Saturday, October 23, 2004

I met Greg at the last Seattle ComiCard Show. Greg is working on a book called Mocktales, a story in which a major city is thrown into an alternate dimension where magic exists. There will be more information and images on his page soon, but until then, you can enjoy this Aquaman sketch.

AQUAMAN
by Greg Scott Bailey
12 September 2004
(permission to post given 12 September 2004 in person)
www.mocktales.com

by Tegan at 6:51 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Astro City: A Visitor's Guide: Argh! I was really getting into the Astro City history article, but it cut off! I know it was intentional... they can hardly give away the future plotline coming up, but I was really enjoying it. This is basically a DC Secret Files within the Astro City universe, and it's as well or better done than the best of those. I liked the lead-off city, the fake ads, the profile pages... in short, I think I enjoyed just about the entire book. Very cool for anyone who likes Astro City and wants to learn some more of the background.

Conan #9: I don't like the cover of this one at all. The story is typical Conan as I've come to expect it, and I'm enjoying it in a "sit back and watch the mayhem" sort of way. As usual with this book, I finish it wanting the next issue NOW. There never seems to be enough book. As usual, if you like warrior fantasy, this is a book for you.

Java! #2: As I've mentioned before, this is from local company Committed Comics. It's a funny little adventure set in a future Seattle in which coffee has become a terribly important commodity. The artwork is strong visually, but doesn't tell the story as well as it could. This might be an artefact of the story itself, which could use one or two more rounds of editing to make the action a little more clear. The production quality is certainly up to industry standards... while hubby was reading it I confused it with a DC book for a moment. While most of the book is our heroes attempting to prevent people from stealing coffee beans, it's the end that really made me laugh aloud (just ask hubby-Eric). Finally, a villain I can identify with!!! Folks with a twisted sense of humor will enjoy this one.

JSA: Strange Adventures #3: I still can't figure out if this is all happening in Johnny's imagination, or if this is a real adventure, or if this is Johnny recalling an adventure. Or maybe all three. The story bits aren't bad, but the confusing attempt at a framing sequence in Johnny Thunder is annoying.

Fantastic Four #519: Uh. Ok. Nice little change. I absolutely hate the idea of Galactus, as he's the most preposterous villain in the Marvel U (in my limited opinion), but this whole book is a nice set-up for the threat. I guess I can't complain, since I didn't actually pay for this one (another book of my friend David), but it's not really that great, nor is it terribly bad. Neutral.

Still to review: Amelia Rules, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, Comic Book Digest, H-E-R-O, Identity Crisis, Batman Strikes!, Neo Dawn, Noble Causes, Plastic Man, Teen Titans, and JLA.

by Tegan at 9:32 AM Seattle time - Permalink   

Friday, October 22, 2004

Captain America #32: Uh. Ok. There's some pretty serious moral issues being glanced at here, but not really examined deeply. I wonder if this will be touched upon again? Other than that, it's a slugfest. Not much here to keep a reader reading.

Captain America and the Falcon #8: So I picked up the first trade for my friend, then couldn't find back issues for the next story arc. I decided to pick up this issue only because it says "part 1 of 5" on the cover. The "previously" page in this one doesn't help much, but for the most part this seems to pick up where the trade left off. It's not nearly as difficult to understand as I expected it to be. In addition, the artwork is so much better in this issue than in the trade, there's almost no comparison. While I didn't understand everything, there's a number of plot threads being teased out, and enough movement to make this go from a "not recommended" on the trade to a "mildly recommended".

Fallen Angel #16: Oh wow. I suppose I could write more, but not without feeling like I was giving something away. So: Oh wow. Definitely a keeper.

JSA #66: In this issue, Hourman DIES! Isn't this the same problem we've been reading about for several issues now? Oh yeah, decompression blues. And we're back to having the focus flitter around several different characters, with no resolution on most of the plotlines. Argh. It's readable, but it's not my favorite book by a longshot.

