A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Ghost Hunters: "Garden State Asylum" - Investigating a HUGE set of buildings and tunnels like that, with only a handful of people and cameras, seems like an almost pointless effort. This is made clear by that "great piece of evidence", where someone picked up the camera and dropped it without showing up on the camera. In an ideal situation, every camera would have another camera aimed at it. The lack of scientific method is the thing that really drives me nuts about this show. It could be applied, but never is.
• Food Detectives: "All You Can Eat" - The calorie counting in this one was particularly interesting to me, having lost over 100 pounds by paying attention to calories. The advice of sitting away from the buffet table and using the smaller plates during an all-you-can-eat is stuff I've used before, and works. I found the blue foods bit to be cool, but I would have liked to see other non-blue foods tested just to give us an idea of how deep into the spectrum other colors went.
• Dinner Impossible: "NBA All-Star Stress" - Why would Robert make his job so much more difficult by doing 30 instead of 10 dishes? This seemed to be the "safety in the kitchen" episode, with a number of near disasters, even repeated in slo-mo! Scary stuff, kiddies. If you can survive a Dinner Impossible with Chef Robert, you can probably handle a regular kitchen.
• Supernanny: "Krolikowski Family" - Jo is up against a dad who thinks she's full of bunk and uses corporal punishment on his children. Discipline in this house is based in fear and not love, where there is any discipline at all. I wasn't sure if this one would work at first, especially when dad acted like raising kids was nothing to do with him. Again, I really want to see a follow-up with this family in a year or so. And follow-ups with previous families as well.

---

This week's comic book related review is Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Manga: Boukenshin published by Tokyopop. "Boukenshin" translates as "Adventurous Spirit". There are four stories in this collection, featuring writers David Gerrold, Diane Duane, Christine Boylan, and F J DeSanto and artists E J Su, Chrissy Delk, Don Hudson, and Bettina Kurkoski.

• Changeling - A team is sent into the Labyrinth of Wisdom, with Ensign Wesley on his first mission. Groan-inducing. Constantly groan-inducing. Funny, yes, and the art enhances the fun, but definitely a groaner story. I liked it.
• Sensation - A mysterious plague attacks an archeological expedition, and the Enterprise aids and investigates. There are moments when this story moves a little slow, but overall it pulls together with a nice mystery and a solution unique to the crew of the Enterprise.
• The Picardian Knot - After a mind-meld with Ambassador Sarek, Picard and his crew are called to the Neutral Zone. Cringe-worthy at times, but the final result is satisfying. I enjoyed it.
• Loyalty - During the Enterprise's refit after Wolf 359, Riker is called to secret meeting to discuss the future of the ship's command. Courtroom drama doesn't work really well in comic book form, I'm afraid, and despite the artist's best efforts, this one comes across as a little forgettable. It's a good story, it's just not as good as the other stories in this collection.

Not a bad collection at all. The Manga style works with these characters, and the top-notch writers working on this collection also helped a lot. If you have a chance to snag a copy of this one and are a fan of STTNG, I'd recommend reading it.

---

My library book this week was A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham. This is a different sort of fantasy, with a unique premise and based in a neatly different culture. You are drawn into a world where the way a person holds their body is as important as the words they say, and poets can draw raw power into physical forms. This is the first book of a quartet, but it works fine as a standalone. Definitely a book to give a chance. I enjoyed it enough to request the remaining three books from Interlibrary loan (and just found out that the library system is ordering copies of all three now).

---

Agatha Christie this week was Dumb Witness from 1937. Still slowly working my way through these books in almost chronological order. This book has a rather active dog who talks to Hastings quite a bit, although he's not a good witness. The book also doesn't introduce Poirot into the story until about five chapters in. The mystery is good, and again I didn't get close to solving it. I'm beginning to think I never will solve a Poirot before the reveal.

---

Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

Linkdump

I agree: "motion comics" are not comics. It's a form of animation. That doesn't make it inferior or anything, it's just not comics.

Best story from NYCC: Daniel Dae Kim, better known as Jin off of "Lost", also attending the New York Comic Convention this weekend, in his capacity of being in "Lost," "24," "Enterprise," "Angel," "Hulk," "Crusade" and all that. But he also wanted to walk around the show, buy comics, meet creators etc, without getting mobbed. So someone found him a "V For Vendetta" mask, letting Daniel walk around untouched for hours.

So, how are comic shops going to get back-issues of Manga to attract all the kids to their shops?

Marv makes me almost willing to travel by plane again. It's amazing how a handful of slight improvements makes the journey sound so much more pleasant.

