I'll try to get my brain back to normal after yesterday's surprise events. I can't think of anything better suited to grounding my mind than some thoughts on Aquaman...

I was both horrified and amused to see a posting on usenet that complained about the coloring in the Aquaman Archive. Specifically, this person seriously believed that Aquaman's gloves had always been green and thought that the yellow gloves were a production mistake. Now, I can understand that particular lack of knowledge in general, but this person had the Archive in hand, which includes an introduction by Roy Thomas. And the introduction mentions the whole gloves thing. On the first page, even. I just find it horrifying that someone with the book in hand could be so lazy as to not even read the introduction when they notice something is different than they expected.

And I'm just going to take this opportunity to commend, yet again, the team that made the Archive so good. In particular, Lee Loughridge did the color reconstructions and did them PERFECT. I literally sat down with the originals in one hand and the archive in the other and compared the colors on each page and panel. I haven't completely finished the entire book yet, but I have yet to find a mistake! My greatest fear when the Archive was announced was that DC would continue its reprint tradition of changing Aquaman's gloves to green from the original yellow. I wanted to see the stories the way they were meant to look when originally printed. My fears were unfounded. DC did this one perfectly.

Comments (2)

"I just find it horrifying that someone with the book in hand could be so lazy as to not even read the introduction when they notice something is different than they expected."

Honestly, Laura, you ought to expect that sort of thing on Usenet by now.

Elayne Riggs | Email | Homepage | 01.28.03 - 9:08 am

That doesn't make it any less horrifying. And that troll actually stated, as if it were a fact, that Aquaman's gloves had always been green. Amazing! He apparently has no older books, but he's an authority on the subject? Grrr.

Laura Gjovaag | Email | Homepage | 01.28.03 - 11:36 am

The receiving clerk at our store, Peggy, is also an official city of Seattle crossing guard. She patrols a corner in North Seattle that you may hear about on the news today (if you watch Seattle TV), or read about in The Seattle Times.

Anyway, this morning she was on the corner, in full crossing guard uniform (which bears a strong resemblance to a police uniform) when she noticed an "agitated" man coming up the street. He spotted her from the other side of the street, then crossed on her crosswalk. As he approached her, he put his hand in his pocket and said "I have a gun!"

Peggy is not stupid. She slowly raised her hands, and said, "Ok." The guy moved a little closer to her and repeated, "I have a gun!" Peggy didn't move, but she told me she thought it was the end when the man abruptly pulled his hand out of his pocket. Fortunately, all he had was a note. He told her to give it to the police, and tell them that he was going to kill them all. He set the note down on the sidewalk and walked away.

Stunned, Peggy wondered if she should call the police. She watched the man walk down the sidewalk for a moment, then pulled out her cellphone when the man walked into the middle of the street and stood there. A red car drove up and stopped, and the driver rolled down his window to ask the man if he needed help. Peggy, now talking to the 911 operator, watched as the driver of the car quickly got out and the agitated man got into the car (Peggy later learned that the driver had also gotten the "I have a gun" routine, and had been told to get out of the car or die). The former driver walked over to Peggy, and the man in the car started yelling. He wanted the keys to the car. They were on the driver's seat, and he found them a moment later, then roared off in the car, hitting several parked cars along the way. He was out of sight in moments.

I knew none of this when I got to work this morning. It had happened well before I got there. I was told that Peggy would be late because she was talking to police about the carjacking ("HUH?" I said, "We'll fill you in later," was the answer), and that was all the detail I had when I was left alone in the store for a few minutes shortly after we'd opened.

In walked a guy, kinda handsome, I said hello like I always do to customers entering the store, he said hello back and smiled. Another person, carrying a TV camera, came in behind him. I was slightly taken aback as the first guy introduced himself as Glenn Farley from KING 5 news. He wanted to know if Peggy was around. I told him all I knew, that she'd gone to the precinct to talk with the police about it. He gave me his card, and asked that I have Peggy call him when she got in. He and the cameraman left, got into their nondescript white van and drove off. And up drove a big white KIRO TV van. In walks a woman, and I said before she could get all the way in "She isn't here. They took her to the police station to give a statement." The woman, who identified herself as Alison Starling, KIRO 7 news, gave me her card and asked me to have Peggy call her. "She must be traumatized!" the woman said to me. I almost said, "You don't know Peggy." I wish I had. It might have saved Peggy some annoyance later.

