Miraclo Miles

Comics Blogging As I've noted from time to time, I don't get my comics weekly, but instead see them every two to three weeks because I order them via Westfield Comics . So while all the hardcore comics bloggers are weighing in on the week's comics Wednesday or Thursday (and many, I suspect, are writing some of the pieces earlier given all the advance material the better comics shops receive) the best I could do would be sometime late the following Saturday every two or three weeks, depending upon how the month splits. Consequently, I've tended to avoid most comics bloggers who break down the week's comics. Similarly, as I've also noted, I tend to avoid even the comics news sites because I'm spending enough on the comics as it is without having advance info spoil something for me. Discussion threads on sites can be even worse, because details about recent comics can be as bad as advance info to me since, well, if I haven't seen the most recent comics then...

This post is here, in part, to remind me that this morning I'm to go through this week's crop of bills, prioritize them and pay our way clear as far into October as current funds will reasonably allow. Crypt Leak , who provided the original version of a suitable Reagan 10 dollar bill back in '04, when we were drowning in a media blitz of misplaced hero worship, came across it again and decided to spruce it up so it'll be even better for the New War Party. Hopefully Hell will be the only place anyone will be spending "Ronnies" anytime soon.

Who? While Tony Collett alerted us waaay back on August 11th , I want to remind everyone interested that the US broadcast of the second season of the new/current run of Dr. Who begins tonight at 8pm. It's unfortunate that Christopher Eccleston decided to bow out at the end of the first season -- he made a very entertaining, personable Doctor, who was conflicted between his empathy and his deep sense of loss and a sense that everything and everyone passed away. Tonight we'll start to get a sense of whether or not David Tennant can do as well.

SNAP! Okay, I had no idea when it would get here, but today turned out to be the day. There's a new Supernova REV sneak peak up today, and I know it's for Hyperion, so this is some minor deity smiling on me and providing me with a distraction. It's "Snap" Wilson , another variant of the Falcon. This is the version with hard light wings. Don't ask me when someone gave Sam Wilson hard light wings, but the tech to allow that and still keep him light (no pun intended) enough to fly... I'm guessing he went back to T'Challa and more of that Wakanda tech for the upgrade. I guess he picked up some ranged attack capability in the same move, as Snap has a Range of 6, which is a handy extra. We have a nicely dynamic dial in this 60 pt version. He starts and ends with clicks of Charge, but on his third and fourth clicks he gets down on the ground, his Speed (understandably) drops, he picks up Combat Reflexes and Close Combat Expert, because you don't train and...

Well, I guess he has the substance abuse part down pretty well... I see that Robert Downey Jr. will be the star of Iron Man , the movie adaptation of the Marvel Comics' superhero. Directing, as we've known for a while, will be Jon Favreau . Here's the full text from the Hollywood Reporter : Robert Downey Jr.: I am 'Iron Man' LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Robert Downey, Jr. is suiting up to star in "Iron Man," a superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character. Jon Favreau is directing the Paramount Pictures release. Filming is slated to begin in February in Los Angeles. Downey will portray Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Using his intelligence and ingenuity, Stark instead builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. Upon his return to the U.S., he uncovers a plot with global implications and must don his armor and protect the world. The ...

Tankless Job For the crime of posing in front of a tank three Japanese actors were briefly arrested and locked up in Thailand. Seems the newly-installed coup government is a little sensitive about anyone possibly reminding anyone that, well, they've had a coup. (Thanks to Crypt Leak for the link.)

Editorial Hip Hop News that DC editor Stephen Wacker , primarily known of late for shepherding 52 thtough its weekly schedule and even fielding a weekly Q&A about the latest issue, has suddenly left DC for a position at Marvel . This immediately had me wondering if a seeming clerical error, the omission of 52 from next week's Diamond shipping schedule , is more than an error. It would seem that something that close to release would be unaffected by so sudden an announcement, but the loop might be incredibly tight for a weekly, even one where the creative teams have worked so far ahead. Beyond that, I had to laugh at the quick Q&A Newsarama managed to get out of Marvel's EiC Joe Quesasa when Joe stated "We have the finest editors in comics..." This raises the question, once more, of what the criteria is for an editor at Marvel. If what's meant is someone who keeps potential issues cleared through the legal department, presses creative teams to pad out st...

