January 2005

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Monday January 31, 2005 9:51pm #

» When Babylon 5 first aired, one of the more interesting aspects of the show for me was being subscribed to the Babylon 5 email list where it's producer and writer, JMS, was extrememely active answering fan questions, teasing the show, and filling in background on the production. The Producer/Writer of Battlestar Galactica seems to be following in B5's footsteps by giving fans that same upto the minute feedback, except instead of email, the interaction is being delivered in the much more "now" blog form. The current Battlestar Blog posting by Ron Moore is richly detailed stuff and well worth reading for any fan of the show.

» At Right are all the ad pages from DC Comic's The Flash #218, out last week. The Ads are for: Mechassault 2 Lone Wolf - XBOX, The US Army, Zelda the Minish Cap - Gameboy Advance, DC's Superman Strength Mini Series, Aliens vs. Predator DVD, Rachet and Clank (Which a friend of mine worked on a little bit, so buy that one), Batman TAS Vol 2, Everquest II, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Eye Toy Antigrav - Playstation 2, and Hubba Bubba Max Bubble Gum.

Totals:
5 Video Game
3 DVDs
1 House Ad
1 Army Ad
1 Bubblegum ad

No real comments, I just thought it was an interesting breakdown.

» Two interesting program finds on Tinyapps.org/blog. The first is Currports, a nice application that shows the programs using TCP/IP and UDP ports on your computer. The second: Foxit PDF Reader, A nice no installation required PDF viewer that can very easily be carried around on a USB stick (although, I'm not sure I've seen a computer recently that didn't have Acrobat Reader installed on it already. Still neat though)

Sunday January 30, 2005 12:52pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Good episode of Battlestar Galactica last Friday. The show is pretty much my new favorite. Very Good Stuff.

» So Friday at work, a coworker points out that he has uploaded a comedian: Dane Cook to our networked iTunes library. I gave it a listen. Funny stuff.

Saturday, I'm over someone else's house and out of the blue, totally non-connected to the first person, a friend pops in Dane Cook's DVD. ($13) Funny stuff.

» Crazy hits (for me anyway) on this blog right now (most I've ever had in a single day and it's only 1pm). Apparently there are more than a few fans of Hal Jordan that want to see last night's Justice League video clip.

Comments on Comics

Ex Machina #6 and #7 - Vaughn, Harris
Good Stuff. I really like how well the monthlies work as issues in and of themselves. Even though in general there is an overarching "writing for the trade" style involved. Vaughan does manage to give the reader a complete tale each issue. The art of course is fantastic, although I have a different appreciation for it after having seen elaborate extent of Harris' photo reference in the back of the first trade.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2 - Waid and Kitson
The reimagining continues.

This was a one issue story. The last page had a caption with the word "End". You never see that anymore. Could it be? A series from the big two that you can pick-up each issue and get a self contained story that also still has an ongoing back story? Wow.

I like it. I'm going to stay onboard this one for awhile I think.

Flash #218 - Johns and Snejbjerg
Another self-contained issue from DC. Rogue Spotlight issue featuring Heat Wave. Johns really rounds out this character, not just as a villian, but as a believable (well in as much as a superhero costume clad villian can be anyway) fully realized person. This is probably a good example of Didio's/DC's new direction to explore why their characters do what they do and how they fit in their imagined universe.

Do they have enough of these Rogue issues to bundle together as a trade yet? Good stuff.

Saturday January 29, 2005 10:58pm #

» FANBOYS REJOICE! oooooohhhhhhhh such a good Justice League Episode tonight! A Once and Future Thing part 2.

Hal Jordan!

Earth's Greatest Green Lantern. White Gloves! So Very Cool. Pic at right and Click Here for a Zipped WMV video clip! And Ganthet's Tale fans you are going to love the end! (which isn't in the WMV Clip, sorry)

Thursday January 27, 2005 10:16pm #

» Dan Didio, DC Comics VP Editorial. Newsarama Interview

Part of my job here, and has been since day one is that I always wanted to rebuild the sense of the periodical. I love the idea of getting the issue, reading it, and not being able to wait for the next one to come out the following month. The idea of waiting for the trade is boring to me. We create comic books that are bought on a monthly basis, and my job, and the job of everyone here is to make people go back into the store the next month or next week, and buy the next issue because they can’t wait for something to come six months or a year down the road. That’s what the fun of what we do is – we have a unique business in that our business is built on putting out books on a monthly basis, so therefore they have to be exciting on a monthly basis. They have to be compelling. They have to be filled with characters and situations that people want to see more of. We’ve got to create stories that are too big for movie budgets. We’ve got to tell stories that are too big that can just be collected and sit on a shelf. We’ve got to tell stories that people want to see and read every month, every week.