In any case, I sat there with the two cards wondering what the heck was going on until the manager came back. We called Peggy's house to let her know what was happening, and she went ahead and called the reporters. She hoped that by agreeing to be interviewed, she might be able to get a word in for the plight of the crossing guards in Seattle (whose budget has been slashed). So she arrived at work in full uniform and got a couple of interviews in before I even left to come home. She said she liked Glenn, but the KIRO woman was a little too concerned with Peggy's emotional state for her liking.

In the meantime, I managed to find out the rest of the story from customers who came in, curious about all the reporters wandering the store. After leaving Peggy and the car owner, the agitated man drove to the freeway, hitting several cars along the way. Once on the freeway, he was captured in a fairly dramatic crash that was caught on videotape. The video doesn't work on my machines, but you can see it at KING5, KOMO TV or at KIRO TV.

His work speaks for itself.

Raise a glass for Bill Mauldin. May his works never fade away.

Supergirl #78: I saw the end coming, but then, I think I was supposed to see it. Wow. This book just gets better and better. I don't want it to end. 4 starfish.

Castle Waiting #16: I love this book, but Linda Medley doesn't know when the next issue will be out, if ever. I wish there was something we could do to make more issues possible. At this point, I'd even donate to a "Save Linda Medley" fund to get more issues. Hubby-Eric is gonna flip over the Wizard of Oz drawings in the back of the book, btw. 4 starfish.

Interman GN: I didn't mean to read the whole thing in one sitting! Really, I was gonna space it out over a few days. But once I started reading, I just got into it and suddenly I'm turning the last page thinking, "when's the sequel?" Ah, I'd better go read it again. 4 starfish.

As usual, saved the best books for last!

Next Week: Usagi Yojimbo, JLA, Truth, Avengers, Ruse, and Previews

Batman: Gotham Adventures #58: The Creeper and Scarface. What an absolutely perfect fit! A brilliant story. Ok, it was at least fun. 4 starfish.

Birds of Prey #51: This book has just gone downhill recently. It hasn't hit rock bottom yet, but it's close. I'm mildly interested in the Oracle half of this storyline, and totally bored by the Black Canary half. 1 1/2 starfish.

JLA/Spectre: Soul War #1: er, what? I'm sure things will clear up a bit in the next issue, but this wasn't terribly promising. Ya know how I'm complaining about an alien invasion in Titans? It goes triple for this one. 2 starfish.

Did I mention that the Aquaman Archive was better than I expected? Still to review: Supergirl, Castle Waiting, and Interman.

Titans #49: Tin foil. Alien invasion. I kept expecting Snapper Carr to show up with some lime. 2 starfish.

Amazing Spider-Man #49: This was turning out to be a nicely irritating issue, but in the end it came together, so I won't judge it too harshly. 3 starfish.

Crossovers #1: Heh, this one is fun. Nice mix of genres... the only key is that they actually mix. As this is the set-up issue, we just see each genre alone. I'm looking forward to #2. 3 1/2 starfish.

Aquaman Archive Vol 1: Oh Wow! Man, I can't believe it! I knew exactly what to expect from this book, cover to cover. I knew what I was getting, and figured I wouldn't like the coloring much, but otherwise I'd enjoy it. But they got the coloring right! In fact, the only problem at all I have with this book is the fact that DC couldn't dig up the names of all the writers of the stories (I was hoping they'd have more information than the GCD, but no such luck). 4 1/2 starfish.

Got the new comics, just haven't had time to read them yet. Everything came! And the Aquaman Archive is far better than I was expecting, too. I've wasted enough time this evening comparing the originals to the archive, though, so I'll just leave it at that for the moment.

Trying to vote in the Squiddies, and I'm having trouble deciding who to vote for. Problem for me is, Aquaman wasn't published enough in 2002 to really fit any of the categories, so I have to figure out other books I enjoyed. Even with my list of every book hubby-Eric and I got in 2002, it's still hard to remember which ones I loved the most. By the way, voting for the Squiddies is open until February 10th to anyone smart enough to find the ballot without asking for help. I recommend rec.arts.comics.misc... and if you don't know what I mean by that, just wait for the results to come out in a couple of months.

