Monday, April 9, 2012

Captain Tax Time #1



Protecting you from the demons who want to raise your taxes! ...Seriously.



79 comments:

Cryptix said...

Yay! New AT4W the day after mah birfday. =DD Best birthday present.

That demon 'Claw' thing has a very shapely bum. That's slightly disturbing.

Y'know, it would've made more sense if they were always demons, but were under some kind of illusion that the hero had to tear down to reveal to the unwary populace. But that would be interesting and make too much sense.

Southland Tales said something? I got lost amongst all the subplots and the weird temporal shit and the Rock being a douchenozzle. If you want weird temporal shit, give Anthony Hopkins' 'Slipstream' a try. I wouldn't say it's 'good', but it's an experience, and it's better than Southland Tales by a lot.

Captain Tax Time... fights drug lords? To give money to the demon politicians? Who turn out to be working *with* the drug lords? ...This comic continues to be confused on every level.

CRUSH ALL THE CRIMES! =D

I love the grabber's 'with our combined wealth' line, if only because 30 billion dollars is *so* much more than enough to hire a competent sniper. Hell, a coupla thousand will usually do the trick. If Sergeant Saver really is metal and not just wearing some kind of armor suit, you might have to find a more creative hit man, but still, you shouldn't need more than a couple million.

OH MAH GAWD the faces on that last page are so frightening. Are they demons, too? D= ...No? Are you sure?

Boffo goes out of focus a little at the end there.

Mountain King said...

By the 15 min mark my mind broke into a thousand pieces.

look, last week I found out the tax man took more than £2000 from me personally that I didn't actually owe (that's around $3000!) and this is ridicules to me. I'm not joking I've been screwed that much and I find this silly.

My dear lord! This is insulting, makes about as much sense as grafting a brick to the side of a monkey and calling it a horse and then hopping on down to the back and making a deposit in pasta!

Honestly, comics that kill continuity or established characters hurt, but this sort of stuff, done seriously as this obviously was, is just stupid. Stupid on the brink of physical pain. So thanks for inflicting that, next let's try dental surgery through the nose. It makes about as much sense and is slightly more comfortable.

or will be after I find the person who wrote this rubbish and introduce him to the concept…

Thomas

KHoyt said...

This was just annoying...

Nothing more than a slam against Mulroney, the Conservatives and the GST

Xepscern said...

I do have to say one good thing about the comic, and that's the way it uses black and white. The artwork in itself was bad, but the little things like how they used the darkness and white worked, particularry when they had the group of faceless people being drawn as just one big silhouette, illuding to him not seeing the individual, rather the mass that can make him rich.

Being 19 and getting a job just this August, this was my first tax season (I did mine back in January, though). It's a pain, and I went hungry for about a week. I do think taxes in themselves aren't bad, it's how they are handled.

Also, random here, Super Samurai kicks so much ass right now. The cast is a lot better written, particularry Emily and Mike. The stories are a lot better, with nice continuity, and there's a real sense of danger from the new villain.

romanAK47 said...

I guess we know who to blame for this - Blame Canada! j/k, but not really...

AmuroNT1 said...

See, crap like this is why I support the Fair Tax.

Also, radium beam? What, was Captain Tax Time bitten by a radioactive CPA or something?

SACJ93 said...

Curiously, the address of the Tax Time offices was in the town where I was born, and I googled the address. It's a martial arts academy now.

Tyler said...

Two things come to mind with this comic.

1. Taxes suck, but there's an old saying: "There are things certain in this world, Death and Taxes."

2. Since Wolverine is Canadian does that mean that Canada is the source of adimantium?

KnightBlazer said...

You just don't appreciate the subtle intricacies of the Canadian tax system. Now if you will excuse me, it is April and I must prepare myself to engage the local tax goblin in single combat.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

I knew Boffo was evil. No good clown ever becomes an accountant.

rick007 said...

The G.S.T. was and is a very contraversial tax (though how contravertial tends to vary). It was introduced to raise revenue by the then Progressive Conservative (oxymoron I know) government of Canada. Baloney probably is a parody of the Prime Minister at the time Brian Mulruney. Long story short (too late) it's been a major issue for years with most Canadians wanting it lowered which it has. To 5%.