Monday January 24, 2005 12:52am #

» Was in Meijer today, in the book aisle. Saw this. An Audio Book: James Earl Jones Reads the Bible. Darth Fnckin Vader reads the Bible. "I AM THE Father! The son and the holy ghost!"

» Saw a new Green Lantern T-shirt at Hot Topic. Black with the whitecircle green symbol logo... destressed style. $18. I didn't pick it up, but it was tempting.

» Bought a new vacuum cleaner today. It really sucks. (heh heh I love that joke)

» Watched a new episode of Unscripted on HBO tonight. Good show, Good stuff.

» Johnny Carson died today. Late night tv was never quite the same after he left it. But man, did he drop off the radar. It's weird to see CNN go round the clock tributing a guy who hasn't done anything due to self imposed exile for 12 years.

Sunday January 23, 2005 2:10am #

» For those of you looking in on this blog from warmer climates... We got some serious snow in Michigan yesterday. Winter wonderland in full effect.

Sunday January 23, 2005 2:03am #

Random Non-Sequiters

» The first part of the Justice League Unlimited two-parter The Once and Future Thing aired tonight on Cartoon Network. Pretty good episode. It's nice to get a two parter again after a season of single episodes. The set-up at the end for next week's conclusion looks to be the real fun though. Of course, I'm a continuity freak and really like these sort of arc eps.

» Got some vinyl brick sheeting and some square wood dowels at Hobby Lobby and made some building ledges/displays for a couple shelves of my DC Action Figures. There's a couple more shelves in that case I'll get around to playing with later.

» Here's some Green Lantern Madness too.

Let's Go Surfing

» I just noticed Julius Marx updated his site back on 1/17. Lots of good stuff there. Including: Spidey Rogues enoying a pint and a most excellent Sandman two-shot

» Wizard interview with WizKids Heroclix makers

» Great Marvel Legends Pics
via Julius Marx

» Marvel Comics Previews Solicitations for April 2005 and Tradepaperbacks: POWER PACK #1, Cool! • ULTIMATE SECRET #2, Sounds Mahvelous • ULTIMATES 2 #5, Ultimates vs. Thor! • G.L.A. #1, most blatant cover logo rip on a rival company yet, but I may get it. • MARVEL TEAM-UP #7, Nice Spidey, Moon Knight cover • SUPREME POWER VOL. 1 HC, 352 pages, $29.99, good deal if you haven't read this series yet. Collects 1-13 plus other goodness

Most Marvel Covers are great. Click the links above and scroll through them.

Comments on Comics

Hero Squared #1 - Giffen, DeMatteis and Abraham
From the BwaHaaHaa team that brought you JLI and I Can't Believe it's not the Justice League. Hero Squared is an indy self-contained universe wherein our Supermanish/Shazamish Hero: Captain Valor's universe is destroyed by a Manga Kahnish-like supervilian. Mayhem ensues and Captain Valor ends-up on a parallel Earth. He immediately attemts to find his double on this new Earth in the hopes that Two Captain Valor's will be able to save this universe.

The problem: This universe's Captain Valor has no powers and is pretty much a slacker too.

Lengthy and verbose (but in a good way) witty dialog carries this book in the JLI style. Fans of that style will definently want to pick this one up. Art is ok but not near as good as the writing.

One point I think that keeps this book from being as good as the JLI is that part of the fun of that title is seeing the silly and absurd side of the normally serious DCU. You get the silly and absurd in this book, but lacking the playing-it-straight foundation, the book isn't quite as strong as the JLI.

This will be a regular "get" for me though, it's still good stuff.

Action Comics #823 - Austen and Reis
Good battle issue. Superman, Superboy, and Krypto! Art approaching Jim Lee Level. I think they've hooked me into this book for a few issues. Good Stuff.

Manhunter #6 - Andreyko and Saiz
Identity Crisis Tie-In. First time I've picked-up this book. Ok art, minimal backgrounds, but the single-mom-lawyer angle of the the main heroine is an interesting twist of subject matter for a mainstream DC book. There's a great "bit" where the lead character has someone "beam-up" to JLA headquarters and serve the League with subpoenas to appear as witnesses in Firestorm's murder trial. I'll stick around for this story-arc but I don't see this becoming a regular pick-up for me beyond this arc.

