Random Thoughts

Seems like a few folks hadn't heard about the Halloween Ashcans I mentioned in my first review for this week. Here's the scoop. If you have a July/Sep Previews magazine, they are on page 2 as a series of "featured items". It might be too late to preorder, but check with your retailer. They are supposed to come in bundles of 25. The codes are:

• JUL04 0001 - SABRINA VS ARCHIES ASHCAN 2004
  
• JUL04 0002 - DH 2004 HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
  
• JUL04 0003 - MARVEL AGE HALLOWEEN SPEC 2004

Yes, that's basically the first, second, and third items from the July order form. For some reason, I just assumed that after last year everyone would know about the ashcan giveaways. I mean, heck, didn't everyone know that is why my husband keeps commenting that he wants to eat my brains?

Loren Coleman took issue with my review of Bigfoot!, but only on a couple of points. Says Coleman: "Actually, those in the field have been telling me I was able to find many new things they'd never heard of and found to be challenges to their thinking - like the sexuality of the beasts, the interplay with crime figures, the aggressiveness to dogs, the specifics of some old stories with new details - like the Patterson interview or the kidnapping accounts." Being only casually acquainted with Bigfoot lore, slightly more than the average person but not as deeply as some, I didn't realize that these would be revelations to "serious Bigfoot experts", as I called them in my review. If what Coleman says is true (and I have no reason to doubt it) then this book is definitely for anyone even slightly interested in Bigfoot. In any case it's a good read.

The BBC news page makes the possibility of an eruption of Mount Saint Helens sound much more excitingly dangerous than it is. Frankly, I'd be far more worried if we were hearing rumblings from sleeping Mt Rainier. If you are curious, here are the current conditions of Mt St Helens, and a volcano cam so you can look at the mountain in her current glory.

Oh yes, I am definitely keeping my eyes on SpaceShipOne.

A statistical analysis suggests that women will eventually be faster than men in the 100-meter dash. But don't hold your breath. Only if current trends continue... it won't happen until 2156.

Over in the comics world, check out Will Pfeifer's FROG. Very very cool. I used to put together "magazines", but I'm pretty sure none of them survived the years to come back and haunt me.

Polite Dissent rips up Strange #1 in his lovely standard way. I love having a real doctor's opinion on the medical knowledge in comic books.

Shane Bailey has been linkblogging again, scroll down to get the total joy.

Mike Sterling continues to be well worth visiting, particularly for his nice reviews.

Going back to the challenged books list for Banned Books Week, I know I've read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. There are a lot of books I think I've read on the list, and a few I haven't. One I've been meaning to read for some time is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, so I checked that out of the library and started it yesterday. I won't make some silly vow to read every challenged book... I'm not for banning books, but that doesn't mean I'm inclined to read stuff I don't think I'd like... but I will try to read at least one challenged/banned book each year during Banned Books Week.

And lastly, a flower from Nancy's Garden:

Rapid Reviews - 29 September 2004 - Part II

DC: The New Frontier #6 (Of 6): Within the first couple of pages, I knew what role Aquaman was going to play in this issue. And I was right. I won't say that this was predictable overall, but bits of it were. That did not detract from it at all. It was a fun ride. And I really like Aquaman in this book.

Adam Strange #1: Ok, that's a good start. In fact, I'm really glad I got to read this. I've never been a big fan of the science fiction part of the DCU, goodness knows the cosmic GL stories drive me away, but this is great love story as well as a good old fashioned space hero tale. I'm really looking forward to the next issue.

Outsiders #16: My main criticism of this book is not just addressed, it's tackled with both fists. And I appreciate the result. I may never get to the point where I love this book, but I may get to like it someday.

Green Lantern #181: Good riddance.

Still to review: JLA, Amazing Spider-Man, and Futurama.

Rapid Reviews - 29 September 2004 - Part I

The Batman: Traction: Ah. Bane. Is there really anything more that need be said about this one? Let's see... nice batbot. Nice to get a little more of this version of Alfred's history. Bane was about what I've expect from him in his first appearance. Overall, ok, but nothing special. Three episodes in, and I'm still definitely just lukewarm to this show.

Halloween Ashcans:

• Sabrina vs Archies Ashcan 2004: I really don't like the attempt at a Manga look. It just looks odd. I guess it's just as well I'm not the intended audience for this book. The story was fine, but the art... yuck.
  
