Saturday, December 06, 2003

The story of this sketch is told in my con report from San Diego 2000. It was my second sketch of the third day of the con. I look back and find it amazing that I was able to keep track of everything that happened at San Diego 2000 so well, but there is a reason for it. I got 42 sketches and spent four days in pure bliss, and the instant I got home I wrote to my little sister who was out of the country at the time and gave her an absolutely detailed report of the con. A carefully edited version of that became my official con report. The next year at San Diego I didn't have anyone to write to, and so my recollection of that con is much poorer.

AQUAMAN
by Michael T Gilbert
22 July 2000
(permission to post given 26 October 2003 via e-mail)

I really like this sketch for the fact that it isn't too detailed. It always amazes me that some artists can draw such a sparse piece that perfectly expresses their style and yet is only a few deft lines. This is one of those pieces. Anyone familiar with Gilbert's work will instantly recognize that it's his, but it's so wonderfully simple!

To see all the sketches I have permission to post so far, check out my Sketchbook Page. Click for a random Aquaman sketch.

by Tegan at 4:25 PM Seattle time

Happy Birthday Grandpa Paul!

by Tegan at 4:17 PM Seattle time

Formerly Known As The Justice League #6: More of the same. If you like Giffen's take on the league, you'll like this. If you don't, you'll probably hate this. It's humor... comic comic, not grim 'n' gritty superheroics comic. You've been warned.

JSA: All Stars #8: You know, I'm sure there was a plot in there somewhere. I'm not sure I could point it out, but I'm sure it's there.

Justice League Adventures #26: Not a bad finish. Batman, of course, figures the actual mystery while the others do what they do best. The only problem is that it tried hard to pick up where the last issue left off, but almost went too fast. Read the two issues together if you can, they are better that way.

Supreme Power #5: A lot less of the boring guy, and more about two other heroes (with another one in cameo). Not bad... I like Stan's attitude. I also like the "agents" that find Stan. heh. The other plot was a bit dark, but it made for a nice contrast. Pretty good issue, when all is said and done.

Done already? Must've been a small week. The books that are supposed to ship next week are: Shrek, Generations III, Aquaman, Fallen Angel, H-E-R-O, JSA, and 1602.

by Tegan at 10:14 AM Seattle time

Friday, December 05, 2003

Unlike Elayne, I quite like useless statistics, and I enjoyed seeing where people are hitting my page from. So I added OneStat and eXTReMe Tracker to my already much used Site Meter. To my surprise, I already found a new blog that referred to me that didn't show up on Site Meter but did show on the other two. So I think I'll keep 'em.

The new blog Down In The Mucky-Muck, is good, if a little standard for comics bloggers... then again, Mick Martin just mentioned that he's about to be an uncle, and that's a cool little bit. And hey, despite one of his "likes", he also enjoys Astro City and Hellboy, so he can't be all that bad.

A note on linking... I link to sites I want to read. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to link to me, cool. I don't promise a return link, but I'm far more likely to notice you. Same goes for me: I don't expect a return link if I link to your blog. I'm linking to you so I can read you.

I know some of my readers might be surprised, but I agree 100% with this editorial. Yeah, I read stuff that is, by his definition, conventional. But I also like to try new things and take risks. It's too bad more publishers aren't willing to take a few risks to try something different. Via Neilalien.

Because I've been sick and apparently not reading blogs completely for a few days, I seem to have completely missed the start of Sean Collins coverage of a re-read of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. So, to catch you up, here's the first entry, up through "about a third of Three Is Company", the second entry, up through A Conspiracy Unmasked, and the third entry, up through Fog on the Barrow-Downs. Good stuff, recommended.

I think Alan David Doane is pulling people's leg with his "best superhero cover of the last decade". Those might possibly be the ugliest colors on a cover I've seen any time in the recent (or distant) past, and there is nothing even slightly appealing about the portrait look of characters. The JLA/Avengers #3 cover he mentions, despite being a wee bit on the crowded side, is light-years ahead of that ugly boring thing he says is best. If he's not kidding, I think his sense of what a cover should be is just too foreign for me to understand. See, I thought a cover was supposed to make people want to pick a book up and see what's inside, not make them want to rip it off and throw it away so they don't have to look at it.

Just for laughs, here's a couple of covers that I think are significantly better than that thing ADD posted (maybe he's going to switch it out with something that actually looks good once enough people respond). I freely admit that these aren't likely to be the best of the last decade by a longshot:

I've gotten odd comments on my blog before, but nothing like Geek and Proud's comment. I think I'm jealous.

Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time. Four of the top ten are the Beatles. Why doesn't this surprise me at all? Via The Modulator.

I like Neil Gaiman's description of man-writing-novel and misplacing the rest of his mind.

Legomancer rehashes why The Dark Knight Strikes Again sucks after reading a positive review of it. Yeah, I'm pretty much with him on this one.

Fascinating post on DC Comics ad pages by the ever interesting Jim Henley. Ok, it's interesting if you are interested in such things.

by Tegan at 7:15 PM Seattle time

Justice League: Hereafter: Oh yeah. This was a cameo-fest, a tribute to the regular DC universe, and an Elseworld all combined. Aquaman and Mera both appeared, which automatically made it better for me, and Flash's comments on Aquaman joining the league just improved it more and more. And in the second part, with was essentially an Elseworld, and this one just hit every possible note that would make me like it.

Plastic Man #1: I'm afraid that this one falls into the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" rule.

Ruse #26: Final issue. This wasn't too bad. It sort of goes out with a bang, links the whole "sigil powers" thing nicely then gets rid of it, and has the romance everyone is dying to see... sort of. Not bad at all. A decent finish to a generally uneven series.

Still to review: Formerly Known as the Justice League, JSA All-Stars, Justice League Adventures, and Supreme Power.

by Tegan at 10:12 AM Seattle time

So, at about 10 am yesterday, the lights flickered a bit. They've been flickering slightly all week, so I called the utility to report the problem in case it has something to do with our line. The gal on the other end said it would be awhile before a crew could be sent, as a storm was knocking out power all over the county (mostly in the South), and was still going strong. I had no problem with that, as the flickering has been mostly an annoyance, not a serious problem.

At about 1:30 pm, the storm hit up here. The wind was fairly impressive, and large chunks of trees were coming down all over our yard. At about 2:30 pm, the lights went out and stayed out. They stayed out for thirteen hours, finally coming on at about 3:30 this morning.

by Tegan at 7:51 AM Seattle time

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Wonderful pictures taken from a kite: Kite Aerial Photography by Scott Haefner. via Boing Boing.

Here's an article about Google Bombing, and here's some information on the Miserable Failure project that takes advantage of the way Google works. As of today, the project was a success. See how easy it is to manipulate search engines?

Neil Gaiman and a whole bunch of other people have linked to the story of a seven-year-old boy punished for explaining to another classmate that his mother is gay, then explaining that "Gay is when a girl likes another girl." You know, if he'd been describing in graphic detail what his mother does in bed, then punishment would have been appropriate. But simply saying the above did NOT warrant the series of degrading punishments he got, starting with being lectured by his obviously homophobic teacher and including being forced to write "I will never use the word 'gay' in school again" repeatedly.

by Tegan at 12:38 PM Seattle time

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Wow, Sitemeter claims I got 232 hits so far today. That's a good 140 over the highest I've seen. Must be the fact that I got mentioned in Journalista! two days in a row.

To be completely honest and a little more coherent with you, Dirk, I didn't think you were serious when you wrote "please don't show this link to Aquaman blogger Laura Gjovaag." You knew I'd read it, so I thought it was a funny way to mention it. I came down a little hard on the side of people not thinking I have a sense of humor. It's just stress related to the whole Marysville mess. I guess at the moment a lot of my sense of humor is missing.

Speaking of the Marysville mess, things have gone from bad to worse, but it's a private matter unrelated to the district itself. I'm not the only person concerned about hubby-Eric's continued safe employment, nor am I the only person who is worried about my big mouth. It has, however, added to my stress immensely to be told that.

I plan on light blogging, sticking mostly to reviews, for the rest of the week. I've got to clear out my head before I hit a low spot again. I'm not up to any serious thought right now.

Update: Oh yeah, one more thing. I've added the Comic Treadmill blog to my sidebar. Looks like a two-person blog, and they are unrepentent superhero fans (one of them even likes Aquaman). If nothing else, the name of the blog is amusing.

by Tegan at 9:27 PM Seattle time

Hellboy: Wake The Devil: This wasn't as good as the first one.

Seed of Destruction had it all. Particularly humor. It also folded neatly back into itself, creating a whole story. Yes, there were hanging plot threads, but they seemed to have been left intentionally.

