An Ear -- in the Fireplace!

The most beautiful woman on two planets

2012-01-22T16:17:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting for years for Hollywood to get around to John Carter. At last, it's coming. Disney has reached the point they're willing to commit themselves to a release date and a trailer. The technology is there: If Cameron can do Avatar, Stanton can do Mars.

I just did a Google search for Dejah Thoris, looking for a suitable kick-ass image of the Martian princess who wins the heart of John Carter. The only one I found is this out-of-print $99 action figure. All the rest -- all the rest -- are pin-up models.

In the books, Edgar Rice Burroughs tells us (though he doesn't belabor the point) that Martians don't wear clothes. They wear, at most, weapons. They'll wear the occasional bauble and bangle to indicate their social status and brighten up an otherwise drab leather sword belt, but that's about it. The infamous Slave Leia costume is incomprehensibly modest compared to Martian custom.

So if you go searching for images of Dejah Thoris, you can guess that you're going to find as few clothes as possible, to cover up the naughty bits that the artist was unwilling or unable to show. A lot of people seem to have no idea what a naked woman looks like.

(Whose idea was this floor-length loincloth they seem to like so much?)

What surprised me was not her wardrobe, but her demeanor. Mars is depicted as a brutal, hostile place: Everyone is armed, everyone knows how to use weapons and everyone is prepared to use them at a moment's notice, because the alternative is getting dead. Depictions of John Carter reflect this. Depictions of Dejah Thoris indicate that a Playboy photographer is in town taking applications for the upcoming Girls of the Red Planet pictorial.

Some, OK, I get that. I'm a red-blooded male, after all. We're pigs. *shrug* Most, well, I kind-of get that too. Burroughs struggles to give Dejah Thoris much to do beyond being beautiful, inaccessible and/or threatened so that John Carter can win through to her side. But all?

I guess what I'm saying is that if Disney / Stanton want to make a fully rounded... er, fleshed-out... er, three-dimensional... Dang it. If Dejah Thoris is going to be anything more than a macguffin, they've got their work cut out for them. Burroughs is no help.

(If one wished to be a literary purist, one could consider the implications when Burroughs tells us that almost no Martian animals actually have hair -- and those humanoids that have hair have it only upon their heads. And some people do observe that since Martians lay eggs, that Dejah should not have a belly-button.)

So close

2012-01-19T16:43:00.001-05:00

Congratulations, DC, for changing your mind.

Well, did you change your mind, or did somebody get sacked or replaced and the new person decided you needed a new identity?

In any case, I should offer you hearty congratulations for coming up with a logo that would support being rendered in the primary colors one associates with comic books.

I should congratulate you, but I won't, because you clearly don't intend to use it that way, and it's purely accidental that it does work so well. See above right for an example of what I mean by that, since your designers apparently didn't think of it.

LATER: I hear there's been a small internet explosion over the fact that the cover mockups include an image of a clear post-New 52 Batman numbered #708. What it says to me is that the decision to re-do the corporate identity came from a different office than the decision to restart numbering. It might even indicate that the new corporate logo has been essentially a done deal waiting for the right moment to announce for quite a long time. Why now? Well, because they've had the press releases ready for a while, just waiting for the news to leak (which it just did), so now's the time to make it look like an actual plan instead of an accident.

And I see from the mockups that the logo will bleed off the left edge of the cover. Interesting.

LATER STILL: GeekDad points out that this new design is a departure from the continuity apparent in every previous DC logo back to 1940 (even including the briefly-used AA bullet). He calls it a clear indication of a "new regime in control", and that seems right to me. (See also SignalNoise.)

But everything adds up to the new DC wanting to be known as an entertainment company, not a *shudder* comic book company, which makes my color treatment highly unlikely indeed.

I mean, if I owned Superman, I'd be reminding the world of it at every possible opportunity, and one way I'd do that is to happily use his uniform colors on my corporate logo.

That's what was missing...!

2012-01-17T17:04:00.000-05:00

Yeah, the powers that be looked at the DC lineup with eleven bat-titles, and said to themselves, "You know what we need, is another Batman monthly."

Okay, I'm trying to be realistic. I knew all of these new titles wouldn't last. I won't claim to have correctly predicted the ones they just cancelled (I was sure "I, Vampire" and "Frankenstein" would be the first to go), but you just had to know that some of the New 52 titles were never intended to be long-term ongoing features.

And I'm not going to go neener-neener because "Justice League" is shipping late. Cue Iago: "Oh there's a big surprise! That's an incredible - I think I'm going to have a heart attack and die of not surprise!" By my reckoning, this makes twice: #2 was eight or nine weeks later than #1, after all.

So, DC, are you still publishing Showcases?

I just have to say it

2012-01-16T20:12:00.001-05:00

This month:
Action Comics #6
Wolverine #300

Something is very wrong.

Grandpa Geek

2011-12-29T15:41:00.000-05:00

Exclusive Preview: Retelling Superman's Origin Story in Action Comics No. 5 | GeekDad | Wired.com: I have been reading comics for a couple of decades, starting with The Death of Superman. Since then, I’ve gone back and read older stories from the ’80s and before.

Oh, dear. When you talk to me about the Death of Superman, my first thought is the one from 1961. I actually have to search my memory to find another one, and even then I mentally stumble across his near-death from Virus X (the one where he revealed his secret identity by writing it on the surface of the moon) before I remember so-called Doomsday.

I forget my classics aren't everyone's classics, you know?

Then I hit this breathless praise:

This is the first time the DC new universe version has been told, and who better to tell this not-so-secret origin than superstar writer Grant Morrison and his equally super (see the pattern?) art team of Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang? Morrison has been steadily fleshing out the character’s beginnings since he first came on board with the Action Comics relaunch debut.

Yeah, I see what you did there. Sigh.

Superman's been around since 1938. In 1948 he finally learned the details of his own origin, that he is the last (or so he thought) survivor of another planet, known as Krypton. (We readers knew, but he didn't.) Between and since, there's been plenty of "fleshing out the character's beginnings", and just because Didio and Lee write pretty press releases doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Even Alan Moore remembered Lyla Lerrol when Superman Annual #11 ("For The Man Who Has Everything", 1985) came around, but I guess that's before your time too, isn't it?

Okay, I'm being unfair. I shouldn't dismiss a retelling of the origin story before I've actually read it: Goodness knows I've read several retellings of it already, and some of them I really liked. But the hyperbolic "nobody but Grant Morrison could have done this" really grates on my nerves. I can't think even Morrison would agree with such praise.

She loves me like a rock

2011-12-01T10:43:00.001-05:00

I don't care if it is the dumbest disguise ever, my Momma says it's good. See Mike Draw.

Living on borrowed ideas

2011-11-30T16:39:00.000-05:00

Newsarama.com : DIDIO: CHALLENGERS Return Reinforces New DC Approach"It's actually very grounded in reality because it starts off as a reality TV show," DiDio said.

He said this with a straight face? He thinks "reality TV" actually reflects reality? Sometimes it's easy to see DiDio started in television writing and showrunning.

I really want to like the new Challengers. If Jerry Ordway is involved, it won't completely suck. And Ordway says this:

Without the luxury of an open ended run, our focus is narrowed, and there has to be some resolution as well.

Well, now, there's a new and different idea. A story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Imagine that.

Farewell, My Rubbery

2011-11-13T00:05:00.001-05:00

He wears swim fins over his
super-hero boots?
And he leaves his wife alone on
the boat? Ralph, I think you're
missing the point of this
"honeymoon" thing.

So, there may or may not be a creative embargo on the "world-famous" Elongated Man.

I can't get too bothered over the lack of plans for an action figure: There have been several EM figures over the years, none very satisfying. As paradoxical as it may seem, even an invisible Invisible Woman is easier to render in plastic than a hero meant to look plastic. In all fairness, Plastic Man and Reed Richards figures look just as stiff and lifeless. Maybe, instead of using standard molded plastic, Mattel should look into the process used for bendy, pliable Gumby and Pokey. Or Stretch Armstrong.

Poor Ralph doesn't even have an iconic look anymore. Should they dress him in his original purple tights with removable mask? The maroon-and-black "satellite Justice League" look? The white-and-orchid "Justice League International" suit? ~~Zombie~~ Black Lantern Ralph?

DC clearly isn't interested in building his stock by actually using the character, and hasn't been for at least a decade, since the popular-but-apparently-embarrassing Formerly Known as the Justice League, which itself was a revival. When Grant Morrison was making an Iconic Justice League and needed a stretchy guy, he went with Plastic Man. Ralph and Sue were on DC's "death list" at the time of Identity Crisis. For all that he stole every scene he was in, he wasn't central to the story. The world's second-greatest detective never really tried to solve the only mystery that ever really mattered to him. Even Sue, so cruelly treated by Jean Loring and Dr Light, was only a macguffin. (I don't think DC yet 'gets' how offensive it was for Sue to be raped by Dr Light for no better reason than to be a red herring distraction to the mystery of her own murder.) Ralph's own subsequent death in 52 and brief ~~zombie~~ resurrection in Blackest Light were little more than afterthoughts. And the Dibnys' even briefer appearances as ghost detectives in The Outsiders, well, that was just twisting the knife for this longtime fan.

And the "New 52"... I mean, seriously, in which of these series would Ralph fit? When they were trolling for members for the new Justice League International, it was Plastic Man whose name came up. He was dismissed, but at least he was considered. Where's Ralph? (Do I sound bitter?)

So I get it, DC. You could bring them back, you just don't want to. Julius Schwartz said he'd never have created the Elongated Man if he had known DC owned Plastic Man. That's that.