• Dark Horse 2004 Halloween Special: Oh, this is good. This is nicely creepy, nicely Dark Horse, and just plain cool. I didn't know this would have art by Jill Thompson, but it's absolutely perfect for the story (which is written by Evan Dorkin). This says it's a reprint from the Dark Horse Book of Hauntings, and this sample is enough to tempt me to get that book if I can lay hands on it. Excellent book, and I'm looking forward to handing this one out on Halloween.
  
• Marvel Age Halloween Special 2004: I liked the Mini-Marvels better. This is a sampler of some of the Marvel Age books, and it comes across ok. It's also a reprint book, but you get a number of characters (including two pages of Hulk). Not bad for its purpose, I guess.

Vagabond Vol 2: Young and reckless, Takezo is covered in violence due to the insanity of the battlefield. In this volume, he's brought back to his senses with a little help from an old friend and a new one. The book is pretty gory, but there's a reason for it. Everything in the book serves the story. I still don't see this guy becoming the "most renowned samurai of all time", but that's why I'm reading the story.

Life Eaters: The first section of this book covers the original short story, "Thor Meets Captain America", which I read a long time ago in an alternate history anthology. It was an amazing story then, and the expansion of the story into three parts only makes it better. The artwork is pretty good, but I would have liked to see more of the other "gods" that showed up. If you are going to bring in a whole bunch of mythology, it seems only right to actually show them in the book. But for that, it was a really good read.

Still to review: Adam Strange, New Frontier, Green Lantern, JLA, Outsiders, Amazing Spider-Man, and Futurama.

Rapid Review - Movie Night

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: I haven't been overall impressed with the movie adaptations of the Harry Potter books. They aren't awful, but they compress the stories enough to be annoying. So I really wasn't expecting all that much from the third movie. And I got about what I was expecting. The "character" of Hogwarts itself was much better in this movie than in previous ones, with Hagrid's hut actually being out of the way and down near the woods, as described in the books. The landscape matched what I imagined when I first read the books better than the first two movies. The characters were as good as ever, but the story itself was compressed as usual to fit it into a movie. I dread the movie of the next book. I'm still waiting for the definitive mini-series to be made in a couple of decades. In the meantime, this was ok. Nothing special.

Random Thoughts

Gordon finds himself addicted to Firefox, partly in thanks to my reviews of it. I noted that my mom is still using the security issue laden IE when I visited her last night, and I recommended switching to Firefox. Mom, the link is here, and it's worth changing over. Firefox is faster, more compliant with HTML standards, and more secure. There are still some very poorly designed websites that require IE, but use Firefox for your main browsing. It's much, MUCH better.

And don't forget to check out the extensions, ways to customize your browser to fit your needs. I love tabbed browsing, and there's no way I could survive now without "Close Tab On Double Click".

Fanboy Rampage has an interesting little question about how many people the internet represents. It's odd, Bullock says that there's a myth that one internet fan represents the opinion of ten people, which isn't how I learned it. I was taught that for every one person who bothered to comment/post, there were ten people who didn't. The difference is that the folks who are vocal aren't assumed to represent those who aren't vocal. It's also assumed that all the ten who don't speak up are also on-line and reading the thing being commented on, not off-line. So Bullock must run in different circles than I do to come up with that strange interpretation of the old chestnut.

As an aside, this old concept is one reason getting a comment is so gratifying for a lot of bloggers. The idea being that if one person is commenting, there's another ten folks reading that simply don't have anything to say. It's like a security blanket for fragile egos.

Postmodern Barney likes PS238 too.

The auction for CrossGen has been delayed due to Hurricane action.

Still looking at Challenged Books for Banned Books Week. Next ones I've read on the list are the Harry Potter books and Bridge to Terabithia, which is really depressing. A lot of books that people want to ban are depressing. I just don't like reading them because I'm already depressed enough.

Let's finish off this entry with a picture from Nancy's garden:

Rapid Reviews - Library Books

Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America by Loren Coleman. Do I believe in Bigfoot? Depends on what you mean. If by "Bigfoot" you mean some terrifying creature of the night that is superhumanly intelligent, attacks people, and has an affinity for UFOs, no. If you mean some sort of unknown North American primate, yes. There have been way too many sightings, consistent over the years, for me to think that there isn't something there. The "what" of that something evades us, but I figure there is definitely more to it than a bunch of pranksters. After all, Bigfoot sightings go back hundreds of years. Before reading this book I had done some very slight research, enough to know what not to say when talking about Bigfoot, but not much more. This book was written for people like me, who have little or no knowledge of the mystery, but are interested in learning a bit more.