Superman: True Brit: I would have enjoyed this book more without the knowledge that the artist is a jerk. Seriously, this was one of the few times where my enjoyment of the book was impacted by the words of one of the creators on an almost completely unrelated topic. Well, if Byrne can't keep his trap shut, I'll have to avoid his stuff from here on out. As it is, this wasn't that bad a book. It was a farce start to finish, in the underhanded British way. I've always enjoyed Kim "Howard" Johnson's contributions to Python lore, and his work on this book just shows more of that sort of humor coming through nicely. I couldn't tell what Cleese contibuted, if anything, which is probably a good sign. But for the recent idiocy of Byrne, this was a strong book.

Powers v2 #5: Wow. I wasn't expecting THAT. I was expecting any number of things, but that was not one of them. The start of the book, with the interrogation scenes, was fairly plain and normal. The brutality of the middle was hard to read... but it was the ending that brought this one up to par. And no, I didn't read the letter page. Whenever I start, I find myself feeling the urge to wash my hands.

Still to review: Astro City: A Visitor's Guide. And from this week: Amelia Rules, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, Comic Book Digest, Conan, H-E-R-O, Identity Crisis, Java!, JLA, JSA: Strange Adventures, Neo Dawn, Noble Causes, Plastic Man, Teen Titans, Batman Strikes!, and Fantastic Four.

by Tegan at 10:24 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Happy blogday to me...

Two years. I've managed to post something every day for two years. Quite an accomplishment for someone like me. I suspect I won't continue the streak, but it's a nice little thing to be proudish of for the moment, when there aren't many other things in my life to celebrate.

One year ago: The Marysville strike had just ended, and my husband was about to embark on a bitter year in the worst school district to teach in of the state. We were hopeful of a strong year despite the problems. The district made certain that was impossible through various petty nastiness and stupidity. In the end, Marysville gave us nothing but pain, and we haven't recovered from it yet.

Two years ago: I was looking forward to the first issue of the new Aquaman series, and posted my first image on my blog. Not to mention three whole entries. I also decided that day to never post more than three blog entries a day because I saw the potential of me spending all my time blogging. The limitation hasn't helped all that much, actually. I also blogged about a white off-duty police officer who killed a black man blocking his driveway when the man pulled a gun on him. The case was declared self-defense, which is exactly what all the evidence pointed to at the time. As I wrote: "I find it a lot easier to believe a sober cop who in over 20 years on a police force had never once fired his gun at a person, over a convicted felon with a history of shooting people he disagreed with who happened to be both drunk and high at the time of the shooting, not to mention illegally parked and carrying a stolen gun." The clamor about the shooting in Seattle didn't die down for quite awhile, and some people still think the cop was at fault, simply because the cop is white.

Wow. This is a terribly depressing look back, isn't it? Blame it on the sick. Until I recover from whatever this thing is I've got, my outlook will no doubt match the Seattle weather.

The King County Library System has switched to a new computer system, and they are still working out all the bugs. One of the more annoying aspects of the system is that the new login screen is not noticed by Firefox's Password Manager, which means I have to type in the very long library card number every single time I want to log into the system from home. This is EXTREMELY annoying, and if anyone knows how I can add an entry to the Password Manager of Firefox, please let me know. I don't think I can memorize my library card number... and I don't really want to.

Another annoyance with the new system is that I used to have a neat tool that let me go from any product page in Amazon.com to the item in the KCLS database, if the database had the book. This made it really easy to jump from items on my wantlist to checking them out from the library before spending money. Now I need to hunt down the thing that made the bookmark tool and see if the new system can have the same thing. (Update: here it is, now can I figure out what vendor KCLS is using?) (Double update - TangognaT figured it out for me, so now I can go to an Amazon.com page, click this link on my toolbar, and get the book's page at the library, if they have it. The link won't work unless it's been dragged to a toolbar and you're on a page that lists an ISBN number when you click on it. It's a very nice little tool.)

Thank you to my Blogmamma Elayne for mentioning my blogiversary.

Modulator also mentioned my blogaversary (how do you spell it, anyway?). In addition he's got that cool Friday Ark thing going. Go check it out.

More Near Mint Niftyness. Go check out his linkblogging.

Yes, hubby-Eric has heard about the Oz miniseries called Tin Man that's in development. It's not very Ozzy, but it sounds slightly interesting.

DeCloah dreams of waffles (it's amusing, go read).

Everyone else has already blogged about it, but go read the Neal Stephenson Interview on Slashdot. Very, very funny.

