Paciocco's Mind

Just a reminder...

2011-12-10T12:35:00.003-05:00

I'm still here, but the new job means blogging will be slower, and as stated, shrinking slowly.

Anyway, just something for you to enjoy.

(If you need context, go here.)

Remembering Jens

2011-11-06T10:22:00.003-05:00

It has been too long since my last post. I had meant to start posting again after my birthday last month, but things got very busy soon thereafter with a new job. None of which has anything to do with today.

Last week I was informed of the death of my friend, writer Jens H. Altmann. I still find it very unusual to refer to anyone I'd never met face to face as a "friend" but it was very true of Jens. We usually spoke either by phone or over a chat online every Sunday for the last year or so, after a few years of trading ideas back and forth on various forums and LJs we both commented on.

Jens was an interesting sort - a man who demanded the highest idealism in others, even when he knew how it was even for himself to hold them up. He was often stoic to the point of being almost robotic, but beneath that layer of cool analytical thought was a fierce passion for an equality that never seemed to materialize in our world. His humor was one of dry, caustic sarcasm and biting insight - he had a habit of completely disassembling an opponent's argument in a dozen words or less. And when he didn't do that, it completely mocked the point of what the other guy was trying to get across.

Altmann, an author, knew exactly how much power words had over people, and he lamented how poorly stories were told in modern media, when it was so easy to find the right words. Jens had them, and I suggest you take some time over the next few days to go read his blog and see those words for yourself.

So, goodbye Jens. I will miss our geeking out over Leverage, our shared joy of Rory Williams-based badassery. But mostly, I'll miss just being able to speak to someone as insightful, as smart, and as sharp as you.

Rest Well.

Fans are awesome

2011-09-21T15:50:00.001-04:00

Delays

2011-09-11T13:23:00.000-04:00

Busy times. Will get more blogging done when I can. Stay Tuned.

Heh

2011-09-10T14:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I just post because it's cool.

Pick the Best Caption

2011-09-09T14:00:00.002-04:00

Good Comics - Atomic Robo

2011-09-08T14:00:00.001-04:00

Seriously?

Seriously?

This comic is like, one of the greatest things ever.

It's got a tight timeline, but because of that, the stories are told non-chronologically. In fact, the latest miniseries, the Deadly Art of Science, actually is set the earliest in Robo's career, as he's just starting to deal with the dangerous (and very fun) world he inhabits. And by the way, Robo as a kid - full of geeky enthusiasm and naivete? Is a very fun thing, because it is a contrast to Robo's demeanor in other series where he's more stoic and dry with his wit.

Clevenger and company really do deserve every bit of praise they get; this is a fun pulpy series that doesn't skimp out on humor, action, and even pathos (without ever descending into melodrama).

There's nothing else like it out there and it deserves your attention and money. And no, Hellboy is not like this - despite the comparisons, Hellboy is all about surviving horror. Atomic Robo is tongue-in-cheek - more Ghostbusters than say, The Prophecy.

Oh, and his archenemies are Stephen Hawking and an evil talking dinosaur. That should count for something, right?

Anyway, the latest miniseries, Atomic Robo: The Ghost of Station X is starting up this week. Go check it out.

Superman and Majestic

2011-09-07T14:00:00.002-04:00

One of the weird (and off-putting) things about the DC Reboot is the idea of "Superman is more Kal-El than Clark Kent". And the reason why is that if you need a character who is sort of Superman-like, but without the humanity, you've got Mr. Majestic right there.

(And no, the Martian Manhunter does have quite a bit of humanity in him, so he doesn't count).

Random bits of Superheroes being Awesome

2011-09-06T14:00:00.003-04:00

Two Dooms

2011-09-05T14:00:00.001-04:00

So, this is a question asked often enough - Dr. Doom - honorable villain, or bastard who will do what he wants and then justifies it as honorable after the fact? There are writers for both sides of the arguement (John Byrne and Chris Claremont, for "Doom is ultimately honorable and actually quite noble in his way." to Mark Waid for "Doom is a liar and a cheat who pretends he is honorable when in fact he's a total fraud"), and both sides are valid. In my opinion, this is a question of nuance and subtlety - which really shouldn't be a surprise given Doom is, even more than a scientist or wizard, a politican and diplomat.

Does Doom have a code of honor? Yes, but it is a twisted one (and even Byrne acknowledged this). A true diplomat, Doom's one to parse his words, his thoughts, even his perceptions, to maintain this code to himself. Keep in mind, the end result of any action doom undertakes should be in the service of Doom. But they must also bring Doom glory within the wider world. One thing Mark Waid did get right is Doom's need for external validation - it's not enough for Doom to kill Reed - he has to bring him down so that the world can see that Doom was always better than Richards. He doesn't just want to conquer the world - he wants the world to acknowledge that it needs him to conquer it.

Once you remove the external audience (i.e. the world stage, and especially the people of Latveria - more on that later), Doom becomes much more dangerous and deceitful - because he's less likely to gain any kind of external validation, he's more likely to betray, to go back on his word, to find a loophole (which he's usually smart enough to build for himself into any agreement). Like any politician, Doom's dealings behind closed doors are always darker and more devious than when he's in the public eye.

Latveria is the key - Doom has a captive audience who hangs on his every word, and it is there that he MUST be honorable and noble and all the things that he needs to convince himself that he actually is. So his actions there, and on behalf of the citizenry (his underlings are another matter - they know what the score is because Doom demands they be competent enough to carry out what he needs them to - so ultimately they respect him, they fear him, but they know what he is. Which is why he kills them if they step out of line). The misstep Waid made (and it was immediately reversed) was taking away Latveria from Doom. Without a nation that loves him, that feeds his need for validation, Doom becomes more dangerous, not less so. Resources don't matter when you're as dangerous as he is.

What If? We lived in a comic book Universe? Part 110

2011-09-04T14:00:00.000-04:00

Pick the Best Caption

2011-09-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

Your moment of Funny

2011-09-02T14:00:00.000-04:00

Good Comics - Farscape

2011-09-01T14:00:00.002-04:00

Alright, enough with the soul-bearing and complaining about the crap, let's get on with the good comics!

BOOM's Farscape comic is a guilty pleasure for me - it's a layer-cake of nostalgia that I enjoy despite its flaws, but marvel at when it gets it right.

Farscape remains one of my favorite TV shows of all time and perhaps the best space opera ever put out by the Sci-Fi network (sorry BSG fans - but you know I'm right). It was innovative, intelligent, rapid-paced, and fun entertainment that holds up to rewatching years later (as I learned when I rewatched the series this past winter). The comic series picks up after the events of the "Peacekeeper Wars" miniseries, and deals with the ongoing adventures of the crew of the Leviathan Moya, past and present.

First, let's dispense with the problems of the comic series. It is definitely a series written towards the longtime fans of the TV series and not for the casual reader. Much like the TV series it was based on, it's an ongoing story that is constantly building, and all-too often impenetrable to a new audience. The current storyline, concerning a giant cosmic war, seems at times to be an element external to the rest of the series - the antagonists were never introduced in the TV run, and are massively powerful and resourceful - if it weren't for the fact that series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon is helming the comic, one would think it fanfiction. There also hasn't been much opportunity for the slapstick (and occasionally crude) humor the show was known for (although as always, Rygel manages to pull through, as displayed in the posters here).

