By min | June 13, 2012, 2:07 PM | Ummm... Other?| Link

June 12, 2012

Now Taking a Collection to Buy DC Artists a Book on Human Anatomy

One with lots of pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

On The Mary Sue today, i saw this picture for September's Catwoman #0 issue:

And i think i must have looked at it for close to a minute before i understood what i was looking at. For the first 45 seconds, i don't even think her boobs registered because my brain knew that there shouldn't be boobs occupying that space on an anatomically correct human body.

I spent most of the 45 seconds trying to figure out where her foot was coming from and why the thumb and first 2 fingers of her left hand were horrifically deformed (esp. when compared to her itty bitty right hand). Then i realized her boot was sticking out of what is supposed to be one of her butt cheeks. An excessively swollen butt cheek, i might add (er...you might want to get a doctor to look at that).

This post generously states that the artist, Guillem March, is not only not a bad artist, but "quite competent" in terms of technique. If that is the case, than the problem is that March's idea of "sexy" is just strange.

Here is a parody drawing by an earlier Catwoman artist.

ETA: When i showed this to two of my female friends, they both had no problem with the drawing. Ofc, they also both seemed to think that her right butt cheek (the one in the back) was closer to the viewer than the left butt cheek, and therefore should appear larger. I told them i didn't think they understood how perspective worked. I also asked one of them to pose this way so we could take a photo of a real human and see where all the body parts would line up. Shockingly, i've yet to hear back on that suggestion. Spoilsports.

By min | June 12, 2012, 2:16 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

June 10, 2012

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

I have to travel this week (also means no updates on the comics timeline site) so i'll get my reviews in early. Because i care.

Winter Soldier #6 - This is the first issue of this series where we are not promised Dr. Doom vs. Super-Apes. So i suppose it would be unfair to criticize it for not delivering Dr. Doom vs. Super-Apes (although an argument could be made...). So now i'm back to where i was with issue #1 before i turned to that final page and saw a gorilla with a machine gun firing at the Latverian embassy: this series is written well enough, but do i really want to read a solo Bucky book?

Avengers vs. X-Men #5 - So i'm pretty sure there are three events in this issue: 1) Hope decides that she doesn't want to be the host for the Phoenix force 2) Iron Man tries to fight the Phoenix force in a rather uninspired looking Mecha but fails 3) Instead of just Hope getting possessed by the Phoenix force, all the X-Men get possessed by the Phoenix force. The rest of the issue, as far as i can tell, is basically ads for the tie-in books or mostly blank pages depicting explosions or whatever. That's just not enough content for a 20 some page comic. This is the most insanely structured crossover event i've ever seen.

X-Men Legacy #267 - Well, clearly Gage agrees with me on how an Iron Man vs. X-Men fight would go down. First Rogue flat-out says that Iron Man could take down the whole team. Then the X-Men barely manage to fight off an empty Iron Man suit. This was a really well-written fight, though. Rogue absorbing She-Hulk's powers and then immediately turning around and punching Frenzy in the nose was hilarious. After last issue's poor set-up, i got cranky and dropped this series again, so i suspect it will drive Wanyas and his shop owner crazy if i change my mind a third time. Eh, i'll just pick it up in the bargain bins ten years from now. Oh, and you know where i'd really like to read a well-written Avengers/X-Men fight? IN THE AVENGERS VS. X-MEN SERIES!!

X-Factor #237 - Yeah, ok.

Journey Into Mystery #639 - I really liked this. It took the New Mutants crossover to get me reading this book, but i'm glad i stuck with it. It's like i've got my own little Fables (or similar) right here in the Marvel Universe. I like Kid Loki.

Hulk #53 - Man, She-Hulk just can't catch a break this week. Plus, four "Hulks" and the only one talking in "Hulk smash!" voice is Sasquatch. But people! This is the Red Hulk teaming up with Machine Man and Alpha Flight to fight the Mayan 2012 prophesy itself! And drawn by Eaglesham. You can't turn that down.

