November 2004

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Monday November 29, 2004 11:16pm #

» Yay toys!

Green Arrow and Atom --- Hawkeye and Antman

» Boo News!

If CNN puts Wolf Blitzer in a Black Leather Mini Skirt, Leather Jacket, and Crescent Moon Necklace behind a desk that shows off his legs while he delivers news about Iraq, I'm going to switch to Fox News.

Wednesday November 24, 2004 11:52pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Did you see rifle-toting mini-Budweiser-Nascar-driving Jesus on Late Night with Conan O'Brien a couple days ago? ROTFL OMFG LOL. Man that must have went over like gangbusters in the Red States :)

» And as long as I'm on the topic of television... the Office Depot/Max Rubberband Man, Rudolf-the-Red-Nose-Reindeer-Style animated cartoon commercial... is quite cool. If it blurs by on your Tivo... slow down a minute and give it a watch.

» There's a Seinfeld Special on NBC at 10pm Thursday (Thanksgiving day). Don't miss it!

» Picked up (and still listening to it as I type this) the new U2 Album: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb at Meijer tonight: $9.88 (with the DVD extra CD). Skip the P2P downloading on this one and get the disc. It's good stuff.

» First Major (or minor for that matter) snowfall of the season out here in Grand Rapids Michigan. All that white stuff magically appeared between 1 pm and 3 pm and has yet to stop falling. It's A-Ticket, white knuckle, car-and-health-insurance-card-clutching fun! If you live somewhere warm, get thee to Michigan and enjoy our winter wonderland apocalypse.

Comments on Comics

Green Lantern Rebirth #2 (Johns, Van Sciver) Geoff Johns has hinted at an absolutely brilliant redemption strategy for Hal Jordan in this issue. Truely masterful storytelling. Not for those that know little of GL continuity, but for those that do, this is really really good stuff.

I'm going to take a stab at speculating a bit on where this is going: Scroll down if you want to see my thought on a theme behind the storyline.... . . . . Geoff Johns might have had the voice of Yoda in his head with this story. Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to Suffering!

Just a side comment here... Zatanna is an A-list DC hero all of a sudden isn't she? Fishnets in the DCU are becoming as common as adamatium claws in the Marvel U.

The Flash #216 (Johns, Porter) This one's tied in so tight to Identity Crisis there's a conversation between Green Arrow and Flash that really should have had a box in it that said: 'Go Read Identity Crisis #6 right now.... We'll wait... Back now?...Good, we now continue our regularly scheduled crossover.' Again, More Good Stuff.

Adam Strange #3 (Diggle, Ferry) Sure you're already getting GL Rebirth and The Flash, but y'know what? You're gonna be kicking yourself later for not picking up Adam Strange. DC didn't make as much noise about it, but I think by the time this one is done, the whole Sci-fi aspect of the DCU is going to be stitched together into a neat and tidy universe of it's own, and if you're not getting this one, you're gonna be bummed when all the other kids are running around playing with their Adam Strange action figures and telling you how cool this mini was. Fantastic Art and a hero with a 50s fin on his head and a jet on his back and you're missing it. Don't say I didn't give you the heads up.

You're thinking, gee what's up with Chris, he's liking everything today, well....

Ultimate Spider-man #68 (Bendis, Bagley) Yeah, Yeah, I know I'm not even supposedly picking up this book... but this one is the first part of an rc that had Human Torch and Spidey on the cover and I was in a spending mood a couple weeks back. Here's the thing, this isn't a bad book, the dialog (and boy is there ALOT of it) is pretty good, it's just not my cup of tea. I'm not sure the audience this comic is written for, but it ain't me. If I had to guess, I'd say this one is targeted at teenage girls-- I'm not sure how your typical teenage girl is going to find her way to this title but if she does, she'll really enjoy it. If teenage boys are digging on this title, then well, I guess there isn't anything wrong with that. ;)

Call me old fashion but in a superhero book, something should blow-up or someone should hit a super villian or some such at least once in 22 pages. Little bit too much "He's so dreamy" soap opera for me. Get or don't get... I won't judge ya. :)

Let's Go Surfing

» Dig these cool Japanese Aquaduct photos Not computer gerated, that's a real place. Some good pics for desktop wallpaper in there.
via Boing Boing

» Marvel to sue makers of pens and pencils. :)
via FARK

» Scientist finds gene for laziness. There you have it, I'm not slacking, I have a birth defect!