The book has a strange organization, almost a stream of consciousness instead of neatly categorized. While this doesn't detract from the book too much, there were moments that I expected more than I got because the author would finish with a topic before I thought he ought to be done. It's a minor quibble, but definitely impacts how much some people will enjoy the book.

Coleman covers the legends of Bigfoot from a handpicked few of the earliest native legends up to the latest sightings. He takes care to point out which sightings he feels are real events while also deconstructing some of the ones that are probably fake. While he does this, he lays out the patterns of fraud and tricksterism in the Bigfoot world so that the reader can judge. There is no shortage of incredible characters in the modern story of bigfoot. From self-proclaimed Bigfoot hoaxer Ray Wallace to feuding modern "experts", the story is rife with controversy and pig-headed adventurers intent on doing their own thing. Coleman puts it all in, yet even with the insanity, the patterns of sightings go on relentlessly... arguing the case that there really is something out there.

Coleman's book also answered a question I never thought to ask about regional differences between sightings. From reading the book, you might conclude that there are at least three distinct species that are known to the world as "Bigfoot". Luckily for me, the most peaceful type apparently lives around here in the Pacific Northwest. Coleman also shows some distaste for a local Bigfoot hunter who lives in my hometown of Bothell, Cliff Crook. After hunting down Crook's website for more information, I wasn't too impressed with the guy, either. People who feel secure about themselves don't make pages that say "I'm not a hoaxer" on free webhosting services.

Overall, this is not a book I'd recommend to serious Bigfoot experts who have already spent years in the field and have set ideas about all the stories surrounding the mystery. But for anyone who has a limited knowledge of the subject and wants to read some ripping good tales and understand the background of Bigfoot research, including some dirty laundry, this is your book. Recommended.

Review Copy Reviews

Here are two more books sent to me by Atomeka to review for you.

Bricktop A1 Special: Um. Not my style. Not something I enjoy at all. Lots of violence, gore, and just odd things happening. Art isn't too bad, except for what it's depicting. I'm sure this kind of book has an audience, but I'm not in it. Not recommended.

Mr Monster Versus the Nazi From Mars or Mr Monster: Worlds War Two ("whichever you feel is the catchier title", according to the indicia): I have a sketch from Michael T Gilbert, but this is the first full Mr Monster story I've read. I liked it. Lots of fun. It's a goofy little tale with lots of action and not much depth. I like the art a lot. It's not something I'd recommend to just anyone, but if you are in the mood for something strange and different with a pulp mag feel to it, get this.

Still to review: Job Wanted by Shooting Star Comics. And there might be something more in this big pile of "to read" stuff, I'll have to get through more of it first before I can tell for sure.

Give Blood

So one thing I did today while I was out and about was donate blood. Let me tell you about my donating blood. I've had some very bad experiences with it. I passed out my very first time, and have nearly passed out twice since. I once got a first-time nurse who turned my inside-right elbow into a giant bruise and had to give up and let another person draw from my left arm. I have small veins and often end up being poked in both arms before they can find one that will work.

But giving blood is important, and as long as I'm healthy enough to do it, I probably will.

Today went well. There was a little more pain than I expected, but nothing I couldn't deal with and even forget about after a couple of minutes. The techs brought me apple juice instead of letting me walk over to the waiting area (because of my previous problems). And while I felt pretty weak most of the afternoon, as evening rolled around I started to feel genuinely good. I even picked up my nephew when I shouldn't have.

Random Thoughts

Been gone all day because they turned off the water to our house. Here's some thoughts I collected both before and after my return.

There is a piece of original artwork on eBay from a Batman daily strip... featuring Aquaman. Ok, now I want to learn more about the Batman daily. The date on the strip is 12/4/1968, and it was written by Whitney Ellsworth and drawn by Al Plastino. I'm not rich enough to get the original art, but I would like to see more of the story.

Garrett tells us about a hike and some artwork in an unexpected place. He also points out that Mt St Helens is waking up. One of my more vivid childhood memories is when she originally blew her top.

