The X-Files Season 10 - Issue #2

Another Wednesday has come and along with it another issue of IDW's The X-Files Season 10. In my opinion, issue two is the chief release of all the offerings this New Comic Book Day, a weekly holiday for the special nerds in the know - the "Funny book" folk.

The subscription cover (pictured above, with art by Cerebus creator Dave Sim) offers a pretty big hint at what lies in store between the pages of this second part in the "Believers" storyline. I won't spoil anything, but there's a possibility that the conclusion of the Season 9 episode "Jump the Shark" wasn't as airtight (there's a silly joke in the use of that adjective, but you'd have to be familiar with the episode to understand it) as we were led to believe.

Events from last issue continue, though Scully's whereabouts remain mysterious. We're given a look at an occult-like, possible human hybrid related conspiracy which reaches across great distances to focus upon any existing connections to baby William, Scully's child which was given up for adoption last season. Mulder is left to figure things out along with a seemingly impotent Skinner who can only offer a few details about an oil pipeline in Wyoming and Agent John Doggett's assignment to the site to investigate a possible terrorist threat. From there Mulder goes to work assembling the pieces of this mystery as Scully encounters a member of the group which abducted her. Add to all of this the appearance of some old friends and a nemesis (no telling, read the issue) and you have yet another great X-Files comic from the folks at IDW who are one of the only publishers doing anything interesting these days, as far as I'm concerned.

I anxiously await next issue. I'm certain we'll have an interesting explanation for the last page of issue two. At least I hope so.

Go out and buy your copy as soon as you can!

Also, my thanks to the X-Files Universe message board folks for sharing my podcast review of the first issue. Check it out here: The Nerd Closet - Review of The X-Files Season 10 #1

The X-Files - Season 10 Issue 1 - New Comic Book Day

 

I was confident that I would walk into my local comic book shop this afternoon and grab a hold bag labeled "Sample," in which would be the first issue of The X-Files Season 10. When I finally arrived at the shop I went straight for the hold box. Thumbing through bag after alphabetically ordered bag, anxiously searching for my last name, I found that I didn't have a hold after all. For some reason I was left out, though I'm not surprised considering my past experiences with that particular store. 

Regardless of the neglect I was able to purchase a copy after all. Fortunately there were two copies left, one with the standard cover and one sporting the artwork of artist Dave Johnson. I bought the Johnson cover and ran for home.

After reading through the issue, studying every page including the front and back covers, I find that the long wait has been worth it. This is a fantastic first issue for both a new comic series and a continuing story. Thanks to the writing abilities of Joe Harris it is a perfect jumping on point for folks new to The X-Files and fans who have been waiting for fresh material since the end of I Want to Believe. Accompanying Harris' script, overseen by Executive Producer and X-Files Creator Chris Carter, is the attractive artwork of Michael Walsh, who manages to service the script wonderfully.

Mulder, Scully, and even Skinner make appearances in this quick read of a first issue. The thirty-two pages of this book bring us up to date on the status of the main characters and introduce us to a shadowy new element. According to Deputy Director Skinner, who appears early on in the issue, the FBI has been hacked and the X-Files might have been targeted. Now Mr. and Mrs. Blake (Mulder and Scully's new shared surname under the Witness Protection Program) must question why someone would go to the trouble of seeking out the X-Files and concern themselves with whether or not they're in danger. 

This comic offers conflict, mystery, a nod or two to mysteries left over from the television series, and the beginning of another sinister plot. Will the agents survive for long? Will we have old questions answered? Will the new questions be answered sooner rather than later? Is this the beginning of a beautiful and long-running comic phenomenon? I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

Now the wait begins for the next issue. I just have to find a comic book shop that will actually hold a copy for me. That or I'll have to wait at the store before they open to guarantee that I can easily acquire one.

The X-Files - Season 10 - Coming Soon

Rumors reached me a couple of months ago of the possibility of a new X-Files comic series. Ever since then I've frequently scoured the internet, searching for details, dates, and any other news related to any other new X-Files developments. What I've learned of the upcoming series has me feeling more than a little giddy, and the event to which I'm most looking forward, the release date of the new comic, is just less than two weeks away from the time of this writing. This is something for which I and my fellow X-Files fans have been waiting for quite a long time.