I've been blogrolled at Pop Culture Gadabout. Seeing my name, even if it is spelled wrong (pesky Norwegian spelling!), between Evan Dorkin and Alan David Doane is a bit of an honor for me. In any case, I'll return the link, which means I'll be reading Bill Sherman's blog every day instead of just whenever I get to it. I'll just point out that having me read your blog shouldn't be taken as a point of honor.

You don't like e-mail spam and delete it? So do I, but this one is actually funny. Thanks to Mark Evanier for the link.

Marvel is going to publish Namor again. Better yet, his first issue will be only 25 cents. This is not your father's Namor, though, he looks completely different. I'm not interested. For some reason, Namor has never been nearly as interesting to me as Aquaman. Comics Continuum has posted April 2003 solicits for Marvel, but we won't get anything new.

Comic Book Resources has now posted Image Comics Solicitations for April 2003, and there's nearly nothing there of interest to hubby and I. I wish Age of Bronze came out more often. I guess Powers is it, unless I get too tempted by Soul of a Samurai. Anyone know who Will Dixon is? Would I like his work? I'm feeling Lone Wolf and Cub withdrawal, and a 4 issue bi-monthly wouldn't be a bad way to fill the gap.

My song of the day is "Synchronicity I" by The Police. I prefer "II", but "I" works well for me today.

Comments (1)

It's practically become a tradition that I misspell your name on my first attempt at blogrolling you (did it for Johnny Bacardi, too.) I've since corrected it. . .

Bill Sherman | Email | Homepage | 01.22.03 - 10:35 pm

Here's a frightening article: Tourists Seek Middle-earth. Apparently, people visiting major travel sites have been looking for Rivendell and Mordor. Ok, Rivendell isn't so bad, but what kind of sick puppy wants to visit Mordor?

I've been looking at the DC Comics solicitations for April, and I'm horrified and pleased to see that there are four Elseworlds scheduled to come out. Batman: Nevermore is a five issue mini starting in April that has an earlier version of Batman join forces with Edgar Allen Poe. While I'm sick and tired of Batman Elseworlds, I think this one sounds like a perfect fit, and I'm looking forward to reading it. Superman: Red Son is the long-rumored, long-awaited 3 issue mini that has Kal-El's rocket crashing into the Soviet Union instead of the United States. Again, I wish DC would do heroes other than Superman and Batman in the Elseworlds, but this one sounds good, too. Superman & Batman: Generations III continues its twelve issue run with number 4 hitting the shelves in April. And lastly, JLA: Age of Wonder is a two issue series focusing on Superman's debut in the Industrial Revolution. This one looks fun for the other heroes that will support Superman's League of Science.

Many thanks to Franklin's Findings for alerting me to the case of an ISP that has been ordered to turn over the name of a customer who allegedly downloaded 600 MP3 files in one day over Kazaa. The ISP, Verizon, is appealing the decision. But the Recording Industry Association of America seems to think it's only fair. Judge for yourself. How far should a private organization be allowed to go to try and protect its assets from piracy? I'll give you a hint as to my opinion: Not everything that is traded over the net is illegal... how will the RIAA determine what is and what isn't? By looking at every single file? Will they ask to read our e-mail next?

Franklin also pointed out this great article on TV commericals as art. Worth a read, with the Superbowl coming up on Sunday. Yes, I'll be watching it mostly for the ads.

Today is comic book day. I'll be at my shop, Corner Comics sometime this afternoon after I get out of work. Today's list is pretty big, so my reviews will probably be slow in coming. The big item on today's list is the Aquaman Archive. Other books are Crossovers #1, Amazing Spider-Man #49, Castle Waiting #16, Gotham Adventures #58, Birds of Prey #51, Supergirl #78, Titans #49, JLA/Spectre: Soul War #1, and Interman. I hope everything shows up, but don't be surprised if it doesn't. Whenever possible, Diamond tries to mess us up here in Seattle.