Nick Michalak said...

Good episode! Loved it! "Canada: Home of the Goblin People!"

Also, I checked that address on Google maps. It's a martial arts studio now. Go figure.

-NJM

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque said...

I'm surprised you didn't make a reference to one of your earliest reviews. Didn't Doom's IV go to Canada in their first issue?

Karfsma778 said...

Completely unrelated to the review, but I heard an advertisement on the radio, of all places, of a new Avengers vs. X-men comic. Any details, thoughts, ideas, comments, or other sundry ideas on the topic?

MichaelGrey said...

I feel so depressed. This ought to have been awesome. A demonic politician fighting with a superhero who speaks for the common man. This could have been hilariously bad. It's just...bad.

Jarkes said...

"Also, random here, Super Samurai kicks so much ass right now. The cast is a lot better written, particularry Emily and Mike. The stories are a lot better, with nice continuity, and there's a real sense of danger from the new villain."

That, and it does a much better job at actually adapting the Shinkenger episodes rather than straight-up translating them, even when straight-up translating them doesn't make sense in the new context. "Forest for the Trees," anyone?

That being said, I've missed the past few episodes due to being busy with other, more important things, and I haven't had the time to catch up on them on Nickelodeon's website. The last episode I saw was Trading Places (I think that's what the episode with Switchbeast was called). In fact, I haven't even seen "Clash of the Red Rangers," which actually takes place during Super Samurai. I'll probably do a massive catch-up once the school semester is done.

Jarkes said...

Also, when are we going to get the first parts of the next storyline? You said it would be sometime in April.

Also also, how did you get both Linkara the character and Boffo into the same frame? Same way you did certain parts of the Mechakara and Vyce fights?

Jesse said...

This comic would have done well for PSA Hell. Hey that rhymed:D

SailorCardKnight said...

Man what a piece of sugar this comic is...

LuckyBastard12345 said...

Hey linkara by any chance have you seen 2008 spectacular spiderman because it was the best spiderman animated series

Bolt_V3 said...

Woah, Boffo almost got abducted by the Entity again, in that last scene.

Just how many more propaganda and PSA comics do you have stacked up? I can't imagine most are more insane than this (save for WWII era 'Slap a Jap' style ones).

ramses said...

Loved the episode. Though I wonder where the rest of that million that remained after accounting costs went tax-wise.

Also, I know you are not a fan of the ultimate universe, but did you happen to catch the new ultimate spider-man cartoon (which really has nothing do with the comics)?

Patrick said...

Good lord, the facepalms...

Excellent video, Linkara. I'd heard legends of this comic when it came out, but I never had the guts to go hunt up a copy.

Amber Dai said...

You do realize that the reason you owe so much money would be because you aquired a spaceship last year right? That spaceship would count as an income under the "spoils of war" line.

The Blue And The Gold said...

Is it me or did the Grabber kind of look like Red Skull/ Black Mask (as he was drawn during the arc in which Deathstroke dispatches The Hyena, Captain Nazi and Count Vertigo to attack Red Hood) and The Saver resemble Snake-Eyes?

Also, Canada's not the only one who had dealings with a G.S.T. We too know all about that, we've had that since the late 90's or so, if I remember correctly. Highly unpopular at the time, but I reckon most Australians, like myself, hate the newly imposed carbon tax even more. So... maybe Captain Tax Time should have been set here instead?

August M. said...

Personally, I don't worry during Tax Time because I do mine really early in January. Great review.

Jessica said...

love how the perspective in the Parlement Hill scene made the tower look like it was 30,000 feet high

and is it just me or does the story and characters come across as a generic superhero story that the writer/artist could not get published elsewhere so they shoved in the tax time advertisement last minute?

Marc said...

Being Canadian, I've got to laugh at the absurdity of a tax-awareness PSA that also doubles as an attack on the then-Progressive Conservative government for some reason.

Then again, it's as absurd as a superhero who themes himself after "Tax-Time".

KruxisV said...