Tell you what. Just print that blasted Showcase Presents The Elongated Man Volume 2 and I'll buy the thing and stop bothering you.

Taste the rainbow

2011-11-12T00:17:00.001-05:00

I really want to like the new Green Lantern animated series. I had hoped to see more of Hal Jordan and his "civilian" supporting cast, which I thought would be possible with a series focusing on one character.

However, DC Animation obviously feels that teams are what pays the rent these days. That, and a desire to attract younger viewers, would be why they chose a hero who comes with 3599 dressalike teammates and a full spectrum of color-coded bad guys. We only meet three Red Lanterns in this episode, but you know the other colors have to be in the wings. And any Green Lantern series that doesn't include Star Sapphire should turn in its power rings.

Another decision I'm not crazy about was to pull a Star Trek Voyager on Hal and Kilowog, stranding them 18 months' travel time back to Oa at whatever the ring's top speed is, vs 9+ months to repair the warp drive: Either way, It guarantees we won't be seeing any familiar faces unless their backstories are significantly rewritten. Or unless the Guardians had more than one of those experimental starships.

But it does cut down on the number of dressalike teammates we're likely to encounter. And I liked Batman: Brave and the Bold. So maybe this could work. I found myself liking this man, this Hal Jordan who seduces an AI navigational system. Hal, have you met Jim Kirk? I'll bet you would get along famously. Kilowog sure isn't Spock, though.

Actually, characterization is pretty consistent with the comics, as I've come to expect with Timm/Dini DC shows. There's a reason these comic books have lasted as long as they have, and the producers have wisely chosen to keep a lot of it.

Which still leaves two really big problems. One, SPOILER ALERT, is the fact that the Big Damn Green Heroes... lose. This setup wasn't content to put Hal and Kilowog umpteen kessel runs away from anything familiar: We spent an hour (less interminable commercials) getting invested in our three ringslingers and drumming up a serviceable bit of "how are they going to get out of this one", only to discover that they don't get out of it. Another Green Lantern dead, and the planet he rode in on destroyed. Most of the people were relocated successfully, including our casualty's wife and child, on a completely new planet with nothing but the shirts on their backs. I mean, thanks for not letting us all die, but you couldn't have just moved the bomb? There's a lot of unapologetic onscreen death and destruction in Green Lantern.

The other really big problem is CG animation. I was hoping that once I saw it in extended action, it would grow on me. It didn't: I felt like I was watching someone play a video game. Give me old-fashioned hand-drawn cel animation every time.

I wish I'd said that

2011-10-21T14:48:00.001-04:00

Ralph Dibny, the World-Famous Elongated Man:
An ear -- In the Fireplace!: Reviewing "Ten Miles to Nowhere!"
To me, this is one of the greatest Elongated Man stories. Yes, it has some silly, far too coincidental aspects, but there's a lot of great characterization. I believe that Ralph was one of the earliest heroes to develop a personality (back then, heroes used to be distinguished just by uniform, hair color and powers).

Yeah, that and Carmine Infantino made Sue Dearbon Dibny so doggoned cute, and Ralph just the right blend of handsome and goofy.

Youthification

2011-10-02T14:34:00.001-04:00

The suddenly-svelte Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad gets all the attention, but she's not alone. Commissioner Gordon in Detective is looking distinctly Year One-ish, with vivid red hair: How long has this been going on?

And how about that bat-family portrait in Batman? See how much shorter and slimmer Dick Grayson is? How could he possibly have passed for Batman for the last year-plus?

What about Perry White in Superman? Heck, what about Morgan Edge, who's been not only youthified, but apparently Samuel-L-Jacksonified?

They told us up front they were going for a younger, less experienced DCU: I don't know why anyone should be surprised by what we're seeing in the books.

On the other hand, I'm not sure who they thought would see it as necessarily an improvement, either.

Let's just call it what it is. The DCU hasn't absorbed the Wildstorm universe: It's the other way around.

Compare and Contrast

2011-09-27T15:36:00.000-04:00

Remington Steele: NBC television, 1982-1987. After four years of romantic tension between the male and female leads, the producers have the characters get married. The show dies after six more episodes, partly due to failing ratings (and partly, it must be noted, because NBC programming preferred Hunter and scheduled it in Steele's time slot).

Moonlighting: ABC television, 1985-1989. After two and a half years of romantic tension between the male and female leads, the producers (and the characters) yielded to temptation. The show's ratings took an immediate nosedive (aggravated by the stars' lengthy absences, Cybill Shepherd to have a baby, Bruce Willis to make Die Hard) and never recovered.

Catwoman: DC comics, 2011. After seventy-one years of romantic tension (off and on, mostly off through the height of the "seduction of the innocent" scare and the Comics Code) and endless did-they didn't-they hints and parallel-world cheats, Batman and Catwoman have undeniable on-panel sex in the rebooted issue #1.

In a similar vein: If you loved Starfire on Cartoon Network's Teen Titans, you'll hate her in Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Shortpacked! by David Willis - Math

Flusssshhhhhh

2011-09-22T00:30:00.000-04:00

Last month I told you that, for no reason I could easily articulate, New Avengers #15 caught my eye. I told you how moved I was by the heroism of Squirrel Girl, and I expressed my hope that she wasn't being set up to die in the siege on Avengers Mansion.

Well, [SPOILERS], she wasn't, but what happened was worse. Bendis apparently lost interest in the story: That's really the only explanation I can come up with. The locked-down mansion that resisted the full-out attack of a team of Nazibots? Daredevil blew the front door off its hinges (something the Nazibots were apparently unable to do), then heroically led SG and baby Cage into the basement. (Did they not tell SG there was a basement?)

Cut to later, when the family Cage rewarded DD for knowing where the basement was by offering him an Avengers ID card. What happened to the Nazibots? "Well, we ain't goose-stepping, so I guess it worked out." That's a direct quote, and that's all the explanation we got. I guess they didn't finish bringing down Avengers mansion, since that job gets done over in New Avengers Annual #1 (also on sale this week) as a result of a completely unrelated siege. Does Marvel not have editors?

So after an issue to show us what a formidable threat Squirrel Girl actually is, her bacon gets saved off panel... by Daredevil? This goes far beyond unsatisfying, into the realm of downright insulting.

So far, so good

2011-09-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

DC's New 52 is a decent collection of comics. Not everything is award material, but then only DC editorial may have thought it might be. But mostly it doesn't suck. I've already spoken about Justice League and the fundamentally wrong-headed idea of issuing it first. (Team-ups are something you build up to, not something you lead with.)

Week two gives us thirteen more titles. These are not detailed reviews, just hit 'em fast and move on first impressions.

Action Comics: Since I haven't drunk DC's kool-aid, I'm not predisposed to nominate Grant Morrison for sainthood for deigning to write Superman. Philosophically, though, I do like the approach. It is actually fun, as a comic named Action should be.

Animal Man: You can tell they like Morrison around here.

Batgirl: I'd almost rather The Killing Joke be written out of continuity than see Barbara freeze in a crisis because of flashbacks to it.

Batwing: Even in-story, marketing is the reason this character is wearing a bat. Have you no shame? (At least he isn't being called the Black Bat, which must have been tempting.)

Detective Comics: Ew. Thanks for reminding me why I stopped reading Batman. Is there supposed to be any detecting going on around here?

Green Arrow: When Green Arrow is a better Batman book than Detective, you're in trouble.

Hawk and Dove: Why does this look like an unused (with good reason) inventory story from 24 years ago?

Justice League International: Why does the Hall of Justice even exist? Why are we getting Justice League spinoff titles before the actual Justice League title begins telling contemporary stories? The book is counting on us already knowing and liking these characters: I thought this was supposed to be an All New DC Universe?

Men of War: Wow, real continuity. This isn't Frank Rock, who still served in WWII.

OMAC: Finally someone remembers OMAC is a Kirby concept. Surprisingly good.

Static Shock: Skimmed it. Found nothing that demanded a closer look.

Stormwatch: Week two of The New 52, and already we're getting footnoted flash-forwards to books that haven't been published yet. DC Editorial, this is a Calendar; Calendar, DC Editorial. Get to know each other, will you? Characters I don't know are introducing themselves clumsily and giving me no reason to like them. J'onn J'onzz' presence just looks intended to manipulate me into buying the damn book. Interesting how they mention his Justice League roots here, but not in Justice League or Justice League International. If they don't think he can carry his own book, why do they think he's going to lead me into Wildstorm? I think I'll start calling him "the Martian Moses."

Swamp Thing: Alec Holland and Superman stand around and talk. *Yawn*.

All-Star Justice League?

2011-09-08T21:38:00.000-04:00

Those of you who follow these spasmodic emissions (both of you) have doubtless long since given up expecting anything like reviews from me. That's one reason I wasn't inclined to write a review of Justice League #1. The other reason is that I think I already read this book when it was All-Star Batman and Robin.

There is no way the book could possibly have lived up to the hype that preceded it, and I think we all knew that going in, so I'll resist the temptation to throw stones on that basis. Although given that it is being written and drawn by people with publisher-level authority within the company, it's hard to place the blame for that anywhere else.

I could hop on my traditional soapbox of overly-decompressed storytelling: There's about 4 pages of actual story in this issue, at best. This flaw isn't unique to the New 52, so I guess I should let it slide. Perhaps, with seven lead characters to service, Justice League should be a 48-page or 64-page book. But then I don't know anyone who thinks Jim Lee can meet the long-term deadlines of a 32-page comic, so maybe not.

I could also gripe about overly-rendered artwork. I don't need to see stitches and seams, boot treads and beard stubble. (And lots of green lens flares.) Superheroes are inherently unrealistic: Photographically-exact renderings of same is obsessive to the point of mental illness (is "anal-retentive" spelled with or without a hyphen?), and undoubtedly a contributing factor to missed publication deadlines (see above). But All The Big Kids Are Doing It Now.

