Tuesday, October 31, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/31/2006 12:24:00 PM
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Monday, October 30, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/30/2006 07:20:00 PM
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Miscellaneous
Spotted on the drive home:
A metallic green Honda Element with the vanity plate HULK.
Spotted amongst my junk mail:
A pamphlet from one of those bullshit "moral values" groups, with the following scathing indictment: 'same sex "marriage" is rooted in selfishness.' Because, you know, two people in a loving, supportive relationship who want to make the ultimate commitment to each other are "selfish".
Anyway, this stellar example of Christian love and tolerance also went on to proclaim that being tolerant of gays "can open the door to child pornography." Nice, huh?
So I used the their e-mail address to sign them up for a bunch of spam.
--Dara (permalink)
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Posted by
Dara
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10/30/2006 08:07:00 AM
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Monday Morning "Guess the Artist"
(Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. Piece of shit Blogger wouldn't let me publish for whatever reason. What a craptacular piece of software...)
Ok, last week's page was easy. I have a feeling this one is as well...
(click image to super(boy)size)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006)Labels: guess the artist
--Dara (permalink)
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Friday, October 27, 2006
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Posted by
Tony
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10/27/2006 10:40:00 AM
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Your friendly neighborhood NERVE crawler
I've often thought one of the problems with today's kids is they grow up in a world where literally anything can talk -- if not sing or vibrate. When I was a kid, only the Speak n' Spell said anything, and that was only if you pulled the string. (OK, the Little People Barn made a mooing sound when you closed the barn door, but that's not the same).
To test this theory for yourself, here's The Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man. It's a largish plush doll of Spider-Man that sings and does what appear to be gang signs. As near as I can tell, he sings only two songs, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Spider-Man and Friends," an adaptation of his classic theme song.
See the toy, play the demo
File under: Toys to buy the children of people you don't like.
--Tony (permalink)
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/26/2006 01:23:00 PM
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Wired's "Very Short Stories"
Wired magazine took 33 writers from the fields of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, and asked them to write 6-word short stories."Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?"
- Eileen Gunn
"Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so."
- Joss Whedon
"The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly."
- Orson Scott Card
"Kirby had never eaten toes before."
- Kevin Smith
I once won a Columbus Dispatch "noveleenie" contest (write a short story under 400 words.) But this sounds like more fun. Try your hand in the comments section.
(via Digital Webbing)
--Dara (permalink)
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/25/2006 04:11:00 PM
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5 + 5 band names
So I recently discovered this list of band name etymologies on wikipedia. Which got me thinking about bands names that I like or dislike, regardless of what I think of their actual music. So here's a fun little exercise, feel free to jump in with your lists:
1) List 5 bands whose names you like. Not necessarily their music - you could hate the band and all they stand for, for instance - but just the name that you think is really cool, clever, or otherwise appeals to you. Here are mine:
Rage Against the Machine
Concrete Blonde
Nine Inch nails
Rusted Root
Love and Rockets
2) Now list 5 bands whose names you dislike greatly. You may love their music, but their band name just comes off as stupid, silly, or otherwise unappealing to you. Like they didn't even try. My list:
Stone Temple Pilots
Limp Bizkit
Fountains of Wayne
The Mooney Suzuki
Toad the Wet Sprocket
One interesting observation I made was that there are tons of band names that I think are just plain boring or stupid, even amongst bands whose music I really like. Pretty much any name that is of the form The Somethings I find incredibly unimaginative.
--Dara (permalink)
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Posted by
Dara
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10/25/2006 10:33:00 AM
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Moon Knight on TV, Andy on ledge
In news that's sure to please Andy, Newsarama is reporting that Moon Knight might be headed to television. Apparently, Variety "reported that Marvel Studios has joined with No Equal Entertainment – a Vancouver-based production company – to develop a live-action television series based on Moon Knight."
Funniest comment from the Newsarama peanut gallery:"Get ready for Nightman 2. I guarantee it"
--Dara (permalink)
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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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Posted by
Sean McGurr
on
10/24/2006 11:49:00 AM
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Unshelved On Graphic Novels
It looks like Unshelved, the comic strip set in a library, is going to take on the graphic novel debate this week. I'm assuming it is based on the fact that a library in Missouri is under pressure to remove Blankets and Fun Home from the shelves because of their pornographic nature. One protester said, "I don't want seedy people coming into the library and moving into our community." I haven't read Fun Home yet, so I guess I'm only half-seedy at this point.