Virginia Hey is blogging. There are some fun bits to be read there. Go visit.

A man in Japan stabbed a librarian who told him to quiet down. Via Bookslut.

Italy is showing off the new Olympic Mascots. Fark is... um... Farking them (warning some images are disturbing... almost as disturbing as the originals). My favorite is the Shatner one, followed by the South Park one. Via Various and Sundry.

I think I would write more, but my brain is beginning to fizzle out and die, and I need to eat something or this illness is going to start eating me from the inside out instead. One last item of interest. This sign is in Kenmore along 522. You'll see it as you enter Kenmore driving West toward Bothell. I didn't alter the image at all except to crop and resize. I hope this is an omen of things to come for us...

by Tegan at 2:04 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Thursday, October 21, 2004

I'm not sure what I have, but it was serious enough that I had to call Eric to pick me up from work because I didn't feel like I could safely drive home. Dizzy, sick to my stomach, and I felt like I was about to collapse. I finally woke up a half hour ago and turned on the baseball game as background noise. I don't think I've got the mental capacity to do a review or a linkblog today, but since my second blogaversary is tomorrow, I thought I'd at least try to keep my streak of a blog every day since I started this thing going. Hopefully I can get some reviewing done tomorrow. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

by Tegan at 6:13 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

So I'm a week behind officially. Sorry about that. I'll be doing quite a bit of reviewing over the next few days to try to catch up.

Vagabond Vol 5: Musashi challenges a spear school. This volume is made up of mostly a very long fight. The art is good and the fight is easy to follow, but it gets old quickly. In addition, it ends on a cliffhanger. I really hope other volumes don't end the same way, as the library only has the first seven volumes. After that I'm going to have to wait until I have money to buy the rest.

Green Arrow #43: I feel like the book is setting stuff up nicely with the new villain, but the "shocker" on the last page didn't actually shock me at all. I suppose the fact that I'd already seen articles on-line about what was going to happen, despite my best efforts to avoid spoilers, kind of ruined it for me. And it also seems like the revelation overshadows what the rest of the book is trying to do. I guess I'll have to come back and reread this storyline later to see if it hangs together better. In the meantime, here's a look at the cover to this issue compared to an Aquaman cover that I instantly thought of when I first saw it:

The Green Arrow cover says "in 12 hours, this girl will die!" while the Aquaman cover says "Set your watches! 1 hour out of water and Aquaman Dies!" Very possibly a coincidence, but it certainly seemed similar to me.

Bloodhound #4: Nasty nasty nasty book. But it's good. I cannot describe why I like it, but I really do like it a lot. I suspect I'll like it despite the crossover issue (which I did order, btw. I did not order Firestorm). Anyway, the first arc ends with the reasoning behind why Clevenger was so eager to save the daughter of his former partner. Overall a nicely successful story that I'm hoping a few more people will give a try.

Still to review: Fallen Angel, JSA, Astro City: A Visitor's Guide, Captain America, and Powers. And from this week: Amelia Rules, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, Comic Book Digest, Conan, H-E-R-O, Identity Crisis, Java!, JLA, JSA: Strange Adventures, Neo Dawn, Noble Causes, Plastic Man, Teen Titans, Batman Strikes!, and Fantastic Four.

by Tegan at 4:58 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Hey hey, it's a happy birthday to my not-quite-twin, Lisa! Hope you have a great one!

And, just for kicks, here's a little thing we met at Anglicon:

by Tegan at 10:15 AM Seattle time - Permalink   

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Well, I'm finally recovered enough from the convention to do a little linkblogging and reviewing (yes, I've finally read most of last week's books!). Some of this stuff is way old, and I'm sorry if I missed something cool you mentioned on your blog. I tried to mark everything I thought was neat, but I'm sure I missed lots of good stuff while trying to catch up.

Chris Brown mentioned me in a comic blogosphere blogaround. I really ought to do one of those one of these days. In the meantime, go there to check out some of his favorite bloggers.

Tom the Dog also mentioned me... and it's not just you Tom. Anyone using IE finds that my blog loads slowly. I haven't pinpointed the problem yet. Sorry...