I think I can complain in fairness that in this issue of Justice League the second member -- well, the second person who will, some day, be a member -- shows up on page 6, the third on 17 (in a pre-origin appearance in which he doesn't interact with the others), and the fourth in a final-panel reveal on page 23. And the villain--

Wait. Is there a villain in this book at all? I mean, from the point of view of the police, there are two, but they are supposed to be the heroes (not that they act like it). Ah, there's a glimpse, briefly, on page 5, and another on page 10, and again on page 15. Those of us who've been reading comics for decades know it's an Apocalyptian Parademon, but certainly nobody in story knows what it is. And since we're doing a soft reboot and everything is new except when it isn't, nobody's going to tell us, either. Batman and Green Lantern must not be too worried about it, though, since they expend far more effort sniping at each other than worrying about whether Gotham Power and Light has subcontracted meter-reading to Granny Goodness. But it's extra-terrestrial, and Superman is reported to be extra-terrestrial, so it must be his fault, let's go beat him up. That's Some Mighty Fine Police Work There, Gree-- Oops. Well, that didn't work. The end.

The World's Greatest Heroes aren't off to a great start. It's pretty, but ultimately empty. Next issue was solicited as Batman vs Superman, which doesn't fill me with optimism, only deja vu. Bad enough that Everything Old is New Again, but when Everything Old is Always New Again For The First Time Ever, I feel like Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates.

Hm. 50 First Dates vs the New 52. Now I get it.

Who is she?

2011-09-08T18:42:00.000-04:00

Could this woman...

...first seen (we think) in Flashpoint #5, and apparently making at least a background appearance in DC's "New 52" in every #1 in September...

Could she be... the all-new 2011 Time Trapper?

Joining The Dots On The New 52 Strange Woman | Bleeding Cool

Personally, I'm rooting for her being the Sensational Character Find of 1983, Harbinger. [I'm not alone!] But comics being what they are, that doesn't mean she isn't the Time Trapper as well.

Oh, DC, now you're just being cruel

2011-08-25T16:35:00.000-04:00

In the final week of the old DC Universe, amidst all the meta-textual farewells (Justice League, Teen Titans, Superman) and placeholder issues of series that won't have a place in the New 52 (Batgirl) and brief glimpses into an Elseworlds that mostly isn't all that interesting (Flashpoint this'n'that), we get this gem of a one-shot from Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema.

With those names together on the credits, seems like this ought to be a Marvel book.

This is a creative team that not only still remembers how to put a comic book together, but how to make it look easy.

Now I get it

2011-08-23T13:39:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm not very observant. But it finally clicked in my head: Now I know why I don't like Superman's "new look".

It looks like they started from an action figure.

"Squirrel Girl takes out nazis..."

2011-08-13T02:08:00.001-04:00

I have not been following "Fear Itself", so I really have no idea what's going on here. I don't even know what made me take a look at New Avengers #15...

Wait, that's wrong. I do know. It was Ken Boehm's rundown of Moments of the Week over on The Weekly Crisis. But the moment he highlighted was not the moment that made me cheer. The moment that made me cheer was the resolution of her sparring match with Wolverine. You go, Squirrel Girl!

And the moment that made me tear up was after she took out the nazis, when she returned to Avengers Mansion (she's Luke Cage's daughter's nanny these days).

Dammit, Bendis, you sucked me in. You had better not be setting her up to die.

Betrayed by Cracked

2011-08-11T11:31:00.001-04:00

Back in 2008 (fine, OK, I'm slow), Cracked did one of their famous lists on The 7 Crappiest "Super Heroes" in Comic Book History. Well, fine, there are plenty of lame, lackluster and just plain odd superheroes. You never know what will catch on. I mean, for this list, the prime criteria seems to have been a lame origin, and if we're being honest, Spider-Man?

But number two on Cracked's list is the world-famous Elongated Man.

Really? The only hero you could find crapper than Ralph Dibny was the Black Condor? The man who taught himself to fly?

And the number seven entry that begins the feature is Madam Fatal? The out-of-work actor who fought crime dressed as a little old lady? This is the company you think Ralph should keep?

And the Whizzer is crappy because he gained super-speed due to a transfusion of mongoose blood, but Plastic Man isn't, because he gained his powers after being splashed with acid in a burglary gone wrong? Isn't that also the Joker's origin?

Clearly, that which does not kill us makes us Super Friends.

The City on the Edge of Forever... was Atlanta!

2011-08-09T02:00:00.001-04:00

Just a couple of postings ago I ran a photo of Floyd's Barber Shop making a cameo appearance in Star Trek:

Well, of course it was that Floyd's. The Desilu back lot in Culver City was used for, well, everything. In fact, the crossover went the other way, too.

Here's a picture of Ronny Howard (Opie Taylor, of course) riding his bicycle down Mayberry's main street, past the grocery and (just past it, out of frame to the right) a TV repair shop and Floyd's. But that larger building in the distance, the one that blue car is parked in front of? It's Edith Keeler's 21st Street Mission, still dressed for Star Trek instead of its usual role on the Andy Griffith Show, the Grand Theater. Well, I guess Otis had to sleep somewhere when he wasn't under arrest.

The pictures come from the RetroWeb 40 Acres website, a tour of what was originally called the Pathe 40 Acre Ranch (though it was really only 27 acres). De Mille used it for King of Kings. RKO used it for King Kong. Selznick used it for Gone With The Wind. (You may already know that the King of Kings and King Kong sets were destroyed for the "burning of Atlanta" scenes.) The Atlanta Depot was still there when Superman, Andy Griffith, Star Trek and Hogan's Heroes were filming there. So if every town in every TV show and movie looked alike, well, there's a reason. They were all filmed in "Atlanta."

The location given at Wikipedia makes the area easy to find, but if you're an old movie buff, there's really no point. There's nothing to see. It's industrial now.

Bored?

2011-08-06T21:24:00.002-04:00

Okay, I get it, DC, but you don't. You're tired of these familiar characters. They're all too... familiar. Boring. You want to tell interesting stories, and your creative staff can't work up any enthusiasm for these guys.

So, Everything We Know Is Wrong. These new characters look like the ones we know, and some of them even go by the same name, but it's not them. These are people about whom you think you can tell exciting stories. And you want to trick us into buying a brand new comic about a brand new character by putting an old familiar name on it.

Hey, it worked in 1956 for "The Flash" in Showcase #4.

I just finished the World of Flashpoint mini, in which the world's most determined, most dogmatic skeptic becomes a dark magician in order to... No, I can't even finish that sentence. Why even use the name if you're going to go so far off the rails? Representing this character as Doctor Thirteen is just plain cruel.

But why am I surprised? This isn't your first attempt, and cynicism born of years of reading comics I didn't like featuring characters who shared a name but nothing else with a character I wanted to see more of tells me it won't be the last.

As I said earlier:

DC wants to have their cake and eat it too. Almost literally. They want to exploit their world-famous Iconic Characters without being tied to the 75 years of history that, well, made them the Icons they are.

But along with the history, you're throwing out the essence of the characters. When you introduced Barry Allen, there were enough points of similarity with Jay Garrick that for fans who remembered the earlier version, this was still the Flash.

I know, I know, it's only Doctor Thirteen, who cares about him?

Well, obviously not you.

I guess Doctor Thirteen will go the way of Ralph Dibny, and be the exclusive domain of the people down the hall in the Showcase Presents office. Who will be the next character you care that little about?

Panorama

2011-08-04T21:19:00.002-04:00

First look at Henry Carvill as Superman. Lawrence Fishburne cast as Perry White. Look for the film in summer... 2013!?! If anyone still cares about Superman after the DC New 52 version rewrites everything we know.

Sherlock series 2 set to premiere in 2012. "This isn't a delay, we should be clear, as the BBC never announced a 2011 start date at any point." This is also out of BBC's hands, since Martin Freeman has been off in New Zealand playing Bilbo Baggins.

Should Anime Conventions Screen For Sex Offenders? Do We Really Have to Ask? "Obviously not all men who attend anime conventions are pervs, but ever since news of an arrest by a registered sex offender came out, people are wondering if there is more that can be done to keep women of all ages safe without treating innocent male attendees unfairly."

So, there was this past weekend, see, and Cowboys and Aliens and The Smurfs were both released, and Harrison Ford's wife (Calista Flockhart) took their son to see... what? Oh, and on another show, Harrison Ford faces the longest-awaited reunion of all.

Yes, that Floyd's Barber Shop.

Indecision

2011-08-04T10:46:00.001-04:00

This is, supposedly, the actual final cover of the new Justice League #1...unless they change their mind again. Not counting the three alternate covers. You know, I don't even care anymore.

Flash's clean red suit is now interrupted with over-rendered seams and loose yellow threads. Superman still doesn't have his own chest insignia right. Everybody's still got those "mature" high collared shirts, except Wonder Woman because, well, we know what you guys are looking for with Wonder Woman, wink, nudge, say no more.

No greater sacrifice can a super-heroine make than to lose her pants for the sake of her fans.

It's just occurred to me that DC has this New 52 introduction completely backwards. I mean, given that they're determined to restart in the first place. You don't start with the team-up book, you end with it. You introduce the characters individually first and let us get to know them. You know, what Marvel is doing with their Major Motion Picture franchises. They didn't start with The Avengers, they built them.

Multipass - Imgur

2011-07-24T11:23:00.005-04:00

via imgur.com

What a lovely smile.

LATER: Yes, I know this isn't from any comic book. It's from San Diego Comic Con, though, is that good enough?
Actually, I don't care if it is. It's... hypnotic.