O'Bannon (with co-writer Keith R.A. DeCandido) presents other challenges, many of them specific to the medium of comics. For one, without the kinetic motion of a TV series, usually with a decent musical score, space battles can often seem static and boring on a comic page without a truly talented artist. Another distinction in the transfer from TV to comics is the loss of the "multiple cast members yelling at each other simultaneously" - one of the more enjoyable and realistic dialogue tics from the TV series. The art for the series is perfectly workmanlike - it captures the likenesses of the characters adequately, but occasionally feels a bit stiff and static.

The good news is that if you're a Farscape fan, well, this is definitely for you. The characters are very much as you remember them, and it is easy to hear their dialogue given in the voices of the actors who portrayed them (particularly Ben Browder and Claudia Black). Unlike a new fan, you'll have no trouble at all catching up on the events that have occurred after "The Peacekeeper Wars" and the changes will no doubt surprise and excite you. It's a good fix of what you've been missing. This is Farscape in its high space-opera mode, and you know all the hilarity and high-stakes drama you are anticipating? It's there, and then some.

Oh and Scorpius is there.

So while I can't in good conscience recommend the Farscape comic series for a new reader (unless you are brave enough to do the homework - but you'll be happy you did!), it's definitely recommended for Farscape fan who can't find any good space opera anywhere else (and what's up with that? Didn't there used to be good space opera TV shows? And maybe a comic or two out there? Yeesh...that's sad).

Subtext? Why bother?

2011-08-31T14:00:00.000-04:00

Secret Origin

2011-08-30T14:00:00.009-04:00

I originally quit blogging back in 2004 because I had lost interest. Just didn't see the point in being one voice among thousdands of others. I was more focused on applying the principles of what I'd learned from comics into real life by using my talents to do good in the world (a subject I explain here) and that was that.

And then, at the end of 2006, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphona. It was a hard time as I went through chemo, particularly for a young person going through the cancer experience. There were many days I couldn't do much more than sit around the house. It was during this time, when I was ordering trades of Aaron Williams' great PS238 series (I actually ordered them directly through him because it's frickin' HARD to get them in Canada). One of the little background details I loved in the first few books were the faux motivational posters he had and I asked if I could have full sized jpg files. He gave me the link where he made them instead. So I began tinkering; it was a good way to pass the time at the computer. Even after I finished treatment (successfully - it has now been four years and no sign of any problems), I found myself using the poster macros and images from the monthly solicits or other sources to express my thoughts on various characters or ideas or for commentary.

I started sharing these posters with the few online friends I discussed comics with, and virtually all of them suggested the same thing - put them up on a blog (Special thanks goes to Jens H. Altmann, Paul F.P. Pogue, and Mario Di Giacomo). And so I reopened the blog, and started putting up the posters, along with some commentary and thoughts.

And here we are now. At rough count, I've made over 3000 posters since I started, and over 700 blogposts since then. Which, while not prolific blogging, is not bad either. But something has happened - and it's been about two months since I've had anything new to posterize. Furthermore, I found that I have little new to say about comics - I could keep telling you "Atomic Robo, PS238, Love and Capes and Farscape are AWESOME DUDES!", and I will actually still be blogging for most of the rest of the year, and taking on a most positive tone, but...they really just don't inspire me anymore.

I believe that it is an individual's moral imperative to develop their talents to the utmost and then to apply those talents in the real world as best they can. Care to guess where I got this silly notion from? So that's what I'm going to do, and that means that redirecting and refocusing this energy means that I'll be leaving blogging behind. But again, I still have hundreds of posters to put up, so you'll not be rid of me just yet.

The changes in corporate comics don't make me happy, but at the same time, I'm not going to waste the time and energy to shout at them about how poorly I think they are doing because - well, there's lots of people who do that already. I choose to strive for the example of the heroes I read about as a kid. Furthermore, I think that moving forward in the real world is more in keeping with the example of the real people and real heroes behind the stories I love; Creators like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and Dwayne McDuffie and Will Eisner, and on and on. It's one thing to say you like superheroes - but your actions in the real world are what matter.

This is all part of my moving forward. I started making posters because I needed something to get my mind off the things I was dealing with, and it was my old childhood heroes who led the way. Now it's time to return the favor, and do my best to live up to those standards.

I end today's post with two of my favorite hero moments of all time - moments that helped inspire me during my treatment, just to give you an idea of my mindset. Share with me your favorite hero moments. And don't worry, more posts to come.

What If we lived in a comic book universe? Part 109

2011-08-29T14:00:00.000-04:00

Quick show of Hands

2011-08-28T14:00:00.002-04:00

I'm debating doing an actual in-depth comic review of Action Comics #775, one of my favorite Superman stories of all time. Any interest?

Your Moment of Funny

2011-08-27T14:00:00.001-04:00

Pick the Best Caption!

2011-08-26T14:00:00.001-04:00

A Possible world to come?

2011-08-25T14:00:00.003-04:00

MARVEL COMICS OFFICES - THE NEAR FUTURE

"Hey Joe."
"Hey Bri."
"Last day."
"Yeah. Yeah."
"Packing?"
"Yeah."
"You want a-?"
"sure if you got-"
"-yeah."
"Cool. "
"Cool."
"So, you're going back to Image?"
"Yeah, well - if - "
"Still got the legal thing?"
"Yeah, it's no biggie."
"Sorry Bri, couldn't help with that."
"No biggie. So, you got that thing set up yet?"
"The thing?"
"The Dark Horse thing."
"Oh, yeah. Mostly just the Buffy comics, maybe a couple other things to start."

"Cool. Cool. You heard from Mark?"
"Mark?"
"Yeah, Mark."
"Not since he said he was flying out to LA."
"Oh. Me neither."
"Yeah."
"Anything on the others?"
"The others?"
"Yeah the others - Matt, Ed, Jason-"
"Oh. Nope."

"No one's at DC?"
"Maybe a couple of the artists - heard they picked up Colleen."
"Colleen?"
"Colleen Coover."
"Huh. Cool."

"Guess it's part of their new policy."
"New policy?"
"Yeah - they only want people with YA experience-"
"YA?"
"Young Adult."
"Young Adult? You mean like Harry Potter ?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. That's a new direction."
"Yeah."
"You figure that's what-"
"Probably. Explains things."
"Yeah."
"We better finish up. Lot to do before closing time."
"Yeah."

"Bri?"
"Yeah?"
"You think there's anything we could have-"
"about what?"
"I don't know - seen it coming?"
"Seen what coming?"
"I don't know."
"Exactly. We coulda gotten rich if we'd seen it coming."
"I guess.'
"Weird though."
"Yeah. All new people going to be in here. Guess it's best not to stick around."

"I guess."
"Good Luck Bri."
"Good Luck Joe. I'll text you in a couple days."
"Cool."

On the DC Reboot

2011-08-24T14:00:00.003-04:00

Honestly, I'm still not sure what to make of it. At all.

