On the Sidebar
Over to the left, that image - the Brian Wood cover of the stand-alone first issue of Chris Gumprich and Dwight Williams' Evening Shift - is a link (the same one as in this paragraph) to information on the comic, including a preview of the issue, and a way to order it directly from the publisher.
Posts
Lies! Lies!
Courtesy of the Daily Mislead (a site I added to my links a week or so back), here's an ever-expanding, searchable, online database of dishonesty from a vast array of conservatives , courtesy of the Center for American Progress . Have fun with it, and don't be shy about finding new items to suggest as additions!
Extra Crispy
Work, along with a few other items, is leaving me incredibly burnt out -- "is this what I really want to be doing with my life?" burnt out. Hence my silence most of the week.
I have to muster the concentration to get another task - aside from work - completed over the next few days, so I might continue to not have much time for this blog until late in the weekend. We'll see.
Tonight's Frontline: The Jesus Factor
Tonight's edition of PBS' Frontline will be focused on G.W. Bush's rebirth as a Christian, and the impact his faith and the doctrines he subscribes to have affected both his political career and political decisions.
Quick follow-up: I thought it was a balanced presentation, one capable of being thought well of by the Evangelical supporters of Bush, while still being something that became progressively creepy to watch, though it didn't impart much new information to me.
The core issues it raises are whether or not one believes that religion and government should be separate, and whether or not one thinks of law as deriving from the intellectual processes of mankind, or from God. The latter view on the subject of law, which Bush and Ashcroft, to name two, publicly subscribe to, raises my hackles. As soon as one bottom-lines an argument with a finger pointed to the sky and a knowing nod, we're all in danger.
Meanwhile, closer to home...
Tomorrow, we in Pennsylvania will be having our Primary elections. I'm not going to rehash my rant about how ludicrously late in the year this is as regards the national race, though I am going to continue to press for reforms on that score. The primaries in all states should be as close together as possible so that a handful of states can't warp the political map.
Instead, I'll mention a race I won't even be able to vote in: The GOP race for Senate candidate between incumbent, moderate Alen Specter and "real" Republican Pat Toomey .
Toomey's running on the basis that he's a "real" Republican, who has found Specter to be too Liberal because, among other things, he's not vehemently anti-abortion, as Toomey is.
Specter's received report from President Bush and several other members of his administration, as they're not only hoping to help swing Pennsylvania towards the Bush wi...
Fox News: Unintentionally Entertaining the World
An amusing piece from last Wednesday's Globe and Mail .
"The people who support Fox News must be the most uncivil and foul-mouthed creatures on the planet. This is an informed opinion. They'd give English soccer hooligans a run for their money."
I hope that other Canadians, and people in the rest of the world, have sense of humor John Doyle displays in the piece and the sense to realize that Fox and it's viewers are, at best, an unintended parody of the U.S. Honestly, I'd much prefer foreigners read The Weekly World News and think that's what passes as credible reporting here in the states...
Come to think of it, has anyone actually seen Ed Anger and Bill O'Reilly together in the same room?
Dangerous Self-Expression?
What bothers me the most about this story (which I'd heard about this morning, but was hoping for a version to pop up with one or both of the pieces of artwork attached) are the "school officials" who felt this needed to be brought immediately to the attention of the police, who in turn contacted (presumably) the FBI. Sure, sure, I know that in a post-Columbine environment this is probably all codified to prevent any possibility of a successful lawsuit being brought against the school, but hasn't this gone too far?
Had the head on a stick pic been that of a classmate, teacher, or some other more reasonably threatened local target, I would have understood a strong reaction, but even then it should have been a case of contacting the parents and the school/ school district's psychologist. Beyond that, it's - please excuse the term - overkill .
Update/expansion: Though the sketches themselves haven't shown up that I...
Comics biorhythms
This past Monday (April 19th - "Dark Clouds'a Gatherin'" -- after several paragraphs involving shows I'm only vaguely aware exist), over on his blog, Revoltin' Developments , Ken mentioned somethings that all long-term comics readers go through: Built-up stacks of unread comics, and the sense that if one just stopped buying them that the absence would barely be felt.
I've certainly been there.