Doctor Who: The Anime. Unofficial, but clearly a labor of love. And very much in the tradition of Anime with scantily clad female characters.

Mickey Mouse Dalek. Dalek Hoop Dress Costume (I would wear this, in a color other than pink). Doctor Who Valentines.

Burglary Victim Steals Burglars' Van. Hubby-Eric saw this story and we giggled over it well before it got Boing Boing'ed.

A good suggestion... when newsmakers say they were 'stupid', substitute the word 'greedy'. Alex Rodriguez claims he was "young and stupid" but it ought to be "young and greedy".

Here's an outrage for you. A 12-year-old girl is accused of assaulting plainclothes police officers who grabbed her from an unmarked van, called her a "whore", and beat her so badly she required hospitalization. They then waited a few weeks before arresting her while she was at school. There have been two mistrials so far. But if anyone should be on trial, it's the police officers who attacked a little girl then tried to cover up their mistake by charging her with assault.

No Way, Is It Really A Linkdump?

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #180: Death Note, Dream Hunters, and Midnight Sons.

I don't like yaoi, and I've never even heard of lolicon (though the link makes it disgustingly clear what it is), but it is still wrong for a man to be arrested for possessing Japanese comics and cartoons.

CGI Wizard of Oz? Not sure... I'm just not sure.

How those yard signs actually make money for dating services. Impressive detective work here.

Now THIS is a lovely prank.

Altering Perception allows us to understand more.

Tired of taking the same old photographs? Give Tilt-Shift Photography a try, and make all your pictures look like models.

More Photography: Top 20 Great US Civil War Photographs.

Monty Python has started their own YouTube Channel, with exclusive videos.

I was actually considering trying to grow my own popcorn until I read about pollination and realized I don't know enough about gardening yet. Maybe when I get good enough to grow my own sweet potatoes I'll give it a try.

Wow. Some voters really are stupid. How hard is it to fill in a bubble next to a candidate's name? For some, it's apparently impossible.

Prop H8 hurts businesses.

Science Kittens.

Pug for the in-laws. No, this isn't meant as any sort of statement. It's just a cute picture of a pug. Really.

A Sunday Review

I started this week by catching up on my Manga anthology reading by going though Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump from the last few months. As I've said before, it was worth subscribing to Shonen Jump just to keep up with Hikaru No Go, which is one of my favorite comic stories, bar none, at the moment. I would easily pay $3 an issue just for Hikaru, and with the subscription I was paying less than that and getting five other decent series as well (along with one crappy/unreadable one). Yes, it's in black and white, but I pay $3 an issue for good b&w independent comic books. Unfortunately, I won't be getting SJ anymore, as Hikaru No Go has been dropped as of the May issue.

Incidentally, if you use my links to Amazon to buy a book, I generally end up using the tiny amount of money I get to buy the latest volume of Hikaru No Go. Which might give you a hint of how little I get through those links. But as long as I get Hikaru No Go, I'm happy.

My main complaint with Shojo Beat is the fluffy and disconnected style of some of the stories. In many shojo stories, the writer assumes that the reader knows the writer's intention without it being explicit. Well, sometimes the writer is correct. Other times the jumps are too much and instead of stark and beautiful it is confusing and annoying. Not every story suffers from the problem, but the ones that do tend to irritate me. Here's my thoughts on the stories I caught up with this week.

• Absolute Boyfriend: One of my favorite features... it ended in the March issue. And it actually managed to have a decent ending, even! I was a little surprised. This one was a solid adventure from the start.
• B.O.D.Y. (Preview): Enough to set up the premise, not enough to convince me to try it.
• Be With You (Preview): The preview was too short to get more than an impression of the style. It's impossible to tell if I'd enjoy this or not. I learned more about the tale from the one-page ads in later issues than from the preview.
• Crimson Hero: My other favorite story, about a girl determined to be a volleyball player despite her family's wishes. This has been a solid feature of this book.
• Haruka: Beyond The Stream of Time: All the characters look the same, and it's difficult to tell who is male or female. And it's very fluffy and disconnected.
• Honey and Clover: At times too fluffy, but overall fairly sweet and readable. The characters have distinct personalities, which sometimes doesn't seem to happen in shojo manga.
• I-O-N (Preview): Another preview that's a little too short to figure out whether it's worth picking up.
• Monkey High! (Preview): Now this is how a preview ought to be. Enough of the meat of the tale to know what it's going to be about, enough art to judge the style. It's a cute story, typical shojo. I suspect it will do well.
• Sand Chronicles: Too much wishy-washy looking at the past. If the story didn't fall into retrospective in every single issue of the magazine, it wouldn't be so bad. But this one goes a little overboard with the "Oh, how neat things were in the past!" meme. Otherwise, a halfway decent story is buried in there.
• Vampire Knight: I hated this when it started, but I've grown to almost appreciate it since. The main character is a wuss, and annoying. If she'd grow a spine, I think I might start to like this.