Aquaman #26 - Arcudi and Gleason
Aquaman is a book that I've been picking up every third issue or so of late, just to keep up on it's sunken San-Diego, Sub-Diego storyline. It's an OK read, but I wouldn't really reccomend it in general.

Wonder Woman #212 - Rucka, Raiz
Wonder Woman is a book I pick-up once a year at best, so I've got little idea what is going on in this issue. Apparently Wonder Woman is blind at the moment (wearing a red blindfold), which must be a recent happening since the point of the issue (and why I picked it up) is a sparring session and evaluation with the Justice League who are put Wondy through the paces to see if she is still up to league membership. Whatever the cause of her blindness she seems to be just as capable as Daredevil at the moment, leaving me to wonder, what's the point? I'm sure she'll have her sight back in another year or so when I pick-up another issue of this series. The characterizations are good. The art's a little heavy handed. It's Ok.

Teen Titan's #20 - Johns and Grummett
Identity Crisis Tie-in. The kid's are dispatched by the JLA to track down and recover Lex Luthor's Green Power Armor which has fallen into some less than capable wannabe supervillians hands. Robin deals with the death of his father and Green Arrow makes a cameo.

Adventures of Superman #636 - Rucka and Clark
Identiy Crisis Tie-in. Also Ties-in to the above Wonder Woman book. Same Author too. Better art than Wondy though. Supes has a major baddy that knows how to push all his buttons in this issue. The stakes in the villian's aim are high so Supes calls in (currently blind) Wonder Woman and Batman to help him. Wonder Woman finds out the Identity Crisis secret of the League in this issue and the Big Three debate it abit in the Fortress of Solitude. The last page of this issue also ties into epilogue one of the above mentioned Teen Titan's. Good Stuff they may have hooked me into this issue for a run too.

A Comic Review Epilogue

Identity Crisis seems to have really gelled the DCU into one solid consistent universe for the time being. Continutiy fans are going to get their fill. No "red skys" crossovers here. It's a great time to be a DCU fan. Lots of good stuff to pick-up

Thursday January 20, 2005 11:10pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» I took the day off today. Among other things, I saw some of the inaugural coverage on TV, including the full Inauguration speech by George W.

We're going to bring Freedom and Liberty to the entire world now? And end tyranny? That's a pretty big goal. Certainly not a conservative goal.

» There's a blog I read where the author recently listed "Comic books, especially superheroes", among other things, under a category "Things I just don't 'get'". My first reaction was to think of a defense of the interest and activity. Dwelling on it a little more, I really couldn't come up with one that would apply to the population at large.

More or less some of the attractions of Superhero comics for me are:
• A fun holdover from childhood, that's somewhat grown with me.
• A fairly problemless way to kill time
• An art and format I can appreciate on a technical level
• More often than not: Clear-cut Good vs. Evil adventure fantasy starring larger than life individuals with fantastic abillities.
• An endless source of involving minutia
• The community of people, involved in this hobby, experienced in both the weekly store visits and on the internet are as odd and entertaining as any characters you can find anywhere
• They smell cool (The comics that is :) mmmm.... Fresh ink!

Everyone else's milage will vary.

I think, most things people are into are pretty silly when you really look closely at them and abstract them a little. But in this country at least, we are fortunate to have alot of time to fill up and alot of choices of things to fill it with. Naturally you're going to get every imaginable little niche activity with some sort of fanbase. Superhero comics and all their particularities do that for a sizeable niche population.

It's the niches within niches within niches that are the really odd thing to me.

» New Justice League Unlimited on Cartoon Network this weekend!

Comments on Comics

Ian Brill has an excellent rant on DC and Marvel's current penchant to write their books for a Late 20s to Mid 30s fanboy audience. I came across the above article on The Beat, which has also had a string of similiar topics. The sum of this viewpoint seems to be that the Big Two should be writing for new or casual readers and not focus so much on catering to the vast storehouses of Comics trivia commanded by older fanboy readers.

Although I think his posting is well thought out and written, I don't see anything wrong with this new direction of the big two. Of course, it helps that I'm now their target market.

My thoughts:

I don't run a comic store and I can't speak from that angle, but I do know that personally I have a lot more discretionary cash to dump on comics now in my early 30s than I did in my early 20s, so from that viewpoint it would seem to me that if the numbers are there (and they would seem to be), Marvel/DC as a business would be better off catering to my demographic than the above author's demo (generally speaking).