I've been reading comics since about 1968 and especially in the past 15 years I've gone through the drop in interest more than once per year. In 1997 I dropped everything new, completely and utterly, and it was just over a year later that I cautiously began buying again.
The urge creeps back.
When I restarted I promised to only pick up comics I wanted to read right away , and not to let runs of 8, 13, 24 or more issues build up - dispersed among dozens of "cleaned up" stacks of comics - as t...
What year is it?
As reported yesterday by The Slate's Fred Kaplan, drawing heavily on a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council issued earlier this month, the Bush administration is spending as much now (in dollars adjusted for inflation) on nuclear weapons as the Reagan administration did during the height of the US/Soviet standoff.
"The budget is busted; American soldiers need more armor; they're running out of supplies. Yet the Department of Energy is spending an astonishing $6.5 billion on nuclear weapons this year, and President Bush is requesting $6.8 billion more for next year and a total of $30 billion over the following four years. This does not include his much-cherished missile-defense program, by the way. This is simply for the maintenance, modernization, development, and production of nuclear bombs and warheads." (from the article.)
Mis-identified photos?
It's being reported that at least some of the photos recently circulated , showing flag-draped coffins purportedly containing the bodies of US military personnel killed in Iraq have actually been photos of the crew of the February 1, 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.
That some 361 photos were reportedly released by the Air Force, their hand forced open by the Freedom of Information Act, it's as yet unclear to me if the error (persuming it was an error -- though it's difficult to determine what difference it would make for the most part in showing one set of flag-draped coffins, but not another, would make) was made by the Air Force or if various news services, for some reason, have drawn on other sources.
While it was unavailable for long periods of time in the past day or so, The Memory Hole (where the Iraqi casualty photos are on display) appears to be back up. The news story is from today (April 23), but the Memory Hole...
Out of sight? Is he out of his mind?
As pointed out by Mark Gibson among others today, the government’s policy against showing the public any even abstracted images of the death toll from this administration’s adventures in the Iraq and Afghanistan is telling. That attempts are made to use the families of the fallen and an invocation of patriotism to justify this censorship should be offensive to any thinking person. The red, white and blue smokescreen continues.
A piece from this past December 31st looked at the long-standing media ban on the return of dead soldiers to the US while a conflict ongoing, including policies that go back into the 1990s.
It’s worth noting that Bush’s approach towards public appearances relating to the fallen is strongly evocative of that held by Viet Nam era presidents. One could reasonably argue that were he to attend one such event, be it a cargo plane loaded with bodies and/or wounded, he would be compelled to attend all of them lest some...
I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused...
“You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.”
This week’s Rapture Index is 143: “Heavy prophetic activity”
Based soley on my first visit, it's a mildly entertaining concept. I'm trying not to let it get too creepy by considering very long that there are people who actually believe in Biblical prophecies.
Unintentionally amusing (well, aside from the site itself) are some of the "Comments on Active Categories" down the page. Note #33, where, apparently, "The Beast" is being equated with the EU. #32 - "Mark of the Beast", noting the push to replace bar codes with with radio tags, marks the site's owner as someone with either a fine sense of humor or a desperate...
Uncorking the bottle?
The tragic news this morning that ex-NFL player Pat Tillman, who had turned down a $3.6 million NFL contract with the Arizona Cardinals in order to enlist in the army post-September 11th, was killed in Afghanistan within the past 24 hours started me wondering how many people in our high-speed, attention-deficient country have all but forgotten about our troops still being in Afghanistan. I mean, c'mon! That was "over" how a couple of sweeps ago, wasn't it? Didn't Prince George affix his "mission completed" stamp to that one, too, as he did with our Iraqi operations?
Moreover, it strikes me as unlikely that Tillman's the only US casualty in that theatre of operations in recent months, and now I'm wondering whether or not there'll be more public interest in what exactly is going on over there, and how many dead or wounded bodies have been coming back in the dead of night. I believe this to be one djinn best l...
Death of a Defense?
(I only have time for a... fluff piece this morning.)
While in theory this product could take away a time-honored scapegoat, good luck getting the average dog to wear it.
If the human-targeted version of this is such a good product, btw, I'm wondering why they haven't been showing up at Wal-Mart, etc. Think of the gift potential! Finally , an easy purchase for family and co-workers!
Ejecting one's self from society...
