Saturday, November 13, 2004

This one could be subtitled "It's done Greg!" Greg Bettam is the artist on Xeno's Arrow, which is currently on hiatus but will be back next year. He's currently loaning his abilities to businesses who want to communicate via the graphic form at Time Bucket Graphics. I met him in 2000 at the San Diego Comic Con, when he was sketching in Indy Island. At the time, Greg was inspired by a small Ramona Fradon print I was carrying with me, and wanted to do something incredibly detailed. He outdid himself, and everyone who watched him sketch started chiming in with "It's done Greg!" after Stephen Gieger-Miller first told him it was done early on... after the first "It's done Greg!" he added the sea floor, seaweed, starfish, bubbles, coral, large fish, and more detail to everything he'd already done.

AQUAMAN
by Greg Bettam
20 July 2000
(permission to post given 31 October 2004 via e-mail)
www.thetimebucket.com

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 "G", "B" and the number "74", 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 5:05 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Friday, November 12, 2004

Chocolate.

Marvel sues video game for allowing gamers to create characters similar to their trademarks. Um. Ok.

Some "fans" are up in arms about DC keeping Green Lantern: Rebirth in print. Why? Because new editions have different covers, and apparently the fans think they are obligated to pick up every edition to get the new covers. Again, Um. Ok.

Speaking of obligations, here's my usual Mike Sterling link: Progressive Ruin asks "What is your favorite currently-published comic book series?" There are a few good series mentioned there, but what was that first responder thinking?

Comics Continuum has the scoop on new Teen Titans toys based on the ... hyperkenetic animated series. Yes, there is an Aqualad. No, I'm not sure I want him:

"If you want to lose weight, either eat less, or breathe more." The Modulator points us to two articles about weight loss by a physicist, one from 2003, and a follow-up from today.

by Tegan at 8:53 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

• Weight = X-3
  
• Change From Last Week = -1
  
• Met Exercise Goal? Yes
  Goal was twenty minutes a day (walk/bike/swim) at least four days.
  
• Current Exercise Goal = twenty minutes a day (walk/bike/swim) at least four days.
  
• Kept food diary? No.

The training walks alone should keep me meeting my exercise goals without problems for the next few months. Today is crosstraining day, and I hope to get up on my exercise bike and watch another episode of Farscape here, soon. I need to remember to work on the food diary, as it's gone by the wayside. Still, a little exercise is a good thing, and I'm going to get more than a little over the next few months as I work toward my goals.

An update on the donation inspiration... Two fellow bloggers have given me enough fuel to get through the rest of the month. My thanks go out again to Elayne and Erin for their generousity and for helping me calm my nerves. They both go on my honor roll.

I also have the continuing pledge from my little sister Lisa, who pledged 3% of the sales from her Usborne Book Store to my walk. If you want a cool gift for a young reader, I HIGHLY recommend their encyclopedias, and the "Kid Kits" are very cool gifts too. With some gift-giving holidays coming up, go take a look. Look under categories "Kid Kits" and "Resource/Encyclopedias". Heck, I wouldn't mind getting the Encyclopedia of World History for myself.

Getting back on topic, in addition to donations, I gratefully accept comments of encouragement. Suggestions on how to avoid blisters are also welcome.

For the record, here are my Training Walk Reports from Gjoblaag (the boring blog). I'm trying to include a picture I take somewhere along my walk in each Training Walk Report. I also decided to list these "blog style", with the most recent first.

• Training Walk Report #4 - Bothell
  
• Training Walk Report #3 - Walking Thoughts
  
• Training Walk Report #2 - Update
  
• Training Walk Report #1 - Training Schedule Thoughts

I'm currently on "pre-week 24" of the training schedule, not quite up to the three mile walks the schedule starts with. Tomorrow morning is my orientation meeting to learn more about The Walk. I'll be walking down to the meeting, as it's at the library which I've learned isn't a bad walk away at all. I hope to meet some other folks there who might want to walk with me a bit. For updates on what happens, check out Gjoblaag tomorrow afternoon.

by Tegan at 2:20 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Smallville #11: Another good issue. There's an interview with Whitney II in to start off, then a comic story in which Clark races off to an adventure outside his usual realm. There's a short bit on how they made Kal-El fly, then more episode guidance. Overall, a nice package.