One theory that's out there on the internet is that it's ok for old fans to be disenfranchised, because that will lead to new fans replacing us. The template those people look to is the successful Doctor Who revival. And you know, I'd be OK with that, honestly. If DC doesn't want to produce a product I like, then I'll take my money elsewhere; no harm, no foul, it's just business.

But....exactly how are they going to get these news fans is my question. Where will they come from? Using Doctor Who as the reference, I got into it with the revival because it was heavily marketed in a media I have easy access to (TV), was easy to find (check the listings), cost nothing to check out (provided you were already paying your bills), and was produced by a group of new creators who had little if any involvement in the franchise, and the product was made easily accessible.

Contrast this with the Reboot; how are they marketing it? Multimedia advertising - internet, TV, radio, newspaper articles. OK, this is good - but it's casting a wide net, assuming that people are going to check it out because the recognizable characters (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern) are there. Which might do well...for those titles, but probably won't help say, the Blackhawks book or Birds of Prey or Stormwatch or Mr. Terrific, which is to say, the majority of the relaunched titles. In order for that to work, there would have to be advertising within the "high profile" titles for the other books. I don't see that happening. Nevermind that trying to target a diverse line of comics for a general audience is a tricky thing, and would have to be sustained over a long period of time to see long lasting results.

Then there's the accessiblity - there are effectively two audiences to the reboot wants to get - people who will go to the brick and mortar stores, and people who will buy digital. For the digital purchasers, they have to have the app, and they have to be aware of how to use the app and then, they have to pay on a per-issue basis the same as the brick and mortar store customers. The potential brick and mortar store customers are limited by the fact that A) there may not be a comic store anywhere near them (such as myself) and B) they need to actually FIND them, which isn't as easy as say, checking your local TV listings for a show. The store owners also have to be willing to risk ordering lots of extra copies months in advance how much of an increase in business they should expect, otherwise, they aren't going to get much in the way of new customers.

In addition to this, while the histories of the characters are being refreshed/relaunched/rebooted or whatever term you like, the people making them are, for the most part, the same group of people who have been part of the franchise for the past decade. Much like with "Brightest Day", it's hard for things to change substantially if it's the same people doing the same kind of work that has been rejected in the past. In fact, much like the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths that this relaunch is compared to, the relaunching is highly selective - Green Lantern and Batman are staying the same while Superman and Wonder Woman are getting new takes, which, incidentally, is exactly what happened Post-Crisis.

This is all a very long way of saying that you can't really compare the DC reboot to the Doctor Who revival because the marketing isn't as targeted, its not as easy to access, it costs more, and the "freshness" of the take is questionable.

As a sidebar, I find it interesting that the relaunch really doesn't address (and really can't address) one of the rumored reasons for it; to more effectively tie-in with the use of the characters in other media and to develop more adaption-ready material for multimedia use. Trying to make a successful multimedia franchise ready for adaptation is difficult to start with, and it's compounded by the fact that it limits the creators to try and achieve a style that can be easily adapted, which works for some properties, but not others.

Of course, I also try to imagine what would happen if DC had to bring their comics inline with their existing multimedia adaptations. For example, getting rid of all the Robins and most of the supporting cast to put the Batman comics inline with the Nolan films. And you'd have to replace the entire writing and art groups of DC to try and emulate the aesthetics and storytelling style of "Batman: the Brave and the Bold". Or (my personal favourite) making a "Big Seven" Justice League comic with John Stewart and Hawkgirl, with a Dini-inspired house art style and Dwayne McDuffie-style storytelling.

Actually...yeah, I would like to see that last one.

What if we lived in a comic book universe? Part 108

2011-08-23T14:00:00.000-04:00

All-Olivia-Wilde Edition!

Can you blame me? Really?

Non-Comics Posters!

2011-08-22T14:00:00.002-04:00

ALF was my favorite TV show as a kid.

Make something of it, I dare you.

All the Evidence you need

2011-08-21T14:00:00.001-04:00

For whenever you need proof that more female creators in comics can only be a good thing.

You're welcome.

And now a bit of cynicism...

2011-08-20T14:00:00.001-04:00

All images from "How to be a Superhero!" by Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine

Your Moment of Funny

2011-08-19T14:00:00.001-04:00

And now, a small tribute to the 1990s

2011-08-18T14:00:00.002-04:00

Just something I'd like to see

2011-08-17T14:00:00.003-04:00

Not that I want to add fuel to the fires of deconstruction, but there's still a trope out there I don't care for.

It's a pretty classic story, not one that's used too much anymore, but one I like to talk about. It's the "we must restore the King to the Throne!' story.

Usually, some evil warlord/barbarian invader takes over Atlantis/Attlian/Wakanda/where ever, and the heroes have to help their friend get back his "rightful" throne.

This only works for the following reasons:

1) The ousted royal(s) are friends of our heroes, the protagonists.
2) The "usurpers" are invariably more evil the ousted royal(s). They are harsher to the citizenry, insane, etc.
3) Because it's a common trope of fantasy fiction that dates back from an age where royalty mattered.

What's never really addressed, though its certainly under the surface in stories like these, is that the heroes are restoring a (benevolent) dictatorship. Which is a bit odd for American superheroes set in the modern era. Never mind that in many cases (i.e. Aquaman, Black Panther), the monarch tends to leave the country so they can go adventuring across the world and time and space instead of, you know, their job. Whatever your politics, you'd probably be a bit annoyed if the President of the United States spent 80% of his time outside the country, say, fighting robots from Mars because that's not what he's elected to do.

So, what would happen if a popular uprising of people back in the king's homeland came to power with the intention to install a democratic system? Would a superhero team like the Justice League of AMERICA help their friend go back to being an absentee ruler?

The other really disturbing factor about these stories is that implies very heavily that there is no other persons or parties or factions that could run said nation. Which have some negative connotations about that society, as well as the royals themselves.

Just a thought.

Pick the Best Caption

2011-08-16T14:00:00.001-04:00

What if we lived in a comic book universe? Part 107

2011-08-15T14:00:00.000-04:00

Some Reflections on Grant Morrison's online commentary

2011-08-14T14:00:00.000-04:00

So, over the last couple years, comic writer person Grant Morrison has said some things that I find...perplexing. So, let's talk about them.

From his afterword to the first issue of Mark Waid's Irredeemable, where he suggested that fans had pigeon holed Mr. Waid as "Mr. Silver Age" and himself as "Incomprehensible Mad Ideas Man". Well, I'm ust going to look up Mark Waid's wiki entry for a second here.

-Co-created the "Elseworlds" concept of stories. Which is really just a longform version of the Silver Age "Imaginary Stories."
-Revived the Silver Age Archie heroes.
-Effectively created the "Flash Dynasty", an in so doing, popularized the Dynastic superhero configuration. Of course, one can see the "Superman family" in this, but I'll let that slide.
-The Definitive Wally West stories, which also served to lionize Silver Age character Barry Allen. This one's a maybe.
-Kingdom Come, which in large part can be viewed as tale displaying the superiority of Silver Age values over 80s and 90s Anti-heroism.
-His Captain America run, which, among other things, brought back Steve Rogers' love interest from the Silver Age, as well as long absent Silver Age materials such as the Cosmic Cube.
-Presided over two reboots of the Legion of Superheroes that effectively tried to bring them back to their Silver Age roots, though the first was clearly more Silver Age influenced than the second.
-JLA: Year One and Flash/Green Lantern: the Brave and the Bold, which dwelt on Silver Age stories.
-Restoration of "The Brave and the Bold" series.
-The "Silver Age" crossover event from 2000
-And the restoration of the Lex/Clark Silver Age dynamic from "Superman: Birthright."