Thanks to Tony Collett (who scored a 22.48521% and in turn thanked Johnny Bacardi ) for pointing out this online questionnaire: The Geek Test .
My score? 31.95266% Ye gods. I'm not sure whether or not to take pride in that or pretend I fudged the answers to inflate the score. I wonder how much worse it would have been if I'd ever spent any time with that Conversational Klingon CD someone gave me..?
Runoff
The overnight email included a press/fan release from Tom Manning creator of the series Runoff . I wrote this review of the first three issues just over two years ago, which should help give you some insight into the series.
Now, from Tom:
"An update for all you fantastic Runoff heads-
Oddgod Press' newest book RUNOFF: CHAPTER ONE (Diamond order code FEB04 2550) debuts nationally tomorrow! If your retailer neglected to order enough to meet demand, tell him to order it STAT!
Also, Oddgod has started a Delphi forum for Runoff , along with an "Ask Tom"
section. I guess you could just as easily reply to this email of mine, but
please participate!
Finally, an update on actual NEW stuff. Runoff #6 is done, but it is
beginning to look like we're going to go for a big push and actually have
"Runoff: Chapter Two" be the next release. That would mean issues 5, 6, 7,
and 8 all at once. Sadly, that also means a wait longer t...
CBG shifts from weekly tabloid to monthly magazine
I just received notice of this shift in format and frequency , which will begin sometime this spring. Lacking the time at the moment to dig into the details, I wanted to note it both as a subscriber and as someone who's meant to write a piece on CBG for months now. The focus of the piece (which I still intend to do) would be on how it apparently fought its way back from near irrelevancy in an increasingly web-driven age.
At a glance this looks like a positive move, though I'm not sure that giving up their position as a weekly won't only help them fade into the background, but I worry that despite their announced monthly initially offering more pages than their current combined monthly output does will be sustainable. Also, given the dimensions of the current weekly's pages and the likely smaller dimensions of the magazine (that's simply my presumption) I have to wonder how much of the additional page count w...
Some more comics trade readin’
I got to some cleaning late today, and part of what turned up were a few more of the comics trades I’d gotten to in the past couple weeks, which I’d set aside to make note of for both here and my zine. Time’s running out for me on this weekend, though, so I’ll just pick one for tonight.
Sequel on Ice
Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber came out with an entertaining sequel to 1999’s Whiteout , a detective story set in Antarctica, centering on Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko.
As with the first one, Whiteout: Melt collects a 4-issue series produced by Oni Press . A black and white affair, it reunites us with Deputy Stetka as she continues to do her job in an environment that’s perhaps even more deadly than any of the adversaries she faces, and is once more faced with decisions between what she knows is right and what might see her reassigned to someplace warm. Unlike the first one, this one’s more of a political/crime thriller than a mystery,...
Kerry Steps Up
While I'm hardly thrilled with his every utterance, I'm pleased to see that Kerry is trying to make a more positive appearance by pointing out what he'd do as president. Also, that he's characterizing the lies from the Bush campaign and that of their allies concerning Kerry's record as an opportunity to define himself to the electorate. Here's the complete transcript of his Meet The Press appearance today .
I'm also pleased to see that he's on the offensive, underscoring that the Bush administration continues to attempt to incite fear in the hope of turning that anxiety into votes. (Thanks for Mark Gibson for pointing that one out.)
Frogs!
A story out of Hawaii today about an infestation of transplanted shrieking coqui frogs reminded me simultaneously of the koalas-overrun Kangaroo Island , the screaming caterpillar Homer had to deal with after building a pond for Marge, and the 1972 shlock enviro-horror movie Frogs .
That makes me think of kudzu, etc., too, but if one wants an accessible (albeit dry) look at some other troublesome to disastrous introductions of species here in the US, here's a report from 1996.
SHH-Boom! Another ratcheting up of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
I see that another Apache-launched missile strike by Israel has taken out another Hamas leader , along with his son and what is at least being reported as his bodyguard. Surely there'll be peace in the region any day now. It'll just be a question of whether or not there's anyone left to bring flowers.
Universe of Opportunity (Another Heroclix post)
A couple days out of step, but I thought I'd at least note that the complete Universe list, including stats , has been posted. This will be the set released sometime in May, so it's coming up soon.