Aquaman #24: As long as I'm mentioning covers, let me just say that this one really didn't work for me at all. Dramatic and flashy, yes, but it doesn't really say much. As for the interior, I miss Gleason's artwork. Batista isn't bad, just a jolt from Gleason's style. I was a bit disturbed by the death of a member of the new Sea Devils, particularly how casually it happened. The planning of the assault, with Aquaman using his rarely seen detective skills, was very nice. Ostrander got Arthur right there. I was going to complain about the way Aquaman's hand shattered in the last issue, but I decided to wait until I saw how it was handled in this issue, and so my irritation is put to rest. But I don't think we'll ever see part three of Will Pfeifer's story now.

Batman Strikes! #3: Have I mentioned that this version of Batman doesn't really do much for me? And it continues to do nothing for me in this issue, but not all is lost! There's a cool back-up story featuring Catwoman and another DCU character. That saves this issue.

Avengers Finale #1: Um. It's a wake. It's not a story at all, it's just a wake. Hail to the fallen heroes. Good enough for fans, but not much there for anyone else.

Spider-Man: India #1: A very interesting take on an old familiar character. The origin is changed a bit, along with the look. And of course the nature of Peter Parker... now known as Pavitr Prabhakar. Pavitr is a young villager with a scholarship whose parents apparently died in a fire. Now living in the city, he's considered a hick by his fellow students who like to beat him up. But Pavitr is destined for greater things, even he has to learn the hard way that (repeat after me) with great power comes great responsibility! Recommended.

Still to review: The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty, and Colonia.

by Tegan at 10:39 AM Seattle time - Permalink   

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Don't miss Scott's Veterans Day Post.

by Tegan at 10:50 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

To start off, the JSA book is a tie-in to Identity Crisis, and although they could be read in either order, if you get them both and haven't read them yet I recommend reading JSA first, as it builds up a little bit of anticipation without giving anything away.

JSA #67: The first thing I noticed about this week's comic books was the covers. There are two very striking covers in the stack I got. The first one was the cover to JSA. It has a powerful layout that caught my eye. The inside of the book? Well, not so bad. My biggest problem with this title has always been the large cast and the fact that Johns insists on trying to visit too many members of the cast each issue. In the opening pages of this issue, Johns covers various JSA members' reactions to the crisis. That isn't so bad, but it doesn't hold together as a story. Not bad for a tie-in, but I wish I liked this book more.

Identity Crisis #6: Ok. I think this story will have a major impact in the future of the DCU, now. I was skeptical, but I think I was wrong. Whether or not any of the long-time fans will actually like the effects is a different question. The artwork... well, it's awful. There's a page with Connor and Ollie... that has got to be the worst looking Connor I've ever seen. It simply doesn't look anything like him, from the haircut to the face. And on the next page, Aquaman doesn't look anything like Aquaman. And is that supposed to be Artie Jr? Doesn't anyone at DC have reference materials? Rags Morales is not this bad an artist, what happened? Despite the artwork, there were some interesting moments in here, and the revelation at the end was not what I expected, so there are still some surprises. I'm curious to see how this ends, and what it will do to the status quo of the DCU. This is still not a great series, but this issue is much more interesting than the last five.

Green Arrow #44: This is the other stand-out cover from this week's comic books. The white border and the lack of large DC logo in the corner gave it a completely different look, which made it jump out. Add in the stark coloring, and we've got a winner. The story was fairly strong. The characters are dealing with the situation the way you might expect them to deal, and the big baddie is no longer so big to them at the moment. I'm not sure what to think about the lack of continuity... I suppose I'll just say it works with the current subject matter and leave it at that.

Bloodhound #5: This is the second part of a two part story. The first part is in a book I don't buy, and that I don't want to buy, so I'm only getting half a story for the price of a full one. I hate title-to-title crossovers. Thanks to Mike Sterling, I know that the plot summary in the opening pages is good enough. Why Clev is out of prison and running from people with Jason isn't really explained, but it's pretty clear that they are in danger, and they are on the run. And I didn't know you could use a word like "pendejos" in a DC book. Some guy name Luis Salvador has lost his memory, but he's really, really, really peeved at Jason and Clev, and intends to kill them. I don't get the thing about Jason's father, since I know nothing about Jason. But for the most part this is just a standard bash-up the bad guys for Clev... except he also shows some signs of whatever it is that makes him good for hunting metas. So, while it's only half a story, it's not a complete waste. I just hope they don't do another crossover any time soon.