So, perhaps it isn't safe to make a blanket generalization of Mr. Waid, but it's also not fair to say that he doesn't incorporate a LOT of Silver Age material into his work.

As for Morrison's we have a few question marks, I suppose:
-The end of "For Tomorrow" from your X-Men run
-Final Crisis
-The end of "The Return of Bruce Wayne".
-Seven Soldiers
-and of course, the Invisibles and the Filth.

So while yes, broad generalizations are bad, it's not unfair to say there are patterns to call attention to.

And when it comes to broad generalizations, Mr. Morrison doesn't seem to have the same problem, oddly. Both in that statement, and a recent excerpt from his book, he makes quite a few assumptions about his fanbase. These are quite negative, and it strikes me as a bad idea to possibly annoy your customers in such economic times as these. Also, as far as "Superhumanly Angry" goes, well, given he's made several such statements as these over the last three years at least, it would be fair to question whether or not he was projecting.

Finally, and I apologize that I don't have the link, and that I'm not sure if this should be attributed to Mr. Morrison or someone else at DC, but during the most recent San Diego Comicon, someone (and I do believe it was Mr. Morrison, but someone could correct me here), stated that the idea of Martha Kent sewing the Superman costume was "a bit ridiculous".

Now, just as a lark, I polled a few of my non-comics-reading friends - these would be people who could buy a comic, or at the very least, would buy tickets to movies, buy DVDs, and such. I aske them.

"Which of the Following is the most ridiculous:

A) A superhero having his costume made by his mother?

B) An alien with superhuman powers that looks identical to Caucasians?

C) An alien who claims to be solar powered, despite that the energy required to exert his powers in most instances is greater than the sum of all the solar light energy that could be harnessed over an area of several square miles?

D) That the world's greatest investigative reporter could be fooled by a pair of glasses and some method acting for years on end?"

I'll save everyone the trouble: D was the only answer I got from anyone. Actually, most of the responses I got went something like, well, this (Click to enjoy).

Now, this isn't to take away from Morrison's good work - there is a bit of it I quite like. However, one should consider strengths and weaknesses in a writer's approach and his opinions.

Your Moment of Funny

2011-08-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

Gamer Posters A-Go-Go!

2011-08-12T14:00:00.001-04:00

Why the Avengers movie might tank

2011-08-11T14:00:00.003-04:00

Yes yes, I know - The teaser trailer was awesome and Joss Whedon and How Dare I and blah de blah de blah.

Yesterday's post on Green Lantern should have been a clue here as to what the problem might be.

The problem: The Audience, whom are not comic people, have to A) remember, and B) Give a damn about what happened in the following movies at minimum:

2008's Iron Man
2011's Thor
2011's Captain America: the First Avenger

Other movies that they might want to care about include:
2008's Incredible Hulk
2010's Iron Man 2

Now, while this is not necessarily a big deal, there's no proof that it won't be a small one either. Consider, the only modern example of this kind of crossover movie is the Aliens vs. Predator 'franchise'.

Scared yet?

This is also why I have serious concerns over the presence of Joss Whedon; because outside of Kevin Smith, there's no one in Hollywood I've found who caters more to the extremes of the fanbases while ignoring the larger audience than Whedon. Hopefully, he'll prove me wrong, and hopefully audiences will be able to follow along a clearly defined story.

Hopefully.

If the people making the film have taken this into account.

GL: Why the Comic works (is also why the movie didn't)

2011-08-10T14:00:00.002-04:00

It's actually not that hard; it's the difference between episodic fiction (TV and comics) and non-serialized (movies). You can only have a certain percentage of screentime devoted to introducing the characters, the situation, and the backstory. In serialized comics, you can spread this out over a very long period, as was done with the Rainbow Lantern concepts over about 3 years of storytelling.

The movie had to do it in less than two hours. See the problem? So because of that, the Green Lantern movie, even more so than most comic book origin story movies (and let's face it, most origin movies SUFFER for having so much time devoted to the origin stories) had to throw a lot of crap at the audience and hoped that they A) would keep and B) Give a damn. This is compounded by the fact that much of the Rainbow Lantern backstory derives in large part from the work of Alan Moore in his short stories - something a casual movie goer could not possibly care about (much to everyone's loss on that score).

Geoff Johns deserves some credit for Wold Newtoning up a unifed theory of Green Lanternhood and creating something that will make DC comics money in the years to come (though probably not so much money for him, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for this generation of copyright management, as opposed to previous ones), but it's not the most accessible story for a wider audience.

The GL movie just proved why that's important.

Whoa! whoa! Whoa!!

2011-08-09T09:58:00.000-04:00

Guys,

Seriously, thanks for your comments and well words, but just to be absolutely clear.

IT AIN'T OVER JUST YET.

Over the years I've made about 3000 of these motivators. Maybe there's someone out there who's done more, I couldn't say. So I'm going to try and share all of them with you as best I can before I shutter things up. That means you'll have quite a few posts to trickle out before that happens. That's the whole point of my message to "stay tuned".

And I don't see it as quitting? leaving blogging? Yes, but I'm not sure I see that as quitting. To me, quitting implies that I'm beaten, that I'm too down and out to go. Quite the opposite; I'm more optimistic than I've been in years. The fact that that optimism isn't reflected in corporate supercomics? Totally not my problem. I'm not angry with them, I don't wish them anything good or ill, I'm just moving on.

After three thousand posters, I've gone through just about every permutation of a poster I can think of. You really can only use so many images of Iron Man in his armor standing about looking all tech and cool and then add some kind of caption to it. Granted, one wishes the cover artists could show a bit more variety, but that's a subject for another day.

I've said what I wanted to say, and will continue to do so until the end. Because as I've stated in the past, I don't have a deep personal connection to the larger concept of "fandom" because I disagree with a lot of common fan notions (i.e. those people who think Batman is cooler than Superman - AS IF!). The one time I really got mixed up in Fandom? A couple years back, and it just convinced me to do what I do, and hope the right audience would find it. Well, I look at the commenters and followers and I know that to be true. So thank you, and please, keep reading.

And Tom, thank you for the comparison to Chris Sims (but spell it right, he's quite touchy about that - ask the guys at the Daily Show). That said, as the years have worn on, I've become a bit disillusioned with Sims: yes yes yes, Smallville sucks and the jacket sucks - but I'll put down money that Sims will gush all over Grant Morrison giving Superman a baby t-shirt and towel cape in 'Action Comics' despite that being EQUALLY RIDICULOUS. Overall, I'd rather be Chris Bird or Tim O'neil instead - on target, insightful, and genuinely intelligent and persuasive.

Thanks again for your comments. Because of this, I've decided to move up my "secret origin" post to sometime this month instead of the late fall as I'd originally planned - you've all convinced me you need to hear the story of how this all got started....