Adamantium vaults, huh? Well, the Weapon Plus program was sponsored by the Canadian government, right? Maybe the departments are sharing resources?

The Blue And The Gold said...

Also, off-topic but hey, thought you might enjoy this. It's a vid from Mike Mattei of Cinemassacre, his top 10 worst MMPR monsters. OK, it's actually kind of negative, but hey, maybe you agree with him on some of his choices or it will inspire you to name some of your picks for best and worst (for the record, I always thought the no. 1 and 2 entries were pretty cool).

http://cinemassacre.com/2012/04/09/top-10-mighty-morphin-monsters/

John C. Kirk said...

Wow, that's a crashingly unsubtle comic! However, just a couple of nitpicks about your review:

* When Grabber turned up, you said that he was referring to himself in the 3rd person. Since he said "Now you're doing X", that's the 2nd person. 3rd person is when the Hulk says "Now Hulk will smash you!"

* You also complained about the Canadian comic referring to the Candadian government as "our" government, even though there was a US price tag on the front. However, American comics are often sold in England with UK prices (e.g. the Marvel reprints) and we have to put up with the equivalent assumptions. I've never found it that much of a problem; maybe you're just not used to it?

Sijo said...

The Canadian Government has already been shown to be evil in comics before, in Marvel's Alpha Flight series (which was created by a Canadian, so I guess it was fair.) :D

I can see how this comic got made:

Person in the Government: "We need some sort of good propaganda about taxes for young people. How to get to them?"

Another person: "With comic books, that's what they all read!"

*First person calls Someone Who Writes comics* "We want you to make a comic book about taxes."

Someone who writes comics: "How do I do that?"

First person: "Do it anyway you want, that's your job."

Someone who writes comics: "OK, I will just grab this generic superhero story I was writing and just stick tax-related dialogue in it, without even bothering to do any research".

He passes the story along to Person who draws comics, who says: "God this is boring, I'll barely put in any effort, except in things I find cool, like energy blasts. Who needs backgrounds anyway?"

Still, I found this comic actually amusing, unlike so many other "educative" comics who are so dry in their approach and unimaginative with their villains. I'd rather read this than Spider-Man fighting smoking-related villains.

Jarkes said...

By the way, that thing about Netflix supposedly forming a pro-SOPA superPAC? Yeah, not true. Here's a link explaining how RT did some seriously bad reporting (I'd tweet it, but I don't have a twitter acount):

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120409/14562618435/no-netflix-has-not-formed-pro-sopa-superpac.shtml

boooratt said...

Wow this was pretty bad! I didn't get even 70% of the jokes in this as a Texan I don't know crap about Canadian taxes or government!
I'm surprised not many jokes on the fact both "heroes" look alike if it wasn't for the stripes!
The last bad-guy they fought seemed to be shirtless but wearing a headdress like from Egypt!
Yeah my comment of Mandarin was the Iron-Man villain or the orange!
Why did the villain have a cyborg arm!?

Alleria said...

Good god, that comic...

I loved the irony of using an Avon clip, though. You win the Awesome Award of the Year for knowing Blake's 7.

Drunken Lemur said...

Holy! This is my comic! Thank you so much!

Anonymous said...

Hmm, politicians are literally demons?

Would explain why my last congresswoman who looked like this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Suzanne_Kosmas_official_photo.JPG
(seriously, do not view her picture at full size if you value your sanity, she has this very creepy forced smile)

Random Internet Critic said...

Is there any chance this could have be satirical? Like making fun of extreme propaganda or something? Could it be making fun of the time during one Canadian general election, a candidate called his opposition a "kitten-eating reptillian from outer space" without any irony?

And yes, that seriously happened.

Random Internet Critic said...

This kind of reminds of the time when in one Canadian general election, a candidate called his opposition a "kitten-eating reptillian from outer space" (Yes, I swear that really happen).

Any chance it could just be satire of that and how Canadian slander and propaganda is just surreal and weird?

13th Doctor said...

What hell were they trying to come up with in this comic? I know it was trying to be satirical but there is a little thing called BALANCE. Sorry, Lewis, but this review was not the best but that was only because this comic is SO dull. God, I don't think I have ever seen such a boring attempt at satire in comics.