Boggy Blogger Some things are working on Blogger today, some aren't. It won't let me update my template today, though it saves the info fine, so - presumably - I'll be able to republish it a little later and have the new links show up. It's disheartening, almost insulting, to have it spin, spin, spin and then come back with a "Document contains no data" error. Feels like a critique!

Hail, Gail! Though it's over a month old and it devolves into quick, light references towards the very end, I'd like to point out Dan Kalispell's late August retrospective piece on the career (thusfar) of Gail Simone . It included a few bits of info I wasn't aware of -- I hadn't known she existed until the middle days of You'll All Be Sorry! (I miss those -- and their archives don't seem to work quite right, but this search brings them up in a hodge-podge fashion) -- and so makes for good background reading for the comics fan. An interesting piece, it fits in nicely with the general quality of Dan's work over on Pop Snark Hooligan!

Step Into the Light? I took a rare look over at Newsarama today and saw the announcement from this past Friday concerning a Marvel/Guiding Light crossover..?! In brief: On the November 1st episode of CBS' soap opera The Guiding Light there will be a crossover with the Marvel universe. Meanwhile, a comics story looking at the crossover will appear in three, 8-page installments over a three week period, focusing on a GL character who may be an emerging superpower, drawing the interest of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers and an assortment of villains. The installments are set to appear in the following comics, each of the comics in each of the three groups carrying the same piece, of course, a new piece showing up each week: 10/25 - part one Civil War: Choosing Sides Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 11 Marvel Select Flip Magazine 18 Marvel Tales Flip Magazine 17 11/1 - part two Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 21 Spider-Man And Power Pack 1 Marvel Adventures Flip Magazine 18 Marvel Heroes Fl...

Some Expensive Pussy Through the miracle of genetics ... ... hypoallergenic cats for a mere $3,950. I must admit, the display cat looks very nice. Of immediate interest to me was whether the biotech firm Allerca has achieved this purely through selective breeding, as the brief news release claims, of if they did any direct genetic tinkering. In their Development section they dance around the edge of the issue, referring to "proprietary genetic technologies" but leans on the process as one of detection -- and so apparently uses this as an indicator, using that information to determine the selective breeding program.

Terror Vogue It appears that Vogue Italia photographer Steven Meisel has captured the zeitgeist with that Italian flair in a recent photo spread. ## It's a small world after all... ## This one was more pop cultural than directly political, so I decided to post it over here.

Rededication Something I've periodically wrestled with since starting a blog in 2004 is focus. Okay, I should be clearer than that, as I plainly have difficulty focusing on most things these days... For most matters the focus of the blog isn't an issue for me -- I don't really care if someone's put off because I get into a jag of writing about Heroclix, movies or pop culture and then do a comics post or two and some reader is only interested in one of those things. Screw 'em, says I. However, my impression is that the political posts seem desperately out of place, or at least as much likely to be taken seriously, if it's bookended by ones about superheroes or monsters. So, while I've done very little with it so far, Turn This Bus Around ! is where I'll be putting anything with a clear political emphasis from now on... until I change my mind.

Tyger, Tyger... I'm going to join Mark Gibson in promoting a piece by Peter B. Gillis on the nature of the "appeasement" propaganda the Bush administration is handing us in this run-up to war with Iran. Nicely stated. It's definitely worth spreading around.

Don't Try This At Home My wife's a big fan of the cast and concept of Jackass, and given her disability (I mean, aside from being a big fan of Jackass ) she hasn't been out to a movie in a very long time. So, when we saw that Jackass Number Two was debuting September 22nd I quickly had it in mind to take her out to see it. Most movie theaters these days are wheelchair accessible, and we knew the Regal Cinema we were going to was set up to at least accomodate a few wheelchairs in each theater. We called ahead to be sure the individual theater (they're almost all multiplexes these days) was set up accordingly, and it was... which is fitting since if the fans of any movie would be expected to be in wheelchairs it would be this one. So, that's where Ari/Sue (depends on where one knows her from), Nick and I (Travis wobbled in and out of the plans, and in the end decided the aches from being the star of the previous day's football game at school left him better of...

Best or Worst, I'm Reminded That It's (Almost) Always Subjective Little time - family plans about to roll - but between the World's Worst Comic Book Museum (which Tammy pointed out earlier this week)and someone's idea of the Top 50 Marvel Comics Covers of 2006 -- The December comics soliciations have hit so IGN's declared declare the year in covers closed -- I figured I should pull them together into a post. As I contemplate thoughts of taking part in this year's 24 Hour Comic Book Day I find myself looking a little less harshly at the crap at the Museum site...

