Saturday, August 28, 2004

Another early sketch from my second con, this one was pretty fun to get as Williams is a nice guy. He claimed at the time that he had never draw the modern Aquaman before, so that's who he wanted to try. I think it turned out really good, personally. At the time, Williams was best known for his incredible work on Promethea, but he also co-created the late and much lamented book Chase. My thanks go out to Mick Gray for his help in getting permission to post this sketch.

AQUAMAN
by J.H. Williams III
14 November 1999
(permission to post given 30 May 2004 via e-mail - thank you Mick Gray)

As a reminder: Almost every sketch in my sketchbook was non-commissioned and done on the floor of a con. These are not the best works of the artists. These are only representative of what the artist can do under pressure in a loud, crowded, and often stressed-out environment. Most of them were done as quickly as possible, to prevent huge lines from forming. Don't judge any of these artists negatively by the artwork you see, instead be as impressed as I am by what they accomplished in far-from-ideal conditions.

To see all the sketches I have permission to post so far, check out my Sketchbook Page. If you have any contact information for any of the other artists I'm trying to contact, please e-mail me. Click for a random Aquaman sketch.

The Saturday Sketch ™ is brought to you by the letters "A", "Q" and the number "27", and also courtesy the fine artists who pour their lives into producing wonderful comic books, then come to conventions only to get asked by geeky fangirls for a sketch of Aquaman. Support an artist, buy a comic book.

by Tegan at 9:26 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

DC Comics Presents: Justice League of America #1: Huh. I actually enjoyed this one. I was beginning to think there was no chance of me liking any of these, but this one was pretty good. The first story was a nice dream tribute that actually worked, and the second story made sense within continuity. Both of them were remarkably strong. Finally, a good issue of DC Comics Presents.

JLA #104: Probably the best issue of "Pain of the Gods" so far, but still well off being a good comic book. This issue focuses on J'onn, the Martian Manhunter, and directly contradicts some earlier work involving him. Except for that, I might have enjoyed it. Well, that and the clumsy attempts to tie everyone's pain together. This arc continues to be mostly pointless. Very mildly recommended.

Green Lantern #180: This just doesn't do anything for me. In fact, it really makes me hate this series all the more. I'm glad this thing is finally ending. It's a mercy killing.

Still to review: Usagi Yojimbo, Weird Secret Origins, and Amazing Spider-Man.

by Tegan at 10:19 AM Seattle time - Permalink  

Friday, August 27, 2004

Scientists pick the top 10 science fiction films. I've seen half of them. Link via Monitor Duty.

Franklin has an important election announcement.

Postmodern Barney explains how to sell comics to parents. Since the parents are the ones with the pursestrings, this approach not only makes sense, but is pretty funny as well. Anyone who works in retail ought to read it.

More excellent linkblogging at Near Mint Heroes. Go. Read.

by Tegan at 10:34 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

As I mentioned in this morning's fitness post, I've been exercising to TV shows. I haven't forgotten to review them as I watch them, also. Generally I try to review them right after I watch them so as to live up to the "rapid" bit of my title. With my Rapid Reviews, I'm trying to present my first impressions. My opinion often changes or develops when I view or read something a second or third time. But I avoid that, as I know most people don't usually reread as much as I do. For many people, the first impression is the only impression.

After watching the first two seasons of Angel, I decided it was time to go back and watch some more Buffy. I'd already seen the first four episodes, but that wasn't really enough. So back I went back and started where I left off:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1-05]: Never Kill A Boy on the First Date: It's been awhile since I watched Buffy. I've been focused on Angel so much. But going back to the beginning was a fascinating experience. In this episode, Angel only makes a little cameo... but he looks so young! I thought I had the plot all figured out, but I was wrong about a couple of things. I wasn't wrong about the identity of the Annointed One, though. The show fooled me into thinking I was wrong, but in the end, it all turned out like I expected it to.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1-06]: The Pack: Raw piggy... and other things. This one was gruesome. I think Sunnydale must have a serious psychologist boom... anyone who survives one of the strange events will need some intensive help. This is a nice popcorn show. Fun to watch, and not too heavy to enjoy.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1-07]: Angel: Ah, the truth comes out. I can only imagine the impact this episode had when it was first aired, but the whole Darla thing has quite an impact for me after what I've seen in the other show. Quite an episode, really. And hey, I know what happened to Darla now!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1-08]: I Robot, You Jane: After the intensity of the last episode, it's only fitting to go to something a little more light-hearted. I love the concept in this one, of a demon being scanned accidently into the internet. And while it is generally fun, there are a few overly silly bits that slow it down.

by Tegan at 7:52 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

• Weight = No reading
  
• Met Exercise Goal? Yes
  Goal was fifteen minutes a day (walk/bike/swim) at least six days.
  
