Random Thoughts In Force

Happy Birthday to Bill the brother-in-law.

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Going back to True Story, Swear to God: 100 Stories by Tom Beland (go buy it), there were several mentions of Aquaman in the book, which might be why Larry thought I would enjoy it so much. If so, he was right, but not just due to Aquaman. The one I liked the best, in fact, was "Gettin' My Kling On" about meeting some Klingons at San Diego comicon. There were also a number of stories about families, which I identified with despite my different kind of family. I also liked the "Dancing Crab" story, and his sunburn tale (which I also identified with strongly for some strange reason).

Anyway, I thought I'd provide one small image (which is not representative of the book by any means) to show how absolutely cool this book is. Now, go get it. No really. Now. I mean it. I don't give just anything four and a half starfish.

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The assignments for Comic Book Idol 2 round 3 have been posted in the forum, and it's clear which artists actually had references to Fatality and which ones didn't. Here's my thoughts on it (now that it's down to six competitors, I'm following it more closely). You can read the assignment before reading my comments.

Billy Penn: got Fatality wrong... the ring is definitely on the wrong finger at the top of page two... I don't like his figures much. It's servicable, but I don't think I'd be a big fan of this guy.

Micah Gunnell: also got Fatality wrong, but his bees are COOL! This is a simpler art style, which I like. The layouts have some problems, and the samurai doesn't have enough movement. It should be attacking.

Jason Masters: His Fatality is COMPLETELY wrong. Wronger than wrong. His bees look lovestruck, not angry. The composition is ok, but it's not inspiring. I like his art, but this isn't what the script called for.

Carlos Rodriguez: I'm already a little biased toward this guy, so beware. He's the first one to get the look of Fatality right. I love his layouts, he seems to have mastered the storytelling, which is high praise from me. He also makes this look like a fight, on-going happening NOW, rather than a bunch of panels. I like his "drugged" panel, with Fatality crouching on the bodies of the GL Corps. Very nice touch. This guy knows his stuff. This is the best of the bunch.

Larry Chy: Good action, but yet another wrong Fatality. Didn't any of them have reference materials? This one is ... I don't know, missing something. The layouts are decent, the action is good, but something is wrong. I can't put my finger on it, but this just feels like going through the paces.

John Rubio: Ah! Another one who knows what Fatality looks like! Not enough bees in the first panel (common with others), but the layout is very different! I like the "in your face" bit there. Overall, this is probably the second best one, in my opinion.

It's very neat to see six different artist interpretations of the same scenes. Seven, actually, when the regular book comes out. I'm really glad I'm not the one having to choose which two artists get dropped. I can tell you my two faves, but the other four all seem on a level to me. It'll be interesting to see which ones make it.

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Driving me absolutely bonkers lately have been the obnoxious sounds of ice cream trucks all piping the melody of Daisy Daisy to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, despite having seen people singing the song on Doctor Who recently, I didn't know the words to the chorus. And there are few things more irritating than hearing a song and remembering only some of the words. So I had to look it up, and here they are. Driving me bonkers:

Daisy Daisy, give me your answer do!
I'm half crazy, all for the love of you!
It won't be a stylish marriage,
I can't afford a carriage,
But you'll look sweet on the seat of a bicycle built for two!

Why is this song in particular being used by every ice cream vendor in Seattle?

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Yet another reason to not live in an apartment building.

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To be honest, I would have been suspicious if nothing had gone wrong... but there were problems with SpaceShipOne's first foray into space. Enough problems to ground the vehicle until the crew can figure out what went wrong. As I was listening to one of the many broadcasts of the flight, one reporter mentioned that pilot Michael Melvill had heard several loud bangs during the flight up. I haven't seen any other mention of that, but it reminded me at the time that this was a test flight.

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I was just thinking some more about the kids in Marysville School District, who are protesting the "loss" of their summer after the longest strike in state history by walking out of classrooms. And picketing.

I was thinking how wonderful it is of the kids to remove the worst trouble-makers and least respectful children from the classrooms, thus reducing the stress on the teachers. I was thinking about how their ill-timed publicity stunt will solve nothing at all, and maybe even force some of them into summer school. Ha! In fact, the only people the walk-out really hurts are the students themselves.

I really hope they stay out of school. It would lighten the load of the teachers and increase the chances that their fellow students will get a decent education despite the late date because all the whiners who can't handle the heat, literally, are gone. If it puts a burden on any part of the district, it would be on the administration, which will have to figure out how to punish the kids. I say summer school for the lot of them, or hold them back a grade for failing to complete the school year.

The thing is, the time to protest the strike was back when it was happening. Protesting now is utterly useless. They claim to be emulating the teachers, but the teachers were striking with the possibility of a change happening (a change that eventually did happen, thus validating their position). There is no possibility that the students can change anything. What are their demands? That the district let out early? The district can't change state law. So the children are protesting pointlessly.

And the parents who are supporting this effort ought to be held responsible for their kids truancy. Maybe a couple of stiff fines for violating state law would get them to understand that they aren't helping their children, just hurting them even more.

Ah well, the children will probably return to class, more is the pity, and continue to make life horrible for the teachers. It would be nice if they stayed away, but I'll bet they won't be willing to actually face any consequences. As soon as they are threatened with repeating a grade or having to attend summer school, they'll be back in class causing headaches. Too bad.