The people writing comics right now, seem to, by and large be in their 30s and 40s (the older writers of which, have been in the game, most likely for the last 20 years or so), so it seems likely that they are going to write the characters the way they are fond of them and likely how they first came to them. And that fondness is likely to spring from the Late 80s at the moment.

These things are cyclical though. Ask a much older fan who appreciates the true silver age, or a golden age fan (if you can find one), I'm sure they have the same complaints of not being the target market. Fear not, however, early twenty somethings, you'll probably get your wave of nostalgia in another 5 years too. (But it won't be all blue skys then either because the people under you will start reliving and pushing back forward their love of Manga!)

» Quick Comic Reviews:

Superman #212 - Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee
Vaguely getting some idea as to what this story might have been about. But then again, I only buy it for the art. Azzarello/Lee give JMS/Franks' recent Supreme Power Hyperion/Power Princess scene a run for it's money in this issue. (ie: this issue ain't one for the little ones.) The issue opens with a bit of weirdness of Supes talking to Clark, moves into the above mentioned "Man of Steel" moment and ends with an allusion to one of the best superhero villian quotes of all time. Only get this one if you're a hardcore fan or if you just like looking at Lee's art.

Ultimates 2 #2 - Millar, Hitch.
Great stuff.

Marvel Team Up #4 - Kirkman, Kollins
Good Stuff.

Green Arrow #46 - Winick, Fowler
Nice Cover. Half Green Arrow issue, Half Teen Titans issue. I like the new Speedy costume. But I'm still not sure having an ex-teen-prostitute with HIV is the best character to introduce to a team that currently has a hit TV cartoon, squarely aimed at little kids.

» DC Comics Previews Solicitations for April 2005 and : DC tries yet again to strike lightning with Shazam in ACTION COMICS #826, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #639 and SUPERMAN #216 (Won't work, if they must have Captain Marvel in a world with Superman, they are better off keeping him in JSA where his origin fits in well enough with all the Eqypt related characters on that team.) • SUPERMAN VS. THE FLASH TP, Alex Ross Cover • ADAM STRANGE #8 • AQUAMAN #29 JLA and a "Themyscria crisis" • DC: THE NEW FRONTIER VOL. 2 TP • THE FLASH #221, Captain cold and Heatwave Cover... now that's Comics! • GREEN LANTERN SECRET FILES 2005, These generally suck but hey it's Hal Jordan! • Blue Beetle and Booster Gold cover in JLA CLASSIFIED #6 • OUTSIDERS #23 Written by Judd Winick "What happens when seven trapped super-heroes stop being polite and start getting real?" DC have you no shame? • THE OMAC PROJECT #1 Identity Crisis and Countdown tie-in? • SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #1, The write up to this one doesn't sound good • TEEN TITANS #23 Identity Crisis Tie-In!

DC Direct Previews Solicitations: Ed mcGinnis Style: Superman, Batman, Shazam, Captain Atom and Metallo. I'll get Captain Atom but a Third Shazam? and more Batman and Superman? Every Artist gets a Bats and a Supes now? I could see if they were Hembeck versions ;) or something.... But generally speaking, action figure-wise: Superman is Superman is Superman and This particular Batman costume has been done a half dozen times already.

Image Comics Previews Solicitations for April 2005: INVINCIBLE #0 a 50’ Intro issue! • RISING STARS HARDCOVER 624 pages, $69.99, That's a big book!

» Wizard magazine has a Special Edition Superhero Gaming magazine out with a heavy Heroclix focus/guide in it including a rundown on the DC Legacy set figures:

» Green Lantern Related figures of Note: Kingdom Come Green Lantern, Jade (Outsiders costume), Major Force, Obsidian, Mogul, and Sinestro.

» Some other cool figures: Ares, Arsenal, Captain Atom, Kingdom Come Flash, Hush, Kid Flash, Mr. Freeze, Mr. Terrific, Power Girl, Kingdom Come Red Robin, Superboy, CSA Superwoman, CSA Ultraman.

» The Ex Machina Tradepaperback that just came out has some fascinating pages in the back showing the reference photos, sketches, inks and finished artwork on several pages. Good stuff.

Let's Go Surfing

» Fantastic Four Movie Trailer

» Read these MARVEL comics FREE!, entirely online at Mile High Comics: Captain America #3, Hulk #78, Marvel Age Fantastic Four #3, Marvel Knights Spider-man #11, Thunderbolts #5, Young Avengers #1, Black Panther #1 Uncanny X-Men #455, X23 #2 (The female Wolverine), and Amazing Spider-man #516

Saturday January 15, 2005 10:28pm #

At the Movies

Elektra
Superhero [PG-13] about an hour and a half
In Theatres: 1/14/06 Date I saw it: 1/15/06 at Studio 28

Not a good superhero movie. I went with a few friends and sat in the back of the theatre mocking this movie mercilessly. I had a very good time. If it wasn't as bad as it was, I don't think that would have been possible.

