Happy Halloween

Jack O'Lantern Sez:

Happy Halloween.

Marvel Delays "One More Day"

So, Marvel's issued a press release today, announcing a second set of delays to the story that's going to "shake Spider-Man's foundation to the core!™"

The books were supposed to come out weekly in August, with the final issue in the first week of September. Then the first weeks of September, October, November and December. Now the final two issues are set to arrive the last weeks of November and December. I'd like to think this would be the last delay, but I wouldn't be surprised if the last issue came out next year.


At least the fan commentary on a book that artist and Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada touted earlier in the year as coming along nicely has made up for having to wait another month for the next part.

Here's probably the best thing I've heard on the subject: "It's also not lost on me that because of this crossover and its delays, there will be two months with only one Spider-Man title out there for me to sell instead of just the one. If they had kept Sensational and Friendly alive during this event then we could at least be selling those."

Read more here.

"True Love... Can Drive A Man Crazy"

Thanks to Valerie D'Orazio at the Occasional Superheroine blog for finding and posting this absolutely brilliant trailer recut.



Just absolutely bloody brilliant. Funny, too.

Hi there.

I was writing a long post about what I'm watching on TV nowadays, and it got erased. Still figured I'd leave something here since I haven't written a good post in a little while. I guess I point was a lot of my favorite shows are off the air now -- Arrested Development, Alias, Stella, Justice League Unlimited, and Veronica Mars, for example -- and, amid much apprehension, I was able to find a quartet of new series -- Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Bionic Woman, and Dirty Sexy Money -- to ably fill the void.

And let me tell you, it was a really great post. And long too. I was barely half way through, and we're talking like, six paragraphs. A real kick the balls, is what that is. Oh well.

By the way, I don't know if I mentioned I'm now a writer for the Marvel Appendix website, having contributed two profiles so far, with two waiting to be added. The site is run by one of the guys who handles the Official Marvel Universe Handbooks for Marvel, and some of the contributors to the site have also written for the books, so it's a little daunting and nerve-wracking, but I'm enjoying it. I mean, they haven't said my stuff sucks so far, which, you know, is a good thing.

Anyway, here's a funny picture for some additional filler. Bye for now, then.

I've Never Heard of Fabio Laguna...

...But the man sure ripped Jim Lee off a lot.


There's more at this great blog, the swipe file. It's in Spanish and I have no idea how often it updates, but it's really surprising how many artists got work in the 90s by literally ripping-off the popular artists of the day and how many of them haven't been heard of since then. Except for Roger Cruz. Must've been hard for him when Joe Madureira went into semi-retirement.

Check out the Swipe of the Week

Declarative George Sez:

Fred Armisen is dead weight.

Is his Prince really so funny he needs to play him several times a season? Same thing with his asinine Noonie character.

At least he doesn't do Ferricito any more.

"I'm just keeedding!"

More Stick People Theatre

I've still got a few more of these stored up, so more to come. Let me know if you think they're a bloody riot. Hm. That'd probably be funnier if the blood in the above cartoon was colored red. Sorry. I'm too tired to be funny.

Al Gore: Nobel Prize Winner

Wow. First an Oscar and now a Nobel Prize.

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/27598

You'd almost think not becoming President was the best thing to happen to him. I've got to say though, that if he ran now he'd clean up.

My take? You know how people voted for Bush II because he was "the kind of guy (they'd) want to have a beer with"? I'd vote for Al Gore in part because I think I'm starting to feel the same way about him. Come on -- you think Bush would appear as an animated disembodied head?

So... Has DC Cancelled Justice League Unlimited or Not?

Because if they have, well, that'd be a real kick in the head. The latest issue was a lot of fun. Great story by Justice League Unlimited TV writer Matt Wayne, great art by Dario Brizuela, and is was a neat follow up to the bit in the JLU series finale when Giganta (pictured above), kissed the Flash (pictured running away from Giganta, above). It was a cute story too, and a solid entry in a pretty solid series.

I'm not 100% on this, but I think DC is cancelling the series. I got the impression they were also axing the Teen Titans animated-style comic, but I think they're keeping it around for a while. I don't see why they can't do the same with JLU. Unless sales are just awful. It's too bad really, especially since they seem to be cancelling it and replacing it with a new "Superfriends" title, based on the kid-friendly Mattel toys. I don't want to get ahead of myself or anything, but it looks terrible.

I also got a copy of the latest Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man with the Mary Jane-on-white variant cover. I asked about the other white variant covers and if there was one for the last Amazing Spider-Man. Not that I'd ever seen that particular Spider-Man-on-white variant in the three shops I've been in since it came out. Turns out they had a few copies in my local shop and I'd been passing by them since the reordered copies came in. So I'm glad. Just hope I can snag a copy of the last white variant cover with Peter Parker. It looks neat.

And now I'm just rambling.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Here's a Teen Girl Squad comic, care of Homestarrunner.com. It's actually just a couple of stills from a Teen Girl Squad cartoon pasted together, but it made me chuckle. If you like this, you should check out the actual shorts at the site.

http://www.homestarrunner.com"It's dot com!"

Battle of the Insurance Company Spokes-Characters! Addendum

I forgot to mention this, but when I was looking for images for my insurance company spokes-off, I found a surprising amount of Erin Esurance pornography. Although I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. After all she's a woman, and she's a cartoon character. All she needs are cat ears and a tail.