As has been covered long ago, Universe is intended to replace Infinity Challenge as the base Marvel set, and so is almost entirely composed of figures from Infinity Challenge and Xplosion . The only differences are the 6 figures one will find in the Universe Starter pack, numbered 1 through 6. They're intended to form 2, 100 point teams, the first three being the heroic team and the latter the villainous one, despite Elektra's position as more of an antihero:
Spider-Man , 40 points. Spider-Man team ability, making him a wildcard, which, within the context of this starter set, help make Spider-Man's the star. His five-click dial has Leap/Climb, making him the only non-flier in the set who can ignore terrain....
Evening Shift update
Via an email from writer/publisher Chris Gumprich :
April 15, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Working The “ Evening Shift ”
Arctic Star Studios to publish debut title
Winnipeg company Arctic Star Studios announced today that they will be
publishing the one-shot comic book “Evening Shift,” produced by newcomers Chris Gumprich and Dwight Williams , with a cover by Eisner-nominated artist Brian Wood (Channel Zero, Global Frequency).
The story focuses on computer programmer Jack Douglas's after-work
encounter with an armed woman at the local bar. Jack finds himself possessed by the urge to find out what brought this woman to this bar on this night, and why she’s carrying a weapon. Along the way, he finds himself caught up in her drama and becomes determined to help her however he can.
“First and foremost, the story is about people,” said Chris Gumprich,
writer. “Too often, stories seem to focus on big, world-shattering problems,
forgetting ...
Trek Shot?
Over on his blog today, Mark Gibson makes an interesting pitch for a new Trek series. I applaud both the core idea (though lose the Love Boat reference, Mark!) and the move to do it sooner rather than later. The biggest weakness I see is that the time period of Enterprise prevents any crossover episode support shy of a time-travelling episode.
Scattershots
I listen to a great deal of NPR during an average day (lately I’ve been catching more of the decidedly left-wing Air America , as I continue to see how that’s developing) but in an environment with frequent interruptions. Consequently, I often get to hear portions of stories, or even if I hear the entire thing don’t get much chance to stop and jot down a telling note or two so I can better backtrack for more information later.
These fragments tumble around in my mind and bubble up every now and then.., accompanying decades of other petty frustrations, but that’s another matter.
I want to dump a couple of these fragments here, with the hope that even if someone doesn’t come by to point out the rest of the story (I can’t be sued for saying that, can I?) it might nudge me to follow up on them on my own.
First is a brief one:
This was from the recent gay marriage controversy, and all I caught was that it was a representative from Wiscon...
Planting For Election Season?
As I've occasionally feared, there are signs that the US and/or possibly some allies may be attempting to plant WMDs in Iraq . Maybe, despite the seemingly resolute wall of BS and dismissive denial, the Bushies are beginning to feel the noose of what might happen to their man and his cohorts if the public really started to lean on the stated reasons for invading another country versus reality. Most likely they have little to worry about, no matter how true the charges, as this would probably require the mainstream media actually doing their job -- or, that is to say, doing the job they claim to have rather than the one they're paid to do.
(Thanks once more to Tony Collett , this time for pointing out something I hadn't seen as yet as I'm so far behind on my daily Progressive Review reports.)
The Day
Yes, to those of us in the U.S. it is indeed Income Tax Day, and even now people are tapping away at their calculators and fishing for receipts from charities, people working at H&R Block are contemplating suicide, and the phones at the IRS centers are ringing off the hook as people call for answers (btw, I have it from an excellent source - a 30 year employee of the service - that if you don't like the answer you get the first time, call back once or twice more to get a different person.
However, on a more personal note, it also happens to be my birthday. In a better world I'd at least be able to take the day off, but as things stand not only is that nigh impossible, I doubt I'll be able to swing it for tomorrow (Friday) either. On the one hand that might give me something to shoot for - a little extra incentive to knock out a huge amount of work today - but with the sun returning and the press of work likely to follow with it, getting my hopes up ...
A matter of perspective
Is it completely unreasonable to see Osama bin Laden's offer of truce (on behalf of al Qaeda) to Europe if they stop "attacking Muslims," as being on a par with G.W. Bush's "with us or against us" ultimatum to the world, which was a prelude to invading Afghanistan? Consider that one was made by the nominal leader of the world's preeminent superpower, who in many respects can be seen to own the game, while the other is the nominal leader of a strictly ideological association without even land holdings of its own.