Dark Avengers #175 - I'm on board with this. People drawn in by the nice Deodato cover (is that a tribute to something? It looks familiar) might be a little disappointed by the interior art, but i'm hoping Parker's writing will rope them in. And i'm still hoping Parker will bring back some of the previous Thunderbolts team; it sure looks like he's leaving that door open.

Avengers Academy #31 - Nice twist with Shaw's motivations, and just really great writing overall. You'll notice this has knocked Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers out of my "top most anticipated" spot (i read and review my comics from "least likely to enjoy" to "most likely to enjoy"). So if i like Gage here so much, it makes sense for me to keep getting X-Men Legacy, right? Man, if only it weren't another AvX tie-in (on the other hand, the fact that it's a Frenzy tie-in is actually a plus, as far as i'm concerned). Speaking of AvX tie-ins, though, i gave Avengers Academy #19 the (much coveted) "Best Use of a Fear Itself Tie-in", and i'm gonna go ahead and say the same is true of this arc for Avengers vs. X-Men.

By fnord12 | June 10, 2012, 9:40 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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Um...We Were Hungry

If you order takeout, and they don't give you your food in a box plus a bag for whatever wouldn't fit in the box, then you did something wrong.

If you look carefully, you'll see the corner of a cupcake to the right of the bag. We bought that at a vegan-friendly bakery while waiting for our food to be prepared. Cause the 4 slices of cake we ordered with the rest of our food at the restaurant was clearly not enough dessert.

By min | June 10, 2012, 12:34 AM | My stupid life | Comments (2) | Link

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June 8, 2012

Romance Comics

I found these. They're great.

"Was it his love she wanted - or just his kisses?" Probably the former, since his kisses appear to be rather inexpert and poorly aimed. Unless he's trying to smell what she had for lunch.

I told fnord12 i might have to start collecting these because they're clearly made of awesome sauce. He said i had 30 boxes of comics to get through first. Hrmph. Tyrant.

By min | June 8, 2012, 2:27 PM | Comics| Link

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You're Welcome, South Africa

For the contribution our government has made in inspiring your secrecy bill. Take that, whistleblowers (I'm looking at you, Bradley Manning)!

The protection of state information bill - dubbed the "secrecy bill" - envisages draconian penalties of up to 25 years in prison for whistleblowers and journalists who possess, leak or publish state secrets. It has been described as the first piece of legislation since the end of apartheid in 1994 to undermine South Africa's democracy.

Opponents of the bill fear that, with South Africa often regarded as a beacon of democracy and freedom on the continent, it could be used as an excuse by repressive African regimes for renewed crackdowns on journalists and activists.

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"The legislation is transparently intended to make life difficult for pesky investigative journalists, and generally to save incompetent or corrupt bureaucrats from being embarrassed," Coetzee, born in Cape Town but now resident in Australia, said in an email. "Its sponsors have very likely been emboldened by the push that has taken place all over the western world since 2001 to erect a wall of secrecy around the more dubious actions of the state, and to make it a crime to breach that wall."

It makes you feel good to know that we're setting an example for the world. I know, i know. We can't take all of the credit. We're not the only country in the west. But still. We contributed, and we should get credit for it. Ofc, we should also see what they've got in their secrecy bill and compare it to our secrecy policies. They might have some good ideas in there that we didn't think of.

Today, South Africa boasts arguably the freest press in Africa, with no shortage of revelations about shady deals or satirical cartoons lampooning politicians' foibles. Freedom of expression, including freedom of the press and other media, has been protected under the constitution. But opponents of the bill believe the gains of the past 18 years are under threat and warn that the rest of the continent is watching. In neighbouring Zimbabwe, journalists continue to be harassed and arrested, while state broadcasters remain firmly under President Robert Mugabe's control. ... Nic Dawes, editor of South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, said: "We're already hearing from people elsewhere on the continent that their politicians and government officials are saying to them: 'You see, they're even doing this in South Africa, so there's no reason why we shouldn't be doing it here.'