I will say that the political subtext is seriously messed up and I have no idea what message they were trying to get across. Glad you bought Boffo back. I am, sadly, one of those people who don't like clowns. Boffo is an exception :)

I bet you had a whale of a time doing your taxes between reviews and filming the anniversary and God knows how many crossovers. I got mine done two weeks ago but the 1O40A instructions were SO hard to follow!!!!!!!!

Ming said...

I've never even heard of this comic until you mentioned the name. This is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen, right alongside Tandy Computer Whiz Kids, the Kool-Aid Man, and Future 5.

As much as I don't like paying taxes, this comic fails on so many levels, portraying government bureaucrats as evil demonic entities and spewing out anti-tax propaganda that has no sense of logic whatsoever.

I can't find any information on the people who actually did this. But I rather take my chances with Boffo the Clown than these Canadian guys who drew the comic.

Bobcat said...

I love just how utterly nonsensical this thing is. It's like if Ron Paul suffered brain damage.

FugueforFrog said...

So what have we learned today, folks?

-Politicians are all monsters...well finance ministers
-Everything in Canada is weirdly skewed
-You can make the bad guys win by just taking down organized crime and giving them what they want...um, what?
-The Beatles never cease to be awesome...well George, it was his song.
-Clowns are expensive tax preparers.

Hilarious episode as usual, Linkara. I sort of respect taxation but only responsible taxation...cause I work for a state government in a state where the governor hates raising taxes and would rather make terrible cuts than making the logical adjustments to the budget, but that's neither here nor there. It's irresponsible taxation that leads to idiots who want to lower taxes, which hurts the good stuff taxes do for them with less revenue.

BTW: reminded myself of an awesome song for the next US-1 review: "Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)" by Alabama. Now that is a great trucker song.

JoeCat said...

First, regarding the comments: Happy "belated" Birthday Cryptix (someone other than Linkara has to read these comments, after all).

Second, regarding the prices: perhaps they knew Yankees (or the appropriate Canadian slur for USA residents) like Linkara would one day acquire the comic, and wanted to make it easier for him (and us, his fanbase) to purchase. Ultimate foresight.

Third, regarding the transformation taking a long time: Proof he really is a politician!

Fourth, regarding the red tape: Kudos on the Pulse (and possibly Phelous) nod there Linkara. Got a chuckle.

Fifth and Finally, regarding the comments again: Thought something similar regarding the admantium to what Tyler said. Maybe they're cashing on Canada's only superhero (noone cares about Alpha Flight, even Marvel nowadays).

Orion_II said...

A few notes, here, Linkara

-Books (including comics) up here have both American and Canadian prices listed on them. My guess is so they can be sold at/near the border, or for the benefit of American tourists.

-The Prime Minister in this book, Mulroney, had a majority government, meaning he had at least 50% of the seats. It's pretty dang hard to stop any bill the government wants to pass. According to Wikipedia, 80% of Canadians were opposed to the GST when it was proposed.

-Mulroney is one of the more... disliked of our Prime Ministers. He's normally the butt end of jokes involving bad/evil/currently unpopular politicians.

-For those of you confused about the math from my second point, we have no two party system up here. At this point in time, we have 5 major federal parties: Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Green and Bloc Quebecois.

-For those who are curious:
--The Prime Minister is not a separate vote. He's normally the leader of the party with the most seats in the house of commons.
--Yes, it's possible for the country to be split multiple ways; the result is a minority government.

lollypopalopicus said...

Well the last two times voting hasn't really worked we tried to get rid of the Tories (another word for the Conservative party). the first time the left Wings parties formed a coalition government and made a vote of of confidence. But before it went through Stephen Harper (current PM) suspended parliament (Canada's equivalent of the American Congress), one of the time this power has ever been exercised, and spammed it with attack ads stealing its momentum. The latest time in the election the left wing was split between the two major left wing parties (Liberal and NDP) so the party that received less than half of the 59.1% that actually voted managed to get a majority.

I would also like to say as a side note that the Tories tried a Canadian version of SOPA called bill c-11. Yeah...