I'm not getting into their ultimate aims at this point, just noting that there's an argument for saying the new offer/threat isn't any more outrageous than what Bush declared a few years ago.
Regime-Change Pie, Cake & Cookies
Once more, a check at Elayne Riggs' blog demonstrates why so many bloggers link to hers. From yesterday's entry, she pointed out that Move On is having a Bake Sale for Democracy this Saturday, April 17th. Just plug in your ZIP code and see what's happening in your area.
Devil's Details: Critical Evidence or Nits to Pick?
As unfavorable reviews of statements by President Bush and John Ashcroft , to touch on the two most recent ones, come in, I find myself tempering the negative with some acceptance of human foibles in the face of waves of questions, and the very real sense that hindsight is always 20:20. I simply cannot bring myself to pick at every memo and instill every line with weight it simply couldn't have held prior to the events of September 11, 2001, at least not without feeling like one of the dupes who believe in the prophecies of Nostrodamus.
However, I'm resolute in the belief that the U.S. was drawn into an invasion and a war under patently false pretenses, and that this is where most of the attention should be given. To that end, the most interesting portions of the events prior to and immediately surrounding 9/11 are those indicating that Saddam Hussein was a declared target unto himself as far as this admin...
Angel : Down to the Final Half Dozen
Here's a nice piece on Angel , as the series is about to hit its final 6 episodes. Starting tomorrow (Wednesday) night, the show works towards its end, with only weak rumors of any redemption via a reversal of the WB's cancellation decision or some other network picking it up.
Heroclix Updates: Win a case of Unleashed, and the new The Rule of Three
First, players (or those interested) who haven’t already done so should take a few moments to fill out the questionnaire on WizKids’ site to take a chance at winning a case of DC Unleashed boosters. They launched this last Friday. ‘Nuff said.
Announced Monday (4/12), WizKids has announced a new, blanket rule concerning some of its powers. Those interested in such things likely either already know, or will follow the above link and soon find out. Still, I have a couple comments to make.
First, I think it’s a fairly good idea. It establishes a boundary against gross misuse of the power, without giving those who like using Perplex regularly anything to complain about.
We’d been expecting that eventually they would limit the amount of modification a given stat could receive, and this does that: Any stat on the dial can now only be changed by up to 3, but no more.
For the uni...
(Today: Tales of gods & fishmen, Cable conundrums of war, aural revelation, milking the dead, and capitalizing on a holiday.)
Wheel of Gods
I get my comics via twice-monthly shipments from Westfield , so I’m perpetually behind those who buy their comics weekly. Making matters more extreme, I wait for the majority of material to hit trade editions before buying them. All of which is to say, you’re almost never likely to find me writing about something most comics fans would think about as “new.” In this entry and the one below I catch up on a couple of the more recently read trades.
Something I finally got around to reading a week or so back is volume one of Zander Cannon ’s The Replacement God .
This black and white – only in terms of literal ink and paper - story of mythology, spun from whole cloth (save for small elements) works very well. It’s difficult to describe without giving the plot away, though.
The story has adventure, romance, a romantic triangl...
Almost Fresh from the Sea
I’ve been too busy to do much with the mighty stack of backlogged comics here in the House of Norton, but here’s another one I read recently and which is handy for me to comment on:
To say I’ve never been a big fan of Aquaman – as a character – is likely similar to saying that I’ve never been in orbit. Sure, there are people out there who have, but…
Still, I was interested in seeing what Rick Veitch would do with the character. Not interested enough to pick up the single issues of the series, but enough to order the trade once it was solicited.
Aquaman: The Waterbearer collects material from Aquaman Secret Files #1, JLA/JSA Secret Files #1, and the first four issues of the ongoing series. Picking up where the JLA’s Obsidian Age arc left off, the people of Atlantis have been put through a ringer physically, philosophically and spiritually, and they blame their monarch, Aquaman, for all of it. Malignant, magical forces are at work, too – s...
Bound By Cable!
One friend will just laugh at me over at least part of this (to prevent him busting his gut completely at my video addiction, I’ll avoid disclosing specific dollar amounts), but I want to ask a question.