It could be worse, there could be a video...

STILL LATER: Yes, I know this isn't what Leeloo was wearing when she said "Multipass", I don't care.

New answers to old questions

2011-07-08T23:19:00.002-04:00

So, did this happen now?
(Only in comic books could such a question be asked.)

Canon Fodder: 10 Possible Story Casualties of the DCnU | Newsarama.com

Okay, DC, you've certainly got us talking about the DC Universe with a passion that any owner of trademarked characters would envy. But there are some parts of the discussion you have to be wishing would just go away, and Graeme McMillan adds to that uncomfortable list at Newsarama.

The conflict is obvious: DC (quite reasonably) wants to have their cake and eat it too. Almost literally. They want to exploit their world-famous Iconic Characters without being tied to the 75 years of history that, well, made them the Icons they are. This paradox isn't new to the September launch of what has come to be called DCnU.

Of course, in the Good Old Days, when they wanted to rewrite a character's history, they just rewrote it. Readership turned over every three to five years: Who noticed if Green Arrow had two origins? Who cared if Aquaman and Lori Lemaris couldn't possibly have come from the same Atlantis?

Troublemakers.

Then Julius Schwartz and Gardner Fox decided that all this stuff actually happened, somewhere... well, it's comic books, none of it actually happened, but you know what I mean. And it takes someone with a special kind of attachment to his diversions to even comprehend the problem.

You young whippersnappers don't remember the tentative speculation. "If there's an Earth-2, and the Justice Society lives there... then is there a Superman there? If so, where's the cutoff point? Which stories happened to 'ours' and which happened to 'theirs'?"

McMillan logically observes that if the 2011 "soft reboot" has any reason to exist at all, then most if not all of the continuity fixes since, well, ever "never happened". But DC can't afford to actually cut off their continuity and start over, and they certainly can't afford for you to believe they might.

DC's ongoing existence as a publisher depends on us readers buying the stuff anyway, at the very least as if nothing had happened, preferably in larger numbers. In order to continue exploiting their back catalog of material, they can't cut it loose. Why would a reader who started reading with Justice League #1 want to go back and buy this other stuff with the same name if it has nothing to do with the group he's reading now?

But you know, from an artistic point of view, that's exactly what they would want to do. The characters are bound by so much continuity that it's difficult to tell new stories about them. If you're thinking of comparing comic book characters to beloved, iconic fictional characters in other media, consider: There are only 60 stories about Sherlock Holmes, 26 Tarzan books, and 12 James Bond novels. (And not once has there been a "Crisis on Infinite Baker Streets".)

Superman, by contrast, has appeared in over 900 issues of Action, 700 issues of Superman, and uncounted hundreds of stories in World's Finest, Adventures of Superman, DC Comics Presents and dozens of other titles. Is it any wonder some of these stories begin to look alike?

Before the ink was wet on Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, we were asking "which stories still matter." They never said then, and they're sure not going to say now. They can't afford for you to decide that "well, the introduction of Mopee into the Flash series was the defining moment of the character, so if that 'never happened' I'm never buying another Flash comic."

Even this guy has fans, you know.

So if you're waiting for DC to tell you, up front, who the characters are and what their histories were, well, from their perspective that defeats the purpose.

Guns, sharks and boobs falling out of a bustier.
We did everything we could possibly do to get you to pick the book up.

Just shut up and buy the damn books. Or not.

LATER: Of course, I meant "Before the ink was DRY on Crisis on Infinite Earths #1..." Apologies to both of my readers.

Just asking, DCnU

2011-07-07T19:03:00.000-04:00

Does Kara still have that tattoo she got in Kandor? Will she have it in September?

Too complicated

2011-07-04T01:50:00.001-04:00

Why do you insist on giving us these over-rendered monstrosities? Your characters' costumes should be clean, simple and iconic. That's why the characters are iconic as well. We really, really do not need to know where the seams are. And we do not need to see every muscle and tendon clearly defined. It's a comic book. It's supposed to be unrealistic.

Why does Superman need armor? I'm reminded of a throwaway panel in a fifty-year-old comic in which Superman is doing mighty deeds in a suit of knightly armor because his uniform has apparently lost its invulnerability. Looked silly then. Looks silly now.

Why does Aquaman need fish scales? He's not a fish and has never pretended to be. Besides, with that color he would have to be a goldfish, which doesn't exactly strike fear in the hearts of aquatic villains.

I'll buy that Superboy can be tattooed: His powers don't work the same way Superman's powers do. But why would he want to be?

Why do Supergirl's new thigh boots have peek-a-boo knees?

Why does Robin need feathers? He doesn't stand out enough in red and yellow?

The Flash isn't electric: The air shouldn't crackle around him. Unless his suit is wool. Yikes.

Why does the whole darn JL(A?) need nehru collars?

And Wonder Woman is... You know what? I'm not going to complain. I actually like this. I'd prefer the pants were a deep blue rather than black, but otherwise this is fine.

Are those ruby bullets?

2011-06-21T13:49:00.000-04:00

Okay, this is just odd and intriguing enough to warrant a look in, what, October? By then we'll all be pretty thoroughly disillusioned with the New DCU...

Big Dog Ink Travels Back Over the Rainbow…

Make room for Jimmy

2011-06-12T14:58:00.000-04:00

This is perfect. It's just the kind of story I would have sworn couldn't be told in today's DC Universe. Aliens. Girlfriend troubles. A smarmy competitor. A magical prankster with an unpronounceable name. A cheesy plot to take over the world. And Supergirl in a yarn store. This one truly has it all. I love this book.

Nope, it's all still wrong, again, except that it sort of isn't

2011-06-09T20:48:00.000-04:00

Newsarama.com : The DC UNIVERSE Reboots in September, New #1s Across the Line

So they're rebooting everyth... "Don't call it a reboot!"

Oooo-kaaaay. So all they're really doing is redesigning the character costume guide sheets. Well, they've done that before. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez must be getting pretty old by now. Superman finally loses those red trunks. (Boy, they must really be embarrassed by those.) Everybody gets high collars, except Wonder Woman. (Hey, we know why guys buy that, on the *ahem* rare occasions when they do buy that. At least we put her in pants. See how enlightened we are?)

We are going to keep trying until we get you to buy the line as we envisioned it in 1973. (Hawk and Dove by Rob Liefield? Who demanded that?)

Okay, I see, the 75th anniversary of Superman will be for issues cover-dated June 2013 (Action #1 was June 1938). Anything can happen in two years.

Everything you know is wrong... again

2011-05-27T15:34:00.002-04:00

A new world.
A world full of heroes, familiar yet different.
A world spiralling into darkness with no redemption in sight.

GLOSSARY
"Jumping on point for new readers"
Obsolete usage: Fully self-explanatory.
Current usage: Discontinuous.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

When did comics creators get so bored with their own big-name properties that they would rather do ANYTHING ELSE than write for them as they are?
Since they clearly do feel that way, why don't they go to work somewhere else?
How often do they have to tell us "everything we know is wrong" before we understand that they think we are stupid?

DC’s New Retro-Active Line Gets Era Specific Logos, Writers Revealed | SciFi Mafia

2011-04-25T13:13:00.000-04:00

DC’s New Retro-Active Line Gets Era Specific Logos, Writers Revealed | SciFi Mafia

In a brief hiatus to their ongoing mission to drive a stake through the heart of the Good Old Days, DC Comics recently announced they no longer know how to make good comics, and are recruiting their most popular surviving authors to show them how it is done.

What's that? I misquoted the press release?

Dwayne McDuffie, 1962-2011

2011-03-26T14:43:00.000-04:00

How did I miss this news?

We should have had many more years of reading and entertainment. And he should have become very, very rich. He'll have to make do with fondly remembered and dearly missed.

Early cross-promotion

2011-03-25T00:57:00.001-04:00

Here's a very early example of a continued story in DC comics. Sort of.

On the left is Adventure 152, starring Superboy. In this story, prompted by a "what I want to be when I grow up" essay assignment, Clark travels to Metropolis to "try on" several potential jobs. He eventually settles on "newspaper reporter". His essay wins a writing contest, the prize for which is presented by a surprise guest, reporter Perry White, who invites Clark to contact him when he's older.

On the right is Action 144, starring Vigilante. (Just kidding.) In this month's Superman story, Clark happens to find the cover page for the edition of the Daily Planet that contains his first by-line. This inspires him to reminisce about having met Perry White while still in high school, and his later attempts to see White in order to apply for a position as a reporter. The same scene of young Clark winning that writing award is seen in flashback.

Both comics would have been on the racks in the same week of March 1950. Neither story has ever been reprinted.

I Wonder who that Woman is

2011-03-13T19:11:00.002-04:00

Gutters - Issue #15
by Evan Shaner

You know, the lasso is the least unlikely part of Wonder Woman's uniform. That makes perfect sense. Every superhero should have one. (Heck, Batman has always had one. Spider-Man has the next best thing. GL can make 'em as needed. Captain America is so damn awesome that you stay where he puts you. And the new kids don't need one because they don't take prisoners anyway, they just go ahead and kill the perps.)

What I don't get is the continuation of the trend to celebrate big honkin' landmark anniversaries by throwing out everything that we've loved about a character for thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years and starting over with the name and a couple of touchstones.

Ah, well. That's probably what Roy Thomas and Jerry Bails first thought when Barry Allen and Hal Jordan first hit Showcase.

Administrative trivia 2

2011-03-13T18:59:00.000-04:00

You know what? I changed my mind. Or maybe I rebooted myself. Have it whichever way you like. I realized that I get more pageviews here than on my general purpose blog, so it really makes no sense to shut this one down and move over there.