» Bourne Supremacy director to screw-up make Watchman movie. Oh well, at least we'll finally get those Watchman action figures.

» Searchable Comic Cover Database
via Boing Boing

» Mike Sterling has a fairly interesting looking Christmas Playlist posted on Progressive Ruin.

» There's a Ban Comic Sans Site. They sell stuff too.
via Progressive Ruin

» Naked Girl with iPod. Very NSFW. What? What? I'm just looking at the iPod, it's a very attractive piece of technology. :)

» Beat your Sith senseless with these Playskool plush lightsabers

» Save Toys R Us

Monday November 22, 2004 1:21am #

Comments on Comics

Earth's Mightiest Heroes

About 15-20 years ago, when I was a kid, I was a huge Avengers fan. I used to go to the Comic Book Store in town and buy up all the back issues I could find. East Coast/West Coast couldn't get enough of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. In the early 90s I completely dropped comics for about 5 years. In the late 90s I began picking up Green Lantern, my favorite character, and over the last few years have been slowing adding more an more mainly DC books to my monthly pick-ups.

Hang on this essay is going to veer around a little bit

Largely I've stayed away from Marvel the past 15 years. I was always more of a DC Fan anyway and I find less interest at this point in extensively keeping up with two fictional superhero universes. I do get the odd Marvel title here and there, One of the first titles to draw me back into the stories of true-believers was the Ultimates. With the Ultimates, Marvel pulled me back in. They re-presented the Avengers I liked as a kid but they did it with the fantastic Bryan Hitch's art and Bendis' Theatrical blockbuster storytelling. The characters were familiar, but they were written for grown-ups, not grown-up fanboys but grown-ups who like a good story.

The other thing that drew me to this Ultimates version of the Avengers was the fact that I didn't need to know the last 15 years worth of history. I also didn't need to pick-up any other books with these characters, everything I needed to know abut this updated Avengers was right in the book I was reading. I was back in on the ground floor and just like when I was a kid, I didn't know where the story was going to go next.

I've since dipped my toe into some of the other Ultimate books. Ultimate Spidey I read for awhile and continued to buy, without reading it, even longer. There's that same feel in Ult Spidey that you don't need to know the back story, but unlike Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-man felt largely like a retelling. With every issue it seemed, I know where this is going next, I've been here before.

I've also tried the other Ultimate Marvel titles looking for that same Ultimates vibe I got. Ultimate X-men didn't grab me from the start, it's been so long since I've picked up that title that I forget why it didn't. I vaguely remember it being a little dark, and just a little off, what I thought X-men should be. It was not quite the originals, not quite the movies, it was some third thing that after a few issues started to pile up without my reading it. In short order, I culled it from my gets.

Ult Spidey and Ult X-Men were a wash, but then came Ultimate Adventures, which I really liked. Here was a book that doved nicely with Ultimates. Ultimate Adventures esentially presented a Marvel take-on Batman and Robin but it had that Ultimates freshness to it. Early on it had references and guest appearances by the Ultimates, so there was that sense of it being grounded in a larger Universe. It's premise was Batmaneske, but being set in a Marvel universe, it didn't feel like a DC retread. What was really cool for me hwever was it looked to be Marvel putting a fork in the Ultimate universe road. Marvel doesn't have a Batman character, by introducing one into their new superhero tapestry-- it felt that contrary to the directions of Ultimate Spider-man and Ultimate X-men, maybe the Ultimate universe was going to be woven differently afterall. Ultimate Marvel wouldn't be just a shinier updated version of what I remembered from Marvel in my childhood. Alas that glee was fleeting.

Unfortunately, Ultimate Adventures didn't find a place of steady sales in Marvels new Ultimate stable and they let it quietly slip into cancelation. With Adventures' failing it seems Marvel has given up on making the Ultimate Marvel Universe too different from the main one. Ulimate Fantastic Four, which I picked up the first dozen issues on, seems very much in line with the Ultimate Spidey approach of being different, yet the same, with the main hook being: 'Tune in next issue to see how we reintroduce something longtime readers have already seen and new readers can find out about by checking the back issue bins or trades'. No thanks, Marvel, been their done that, I'll pass on this one, it was Fantastic the first time, but this time it seems less so.