The problems:

More kung-fu than superhero. Doesn't really feel like it is set in the Marvel Universe. No mention of Daredevil that I noticed. Sidney Bristow spends the first half of the movie pouting and sad until she meets ER's Luca and his daughter and through the magic of Christmas and a freaky "Single White Superhero" moment bonds with the young Teen Elektra Wanna-be and shares a couple brief balcony scenes with the forementioned County General Attending. (on Rotten Tomatoes I saw the young girl referred to as Mini-E, that cracks me up.)

There's flashbacks galore of Elektra treading water in a pool as a child and a wise old blind kung-fu master "Stick" (who I guess is a Marvel Character, but I've never followed this corner of the Marvel U closely) And an assortment of Mortal Kombat characters (complete with disintegrate into video game puffs of smoke death scenes!) for Agent Bristo to fight.

It's a completely forgetable movie, Gardner plays the same character much more interestingly on TV each week on Alias, so go rent the DVD box set of that instead. Or y'know, Catwoman *is* coming out on DVD (yeah it's that bad). This one is only for the Comic Book Die-hards who enjoy a good bad-movie-night mocking session.

(Was there a Stan Lee Cameo in this one? If so I missed it.)

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

Random Non-Sequiters

» I did see the Fantastic Four movie trailer at the Elektra showing. I'm looking forward to the movie. I don't think it will be as good as Spider-man, but I think it very much has the potential to be a fun flick.

» Back to the Elektra bad movie night... To make a Bad-Movie-Event out of it, for the preshow, we watched an edited down version of Daredevil (I've made my own fan-cut of the movie that is only 58 minutes long that features primarily the Elektra story.) I also made Elektra Nachos (with red Mediteranen Vegetable crisps) an Franks 'n Miller (Little Hot Dogs boiled in Miller Beer.) Good Times.

Saturday January 15, 2005 10:10am #

Random Non-Sequiters

» I very much enjoyed last night's first two episodes of Battlestar Galactica, 33 and Water. What I'm really enjoying about the show is the retro-futurness of it all and the character interaction.

Battlestar Galactica hasn't gone the touchscreen computer and holographic display route of most current sci-fi. There are no networked computers on this carrier, the crew communicate on clunky radios and corded telephones, notes are written on whiteboards and information is communicated by printed punch card printouts. Galactica's universe is "realer" than most shows. In many ways it feels to me like the sci-fi future that we thought we'd be in by now back in the 70s, and as a bonus the realness of Galacticas technology makes it seem much less likely that the show will develop any of the deu ex machina solutions to story problems that plaque trek.

In the pre-show, the producer likened the show to ER, in how the show works with it's sets and characters. I think it is a good analogy. There is a sense, like on ER, that these characters are largely "at work" or "doing their job" as opposed to most sci-fi show's "on an adventure" type-feels. The characters also seem more rounded than most sci-fi fare. There isn't the "smart one" the "cad" or the "genius" character-type simplifications that alot of these type of shows have.

Check it out. Friday's at 10pm. It's good stuff.

At the Movies

Along Came Polly
Romantic Comedy [PG-13] about an 1hr 30min
In Theatres: date Date I saw it: 1/13/05 on HBO

A completely forgetable Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston comedy that really didn't seem to settle on what kind of comedy it was going to be (sweet, cute, gross-out, or whatever). Don't rent on DVD, don't bother on HBO. If you must see it, wait until it's on USA or something you'll enjoy the commercial breaks.

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

Let's Go Surfing

» Very Neat looking Office Cubicle Toys: The Cubes Buy | Manufacturer
via Boing Boing

» Very Cool Boing Boing/Clerks Mash-up parody
via Boing Boing

» Battlestar Galactica Blog written by the producer of the show.
via Slashdot

» Darth Tater

» Titan Pictures
via FARK

» Good post-Identity Crisis Brian Maletzer Interview at Newsarama

» Steve Martin as Inspector Clousea in The Pink Panther. With Beyonce Knowles! (Bad Movie ideas please form a line behind Mr. Martin. Thank You.)
via Post Modern Barney

Monday January 10, 2005 11:55pm #

American Splendor
Comic Book [R] 101min
In Theatres: 1/20/2003 Date I saw it: 1/10/04/ on HBO

A very interesting flick that combines Hollywood adaptation with Documentary with one of the more interesting and well done additions of comic animation that I've seen in a Live Action film. Good Stuff.