So I figure I must have been temporarily replaced by the me from an alternate future (maybe 2017, that sounds sufficiently random) where middle-aged balding fat guys are persecuted by the government after passage of Anti-Normal-Old-Coot Legislation in 2012. Yeah, that must be it. Sounds entirely credible.

Suu-ure it does. I've been waiting for the Earth-2 me to show up for most of my life, but I've just figured out he's me. It's the Earth-1 me I have to watch out for.

Or that nerd Barry Allen. Can't trust a man with a bow tie and crew cut.

Administrative trivia

2011-02-22T02:17:00.000-05:00

I have too many blogs and not enough time to keep them all fresh. Therefore, I've decided to shut this one down and include comicky musings in my general-purpose blog, Dreaded Purple Master. All of the EitP posts have been merged into DPM, so nothing's lost. I know you were concerned.

So this isn't "goodbye", just a change of address.

The 10 greatest all-nude fight scenes in comics | Blastr

2010-10-03T20:44:00.001-04:00

The 10 greatest all-nude fight scenes in comics | Blastr

Can there be any doubt about #1? I didn't even know there were nine more.

Freedom Fighters? Again?

2010-09-20T21:49:00.000-04:00

I don't get DC's determination to use these Quality heroes as a group or not at all. What I need, I think, is a sprawling JLA/JSA/FF epic that will give me a reason to care who these people are.

Let's have Doll Man and the Atom learn how best to exploit being six inches tall. If Marvel Divas and Birds of Prey can work, then surely Phantom Lady, Jesse Quick and Big Barda can work up a little chemistry. Hawkman and Black Condor. The Ray and Captain Atom. Black Canary, the Red Bee and the Bulleteer (remember her?). Uncle Sam and the Phantom Stranger. (If, in fact, they're not actually the same person.)

DC has tons of characters in their closet in need of rehabilitation. I wonder what Batman and Robin and Knight and Squire would make of Mister Scarlet and Pinky.

formspring.me

2010-06-02T14:41:00.001-04:00

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/DTaylor404

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1988

2010-04-30T02:42:00.001-04:00

via comicsalliance.com

Now that's an April Fool's prank.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Potential Disney Heroines

2010-01-26T19:58:00.001-05:00

via avalanchesoftware.blogspot.com

As Sam Nielson alludes, The Hunchback of Notre Dame as written is not exactly fertile ground for growing Disney princesses (Esmeralda dies, Quasimodo kills Frollo, then starves to death at Esmeralda's graveside). (A strong second place for inappropriate cartoonification is Don Bluth's Anastasia.)

But if that worked... Perhaps the world is ready for Disney's Romeo and Juliet. Or Wuthering Heights. Or Frankenstein...

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

That's some mighty fine police work there, Bruce.

2010-01-18T21:23:00.001-05:00

via verydemotivational.com

Next issue: Prince Albert in a Can.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

I never saw the John Denver / Muppets Christmas special...

2009-12-27T03:07:00.001-05:00

via youtube.com

...from thirty years ago. I feel so old.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

It's not what you think

2009-12-21T01:21:00.001-05:00

via flickr.com

You're thinking, yeah, yeah, seen it before. It isn't that hard to do. You select an area and desaturate the color in that area. It seems to be a lot of folks' favorite image editing trick. But that's not what's going on here.

If you follow the link back to her Flickr photostream, you'll see several other angles on the same people, including one taken for the San Francisco Chronicle. It's a gray Santa suit, a gray wig, gray body paint, and gray contact lenses. you have to get really close in to see the only color she couldn't cover, the pink corners of her eyes.

Awesome.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

What's wrong with this picture?

2009-12-19T02:23:00.001-05:00

via dcu.blog.dccomics.com

Is it Power Girl's ever-expanding breasts? No, that's a long-accepted part of the character. Is it her fluctuating Kryptonian breastal vent? Let's face it, if it weren't for that, PG wouldn't get any press at all. Is it her camel toe seam? Sadly, no, she's had that for a while too.

Isn't it obvious? Power Girl is crosseyed. You're all looking at the silly window and haven't noticed that Amanda Conner can't draw PG's face.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

I'd read it

2009-11-24T00:26:00.001-05:00

via evanshaner.com

Just in time for me to post as a reminder where this blog's name came from. A cool sketch (just one among many) by "Doc" Shaner.

I love this stuff

2009-11-23T16:53:00.001-05:00

via comicsalliance.com

Meet Miss Miracle and Big Bard.

Sometimes you don't need a reason to do a gender swap story, you just do it.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Even after everything that's happened...

2009-11-22T19:13:00.001-05:00

via 4thletter.net

...after death and dismemberment and the destruction of universes, after Identity Crisis and Death of the New Gods and Final Crisis and the Darkest Night...

...the DC Universe is still a place where this can happen.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

And I thought Alan Scott was colorblind

2009-11-10T23:52:00.001-05:00

via slaymonstrobot.blogspot.com

The original Green Lantern, you may recall, wore a uniform of red, black, purple and yellow. Now that's a color scheme to strike fear into evil-doers.

But he had nothing on Bob Phantom, published by the company that would one day become Archie Comics. Origin? We don't need any of that. This is the flippin' Golden Age. How can you not love that costume? Green, red and orange. He reminds me a little of Kurt Busiek's Crackerjack, from Astro City. Orange and green are not often used together in superhero costumes. Nor anywhere else, now that I think of it. And with good reason. Plus those bare arms and legs, which says to me that this is a man who does not give a rat's ass what you think.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Landmarks :: Detective Comics #300

2009-11-08T21:11:00.001-05:00

For most of what I think of as the first three ages of comics (gold, atomic and silver), anniversary issues meant nothing. It was assumed that readers were children, with rapid turnover and short attention spans. You'll notice that the smallest thing on the cover is the issue number.

Surely if #300 mattered to anyone, they would have introduced a better villain than the Polka Dot Man. It wouldn't have taken much: The Matt Hagen Clayface had just debuted in #298, and he proved popular enough for a return appearance in #304. Surely the schedule could have been shuffled enough to swap stories.

Ah, but that is the genius of hindsight. I'm sure at the time, the Bizarre Polka Dot Man looked far more promising. You never know. Detective #400 introduced the Man-Bat, who struck me as a one-note character, but somehow he's still around.

Detective Comics #300 marked 25 years of continuous publication. It wasn't quite 25 years of Batman: That had to wait until Detective #327, for reasons you'll know if you think about it. That issue was a big departure from what came before, since it introduced the Infantino "new look" Batman, but still there wasn't a single mention anywhere in either comic of Detective's, or Batman's, silver anniversary.

image via comics.org

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

A librarian's life is not an easy one

2009-10-29T14:41:00.001-04:00

Let Me Re-Read It Alone A Few Times And Get Back To You

Apparently two library employees - it seems to be unclear whether they were assistants or professional librarians - in Nicholasville, Kentucky have been fired for denying a child access to material the pair considered pornographic.

That material? Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Personally, I don't remember any porn in that book, which suggests three possibilities: my aged mind can no longer remember what I've read, there was a distinct lack of explicit sexual content or it wasn't very good. I'd guess that would do for ranking them in descending order by likelihood, too, come to think of it.

Librarians Won't Give Child 'Porn' Book - [WTVQ]

via feedproxy.google.com

The original article says "a book from The League of Extraordinary Gentleman series". Tell me if any of these suppositions sound false:

It's in a library, so it's probably a collection, not an individual comic.

If it had been the first volume, the article would simply have said "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", not "a book from the series".

An explicit, realistic copulation between Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray is depicted in volume two.

That said, remember the two women were fired for taking it on themselves to decide that the 11-year-old shouldn't see this book. Library policy is that it's nobody's business but yours (and parents, in the case of a minor) what you read.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Danger - Chipmunk at work

2009-10-11T17:43:00.001-04:00

via animationarchive.org

Yes, this is Ross Bagdasarian (stage name David Seville, composer of "Come On-a My House" and "Witch Doctor"), producing one of the many speed-shifted voices that went into his most lasting creations, Alvin and the Chipmunks. If you loved this show too, there's a brief history and gobs of images at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

G20 protest

2009-09-28T11:41:00.002-04:00

via thedw.us

Anyone we know?

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

2009-09-21T09:21:00.001-04:00

via smbc-comics.com

No, bad guys never die in comics, no matter how much they may deserve it. That kind of thing only happens to characters like Stephanie Brown (Spoiler / Robin / Batgirl).

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Preeeesenting the Invincible Iron Man!

2009-09-13T14:05:00.001-04:00

via flickr.com

And there's Supes chillin' in the background too. The next time someone asks "Why do people go to DragonCon?" show 'em this.

(Well, there's all those cosplay girls, too, as well as this really tight radio theatre group.)

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

"Wow. That's awesome."

2009-09-10T12:25:00.001-04:00

I almost got a hernia in my reaction to this article. Not kidding. I'm in pain. But it's a good pain.

...I am absolutely thrilled that the buck now stops with a woman at DC Comics. I am overjoyed – nay, almost orgasmic – that certain men will now have to regard Diane Nelson as their boss. It is karma working on the most basic level. Let these men explain to Nelson, who has worked with one of the most famous female fantasy writers in the entire world*, how women don't have the natural aptitude to edit and create comic books. Let these men explain to her the employment and dismissal history of female editors in the DCU over the last ten years...