Overall, I'm not sure why I bother to subscribe to this anthology. Especially now that Absolute Boyfriend is ended. It doesn't have any one feature that I find so compelling that I have to buy the book, like with Shonen Jump. It's a smaller anthology than Shonen Jump, with less extras and a higher price tag. I tell myself I get it to keep my fingers on the pulse of manga, but I'm not really sure it's worth it.

I've said that I would buy Shonen Jump just for Hikaru No Go, so it's been fortunate for me that I also enjoy some of the other stories. The ones that have been in the book since I started reading it have grown on me. For the most part, I've been able to take these stories as they are intended (shonen=for boys) and appreciate the goofiness. Here's my thoughts on the stories I caught up with this week.

• Bleach: This one is relatively new to Shonen Jump, and I can't say I like it. I tried reading the first volume some time ago and wasn't impressed. The chapters in Shonen Jump pick up in the middle, and while I try to read it, I'm still not drawn into it yet.
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: I can't stand this feature. It's poorly drawn, badly plotted, and generally stupid beyond any reasonable level of stupidity. I no longer bother to try to read it.
• Hikaru No Go: My favorite tale, about an irresponsible kid who is possessed by an ancient master of Go, which changes his life. The last few installments have been REALLY interesting, as the Go master wants to take center stage, as he's been feeling out of the action.
• Naruto: SJ took a short break from this feature to dump a whole lot of graphic novels on the fans, and get a bit ahead of the story. The new storyline is intriguing, and if they had to jump ahead, I think they did a good job with it.
• One Piece: Ridiculous, silly, and at times hard to follow... but this one manages to be amusing and have a plotline as well. This one took a long time to grow on me, but I find it funny now.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: I enjoyed the original Yu-Gi-Oh to some extent, as it was a fairly compelling story with a nice history. A bit too much fighting, but most of these stories have too much fighting. This version, set later in time than the original, has it's high points as well.
• YuYu Hakusho: This one seemed like entirely fighting for the first year or so that I read it. Now it's settling down a little into a bit more than that. Another one that's grown on me.

After I've read SJ and SB I donate the magazines to the local library for the young adult librarian to give away as prizes. I then buy the collections of Hikaru No Go for my library. In the future, I'm only going to be buying the collections, which means the librarian is out some prizes. Sorry, library.

No movie for this week thanks to a full weekend. Hubby-Eric did finish watching the extras on the Dreamgirls DVD set that we got from the library.

TV this week: Classic Doctor Who: "The Invisible Enemy" parts 1 & 2 (I haven't seen this story in ages, it's practically new to me), Robin Hood: "Ducking and Diving" (Josie Lawrence!), Smallville: "Fracture" (yawn), Dinner: Impossible: "Late for the Luau" (most of the foods don't appeal to me, but I'd love to smell them), Torchwood: "Dead Man Walking" (don't listen to headphones during an evacuation), Supernanny: "Wilson-Knutson Family" (poop and songs, a perfect combination!), Ghost Hunters International: "Frankenstein's Castle" (interesting EVP there... but I'm disturbed by one of the Ghost Hunter's disrespect for the location), American Gladiators: "Grand Finale" (rip-roaring fun, and not much else. But then, that's sports in a nutshell), and Ace of Cakes: "The Spy Who Caked Me" (that housekeeping staff has a lot to answer for).

Got the latest Fortean Times, #233, to hit the Americas. This one had a couple of intriguing bits. The cover story, about two Italian guys who listened to messages from space just as the space race was starting, was very interesting. Especially the bits about possibly lost cosmonauts. Yikes. It's certainly something I can imagine the USSR doing to prevent knowledge of its failures, but you would think that somebody would have come forward by now with some hint of what really happened... wouldn't you? I also enjoyed "Rock's greatest lightshow" in which it is theorized that Neolithic rock art was in part inspired by a Southern plasma lightshow, an auroral storm. There was some unexpected Johnny Cash, as well. The reviews weren't very captivating this time, but overall a good issue.

My library book this week was The Doctor Who Was Followed by Ghosts: The Family Saga of a Chinese Woman Doctor by Li Qunying and Louis Han. An excellent book, it's basically the story of a woman's life through the last 80 or so years of China's history. She joined the Communist Army as a teenager, served in Korea, became a doctor and had four children. She survived the Cultural Revolution, and her first-hand account of all the events are amazing and frightening. She brings history alive in this book, in a down-to-earth manner. While not everyone will love this one, it is worth reading. Particularly if you have only a little understanding of China's recent history.