Smallville: Insurgence: WOW. That was a really good episode. The acting was just superb, lots of significant looks that meant a lot in context. And we finally know where the octagon key for the spaceship is! This is a do-not-miss-it episode. 4 1/2 starfish.

The carbonara turned out edible. Next time I make it (and I think I will make the effort sometime) I'm reducing the recipe by a bit. We ended up with leftovers for a week. But at least it seems to have mostly worked, and hubby-Eric seems to have enjoyed it. Either that or he's a really good actor.

A letter came in the mail today for me. The handwriting on the envelope looked very familiar. In fact, it was my own handwriting. It was the SASE I sent in my letter to Paul Norris, returned with a letter and a piece of art (photocopied, not original). Now I understand why Will said Paul Norris is very approachable! The letter is very nice, and he even invites me to write to him again with any questions I have. Yeah, that's happening. Very soon, indeed!

Yup, this was the best birthday ever.

Today is hubby-Eric's birthday. I wanted to do something really special for him today, and I got a brilliant idea after the party on Sunday night. See, Eric really likes carbonara (a pasta dish with bacon), but we didn't have it on Sunday night. So I decided I would make it for him on his birthday. Keep in mind that I'm not much of a cook. In fact, I'm a frightened, lousy cook. It doesn't help that all the simple recipes seem to involve chicken, which I don't like. But I digress.

I went to Google last night and looked up "carbonara" and had quite a bit of luck. A bit too much luck, truth to tell. After reading a number of recipes, I panicked and called Eric's mom, crying about the tons of different ways this dish can be made. She calmed me down, and invited me over after work to go over a recipe. She said she'd walk me through it so I wouldn't be so scared to make it. Whew!

True to her word, she found a good, simple recipe for me which she handed to me as I came in. She also found all the ingredients so I wouldn't have to go to the store and figure out what I needed. And she loaned me a pasta pot that would cook enough spaghetti for the recipe. She gave me advice on the timing of the dish, and how to cook the bacon properly for the dish. Then she sent me on my way.

So, while I write this, I've started the dish and things are going smoothly. Eric's mom is correct when she says that this is one of those really simple dishes that anyone could make, but I'm still glad she talked me through it. I feel like an Iron Chef without the knowledge and years of experience, though.

On a much more somber note...

Al Hirschfeld died on the 19th. He was, in his own unique way, a man capable of capturing the soul of a person on paper. His works live on as a testament to his skills and influence. I think my favorite moment of Fantasia 2000 was when I realized that one of my favorite songs, "Rhapsody in Blue" (today's song of the day) was going to be combined with artwork inspired by Al Hirschfeld. While his age should make his death less unexpected, Hirschfeld was one of those people that you just took for granted. There would always be Al. And now there is not. Kind of shakes up your world.

Comments (1)

It was not, sad to say, my father's carbonara, which is what I'd really been hoping for this weekend. His is excellent. But Laura's was extremely good and tasty and filling, and definitely satisfied my craving. Thank you, dear, that was an incredibly thoughtful way to celebrate my [censored]th birthday.

Hubby | Email | Homepage | 01.22.03 - 1:10 am

I'm going to record this mostly so I won't forget it if it happens again.

This morning I was half-awake... the alarm had gone off and hubby-Eric had left for work (happy birthday Eric!) so I was alone in the house. I was sleeping on snooze, trying to wake up but not too serious about it. Then I heard some noises in the house. My logic circuits told me it was the rain on the roof, but my imagination was absolutely positive there was an animal in the house with me. I kicked into "urgent" mode, trying to wake up as quickly as possible so I could figure out what type of animal it was and how it got into the house. My eyes opened but I couldn't move, and I heard the animal coming into the bedroom and saw it. It was a very pretty, somewhat large, cream colored dog. I wish I could tell you the breed, but I don't know dog breeds well. It looked fairly friendly, but its tail was not wagging. I tried to say "Shoo!" to get it out of the room long enough so I could jump up and be prepared to deal with it, but nothing came out of my mouth. I was paralyzed. The dog, however, heard me. It looked at me like it was being bad, then quickly left the room.