In the Near Future... A look at a world that might not be too far off ? But, boy, won't this protect us from The Terrorists! Some days I can almost understand part of what drove Ted Kaczynski .

One of those mornings The gray skies and sounds of just enough moisture on the street to give passing tires that tape being pulled off a tabeltop sound -- they're back. This is one of those mornings where I woke up - if one can call it that - late, feeling as if I'd been drugged. One of those mornings where it would have felt perfectly in theme to have awoken in a pool of urine. I've been awake for at least 45 minutes and am on a second 30 oz glass of icewater and I haven't pulled out of it. I see this morning that there's a buzz involving French intelligence tracking a lead that Osama bin Laden may have died last month of typhoid in Pakistan . If true, I wonder if taking away the Big Bad Boogeyman might take some of the wind out of the GOP terrormongers' sales? Nah, they'll replay speeches by Bush and pals from back when they were starting to feel some heat for not having captured or killed him, when they downplayed him as a threat. (So they could lean on t...

Friday, September 15th, I'd gotten too little sleep and wasn't winding down as I should, and decided to take the plunge into Horrorclix . The place I ordered from ( Gathering Ground ) is closed over the weekend, so while the automated system took it the order wasn't finalized until Monday. They got it moving by Wednesday - though I didn't know it until Thursday afternoon. Today, the starter set and brick I ordered arrived. This is extremely early on in the process for me, so I have little new to say about how well they play. A look around the Horrorclix gallery will demonstrate to Heroclix players that Horrorclix pieces have generally lower stats. As mentioned previously, though, they don't take pushing damage and once they've killed a victim they gain move and attack powers. This combination should work nicely in the Horrorclix/Heroclix mix. There are new game mechanics, though, including Plot Twist cards, some figures with two, separate stretches of dial ...

Day Off (This is take two under this title as I was foolish and shot out a long, rambling post without saving it once, and when I went looking for an image Windows was offended by something and killed every browser window I had open. On the up side, this one's almost certainly going to be a much briefer post.) Owing to no one particular thing, but contributed by several, I decided by late Wednesday (when I found myself needing to go back into work at 8pm to Make Something Happen in less than half the time it would happen according to normal specs) that I would be taking Friday off. This particular client is one who honed his skills while working for a company that tried treating us like a department of their own company. Sure, there's an upside to this, but the downside is that they started treating us as if they could drop anything on us at any time and have us treat it as the priority issue. One way they'd accomplish this was by reaching to the very top any time they coul...

Pulling us through the year (Another Heroclix post) Four weeks from yesterday will be November 15th, when Supernova (which is getting more previews I'm not looking at but am hearing a generally positive buzz around...) will hit the streets. So, even for Wizkids this would be an early announcement. Someone found a print ad and ran with it, though. So, coming up in February of 2007, it's the DC set Origin . (Click on the image for a larger view) It'll be nice to finally have The Question and Wonder Girl as options, and especially nice to have Alan Scott in the mix. Can Wildcat and Sandman be too far behind? But, geeeeez... February? I'm not even ready for Halloween! And I intend to do what I can to enjoy the Thanksgiving through New Year's holiday stretch. I'll enjoy the set almost certainly, but I have no desire to rush through the rest of the year and on to next February . Check with me January 2nd. Then I'll be on board.

AKA With Sinister 's debut over two months behind and Supernova just under two months ahead , I'm at the stage where part of what I'm concentrating on is picking up Limited Edition (LE) versions of some of the characters from Sinister. Today I'll look at my five latest additions. I'll lead this with an aside that I object to Wizkids' practice of creating prize-only LEs, something I was sure I'd written a handy-to-link-to post so I wouldn't have to restate myself and could also avoid a... Ragnell-ish presumption that my readers are well familiar with what I had to say on the subject... but I can't locate it. Short version: they're trying to draw comics fans and collectors into a competitive play environment that, traditionally, doesn't reward players who try to team up and play the characters in ways appropriate to the characters. Now, back to the piece... Sinister brought long-time comics fans a broad assortment of characters many of us had...