Battle of the Insurance Company Spokes-Characters!

You know, I was trying to figure out which recurring insurance company spokes-character I enjoy more.

The Geico Gecko.

Or Esurance's Erin Esurance.

I came the conclusion that I would watch a show featuring either of them before I'd watch that dumb "Cavemen" show. Although in all fairness, the Erin Esurance show would probably be full of action and adventure, while the Geico Gecko show would probably be dry and observational, so it isn't really fair to compare them.

And this is the kind of crap that goes on in my head. The next post'll be better. Promise.

Stick People Theatre Revisited

Hi there. Here's a few of my old Stick People Theatre cartoons. I came up with this first set in one sitting during what I recall as being a very dry Short Fiction class. I'll probably add a few more when I realize I haven't update my blog in a few days and I can't think of anything else to talk about or post.

Youtube on "Ghetto Man"

I was browsing some of the comments people made to the Legend of the Superheroes "Ghetto Man" segment on Youtube (covered in an earlier post as seen here). Some of them are pretty idiotic, but a few are pretty funny, and since it's easier to copy stuff than come up with something on my own, here we go.

"It plays like a Mad TV skit. But it's not."

"Ed McMahon had a rigorous process in selecting scripts in the late 1970s. I believe it was called the "If-it-lands-on-my-desk-I'll-DO-it!" System (TM)."

"Oh, dear lord. Did he just smack asses with Batman?"

"I can't believe Batman would agree to be a part of this racist s**t."

"If Malcolm X was alive in 1978, this would kill him!"

And my personal favorite:

"I was pissed when they killed off Ghetto Man in the comics..."

"KARRREEEEEEEMMMM!"

Awful. Just awful.

"Who is the Best Flash" Poll

There's a neat poll going on over at the Occasional Superheroine site, asking readers which Flash would like to see take the lead if DC Comics were to do a fresh-start reboot of the character. The question comes from the fact that there've been about four different Flashes over the years.

The first Flash, Jay Garrick, who first appeared in the 1940s and is still around today thanks to some complicated explanation that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

The second Flash, Barry Allen, who first appeared in the 1950s, killed his arch-enemy the Reverse-Flash, retired to the future, and died saving the universe in the first DC Crisis.

The third Flash, Wally West, formerly Barry Allen's sidekick Kid-Flash and assumed the mantle after Barry died, and who, thanks to some wacky explanation, has ten year old kids while still being in his mid-20s.

And the fourth Flash, Bart Allen, named for his grandfather Barry, formerly known as Impulse, then Kid-Flash to Wally's Flash, and who briefly assumed the Flash identity when Wally went missing until he was beaten to death.

I voted for Wally. True, Wally was the Flash when I started reading comics so there's that kind of attachment to the character, but he's a really great character besides. Wally's just an average guy who's a superhero because he loves being a superhero. He's a bit of a smartass and makes mistakes here and there, but he's also a good honest guy. I really, really hate to say it since it's a total cliche, but Wally's the everyman of the DCU.

I could defend the other Flashes and give reasons why any of them could head up a reboot of the character -- there are valid points for all three -- but Wally's my pick. Why not cast your vote here:

http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2007/10/poll-who-is-best-flash.html

Worse than the "Star Wars Christmas Special"?

I stumbled upon the fabled Legends of the Superheroes special from the late 70s on Youtube about a half hour ago and it's every bit as terrible as you'd assume it to be. It was a comedy program featuring very comic-accurate versions of a lot of big name and lesser known DC Superheroes. Normally that would be enough to capture my interest -- there is something neat about seeing characters from the printed page come to life -- but it's really bad. Like Star Wars Christmas Special bad, except no one wants to see this, and DC isn't worried about people watching it because, quite frankly, who would want to.

I'd considered posting the "roll call" intro clip here because of how cool it is seeing characters like Hawkman, the Flash, Huntress and Black Canary in live-action, but once it got to the villain roll-call, cool as it is to see very comic-accurate representations of Solomon Grundy, Mordru, and Weather Wizard (plus Frank Gorshin as the Riddler), it just killed me. The dreadful performances and weak attempts at humor punctuated by repetitious laugh-tracks is just terrible. That alone would warrant a look... that is if that were the worst the special had to offer.

No, the worst part of the Legends of the Superheroes would have to be the appearance of Ghetto Man: black superhero and cheerfully racist stereotype. With jokes about how having Green Lantern on the team doesn't count as colored superhero, and how Hawkman's not so tough ("Let him walk through Harlem them wings on; by the time he gets to Lennox avenue, he'd be Kentucky Fried") you really start why NBC, DC Comics, Hanna Barbara, and about four dozen cast and crew members, thought this was a good idea. And it gets worse -- when I started writing this post I started checking around to figure out which network this bloody mess aired on and discovered that there were actually TWO Legends of the Superheroes specials that aired! The first was the one with the villains, the second was the one with the roast (featuring our old friend, Ghetto Man).

The bright side to this whole thing is that hardly anyone even remembers these specials, and those that do or those like myself who've stumbled on it years after the fact unilaterally agree that it's absolutely terrible and should be erased from existence.

That said, here's a clip. And yes, I am being ironic.