Where was I really going? Oh yeah, the Avengers

This weekend I've read four Avengers books set in the Marvel Universe Proper. Avengers #500 (Directors Cut), Avengers Finale, and Avengers Earth's Mighiest Heroes #1 and #2.

The first two above are the bookends for the Avengers Disassembled storyline, and it doesn't seem like I missed much by skipping everything inbetween them. The thing that really struck me about Avengers #500 was that after not reading this book for the last 200+ issues, I wasn't the least bit lost. Nothing seems to have changed at all, or if it has, they've put it back pretty much like I left it over a decade ago (except for Iron Man as the Secretary of Defense, I don't even want to know what that's all about).

The Avengers Finale issue was structured like a funeral, it's about as much fun as one too. The Disasembling must have been bad, some characters died, and Iron Man is pulling his funding of the team. Apparently the Avengers are no-more [until, like a month from now, when it gets reformed as Marvel's JLA featuring all their big guns: Captain America, Spider-man, Spider-woman (not a big gun, but fulfills that Avangers Two Insect hero requirement), Luke Cage (soon to be a major motion picute), Wolverine (My god, who likes this guy this much? they put him in everything!), Iron-man (which after reading Avengers Finale seems odd) and Sentry (a Marvel riff on Superman)]

I wouldn't reccomend picking up either of the above Avengers titles. Avenger's Earth's Mightiest Heroes #1 and #2 is a different story altogether though.

These were interesting. Not good mind you but interesting. First off Scott Kollin's art is mighty, he's the main reason why I picked up the book. Ben Casey, on the writing is capturing the characters exactly as I think they should be as well, which is exactly why I think this is an interesting book and not a good book. Let me explain:

The structure of these tales takes you back to the origin days of the Avengers and crafts a story between the panels of those tales. If you know the Avengers origin, you'll follow along quite easily with the path this book takes. It doesn't change anything substantive, but Casey, as Bendis does in Ultimates, adds a modern sensibillity. Ultimates however jetisoned enough history to make it's tale work in the present day, Casey's A:EMH's seems to be having a little trouble.

The trouble, the Avengers are presented in their 60s costumes, and Iron Man in his bulky yellow armor, but from the laptops and style of the TV News, the origin seems to be pushed forward 30 years to someplace in the 90s. This is what is disconcerting to me, because unlike the Ultimates which recreated modern characteriztions for the heroes, this book brings all their Silver-Age Marvel goofyness into the present and yet igores it. This weird time distilation is an elephant in the room bigger than the Hulk.

In the second issue, the story behind the story of Captain America's modern day discovery by the Avengers is chronicled. Cap is very disoriented being pulled into the future amidst these colorful characters who don't really go together. With the story pushed into this new retro-recent past, the Avengers in costume and character seem to belong together even less now than the 60s. This disorientation is the part that I've identified with as a reader the most so far. Iron man, now in his 70s armor, Thor's verily and forsooths, Giant Man's goofy antenna's and a Rick Jones that seems placeless on any sort of timeline. They were all odd in their own time, they seem even more so in this new future-past. (In Casey's defense I believe he is trying to show the oddballness of the team as a prelude to Captain America bringing it together, but just read on it's own, it's the disjointed timeline modern/past retelling that really makes them seem thrown together and to not work.)

If it wasn't for Kollin's artwork, I'd drop this tale right here, but I do plan to pick-up the next several issues, for the art and to see how this funhouse mirror continuity compression plays itself out.

If it keeps going like this, I think It'll be a perfect example of how good writing and great art can't help but come off odd in a world where Superheroes have technically only been around for ten years or less but there continuity stretches back 40 or more.

Sunday November 21, 2004 9:52pm #

Let's Go Surfing

» Behold the face of Doom! from the upcoming Fantastic Four Movie
via Comics Continuum

» More Previews Solicitations: Marvel Comics for February 2005 Marvel tradepaperbacks for February 2005
YOUNG AVENGERS #1 written by Allan Heinberg (The O.C., Sex in The City, and Party of Five), not sure how that's going to work. The Hulk teen looks kindof silly and more Scott Kollins goodness in AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES #7 AND #8. That's all for this non-marvel zombie. Click the links above and look at all the great cover art.
via Comics Continuum

» Good Listing of Marvel Legends Action Figures

» Interesting Full-size Manga Model Computer Case Scultpture. I don't get why anyone would want to put a computer in a large statue like this, but the technique used for creating the statue is very interesting. I wish they went into more detail on how they sculpt the Polystyrene. Here's another Figure as well
via Boing Boing

Friday November 19, 2004 10:42am #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Have you heard about the Hooters lawsuit?