In this book, though, it feels like the resolution was rushed. Parts of the story seem to be left completely alone after being introduced, and didn't seem like carefully planted clues to future stories. In particular, the homunculus seems to be left wandering the country-side.

While it certainly wasn't bad, I was a bit let down by this one after how spectacular the first trade was.

Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom: A whole bunch of short stories, including a color reprint of the first ever Hellboy story I read, "Pancakes".

I loved this one. Lots of good stories, lots of fun. Yes, Hellboy stories are often quite gruesome, but the artwork is stylized enough to hide a lot of what would have been gore.

And this features one of the all-time best exchanges in comics: "Is that a monkey?" "He's got a gun!" Unexpected, and priceless.

I also visited hellboy.com, and found links to several on-line short stories. After my experiences with the last two collections, I realized that short stories are far more interesting to me, for the most part, than larger narratives. So here's some reviews of some of the on-line comics. I'm not linking directly to the stories, only to the page on hellboy.com that links to them. The astute among you will figure out why very quickly.

Hellboy: The Corpse: A stolen baby, cold iron, and a talking corpse. The on-line presentation is odd, but you get used to it. This has all the humor and shock value of a normal Hellboy story.

Hellboy: The Iron Shoes: Very short, and very odd. I like the set-up, of how horrible this monster is... followed by Hellboy taking it on.

Hellboy: The Wolves of Saint August: Nasty brutal one. It's easy to develop a liking for the Father early in the story, which makes the appearance of Hellboy so much nastier. I love the incorporation of hidden history, and I really like the "old legend" feeling of this story. Very creepy and effective.

The following are available on Dark Horse's Website:

Hellboy: A Christmas Underground: Hellboy and Father Christmas. Yeah, this one was just strong all the way through. A good one.

Hellboy: The Baba Yaga: Hellboy takes on Mother Russia? This is definitely a case of Hellboy getting involved in something far beyond his understanding which results in what is arguably a failure.

Hellboy: The Chained Coffin: Is this Hellboy's origin? Wow. Nasty stuff going on. There's some unfinished business there, and now I'm curious to see how it works out.

Hellboy: Almost Colossus: Hey, it's the missing homunculus from Wake the Devil! The biggest hanging plot thread that annoyed me the most, resolved. And nicely, too. Another good one.

B.P.R.D.: There's almost a story here.

As a collection of Hellboy stories, these get a high rating. So, instead of rating each one individually, I'm giving them a collective 4 starfish.

by Tegan at 2:13 PM Seattle time

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Here's one for hubby-Eric. Spammers have started to include prose in their e-mail messages to avoid having their notes trashed by smart filters. Blogger and journalist Clive Thompson found an excerpt from Chapter 20 of The Master Key by Wizard of Oz author L Frank Baum in a message that had as its subject line "the big unit" (no prizes for guessing what the rest of it was hawking). Lovely. via Boing Boing

If you can get to the NYTimes website, read Paul Krugman's opinion piece about voting machines called "Hack the Vote". Yes, I wonder why this isn't front page news, too.

Eh, Blogshares is gone. I guess I'll have to take down the link to it eventually.

Oh way cool! Roman dice on auction at Christie's. Via Pete Welsch

Neat story of a student film based on WWII lore. via Daily Snopes

Mr. Picassohead. via Volokh

The Brownsville Herald (Texas) has a wonderful report on the difficulties of trying to see public information under the Freedom of Information act. Via Amy Langfield and Jeff Jarvis

Happy birthday, Elayne! She's also posted her con report of the Mid-Ohio con. Kevin also has a couple of con reports.

*ThumpThumpThump* Again, the sound of me pounding my head against the wall. Franklin Harris responds to discussion about his article on trades versus single comic books. The only reason I responded to that article at all was because Dirk Deppey mischaracterized it as a "detailed and convincing argument", which it wasn't. It was a couple of points that were pure opinion. I don't entirely disagree with Franklin, just as I don't believe that single comic books are the be-all and end-all of comic book formats. But I don't get this silly demonizing of the format going on.

Legomancer sums up the current arguments on comics in the blogosphere. I would add: "If you don't agree with the current trend of thinking that the Manga format is the best thing since sliced bread, then you should be misquoted and misunderstood by all the folks on the bandwagon." Manga isn't a trend, but this ridiculous praise of Manga as the sole future of comics is a trend. And it's getting really annoying. Yeah, we get it. Manga = good, everything else = bad. Move on to another topic, already.