Polite Dissent discusses Aquaman again in a medical context. Scott also treats us to a look at Brave and the Bold #142, which features Aquaman against Batman. Lastly, Scott Linkblogs. The interesting one for me was the link about porphyria, which some people think, probably falsely, was the basis of the vampire legend. I tend to find rabies fits the profile better, myself.

Yes, the DC Solicits have been posted. And here's the cover to Aquaman #26:

No, I don't have anything to say about it. Ok, maybe a little. It's fairly rare for Aquaman to not appear on the cover of his book. The first ever cover of his book he didn't appear on was Aquaman #12 Sep-1995, which had Mera on it instead. He's on every Silver Age cover and every mini-series and other series cover right up to there. After that, there are three more Peter David era covers that don't feature Aquaman. Until this cover, every other cover has him on it in some form or another. That was the first thought that popped into my head when I saw this cover... Lorena joins good company. The other characters featured on Aquaman covers when Aquaman didn't appear were Mera, Tempest, Dolphin, and the villian Thanatos (who supposedly looks exactly like Aquaman).

Right now that I've bored my audience away, I can give some initial thoughts on the rest of the books. Birds of Prey has moved from the Batman section to the regular DCU section. It's about time. That means hubby-Eric and I aren't getting any Batman books for January. The only Superman book I'm interested in is Superman: Strength #1, but at $5.95 I'm not certain it will make the list. Especially not if I want to get Bizarro World, which I do. That book will knock several others off the list, I'm sure. Another Green Lantern Archives, but I'd really love to get the Seven Soldiers of Victory Archive too. No, there's no Aquaman in them, but I've read a bit of Leading Comics and enjoyed it a lot. More thoughts to come when I flip through Previews.

Image has also released their solicits, and Marvel's have been leaked. Hubby-Eric found Lions, Tiger, & Bears to be an intriguing title for a book for obvious reasons, so we're looking at that. Noble Causes is a no-brainer (of course we'll get it). Marvel has just the usual, nothing stands out.

Speaking of solicits, the awesome Postmodern Barney comments on them and I found this bit to be nicely cynical: "In Aquaman Lorena officially becomes Aquagirl. Maybe DC will manage to have nothing horrible happen to her for a couple of months..." Maybe, just maybe. But I'm not holding my breath.

Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin continues to satisfy fannish cravings. Go on, check it out. Don't miss the Swamp Thing puffy stickers.

Worlds Within Worlds directs us to samples of Bone in color and makes me want to buy the one volume edition so I can read the last part and have it in my collection in the original B&W.

Near Mint Heroes is linkblogging again, and you must not miss it - start here, then go here, and finish here if you are overwhelmed. I was.

Doonesbury's interesting experiement apparently worked... crashed a few servers in fact. I linked to each of the articles on my other blog.

Will Pfeifer wierds out again with a comic card and some parody.

There's an interesting theory linked from Boing Boing that some people who see auras or otherwise might think they are psychic may actually have a rare form of synaesthesia. Sounds cool to me.

Also from Boing Boing: Rejected Ad campaigns, Schoolhouse Rock Send-ups, and um, instructional, um, LPs for Christians.

The Modulator has started Friday Ark Blogging. A very good idea, considering how many folks post various animals on Fridays.

Library Stuff (a great library blog) casually mentions a place to go make Amazon.com RSS feeds. I made one for Aquaman right away... even though Aquaman doesn't get many new books.

Here's a great article about Pogo. Via Hit and Run.

A bit of a strange dust-up about royalties for Peter Pan, including the notion that Peter Pan is still under copyright in the United States. I really don't know what to feel about this one.

Slashdot reports that a flat-screen TV emitted a distress signal so strong that "local police, search and rescue, and civil air patrol members showed up" at the owner's apartment. Ooops. Toshiba offered him a replacement.

I Love Bees Explained. "Dude, it's a hurricane. Put the phone down."

DVDAnswers.com has articles on Star Wars: The Changes which describe in detail all the changes between the original Star Wars movies and the recent releases.

Oooh, scary stuff, kiddies! Ghosts of the White House has videos of ghost stories about the White House, and a link to a session of "Ask the White House" about ghosts. A little sample: "Mrs. Carter played a trick on her daughter one halloween. She had some friends over to spend the night in the Lincoln's bedroom to look for Lincoln's ghost. Mrs. Carter and one of the maids covered themselves with sheets and burst in to the room to the young girls screams."