Eat More People wonders why some TV shows haven't yet made it to DVD. I'm right there with him on Tiny Toons.

Ringwood suggests that we stop worrying about being geeky with our love of comic books. I'm right there with him, too.

And here's a statue from the Winchester Mystery House. Enjoy.

Review Copy Reviews

Here's another book that was sent to me to review from AIT/Planet Lar. Thanks again, Larry!

Bad Mojo: This book is really very good except for one major, huge, enormous flaw. More on that in a bit. Larry sent it to me with a nice note in which he worried I might not like this because it's a bit creepy. Actually, the creepiness worked well and was not overdone in this one. It wasn't a very scary story at all, and from that angle I enjoyed it a lot.

And let me mention here that I really wanted to order this when I saw it in Previews, but couldn't swing it with that month's budget. I was delighted to have it sent to me to review. Admittedly, I would have preferred more baseball in the story, since it's about a baseball player, but that wasn't the focus of the tale and I can accept it. The art is very nice, reminds me of Eric Shanower's work. The horror bits are nicely creepy without excessive gore.

In fact, this book rates at least four starfish all the way through... except for one major problem. There is no end. The book doesn't resolve at all. If this were solicited as part of a mini-series or on-going, I could accept the lack of ending, but for a book that should be a standalone, it is too irritating. But for that, this is a very strong book. I will recommend it, but mildly, with the warning that there is no ending. Because it really is quite a good book.

As an almost unrelated aside: I'm still waiting for someone to do an excellent baseball comic book that doesn't involve baseball stars turning into superheroes (like in the awful Mariners comic book in which the stadium had a secret base underneath it and the stars of the team had to battle evil sasquatch *shudder*). I think the comic book form would be an excellent one to explore sports in, if only there were a writer/artist team willing to tackle it. I have ideas, but I don't have the writing skill to turn them into plots, and my artwork is... rudimentary. I know first-graders who draw more convincingly than I do.

Random Thoughts

And very happy birthday wishes to Amanda!

Happy birthday to Trash Heap, also.

Black Aquaman, Doin' the Wash, Yo! Generally speaking, The Stranger isn't very friendly to Aquaman, but the cartoon was funny... and actually somewhat educational. See, it's in the back-to-school issue aimed at college students, and it's about... oh, just read the title.

This brings back memories. Via Boing Boing.

Just go check out Near Mint Heroes. Shane is linkblogging up a storm again and you don't want to miss it.

H over at The Comic Treadmill has a pretty fun theory as to who the killer in Identity Crisis might be. I would not be surprised if he got it right. There is also a new poll related to IC on the blog. I think Yoko Ono is definitely the one.

Monitor Duty reports that The Incredibles is going to rock.

Legomancer has an opinion on sympathy cards.

Johnny B has a book out. I want a copy. Too bad I'm still flat broke, but maybe I can score one in awhile, once I've got some cash again.

Cool Hand shadow puppets. It's a Gutenberg text with woodcut illustrations. Very cool. I gotta try the "grandpa" one.

An abandoned boy is raised by a guard dog. Via Boing Boing.

Stuart Hughes tells us about wheelchairs in the paralympics, including the need for a good repair shop. He also tells us about a runner who might challenge our perceptions in just a couple of years.

Now that we're actually in Banned Books Week, I'm looking at the list of challenged book and was looking at the next book I've read on the list, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It's been awhile since I read it, but I recall the teacher in whose class I read it. She told us that Huck Finn was a very important book, that everyone should read it, but that Tom Sawyer wasn't worth reading. When she said this, my friend Tammy raised her hand and asked, "Have you ever actually read Tom Sawyer?" The teacher admitted, a little shame-faced, that she hadn't. I think every one of us then went out and got a copy of Tom Sawyer to read so we could quote bits of the book in class and compare it to Huck Finn, just for the teacher's benefit.

How about a picture of hubby-Eric tormenting pugs to finish off this post?

Rapid Reviews - Exercise Shows

Farscape [1-15]: Durka Returns: Rygel's worst nightmare walks onto Moya, along with a new member for the crew. This one fascinated me because I'd seen pictures of Chiana before, but this was the first time I saw her in action. An interesting story that leaves some questions unanswered, including the important question that Crichton asks Chiana right at the very end. There was also the disturbing aspect of mind control and memory alteration in this one.