Atlanta-based Hooters of America accuses Ker's WingHouse of Kissimmee of poaching the idea coined when it opened its first sports bar in Clearwater in 1983, Hooters lawyer Steve Hill said in opening statements Wednesday in Orlando.

"The evidence will show WingHouse has copied the Hooter girl almost from head to toe," Hill said. "For want of a better expression, the Hooter girl is our Ronald McDonald."

But Crawford Ker said he based his chain on Knockers, a failing restaurant with an all-female staff in Largo that he took over after retiring from the NFL, according to pretrial deposition.

Hooters earns more than $750 million a year from nearly 400 restaurants and that success has inspired a host of copycats, Hooters Senior Vice President Michael McNeil said.

"We believe we are defending the integrity of our intellectual property rights," McNeil said outside the courtroom Wednesday.

The defense argument is they didn't copy Hooters, they copied Knockers, and Hooters is defending the integrity of their *intellectual* property rights. Wow that's better than the Daily Show writers can come up with-- I hope one of these sides at least has to pick-up the court costs.

Read the whole story
via FARK

» Yesterday I was flipping through the channels and paused the clicker for a moment on the ellen show.

Thursday November 18, 2004 8:31pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Finished the Daily Show/Jon Stewart/America the Book textbook parody today. Good stuff. All the Daily Show goodness without any of those pesky commercials or video and instead, lots of words and stuff. I enjoyed and am morest edukated than I wasd before redding it. Go get it at Amazon, it's only $15 (at time of this posting)

Comments on Comics

Teen Titans #18 Johns and McKone
Superman/Batman #14 Loeb and Pacheco
JLA #108 Busiek and Garney
It's Good Guys gone bad week from DC. In Teen Titans, the time traveling teens confront their gone-bad-selves 10 years in the future, Superman/Batman have taken over the world after time travelers from the future change their past and in JLA, their evil negative dopplegangers the Crime Syndicate of Amerika are featured for the entire issue.

My thoughts:

Teen Titans pretty good superhero fare, seems pretty rooted in current DC Continuity, so followers of that (esp the likes of Identity Crisis) will enjoy this one.

Superman/Batman, of the three, you could probably skip this one, it's not bad, the writing and art are both good, but this has been done quite abit recently and there doesn't seem to be any reason to believe after the first issue that it's going to go in any new direction.

JLA, I'm a sucker for the CSA characters, so I liked it. Although I found the Quard part a bit tedious, all and all it's a good pickup. Do Get.

Since all three of these are at or near the begining of their stories, it's going to be good-guys-gone-wild for a while in the DCU.

Wednesday November 17, 2004 10:58am #

» Creating new synergys in mass mediocre merchandising, KMart to buy Sears.
• Fark community comments on the merger.

Yay! more corporate consolidation! This is so exciting!

Wednesday November 17, 2004 12:49am #

Comments on TV

» Tom Brokaw was the guest on the Daily Show tonight. He pretty much had Jon Stewart's back on the whole Crossfire issue. Good Stuff. Catch the replay on Comedy Central tomorrow at 7pm.

» Watched two different programs about Wal-Mart tonight. One was a two hour CNBC program titled The Age of Wal-Mart. The other a one hour PBS Frontline special: Is Wal-Mart good for America? Very interesting programs.

The Wal-mart CEO interview in CNBC show took place in a rundown corporate office with wood paneling on the wall. Now I realize that is symbolic and mostly for show, other parts of the office are slightly nicer, but in large part, the place is a dump. During the program it was mentioned that the CEO made something like 14 million dollars last year or some astronomical amount like that. Also during the interview the CEO mentioned that when he travels he's stays in $49 hotel room with a second company officer. His on-camera reasoning was, since they ask their district people to stay two to a room during travel to save on costs, it wouldn't be right to have a second standard for himself. That sounds nice, but how many of his district people are making 14 million dollars? Isn't the wage alone a second standard in and of itself? Why collect 14 million dollars from the company in the first place, if you are going to stay double occupancy in $49 rooms.