Wow! That's awesome.

via occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com

* Diane Nelson previously managed the Harry Potter franchise for Warner.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Gooflactus

2009-09-01T17:53:00.001-04:00

from ApeLad via flickr.com

Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

BREAKING: Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion

2009-08-31T10:48:00.003-04:00

BREAKING: Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion: The Walt Disney Company has announced it will acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction worth 4 billion dollars.
What makes this deal huge, as far as content goes, is the fact that under the terms of the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of not only Marvel itself, but also over than 5,000 Marvel characters. Disney will now benefit from any movie or a game based on characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men and many others; extending its reach to the young male population it had somewhat neglected will definitely be good for the entertainment giant.

Now Disney and Warner each have their own pet comic book company. NBC-Universal already owns Walter Lantz Productions, but don't seem too interested in it. Viacom-CBS-Paramount has a spectacular collection of properties, but again, little apparent interest in comics.

Disney has proven they can sustain and exploit legacy characters. Wonder if Marvel will start handling Disney comics? Or if Disney will start producing Marvel-character movies?

(via Mashable)

The Great Price Increase of 1961

2009-08-25T22:38:00.001-04:00

For most of their history, comic books had been priced at a dime. Oh, there were Nickel Comics, and the annuals were generally priced at a quarter, but these were definitely exceptions to the rule. Not that there hadn't been inflation anyway; that dime bought you a 68-page mag in 1940, a 60-pager in 1944, a 52-pager in 1950, and a 36-page issue by the time the Silver Age started.

via sacomics.blogspot.com. Read the whole thing.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

xkcd - Tech Support Cheat Sheet

2009-08-25T17:29:00.002-04:00

via xkcd.com

Yes, it's true.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Alex Mitchell: “Jazz Age Justice League”

2009-08-19T15:37:00.003-04:00

Surely DC has an Elseworlds to spare for this.

(Thanks to Google Reader, even a slug like me can keep his blog full ~~of other people's content~~ regularly.)

Obvious once you point it out

2009-08-17T09:43:00.003-04:00

Once Upon a Geek: Doctor Who recommendations for old school fans:

You may find this an odd suggestion at first, but I firmly believe that Gene Wilder (as he portrayed the role of Willy Wonka) would have made an outstanding Doctor Who. I realize he’s not British, but outside of that, he played the role perfectly. Next time you watch the 1971 version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, watch Wilder’s portrayal closely. He is brilliant, bizarre, spontaneous, and full of enthusiasm. He’s very Doctor-ish.

"So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it."

King of Crayons: The All New Adventures of Time Travelin' Heath Ledger.

2009-08-12T15:11:00.001-04:00

via kingocrayons.blogspot.com

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Actually, it was Virus X

2009-08-12T14:34:00.006-04:00

No, man, Kryptonian appendixes (appendices?) don't get appendicitis. They have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal appendices.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Fantasies are healthy, right?

2009-08-11T15:36:00.002-04:00

ADDENDUM: Well, actually, in Superman v2 #130, there was this Halloween party...

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

But he's not natural-born

2009-07-25T11:22:00.001-04:00

"It was maybe corrupting her."

2009-07-16T10:48:00.003-04:00

From the Washington Post:

As [Supreme Court nominee Sonia] Sotomayor was growing up in a family in which no one had gone to college, people prodded her to excel.

"The females were expected to achieve more," said her younger brother, Juan Sotomayor. She loved comic books -- Archie, Casper, Richie Rich -- so much that, after her father died, her paternal grandmother and aunts once convened a family meeting with her mother. "They were concerned about the role of the comic books in my sister's life," recalled her brother, an allergist outside Syracuse, N.Y. "It was maybe corrupting her."

Okay, I can sort of see Richie Rich. God knows how many little tykes were driven into reactionary liberalism by Richie's conspicuous consumption.

Where else, indeed?

2009-05-24T13:19:00.003-04:00

Now wait just a wallopin' minute here.

Not six months ago the newspaper Spider-Man waved a magic web and brought the premise in sync with the comic-book Spider-Man and the newly-marriage-free Brand New Day. And now the newspaper version is "goin' rogue" and reverting back to the happily-married Pete and MJ?

Okay.

No, really, it's okay. I like 'em this way. "Brand New Day" was and is a bad idea.

(Good luck finding the Sundays online.)

Krona!

2009-04-14T19:56:00.002-04:00

Complete with Kirby Krackle!

Fantasies are healthy, right?

2009-04-07T19:49:00.000-04:00

Well, actually, in Superman v2 #130, there was this Halloween party...

Finally, someone who knows what a crisis is

2009-03-06T14:02:00.003-05:00

Okay, I already knew that the creators of Unshelved are fans. The Firefly/Serenity strips are what first attracted my attention to this charming webcomic in the first place. But I still have just a small fannish squee every time they drop another reference, even if it doesn't ultimately feed the day's punchline. Especially if it doesn't.

A "red skies" crossover

2009-03-04T12:13:00.006-05:00

The creators of eleven character-specific blogs have gotten together for a...

Of course, mine isn't a character-centric blog, it just sort-of looks like one, so I thought I'd leap onto the passing bandwagon and do what many editors did at the time: A crossover by the most generous definition of the term, where a character would look up and exclaim "Gosh, lookit that, the sky is red, wonder why."

So the least I can do is link to the blogs that are doing this: The Aquaman Shrine ; Justice League Detroit; Speed Force; Being Carter Hall; the Doom Patrol; Plastic Man Platitudes; Dispatches from the Arrow Cave; I am the Phantom Stranger; Idol-Head of Diabolu; Mail it to Team-up; and the mastermind behind it all, Firestorm Fan.

Since they've all found their heroes on the spectacular Perez/Ross cover to the original hardbound edition of Crisis on Infinite Earths, I thought I would too. Forgive the resolution, but with 500-plus characters on the cover, well, they can't all be Superman. Poor Ralph didn't have a huge part in the story, either, as I recall. I would have found him sooner if he'd been wearing any other costume.

I always hated the half-and-half look.

To make matters worse, for the original hardback publication, the two Supermen were front and center on the dust jacket (well, if you published Superman, you'd probably do the same thing), which meant Ralph would have been on the inside front cover dust jacket flap.

Red skies at night, sailors delight; red skies at morning, sailors take warning; red skies at noon, EVERYBODY DIES.

A Cool Comic Book Moment

2009-01-25T22:34:00.004-05:00

Brian Cronin at Comics Should Be Good! has been examining the two part Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? all week. As a result, he has come up with four bona fide tearjerker moments courtesy of Alan Moore and Curt Swan.

I finally realized that he was never going to get to one of my own favorite moments from this story because it is not really a tearjerker moment (for all that Pete Ross has just been killed). It is, instead, as succinct a statement as one could ask of just how awesome Superman can be -- in fact, how awesome comics storytelling can be.

As he stands in the wreckage of the WGBS television studio, his secret identity revealed, his boyhood best friend dead in his arms, Superman finally speaks. "Toyman...Prankster...Let me ask you one question: Do you know what radio waves look like?"

The reply comes back through the toy Superman: "Huh? No! Why?" But the red-and-blue blur has already disappeared, headed toward the source of the criminals' transmission.

Before the pair can take another breath, Superman is there, bursting through the wall, announcing, "Because I do!"

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 12

2009-01-06T10:29:00.005-05:00

Whew. Whose idea was this again?

Day 12: The Fantastic Four

Early period: Fantastic Four #70, Jan 1968, by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott. This issue (spoiler!) actually ends with this scene, and isn't resolved until the following issue. The big green guy is an android, an "ultimate weapon" prepared by the Mad Thinker (defeated an issue or two back) and accidentally activated.

Boy, I hate when that happens.

This issue also contains a full-page panel of Reed and Sue musing on the love they share and the child that will soon be theirs. You can see Sue's new miniskirted uniform on the cover: We never find out if those unstable molecules can stretch into a maternity uniform.

Later period: Fantastic Four #369, Oct 1992, by Paul Ryan. Everybody, but everybody, is in this issue, as Sue battles her evil side Malice on the astral plane. Those of you who thought the corruption of Mary Marvel was unprecedented should probably look this story up.

Well, this was actually a lot of fun. Maybe I should continue looking at random character's covers at odd intervals. After all, we didn't do Captain America, or Batman, or Daredevil, or Wonder Woman, or the X-men, or Green Lantern, or the Hulk, or Captain Marvel, or Doctor Strange, or Plastic Man, or Thor, or Elongated Man...

Oh, crap, that's twelve more days...

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 11

2009-01-06T09:46:00.005-05:00

Day 11: The Flash

The story in Flash #90, Dec 1947, is really just an excuse for the Flash to play all nine positions in a baseball game. I keep meaning to dig this story up (it's reprinted in 80 Page Giant #4) to see what the other team had to say about it. Not to mention the league position.

I wanted to choose the first Elongated Man, of course, or "Land of the Golden Giants" (another sentimental favorite), but was there ever a more provocative cover than this one, from Flash #128, May 1962?

I don't remember if I was disappointed or relieved when we caught up with Barry and he was wearing street clothes. I mean, you've seen how tightly his uniform fits. No way does he wear a shirt and slacks under it.

Oh, well. If I'm prepared to accept the expanding-costume-in-the-ring thing, business-casual space travel is nothing.

Both of these covers, by the way, were pencilled by Carmine Infantino. Frank Giacoia inked "Nine Empty Uniforms", Joe Giella inked "Real-Gone Flash".

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 10

2009-01-05T23:39:00.003-05:00

Day Ten: Iron Man

An out-and-out sentimental pick: I mentioned back on day 4 that Marvel comics didn't come to my little town until 1967. My only previous exposure to these characters was those awful television cartoons. This, Tales of Suspense #93, Sep 1967, was my first Marvel comic ever.

I could have done worse. 12 pages of Colan-Giacoia greatness, 10 pages of Kirby-Sinnott energy on Captain America, and this awesome Colan cover emphasizing the sheer bulk and power of the massive Titanium Man.