RocMegamanX said...

A Canadian comic? And no Phelous cameo? LOL, I kid.

The art kinda sucked in this comic, though it is better than Bimbos in Time's art, that's for sure.

And Canadian political satire? I bet even Canadians wouldn't find it funny.

lollypopalopicus said...

The reason my last comment is relevant to just one guy is that in the parliamentary system, Canada's voter representation is based on a certain amount population given an area, so a city like Ottawa can have five ridings while a small province like my own New Brunswick has ten (as you can guess we tend to get less attention then Ontario, which has 106). You elect a representative (member of parliament or MP) from each area, know as a riding and whichever party has the most MP's elected wins. The leader of that party becomes the new PM. Since the PM doubles an MP, their riding sometimes, but not as often as you would think, gets special attention. The PM then chooses elected Members of Parliament to be his Cabinet Ministers (such as the Minister of Finance) and they stay there until the party voted out or the PM chooses someone else after the next election.

Since the latter doesn't happen often, you basically have to vote the ENTIRE PARTY to get rid of one fucking person

Ozaline said...

Apparently the term Mandarin is used here in Canada too, a lot of our terminology in politics and legal matters comes from Great Britain. It was news to me as well, but I was watching with a friend who is very politically involved.

The biggest problem with GST, I find is that it was shot down by the senate and Mulroney appointed extra senators under an emergency clause to have it pass... That's more a problem with the Canadian Senate then anything else.

KKennedy99 said...

Question.. why is a comic that is against confusing taxes (well that is what I got anyway from this) sponsored by a tax assistance company that needs people to be confused about taxes that are vague? Nobody knew what the GST tax is about and what it does and why it exists.

I can actually imagine what the people who wrote and drawn this look like, a bunch of pissed off teenage/young adults who hate the world now because they took a few college classes about world government but actually are well off in the world (Really who can afford college these days?) and now feel inspired to make a propaganda comic book about how unfair and unjust governments are. I've seen a few of these people before in high school that hate things but can't give reasons why. Taxes are a way of life, just like death.

I'm not saying the government is full of good guys.. hell no. It's just that there are some good people in there but are completely strangled hold by the corrupt representatives who are in turn being controlled like puppets by the media corporations.. just watch out soon facebook (Or mark zuckerburg if you want to be more specific) will own the house of representatives (joking).

The art is mediocre with unmemorable character designs.. and the comic's priorities are all over the place.. why give the unjust government the money back? Give it to areas in need, organizations, or families in need of a helping hand. I know I am repeating what Linkara said, but he is right.

I'm done.

CoreDumpError said...

Linkara, I've got to ask, though I can only hope that others have already done so.

Please turn down the volume of the theme song. It's two or three times louder than the rest of the audio track on all your reviews. This is a serious problem for me, especially, since I watch your show at night, and have very complainy neighbors in my apartment complex.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Please turn down the volume of the theme song. It's two or three times louder than the rest of the audio track on all your reviews. This is a serious problem for me, especially, since I watch your show at night, and have very complainy neighbors in my apartment complex."

I don't know why it's different for you, but I alter the volume of the theme song in every episode, lowering it by 3 decibals. When I do so, it matches the volume of the rest of the video - Premiere lets me see how high the volume actually rises and it matches the rest of it as far as I can see.

As such, I'm sorry, but I don't know what's different in your case. ^^;

boooratt said...

Linkara get that email?

Anonymous said...

So that's how Boffo contributes to the show, I mean wow I had my suspicions there but after that reassuring toot of his horn, I feel suddenly better...

Rhodoferax said...

You seem to be reviewing quite a few non-American comics lately. Pretty cool that you're broadening your horizons and also showing that America doesn't have a monopoly on bad comics.

Ryubbert Narraetsor said...

So, Sargent Saver is is made out of metal and has a slot on his face. That makes him a piggy bank, if I'm not mistaken.

freezze12 said...

Sorry to nit pick and sorry if someone already said but I couldnt see it. Adamantium is not an invention of Marvel it appears as far back in fiction as ancient Greece. It was the metal used by Hephaestus to make the chains that bound prometheus to the rocks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Bound

Love your Reviews

friendly reader said...

