Eisner Award Winners.

I loved Young Justice, and I'm with PAD on Dan Didio's ridiculous comments about the series. I still haven't bothered with Teen Titans because it replaced Young Justice.

Mike Sterling has a couple of videos from San Diego that pretty much show why I'm scared to go back. I'm really bad in crowds.

And Kevin posts more video blogging.

At some point I'm going to have to look at the Turtle Teaser Trailer.

Is Bad Astronomy Blog Partisan? Only when partisan politics deny reality and dismiss science.

Ooops... Secure those lines so people cannot put their own fun on your closure lists. An oldie but goodie. Via Augie.

I'm Speechless, once again.

The Pig and the Box, a children's story about DRM.

You can label your town on Wikimapia. Someone had already helpfully labelled all the "dive bars" in my town. I added the library and some other buildings that Google didn't label.

Cool McDonald's Billboard, one that's actually somewhat useful, too. Via Augie again.

Boing Boing reports that "The National Film Board of Canada has put 50 of their brilliant animated short films on line for free viewing." Wahoo! Some of these are just fantastic. My favorite has to be BlackFly, and yes, it's there.

Yay! We're going to get more Miles Vorkosigan!

Websnark has a touching obituary for Jim Baen, who will be missed. The obit suggests buying a copy of The World Turned Upside Down and giving it to a child who might enjoy it. After taking a look at the authors in this collection of stories that had an impact on Jim Baen, I think doing that would be a very good idea.

Snape's on a Plane.

Animated Hellboy site goes live, and looks good.

Strange Coincidences, via The Museum of Hoaxes. I've always thought one of the cooler coincidences I've heard about involved an author's coat turning up as part of a costume in a movie made from his works.

There will be a Girl Genius Omnibus edition, the first three collections in smaller size and B&W. I'll have to decide if I want to get that too, since I've got all the collections already. Also in Girl Genius news, Kaja has worked out when the 101 Class will meet the Advanced Class: July 30, 2007. At that point, the entire story to date will be on-line. Kaja also made a nifty list to show where you can find the various bits of the story.

A Fanged Killer Kangaroo once roamed Australia's outback. Now, wouldn't that make a great band name?

Total agreement from me with Will Pfeifer on this one.

Special Comicon Section:

CBR's Day 0 Photo Parade.

CBR's Day 1 Photo Parade.

The Beat's Day 0 and Photo Parade.

Friends of Lulu Awards.

Photo Parade Day 1. SUNSCREEN!!!!!

Sequential Tart Flickr Pool.

Story Boredom presents archetype sketches of fans at San Diego: The Classic Trekker, Furry Unicorn Man with Guitar, Pierced Couple, The Ravenous Reader, Klingon Family of Lemon Grove, Portfolio Lad, Goth Girl, Grizzled Pro, Scantily Clad Woman Who Have Nothing To Do With Comic Books, Super Troopers, Man-Tiger, Security Zealot, Hardcore Dad, Table Toad, Unidentified Walking Fuzzy, The Hipster, Scared Granny, and Optimus Prime-Cardboard Edition. Via The Beat.

A lovely post about The Marvel Year In Review, and why it ought to be brought back.

Why comments in other languages should be checked before publication.

Is Ogopogo a Sturgeon?

Star Trek Cribs. Uh. I'm speechless.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #59.

Solicits for DC Comics due to ship in October have been posted on various websites: Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, Buzzscope, and The Official DC Site. Here's the Aquaman stuff I spotted:


Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #46 begins a flashback story starring Orin and King Shark. Shipping October 18th.


The first six issues of Sword of Atlantis are collected in "Once and Future", due out November 15th.


Black Manta gets an ally to help attack Atlantis in Justice League Unlimited #26, due out October 4th.


A new member joins the Teen Titans in Teen Titans Go! #36, due out October 25th.


At lastly, DC Direct tries again to bankrupt me with the Kingdom Come Aquaman, featured in Series 3 of the Kingdom Come action figures, due out March 21, 2007.

Still slowly catching up.