This week's comics arrived a bit late for me... because I was sick and not able to get them the day they arrived in the shop, for once. How do you know Laura is really sick? She doesn't get her comics on Wednesday. Anyway, on to my thoughts on this books... Checkmate #23 lost me a bit. I remember the previous issues in which this character infiltrated Kobra, but I felt like it jumped too quickly into the new plot. I think maybe I'm being nitpicky. Moving on... Justice League of America #18 did nothing for me because I'm not paying attention to the whole salvation run series, or whatever it's called. The various crossovers in DC-land are getting too much. Speaking of crossovers, Brave and the Bold #10 was a solid little tale featuring an almost unknown Aquaman character and a major event in Aquaman's life. And Aqualad actually looked correct in this one, wonder of wonders.

The Spirit #14 was fun, as usual. The old folks home was a nice touch. Witchblade #115 was a standard day-in-the-life story, and worked for what it was. Art was too cheesecake-y, but not as bad as it has been in the past. Conan #49 had lots of gore and not much plot.

Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews

A Sunday Review

Hubby-Eric and I watched more of Sapphire and Steel: "The Railway Station". Nicely spooky. Very slow, deliberate pacing.

On television, I watched American Gladiators (but the TiVo cut it off!), Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (just to watch Guy eat), Ace of Cakes (mmmmm...cake), Ghost Hunters International: "Haunted Village" (Barry and Brian lost in the woods, almost worth watching it just for that), Colbert Report (had some good bits this week), Torchwood: "To the Last Man" (that was really heart-breaking), Robin Hood: "The Angel of Death" (catching up on this series), and Mythbusters: "Airplane on a Conveyor Belt" (Ok, I understand the whole plane thing. But the radiation myth was DISGUSTING).

A book I checked out from the library was Do Not Open by John Farndon. It looks like the perfect coffee table book. Something to have sitting around to pick up and read when you are waiting around. It's not a terribly good borrow from the library, though, because it is the kind of book you want to savor. I hope I someday get a copy as a gift, but for now I returned it to the library.

Another library book was Peach Fuzz Volume 2 by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges which continued the ferret-y fun. I'm really enjoying this series, and this I'll check out volume three as soon as it becomes available at the library. It also seems like it would be a good gift book for a pre-teen girl.

I finally broke through my "do not feel like reading comic books" barrier and caught up on a few titles. For superheroes: Teen Titans: The Lost Annual was an excellent Elseworlds tale. Wonder Woman just isn't holding my interest. Sorry WW fans. Checkmate #22 was good, I like the historical aspect. Justice League of America #17 made no sense. JLA Classified has a fairly decent story going in the last two issues. Superman/Batman #45 completely got Joseph wrong (Hint: he's not going by "Arthur" anymore (doesn't anyone actually read the books before writing a character?)). Green Lantern #27 had one really amusing bit, as in who was chosen as the Sinestro Lantern on Earth... heh. The Spirit had a couple of solid standalone issues.

And in non-mainstream books: The last couple issues of Witchblade have been extremely readable, with very little unclothed women. I wonder if my friend will drop it now, so I can't read any more now that I'm enjoying it. Castle Waiting #10 has a bit of mystery, and I'm feeling very impatient for the next issue. Usagi Yojimbo #109 had an ending that I didn't want, but totally expected. Enough with Jei already! And I also loved Amelia Rules #19. Family history is cool (my sister is posting family pics on Flickr, so I'm experiencing my own Family History lately, as well).

We attempted to watch Ratatouille as our movie of the week, but the library copy we got was scratched enough that it wouldn't play all the way through (in fact, it stops just as Remy gets into the kitchen). GRRRR. How much brains does it take to be smart enough to NOT ruin a library item? What's with people who damage library DVDs?

A Sunday Review

I started the week by reading Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. It was a very quick read, a lot of fun, and slightly depressing by turns. Certainly one not to be missed if you like Chabon's work.

I then read Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robison. I was slightly surprised at how difficult it was for me to get through the first few chapters, which covered his earliest childhood. But my own experiences diverged completely from his pretty quickly. On pages 208-209 of the hardcover, in the chapter on "becoming Normal", I think he explains why. I may someday get up the nerve to try to pull all the strings together and write about it, but not today.