Well, sure, if you consider Social Security and Medicare (the largest bulk of our taxes) to be "wasting money," then I guess taxes are "evil." Now our defense budget, on the other hand...

But no! Not gonna get into politics on a comic book thread! You're a self-described conservative and I'm an old school lefty. I'm just glad to know you're not a "voluntarist."

Also, lots of places have taxes on food. Most sales/consumption taxes are regressive so I'm not a fan of them, but it's not as shocking as this comic makes them out to be.

Taxes were a pain to do this year because I'm working overseas and calculating exchange rates for each paycheck was annoying. This, in spite of the fact that I don't make enough money overseas to be taxed for it.

In comparison, my tax forms here in Japan were ridiculously easy.

Bellarius said...

And this is why you should never make a story about somewhere being taxed to death without Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.

Glad to see you went into full details on this one, ripping into every moronic point one at a time just to show how utterly insane it is.

Cryptix said...

JoeCat: "First, regarding the comments: Happy "belated" Birthday Cryptix (someone other than Linkara has to read these comments, after all)."

Thank you! ^A^ I didn't really expect an answer (just excited to be 21), but it's a lovely surprise.

Ryubbert Narraetsor: "So, Sargent Saver is is made out of metal and has a slot on his face. That makes him a piggy bank, if I'm not mistaken."

...It's scary how much sense that makes. Except... where do the swords come in? oO

Anonymous said...

not sure if I should call this Liberal or Conservative propaganda
seemed like both

still, at least one thing they got right
politics ARE connected to organized crime

Gyre said...

The problem is that the vast majority of comics simply are incapable of doing anything decent with regard to politics (just look at Civil War and Amazons Attack).
In fact I can only think of four decent graphic novels that did involve politics. V for Vendetta, Maus, Persepolis and Watchmen.

Zerglinator said...

Top Mandarins...

Y U no Iron Man joke?

Volvagia said...

Zerglinator: He mentioned the Iron Man villain. He just didn't make the obvious "comic book fan" style joke. Plus, the comic's ridiculous enough that the jokes probably wrote themselves. Gyre: I'd agree on V for Vendetta and, maybe, Persepolis, but the good comic book I'd first think of off the top of my head when I think "comic about politics" is Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan.

Kaibaman41 said...

Well....the only thing this comic has accurate about Politicians is how evil and confusing most of them are plus O-o HOW THE HELL DID OUR HEROES TAKE DOWN AN ENTIRE CRIME SYNDICATE OFF PANEL WITH EASE! How did the operations fall!? EXPLAIN COMIC JUST EXPLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!

.....yeah I channeled the Nostalgia Critic their I could tell you probably wanted to borrow the Just Explain joke in the Quest of Camelot NC review Linkara....boy did this comic insult my intellegence

FugueforFrog said...

"Zerglinator said...

Top Mandarins...

Y U no Iron Man joke?"

He said Mandarin was an Iron Man villain during his list. Then again seeing it as an orange is funnier.

Anonymous said...

That's soooooooo much stupid in this comic it's not even funny, and for the record I'm Canadian.

Fiery Little One

lilmaibe said...

Neat review and outrageiously weird comic. One candidate for -what the hell were they thinking?!-
(And I am a bit amazed you didn't use this: http://youtu.be/pmgcylAxjfY starts around 1:38 )

Vloxalion said...

One might cliam that our taxes are worse than Canada's, especially if bill HR-4646 passes. Paying a percent of every transfer to, from, or within a financial institution is a more insiduous and harmful tax than even those comic creatures could envision.


But there is hope, for people are recognizing the problems of and solutions to overtaxation:

Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axS-QdUkMqk&feature=youtu.be

United States: http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-04-15/end-the-income-tax-abolish-the-irs/

Anonymous said...

Im canadian and the cover looks NOTHING like canadin raods.
sorry for bad speeling

Le Messor said...

Sijo said...
"The Canadian Government has already been shown to be evil in comics before, in Marvel's Alpha Flight series (which was created by a Canadian...)"