Farscape [1-16]: A Human Reaction: So John goes home... or does he? I wasn't sure if it was real or not, despite the certainty that he wasn't going to stay home. The end result was good. Not excellent, but quite good. The way John figures out what he hasn't seen before is pretty funny. Overall, quite excellent.

Farscape [1-17]: Through the Looking Glass: This one was really cool. The multi-color, multi-problemed alternate Moyas was sweet. I liked how D'Argo counted once John showed him how. Another nice touch was the pure "Mad Hatter Tea Party" feel of both the opening and the closing. Combined with the title of the episode and the ways that John moved through the various places, it all fit together very nicely. I also liked the references back to Aeryn's melding with Pilot. I really liked this one.

Farscape [1-18]: A Bug's Life: An intelligent virus. Not something you want to mess with, but it's very natural who ends up messing with it. In most ways this one was fairly predictable. There were a few little twists, but it wasn't anything special.

Sketchbook - Rick Hoberg

I got this sketch at the November 2002 Seattle ComiCard Convention. Hoberg's art is distinctive, and you can see a bit of his style in this Aquaman sketch. Hubby-Eric got a sketch from him at the same time in his Green Lantern themed book, of R2-D2 as a GL.

AQUAMAN
by Rick Hoberg
10 November 2002
(permission to post given 29 Aug 2004 via e-mail)
www.rickhoberg.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 "R", "H" and the number "67", 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.

Rapid Reviews - 22 September 2004 - Part IV

Smallville: Crusade: It's nice to see this show back, but now that I'm used to watching TV shows with no commercials while exercising, I felt a little strange just sitting there watching this. This has all the hallmarks of a good Smallville episode. A big of angst, a bit of mystery, a bit of "almost", and a nice deus ex machina that solves the problem until next week. Definitely not a fine story, but an ok one. Lois was annoying, but bearable. I miss Chloe and Pete. Looking forward to next week's.

Smallville #10: Only one comic story in this one, and not a particularly memorable one in my opinion. Oh, it was fun to see Lana and Chloe run amock, but not enough to carry the whole issue. There was also an interview with Lois and a couple of guides. But overall? Not as good as previous issues. Very mildly recommended.

Noble Causes #2: I love the Migliari cover to this one. Frost isn't the greatest character ever, but he's really ... um ... cool. And the cover is just plain neat. Looking back to the first issue, there are some interesting things going on with Doc... and more interesting things happening in this issue. Krennick is even more interesting, especially when you consider the revelation that Doc's source may have provided. Not to mention the revelation of Krennick's subject to Liz. This is a superhero soap opera, and I love it.

That's it for this week! Coming next week (if everything reaches my shop): New Frontier, Green Lantern, JLA, Amazing Spider-Man, and PS238(?!).

Rapid Reviews - 22 September 2004 - Part III

Daisy Kutter #2: I really like the artwork in this book. It's stylish and fun, and the world is such a neat mix of modern and ... not. I like Daisy, and this issue gives us more of her history as well as some really funny scenes with Tom. And I liked the back-up story a lot, too. Recommended.

Yellow Jar: I can't say this is perfect, but it's very, very nice. A couple of Japanese tales retold, with simply magnificent artwork. The first story involves a yellow jar, a lie, a demon, and the power of love. The second story is about a couple of weeds and a garden. The artwork is both classic and modern enough to satisfy my pickiness with storytelling. In some places, the only way I can describe this book is exquisite. Highly recommended, particularly for anyone who enjoys folktales and folklore.

Silk Tapestry: This book features three Chinese folktales. The first is a very short creation myth. The second is a beautiful story with an ambiguous ending that I found extremely sad. The third is a fun little tale of a little boy with a special talent. I didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the first volume, but that had to do with the choice of stories and not the quality of the retelling. It is an excellent book, and recommended. Again, particularly for anyone who enjoys traditional stories.

Still to review: Noble Causes and Smallville.

Rapid Reviews - 22 September 2004 - Part II

Avengers #502: The cover proclaims "One of these Avengers will die!" and I found myself thinking, "yeah? So?" Not good. The coloring on this book was way off the norm, and distracted from the story. Enough that I'm commenting on it. Mood lighting only goes so far, and in this story it went too far. The only excitement I got out of this story was the thought of seeing a particular blog once the blogger hears about/reads this issue. That's not enough to recommend it. Neutral.