I felt kind-of cheated that both stories were continued from the previous issue, and both were continued into the next as well... But I bought the next issue.

Forward over four years to Iron Man #46. By now, Marvel's distribution arrangements allowed it to publish more monthlies, and they responded by immediately splitting Tales of Suspense (and its companions, Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales) in two. Gene Colan was busy with Daredevil, so this cover was by Gil Kane and Ralph Reese.

(I guess, since we're not now reading The Guardian #400, you know who won this battle.)

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 9

2009-01-05T23:07:00.006-05:00

I've fallen behind!

Day 9: The Spirit

The Spirit?!? Way to rattle my cage! I've never seen most of these! Which is, of course, my loss. There are no bad Spirit stories, only good and better. And there are no bad Eisner covers, for all of them show characters and situations that the page can barely contain.

My first choice is my (and reportedly Will Eisner's own) favorite, "The Story of Gerhard Shnobble", from Sept 5, 1948.

Mr. Shnobble has just been fired from his job, and has decided that today is the day to become famous. He intends to do this by throwing himself off the roof of a building... and flying.

And he does!

From another era, is the cover to the Warren Spirit magazine #7, April 1975, pencils by Will Eisner, inks and colors by Ken Kelley. I like it because of the devotion and determination of Ebony White, proving he is not just another comic sidekick.

Also clearly shown is that, like Popeye, the Spirit has no superpowers other than being simply indomitable. Like the Timex watch he predated and outlived, he takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 8

2009-01-01T18:30:00.009-05:00

Day Eight: Justice League

Early period: JLA #31, Nov 1964, by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson. I realize that many fans don't care for Sekowsky's pencils, but as far as I'm concerned JLA is the only comic of its time in which Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash look "right". Sekowsky defines the "house style" everyone else should be trying to copy.

This scene should look silly, but it doesn't. It's dynamic and provocative. What kind of disaster can tear loose a chunk of the cavern floor, complete with table, chairs and occupants, and catapult it into space? I had to buy this issue and find out. (Unlike many comics, this scene actually occurred in this one.)

Later period: Justice League Task Force #8, Jan 1994, Sal Velluto and Jeff Albrecht. I can't say I like the execution here, but the concept... Well, I shouldn't like that either. This is a tentacle rape scene, isn't it? (On the cover of a DC comic, in 1994?)

It may be that what appeals to me is the question that the scene implies: Just how "male" is J'onn J'onzz? He's an alien. Our concepts of maleness and femaleness should be pretty much irrelevant to him.

Maybe I'm just tickled that when he is a woman (I mean... oh, never mind, I'm not going to try to rephrase it), his costume actually covers more skin.

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 7

2009-01-01T18:06:00.005-05:00

Day 7: The Defenders. This time for sure.

Well. there are no good Defenders covers. See you tomorrow: Thanks for coming.

Everything that is wrong with Avengers covers is wrong with Defenders covers, squared. Especially "horrified floating heads" disease. It's a wonder the book sold at all. On the other hand, they had a remarkably stable roster for a team that "isn't a team".

Here's the image that introduced the concept, Neal Adams' cover for Marvel Feature #1, December 1971. Our heroes are charging directly at the reader, with something unspecified but obviously destructive going on behind them.

It was a pretty big jolt when I opened the book and saw the art on this lead feature by Ross Andru and Bill Everett -- but it grew on me.

Jump forward to Defenders #11, January 2002 (I didn't know until looking through covers for this that there even was a 2001 restart of the Defenders). This image features an iconic, if uncharacteristically restful, pose of the "classic" team by Erik Larsen. Valkrie's anatomy is a little odd (what, did Rob Liefield ghost-draw this?), but I have to congratulate Larsen for including all seven lead characters without feeling crowded.

And has the Hulk's attention been momentarily diverted by a butterfly? Nice touch.

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 7

2009-01-01T15:36:00.008-05:00

Day 7: The Defenders

This is an odd choice for Mag and H, but sure, I'll go along with it.

The Defenders starred E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed, and was one of several legal dramas hoping to ride the coattails of Perry Mason...

What?

Oh. Never mind.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 6

2009-01-01T15:20:00.002-05:00

Day Six: Aquaman

To be honest, the first issue of Aquaman-in-his-own-book I ever read was the first "Sword of Atlantis" issue. (Sorry, H.) He just never grabbed me as a lead feature. For me, the golden era of Aquaman was 8-12 page stories in the back of Adventure. Mmm, all that Ramona Fradon goodness.

Which means that this was the perfect issue of Aquaman, notwithstanding that it was actually Super DC Giant #s-26, Jul-Aug 1971, cover by Dick Giordano. It contained five Fradon gems, including a rare book-length story (reprinted from Showcase #30), the first Aquagirl (a real cutie, too, in those orange-and-greens), and the astounding origin of the Human Flying Fish!

And ooh, looky here, A dramatic Infantino/Anderson cover from Superboy #171, Jan 1971. (Okay, it was Aquaboy, but it's the same guy. Another in a series of newly revealed "first meetings" that neither character remembers later.) This issue was heavily environmental (the "dark strangler" was an oil spill). About the only thing that would have improved that image would have been to make it wordless.

What's that? I broke the rule? Both covers are from 1971? Oh, OK, here's your Nick Cardy cover, from April '62.

Boy, I betcha if Ramona Fradon were doing covers, they'd still be publishing Aquaman today.

Previously: Days 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 5

2008-12-31T18:59:00.007-05:00

Day 5: Mad

I was too young to have seen any EC comics on the newsstands. By the time I came along, they were all gone: Mad was a magazine... and a series of paperback reprints you had to read sideways.

You kids don't know what we had to go through to be entertained.

If the "Plastic Man" parody had made the cover, I would have used that one. Because it didn't, here's the "Hah! Noon!" cover from Mad #9, Feb-Mar 1954, by the great Harvey Kurtzman. Mad's comic era was somewhat uneven, but when it was good, it was genius.

Fast-forward twelve years to #105, September 1966, and cover artist Norman Mingo. Al Feldstein managed to make lightning strike twice, creating a brand-new "usual gang of idiots" and setting a standard that would sustain Mad through almost 500 regular issues and countless specials.

Previously: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 4

2008-12-29T11:21:00.001-05:00

Day 4: The Avengers

Like Spider-Man, the Avengers suffered from an embarrassment of so-so covers. There are only so many ways to depict a crowd scene, and I personally am sick of floating heads reacting in horror to a central scene, a recurring motif that haunts Avengers covers like a disease.

When I saw the cover of Avengers Annual #1 on the stands in 1967, I had no idea who the Avengers were. Well, I knew who John Steed and Emma Peel were, but this lot clearly wasn't them.

No, really. Throughout the early sixties, Marvel comics were handled by a distributor owned by DC. DC used this advantage to severely limit the number of comics Marvel could publish. Some of you kiddies may know this, intellectually, but in practice the newsstand advantage was even greater. Many outlets, including the ones in my hometown, didn't carry Marvel comics at all. This was the very first Avengers comic I'd ever seen.

It may be why I never really warmed to the monthly series: It set unrealistic expectations.

The experts at GCDB are divided over whether this cover was by Don Heck or John Buscema, though they agree John Romita touched it up.

For late-period, I'll go with The Mighty Avengers #2 by Frank Cho.

If there are any comics fans remaining who haven't experienced puberty, this cover (like yesterday's Neal Adams Superman cover) should push them through it.

Hard to believe that's Tony Stark, isn't it?

Previously: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 3

2008-12-28T11:36:00.001-05:00

Day Three: Superman

This is clearly a Curt Swan cover for Action #232, September 1957. Try not to be too disappointed when you see the story itself and discover it is by Wayne Boring. Sadly, it is about a year too early to be included in the first Showcase Presents Superman collection, which I guess makes this "officially" a Golden Age story. I was so disappointed to see that charming image of Superman cooling lemonade with his super-breath on Superman in the Fifties yet not see this story contained therein.

This was, as they sometimes said, not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story. But I don't suppose I'm spoiling anything to tell you that the boy is not, in fact, Superman's biological son, but an Earth boy who has accidentally acquired a full set of super-powers. Things like that happened in the Silver Age: That which does not kill us makes us stronger, or something like that.

This may have been the first time they played with the classic Super-color scheme, but not the last. You should have seen the yellow-and-green dog's breakfast Superman himself tried a couple of issues later, complete with communications helmet and wings on his boots.

Skip forward a decade and change to 1971 and Superman #243, cover by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. I think this cover may actually have triggered puberty in a generation of boys. I was seventeen, and this may be my favorite Superman cover ever ever.

It's hard to be disappointed by an art job by Swan and Anderson, but the woman inside this comic suffered in comparison.

This story (by Cary Bates) immediately followed the "Sand Creature" arc that destroyed all kryptonite on earth and supposedly depowered Superman by about half. You couldn't tell it.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas, day 2

2008-12-27T18:39:00.005-05:00

Day Two: Spider-Man

I think H is right: There aren't a lot of really distinctive, iconic Spider-Man covers. Which is surprising: Given how flippin' many Spider-man covers there are, you'd think the odds would be on their side.

The first fifty issues have far more than their share of gotcha covers, even though some of them are cut-and-pasted from Ditko's interior pages. On this cover to Amazing Spider-Man #22, Ditko attempts Batman's menacing shadow, which shouldn't work and probably wouldn't have worked if not for the Spider-signal belt buckle. (does he still have that?) It turns an off-center pose where the hero of the book isn't even present into a striking, moody piece. There have been dozens of attempts to use the signal motif since, none as effectively as this.

Oh, and the interiors aren't bad either.