Dirk Deppey thinks I'll be offended by a link he has. On the contrary, I thought it was pretty funny. A little crude, but amusing nonetheless. Why does everyone assume that I take Aquaman so seriously that I'm not amused by jokes? I'm offended by the same old boring jokes, but I'm only offended because they aren't creative. Saying "Aquaman is lame" isn't funny, original, or creative. Drawing Aquaman in a fishbowl being fed fish food is. Why can't people get the distinction? (and no, it's not just you, Dirk, I get a lot of "oh you wouldn't like this" from people who are making perfectly funny Aquaman jokes)

Last thought for the day: If anything happens to Eric at work today due to my loud mouth speech last night, I'll add an update to the note below (as well as call every reporter I can reach). Otherwise, I'm just too sick today to deal with anything more.

by Tegan at 3:07 PM Seattle time

If you don't want to read about my whining about the Marysville School District, you can skip this post.

I went to the school board meeting last night with a piece of paper in my pocket. I had written some harsh words for the public speaking portion, but was undecided whether or not I would speak. I was leaning toward not speaking, but I just wasn't sure. When I got to the meeting, I ran into a fellow activist who is a bit more determined than me, and she told me that over the years she's gotten into trouble many times for what she's said, but at least she has never regretted having a chance to speak up and not speaking up. Before I put my name down on the speaking list, she did it for me. I was the third speaker, and I'm told that I was one of the few that people cheered throughout. Here is my speech:

My name is Laura Gjovaag. I am the wife of a math teacher who was hired by this district over the summer. At the time my husband was hired, we were both unaware that there were any problems. Indeed, my husband was pleased to come teach in Marysville, as his grandmother was once a teacher here, and his father a student.

Imagine our surprise and dismay as we learned of the labor problems. Imagine my disgust as I researched the root of the problem and discovered that the fault lay in a school board completely out of touch with the people in the district, and an unqualified superintendent who was hired without due process or community input.

To Helen Mount and Ron Young. You are morally in the wrong. Your vote of spite at the last board meeting proved this, even to your supporters. Resign. If you care at all about the children in this district, save this district the money it will cost to recall you. Resign.

To Linda Whitehead. Your divisive style of leadership, your inability to work with the people who are supposed to look up to you, your dismissive attitude toward anyone who disagrees with you makes you a lousy superintendent, despite any awards people across the country may choose to give you. Resign.

If you have any compassion at all for the students in this district, leave now before we must waste money -- better spent on education -- to get rid of you. You will not stay regardless, the only question about your leaving is whether or not you will steal money from the children of this district before you go. If you are an honest person, you will resign.

To the new school board members. Linda Whitehead is a knife in the side of our teachers. Until that knife is removed, there will be a festering wound in this district. Progress cannot be made until she is gone. Please keep that in mind in all you do over the next few months.

Thank you, and may honesty prevail.

As soon as I spoke the first "Resign", the audience cheered, which confused me, as I'm not a good public speaker. Every time I said the word I got massive cheers from the majority of the crowd. I was shaking, which I'm told wasn't visible. I also had the bright idea to take the microphone into my hand and speak clearly into it, so apparently everyone heard every word, which wasn't the case with a lot of the speakers.

The meeting was part boredom, part lively public meeting. The two incumbent board members and the superintendent attempted to carry on like nothing bad was happening, but all of them felt the "love" during the public speaking portion of the meeting, as it was clear that most everybody simply wants them gone.

One thing about the old board that I noticed immediately at the first meeting I attended was that during the public speaking section of the meeting, the board claims that they cannot answer any questions. Basically, the public is talking to a wall that is supposed to be listening. But when the first speaker finished her statements, Ron Young broke the rule and started to answer her to make her look bad. There was immediate backlash from the audience, as the board has ruled that the public has only 30 minutes to speak, and Ron was taking away from that time. Some people actually shouted, "Shut up, Ron, it's our turn to talk!" He kept talking until he'd finished, despite not being allowed to speak, then when Kundu, one of the new board members, attempted to say something both Mount and Young told him he couldn't talk. The next speaker started her comments by pointing out that Ron had just spent 1 minute 10 seconds of public time.