Plastic Man #10: I'm not generally humor impaired, or at least I thought I wasn't... but I don't find this book amusing at all. It's like every attempt is just falling flat. I may have to stop reading it for a bit and come back to it to see if it's just me, or if the book simply isn't that funny. Neutral.

H-E-R-O #20: Leading up to a dramatic finish, I see, with a gathering of the heroes. I don't have a lot to say about this one, just that I'm really curious about how this whole thing is going to finally turn out. I'm liking it, more than I expected to. It's a shame this book is ending, but wow... it's going to be one heckuva ending, now, isn't it?

Still to review: Noble Causes, Smallville, and Daisy Kutter.

Friday Fitness Blogging

• Weight = X-1
  
• Change From Last Week = +2
  
• Met Exercise Goal? No
  Goal was fifteen minutes a day (walk/bike/swim) at least six days.
  
• Current Exercise Goal = fifteen minutes a day (walk/bike/swim) at least six days.
  
• Kept food diary? No.

So I didn't have the best week last week. I didn't overindulge in food, either, so I'm a little surprised at the apparent weight gain. Whatever. I'm still feeling considerably more toned up, and I expect to continue to tone as I continue to exercise.

As soon as I've got a couple of milk jugs saved up and cleaned out I intend to start Tom's exercise suggestions to start working on my arms. I probably won't "count" that exercise at first since it probably won't take long each day until I've worked up a bit.

I'm still looking for a good way to work on slimming my stomach down, and I also need to add walking to my exercise workout as the biking isn't doing enough. I ought to free the treadmill from the piles in the pantry so I can do a few minutes on it over the weekend. The last thing I need to improve is my water intake. I think I will probably add a water chart to my list of things to track on my blog. Maybe my goal for now will be two Sobe bottles (20 oz) of water a day for the next week, in addition to what I normally drink. Let's see if I can keep it up.

Rapid Reviews - Library Books

Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum: This is a collection of the cool webcomic I've been reading and enjoying for awhile now. This is a solid first collection that introduces us to the characters. While all the strips appear to be available on-line, it was particularly fun to check this one out from the library. For obvious reasons. And I enjoyed it quite a bit, too.

Of particular interest to me was the October 18th 2002 strip which contains untranslated Braille. Yes, I did go and hunt for information until I could roughly translate it. No, I'm not going to tell you what it says.

A fun book for anyone, but it hits home particularly well for anyone who works with the public.

Unshelved: What Would Dewey Do? by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum: Special guest star librarian action figure Nancy Pearl! Another great collection of a really cool webcomic.

Pretty much all of the book was good, but I liked the extras in the back from a library conference and the "how we make the strip" comic. I also liked their Banned Books Week storyline in which patrons of the library could ban any book they wanted to. There was also a fun "Patriot Act" storyline.

Overall, an excellent collection, and one that any librarian ought to read.

By the way, this is the last strip in the second book. So, once you've read both books, just click forward and you can get up-to-date on the strip. But I recommend getting the books. I sure will once I have some money again.

Random Thoughts

Via Thought Balloons: DC is suing Kryptonite Locks to keep them from expanding their brands, and they've gotten support from a Federal Judge.

Freakin' Shane Bailey continues to linkblog up a storm or two. I can't keep up with the guy.

Newsarama reports that CrossGen is going on the auction block on September 28th.

Is it illegal to grow poppies? A fascinating essay on one gardener's experiences in trying to learn the truth.

Ivan the Undead Hurricane. And Jeanne is next, then Karl, then Lisa... and there's a couple of storms behind Lisa bidding for their chance to attack Florida.

Boing Boing blogs about the possible demise of Twinkies. Makes me want to go out and snag some.

Don't have Windows XP? Then don't use Internet Explorer. Heck, don't use it anyway. Get Firefox.

Looking at the list of frequently challenged books, the top book on the list that I've read is The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. I don't remember much about it beyond the fact that I didn't enjoy it. I read some other Cormier books around the same time, and I seem to recall that all of them were odd and disturbing. Particularly I Am The Cheese and The Bumblebee Flies Anyway. Cormier isn't on my list of favorite authors, but that doesn't mean he should be banned.