IDW, one of the best current publishers in comics (publishers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Transformers, Doctor Who, and many other titles), along with Fox and series creator and executive producer Chris Carter, will be releasing not only a new X-Files comic series but the official Season 10 of The X-Files! Chris Carter will be overseeing the production of the new comic (in a way similar to Kevin Eastman with the Turtles and Joss Whedon with Buffy and Angel, I imagine), which is said to be continuing the canon of the television show and is set in a time after the last film, I Want to Believe. The release date for the first issue of The X-Files Season 10 (god, it feels good to type that!) will be on Wednesday, June 19.

So, in less than two weeks I'll be visiting my local comic book shop right when the doors open so that I can grab a long-awaited copy of the comic which will satisfy my craving for material covering the further adventures of Mulder, Scully, and their continuing quest to seek the Truth. I look forward to collecting this new book, and I hope that it leads to a bright and ongoing future for The X-Files Universe.

In regard to my writing on The X-Files and all things related to it, I will be returning to my "The X-Files - I Believe" blog series (sounds so official) soon. I'll also be posting a special X-Files Season 10 podcast through my "Nerd Closet Podcast" show on YouTube on Wednesday, June 19, after I read my copy of the first issue.

For my previous blogs on The X-Files you can click on the links below, and if you're curious about further details related to the upcoming comic, I've included a couple links for you to peruse.

The X-Files - I Believe - Part 1
The X-Files - I Believe - Part 2

Wired article about Season 10
IDW Press Release/Website Announcement

The X-Files - I Believe - Part 2

It's been a while since I last wrote on The X-Files. My fault, I'm afraid. I was distracted from the show by life and all the projects I've attempted in the intervening months. Anyway, I'm back with some more words on the series. Going forward I think I'll continue to write about it, but my X-Phile writings won't be frequent, in keeping with my apparent tradition evident here. So, expect random fan blurbs going forward.

When thinking back on the series I instantly begin to dwell on the episodes which stood out for me and, in my opinion, defined the best qualities of Chris Carter's incredible television show. There were many, and I don't think I can recall all of them at this time, but here's my attempt to address a few from my list of episodes which I consider to be personal favorites.

No episode better sets the tone for this series than its pilot, titled "Pilot." I can't recall seeing another series' pilot and feeling as interested in the characters and universe so quickly. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were fascinating from the beginning, and their investigation into the mysterious happenings in Bellefleur, Oregon was, in my opinion, gripping. From the mystery of the opening message which read "The following story is inspired by actual documented accounts" to strange lights in the woods to the details which follow the main character's encounter with an UFO, this episode is full of the flavor viewers would return to enjoy in the following episodes of the series for many fantastic years after. It's not hard to understand why the series continued long after the pilot's premier on September 10, 1993.

Mulder and Scully discuss events over a possible extraterrestrial
corpse.

Another episode which springs to mind is "Unusual Suspects" from Season Five. I, like most fans of The X-Files, love the characters of Frohike, Byers, and Langley. They're the great conspiracy theorist stooges who accent Mulder's occasional humorous side and share in his obsession with all things dark, mysterious, controversial, and otherworldly. In fact, they're more invested in certain aspects of the paranoid subculture than Mulder could ever be. The episode is a flashback to the meeting of the trio at a technology convention (the perfect place for the origin story of the Lone Gunmen). It spins the typical goofiness of The Lone Gunmen with a shadowy plot involving some doofy G-Man named Fox Mulder (again, flashback). The ending is a treat for those new to the series and invested with the myth arc up to that point, and overall the episode feels like a clever thank you to the fans.