What If We lived in a comic book universe? Part 106

2011-08-08T14:00:00.001-04:00

Been a while since I threw out this feature.

So, this is a thing that has happened

2011-08-07T13:44:00.003-04:00

If you've been wondering as to the lack of post and posters of late, my reasons are pretty straightforward:

1) It's summer. There's sun and beaches and warm air.
2) Complete and utter apathy towards Big Two Corporate supercomics.

The second one may or may not be important to you, but let me explain. Normally, I go through the solicits for upcoming books, and if there's a cover that really grabs my interest as poster material, I plug it into the macro and ...well, see for yourself.

However it has now been about two months since the Marvel or DC solicits have any images worth posterizing. DC is all about the reboot, and I just don't care about that at all (and in an upcoming post, I'll explain as to why that may or may not be a good thing), and all the Marvel series are in ALL OUT WAARRRRRRRR! mode with three major "WAR" crossovers (Fear Itself, X-Men Schism, and "Spider-Island") which simply fail to grab my interest because it has become so repetitive and boring.

Now, the cover images make about 50% of my poster material (I don't have hard numbers - someone can do that if they really feel a burning need). But this is combined with my genuine apathy towards all but a precious few series that grab my attention (Love and Capes, PS238, Farscape, Dungeons & Dragons, and occasionally Mark Waid's Incorruptible and some of the Zorro and Star Trek material). And while I could expound on those books endlessly, I don't know if it's enough to sustain a blog. In reality, I've probably said most of what I want to say on the comics I've read, and what's out there (not much in my mind).

So, will I be closing down? Eventually, yes. It's inevitable as other interests and concerns in my life are taking over. The reason I restarted this blog a few years back was to share with people my poster images. There's actually a secret origin story for that, so stay tuned and you'll see it. I don't have a set quit date yet, as there are other posts I'll throw up - the secret origin, a few thoughts on the DC reboot, and other items of interest to me. But for the most part, the majority of the posts from here on out will simply be poster-only posts for you to enjoy and share with one another.

Thank you all and please, stay tuned and keep reading!

Your Moment of Funny

2011-08-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

Reactions

2011-08-05T11:58:00.000-04:00

Pick the Best Caption

2011-08-04T21:13:00.002-04:00

Your Moment of Funny

2011-07-24T13:03:00.001-04:00

Something lighter - for the Gamers

2011-07-23T11:00:00.001-04:00

Cheap Drama: All that Marvel and DC have left, I guess?

2011-07-22T11:57:00.004-04:00

At least according to best-selling writer Grant Morrison, in his own words below

Oh, he's just talking about Animal Man...so I guess that's different...why exactly?

New posts soon.

For my American friends

2011-07-04T09:42:00.002-04:00

Happy Fourth of July

Pick the Best Caption

2011-07-03T10:00:00.001-04:00

Embrace the Awesome

2011-07-02T09:38:00.002-04:00

Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-01T08:17:00.001-04:00

Enjoy the Day! Do something Canadian, like, say, check out Siskoid's Alpha flight reviews!

Your Moment of Funny

2011-06-27T09:12:00.003-04:00

OK, just two more

2011-06-06T16:42:00.001-04:00

Pick the Best Caption

2011-06-05T20:14:00.002-04:00

Oh Boy - Oh DC

2011-06-02T19:31:00.003-04:00

Alright, one quick post on current matters:

1) A while back, Tom wanted me to comment on Doom Patrol's cancellation. In light of recent news, that may not be such an issue. And I'm sorry Tom, but I've never really gotten into the Patrol, so I probably couldn't do the subject justice.

2) Hey Kids! Comics! (Seriously, NSFW or good taste)- I debated making a poster of this, but I decided that I'd rather not have to explain why I made something this bad to anyone I knew. Read into that what you will.

3) OK, the DC reboot/relaunch/revamp thing. This actually breaks down into several smaller issues to me:

a) Retconning/eliminating the Lois and Clark Marriage - Most of you whom have been here before can guess that I wasn't too thrilled. I've never understood the appeal of the Wonder Woman/Superman ship - it's always seemed demeaning to both characters, and I care even less about Lana Lang (Smallville put a spike in that one for all time, thanks), or Lori Lemaris or the rest. That said, the possible upshot of all this is that unlike that...other retcon, this one isn't backed by an ironclad promise to never undo it - so I can see a possible "reimagining" of the Lois/Clark romance in a couple years, including a possible story arc for her discovering his dual identity in a way that doesn't make her seem a bit clueless. So long as it's not played for "Silver Age Laffs", because who wants that? I'm willing to wait a bit.

b) Digital stuff - I do not own an Ipad or Iphone or have access to any of these newfangled formats, so I'm not qualified to speak on the issue - I hope it works out as a way to promote a larger comics readership, because that's necessary at this point. But I'm a print guy who wants to buy trades, and I'll stay that way for the immediate future. I do fear for many retailers who will get hurt by this, but unfortunately, the retailers couldn't find a way to collectively change the market, so the companies are trying this.

c) Nothing will change if nothing changes - putting up a bunch of new #1s and putting it all digitally won't mean anything if you're still paying $18 over 6-8 months for a single story, especially the way storytelling trends at DC have been for the past few years. New titles are nice, but using new opportunities to tell better stories is what's key here - branding can only take you so far.

So, do I think it'll work? No clue. It really depends on whether or not this is a genuine attempt to broaden their horizons or a new coat of paint along with crossing off some of the bullpen's wishlist. However, I'm extremely skeptical.

Smallville Finale review Part 4 - OK, I'm done now

2011-05-30T10:00:00.003-04:00

Just a couple of final images to leave you on.

Smallville Finale review Part 3 - Observations

2011-05-29T10:00:00.003-04:00

Just a few things that bear further consideration:

1) With The Cape, No Ordinary Family, Heroes, etc all cast to the wind, seems like there's going to be a niche to be filled for superhero genre TV. It'll will be interesting to see what springs up there. The fact that Smallville had the longest lifespan of any superhero genre TV says something about the market for the Superman Icongraphy.

2) In fact, if you lump in cartoons, Superman has spent a lot of time on TV the last quarter century:

Superman (Animated Series, 1988)

Superboy (TV series, 1988-1992)

Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997)
Superman: the Animated Series (1996-2000) which lead into the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited Animated Series (2000-2006).

Superman and the Legion of Superheroes (2006-2008)

Smallville (2001-2011)

While Batman's probably going to edge him out (strictly in animation though), that's a long time for any franchise to consistently be on TV that isn't Law & Order.

3) One of the things I'm glad that most modern retellings of the Superman Mythos is doing away with is the idea of the Superman/Lois/Clark false triangle thing. It's probably one of the biggest holdbacks of the franchise, as seen in things like Superman Returns. Maybe it's time to face the fact that while a secret identity can work for Superman, the idea that he hides it from the person he cares about most is far less palatable to the general audience. It'll be interesting to see if this lesson is incorporated into any other Superman projects.

Smallville Finale review Part 2 - Fandom Clash

2011-05-28T10:00:00.008-04:00

Perhaps the most interesting thing I've found about the Smallville finale is the reactions I've seen online, and the intersection and interactions between comics fandom and Smallville fandom.