• Current Exercise Goal = fifteen minutes a day (walk/bike/swim) at least six days.
  
• Kept food diary? Yes.

I'm actually doing really well with the exercise. Better than I expected to. I'm watching one episode of a sci-fi or fantasy TV show per exercise session, and that's got me up to almost 30 minutes a day on average. I'm still missing some days due to other events in real life, but for the most part I've been keeping it up.

According to my journal for the last week: Friday - 30 minutes, Saturday - 33 minutes, Sunday - 31 minutes, Monday - no exercise (except for walking around Safeco field), Tuesday - 31 minutes, Wednesday - 30 minutes, and Thursday - 30 minutes. Not bad at all. I'm just worried that I'll run out of TV shows to watch. I've got season one of Buffy and season one of Farscape up, then I'll probably move on to season two of Buffy. I've got, what, seven seasons of Buffy and three more seasons of Angel and Farscape each? That should keep me going for awhile. But I may have to ask for suggestions for another series to hunt down after I get through more of these.

As for having no scale reading today, that's because I'm at the Pugless House, which doesn't have a working scale, and I didn't bring the scale from home because it isn't that important. I'm happy to be keeping with the exercising, so a weigh-in may only detract from that.

by Tegan at 9:33 AM Seattle time - Permalink  

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Conan #7: Nice conclusion to the previous arc, with a rather final wrap-up. Beyond that, though, there isn't much to this book. It's just a finish to the last arc and a launching point for another story. Not bad, just not a lot.

Superman #208: Ok, can anyone get me up to date on this book? After reading this I realized how much I appreciate the opening page summaries in Marvel books. Without any summary, I was completely lost. And there wasn't enough context to really pull it together and get an idea of what was happening. Yeah, Aquaman appears, but there's a suggestion that he appeared in a previous issue (?) or something that Superman did is directly resulting in a war. But a war with Atlantis, when Aquaman doesn't even claim to be monarch of that nation at the moment seems... odd. Not to mention the return of Aquaman's gloves after so many years without them. I'm perplexed, and not interested enough to pick up the previous issues.

I foolishly left all the other comics at home, so I can't read them tonight. So, still to review: Usagi Yojimbo, DC Presents Justice League, Green Lantern, JLA, Weird Secret Origins, and Amazing Spider-Man.

by Tegan at 9:37 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Well, not that far. I'm at the Pugless House of not-so-many horrors. The pugs and their people are off on a road trip and I'm monitoring the house for the night. Two big reasons for me to be here: 1) hot tub and 2) it's much closer to work.

On the way out here I picked up Superman #208 on the recommendation of Tom Galloway, and sure enough, Aquaman is in there. Has anyone else noticed guest appearances by Aquaman (in books I don't review) recently?

Regarding Superman, the shop owner said the Jim Lee Superman hasn't been selling at all at her shop. She offered me a deep discount on the issue I bought. If anyone needs those issues, I know where you can find them.

by Tegan at 7:09 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Justice League Unlimited: Hawk & Dove: Well, I sort of got my wish. I got to see other characters besides the main ones. But Hawk and Dove, except for the fun bar fight, didn't really seem to be characters so much as symbols in this episode. The solution was nicely telegraphed during the Wonder Woman scene... but what the heck was wrong with Wondy? At times I thought she was under Ares' influence or something. Overall, it was ok, but nothing special.

Teen Titans Go! #10: Cute. That's the summary. It's very cute. I can't say I loved it, but it's nicely cute. I only got it for the Aqualad appearance, and I wasn't disappointed in that, at least. It was a cute little story. Very, very cute.

Still to review: Conan, Usagi Yojimbo, DC Presents Justice League, Green Lantern, JLA, Weird Secret Origins, and Amazing Spider-Man.

by Tegan at 2:05 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Monitor Duty reports that Nancy Drew is coming to comic books. I'm not so interested in the Hardy Boys, but I may collect the Nancy Drew books when they come out.

Got a cat that likes to eat your head? If not, you can get one. Via TangognaT.

There's a cool alternate Olympic medal tally that ranks countries medals by population. Quite a fascinating look at the standings, although other factors impact how many medals it's possible for a country to get. Via Metafilter.

And to finish this off, here's a picture from Nancy's garden.

by Tegan at 10:42 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Today in the store, we came across a strange book.

Can you see what's strange about this book? Especially considering that it's in Seattle and not somewhere very much East and South. The receiving clerk asked me if I had any idea what this was about:

The obvious jokes were made about math having to be different in Florida, and how that explains what happened in 2000... but I'm still mildly curious. I went to the publisher's website, and the nearest I can figure is that there are some kind of practice tests in the back that are modelled on state tests. I'm not positive about that, though. Anyone know for sure?

In any case, that was something fun to cheer us up today.

by Tegan at 9:25 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

For these reviews I thank Steve Lieber of Mercury Studios for starting the meme, and the King County Library System for its excellent collection of books and ease with which they can be checked out.