52 Week Seven: "Going Down": The moment when Ralph realizes that Booster may have been able to prevent it all... that was a truly frightening moment. And when it all falls apart... it was unexpected, but at the same time it sure seemed like it was leading up to that moment. Should be interesting to see how Booster deals with it.

Birds of Prey #95: "A Cup of Kindness Yet": The duality of the story, how Shiva and Canary both took apprentices of a different type, made the ending to this one much more powerful. In fact, this was a genuinely satisfying finish. I'd like to see more like this.

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1: "Flashback": So... the Speed Force still exists, but isn't safe to use? This issue gets everyone up to speed on what's been happening with the world of Flash characters. It's quite a nice little summary. I don't know if I'll read more, but it's a solid little average superhero tale.

Fallen Angel #6: Jumping into the past of the Fallen Angel, back to when she first fell, was a bit of a shock, but it's also very cool. I like the way this story is shaping up, maybe more than the regular modern story.

Conan #29: "The Toad": Conan sends rocks down on his enemies, but Nestor survives. Only... but that would be telling. This is a continuation of Conan #24, which I was beginning to think would never get continued. I enjoyed it.

Conan Book of Thoth #4: "The Serpent Strikes": An echo of a Conan tale, as Kalanthes suffers the same experiences Conan will much later, all for being loyal and honest. We also find out who the voice talking to Thoth-Amon was, and who narrated the whole story. It's a good ending, even if I found myself wishing for more of the tale.

Not half done with this past week, and now I've got two more weeks on top of my other overdue reviews.

Now that I've had a day to recover from the trip (I'm one of those folks who really doesn't travel well at all) I'd like to report that I'm finally getting into my mail that came while we were gone and there are a couple of goodies I'll be blogging in a bit.

On a more annoying note, at least one of my e-mail boxes was screwed up somehow, and if you sent me anything in the last week you may want to resend it to make sure I get it. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I'm fairly certain it was my fault.

Don't Push The Red Button.

Over the weekend I got an offer, which may or may not happen, which might allow me to go to a future San Diego Comicon. I'm really surprised at how much excitement I felt when I heard the deal. If it happens, I'll be delighted. And, it looks like I'll be disappointed if it doesn't happen. And here I was thinking that my fear of crowds would be enough to make me not want to attend again.

I just had a nice road trip, from Seattle to Salem in our car, then from Salem to Monterey California in a PT Cruiser. I got plenty of driving time in the Cruiser, and here are some thoughts on the vehicle.

On the plus side: I love the compass and outside temp indicators. At one point, the outside temp read as 114F, which didn't seem likely. More often it was like this...


I also liked that it locked the doors once we got underway. Nice safety feature that I'm sure tons of cars have nowadays. As both our vehicles are over 10 years old, it's hard to know for sure.

On the bad side: The car has freakin' HUGE blind spots. Freeway driving wasn't too bad, but driving through a town was a hair-raising proposition. If a PT Cruiser cuts in front of you sometime, odds are the driver couldn't see you. Even doing head checks I often found I couldn't see what was next to me.

Also, the steering was oversensitive. Until I got used to it, I nearly drove off the road whenever I had to stay tight in a curve. Even once I was used to it, I found the steering immensely uncomfortable.

The car also had the tendency to want to go faster, but fully loaded with four people and their luggage for a nearly week-long trip, it was weak on power when climbing hills. Going downhill it was easy to hit 80 without realizing it (until you got into a tight curve and the steering sensitivity nearly took you off the road), but on some hills it couldn't get up to 40 and we were being passed by semis.

Not much leg room. Even when I'm skinny (which I haven't been in far too long) I have long legs. Trying to fit into a PT Cruiser was slightly claustrophobia inducing. My horrible back problems started up on the second day and still haven't let up. With four people in the car, there simply wasn't enough room for a long drive like ours.

Conclusion: it's a somewhat pretty car, but I have no intention of ever buying one.

By the time you read this, Laura and Eric should be heading home. Wahoo. Vacation over... back to work.

Here's a lovely picture of the beautiful wildlife at Asilomar for you to enjoy.

Kids Find Can of Paint, Chaos Ensues.

This is a time blog, prepared earlier and set off today. Laura is currently off enjoying life (without paint).