Comics fandom, in general, was pretty dismissive of the finale, and Smallville in general. While neither the worst nor best of these types of fan reactions, I think the Smallvillains series by Chris Sims and David Uzumeri is a pretty typical benchmark for these types of things. And I have a couple things to say about what I saw both in the review and the comments.

First, a few commenters responded to reviews with "Well, you should review past seasons to get the whole context."

Where have we heard that before?

Congrats "Smallville" fans - you are now using a long-held fan-complaint normally used by science fiction, comic and fantasy fans.

And to Comics fans - do you see how poorly that argument works when you're the ones judging it? Think about that for a while.

And from comic fans, the complaint is some variation of "It's sad that Smallville is what people are going to think think of when they think of Superman in a modern context."

Do yourself a quick favor, do a google image search on "Crying Superman" see roughly what percentage of those image are from the era of 2001-2011.

Yeah.

The modern era of Superman comics (All-Star Superman notwithstanding) has been extremely uneven at best, and prone to many of the same problems comics fans complain about the show for.

So, currently, we've got Chris Roberson working incredibly hard to redeem J. Michael Stracyznski's "Grounded" story arc. He's doing a decent job, but he's also filling it to the brim with in-jokes and nods to a lot of heavy continuity to get that geek buzz going. Paul Cornell is fairing slightly better, if for no other reason he's mostly sticking to his own story, not filling in on someone else's notes. However, the accessibility problem is much the same, particularly if you don't care about who Vandal Savage and Secret Six and other "guest stars" are. But at least it's adaptable to other media.

Before this, there was "New Krypton", which will probably go down as the Superman equivalent of "the Clone Saga" in terms of creative failure. I found it funny at the time, because this was taking place at roughly the same time as Smallville Season 9 was also dealing with Kandorians on Earth. I feel confident in my opinion that Smallville did a better job.

Before that you had Johns on Action Comics, doing a bunch of "cinematic" story arcs, with Brainiac, the Legion of Superheroes, etc. These were entertaining comics, and probably some of the best (and most restrained) work Johns has ever done, but hardly world breaking. Pleasantly competent. And again, I have a hard time imagining most of Johns' work adapting to other media (Brainiac, perhaps, or the Legion as an animated DVD). On the other side, you had Kurt Busiek's aborted run. I'm actually not going to judge that too harshly, because you can tell that Kurt Busiek was gearing up for a multi-year long series of arcs, and we only ever really saw the first act of it. It might have even been great, but unfortunately, someone at DC Editorial felt otherwise. Busiek and Johns got things off to a really good start with the "One Year Later" story they did together - that was surprisingly competent and accessible.

Which they kind of had to do given the long brutal slog of terrible, godawful Superman comics that came out during the years leading up to "Infinite Crisis". Anyone remember Ruin? The Brian Azzarello/Jim Lee arc? Chuck Austen? Seagle's story arc in Superman? Outside of Gail Simone, it was a dark, dark time.

And before that, you had the era of Jeph Loeb; master of the dumb but occasionally fun story. His books didn't make a lot of sense, but they were popcorn when they wanted to be.

In conclusion, if comic fans want good Superman stories, maybe we should all focus on making sure there are good ones in the comics worth adapting? Just a thought.

Smallville Finale review Part 1 - In short

2011-05-27T09:30:00.005-04:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this, it's been a long time coming, but Real Life concerns took me away from serious blogging. Also, I wanted to make quite a few posters, and to break up my commentary, so expect more in the coming days.

And away we go.

(NOTE: I apologize but several of the videos I could not embed, so you will have to click on the links).

My thoughts in brief on the finale: While not nearly as awesome as this

It's not nearly as bad as THIS

So overall, it's about the same as THIS. Which is to say, the bog standard for Superman TV. Which was about what I was expecting, and what just about anyone should have expected out of this franchise.

More on this next post

What If we lived in a comic book universe? Part 105

2011-05-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Your Moment of Funny

2011-05-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

Ah, good old reliable Deadpool.....

Rare Non-Comics Post!

2011-05-24T11:07:00.000-04:00

Newest poster and linkblogging

2011-05-23T17:51:00.002-04:00

Check out Johanna Draper Carlson's latest Marvel reviews if you want to see how the "big name comic companies" are shedding their readership. It's quite something to behold really. I've always seen Johanna as one of the most even-handed reviewers out there, and if she's this...well, this brutal in her takedowns, then people, you should pay attention.

Also, you should really check out The Hero Business. It's a smart little webcomic I'm following these days and I recommend it. The latest strip, dealing with the "rebranding" of a classic-style hero, also does it's fair share of pointing out the shortcomings of the modern superhero comic genre.

Random bits

2011-05-22T22:36:00.003-04:00

Just to keep you interested for now. More is coming, I promise. Been working on some new batches of posters just for you!

What If we lived in a comic book universe? Part 104

2011-05-09T11:34:00.001-04:00

Wow. It's been a month. Sorry about that. Getting a few things sorted out, should have some real posts soon.

In the meantime, enjoy these.

And of course, if you have any requests, put them in the comments.

What If we lived in a comic book universe? Part 103

2011-04-10T09:58:00.001-04:00

Your Moment of Funny

2011-04-09T15:16:00.000-04:00

Smallville - Oy

2011-04-08T18:13:00.000-04:00

OK, so before Smallville starts up again for the last time, I think it's only fair that I put up some posters and beat "Smallvillians" to the punch on these jokes: Yeah, not that introducing the glasses is a bad idea, it's just that it should have been done about, oh, 5 years earlier. It's also going to require some effort to distinguish between the two identities, which quite frankly, may be well beyond Welling's range here.

I utterly despise this jacket. Nevermind that I have no idea where the blue blazes Clark got it from (or he put it together himself...somehow), but it looks ...well, silly. How silly? I think the Black get-up is better.

OK, this? This actually looks like a really faithful version of Booster Gold's costume, and actually manages to highlight what makes the character unique.

I just think this is a funny punchline. Sue me.

Not that I don't think you can come up with a good Blue Beetle costume, but I don't think you can do it on Smallville's budget. I submit this evidence as proof.

You know I speak the truth here.

Pick the best caption!

2011-04-06T19:13:00.002-04:00

Going to be low content until May. Sorry about that. Enjoy the pretty pictures until then.

The April Gamer post

2011-04-05T17:08:00.001-04:00

What if we lived in a comic book universe? Part 102

2011-04-03T21:32:00.000-04:00

Your Moment of Funny

2011-03-27T19:25:00.001-04:00

Pick the Best Caption

2011-03-26T10:03:00.002-04:00

Just Saying

2011-03-24T22:10:00.002-04:00

Pick the Best Caption

2011-03-19T08:28:00.001-04:00

Your Moment of Funny

2011-03-18T14:42:00.000-04:00

GO GAMERS GO

2011-03-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

On Killing...Again

2011-03-16T08:36:00.000-04:00

So, here's the state of the ethics of superheroes, as depicted by Marvel and DC comics, in the year 2011;

At DC, the heroes are continually depicted as ineffectual idealists because they don't kill, struggling in a sea of mass-murdering psychopaths. I can think of no better example here than Hal Jordan, so-called "Greatest Green Lantern". First, he forms his "proactive Justice League" in the abominable Cry for Justice. This would be the League where Ray Palmer, a man of 'great compassion' (so Blackest Knight tells us), went kicking around other people's brains like his ex-wife did when she killed Sue Dibny to torture them. And what did he end up showing for it? I mean, other than Prometheus completely infiltrating the team and completely botch the whole thing? Then, not learning from his mistakes, he corals together the "New Guardians", which has at least three members (Atrocitus, Larfleeze, and Sinestro) who are known mass murderers with body counts equal to or exceeding that of the Joker.