Those of you who have cable television, are there any choices in your market? (No, Direct TV/satellite dish systems are not competition for cable, especially not when the one can offer high speed Internet connections and the other can’t.) Here in Pennsylvania the territory is carved up as if by so many mob bosses, and if one wants to have cable one has to deal with the local boss. Where we are these days, it’s Comcast .
There’s simply no convincing me that we aren’t in need of competition, and while I’ve been aware of that since the start I’ve just paid the bill (the enormous, monthly bill – which is already so large I haven’t been able to bring myself to add their Internet service, despite knowing how huge the increased speed, and therefore useful access,...
Ear-Opener
Granted, it's only been on for a week and a half, and my ability to listen's been limited by only being able to access it online, but Air America has been a revelation in a way I hadn't quite expected. While it often engages in hyperbolic messages and cheap puns and shtick over straight reasoning for its own causes, much as Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and so much Right-leaning radio does, it also has been fulfilling its mission of informing people that the line the Bush White House and its flunkies feed the nation is often a funhouse reflection of reality augmented with a Winky Dink screen. (Hey, if you want links to Rush or Faux News, you can find them easily enough. You ain't gettin' there from here .)
Still, that wasn't any sort of revelation.
What Air America drove home for me was how brainwashed I'd become by Right-leaning media, despite thinking I'd been keeping my guard up. How so? Well, over the past decade the m...
History 101a
Not to drain the lizard on someone's sense of, I don't know... patriotism, but I'm a little thrown by the tv ads for the new movie, The Alamo . It's the tagline "The ultimate battle for freedom" that trips me a little. Sure, I know it was a battle for Texas as Texas, but the waters seem more than a little muddy for me. Muddy enough that I can't swallow the "ultimate" hyperbole... but, then again, they're trying to sell a movie...
Springtime Christmas
I know it's not a novel observation, but does anyone else notice that this year there's a strong push to build Easter into more of a gift-giving holiday? Clothing sales I'm used to, but Easter toy sales (I know, they're pushing it as a healthy alternative to candy) seem more pronounced this year. Not that I blame Toys R Us for trying to do what they can to increase sales, especially after the trend of the past few years in toy sales .
Back to the potential, broader commercialization of Easter, I don't object to it on any religious grounds (I believe in the Resurrection about as much as I do the Easter Bunny), and I'm not even saying I strongly object ... it's just something that seemed worth noting.
I'd buy it, but I don't buy it.
A label inside some Tom Bihn bags and backpacks has, in French, "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him."
I'm greatly amused by the obvious swipe at the squatter at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and would be inclined to buy one if they didn't try to sell me on the idea that it was an internal joke at the company president's expense. Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but my credulity simply isn't that elastic.
As a side note, while visiting their site (the first link above) my eyes were drawn to the " bomb-proof construction" noted in their laptop bags. I'm turning it over in my mind, and the macabre conclusion is that while you might not survive, at least your files will..? Your employees can be easily replaced (especially in this economy), but the destruction of the laptop he was carrying could mean an almost irreparable loss of productivity! Seriously,...
Is Wizkids trying to irritate the fan base?
I want to stress that this is still at the rumor stage, but rivercitytoys added some confirmation to a rumor that after a second production run of their new Unleashed set WizKids will cease production of that set. The following is what he claims to be part of an email he received from one of his distributors:
"Wizkids also contacted us concerning DC Unleashed. After they have
finished filling our initial order for DC Unleashed they are only going to do
one more run, then the set will no longer be in print. This will make DC
Unleashed one of the rarest and hard to get sets in the Heroclix line.
Any order placed will be filled 100% by Wizkids and must be taken when it
arrives. We expect our order will begin getting filled in June or July. If
you would like to place an order please let me know as soon as possible."
The entire thread (which will include any additional confirmations, denials or clarificat...
Wonderfalls falls
Checking at Tony Collett's weblog I read the news that Wonderfalls was cancelled two days ago (April 3rd.) Here's how the series' executive producer, Tim Minear, told the show's fans . Minear mentions that the thirteen episodes (which, apparently, the network doesn't intend to air -- meaning that eight episodes, all apparently shot, are scheduled to rot?) tell an overall story. Those facts are behind a petition (again, thanks to Tony for that info) to have the mostly unaired series released as a DVD set. While I'm not a big believer in online petitions, something like this might have some impact since it could easily be seen as unsolicited market research aimed at making something back on the investment.