After 28 minutes of public speaking time (yes, people were counting), including the minute that Ron had wasted, the school board president Helen Mount declared the public speaking portion of the meeting closed. One of the new board members, Carol Jason, said that she wanted to hear the other speakers. She was told by Mount that she had to make a motion to suspend the agenda. She made the motion, it was seconded, and the three new board members voted to hear the rest of the speakers. Ron Young abstained, to many jeers, and Mount didn't even bother to vote.

The remaining speakers only took about fifteen minutes. Lots of good things were said, including continuing debate on the proposed calendar (which contains two Saturdays for students and five for teachers, which is a hot topic). But everyone got heard, which was a completely new thing for the Marysville parents.

After some other standard business, the new Board officials were elected. As expected, the three new school board members got the three positions. There was a lot of cheering.

The award for "sheer gall" however, goes to Ron Young. In the board's final statements for the evening, right before the public portion of the meeting ended, Young stated that he believed the new board members should recuse themselves from any vote regarding a new contract for the teachers. This statement was met with disbelief and jeers from the audience, who called out, "why do you think we elected them, Ron?" and "Resign, Ron!" After the audience settled down, and Mount wisely said very little in her statement, new Board President Vicki Gates made a sharp comment regarding the board's vote at the last meeting. Point was taken, and that was the only time during the meeting that the huge gap between new board members and old was clearly apparent.

After the meeting, I returned home to an anxious husband who knew that I was speaking because I'd called him from the meeting, but had no idea what I'd said. As I'd given my copy of my speech to a reporter from the Herald Rag, I pulled up the file on my computer and let him read it. His face grew pale and he said, "Are you trying to get me fired?" My heart sank through the floor.

I have not been invisible in this fight. I have written letters, gone to rallies, and generally made a loud noise, under my own name. I have done nothing I am ashamed of in this fight. But at that moment I realized that the vindictiveness of the current school administration could very well haunt my husband. He could easily be punished for my opinion. No honest person would attack him for my opinion, but the current administration is not honest.

After an eternity of beating myself up over my thoughtlessness, which lasted in real time only a few seconds, he continued, "But it had to be said." He's not happy with me. I have endangered his status. But he understands.

Do you understand? This is a district where teachers are afraid to speak up, because if they do they will be punished. This is a district where the morale is GONE. Where the schedules for over 900 students were completely rewritten in the sixth week of the school year. Six weeks, wasted. And no one knows why it had to be done that way. This is a district where a teacher was taken to task by his principal for daring to complain about having 44 students in a classroom with 30 seats. This district has given us nothing but pain. Sometimes I'm not even sure why I care, but when I do try to help, to make things better, I risk my husband's job.

This just can't continue.

by Tegan at 12:39 PM Seattle time

Superman: The Kansas Sighting #1: There's not enough here to review. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just that there are so many pieces, but pretty much no answers. My enjoyment of this first issue is really going to rely on how good the second issue is. Purely on it's own, the art is ok and the storytelling is a bit disjointed. I can't say I loved it, but I didn't hate it either.

Amazing Spider-Man #60/501: This is your standard "day in the life" issue, except from the point of view of Aunt May, who is still dealing with who Peter is. I personally really like the way JMS writes Aunt May, and so this particular issue is a pleasant read for me. Nothing super special, but it was a solid issue, worth a read.

Usagi Yojimbo #71: Wow, a young Katsuichi tale! He really is a handsome young warrior, just learning his way. His tale is heartbreaking. You wonder what he did after, but we drift back to the present before we see the consequences of that night. And it's interesting to see that even Katsuichi can get distracted. On a slightly less important note, the back cover is an ad for the Emerald City ComiCon, featuring Stan's giant Usagi trashing Seattle.

Coming this wednesday: Ruse, Formerly Known as the Justice League, JSA All Stars, Justice League Adventures, Plastic Man, and Supreme Power.

by Tegan at 11:16 AM Seattle time

Monday, December 01, 2003

So tonight I plan on attending the Marysville school board meeting. I've considered taking time to speak, but I'm neither fish nor fowl in the district, so it feels like any actions I take would be those of an outsider. I don't even know if hubby-Eric will stay in the district past this year.

But I plan on going to the meeting, at least. It will be the first meeting with the three new board members. I'm sure some speakers will ask the remaining two board members and the superintendent to resign. That would be both the politically smart thing and the morally right thing to do, so no one expects the them to budge. In particular, it is said of Helen Mount that if God himself came down and told her she was wrong, she would still hold to her opinion.