"Narc" Byers, Frohike, and D&D-playing Langley

"Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" is a brilliant episode which features the show's main villain, the eponymous Cigarette Smoking Man (or CSM for short). Again, this is a flashback episode. I think I enjoy these because of the flavor they add to the overall series universe. Anyway, this is a story of the mysterious conspiracy-creator and manipulator who looms over Mulder's crusade for the Truth. The CSM, or "Raul Bloodworth," as we come to call him through this episode, is shown at the beginning to be in a dingy space, close to a window, listening to Frohike ramble on about the facts he uncovered about the CSM. The audience is then taken back through time and allowed to see the events described as they are being filtered through the hazy recollections of the spying CSM. We see how he was recruited, his involvement in the Kennedy assassination, his strong principles and even stronger dedication to his duty as he goes out to end the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his exposure to the existence of extraterrestrials, and, most incredibly, we see his hidden passion, as he continues throughout the flashback timeline, which is writing paperback adventure novels (his penname being "Raul Bloodworth"). After all the amazing glimpses into the darkest corners of the series' universe through the eyes of its most visible puppet master the episode wraps up nicely addressing the failed pursuits of "Mr. Bloodworth" and his ongoing quest to "Deceive, Inveigle, and Obfuscate."

The Cigarette Smoking Man (Raul Bloodworth) spends time
mulling over his disappointment with some random
bindle stiff

That about does it for this listing. I'll return, at some point in the future, to my trip down The X-Files' side street off of my beloved Memory Lane. If you're reading this and are either Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, or a Fox executive, please take into consideration the love which still exists from folks like me who would be so very, endlessly grateful to see a return, if only in another film, of the characters and universe which still thrives in our hearts. Who am I kidding, though? Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, or a Fox Executive? Nah. I'm probably actually being read by the most important people of all, my fellow fans.

Thank you for reading, folks.

The X-Files - I Believe - Part 1

The title from the opening credits of The X-Files.

It has been a little over a decade since the hit Fox television series The X-Files left the air. After nine seasons and two films, the latest being released in 2008, fans still shout out their desire for more. They, like the series' main character Fox Mulder, still want to believe.

The show hit in the early 1990s and forever changed television. Drawing from inspirational sources of paranormal TV wonder like Darren McGavin's Kolchak: The Nightstalker and David Lynch's Twin Peaks, The X-Files went where no show had gone before. It was a television series in which FBI procedures and crime scene investigations were conducted in a seemingly mundane foreground while sinister, or sometimes not so sinister, supernatural elements thrived in the surrounding shadows. It was atmospheric, engaging, and accommodating to those who embraced the popular trend of 1990s paranoia.

McGavin, depicted here, starred as the sometimes frantic, open-minded reporter Carl Kolchak. Alliteration again marks the hero, I suppose.

Over the next few days and weeks I intend to revisit and comment on the many aspects of this series. It is a show which has greatly entertained me since my childhood and has served to introduce me to ways of thinking which have allowed me to consider the universe in which we all live in exciting and vastly different from normal ways. Through these posts I'll address the production of the series, the cast and crew, the X-Files' affect on culture, and my favourite episodes and moments from the show's long and healthy run.

Stick with me as I travel back to the mid-90s and move forward to explore that marvellous television program that was The X-Files. Please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and any suggestions on the blog post's comment section. I look forward to sharing my X-Files-centric writings with you. 

Also, I no longer seek what Fox Mulder sought for through his adventures I found something meaningful. His tagline, the one which followed him throughout the run and made for an incredibly popular poster, was "I want to believe." After reflecting on The X-Files and making the decision to compose these posts I've decided that instead of wanting to believe or seeking belief I can confidently say, concerning The X-Files, that I believe.

The X-Files, a show close to heart...

Weird is a word I would use to describe a great many things which also happen to be things I hold great affinity towards. Any movies, shows, books, periodicals, etc. that cover the weird or utilize it for entertaining story telling, are the ones I enjoy the most. Nothing has been more a pleasure to follow, for me at least, as the X-Files.

The X-Files was (boy do I hate referring to it in the past tense) a show that inspired me, entertained me, and fueled my imagination like a fusion generator might a city. The creatures featured, the stories told, and the memorable characters drove this one home and kept it deliciously rich up till the end. With the exception of Doctor Who, this show has been the greatest science-fiction show in history.

Not only did I geek out on the show, I followed it into other media such as gaming, another close to heart pursuit. The X-Files Collectible Card Game, from the US Playing Card Company, was, next to Magic the Gathering, one of the card games I collected the most and played as much as possible. It was brilliant and short lived, unfortunately.

All in all, it's things like the X-Files that get me revved up for discussion and imagining. I could go on for hours about the show and all it meant to me, but I think that this little post will suffice. Although, if you're ever looking to discuss X-Files you now know who to find.