I should also mention that back on March 16th Mark Gibson passed along a plea for viewers, as Tim Minnear was already being given reason to worry about FOX's inclination to kill anything that wasn't performing immedi...
Case Madness!
(This is a Heroclix post, pure and simple. Nothing of any socio-political value to be found herein.)
As scheduled, my case of Unleashed was waiting for me when I came home. I took my time opening it, having taken some pains to avoid studying the online pics and stats so as to keep as much of it as possible fresh.
I pulled a Bat Sentry (a special, double-sized unique, one of which should be in every case of this set) and 8 other uniques, so all was right with the tally.
The uniques (clix with silver rings on the base) I pulled were, in order:
Bat Sentry, Silver Swan , Shazam! , Wonder Woman , Kilowog , Mr. Bones , Nu'Bia , Ultra Humanite , and Superman .
I'm pleased with the pulls. Would I have preferred to, instead of the Mr. Bones (which is an extra, as I pulled both him and Batman from earlier boosters) and either Silver Swan or Nu'Bia, have pulled a Magog and a Metallo ? Well, sure, but this was a fairly successf...
All On a 23-Hour Sunday...
While there's no way I'll be getting what I wanted to get done today done today, I've at least gotten food shopping, dinner started, haircuts for myself and one son (the other's in the throes of teen rebellion, and wants to keep his mop for now), a couple inexpensive pairs of shoes (one of the running shoes I've been using all but fell apart this morning) bought, and some other, domestic odds and ends attended to. Now I'm aiming to get some Work work accomplished -- but am taking a little break first to put something in here, and quickly address a few items.
First, and this is long overdue, I'd like to thank Tammy R. for her kindness in sending me the vampire Batman I hadn't managed to turn up from last year's Cosmic Justice set of Heroclix. I'm hoping that between that, the imminent influx of Unleashed figures, and the fact that my kids are off this week for spring break, I'll be able to wrang...
The Clix Consumer Impulse -- and the Coming Constriction!
(Continuing my "No Time For Anything Important!" trend...)
With a large order of Heroclix Unleashed scheduled to arrive Monday, I finally broke down and picked up 5 boosters locally late Friday -- just to take the edge off:
U Batman
R Braniac 5 x 2, 1 E
E Cheshire
E Deadshot
R , V Cyborg
V Gotham Undercover
R , V Hawkgirl
E Killer Croc
R , E Killer Frost
E Kobra Fanatic
U Mr. Bones
V Scarecrow
V Shade
R , V Supergirl
A nice, starting assortment, only one duplicate, and with the majority of the figures left to keep my bulk buy interesting. Generally nice sculpts and paint jobs, and some intresting power combinations.
Then, last night, WizKids released the list of which figures will be appearing in their Universe line - a revised starter set -- along with the list of which figures will be officially retired on June 2nd. (That ...
The Day After the Launch of Air America
I barely had time to listen to any of their debut broadcast yesterday (which I, like most, can only access online so far) of the avowed Left-leaning Air America . No comment thusfar on the programming, as I haven't been exposed to enough of it.
I didn't find the time to mention it yesterday, and had I done so I'd only have pointed you to their website for an opportunity to listen online. Today, however, thanks to Tony Collett , I can also point you to both Portland's Super 62 and XMRadio as places to hook up.
Simpsons (& friends) on strike!
With three-year contracts that expired months ago, and no progress on negotiations, the voice talents behind The Simpsons have skipped two script readings for the past few weeks , which threatens to hold up production on their 16th season. The castmembers current earn $125,000 per episode, and are reportedly looking for $360,000. Without knowing the details (such as, are these people seeing a piece of not only extended syndication deals, but DVD sales?) I really can't comment on how fair or unfair this might be. When they renegotiated their contracts in 1998 they had reportedly been making $30K each per episode, and the current negotation might be considered to be an attempt to make up for some earlier years, too.
Perhaps the most obscene item in the piece is word that Ray Romano makes between $1.7 and $2 million dollars per episode of Everybody Loves Raymond , a show I would only watch on a bet.
(I know, I know, with...