Over at Marvel, it looks like there isn't a hero left standing who isn't A-OK with killing opponents, which is why Wolverine and Moon Knight are accepted on the Avengers, and I'm sure the Punisher will be getting a call any day now. The only one who isn't OK with this is...well, I want to say Spider-Man isn't OK with this, but given the frequency with which he teams up with Wolverine and the Punisher, I guess he's OK with killing so long as he's not the one doing it. For me, the most telling case of this occured in the last issue of the Fantastic Four (SPOILERS AHEAD), where we see Valeria Richards, clearly anguished over the death of her uncle, gathering the rest of the young kids, and plotting to kill the one responsible. A tight moment of plotting, but the implications are disturbing. Let us consider the following;

1) SHE'S THREE YEARS OLD, TOPS - yes, she's hyper-intelligent, but intelligence rarely translates itself to any kind of emotional maturity. Yes it clearly is the act of a child, but there's no scene to draw attention to that little fact, so either it is meant to implied that she's making a rash, immature and dangerous decision, or we're meant to take this at face value. I'd feel better about the former being the correct option if this wasn't the same company that gave us Hit-Girl.

2) THE REST OF HER GROUP ARE CHILDREN - Oh, and the group she gathers together for her little plan are (with the exception of Alex Power) untrained combatants. So, if her plan is to advance, she will be making a group of minors accomplices to a premeditated act, and that trips well into that whole 'Child Soldier' thing I talked about a year ago.

3) WHERE'S THE ADULT SUPERVISION? - No one's around during class time? No HERBIE robots? or video cameras? Or any kind of supervision? No? OK.

So there you have it; Ineffectual morons on one side, and murderous children on the other. And people wonder why comic readership is sinking.

What If we lived in a comic book universe? Part 101

2011-03-15T09:20:00.000-04:00

A Very Special post

2011-03-08T01:45:00.004-05:00

UPDATE: UPDATE POSTED IN COMMENTS. PLEASE READ!

Alright, I'm moving all my other posts for this week over to next week so I can leave this up for a few days, and it's for a good cause, the right cause, and I'm sure you'll do the same;

Now I turn it over to my friend, Mr. Pogue, of Pogue's Run.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of you know me, some don’t. My name’s Paul Pogue, Indianapolis, Indiana, lifelong nerd, father to three-year-old cancer survivor Armand Zefram Pogue.

A couple of years ago, Armand was diagnosed with just about the worst case of cancer imaginable – a stage-four neuroblastoma that put a tumor the size of a cabbage in his stomach and left him with survival odds in the low double digits.

Armand is doing great now, two years later, and is cancer-free. But recently our circle of friends was hit with the cruel hammer of irony. One of my close friends these many years is Sarah Rogers. Last week her 12-year-old daughter Patty was diagnosed with stage-four neuroblastoma – exactly the same kind Armand had, and possibly an even worse case, with a tumor wrapped around her spine and another in her lung.

Right now she’s at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, getting the finest care available – as it happens, in one of the very same rooms in which my son spent so many days fighting for his life.

My goal is to help Patty stay a little more sane. If there’s one thing my family knows after 240 long days of inpatient treatment, it is that the days can go on endlessly. Armand got lucky – he had a DVD player and later an iPod to while away the days. And for a cancer patient who can barely even sit up, there is nothing better in the world than an iPod.

Unless, of course, it’s two years later and the world now has the iPad.

Patty Rogers doesn’t have her own computer, and even a laptop would be kind of hard to work with in the hard days ahead when she might be flat on her back for a long time. But an iPad? Perfect.

So I want to help get Patty an iPad ASAP and help her stay just a little bit more sane. But I can’t do it alone. I’m putting up $50 to start a fund, and Apple’s already agreed to give her a discount. I’d like to ask the nerds of the world to lend a hand – 50 cents, five bucks, ten bucks, anything you can give.

If we go over the limit needed, I’ll just throw in an iTunes store card to fill her up. If we go a lot more, I’m handing it straight over to the family for gas, food or whatever they need. Cancer is EXPENSIVE, and not just the medical treatment.

For convenience’s sake, we’re taking the online donations via Paypal. Send it to paulpogue1@hotmail.com and put “For Patty’s iPad” or something similar in the header.

One other request: If you have a blog or anyplace online where people listen to what you have to say, please repost this and see if anyone else is up for helping. Think of it as an all-nerd alert!

I know it’s asking a lot. But I also know that my family and I wouldn’t have made it through the last two horrible years without the enormous support of everyone around us, and I want to do everything I can to help Patty Rogers get the same help.

Want to know more about her? Check out http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/patriciarogers/. If you have any questions or want more confirmation that this is on the up-and-up, drop me a line at poguesrun@gmail.com and we’ll talk.

Thanks a lot, everyone!

Paul F. P. Pogue
Veteran of the cancer wars

UPDATE: UPDATE POSTED IN COMMENTS. PLEASE READ!

Pick the Best Caption

2011-03-07T08:18:00.000-05:00

Catchup

2011-03-06T11:02:00.002-05:00

Quick bits of catching up:

1) Hey! I won a little contest over at Progressive Ruin! Go check out the exclusive poster there!

2) Legendary comic blogger/Dr. Strange fan (and source of several Dr. Strange posters) Neilalien has decided to step away from blogging a bit. Wishing you well!

3) Updated the blogroll on the sidebar. Welcom to Pogue's Run, Beware of Geek, and the Way of the Word! Check them all out!

Your Moment of Funny

2011-02-27T16:40:00.000-05:00

Catching up on things. Soon you will get more posts.

All that needs to be said

2011-02-24T00:45:00.002-05:00

So, this is my small little tribute to the loss of both Joanne Siegel (wife of Superman co-Creator Jerry) and Dwayne McDuffie (great writer person and generally awesome human being). If I might wax a bit philosophical, it's interesting that these two represent, in large respect, the Never-Ending Battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way. Whether it was Joanne, fighting for continued creators' rights in the comics field, or McDuffie's passionate struggle to bring social justice, diversity, and awareness to a medium that is too often and too easily increasingly whitewashed, we lost two great examples of what human beings aspire to.

And that's the real loss to us. My deepest sympathies to their friends and families, whom have lost so much more.

A final note, I realize I haven't been around much. I'm going to try to find some time in the next couple weeks here to get some more posters made, some more blogposts up, and to change up the links in my sidebar and update some of that stuff. So until then, apologies and my asking for patience.