The Canadian government wasn't evil, not in the issues that the Canadian wrote.

JoeCat said...
"(noone cares about Alpha Flight, even Marvel nowadays)."

HEY! HEEEYYYYYY!!!

Kevin Kennedy said...
Nobody knew what the GST tax is about and what it does and why it exists.

Down here, it's added to the price of everything you buy. It's not confusing to pay, just really annoying - what's confusing is what gets taxed and what doesn't.

Lewis Lovhaug said...
"lowering it by 3 decibals"

Because poor literacy is KEWL!
(Sorry, I couldn't resist! I tried!... no, that was a lie.)

freezze12 said...
"Adamantium is not an invention of Marvel it appears as far back in fiction as ancient Greece."
Are you thinking about Adamantine, by any chance? Similar name, same concept, but not trademarked to a comics company.

Jarkes said...

"But there is hope, for people are recognizing the problems of and solutions to overtaxation:

Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axS-QdUkMqk&feature=youtu.be

United States: http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-04-15/end-the-income-tax-abolish-the-irs/"

... I'd say something about how Ron Paul is nuts if he thinks that completely ending income tax is a good idea (not to mention that even if he became President, which at this point is clearly not going to happen, it would be nearly impossible for him to do that, because income tax itself was a constitutional amendment, so he need to pass another constitutional amendment repealing that one, which is a long and hard process), but I don't want to spark a political debate.

Arianne said...

It's good to see that happy clown again :). Wow. This comic is stupid and a Anti tax comic sponsored by a company to help with taxes is ironic. And I'm sorry if I used the word ironic.

Ellington said...

Does he even know anything about Canada?
I mean if you are going to critique something as lame as this comic book try not to be as equally lame.
Oh and for your information Fourth Wall Yank guy we do use dollars, and our national government is called The Federal government.
But now you have a taste of what we Canadians and the rest of the world have to put up with when you Americans automatically assume that your way of life, currency, government is the qualifier for the rest of the world.

Ellington said...

Hey there Fourth Wall Yanky guy.
Just a word of advice, we do use Dollars and the rest of the coins that you use ( we now no longer have the penny (huzzah!) but they are Canadian, and our national government is called Federal. So if you are going to review an extremely lame comic to begin with try not to be as equally lame when it comes to discussing us ( your neighbours to the the north).
But then hey now you have a taste for what the we Canadians and the rest of the world have to put up with when American assumes that they are the standard and qualifier for everything.
How about you do a summation of the new 52, it is at or past the six month point and this juncture, and I for the most part have been terrible let down by it all, especially what they have done to Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Starfire and the lackluster effort given to Mr. Terrific.
Thanks and Pax

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"How about you do a summation of the new 52, it is at or past the six month point and this juncture, and I for the most part have been terrible let down by it all, especially what they have done to Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Starfire and the lackluster effort given to Mr. Terrific."

I did videos about the beginning of the new 52 and every first issue there. Since then, I have not read ALL the books, because I dropped a whole bunch of them. I should not have to make a status report on ALL of them since I don't read every one of them. Some books I liked got cancelled and some books I didn't like got cnacelled. Other books that I didn't like are still around and other books I like are still around. That is the status.

Ellington said...

I most certainly would not expect you to do all of the 52 just the ones that you looked at initially, now they are at the six month mark. I would be interested in knowing what you think of the ones that you did like, disliked, dropped or kept. I have not read many blogs taking that approach, and as I said I would be interested in your views.
As for your blog I only read it very sporadically, because a friend of mine thinks you are good fun and he passes on links to me from time to time.
The past things that have been sent to me were fairly copacetic.
happy reading and pax.

Anonymous said...

Based more or less solely on the fact that they're both mysterious, shadowy figures in black-and-white comics who are implied to be very powerful individuals, I have come to the conclusion that P.M. Byron Baloney is in fact the Shadowy Guy from Sultry Teenage Super Foxes.

JerryScott said...

I looked up the address that was shown in the comic's Tax Time Tax Services Ad, and apparently, that address in Ontario is occupied by a Martial Arts school. My guess? Tax Time Tax Services does not exist anymore.