Meh. The South African government should learn another thing from the western world - propaganda through the media (see post below).

By min | June 8, 2012, 2:01 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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Obama Administration Perfecting the Use of the Media as a Propaganda Mouthpiece

In today's Guardian, Glenn Greenwald writes:

The Obama White House's extreme fixation on secrecy is shaped by a bizarre paradox. One the one hand, the current administration has prosecuted double the number of whistleblowers - government employees who leak classified information showing high-level official wrongdoing - than all previous administrations combined. Obama officials have also, as ACLU lawyers documented this week in the Guardian, resisted with unprecedented vigor any attempts to subject their conduct to judicial review or any form of public disclosure, by insisting to courts that these programs are so secretive that the US government cannot even confirm or deny their existence without damaging US national security.

But at the very same time that they invoke broad secrecy claims to shield their conduct from outside scrutiny, it is Obama officials themselves who have continuously and quite selectively leaked information about these same programs to the US media. Indeed, the high publicity-value New York Times scoops of the past two weeks about covert national security programs have come substantially from Obama aides themselves.

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In sum, these anonymous leaks are classic political propaganda: devoted to glorifying the leader and his policies for political gain. Because the programs are shrouded in official secrecy, it is impossible for journalists to verify these selective disclosures. By design, the only means the public has to learn anything about what the president is doing is the partial, selective disclosures by Obama's own aides - those who work for him and are devoted to his political triumph.

But that process is a recipe for government deceit and propaganda. This was precisely the dynamic that, in the run-up to the attack on Iraq, co-opted America's largest media outlets as mindless purveyors of false government claims. The defining journalistic sin of Judith Miller, the New York Times' disgraced WMD reporter, was that she masqueraded the unverified assertions of anonymous Bush officials as reported fact.
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Perhaps the most pernicious effect of this type of journalism is that it converts journalists into dutiful messengers of official decrees. Reporters are trained that they will be selected as scoop-receivers only if they demonstrate fealty to the agenda of official sources.

In the article, Greenwald gives two examples of the difference in how two NYT journalists are treated when one writes glorifying articles on successful government missions and the other points out the mistakes.

I don't think they need to amend that ban on domestic dissemination of propaganda. They've already figured out how to spread government misinformation.

By min | June 8, 2012, 12:28 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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I've never seen one land, but i always look up to make sure when i'm passing through

Very rarely, around noon, i escape my corporate masters and get outside to clear my head. Sometimes i even get to eat food. I am told by people who don't have co-workers on the west coast that like to have meetings that start 'first thing in the morning' and run until noon their time that this is called a "lunch break".

In our old building, there used to be a nice quiet street you could walk along, but since we've moved, i basically walk along a string of connected office building parking lots. This is weird and sad, but i'm not the only one who does it. It's either that or walking along the highway.

But walking in the parking lot is not without its own perils. Hence this:

No idea why there's a helicopter landing pad in the parking lot for a building that has software companies, ad agencies, lawyers, and a psychologist's office, but i'll admit there have been times when, if there was a helicopter waiting for me outside, i'd probably have fled my office, Saigon-evacuation style. Actually, by "there have been times" i mean "always".

I appreciate the arrow, helpfully pointing up. They come from thataway.

By fnord12 | June 8, 2012, 12:12 PM | My stupid life| Link

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Who to blame?

Quoting most of a Yglesias post:

Bernanke said, repeatedly, that he believes there are additional steps that he could take to bolster real growth and that he remains at the ready to unleash those steps if he thinks conditions warrant.

In other words, whatever it is that people who aren't named "Ben Bernanke" think is standing in the way of the Fed reducing the unemployment rate, Ben Bernanke thinks that nothing is standing in his way other than his own relative lack of concern with the fate of jobless people.