Plastic Man #12: Plastic Man acts goofy while taking down a criminal. This one shows glimmers of comic genuis, but I'm still not finding it as funny as the classic Plastic Man stuff. It's ok, but I want something great.

Still to review: Smallville, Aquaman, Batman Strikes, Avengers Finale, The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty, and Colonia.

by Tegan at 3:48 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

It's Veterans Day. Remember all those who have served.

And remember those who have come back from our current wars injured and maimed for life, both mentally and physically. Even if you are opposed to the war, don't take it out on the troops who swore to protect us. They should not be the targets of our ire, as they are much more the victims than we are.

by Tegan at 1:15 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I'm not quite up to reviewing anything yet, as I haven't read any of today's books yet (no, not even Aquaman), so here's a small selection of links to enjoy.

BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!! "Where did you get that book?" indeed!

I missed The Northern Lights. Bummer.

High Resolution Aerial Photo of Disneyland. For Paige. via

Bloggermann Keith Olbermann is covering the "Electronic Voting Angst" and that's all I need to say on this effort.

by Tegan at 4:36 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Firefox Version 1 is out. Go download!

The Pegasus awards, the big filk song awards, have been given out for 2004, and guess what song got an award? "Arthur Curry" by Ookla The Mok. Excellent...

"I am Aquaman and nobody better mess with me
I may be nothing to you but I am a king beneath the sea
Let's see you get by under water as well as I do on the ground
I am Aquaman and you better not mess around"

Many many thanks to Garrett for making sure I didn't miss this one.

The Comic Treadmill has reviewed Dorothy of Oz Chapter II. Go read the review. Excellent stuff.

The next "X-Prize" has been announced, and it's a doozy of a challenge. The next challenge is "to build a spacecraft capable of taking a crew of no fewer than five people to an altitude of 400 kilometers and complete two orbits of the Earth at that altitude. Then they have to repeat that accomplishment within 60 days." Space tourism, here we come!

My husband told me last night that Howard Keel has died, and I found confirmation today. Keel played Adam Pontipee in one of my all-time favorite movies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. His opening song from that movie has been going through my head ever since.

Apparently a lot of blogs got attacked by monsters... but the account that was providing the monsters overran its bandwidth, so I never got to see my own Aquaman page overrun... bummer.

Jabberwocky in many languages.

From the DC Panel, a couple of items I liked: DiDio announced letter columns will return sporadically in DC books to much applause; to which Jim Lee announced a "four-issue lettercolum series in Summer 2005" to much laughter. I miss letter cols. And: Sub-Diego is the "new status quo" for Aquaman. Wayne denied Wizardworld had paid DC to sink San Diego (although Waid thought that was pretty hilarious.) I'm fine with that, as long as somewhere down the line somebody mentions Atlantis or at the very least, Tempest.

An advice columnist responds to a suggestion that women can pick up guys in comic shops. I wish somebody had mentioned that comic books are good for women, too...

I looking for frog him name is hopkin green frog. Click on the image to move through the lost frog pictures. This one is fun. via.

PVP, the fantastic webcomic, has made the jump to print. The Kansas City Star took Scott Kurtz up on his offer to run his strip for free. Scott believes that having the comic in a newspaper works as free advertising for his site. Read his archives for more on this, and don't miss his report of the horrors at Wizard World.

Ninth Art looks at copyright and Superboy.

Woman drops single sunflower seed, is fined $185. All the more reason to never ever go to Oklahoma. Via Hit & Run.

Yet another example of why election software must be open source. Talk about a major and stupid mistake!

And lastly, my deep gratitude to Elayne Riggs and Erin Schadt who have given me my first dose of Donation Inspiration for The Walk. Thank you Pen-Elayne and The Comic Queen. Training updates can be read on Gjoblaag.