Bone Volume Two: The Great Cow Race: Still very good, but not quite as good as the first volume. There is mystery and adventure, but not as much tension. Yes, the scheme with the betting caused some tension, but it's not as deep or as fascinating as what we saw in the first volume. It's a recommended book, but definitely read volume one first... I have the rest of the volumes that my library carries on the way to me, so I'll review the rest as they come in.

Bone Volume Three: Eyes of the Storm: This is more like it. It's like the whole book was kicked back up a notch. There were revealations and action, and some really good bits of humor and excitement. In fact, I daresay I like this one better than the first volume. Most excellent.

by Tegan at 9:18 AM Seattle time - Permalink  

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

The Muppet version of The Wizard of Oz gets more details in rumors. Will this get made? I sure hope so, though I'm kind of hoping the details change a bit more.

An earthquake hit the Olympics. I didn't see anything about it on the TV coverage, but then virtually everything is tape delayed and I wasn't paying close attention since I've been trying to monitor my internet connection. Via Stuart Hughes.

Boing Boing points us to a primer on How to make 3D Photos. Doesn't sound too difficult.

Also at Boing Boing is a link to an edit of Planet of the Apes into an episode of The Twilight Zone. I'm downloading it now, but it sounds like a real labor of love.

Garrett directs us to a great post about how one man fought the INS and won.

George Takei visits the internment camp where he spent part of his youth as part of the immoral act of collective punishment that the United States committed during WWII. With some disgusting people now arguing that the camps were good policy, it's important to go back and read first-hand testimony of people who were actually there. Link via MetaFilter.

I want to watch Comedy Central tonight. For the first time since the Olympics started, I'm not interested in them at all. I want to see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart... and John Kerry. Stewart is a great interviewer, asking hard questions from all his guests, no matter their political bent. I hope he asked Kerry HARD questions and I hope Kerry actually answers. It's sad that a "fake news" show is the best source for news on TV.

A long time ago I posted my first picture from my digital camera. This picture is of the same bramble of blackberries, only a wee bit more ripe, taken from a different angle.

by Tegan at 6:17 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Angel [2-20]: Over The Rainbow: With a name like this, hubby-Eric had to watch this episode with me. That led to him watching the next two episodes with me also. I was particularly amused by Cordelia's clicking her heels together, but she didn't say "There's no place like home." Like she should have. Angel's reaction to being able to run around in sunlight is absolutely side-splitting at times... "Can everybody just notice how much fire I'm not on?" This one was funny, and nicely light-hearted, right up until the very non-menacing cliffhanger. There is director commentary with this one, fun to listen to.

Angel [2-21]: Through The Looking Glass: So Joss Whedon does a funny dance in this episode in the background. Now that's funny. Like the first few moments of the last episode, this one has a nice bit when Cordelia says "Off with their heads!" to reflect the title. Angel is really funny with the mirror scenes. Cordelia makes a decent princess, too. The bit with Wesley figuring out the Wolf, Ram, and Hart was one of those "A-Ha!" moments. Angel's vamping out was a bit of a surprise, but I suspected something like that would happen.

Angel [2-22]: There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb: This gets to be more of a fantasy epic as the trilogy finishes out. A slave rebellion, a crooked religious order, the handsome barbarian hero... And hey, add in the insane physicist and you've got an even better epic. I understand that the cliffhanger with Willow involves something that happened on Buffy. While I'm pretty sure I knew what that event was, I wasn't entirely sure.

You can practically divide this season into three neat parts. The first part is Angel Investigations kicking butt and taking names. The second part is all about Darla, and the third part is a handful of romps ending with the epic in another world. This show doesn't hit you with just one type of story, it's constantly changing.

The DVD set has extras on the third and sixth discs. After learning my lesson with the first season set, I didn't watch the extras until after I'd watched the whole season. On the third disc are featurettes on the make up and on the sets (particularly the Hyperion Hotel), and a gallery of images. The sixth disc has a nice overview of the whole season. A good package altogether. Not many extras, but the material stands quite well on its own anyway. Thanks again to my sister Lisa for the loan of the set.

by Tegan at 4:43 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Comcast techs visited my house today, just before ten am, and it didn't take the guy long at all to figure out the problem with our connection. He took one look at the old 3Com Sharkfin modem that was installed when we got our cable connection back in 2001 and said, "Let me get you a real modem." Apparently the cable system in our area changed some settings a couple months back (about the time Eric and I started to notice the disconnects... hmmm), and most sharkfins didn't like the change at all and started acting up. He said most of his visits this month have been simple replacements of the old modems.

So I'm monitoring my connections closely, now. The system has been up for over 20 minutes without a disconnect, which is unusual but not unheard of with the sharkfin. I'm hoping that the modem was the problem. It would be nice to have a stable internet connection again.