There was also a nice point in the PBS show that in 1994 Rubbermaid was selected in a magazine as one of the most admired companies in America. One analyst likened the 1994 Rubbermaid to succeeding by taking the high road, based on quality, brand and innovation. The counterpoint to the story was that Wal-Mart was selected by the same magazine for the same award in 2004, the analyst likened their business method of severe cost-cutting and efficiency as much more of a low-road approach, and noted that it's success is all but destroying the previously mentioned approach.

In general after the shows I came away with these two opinions, Wal-Mart's public facing focus seems terrified of becoming perceived as "a bully", since they count on legislation to guard (and in some ways subsidize) their business methods and a bad public perception would work against favorable legislation. Their inward facing attitude seems to border on creating the foundations of a retail based religion bent on world domination for no purpose other than to see if they can do it. I didn't come away from the programs with any sense of an evil plan on their part, mostly they just seem to have some very twisted metrics to value life by. Endless Growth and Endlessly Cheaper goods.

I hope that the news shows continue to do programs like these at the very least based on the principles of "undue concentrations of power" and all that. It seems to be a ruthlessly simple yet effective organization to observe.

Web site in support of the PBS Frontline show

Tuesday November 16, 2004 11:58am #

Lets Go Surfing

» Boondocks is one of my favorite comic strips. Left leaning sure, but it's smart humor. Today's was especially good.

» Great customer stories on postmodernbarney. Best if read with the customer scene from Clerks in mind, I think. I liked this one especially:

"I'm a bit confused by these comics."
Okay, how can I help you with that?
"Well, what order should I read them in?"
...Well, if it were me, I'd read this one before I read that one.
"Oh! So #2 comes after #1!"
Usually, yes...

Dorian and Mike should make an Internet Video Clerks parody: "Comic Clerks". There's probably more than enough material already in their blogs to put together a script.

» Cartoon Network Adult Swim Action Figures!

» You've got to check out this transforming car commercial Good Stuff.
via various sites

» Cute Batman and Robin Kids Came across this while surfing on Flickr

Monday November 15, 2004 11:59am #

Comments on Comments

DC Comic and DC Direct Solicitation Highlights.

» DC Comics for February 2005
Scott McCloud's Superman story continues in SUPERMAN: STRENGTH #2 • ADAM STRANGE #6 • Both Ronnie Raymond and the new Firestorm on the cover of FIRESTORM #10 • Zoom and Cheetah and Wonder Woman on the cover of THE FLASH #219, that's a silver agey looking issue isn't it? • GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #5 looks good doesn't it? • I'm a sucker for a good JLA/CSA fight cover: JLA #111 • I'm not sure I'm quite ready to laugh at Elongated Man yet, with the JLA CLASSIFIED #4 return of the Super Buddies. • THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3 Triplicate girl • Identity Crisis folow-up in OUTSIDERS #21 • I didn't understand the first issue but THE QUESTION #4 has a very nice cover • Identity Crisis follow-up featuring Dr. Light in TEEN TITANS #21

» DC Direct for June 2005
Nice Jim Lee Superman and Batman posters • Crisis Action Figures: Earth 2 Robin, Monitor, Olivia Newton John Supergirl!, Psycho Pirate, and Harbinger •

Monday November 15, 2004 11:59am #

» Jerry Seinfeld is the Guest on Late Show with David Letterman tonight.

Saturday November 13, 2004 11:57pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Organized my "To Read" Stack of comics today. Put them into piles roughly by book or family and then I filled an entire long box with the results. For the three or four of you out there that skim through my reviews, I plan to attempt to make a dent in that box, so there will probably be alot of older reviews (such as they are) coming up on my blog as I do that.

And as long as I'm on the topic. Comics take up alot of space. Rather than counting the above, I did a quick google to figure out how many books fit in a long box (answer: 300) and came accross this interesting discussion on the topic. Also if you scroll down on this page you'll see an interesting solution of using legal filing cabinets. More custom solutions. And more Click on the "picture" links on those to see some very nice wooden boxes.

Comments on Comics

Superman Red Son #3 - Mark Millar, Kilian Plunket
Really Good Resolution to this Elseworlds Book: What if Superman crashed in Russia. Nice Resolution to the story, the third issue makes a good story in and of itself. I reccomend this one to non-comics geeks as well. Great art. It's a good read. Get it at Amazon

Friday November 12, 2004 10:42pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Yeah, the election's over, I should just let it go :) but this was too good(?) to not pass on. And Snopes says it's so (mostly).