Hang 'Em High Please, add your message and your name to a petition to prevent the Senate from giving G.W. Bush a free pass on the wiretapping program and in the same sweep legitimizing the powers he's grabbed in the midst of smoke and scary noises. Even if your representatives (as is the case for me, with Arlen Specter and :cough:: ::gag:: Rick Santorum being my purely nominal reps) are with the GOP, it's important you at least make the attempt to appeal to their consciences. FYI, I kept my addition to the petition brief: There is a limit to how far we the voters can hold Congress blameless for acting on doctored intelligence in what seemed to be a timely manner in the face of a nebulous threat. That limit is well behind us. .

Mail Call? Just an observation merging with suspicion (with a dash of paranoia and a dollop of impatience), but have any of you been having problems with how long some supposedly First Class mail has been taking to get from place to place? It's become almost regular this year, seeing items sent via First Class that are supposed to be travelling somewhere in 3-5 days taking instead two to three times as long. Part of it could be increased security protocols, though deep down inside I know that's not much more than a pale excuse. I can't help but wonder if there's not also an interest in trying to get people to stop depending on "mere" First Class mail anymore and instead, when one has to be sure something's arrived in 3-5 days, to pay the considerable premium for Priority mail. "Educating" people via this system could be a financial boom for the USPS, since on the low end of the cost scale that have no competition. How much better than a simple Fi...

Feeling... Off No coughing or sneezing, nor sounds of overt congestion nor anything gastric, but I've had a bit of a headache, some other vague pains, feeling vaguely out of breath and generally ready to take a general cold med, put a large glass of iced water on the headboard shelf (a nearly cat-proof spot) and read until I drop off to sleep. Nothing like what Tammy went through, nor, it seems, even as much as Darren has, but I've been dragging conspicuously even for a Monday So... I believe that bedward plan's what I'm going to do. Here's hoping for a more pleasant tomorrow.

(Considerably past the) Mid-Weekend Check-In A weekend of little things, including boring domestic tasks hardly worth noting. Yesterday I turned up names and addresses for a handful of potential Legends recruits, wrote up letters of invitation and sent those off along with some other things I wanted to get into the mail. I'd slacked on my presidential duty as recruiter for most of this term following a small push at the start, and with the 20th anniversary -- depending how one reckons it -- coming up either with the October issue or the December one. See, over the years there were some shifts and delays and a little (actually, surprisingly little) time was lost. The October issue is closest to the actual 10th anniversary of issue #1's mailing back in 1986, but December's issue - #120 - is what we'd expect the 20th anniversary of a bi-monthly APA to be. More voices is better, and finding people who are looking for interaction in print on paper on a bi-monthly basis in a...

Where did I lose the 2%? Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 98% You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo! Do You Want the Terrorists to Win? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz Okay, it was Mark Gibson who pointed this one out. No, no terrorists hiding down here.

Avert My Gaze! Okay, today Wizkids is going to officially begin putting things in the Super nova gallery . (Click on the link as you wish, I'm going to keep from doing so, setting this up while there's still nothing in there.) This is going to wear on me faster than even I'd expected, and I'll need a release valve. ( Update: Which I've since turned open.) The set's going to hit retail shops November 15th, the pre-release is October 28th, a gaming magazine ( Inquest ?) will have a full pictorial view of the sculpts and opening stats for the set one or more weeks before that, and who knows how rapidly Wizkids will spill the beans once they get rolling? Even casual contact with the boards - something I like to maintain so I'm aware of various changes and special offers - will see me knowing the names of all the characters in the set well before I any of them in my hand. I knew this from the start. While not knowing would have been nice on some level, it's ...

Thusfar I've not spent a dime on Wizkids' latest game: Horrorclix . For once I'm being the near model of restraint and letting someone who normally is the cautious one dive in, plumb the depths, check the temperature and pH, answer questions and ultimately tell me if it's fun. Earlier, Grant had run a couple superhero battles against the Great Cthulu , a piece he'd bought from Wizkids at Wizard World Chicago. A colossal figure like the Spectre I picked up, while I can show you what he looks like and direct you to that piece on him, thusfar Wizkids hasn't included his dial or rules on their site. In one game they managed to turn back the Great One and momentarily banish him from their plane, but in another game he took down a mixed team of Justice Leaguers and Avengers. This sort of match, involving Heroclix pieces mixed with horror elements, would be my target in all this. While Horrorclix on its own may very well be a fun game, I'm not a gamer and that...