In honor of Banned Books Week, I put I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou on my library hold list. I should get to read it during the next week or so. I plan on reading some of the other books on the list over the next few months, as well.

And to finish off, here's a statue from the Winchester Mystery House:

Rapid Reviews - 22 September 2004 - Part I

Conan #8: The artwork is a mild disappointment. It's not bad, but I was really liking the regular artist a lot. This artist, Greg Ruth, will be doing fill-ins for a strange six part story-arc that isn't going to be released all at once. I think it's a good way to handle it, personally, and I'm curious to see what other fans think of the method. As for the story... it's Conan. What else is there to say, really? You like brutal fantasy warriors, you'll probably love this book.

Opposite Forces #4: The first story-arc is finally finished, and it's as funny as expected. Not a bad one at all, right down to Waggles the Villian. A fun, light superhero book.

PS238 #7: Wow. Just, wow. I thought this book couldn't possibly get any better. I was wrong. If you aren't reading this, at least visit the website and check it out: Free samples here. Or start here or here or here or here or here or here (or you could just click on that first here and keep clicking "next" as you read the minis. The regular issues are full length with a back-up story).

Still to review: Avengers, Plastic Man, H-E-R-O, Noble Causes, Smallville, and Daisy Kutter.

Review Copy Reviews

Possibly following the lead of AiT/Planet Lar, Atomeka has sent out a few review copies of their comic books to bloggers. I was one of the lucky recipients, and I'm happy to give you my thoughts on these books.

The Dave Johnson Sketchbook: Do you like Johnson's artwork already? If so, you'll love this book. It's a lot of great sketches from the artist, without any pretense of a story or theme. Most of the characters are original, with a couple of familiar faces from elsewhere thrown in. There's a nice box at the front of the book for getting your own sketch, but I've already got my Dave Johnson one. I personally liked some of the uniform and mecha designs. If you already enjoy the art, get the book. If not... well, it's probably not for you.

A1: Big Issue 0: I'm not even going to pretend to understand the first story, "The Bojeffries Saga", but it was funny and goofy and bizarre. The second story, "Kathleen's House" was a painful little slice of life story that I enjoyed a lot. The "Shark-Man" story was great from a superhero fan point of view, especially an Aquaman fan. It's a nice mix of Batman and Aquaman, and was stylish to boot. The Flaming Carrot story was just odd. "Survivor" was a slightly different take on a common concept. Overall, an excellent little anthology. Recommended.

Note: That's not all. Two more from Atomeka coming soon, and more from AiT/Planet Lar as well.

Random Thoughts

Welcome to Autumn.

Giant microbes. Plush fuzzy friendlies shaped like common diseases. Just the sort of thing Warren Ellis would point his readers to. I think the Rhinovirus is the cutest.

Shane Bailey is linkblogging again (does he ever stop?) go visit and check it out. 24 Hour Pixel People has some really good links up right now, too.

South Knox Bubba has another good entry: "New questions about service records have surfaced. Two former Air Force researchers have uncovered startling new information about a certain fighter pilot's fitness for duty. There are no fake memos involved this time. Instead they have documented evidence on film." Fascinating stuff.

The Seattle Times has an article about blogs. Yawn.

The lamp is happy to see you.

When Iranian newspapers are banned, Iranian Bloggers take up the fight. If there's hope for Iran, a part of it can be seen on Iran's blogs.

Apparently is is illegal to protest. Or walk down the street in an unmarked zone that is covered by this ridiculous law.

Slashdot explains why you should NEVER respond to spam, especially if it involves clicking on a link in the spam message.

Man returns UPS Shirt after a pleasant non-lawyer talk with UPS rep.

I'm addicted to Firefox. It's ten times faster than Mozilla on my computer, and after adding a few small extensions and changing a couple of settings, I like it almost as much as Mozilla in some places and much much more in others.

Jog the Blogger tells us about the top book on the challenged books list I linked to. Makes me want to go find the books and check them out!

The Modulator pledges to re-read Of Mice and Men in honor of Banned Books Week. I'm thinking maybe of re-reading Huck Finn if I don't find something else on the list I want to try out. Like Jog's suggestion of Scary Stories.

In any case, here are a couple of the Banned Books Week posters:

Banned Books Week is September 24th to October 1st.