Oh heck, one more image. Here's another statue from The Winchester Mystery House:

by Tegan at 1:20 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Monday, November 08, 2004

The penguins are psychotic!

by Tegan at 11:26 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. And lastly, I also thank TangognaT for compiling the list of elevens into one big list for everyone to enjoy and learn from.

The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot. It takes awhile to figure out what is happening in this one, but once I figured it out I felt a surge of rage along with sympathy and terror. The mere fact that I felt the emotions so strongly was a sign to me that this is a good book. Not a big surprise, considering that it was recommended by Steve Lieber. Definitely recommended. Highly recommended.

by Tegan at 3:06 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Still not training heavily for the 3-Day, but I have worked out a good 3 mile training walk after my walk on Friday.

See if you can follow me here. The walk down to the river trail from our house is a little more than a half mile. The closest point of the river trail to our house has a half-mile post on it, "9 1/2". When I walked on Friday, I took a slightly longer route home, and made nearly 2 miles out of it. So... if I walk down to the trail, walk back along it to milepost "9", then come back the way I did on Friday, it should be about 3 miles.

Yeah, I know. I'm thinking about it too hard. I should just get out and walk.

I'm starting "week 24" training today. They have a schedule on the 3-day website on how to get ready for the walk in 24 weeks. Starting with week 24, the easiest. Since I've still got 36 weeks (256 days) I thought I'd start with week 24 and take it easy while building up. Anyway, week 24 has two rest days, one crosstraining day, and four days of three mile walks. Because of my Monday swimming, today is crosstraining day. I will need to get the 3 mile walks in, and I'll report on those on Globlaag.

I still haven't gotten any actual donations, which really shouldn't worry me, but I'm a hyper and easily nervous person. If anyone is thinking about donating just $5 and wants to do it sometime in the next few days, that would give me a lift.

by Tegan at 1:06 PM Seattle time - Permalink   

Sunday, November 07, 2004

JLA: Classified #1: So Aquaman is on the cover, but nowhere inside the book. I can live with the disappointment, though it would have been easier if this had been a better first issue. It deals with the Ultramarines, a group I have no interest whatsoever in, and Batman. The book didn't get good until the end, with Batman and "Beryl" chatting. I particularly liked "No, I'm goldfish man." Ok, so I'm sort of looking forward to the next issue. Mildly recommended.

Fallen Angel #17: I don't get Lee. Is she a good guy, or not? Are we even supposed to know? And does she not get the nature of the place she's in? Wonderful cliff-hanger. I felt that one.

Justice League Unlimited #3: A trio of strong stories. I liked the Power Girl one the most, but it was a close thing. All three were very good. And it's so nice to see other members of the League. I'm looking forward to seeing an Aquaman story in this one sometime. In any case, this one is the best issue of this book so far, and better than its predecessor book, too.

Rising Stars #22: Wow, it's been awhile. I have a review of Rising Stars #21 from December 18th, 2002. And here's the next issue, only two years later. The good thing is that the first two pages have a very nice issue-by-issue summary of what has already happened... so nice that it even cleared up a few things I didn't really understand. A bit disturbing is the subject matter of this one, being about a presidential election. The timing wasn't the best, in my opinion. Still, it's a good issue with a lot of optimism. Worth a look.

Firebirds: I loved it. Jay Faerber's universe is a fun one, and this was a neat coming of age story. I like both main characters, and I love the artwork. If there was any problem with it, I would say that it didn't have any major surprises. Even with that lack of spice, it was a very strong story, and recommended.

Smallville [4-07]: Jinx: I fully expected to dislike this episode after learning who the villain was. Yeah, yeah, I'm letting my preconceived notions get to me. But I couldn't see how Mxy would fit in the Smallville universe, so I didn't want to see him. But, as usual, the crew pulled off the unexpected and it worked very nicely. I really enjoyed it. The performances were pretty good, and Mxy wasn't nearly as lame as I was afraid he would be. I love his origin, very in keeping with Smallville. Ok, so that's two in a row I was sure I wouldn't like, but did... the next one doesn't look very good to me either. Is that a good sign?

Shipping next week: Smallville, Bloodhound, Identity Crisis, JSA, Plastic Man, Batman Strikes, Avengers Finale, and Colonia.

by Tegan at 10:22 AM Seattle time - Permalink