Another item I read was the first volume of Peach Fuzz by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges. A very fun little manga-ish digest. The contrasting view of the child and the ferret is fun to see. I plan to check out the other volumes and see if their views ever begin to really merge. I was, I admit, slightly disturbed at how viciously the child played with the ferret, then I remembered it was a ferret and didn't care anymore.

I also caught up on reading Fortean Times, which was as amusing and frustrating as it always is. I usually get a couple of good suggestions for books to read from each magazine, assuming I can find them via inter-library loan.

Hubby-Eric and I also started in on the second Sapphire and Steel story, "The Railway Station". As soon as the guy in the opening set up his equipment, I said, "He's a ghost hunter!" and was only slightly surprised to see I was right. As is often the case in ghost hunting, the woman becomes the bait.

In television, I watched American Gladiators again (guilty pleasure), Supernanny (the guy's story made me cry), Torchwood: "Sleeper" (eh, it was ok), Ace of Cakes (the Harry Potter cake!), and Ghost Hunters International: "Whispers From Beyond" (eh, so-so).

Another Linkdump

A word about Wowio: Let's let Scott Sava of Dreamland Chronicles tell you about it. In short, free and legal downloads of various books and comics, and the publishers get paid when you download them. My only complaint is that they are all PDF only, which is a sucky format. I'd much prefer CBR for comics.

Recent Aquaman references on The Simpsons (self-link).

A 24-hour comic: Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Crohns Disease.

Oooh, looking forward to Dramacon 3!

The winners of Pimp My Bookcart 2007. My favorites are the Mystery Machine and the Yellow Submarine.

Heh, Futurama Al Gore. Heh.

25 Photographs Taken at the Exact Right Time. While most of them are very cool, the look on the face of the photographer about to be run over by a football player is classic.

Jamming Cell Phones (NYTimes). Illegal, but sometimes so tempting.

Dog is Gun.

Whoa. Jabba the Hutt costume. Too big, too much. But funny.

Steampunk Laptop. WOW.

Common surnames began as insulting nicknames. "Both the English names Nott and Cave probably described someone who was bald. A Barrett was a fraud, a Mallory someone unlucky and a Purcell a little pig. In France, a Bechard was a gossip."

Cats: TacocaT, Lazor Cats, and Gossipping Kittehs.

Manga Review

Nodame Cantabile vol 1 by Tomoko Ninomiya, published by Del Rey.

Ok, first I have to explain why I checked out this book. On page 261 of the Aug/Oct 2007 Previews from Diamond, there is a solicit for volume 11 of this series. The character on the cover is playing a bassoon. I started playing musical instruments as a young child, initially by pounding on my parent's piano, eventually learning the clarinet formally. When I was 12, I took up the bassoon, and played it until I left High School. I also played the trombone and sousaphone (marching tuba). My favorite instrument by far was the bassoon, and although I never became more than a mediocre player, I still have a very soft spot in my heart for the instrument. Thus, I had to find out what this manga series which featured a basson on its cover was about.

The series is about a brilliant but very by-the-book musician who wants to become a conductor. He meets a number of musicians who play from the soul, and begins to learn that he has a long way to go if he wants to be a good conductor. I wasn't really impressed with the pacing of the story, nor the storytelling in the artwork. It's all solid, but not exceptional. The main character is unlikeable, and the main supporting character is a flighty pianist who is also a slob. I'm not convinced they can carry the story enough for me to want to read more of the series.

Still, I'm going to pick up the second volume from the library, and give it a chance to impress me. I'm lukewarm on it now, but my opinion may change.

Follow-Up Thoughts (Slightly Foggy)

I spent some more time trying to sort out my thoughts on the topic last night. It occurred to me that the reason so many people do superhero books when they create their own comics (in addition to it being what they know) is that they are trying to take the superheroes in directions that the Big Two can't. I'm thinking, in particular, of AiT/Planet Lar and Boom! Studios, who took the concepts further and better than a lot of others who have tried.

As Elayne points out in the comments of my last post, DC and Marvel have to keep their characters somewhat stable, as they are licensed properties more than characters now. This is one reason I was really behind what Kurt was doing with Aquaman. At the end, if he'd finished, we would've had the best of both worlds. In my opinion, of course. But time got in the way, as it too often does.

I wish DC (and yeah, Marvel) would take some of their more innovative but low selling books to the web. Publish them a page a day as webcomics, then release collections on a regular basis. It works for a number of other outfits. Why not Aquaman? Why not Chase? Heck, while I'm dreaming, why not Chronos? Girl Genius is doing extremely well as a webcomic with print collections. Dreamland Chronicles is doing well in that format. Powers is releasing back issues in the format, and it seems to be helping sales. Why can't one of the big two take a risk?