Let's Go Surfing

» Heidi Klum and Lord Vader as Target Customer Service Representatives Slick Commercial
via Some Guy's Blog

» Robo-Dump
via Boing Boing

» oooooohhhhh I really want to have a set-up like this. It runs Windows XP Tablet Edition and is so tiny. Very Cool.
via Digital Media Thoughts

Comments on Comics

Spectacular Spider-man #21 - Jenkins, Caldwell
Spider-man, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Human Torch, Black Cat, Angel and Dr. Strange play a game of Poker... A game that gets crashed by THE KINGPIN! Actually, it's just a game of poker. It's pretty funny. The art is very good. Fun Issue.

Thursday Novemeber 11, 2004 9:52pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Saw the Fantastic Four promo trailer (via a link on Progressive Ruin, page is no longer active by request of 20th Century Fox.) I'm looking forward to the movie. I think it will be a good superhero flick. The Human Torch flying sequence looks awesome. Doom looks probable to make the villian transition from book to screen (although I'm not partial to the new Ultimate style metal-morphing origin.) The Thing make-up doesn't bother me. The only part I'm not sold on is Jessica Alba as Sue Storm. I don't have John Byrne's hang-up, but I did really really like the Dark Angel series and it still seems odd to see "Dark" Angel as a blonde. Alba's already known as a superhero of sorts and for me it's weird to try to see her as Sue instead. I had the same issue with Elecktra in Daredevil. I kept thinking of her as Sidney Bristo the whole movie.

Comments on Comics

Identity Crisis #6 - Meltzer, Morales
I really like this book. Only one more issue left in the series. So Sad. The first big reveal in the issue.... very cool, very unexpected, boy is he gonna be pissed. The second big reveal in the issue, very creepy. Personally, I have faith that this won't be another Green Lantern situation... I don't think it will be who it is, technically.

JSA #67 - Johns, Gibbons
Good Identity Crisis tie-in. Nice introductory issue for new readers. Read it before Identity Crisis #6.

Green Arrow #44 - Winick, Hester
I preorder Green Arrow from Previews, so I ended up with this issue. I know I'm going to come off as some kindof insensitive prick for this but, this issue sucks. I might have 1 or 2 more issues of this title still preordered but after that I'm dropping this book. It's not just this story though, the previous demon story sucked too. Really, I buy too many comics as it is, from now on, I'm going to avoid superhero fare with the name Winick on the cover. I rant too much otherwise.

GA's a great character and I really want to like this book. Even inside this story, GA himself comes across well. As a character he's as strong as Batman and just sort of writes himself. I think, it's hard for a decent writer to badly write him. Despite that, this ain't the GA book for me.

Let's Go Surfing

» A few Heroclix Legacy pics, includes Kingdom Come Green Lantern. Cool
via HCRealms

» Cool custom Star Wars Home Theatre
via a guy from work

Tuesday November 9, 2004 10:10pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Did you know they sell bags of Pistachio nut kernals without the shells?

Let's Go Surfing

» Not a flying car but gettin there.
via FARK

» Some Guy has stitched together extremely hi-res arial photos of Disneyland
via Boing Boing

» Cool perfume spraying watch.
via Boing Boing

Sunday November 7, 2004 11:10am #

Comments on Comics

The Intimates #1 - Joe Casey, Jim Lee, Giusseppe Camuncoli, Sandra Hope
Firebirds - Jay Faerber, Andres Ponce
I'm going to comment on both these books together because I think they would appeal to the same reader and because I'm not wild about either one of them.

First, Intimates. I'm not at all familiar with the Wildstorm Universe, so perhaps I don't have enough background to really "get" this book. The premise of a bunch of highschool superheros in a special high school for supers is sound enough, obviously the X-men have done very well with it. But this book seems to heavily suffer from set-up-itis. The creators of the book seem to think they can take 22 pages and do nothing but exposition on who the characters are. I don't think exposition draws in new readers and I doubt many will bother to pick-up the second book because of that. Maybe this will do better in a trade, but I don't plan to be around for that either.