His view is that he could do more, and that if the situation gets worse he may do more, but that he doesn't regard a years-long period of mass unemployment as that big a problem. He's more concerned with preserving the Fed's credibility at capping consumer price increases at a two percent annual level. That's his personal judgment. Better for millions to stay unemployed than for them to start commuting to work and moving out of their parents' basement, pushing up oil prices and rents. It's a perverse judgment in my view, but nobody on the Hill wanted to directly challenge it.

This is entirely fair criticism and i agree with it, but it's worth remembering that the reason we're looking to the Fed right now is because our political system is completely gridlocked and the Fed (because it isn't accountable directly to voters or politicians) is the only one with any power that can act. But most economists agree that fiscal stimulus (e.g., government spending) is more effective than monetary stimulus (e.g., manipulating interest rates). And interest rates are already effectively at 0, so anything the Fed does will be somewhat unconventional and unproven. This isn't to say there aren't a lot of good ideas about what the Fed can do (and indeed, as Yglesias points out, Bernanke himself thinks he could do a lot, if he only wanted to). But we should also keep in mind that we're only looking here because of the failure of our political system.

By fnord12 | June 8, 2012, 10:04 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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June 7, 2012

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

I only had one regular book come out last week, but i also bought into the hype and got the entire Battle Scars series to date, and the first three issues of Marjorie Liu's Astonishing X-Men. And i finally got all the pieces of Circle of Four. So we'll look at my one regular book and then those runs comprehensively (but still SuperMegaSpeedily).

New Mutants #43 - So i actually would have been ok with this crossover ending last issue with Sigurd being forced to marry the Dsir. I wasn't sure what this issue would entail. And while the twist that Bor's idea of marriage is a bit, uh, antiquated was clever, i still probably could have done without this issue. But it was fine.

Battle Scars - Well, it's better than a trip to Dr. Melinda Brewer. If we ignore the purpose of the series, it's actually a fun romp through the Marvel Universe, although the art could be a little better. Yost writes a good Deadpool. So add to the fact that this was going to happen, one way or another, and i think it worked out about as well as it could have (I'm being a little coy about what this series is about because min hasn't read it yet and has somehow managed to avoid all the chatter, and i don't want to spoil it). In any event, this series has a great soundtrack.

Astonishing X-Men #48-50 - There was a little kerfuffle where Dale Eaglesham, the artist from the Alpha Flight series that min got cancelled, complained that the Northstar wedding was originally scheduled for the Alpha series, with the obvious implication that the attention could have kept the series afloat, but that Marvel wanted the X-Men to get the attention instead. Then he subsequently retracted the statement. Certainly the Alpha Flight series laid the groundwork for this by developing Northstar and Kyle's relationship, and Northstar isn't a traditional X-Man character, but i'm glad to see it picked up in another book rather than just fade into limbo. I feel like Northstar is way too earnest and friendly in these issues, but i guess that's just us getting to see another side of him. I like the way Liu is handling the relationship part of this story, with Kyle's doubts and Northstar over-compensating with the marriage proposal. As for the rest of the plot, i could do without Kyle already getting kidnapped - such a cliche for a civilian love interest - and the repeating dream sequence device was a bit annoying, but i liked the character interactions and the use of the Marauders as dupes. The Beat article that first reported on the Eaglesham stuff also notes that Liu's run seems to be designed as a loose-end tie-up book, but i'm not really sure what the loose end for Karma is, exactly. If she was taking care of "Face", i guess i could see it. Anyway, i think i'll stick around for a while. Art isn't great (The Shiar lady's costume is terrible, having the Black Widow make fun of it doesn't make it ok, and the Black Widow herself looked terrible in that scene).