That pulls me into the cost issue. With manga, I get 6 different comic books in one of the anthologies (Shonen Jump or Shojo Beat). At subscription price, the anthologies, which tend to be 250-350 pages, are THE EXACT SAME PRICE as a DC title, which has 22 pages. Hikaru No Go, the reason I get Shonen Jump, tends to run about 40 pages per issue of the magazine. At 40 pages, it alone is worth the cost of the subscription. The only disadvantage at all is the lack of color... and frankly that matters very little when the story manages to be so engrossing.

I would buy a monthly DC anthology, even in B&W, if it featured at least one character I liked and was at a price I considered competitive with the manga books. But I've been told repeatedly by DC editors that anthologies simply don't work. Well, funny, Shonen Jump has pretty good sales. I don't buy the DC editors' arguments. Anthologies work if you do them right. DC doesn't know how to do anthologies anymore.

Ah well. My brain is stuttering to a stop, and I've got to get to work very soon. So I'll close this one out. I think that if DC and Marvel stopped looking at only the content of manga to try to fix their own problems, and started looking at the marketing and format of manga as well, they might be able to break out of the trend they are in. But then, what do I know? I'm just a brain-fogged fan.

Unformed Throughts

I've been trying to sort out, with my on-going mental fogginess problem, why I'm not more upset about the possibility of Aquaman getting canceled. I think it has to do with a growing jaded feeling about American comics in general. I LOVE the current Aquaman, and I adore what Kurt, and now Tad, are trying to do with the book. But it feels to me like no one else does.

I've been reading more manga lately, and enjoying it, overall, more than most of the superhero books I read. The superhero tales seem to be constant rehashings of the same old tales, with no hope of any real character development, because as soon as you start to develop a character like Superman, or Aquaman, the fanboys go nuts and the sales drop and ... well. It's just a cycle of nonsense.

I think I've thrown up my hands in surrender. I simply don't care anymore about the fate of DC and Marvel. I want to care. I'll continue to buy Aquaman. But the stories are SO boring compared with the adventures and developments in non-DC and non-Marvel books that I just can't enjoy them anymore. You cannot put a character into stasis and expect to keep most of your audience. And neither of the big two dares to really change or develop their characters anymore. The fans will always demand Hal Jordan back. And so it goes, into boringness.

Contrast that with manga. I can pick up just about any manga series and expect a couple of things: 1) The characters are going to learn and grow and 2) The story will someday end. I get more pure enjoyment out of reading Hikaru No Go every month than all the non-Aquaman mainstream superhero comics I read combined. Same with other non-manga titles. Like Usagi Yojimbo, who has changed and whose supporting cast goes through changes. Or PS238, which had a major (and very difficult) change for one of its characters in recent issues. Or even DMZ, which promises to document a war unlike any other. Think of True Story, Swear to God... the tale may not end (I hope not!) but the characters certainly grow and develop. DC and Marvel cannot compete with these kind of powerful stories.

There is a place for the type of superheroes that DC and Marvel publish, but I'll be a sea otter's uncle if I know how this whole thing will eventually shake out. At the moment, it looks to me like manga is winning the hearts and minds of the future generations, and once the old guard like me are gone, DC and Marvel will also fade away. I doubt that will happen, but my pessimism knows no bounds at the moment.

I guess I'm more upset about Aquaman than I realized.

A Few Links

Best line I read recently in a comic book: "Did your boob just sneeze?" - Shojo Beat, July 2007 in "Absolute Boyfriend".

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #105 and Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #106. If that's not enough, then read about Comic Book Urban Legends Revealers.

Scariest Kids' TV Show Ever (YouTube). Via Cheyenne.

Aw, I like jawdropping coincidences in the blogosphere.

Most Unfortunate Logos Ever. The Junior Jazz Dance Classes one took me a moment... oh dear. The description of the London Olympics logo is crude but entirely too accurate.

Lunks and Dimps

I gotta get this.

I've always liked Vikings (I married a nice Norwegian-named boy, even), so I gotta get this.

Waiting Room. I've often thought that a good way to build audiences for comic books would be to get comics into waiting rooms, where people would certainly like something other than a typical magazine to look at. If I were rich, I'd start a waiting room project in a test market, just to see if it really does help sales/readership. But then, I'm nutso like that.

Death Note inspires kids to write names in their own Notebooks. In Death Note, the hero/villian of the story writes names in a notebook and the people whose names he writes die. I could see how kids copying that would be disturbing.

Wil Wheaton in Dork Tower #36.

Breakfast of the Gods. A webcomic with a familiar cast.