Firebirds: Premise: Young Single Mother/Daughter superhero team. The concept is different enough that I pre-ordered the book. I had hoped for a female perspective tale ala Invincible, and the book delivered such, but in my opinion, a watered down version. Again set-up-itis, except this time there is 48 pages of conversation and exposition. The book reads like a TV pilot that doesn't get picked up, isn't going to be a series, but the network spent so much on it that they decide to air it anyway as a "special". There's no real conflict or jeopardy in this issue. Mostly it's a not very dramatic Mother/Daughter/Grandfather tale that reads like a soap opera missing the overly dramatic music and a cut to a Palmolive commercial. If I could read a comic in the background while doing the dishes and the laundry at one in the afternoon, that might be okay but it doesn't really work that way. Good Story equals Begining, Middle, End. None of those are present. There is something not quite right about the art either, the book looks like it is printed larger than it was planned to be. There is a thickness to the line art that makes it look like it was intended to be a digest sized book but then they changed their mind and went full comic size.

So why review both of these books together? They're both number ones, they are both superhero books not set in the big two universes and they both start with an assumption that the reader is going to pick them up and keep getting them based on premise alone. Neither of them grab the reader (and neither of them try). Both of them set all their cards on the table and neither hand impresses me. Go Fish.

Saturday November 6, 2004 10:02pm #

Public Service Announcement

Boy named Terry is
looking for his frog.
him name is
hopkin green frog
call 329-3228.
P.S. He'll find his frog.
Who took his frog.
Who found his frog.

More on this. Click the link and keep clicking the pictures.

Random Non-Sequiters

» Got another New Justice League Green Lantern figure. Slightly darker paint job, with faint speckles. Comes with a spring action grab hand "construct" (and corny enemy robot legs, not shown)

At the Movies

The Incredibles
Action Adventure Superhero 3D Computer Animated Cartoon. [PG] 1hr 45min
In Theatres: 11/05/04 Date I saw it: 11/05/04 at Celebration Cinema Knapps Corner

Really good family movie. More than just superheroics. There is a great Office/Working Dad/Mid-life crisis story in there too. They could have taken the easy path in this movie and done a superhero parody picture, but they don't go in that direction at all. I thought in tone it reminded me of some Astro City comic books. I really enjoyed it. Will Buy the DVD when it comes out. Go see.

Overall [great] Story [great] Special Effects [great]
key: [awful] [poor] [ok] [good] [great]

Comments on Comics

Superman/Batman #13 - Loeb, Turner
Nice art, Not a great issue in an of itself, but taken as part of a whole of the Return/Revival, whatever you want to call it, of Kara Zor-El, it wasn't bad.

JLA Classified #1 - Morrison, McGuinness
Weird. I wasn't quite sure what I reading until halfway through when we get to the scene in the cave. Something slightly silveragey about this whole tale. I'll probably skip the rest of this arc.

Question #1 - Veitch, Edwards
Didn't follow this story at all. No idea what I just read. Maybe it's just me but it seems that there are alot of comics coming out lately that are barely coherent. However, I will probably pick up this six issue series for the art alone. The book is very distictive looking, much more Vertigo than DC.

Let's Go Surfing

» Neat TV

» The first 501 issues of Amazing Spiderman on 11 CDroms for $49.99
via Comics Continuum

» Cute picture of a cat in a snowball fight
via flickr

Friday November 5, 2004 7:01am #

Found this on Boing Boing, I think it sums it up pretty good:

MY MODEST PROPOSAL: THE U.S.A.R. By C. B. Shapiro I feel bad for the Red States. Yes, they won the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and most of the state houses. But they still can't have the country they really want because the last few Blue States won't roll over. So I am making a simple proposal: Secession. Divorce. Splitsville. Personally, I think we made a huge mistake not letting them go when we had the chance back in 1862. Well, no time like the present to correct an old mistake. Then, they would finally be free to have the kind of society they've always wanted; church and state can be fused so they build the kind of theocracy they've dreamt of, with Jesus at the helm. Then the new USAR (United States of America Red) can ban books, repeal civil rights, persecute gays and have all the wars they like. They want prayer in schools? More power to them. They can ban abortion and post the Ten Commandments in every federal building in their country. Bring back slavery, if they want. We'll be free to live with our like-minded countrymen who believe in science, modernism, tolerance, religion as a personal choice, and truly want limited government intrusion in our personal lives. Why should each side be driven mad by the other any more, decade after decade? Call the Culture War a tie and everyone go home. Of course, we in the U.S.A.B. get the Gross Domestic Product, businesses and universities of California, New York, Massachussetts -- basically the whole Northeast and Northwest (plus Illinois and Michigan if they want to come along). They get Wal-Mart and Duke and most of the Nascar tracks. But they can feel free to import movies, TV shows, financial services, and defense technology. We'll import country music, bibles and Confederate flags. The two countries will by necessity have open immigration policy: anyone who feels they are living in the wrong country can just move across the border, no questions asked. Ultimately, why should I have to convince my fellow countrymen that Darwin may have had a point and that the word “liberal” is not equivalent to “godless communist?” And why should they be forced to live in a country with morally corrupt non-believers? I'll stay in the messy, free-thinking U.S.A.B. And to the U.S.A.R. I say… God bless you all, and see you at the U.N