Your Moment of Funny

2011-02-20T18:45:00.000-05:00

Pick the Best Caption

2011-02-11T00:24:00.002-05:00

Why yes, I did spend most of my undergraduate days hanging out with Math, Computer and Engineering Majors - how did you know?

Gamer's Special Part 2

2011-02-06T09:31:00.003-05:00

Screw the Superbowl - enjoy the posters, then go vist John Rogers and thank him for the cool stuff.

Gamer's Special Part 1

2011-02-05T09:37:00.003-05:00

I think it's a given at this point, that John Rogers is a great blogger, and a creator of many Awesome things (the TV show Leverage, a great run on the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comic that he co-created). And now, he has a Dungeons and Dragons Comic. Which...you know, pretty much should make him THE next Nerd God.

More of this tomorrow.

Your Moment of Funny

2011-02-04T16:25:00.002-05:00

Been Sick since last week. Sorry. Back now. Will get more posts up soon.

Pick the Best Caption

2011-01-28T16:03:00.000-05:00

Sorry about this, will try to get some content up on the weekend. Cheers

Pick the Best Caption

2011-01-27T11:17:00.003-05:00

Quick Hits

2011-01-25T20:25:00.005-05:00

As you've noticed already, 2011 isn't going to be the daily post-a-rama that 2010 was for various reasons - mostly due to an uptick in activity in my real life. However, the other reason? Comic "industry" news is pretty damn boring when you get right down to it. Let me go through the big news of the last little while.

-One of the Fantastic Four Dies! Uhm,....yeah, you do realize you brought back BUCKY, right? And Captain America, and Jean Grey's about due to pop out of the grave any day now, so excuse me if I don't take this all that seriously. How about, and this is a crazy idea, instead of obsessing on killing and murder and death (Heroes dying! Kids dying! Villains Slaughtering whole races and countries and creeds!) they try giving characters interesting lives? I know that would be a challenge, and challenge isn't really something that Big Two comics goes for much, but it's just a thought.

-WIZARD will stop publishing! Well, that's not a surprise, ever since any 12 year old figured they could find better toilet based humor using a Google search, Wizard has been redundant.
-Marvel Editorial Shake-ups! You know what? I'll care when I see any indication that there's a change of philosophy or how it treats creators rights, or shows a different and evolving perspective of comics as medium in the 21st century. Otherwise, it's just deck chairs on the Titanic.

-A final note - on Marvel Comic movies, there are only two possibilities as far as I'm concerned; either they will be good entertainment, which is more than 99% of their current comics output, in which case I'll spend money on it, while wondering why there isn't similar quality in the comics, or they won't do as well, which will lead to more focus on the comics side of the business, which will force the quality of them to rise by adapting grown up policies. It's a no-lose scenario, as I see it. Thus, I'm not too concerned about things like Jon Favreau or the new Spider-Man Costume. If they want to lose money and audience - well, they've had a lot of experience with that the way their comics have been selling the last 15 years, so who am I to stop them from doing what they do best?

Choices

2011-01-23T10:02:00.002-05:00

Easily the best response to my last post was a friend of mine asking that if it came right down to it, who made worse decisions - The Guardians of the Universe or the U.S. Military.

This was a no-brainer - the Guardians are incompetent on a massive scale. The Green Lantern Corps was wiped out a grand total of what? 3 times in the last decade? Plus that whole Manhunter thing, the fact that they've made the wrong move in every single "Crisis" event, the Blackest Night, etc.

Really, at this point, the Guardians should maybe scale back their ambitions -start with seeing if they can successfully protect, say, an abandoned strip mall. That's about their speed.

Hal Jordan: Criminal?

2011-01-19T11:39:00.004-05:00

Question for those of you with some knowledge of military law and justice - Exactly how many charges would get leveled against Hal Jordan because (thanks to Geoff Johns) he's back in the US Air Force?

Before we get too far into this, I just want to point out a couple of things. The reason I ask is that there have been stories told about the whole military/superhero conflict that is central to other military-inspired superheroes (i.e. Captain America, Captain Atom), but not so with Hal Jordan since his new status quo as an Air Force officer has been re-instated (and I'm still not even clear on how that works). I also want to draw particular attention to another major distinction between the common examples and Jordan: the fact that the Green Lantern Corps is an alien foreign power, of which Hal Jordan is an officer.

Now, this is the metaphor as I see it, and I may be wrong. Captain America and Captain Atom (depending on the status of continuity) are ex-military officers who act as independent vigilante operators with ties to organizations that co-operate with governmental bodies (most of the time). While there's definitely a certain level of bending/breaking the Posse Comitatus Act there (and I leave this to more studied experts in this field here), you could compare this to ex-military officers who join community actions groups, or even criminal cartels and gangs - not a good thing, but not quite the same as what Jordan does. In effect, when Jordan goes from U.S. Air Force captain to Green Lantern, he's putting on the uniform and assuming the office of a foreign power - there is a clear conflict of interest with regards to oaths of allegiance, priorities and standing. And, if I recall the current status quo correctly, his superior officer and several co-workers are co-operating in this endeavor - which definitely meets the definition of conspiracy.

So I leave this to you to discuss.

I'll have more in the days to come - sorry for taking so long with this.

Time considerations

2011-01-08T21:01:00.002-05:00

Got some new posters up. More in the works, sorry for the delay.

New Year - New stuff

2011-01-01T07:53:00.001-05:00

Hey - hope you're enjoying the new year. I'm not going to be around for about a week or so so I can work on new posters and posts.

In the meantime, tell me about your favorite non-Marvel/DC comics. Superhero and otherwise. Webcomics included.

GO!

New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T10:18:00.001-05:00

Gone to a friend's wedding - enjoy the eve!

2010 Year in Review

2010-12-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

BLOGGING: Well, I manged to get in an average of one post per day, even if it was just a single poster. That's not too bad - but at the same time, it's probably not something I'm going to continue to do because I expect things to pick up for me in real life in the coming year, so I won't have as much time to devote to making and posting posters.

REAL LIFE: It's going pretty well and I'm happy, but I'm also going to be very busy in the coming year, and I'm looking forward to that.

COMICS AND FANDOM: Bleh. I'm sorry, but I can't be the only to have found this year to be pretty boring as far as that's concerned. Yes, there have been islands of good stuff in the "Big Two", but I think more than anything else, it's convinced me to start really weening myself off of that and devote more time to the action/adventure and superhero comics OUTSIDE Marvel and DC - because Marvel and DC don't OWN the concepts (much as they would like us all to think otherwise). Not that I won't continue to use the material for posters or to talk about it, but I think maybe it's time to start really looking at getting myself off this train in the next year. What do you think, would you like to see me refocus this blog to all the good super and action stuff outside the Marvel/DC ranches?

So, what were your thoughts on the year?

What if we lived in a comic book universe? 100!

2010-12-29T07:05:00.001-05:00

What if we lived in a comic book universe? Part 99

2010-12-28T09:52:00.002-05:00

What if we lived in a comic book universe? Part 98

2010-12-27T08:46:00.002-05:00

What if we lived in a comic book universe? Part 97

2010-12-26T07:58:00.002-05:00

See, it's funny because it's Boxing Day.

I'm so sorry. Couldn't help myself.