The requirement to select covers from distinctly different eras of the book forced me to choose only one Ditko cover -- and also eliminated the best of John Romita Sr's covers as well. I probably could have considered the Andru run a different era, but despite countless classic images for Wonder Woman, I have to say I never liked his Spider-Man.

And Todd McFarlane's work always looked too busy to me. Lookit me, I drew all these extraneous web lines, aren't you impressed by all the work I did here?

As long as I'm flashing forward, I'll go all the way to Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #4, the end of "The Other" arc. Not having approved of the trials and reboot inflicted on the character throughout "Sins Past", "Civil War", "Back in Black" and "One More Day", I consider this gorgeous Weiringo portrait the end of Spider-Man's run. I prefer to remember Pete and MJ looking forward to the days they should have had, and it doesn't get any better than this.

The Treadmill Days of Christmas

2008-12-27T15:23:00.008-05:00

Over at the Comic Treadmill, Mag and H are celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas by each selecting their two favorite covers featuring a particular character. The series is such fun reading that I decided to play along over here. Well, that and not having anything else to talk about.

Day One: The Atom

I've never been a big fan of the Atom (get it? get it?), but he is a big (I kill me) part of the cover for one of my favorite silver-age Justice League of America stories, from #18. Our mite-sized heroes are attempting to get the Atom's attention before they shrink completely out of existence. This cover is by the masterful Murphy Anderson.

Of course, they do manage to do this, and he follows them under his own power to a microscopic world whose Protectors emit a radiation that is slowly killing their planet. But these android Protectors were created too well, and cannot surrender to their makers. They have summoned the Justice League so that they might defeat them and end the threat they pose.

Boy, that'd be a year's worth of story arc now. You young whippersnappers don't realize how good we had it way back then.

By the 80s, the Atom had been canceled a couple of times, and generally written off as an unworkable concept. Jan Strnad and Gil Kane got Jean (the bitch) engaged to another man, dumped Ray in an Amazonian forest, broke his size-controls, stuck him at six inches high, and let him stumble onto a lost six-inch-high civilization.

Sort of like if the Atom had been created by Edgar Rice Burroughs -- and I mean that as a compliment.

I never did get the logic of having him wear a loincloth over his tights, though.

Shirtless Saturday - Kendra Saunders and...

2008-12-20T17:25:00.004-05:00

In this fantasy scene she's making the Bird with Two Backs with Carter Hall, looking surprisingly young for his age--but when she says his name out loud, we discover she's really in bed with Roy Harper (aka Red Arrow, previously Arsenal and Speedy).

So that even happens to superheroes.

[From JLA #27.]

Andy, Kate, Chuck and Zeke?

2008-12-12T13:16:00.000-05:00

According to /film, M. Night Shyamalan has cast two of the four lead roles in his upcoming film The Last Airbender (previously titled "Avatar", changed to avoid confusion with James Cameron's upcoming film "Avatar" which has nothing to do with the popular animated series on Nickelodeon), and has chosen the actors he wants for the other two. (Release date July 2nd 2010.) Pictured: Nicola Peltz (Katara). Hey, this is my blog. You'd rather look at the kids in talks to play Sokka or the dark and brooding Zuko, go right ahead.

A whiter group of young, attractive people you will never see.

Not that this is necessarily wrong, but... I mean, even though the show is American-produced, it has a distinctly Asian flavor. And I understood the Four Kingdoms to be rough analogs of Chinese, Japanese, Manchurian and Inuit culture. The animated show is hip-deep in Asian voice talent.

This is not yet a bad omen; just a thing to make me go "Hmmm."

Batman and Wonder Pig

2008-12-12T09:04:00.004-05:00

I used to think that toy companies went over the top when they created "special edition" toys for characters that only appeared once, or character variants that never appeared in the comics (I thought of that as an interesting cover story for "we got the costume wrong").

But this... this is adorable!

(Saw it at Great White Snark, available at Amazon.)

The Emperor Morrison

2008-12-02T15:00:00.007-05:00

I'd like to have something meaningful to say about Batman #681, but then I'd also like to have something meaningful about which to say it.

And, as the cliche goes, I'd also like a pony.

Of course, I don't really want a pony. I never understood the attraction of ponies or horses. But I want lots of things that in a real, normal world I'm not going to get. Apparently, a comic book story that actually ends is now one of those things.

"Batman R.I.P." doesn't have a conclusion. Serialized life goes on.

I challenge anyone who liked this story to reread Batman #156, "Robin Dies at Dawn", and explain to me in what way this story improves upon it.

Everybody wants to have an artistically-worded review, but nobody wants to be the first to state the obvious fact. Okay. I'll throw myself on the grenade.

The emperor is naked.

This is a better Batman story:

LATER: Ah, I see. Didio says "Batman R.I.P." was always intended to conclude in Final Crisis #6. Well, that makes perfect sense.

The world-famous Elongated Man

2008-10-28T22:09:00.004-04:00

The Comic Treadmill - Stretching Exercises
Normally a man with nerves of steel, Mag is totally grossed out by scenes wherein Elongated Man pops out his eyes.

As am I, my friend. As much as I love Ralph Dibny (I mean, isn't it obvious?), it's a long, long suspension of disbelief between the "super-India-rubber-man" he originally claimed to be and a guy who can stretch his hair and eyeballs.

In the Elongated Man solo series the criminals were, without exception, ridiculously stupid. The kind that in real life make for those great comic relief articles in the light-hearted look at the news sections of newspapers and Darwin Awards web sites. Good for a chuckle, but it doesn’t reflect well on the protagonist when all he faces are the low hanging fruit of the criminal world.

One must remember that the Elongated Man came to be in the year 1960, when there were less than a dozen super-heroes, and each of them tended to stay on his own "turf". It was a rare threat that drew Superman out of Metropolis or Batman out of Gotham City. You would sooner find either of them on some other planet than in Coast City or Midway City. Yet Ralph alone had no home base.

For this reason, he tended to run into criminals who had never encountered a super-hero before, and had certainly made no contingency plans in the event they did. They weren't stupid, at least not at first: In fact, I could make a case for their intelligence by pointing out that they were planning their activities for areas not served by resident super-heroes.

And it would have worked, too, if not for those nosy kids -- I mean, if not for that twitchy-nosed rubber man.

This also supported the plot device of Ralph being his own press agent, eager to spread the word throughout his travels that the World-Famous Elongated Man was in town.

Nonetheless, I shall be avidly following H's quest to tally every use of Elongated Man's namesake power. I'm all the more excited that next time, barring some minor miracle, he should reach the watershed event that gives this blog its name.

Jason who?

2008-10-26T19:52:00.002-04:00

Hang on. This comic is twenty years old?

Holy stunt arc, Batman!

Kill them all and let Crom sort them out

2008-10-24T09:36:00.001-04:00

From Michael Cho's Sketchbook.

Whose Spirit?

2008-10-16T13:05:00.004-04:00

When my dearest friend and I saw The Dark Knight a few weeks ago, we also saw a trailer for the upcoming Spirit movie. We saw:

Almost abstract visuals.
Breathtaking women (OK, they got that right)
Highly improbable women's names (absolutely true to the originals, yes, but my friend turned to me and said "They're all strippers, right?")
One lone spot of color, a red tie

There's no doubt that this movie is going to be visually stunning. However, it appears that it will also be, as billed, Frank Miller's The Spirit.

Fortunately, thanks to DC Comics' Archives program, Will Eisner's The Spirit can always be appreciated in its pretty much original form. (The original newspaper supplements had larger pages, and the reproduction suffers in places, but it'll do.)

Graeme McMillan at io9 has a similar "unrant" entitled Why Frank Miller's Spirit Can Only Fail.

The movie that ain't

2008-09-22T23:32:00.002-04:00

"Hopes may fade, Wonders never cease."

You'd pay ten bucks to see this movie, wouldn't you?

Sadly, this is a fan-created poster. But it is spectacular, isn't it?

[Followed the image back to Michael May's Adventureblog, and the artist to his deviantART page, Josh MC.]

Hey, kids! F*#king Comics!

2008-09-13T14:53:00.005-04:00

I was going to say something about this week's All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, but Greg Hatcher has already said it much better over at Comics Should Be Good.

(I love the earrings, Babs.)

I'm thinking DC could probably create a couple of imprints to help the readers understand what kind of comic we're getting. DC Quality for the mainstream DC universe; DC Sensation for the good-girl art line (you know, whatever Adam Hughes, Ed Benes or Terry Dodson are drawing this month); and DC Cavalcade for, you know, stuff like this. Although, how can there ever be anything else like this? (Under this nomenclature, the Johnny DC titles would be DC Adventure, a classic title it continually pains me to see go unused.)

Shirtless Saturday - Kara Zor-El (2)

2008-08-02T11:52:00.002-04:00

Power Girl's cleavage carrier almost qualifies as shirtless in itself. This spectatular Ordway image of two Power Girls forced me (forced me, I tell you) to examine the infamous Kryptonian Hooter Vent closely, because at first glance I thought we had a Knocker Knockout on our, er, hands.

The story that presents this incident could go either of two ways -- or, for that matter, both at once. It could be the long-overdue last time poor PG learns that Everything She Knows Is Wrong, culminating at last in a strong, clearly-defined character. Or it could be the DC equivalent of the Spider-Clone Saga.

[From Justice Society of America Annual #1.]

Shirtless Sat-- er, Sunday - Rama Kushna

2008-07-27T09:39:00.004-04:00

The Goddess of Life herself, benefactor of Boston Brand, was imprisoned in an amulet until freed by, of all people, a dwarfified Oliver Queen. In gratitude, she moons him, and all of us. [From Brave and the Bold #15.]