The above is very similiar to what I drew at work on my Whiteboard Tuesday, shown at right.

As you can see, I propose we take it further: UNAAC (United States of America and Canada), CSA (Confederate States of America), Caliwashigon (Formerly the West Coast States) and Quebec. Just look at it, it makes sense doesn't it? Congress remaps their districts all the time, why not redistrict the whole continent?

More election maps:

USA Today County by County breakdown.

Some Guy has made a map that shows that it's really a Purple America

Let's Go Surfing

» I saw the new Star Wars Episode III Teaser Trailer yesterday. Cool. (The poster is pretty bad though... here's FARK's take on that.)

» This Sandisk USB stick sized SD reader looks pretty cool. press release
via Pocket PC Thoughts

» Live in an online hello kitty world
via Boing Boing

» Ben Affleck and Kevin Smith bitch about eachother
via The Beat

Wednesday November 3, 2004 5:42am #

» OMFG! I just woke up and It's not over yet. Fox News: 269 Bush, 242 Kerry; MSNBC: Bush 269, Kerry 221; CNN: Bush 254, Kerry 252.

It's not looking good for Kerry though. How the Fnck did the Democrats lose Florida this time? Bush won Florida??? And Ohio? What the Buckeye is going on down there.

Bush has a 3% lead at the moment in the popular vote. Nuts.

Wednesday November 3, 2004 12:07am #

» Too close to call at this point. NBC has Kerry at 206 and Bush at 207.... It's getting dangerous for Kerry now though. I'm going to bed, maybe we'll have a President Elect in the morning.

Tuesday November 2, 2004 8:30pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» I voted this morning, short wait, although the poll workers were commenting that they were very busy so far. Hard for me to tell since I've never voted first thing before, I normally vote in the evening.

» I've got my two TV's in the living room on the election coverage right now. CNN's coverage is ok if you like them constantly telling you how hard they are working not to miscall anything this year and if you enjoy watching them stroll back in forth in front of their big wall of stats. CNN also has all their namebrand news personalities on the same show right now (minus Lou Dobbs) and it looks awkward.

NBC has the most relaxed coverage and I like their big ice skating map. MSNBC has very similiar coverage in feel to what they had at the debates.

I think at this point it's looking good for Kerry. We'll see.

Coments on Comics

Aquaman #23 - Ostrander, Batista
Ok. Is this a flashback? or maybe I haven't payed close enough attention to something? Anyway, the big problem with Aquaman is so much of it happens underwater.

JLA #107 - Busiek, Garney
It looks like you could completely skip this issue. Not sure it has much to do with the upcoming arc (except for the last page) and I found Flash's characterization abit off.

Adam Strange #2 - Diggle, Ferry
Nice Art. I'm hoping that this book doesn't lose its grounding in the DCU and doesn't completely drop Adam Strange's superheroness in favor of sci-fidom. This is Tradepaperback pased story, so issue by issue the pacing is going to be abit off on this run but ok so far.

Doctor Spectrum #3 - Barnes, Foreman
Ok... This does not appear to be a superhero story at this point. It looks to be an exploration of a disturbed kid who joins the military. Ok I suppose if you want to read that, but it should be titled: 'Joe Ledger' not 'Doctor Spectrum'

Let's Go Surfing

» Lots of Marvel Movies on the horizon
via Comics Continuum

I don't spell check! Most of the time the Quotes of the Day are by someone else, and sometimes I misremember them abit... and they are taken out of context. I often state my opinions as facts. I'm aware that can be annoying? Occasionally I edit content on these pages after initially posting them. Sometimes I type the word "Fnck". Flip the "n" over... I don't have a problem with the word myself, I just type it that way to slip it past overzealous work censorship programs. I'm also aware that I spend too much time on the internet.