I stopped reading B.C. when it stopped being funny many years ago, but I loved the strip as a kid. Rest in Peace, Johnny Hart.

Seattle Weekly on Ellison/Fantagraphics. *sigh*. I just want it to end.

Hrm. No Carl's Jr around here, but I want the card game. Hrm.

Virginia Hey has a new acting role. She retired when she came to the United States... but... go read her entry about it.

Hubby-Eric and I watched "Thank God You're Here" and I found the improv to be non-improv-y... and Wil Wheaton explains exactly what the problem was. Thank you, Wil, for putting it into words.

I love this, three Washington state towns on the top 10 list of towns that pre-ordered Harry Potter.

Figuring out why dogs vary in size. The genetic studies could help humans some day, too.

Stanford Copyright Renewal Database project makes it easier to discover if a book is under copyright. Go Check It Out!

Saturn is turning.

Sitemeter has gone spyware. A lot of folks use Sitemeter for counting hits on their websites... but apparently it's started doing more than just counting hits.

Don't Fly Without A Copy of Rule 240.

Don't Hotlink, follow Wil's advice and use ImgRed.com instead!

Laptop Battery Hack.

Cute Link: When out of tissues, a cat is fine too.

A Fifth of Lunkdimp

Butt-Shots in Comics. I particularly like the Vixen/Amazo contrast, because I didn't notice it when I read the book, but it's totally obvious when taken in this context.

Boing Boing on tormenting squirrels. Spinning Bird Feeder. Squirrel Obstacles Courses.

It's the Dursley Syndrome! Parents don't recognize obesity in their kids.

More Wil Wheaton, who is vastly more interesting as a nerd than he ever was as Wesley: tapestry. Two stories of Wil dealing with fans.

TangognaT passes along some cool library links: What Is A Librarian? and The Joy of Interlibrary Loan are great reads.

And don't forget to enter TangognaT's Manga Giveaway!

A whine about e-mail sigs. Way back in the early days of the 'net, when we had to power our computers with hamsters, I was told that a sig should never exceed four lines of text, which I have stuck to all these years. Reports of PHOTOs in sigs admittedly bothers me, especially if you are sending mail to someone who has to pay for download time. I don't mind sigs, but be reasonable about them, folks!

Jeopardy is teasing about Friday March 16th's show: "for the first time in 23 years, 'Jeopardy!' history will be made." Well, hey, since we got the TiVo entirely to record Jeopardy so hubby-Eric never will have to miss it again, yeah, we'll watch it. Via Various and Sundry.

Which microlender is best? Surprise, it's Kiva, the one that I have a little bit of money in. I meant to put $50 a year into it, but haven't put any money in this year yet, due to our financial difficulties.

Daily Lunkdimp

Childhood nightmares from movies.

Dewey tries Shojo Beat. Full disclosure: I currently subscribe to both Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat, and I like both of them. A lot. When I'm done with my copies, I donate them to the library, which apparently has a HUGE demand for them, judging by the profuse thanks I got from the young adult librarian.

SUPER CREEP, preview at Emerald City Comicon.

Computer modeling based on game theory supports Net Neutrality.

WorldCat isn't a bit website about cats around the world... it's a catalog of books around the world. And there's a cool new feature that allows you to figure out how to cite the book you are looking at with a click of the mouse. I really wish this had been around when I was in college.

And I thought the 3-Day was a long walk.

Cat flu?

Cosplay at 300 Opening. Mmmmm, buff young men wearing nothing but what the Spartans wear in the movie... "We've got hostiles with sticks."

Another Linkdump

Google Reader makes it easier to do linkdumps...

Emerald City Comicon has updated: "actress Margot Kidder (that's right, Lois Lane from the original four Christopher Reeve Superman movies) will be making an appearance SATURDAY ONLY." I just got my tickets for the con.

TangognaT is giving away Manga. Go enter!

Have you seen This Strip? Peanuts Sunday Strip needs to be found in better quality.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #92. Again, when's the book coming out?

More from NYCC, including this intriguing and distressingly familiar quote from another Laura:

We almost end up in the manga section, and that makes me sad, because I’m a female comics fan that isn’t really into manga, and I wish there were more of me. Unfortunately, people like me exist despite the entrenched comics industry as it exists, not because of it.

I enjoy Manga, now, but it's true that I like superhero books as well. And I wish there were more of me, and more superhero books that I really enjoyed.

FilkerTom wishes happy birthday to Dr. Suess.

The BBC has two YouTube channels, including stuff from Doctor Who: David Tennant's Video Diary and Freema Agyeman's Video Diary. Check out the BBC Channel and the BBC Worldwide Channel.