I'm not really sure what good my presence will do. Sure, I can sit in the back and make snide remarks, but will my being there make any real difference? I don't know. What I do know is that last week 900 students in 8th and 9th grades got brand new schedules four weeks into the school year, and that nonsense was perpetuated by the leadership of the district. Whether or not I say a word, I will hold those three responsible for the actions they've taken that have basically ruined a school year for those kids.

Looks may not be able to kill, but maybe I can at least make them uncomfortable. I'll post a full report on the meeting tonight or tomorrow morning, if there's anything worth reporting.

by Tegan at 1:20 PM Seattle time

Justice League: The Secret Society: Any time you end the first half of a story with the break-up of the title team, you've got the start of something good. Add in an intelligent supervillain team led by one of the best in the supervillain business and you've got a winner. And, unlike superfriends, this Justice League grows and changes. The problems they had with each other this time won't go completely away. A very strong episode.

Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown #1: I came within inches of ordering this one, but didn't. Thus I was surprised to see it in my shop. Turns out the shop owner got some issues as part of a promotion. Good promotion, pity that the book isn't better. There's just a little too much gore and a little too little story. There were exactly four pages that I liked, the rest were just so much garbled nothing. There isn't anything here for a reader like me.

Dragon's Kin: by Anne and Todd McCaffrey. I pre-ordered this with my tiny amount of credit from my bookshop. I just couldn't resist a new Pern novel, and the credit almost covered the price of the book with shipping. My fascination with Pern goes a long way back, all the way to when I was but a wee lassie discovering that I really liked to read, and I read so fast that finding enough material suitable to my age level was difficult. My mother, bless her, also reads fast and was very good at directing my attention away from stuff that really was too advanced for me. I don't know who introduced me to Pern. It was probably my big brother. In any case, I quickly devoured every available tale, then waited impatiently for more. To my immense surprise, we learned that Anne McCaffrey herself was doing a signing in our hometown. We went down and got in line, and I met Anne and had her sign all my ragtag collection that I owned at that point. I still have those books, and read them every once in awhile.

Getting back to this book, like the last few Pern stories it's written at a lower reading level. It's not an adult book so much as a young adult novel. That doesn't bother me at all, but might bother other readers. In addition, the Pern books have developed a level of formula to them. While I would say that this one has a bit of that, it diverges enough, and has exploration of an unexplored theme, that I didn't mind it at all. Again, some people will no doubt find it annoying. This book is also set fairly early in Pern history, so you don't see any familiar faces from previous books. I can't say I was disappointed. I started the book soon after it arrived, then realized I needed to read it in one sitting. I stayed up last night until I finished it.

Still to review: Amazing Spider-Man, Superman: The Kansas Sighting, and Usagi Yojimbo.

by Tegan at 11:14 AM Seattle time

Sunday, November 30, 2003

So, I'm trying to figure out if Rudyard Kipling's poetry is still under copyright, and I'm getting more and more confused the deeper I dig. Since I live in the United States, I presume that any of his poems that were published in the United States before 1923 are not under copyright in the US. However, current British copyright says 70 years from the author's death, and Kipling died in 1936. Does anyone know the answer to this? Would I be breaking copyright laws by posting Kipling poetry... or not?

by Tegan at 9:55 PM Seattle time

I kept meaning to write something profound and special as a second entry today, but I've utterly failed to come up with anything intelligent. I have posted four entries on Elayne's blog this weekend (and if it looks like she's late coming home, I may end up posting another one to make sure there's a Monday entry). The blogosphere has been very quiet this holiday weekend, no surprise, really.

So I'm reduced to offering just this. I don't get it, so don't ask me. At least there's no one singing about the moon in this one. Via Gallimaufry.

by Tegan at 9:28 PM Seattle time

Green Lantern #171: Kyle Lantern is running around in space, yadda-yadda. Jenny is running around behind Kyle's back, yadda-yadda. Some other stuff happens.

Batman Adventures #8: This one is helped along by the fact that Dr Leslie Thompkins is one of my favorite characters in the animated Batman mythos. And her bit with Alfred was simply priceless. An excellent issue.

Empire #5: While my expectations concerning this title have never been too high, I thought I had the thing figured out. Everybody is a bad guy. Even the supreme leader's daughter had to be a brat underneath. But I really didn't see this one coming at all. No, not at all. Whoa.

Still to review: Amazing Spider-Man, Superman: The Kansas Sighting, and Usagi Yojimbo.

by Tegan at 11:08 AM Seattle time