part in a CBS market survey for three awful, now-dead programs… still, it was a nice break from the slots). I’m not crazy about getting around Las Vegas, as a rental car is kind of a necessity unless you want to trap yourself on the Strip. And if you do that, your dining is at the mercy of the casinos. You don’t want to put yourself in that position, as celebrity chefs have invaded without trying too hard, which means ridiculously high prices for mediocre food. My recommendation is to spend most of your food dollars in Chinatown, where meals are delicious and incredibly cheap. And if you have a thing for glorious hotel room bathrooms, Mandalay Bay is your residence of choice.

I’ve tagged along with my partner on a few work trips to Chicago, and it feeds my window shopping habit fairly nicely. Ahh, Marshall Field… how do I love thee? And seeing so many beautiful impressionist canvases at the Art Institute is something you really shouldn’t skip.

New York City has had mixed results. We’ve had great trips (like the most recent one) and terrible trips (do some serious research on your lodgings, or nothing else that happens will overcome the horror of where you’re staying). Still, the energy of the place is undeniably exciting, and the sheer variety of it all nicely purges any nasty West Virginia build-up for a while.

I really want to go back to London. I went there to visit family years ago, which kind of limited my freedom of movement. (I spent a lot of time dragging strollers up and down escalators when I’d rather have been doing a pub-by-pub comparison of gin and tonics or having shopgasms at Harrods.) We keep talking about a return trip, but we always seem to be lured back to…

…the Four Corners region. It’s so spectacularly beautiful, even when the landscapes are terrifying. There’s a household difference of opinion: the hubby loves the Grand Canyon, but I’m partial to Zion National Park. The Grand Canyon looks like it would happily kill you, which is an exciting feature, but I feel much more secure in Zion, where you stay at the bottom instead of on the edge. Still, either is an amazing experience. (If you’ve been to the Grand Canyon but have never stayed on the North Rim, I really recommend it. The view isn’t as spectacular, but the crowds are a lot thinner, and there are many wonderful hikes.) The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in Colorado are fascinating, too.

My favorite American city and one of our most frequent trips is Washington. It’s an easy and beautiful drive for us through western Maryland, and it’s one of the most walkable cities we’ve visited. I think it’s really underestimated as a cultural destination in terms of the range and quality of fine and modern art you can see. As food cities go, it holds its own nicely (though we always go to City Lights of China in Dupont Circle, no matter how much we vow to be more adventuresome). As gays living in W.Va., we love opportunities to be in the majority (or at least the larger minority), so Dupont Circle is almost always our base of operations. DC has probably my favorite public transportation system in the world; the Metro system is a real gem. The design of the city is a wonder, too. There’s just nothing I don’t like about it, and a visit always recharges my batteries.

Okay, enough travel babble.