Cavemen Sitcom. Sounds like a really bad idea to me. The commercials are just barely tolerable as it is.

Blogging about blogging is a sin: 34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe From Your Blog. Reason #1 is why I limit myself to 3 posts a day. Reason #2 is why I try to post at least once a day. And reason #3 annoys the heck out of me.

Headline of the Day: "Swiss Accidentally Invade Liechtenstein."

Here's a newspaper correction for you: Emus, not ostriches, victims of dogs in SeaTac. There's a reason I believe very firmly in leash laws for dogs.

Misbehaving Pituitaries on DI.

The Bad Astronomer is in love with Saturn. At least it isn't Uranus.

Star Wars Steampunk with pictures. Ooooooo.

Net Neutrality and DRM.

Lefty Brown links to an interesting article about Huey Lewis and the News.

Heh heh heh: Oh, Leif! Why do you taunt us so?

If you haven't read this letter on Neil Gaiman's website about what librarians have to go through, then go read it now.

And on that topic: Hot Library Smut. Via Garrett.

And, speaking of smut, Boing Boing continues to cover the horrible case of Julie and the pop-up porn.

War on drugs continues to be stupid.

The Sandbox: The Little Things.

Attention LINUX geeks: does anyone have any really good instructions on installing LINUX to dual-boot on a machine that already has Windows XP installed? I'd rather not mess up my existing XP too much, but I'd really like to give LINUX a real try instead of just running the live boot CD.

CUTE!

Linkages

Best moment of the Oscars: Al Gore pulling his "My fellow Americans" bit with Leo and being cut off by the orchestra: thus poking fun at himself, the Oscars, and the people hoping he'd declare a run for President at the Oscars. It was very nicely done, and got a belly laugh from hubby-Eric and I. The rest of the show was ... typical.

Another ten of a kind! Go Bully!

Unintentionally amusing team-up: Sci Fi and Virgin. Oh dear. I can hear the snickering from the peanut gallery already.

Follow the Golden Arches. I predict really crappy McD's food in my future, as they are having a Wizard of Oz promo in their Happy Meals.

Journalista reports on Monthly Shonen Jump being shut down, as it's lost its audience to competing mangazines. Weekly Shonen Jump will continue to be published. Note that the sales on Monthly Shonen Jump have dropped to 370,000 copies per month... numbers any American comic book would kill for.

The Alcatraz Redemption, DI covers the only successful escape from Alcatraz... well, sort of.

Doctors who play video games have steadier hands?

We need to sort out Wi-Fi laws, as this story makes clear. If a public Wi-Fi spot is left on after hours, is it a crime to use it?

Fourteen Years Ago, a new Sci-Fi show premiered. The actual premiere in Bellingham, where I was living at the time, was the next day.

Ok, this whole James Cameron finds Jesus' tomb and makes a documentary thing is silly enough, but ... DNA tests? Just whose DNA are they comparing?!?? (For the record: I certainly believe Jesus could have been married and had a kid or two, he was 30 when he started his ministry after all, and considered a relatively normal guy before then. I don't expect it to be proven, though, as all evidence is 2000 years old.)

Hello World

Happy Blogday to Neilalien, who hit the big SEVEN YEARS today!

And from the Seattle Times comes a story that reminds me how proud I am to have attended a college with no Greek nonsense on campus.

Glenn reports on the Manga library at NYCC.

Monday Links

Definitely worth reading: The Australian Treasurer makes a snarky comment about comics, is smacked down thoroughly for it. That's how we make comics popular with all the population again... get politicians to make stupid remarks about them.

Another definitely worth reading: Naruto: bigger than Spider-Man? The Beat's summary of the original article is very well-done, and I seriously recommend folks take a look at it.

Marv Wolfman watches 300.

Amy Unbounded Fan Art.

Mark Waid on the perils of writing a book with lots of secrets in a shared universe where said secrets make up part of the foundation of other books.

BWAH-HA-HA-HA!! I don't know why I find this one laugh-on-the-floor hysterical, but I do.

Honeybees are dying in huge numbers, threatening US crops.

Trying to do some upkeep, changing e-mails to my new domain... it's been an adventure. I can't believe how many on-line accounts of some sort I have, and worse, how many I actually care about and visit on a daily basis! However, I've taken some advice from someone else (can't remember who now) who owns his own domain who told me he set up different e-mail addresses for different companies he signed up with online so he could tell if they sold his address to someone else. I figure that as long as I'm changing the e-mails in the first place, I might as well sort 'em out so I'll know where the spam is coming from. Let's see if it works!