--Sean McGurr (permalink)
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Posted by
Craig
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10/24/2006 09:49:00 AM
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The Ineffables in Chroma-Vision
Behold the splendid coloring job Tom Williams did for the cover of the upcoming Political Science tpb. Many thanks, Tom.
Recent family drama pushed the printing date back by a month; preorders are still available at www.theineffables.com, the first 50 of which come with a b&w print of the above cover.
--Craig (permalink)
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Monday, October 23, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/23/2006 11:52:00 AM
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Posted by
Dara
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10/23/2006 08:06:00 AM
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Monday Morning "Guess the Artist"
Welcome back to another episode of "Guess the Artist," wherein I post a page of artwork from the early career of some of today's big name comic book artist, and you get to guess who it is.
(click image to fraggin' enlarge)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006)Labels: guess the artist
--Dara (permalink)
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Sunday, October 22, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/22/2006 12:21:00 PM
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I've been boingboinged!
Cory Doctorow over at the legendary boingboing blog posted a link to my webcomic, Lifelike. And he had some nice words to say about the strip as well:"There are so many different visual styles here, and Naraghi is such a versatile storyteller, that they barely seem to be part of the same series, but there's something that links them together, a great storyteller's sensibility. From hard-boiled noir crime to war memoirs to sweet, sentimental stories, Lifelike has the feel of a great comics anthology, like Drawn and Quarterly or World War III"
Cory is not only a huge comic book fan himself, but also a talented writer with 3 published science fiction novels: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe, and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (and check out the sweet Dave McKean cover on that last one.) Needless to say, I'm very flattered and excited.
--Dara (permalink)
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Saturday, October 21, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/21/2006 11:14:00 AM
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Rocket Science update
The new Melt magazine is out, which means a new Rocket Science comic by your truly and Tim Fischer. You Columbus cats can pick up a free issue at most of the bars and clubs and cool stores around town. Everyone else can check it out on the web. The strip is on page 69 (heh heh heh.)
Once again, we poke fun at the sacred OSU football program.
--Dara (permalink)
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Friday, October 20, 2006
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Posted by
Tony
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10/20/2006 03:50:00 PM
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Posted by
Matt Kish
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10/20/2006 03:00:00 PM
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Posted by
Dara
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10/20/2006 01:44:00 PM
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White Stripes lyrics
Hope you guys had a chance to catch my "Guest DJ" gig earlier today on CD101. Hanna had a blast as well.
Here's a song I played especially for her, as it's one of her favorites. She was singing along to it in the studio, much to the delight of the regular DJ, Lesley James."Fall is here, hear the yell
back to school, ring the bell
brand new shoes, walking blues
climb the fence, books and pens
I can tell that we're going to be friends
Walk with me, Suzy Lee
through the park and by the tree
we will rest upon the ground
and look at all the bugs we found
then safely walk to school
without a sound
Well here we are, no one else
we walked to school all by ourselves
there's dirt on our uniforms
from chasing all the ants and worms
we clean up and now its time to learn
Numbers, letters, learn to spell
nouns, and books, and show and tell
at playtime we will throw the ball
back to class, through the hall
teacher marks our height
against the wall
And we don't notice any time pass
we don't notice anything
we sit side by side in every class
teacher thinks that I sound funny
but she likes the way you sing
Tonight I'll dream while in my bed
when silly thoughts go through my head
about the bugs and alphabet
and when I wake tomorrow I'll bet
that you and I will walk together again
cause I can tell that we're going to be friends"
-- The White Stripes, We're Going To Be Friends
--Dara (permalink)
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Thursday, October 19, 2006
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Posted by
Tom
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10/19/2006 07:04:00 PM
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Posted by
Dara
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10/19/2006 09:46:00 AM
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Listen to me on the radio on Friday, October 20th
Yeah, yeah, I know. Whoop dee do.
But hey, I'm excited for my return to CD101 as a "Guest DJ" tomorrow. On top of that, I'll be bringing along a friend: Hanna! She doesn't have school that day, so she'll be my co-DJ and may even say a few words, if she's not too shy. We'll be on from 11 AM till noon.
For you Columbus kids, that's 101.1 on your FM dial.
For anyone else who might be so inclined, you can listen live via the web.
Hanna wants to play some Green Day and The Clash. My playlist includes Ben Harper, Lyrics Born, Concrete Blonde, R.L. Burnside, Transplants, local boys The Sun, and maybe a few more...