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

Random Non-Sequiters

» Also saw the first two episodes of HBO's new 30 min Original Series: Unscripted, which follows 2 unknown actors and the woman from the Emmanuel series as they try to make it as actors in Hollywood. Interesting show. Interesting choice for the network since it covers similiar ground to Entourage but the formats of the two shows are very different. Unscripted has a reality show, raw footage style presentation to it. These first two episodes had appearances of the ER and Life with Bonnie casts and sets as well as Gary Marshall and others playing themselves. Different. Sundays at 10pm, tune in.

» Seen in my Google refereer logs of people somehow finding this site:: "julie schwartz porn". That's wrong. That's so wrong.

» According to a TV promo I just saw, the Rubberbandman actor from the Office Max commercials will tell the story of how he survived the tsunami on tomorrow's Inside Edition. Wow! I can't wait to see that...

» The second Christopher Priest Green Lantern Hardcover is out

Comments on Comics

» Flash #217, Johns and Porter
Good Art, Good Writing, Great Identity Crisis tie-in. Geoff Johns writes some great stuff when given the entire DC box of crayons to color with. Another plus in this issue: a cameo with Batman, bordering close to villian territory.

» The New Avengers #2, Bendis and Finch
Marvel's New Ultimate, Ultimate Avengers Decompressed launch story continues. Good stuff, not terribly fast moving, but still good stuff.

Saturday January 8, 2005 9:24pm #

I watch very little live tv. Generally I tape shows with a small bank of cheap VCRs, watching them much later than originally aired and fast forwarding through the commercials.

Currently I am attempting to watch the NBC showing of the Battlestar Galactica pilot movie. The number of commericials are unbelieveable.

Friday January 7, 2005 12:24am #

» The Pilot Movie for Sci-Fi's upcoming Battlestar Galactica series will be shown this Saturday 1/8/05 on NBC 8pm-11pm. Give it a look. (The actual series premieres next week Friday 1/14/05 on Sci-Fi channel with a two hour season opener.)

Let's Go Surfing

» Tucker Carlson to stop hurting America. Yay!
via FARK

» "Face it, Tiger; you just hit the jackpot!" NSFW. (Good Mary Jane Watson quote huh?)
via FARK

Monday January 3, 2005 10:10pm #

Random Non-Sequiters

» First Monday morning of the New Year. I come into work. I work in a fairly large office. I have a gray 6ft x 8ft cubicle, no window view. You get the picture. I walked into the office today and sat myself in my fabric walled box. As I'm doing the obligatory 10 minute blank stare at the computer monitor, I became aware of the background Muzak. Playing from the ceiling speaker at exactly 9am this morning.... the opening theme to BBC's "the office" sitcom.

Art imitates life imitates art.

It wasn't as funny as you would think it would be.

Let's Go Surfing

» Great little animation on procrastination.
via Boing Boing

» Take a look at these Screenshots for this freeware Tron Lightcycle game. Versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Saturday January 1, 2005 10:55am #

Comments on Comics

Marvel Team-Up #1, #2, and #3 Kirkman, Kollins
Just read all three of these back to back. This is a very fun title. If you are a DC fan like me, that doesn't dip your toe into Marvel's pool to often, this is a great book to pick-up to take the House of M's temperature with. There is a novel approach, in this arc at least, of seperating the story from the characters involved in it. The events are moving from character to character. A butterfly effect if you will, where the actions of Spidey and Wolverine in the first two issues set off an effect whith is delt with by Dr. Strange and the Fantastic Four in the next issue which in turn contribute to a set-up of events that will appear to be handled by Iron Man and Hulk in the next issue. Good Stuff.

The only (creative) nitpick I have on the series so far is the inking? There is no inker listed. I heard from a friend that it was digital inking. In anycase, the inking is single line weight and somewhat artificial looking. It's very much a diservice to Kollin's pencils. The Coloring is so well done that you can kindof let it slide, but it does take the shine off of the book a little.

One more non-creative nitpick I'll throw another one out there: Has anyone had pages in Marvel comics just pull right out of the book lately? This has happened a few times. Time to check the stapler at the printing company I think.

Other than the above though, Great book. Pick it up.

Let's Go Surfing

» MP3 Interview with William Gibson at ITconverstaions. Some interesting thoughts on Brands and Comodification.
via Boing Boing

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.