Circle of Four: Venom #13, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 14 - I knew that i didn't really need this and that if i managed to track them all down it would just be a letdown, but i did it anyway. And it was actually ok. Not great. There's some weird stuff going on in the Marvel Universe nowadays - Flash Thompson has no legs? And he's Venom, but he uses guns? They're really playing up the soldier angle, huh? Originally Flash Thompson was drafted and his soldier identity wasn't really emphasized once he got back from 'Nam, but i guess with the sliding timescale and the Spider-Man reboot that i've been studiously ignoring things have changed. The new Ghost Rider's snarky attitude was a bit annoying, and i really don't like the Aaron-introduced idea that there's really all these various Ghost Riders. You've got Johnny Blaze right there; use him! (And i await the mini-series that reveals that Blaze has a long-lost son that looks like Nicholas Cage). Other than that, i liked Blackheart, i thought X-23 was handled very well, Red Hulk-Venom Rider is about as kewl as you can get, and overall it was an ok fun little demonic romp.

By fnord12 | June 7, 2012, 9:36 PM | Comics | Comments (3) | Link

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It's How They Roll in Greece

Holy Crap! The first 50 seconds aren't all that exciting, but the last 30...

The brawl, a first in the nearly 40 years since democracy was returned to its birthplace, broke out during a morning talkshow when Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman of the far-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) took umbrage at deputy Rena Dourou declaring that his party "will take the country back 500 years".

After leaping from his seat and throwing a glass of water at Dourou, a deputy with the radical Syriza party, Kasidiaris then turned on Liana Kanelli, an MP with the KKE communist party, who, waving a piece of paper, stood up to condemn the action.

As the cameras rolled, the cropped-haired Kasidiaris, a weightlifting enthusiast, who had served in the Greek military's special forces, is shown lashing out at Kanelli slapping her around the face three times as she threw up her arms in self-defence.

The extraordinary footage quickly prompted state prosecutor Eleni Raikou to order the immediate arrest of Kasidiaris. The 31-year-old, who was elected to the 300-seat Athens parliament in the country's inconclusive election last month, is the most vocal opponent of suggestions that Chrysi Avgi is a violent organisation with a history of attacks on society's most vulnerable not least Greece's burgeoning population of immigrants.

The Golden Dawn party has refused to condemn the actions of their spokesman, so that's how you know they're totally not for "the violence".

The guy's also going on trial on June 11th for aiding and abetting an armed robbery.

The Dems drop you like a hot potato if you get caught sending pictures of your crotch to women. This guy is going on trial for a crime that ended up with someone getting stabbed, and they made him their spokesman! Woof.

By min | June 7, 2012, 8:39 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2) | Link

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June 6, 2012

Wisconsin

David Frum:

Wisconsin has definitively exposed the failure of the American left to build an effective populist movement despite the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. The Wisconsin recall vote was a battle at a time and place of the unions' own choosing. They still lost, and in one of the bluest states of non-coastal America. Who'll fear them now? Say what you will about the Tea Party, it collected scalps. The unions plus Occupy plus the remnants of the '08 Obama campaign have not. Perhaps that will change if a Republican wins the White House - but until and unless the left loses that fight too, we won't know.

Krugman:

I'm even more unhappy with how it happened, with national Democrats basically sitting on their hands while conservatives poured resources into the race.

Yglesias:

Over the past five years I've read more and more progressive lamentations of the decline of organized labor in the United States, but typically in narratives that seem to deny agency to the union leaders themselves. But part of what you see in Wisconsin is labor leaders paying the price for inability to deliver their own members.

Frum (who is probably ok with the Wisconsin results) and Krugman both end on a somewhat positive note for Dems. But it's ugly, and i don't see the Dems getting better organized in time for the election later this year.

By fnord12 | June 6, 2012, 5:11 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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June 5, 2012

Children's Medieval Band

I meant to post this months ago.

Three Romanian (living in the U.S.) children, ages 5, 8, and 10, being totally awesome.

I got worried towards the end that the littlest one would get tired and pass out.

If you're unfamiliar with the original Rammstein version, here it is.

Rammstein later invited them to open for them at the Denver Colliseum in May 2012.