--Dara (permalink)
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Posted by
Dara
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10/19/2006 09:41:00 AM
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Neil Gaiman quote
Sent to me by my bro:
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor." -- Neil Gaiman
--Dara (permalink)
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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Posted by
Dara
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10/18/2006 02:06:00 PM
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Posted by
Tony
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10/18/2006 01:52:00 PM
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One frothy mix to bind them ...
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010427.php
Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the "Eye of Mordor" has instead been drawn to Iraq.
Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic, "Lord of the Rings," to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.
"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.
"It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.," he continued. "You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."
--Tony (permalink)
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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Posted by
Tony
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10/17/2006 11:28:00 AM
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A great time-waster -- backfires
My favorite time-waster lately has been looking up obscure comix facts on wikipedia.
Comix articles on wikipedia are copious and detailed, it turns out. I don’t know who does them, but I do always find out something new. They have obscure characters, but also rundowns of storylines from individual books. I wonder if the companies themselves add to their articles.
I thought following characters would allow me to read fewer comic books, but on the contrary, it makes me want to read more. It’s a lot easier to duck into a comic if you know you can quickly come up to speed on the backstory. It’s especially good if you read books that rely heavily on backstory, like Geoff Johns’ Justice Society.
Per Degaton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Degaton
Battle for Bludhaven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bludhaven#The_Battle_for_Bl.C3.BCdhaven
Infinite Crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Crisis
Psylocke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psylocke
--Tony (permalink)
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Posted by
Tony
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10/17/2006 11:18:00 AM
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Posted by
Craig
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10/17/2006 09:40:00 AM
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Way Back Machine
Sweet Christmas!
Long before 48 Hours or Lethal Weapon had driven the “mismatched buddy cop” genre into the ground, I was grooving to the coolest comic Marvel produced in the early eighties. Pairing the black urban ex-con with the naïve rich white kid from the furthest of suburbs, Power Man & Iron Fist took a couple characters whose own books were fading away and made a team that became one of the most prominent titles in Marvel’s lineup. The acme for the series came during a run written by Mary Jo Duffy and penciled by Kerry Gammill, somewhere around issues 60-80. Shortly thereafter, the characters fell into less competent hands, and are unfortunately remembered more for the mediocre years that led to the demise of the series. Over the course of the best issues, however, Mary Jo Duffy did a wonderful job blending the jaded cynicism of Power Man’s inner city New York with the mystical awe of Iron Fist’s lost city of K’un-Lun in a series of mostly self-contained issues.
Given the time these were published, I’m puzzled that Kerry Gammill didn’t garner the same rabid following that grew around his contemporaries Byrne and Perez. In those days photorealistic depictions of super-hero action were the paradigm, and Gammill’s work was head and shoulders above the other two. More textured than Byrne, more fluid than Perez, his work drew me into those gritty alleyways and penthouse offices these Heroes-for-Hire traveled. Perhaps it’s because his output wasn’t that of those other early 80’s stars; besides PM/IF and a brief stint following Byrne on Superman, I don’t recall seeing any other comics with his name on them; perhaps he was just moonlighting with the comics gig. If so, that’s our loss. Here’s a page from issue #67:
 Everyone digs Luke Cage—the jive talking, bulletproof brother with a penchant for yellow silk shirts and the greatest catch phrase in the history of comics (seen above). But I was always more impressed by the Daniel Rand part of the team. Iron Fist was the anti-Batman; sure, he saw his parents killed and spent years in seclusion preparing for a mission of vengeance, but he still managed to emerge as an optimistic, sheltered kid. He was calm, graceful, and serene; he had the coolest costume not designed by Steve Ditko; he was all about skill and less about super powers (having a power that could only be used sparingly); and he was the biggest badass of the Marvel universe. Yeah, Wolverine always gets that title bestowed upon him, but I would contest that claim by pointing to the occasion Iron Fist threw Wolverine out a fifth-story window during a bout with the entire X-Men team, or the two occasions he beat Wolverine’s primary nemesis, Sabretooth, unconscious. No wonder Sabretooth decided to switch arch-foes. Here are a couple panels from Sabretooth’s first appearance in Claremont & Byrne’s Iron Fist #14, wherein “The Living Weapon” makes Sabretooth scream like a little girl.
 Which brings me to a specific issue of the title. It was my incredible good fortune to stumble across a particular eBay auction while searching for individual issues of this | | |