After a few moments of mild panic, reason set in and I realized it had been another waking dream. At least twice before I've had the same sort of dream, once with the same dog (and it happened in the last couple of weeks) and once with a person (that happened a couple of years ago but scared me so badly I haven't forgotten it). The paralysis is apparently an illusion caused by the half-awake mind. After the first incident, I did a little research to figure out what had happened to me, and concluded that it was a perfectly normal side-effect of the slow way I wake up.

In any case, it's a very freaky feeling, and I want to remember it so I can compare notes the next time it happens. And yes, I checked the house after I got up. No dog, and no way a dog could have gotten in.

I thought I would do some neat article on birthday memories, but I find that I really don't have all that many memories of my birthday in particular. My strongest birthday memory is actually a fairly unpleasant one. I know I had good birthdays, I just can't pull them out of the mental jumble at the moment.

Naturally, my "song of the day" would have to be "Happy Birthday" as sung by all the various people who have sung it to me in the last day or so. Even the happily mangled versions. I also have to be pleased with myself because the way I stated my age to my boss, in a mathematical puzzle, she actually didn't get right the first time (and she's a math enthusiast!). See, the first time I'm twenty-seven years old is when I'm actually twenty-seven, so if I'm "27 for the Nth time" the formula is actually 26+N. Hee hee!

"I grow old... I grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."
-The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

I'm not old, of course, but I like the imagery in that poem of walking along a beach in white trousers with the legs rolled up a bit, dashing in and out of the waves.

Comments (2)

Happy belated birthday, Laura!

I meant to post this last night, but your comments button wasn't showing up.

Hope you had a good 'un!

David J | Email | Homepage | 01.21.03 - 12:38 pm

Thanks! I did have a good 'un, as a matter of fact. One of the best I've ever had. Everything seemed to go right for once.

Laura Gjovaag | Email | Homepage | 01.21.03 - 9:24 pm

I think that Martin Luther King Jr's words speak for themselves. This is a small excerpt from his most famous speech. Give yourself a minute today to think about what he meant.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

...

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

...

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

...

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Hot tub, Lasagne, and talkin' politics with my sister-in-law. A good party for me (birthday tomorrow) and Hubby-Eric (birthday day after tomorrow). Now I'm tired. Goodnight.

Comments (1)

And don't forget, dear, we got Spider-Man on DVD!

Hubby | Email | Homepage | 01.20.03 - 12:57 am

This link may not work if you don't have a login to the New York Times Website: Lawrence Lessig, who tried to get the copyright extension revoked, has proposed an interesting compromise between the two sides of the debate. Basically, after a reasonable amount of time (Lessig uses 50 years as an example), copyright holders ought to pay a "patent tax" to keep hold of the copyright on their work. At the moment, holders of patents have to pay a fee every few years to maintain the patent. Lessig suggests that the same idea could be applied to copyrights. It would allow works that are no longer commercially viable to enter the public domain when the copyright holders no longer pay the tax, yet allow corporations and creators to keep hold of their most valuable works. In addition, because the tax would have to be paid, the copyright holder would be on record, so it wouldn't be difficult to find who owns the copyright to a protected work. Seems like a decent compromise... so it'll never come to pass.

Neilalien once again has some fantastic links (that I finally had time to check out). I'm particularly pleased with John Parker's "My Superman T-Shirt" essay, which had the effect of making me proud to be a superhero fan. Not that I wasn't already. See, I like lots of non-superhero books. I read a great many comic books, and not all of them are superhero. And I just happen to agree with Parker that superheroes are every bit as valid as other comic books. Nothing annoys me quite as much as a comic book snob who turns up his/her nose at superheroes because they just happen to currently dominate the medium. Yes, we know superheroes aren't the be-all and end-all of comic books. But some of us do like them, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I was convinced when I was little that I would never live to see my 30th birthday. I don't know why. It wasn't like anyone around me was dying. My parents are both still alive today. But for some reason, I just didn't think I'd make it to 30. Well, I already have, and I'm past it... but it still sometimes feels unreal. Like this is just a dream that young me is having, and that I still don't stand a chance of getting there. So I don't see my birthday as a reminder of mortality. I see it as me having beat the odds another year. I see it as me continuing past where I thought I would stop. It's very strange. And somewhat comforting. I like birthdays.