An inventor has made a remote that turns off all TVs in range. On the one hand, it's slightly rude. On the other hand, there are definitely times when you wish there weren't so many TVs blaring at you in restaurants or airports or whatnot. I can't decide whether this thing is good or bad, but I'm leaning toward bad. I guess I have a lot of concerns about privacy and the use of this device.

One thing that was mentioned in at least one discussion at Anglicon was the lack of MacGyver DVDs. Well, according to Various and Sundry, that will soon be rectified! "MacGyver, on the other hand, is a completely different story! There are some high-speed plans for this show, starring the ever-popular Richard Dean Anderson. Look for that series to not only arrive on DVD in 2005, but to quickly hit a fast track and demand space on your shelves at home. Plans can always change (expect us to repeat that another dozen or so times), but you can potentially look for quarterly releases to arrive in January, April, August, and December."

by Tegan at 5:43 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Monday, October 18, 2004

Still recovering from the convention and dealing with the dreaded Real Life. I hope to post something tonight, but you may have to wait until tomorrow or later before you see any intelligent posts on this blog. Sorry.

by Tegan at 3:42 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Sunday, October 17, 2004

I got an e-mail forwarded from my sister-in-law this morning that has a fascinating bit of information on it, which you (yes, you) could help make reality. The person who sent the original e-mail is my sister-in-law's sister. Here's the scoop:

From: Laureen Reagan
Subject: Please vote for my idea...

Hey, I need your help. I have entered an idea contest. Please help me by voting on-line for my idea and passing this along to family and friends who you think would also like to help.

ABOUT MY IDEA: I have an idea! Well ever since I returned from Tanzania I have had this idea but work, and time and money never allowed me to do anything with it. Some of you may already know that in 1999-2000 I was working on research on a group of villages in central Tanzania that had an unusual increase in the rate of Tuberculosis (TB) in humans. I discovered not only TB but also Brucellosis in the local cattle and determined that it was being transmitted through the milk. In the end I suggested that they boil the milk, but I knew this was not possible. They lived in a dry arid land where firewood was sparse and it would always be more important to cook ones meat than to cook ones milk. Just before I left I found a solution in an experimental digester that had been built at one household in the village. They dumped cow manure and water down a cement lined hole in the ground, it settled to the bottom 'digested' then methane gas came up through the pipes to a cooking element. It was so simple yet ingenious. use the cows waste to clean the milk the cow produced and no more cost to the cow owner than the energy it took to throw the manure down the hole! They had been using it for almost one year without difficulty and the lady of the house even cooked some Maandazi on it and fed me some. I asked why everyone one with cattle did not have one of these systems. The answer was $150 is more than what any of them would make in a year. It seemed so impossible to them, but very possible for people like us who spend $150 a week and don't have to worry about boiling our milk. Sadly ever since I returned from Tanzania I have been caught up in making my $150 + per week and paying my bills, but have always wanted to finish what I started years ago. When I heard of this idea contest I knew exactly what I needed to do.

HOW TO VOTE FOR MY IDEA: Go to http://ideashappen.msn.com Then search for my idea by using the search menu and entering the word "Manure" mine should be the only one that pops up. It is titled "Manure Cleans Milk in Africa". Read my idea and click on "I'm feelin' it" which hopefully you are. This will submit your vote of approval, the more votes I get the more likely my idea will end up in the top ten (out of almost 6000, so it's tough), and the more likely it will be seen and voted on by others and remain seen. If the judges vote it as the top ten in it's category (Community) then I will be asking you all to vote again starting Nov 11. But for now, please help my idea be seen by voting for it. Pass this along to friends and family who you think would like to support this idea.

Asante Sana (Thanks much),
Laureen

I'm all for helping people in small ways that can improve life vastly with a relatively small initial investment. This will help people and save lives, if Laureen can get enough support to make it happen. All you have to do is show that you approve of the idea. In addition to the search method shown above, you can go directly to Laureen's idea by clicking here or on the image above.

And I'll also welcome comments on the idea and on me posting it here. Let me know what you think, too.

by Tegan at 8:54 AM Seattle time - Permalink