By min | June 5, 2012, 3:42 PM | Music| Link

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Marvel Sales

April.

By fnord12 | June 5, 2012, 1:04 PM | Comics| Link

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June 4, 2012

What madness is this?

Ok, i made a little joke in the alt tag of my previous post, but i really did check, and this is something i actually did see:

I'll guess link to the actual posting but i don't know how long these links stay valid. I ran into this once before looking at listings of ROM action figures, and i found this. But i didn't realize it was a *thing*. This guy's store description says:

While we sell all kinds of things, our primary focus over the past few years has been on combing through thousands of publications to find old ads for specialist collectors.

Dude! I have like a million comic books! Can i really cut them up and sell the ad pages in each for $7 a pop?

Alternatively, i'd better hurry up and buy every Marvel comic that i don't own yet before this guy gets to them. I can fund that by selling ads from all my comics. It's a Mobius strip (did they have ads?)!

By fnord12 | June 4, 2012, 6:50 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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Secret Wars or Maximum Clonage?

By fnord12 | June 4, 2012, 6:47 PM | Comics| Link

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Why aren't people reading comics?

John Seavy at MightyGodKing asks the question and raises some interesting points, much of which i agree with (but not all).

But i think the mistake people run into here is that it really doesn't have a lot to do with the quality of the story at all. It's the medium, not the message. People go see movies. They watch TV. They don't read comic books. They play video games. They mess around with their smart phones and tablets. Most people probably don't even know that comics are still being published anymore, but even if they found out, they're not going to start subscribing to them. I actually think comics are written and drawn in a way that is more accessible today than ever before. Not necessarily better, but more modern. Less villain high-speak. Less repeated exposition. More realistic dialogue, flashy, eye-catching art that is also "realistic" in a superficial way.

I think most people that came out of the Avengers movie, if handed a trade of just about any recent Marvel story arc, would read it and go, yeah, that was fun. But that's it. They've got jobs and families. They're going to go see a movie every once in a while on the weekend. They're going to relax in front of the tv at night. Their kids are going to play video games. No one's got time or dedicated interest to keep up with the ongoing Marvel Universe.

I think a lot of comic fans fall into a trap here. They don't like the way modern writers are treating longstanding characters. And they see declining sales. And they put two and two together, but the answer here isn't four. Because there's another variable in the equation, which is the fact that comics, as a medium, have become a niche market kept alive by a dwindling population of long time fans, and there's nothing inherent in the stories that will change that.

By fnord12 | June 4, 2012, 4:05 PM | Comics | Comments (5) | Link

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The oil barrier

Kevin Drum:

Generally speaking, we're finally living in the world of peak oil. Or call it plateaued oil if you like, since we seem to have hit a rough plateau in oil production that's likely to continue for quite a while. This is the world of the vicious circle: when the economy gets better, demand for oil goes up and oil prices spike. This causes the economy to tank, which sends demand for oil down. Rinse and repeat... And since, in this brave new world, the price of oil gyrates frequently and erratically, it's hard to get people serious about this. If oil were, say, permanently above $200 per barrel or so, we'd be building wind farms and installing PV solar at breakneck speed. But whenever the price of Brent falls below $90 or so, everyone gets nervous and wonders if wind farms and solar arrays are really such a good investment after all.

By fnord12 | June 4, 2012, 10:46 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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June 1, 2012

Who could pass up a deal like that?

By fnord12 | June 1, 2012, 11:48 PM | Boooooks| Link

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Isn't this an act of war?

NYTimes:

From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran's main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America's first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.

I'm pretty sure that's an act of war. The Pentagon seems to think so, based on this article from a year ago:

The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.

I ask because just a few days ago, Obama promised us no more wars than were "absolutely necessary".

By fnord12 | June 1, 2012, 12:58 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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Recap 47

Enemies Made, Loyalties Earned

By min | June 1, 2012, 11:36 AM | D&D| Link

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