My old modem was a Sharkfin. My new modem claims to be a Surfboard. At least the Sharkfin actually looked like a fin. The new modem looks nothing like something you'd take to the beach to ride the waves on.

Update: Two hours and no outages. I'm not ready to declare victory yet, but this is longer than it's gone without dying for a couple of months. My fingers are still crossed, but I'm beginning to relax.

Another Update: Five hours without an outage. It appears that the Sharkfin modem was, indeed, the culprit. I wonder if the Surfboard will last three years, too, then become obsolete?

by Tegan at 10:20 AM Seattle time - Permalink  

Monday, August 23, 2004

The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 7) by Lemony Snicket: These books establish a formula fairly quickly into the series, then the author plays with the formula throughout the rest of the books. So far we've had multiple variations on a theme. This book breaks out of the mold quite a bit, and might even be establishing a new pattern. Again, just when you think life can't get any worse for the children, something happens to make it worse. Or does it? I think Lemony Snicket doth protest too much when he spends paragraphs decrying the sadness of the story. There are certainly bad bits, but there's also hope. And then there's the link with the author, which was hinted at in a previous book, but is stated a little more clearly here. After I read book 8, I plan on reading the "unauthorized autobiography", which might give a better idea on what the connection is between Snicket and the children.

by Tegan at 11:11 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

If you want news and proper link blogging, visit Near Mint Heroes. Shane has been doing a great job while I was off dealing with a virus. Also, visit Polite Dissent. Good stuff there, too, as usual.

Mike Sterling is nuts. I love it. This is one of the best comic book posts I've ever seen. If Harvey is making Mike insane, he just ought to keep it up.

I bet you didn't know that Transformers Comics predict the future. At least according to one eBayer.

Boing Boing directs people to a fact sheet on your rights as a protester. This is for folks who intend to protest the Republican desecration of Ground Zero.

The Scream was not insured against theft. They couldn't put a value on it.

I'm going to a Mariners baseball game tonight with my nephew. They've won every game I've attended so far this year, which isn't saying much, I know. I haven't been to many games.

And here's a random picture. This one is of Basil the Cat outside my parents' house. I took this the day of the big party for my parents' 40th anniversary. Basil apparently believes that he belongs to my parents' as well as to his owners.

by Tegan at 10:41 AM Seattle time - Permalink  

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Angel [2-17]: Disharmony: Oh, it took me longer than expected to realize where I'd seen Harmony before. I did not know she was on Buffy, nor that she was Cordelia's friend. I missed out on quite a bit, didn't I? In any case, she made this one considerably more lighthearted than it might have been. There was also a script available, which had some interesting differences from the final show. A decent little ep.

Angel [2-18]: Dead End: And Lindsey goes nutso! Along with his EVIL HAND! He's got an EVIL HAND! Ahem. This one was freakin' funny. Freakin' - the transplant folks, and funny - the whole EVIL HAND sequence. And Lorne's little contribution was great, too. Imagine telling those two that they have to work together. Heh. That's two fairly lighthearted eps in a row. I wonder when the angst will come back. Oh yeah, the sign on the truck in the last scene? Hilarious. It's just so unexpected, considering the source.

Angel [2-19]: Belonging: Ok, that's a cliffhanger. I suspect from the names of the next three episodes that this is a something of a four-parter. And hey, Lorne finally gets a name! And we get to see Fred! And a relative of Lorne! And did I mention that this was a really cool cliffhanger? I like this one.

by Tegan at 8:25 PM Seattle time - Permalink  

Birds of Prey #72: I'm not sure I like where this is going. I mean, we've got something weird happening to Oracle, but since it's one of those internal mental journeys that I'm getting so sick of it's hard to tell exactly what is happening. Then we've got Oracle rescuing cult members from themselves and Huntress... I'm not sure what Huntress and Vixen are doing. There are times this book seems pretty good, then we get another issue like this one. Neutral.

Fallen Angel #14: Nice to see that characters don't magically recover from traumatic events in this book. On the other hand, the characters are all so incredibly messed up right now, particularly the main one, it's hard to see what's going to happen next. Again, there are times I really don't know why I read this book. And I don't ever want to meet Benny.

Demo #9: I think I preferred this series when the powers were more obvious. Or maybe I should say, when the characters definitely had powers. I've been lucky in life, I haven't had much experience with relationships, and I've definitely never had anything like any of these happen to me. I guess this issue doesn't do anything for me because I can't identify with the characters. Neutral.

Coming on Wednesday, if everything arrives as expected: Conan, Usagi Yojimbo, DC Presents JLA, Green Lantern, JLA, Teen Titans Go!, Weird Secret Origins 80-pager, Amazing Spider-Man, and PS238.

by Tegan at 9:19 AM Seattle time - Permalink