Why CN's "Sym-Bionic Titan" is the best Space Fantasy/ Sci-Fi/ Giant Robot/ High School show on TV

Those of us in the know watched Samurai Jack, by the great Genndy Tartatovsky. His new show is Sym-Bionic Titan, and it is awesome.

That's Flock of Seagulls' "Space Age Love Song" playing while a giant robot fights a mega-monster from space. And, yeah, that's a girl who just unwittingly fell in love with a robot.

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

In 1940, you could look hungover and still be Super

JimD sent me this picture from The Retroist.  Absolutely great picture of the first Superman float, debuting just a year and a half after Superman's first appearance in comics.  I absolutely love this picture, partially because I'd never seen this balloon before, and partially because, well...  20th Century America.  She had her moments.

I am unsure of the frequency of posting as we move into the US's Thanksgiving Week.  I hope that you find a table with friends and family.  Give thanks for what you've got.  Eat some appropriate meal (I am getting hungry just thinking about turkey and cranberries), and try not to get into a full-blown political debate with the in-laws.

For more on the TRUTH behind Thanksgiving, you can read Sunday's column.

And, of course, on Thanksgiving night I'll be watching the mighty UT Longhorns battle the lowly Aggies of Texas A&M on television while they duke it out a few miles up the road from us at League HQ at UT Austin's Memorial Stadium.

Who knows, we could win a game...

Because elsewhere in 1940:

Behind this lovely/aggressive co-ed, you can see my family's coat of arms.

As per the traditional Thanksgiving match-up in 1940 the UT Longhorns went up against the Texas A&M Aggies, the reigning National Champions.  Knowing the task before his team, the legendary Coach Bible distributed the following poem to his team:

"It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Guest

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That 'cannot be done,' and you'll do it.

And thus:

Noble Doss and the Impossible Catch

Thanks to a nigh-magical pass and catch, UT beat Texas A&M 7-0, upsetting their feared rivals.

From the Statesman:

Less than one minute into the game, Texas halfback Noble Doss made an over-the-shoulder, eyes-shut grab that put the ball on the Aggies 1-yard-line, setting up Pete Layden's touchdown plunge. Texas then grimly held on for a 7-0 win.

That's roughly 59 minutes of a defense deciding that they were going to hold the line.  And that is awesome.  And something, surely, UT's 2010 squad could learn from.

But, you know, no matter how tough it looks, I have to have faith that by miracle, mistake, hook or by crook, the Longhorns could take the day.

The Completely True Origin of the Thanksgiving Holiday

"So," I said to Jamie, "Thanksgiving is coming.  Are you ready for your visit from the Turkey Goblin?"
"Turkey Goblin?"
"Yeah.  The Turkey Goblin."
"What is the Turkey Goblin?"
I, of course, was shocked.  But it occured to me that not everyone knows about the Turkey Goblin or the completely true story of the secret origin of Thanksgiving.  Luckily for you, I've got a history degree from a state university, and this is exactly the sort of thing we learn in class.

While it is true that in olden times when people drowned old crones to see if they were witches, some fairly misguided Englishmen fled the UK in a leaky boat and landed at Plymouth Rock where they would commence being all judgey and breaking bread with the locals... that's at best tangential to the true story of the Turkey Goblin.  But as an historical sidenote, the facts as they pertain to today's Thanksgiving that are true include:

• Around Plymouth rock, with a solid blunderbuss and decent aim, one could find and shoot a turkey
• A sort of "oh, we're not all dead of the pox yet.  Thanks, God!" dinner was held, and some locals came by once they heard a potluck was going down
• Pilgrim women were invariably super sexy, right down to their buckled little shoes
• Abigail saw Goody Proctor with the devil

This was, of course, all before SCIENCE.

As you know, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin made up Western Science, with Jefferson working on Boring Science, while Franklin worked to perfect Awesome (aka: Mad) Science, including his famous attempts to destroy Philadelphia with lightning, a key and a length of twine.

The key figure in our story is, of course, Abraham Lincoln, who in October of 1863 (more than 100 years after Science was invented) declared Thanksgiving a National Holiday.  And while we can all agree that Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation was heartfelt, honest and one of the great works of American historical-type writing whatzit, it's also an elaborate cover story and smokescreen cooked up by a President who knew his people should never, ever know the truth. 

Lincoln is here to tell you:  It is hard out there for a pimp

By Spring of 1863, the war between the States had raged for two long years, pitting citizen against citizen, brother against brother. Things seemed to be going poorly for the North, who could not believe they were losing an honest-to-god War to the fiddle-dee-dee-spewing, slack jawed racist yokels of the South.  In early May, after the second Battle of Fredricksburg, intelligence fell into the hands of the Union forces.  The reports were stupefying and near unbelievable, but there seemed to be a grain of truth as they pulled together clues that otherwise made no sense.

What had become of SCIENCE in the Confederate states?  What had the devious Jefferson Davis chartered them to do?  And what did the reports of whole regiments wiped out by beasts truly mean?

The answer was, of course, completely shocking.

At the outset of the war, Jefferson Davis had set about collecting the finest Scientists of the South (those not schooled exclusively in the Southern Sciences of moonshining, deep-frying and inventing NASCAR), and began a top secret project.  By the Fall of 1862, the project had proven a small success and that winter, Union Troops trembled on the field of battle before the might of 7-foot, Confederate Turkey Goblins.

Receiving dispatches at his Top Secret Underground Command Center, Lincoln considered each bit of evidence anew, and the report was grim.  Indeed, it seemed the nefarious SCIENCE minds of the south had gone ROGUE SCIENTIST, and the turkeys of the South had been mutated and weaponized.  From an egg, turkeys would grow at a normal rate for up to a year and a half, at which point...  they swelled to tremendous size and ferocity, and could follow simple commands, such as "go kill all those guys over there."  Lincoln's blood ran cold.  Pensively, he fiddled with the brim on his stove-pipe hat.  Northern researchers, who were from real colleges and not made up diploma mills like Mizzou and LSU, would still need time, and time was not what they had.  And the thought of fighting Giant Goblin Turkeys with Giant Goblin Turkeys...  the fallout was unthinkable, let alone what the nation would do with these beasts once the fighting was done.

But Davis' scientists had only succeeded so far in producing a small batch of Turkey Goblins.  They had not yet been announced to a wary Southern public, who, Davis believed, would likely wish to fry them or ask for both a giant duck and a giant chicken to shove within his prized new force and cook them up.

Lincoln picked up the red phone (he also had secretly already invented the telephone) and called together an elite squad, which he himself would lead into the South.  The names are now mostly meaningless to Americans:  Samuel Clemens, Frederick "The Fist" Douglass, Undead Davey Crockett, and "Tiny" Thomas Edison - Boy Inventor.

Frederick "The Fist" Douglass was a master of hand-to-hand combat and invented the 8-Track Cassette

What is known is that the team dropped in by line from their air-balloon insertion vehicle, and were able to dispatch the existing Turkey Goblins with a thrice-blessed silver blunderbuss and shot made from silver, iron, argon and forged in the flames of a sacrificial fire and cooled in holy water.  However, to their horror, the squad learned that part of Davis' mad scheme was to release a version of the virus that created the Turkey Goblins into the water supply,coding that virus with a message to kill "Americans", believing that the Confederacy would certainly succeed, and, in his maddened state, that only those in the North could possibly ever be affected.  Insisting that he would stop Davis' mad scheme, Lincoln learned that this plan was something Davis had actually put into motion days before.

After kicking Davis' ass and escaping, Lincoln and his team weighed their options.  Turkeys were plentiful, and lived all over the US.  The team had learned that the only sign that a turkey had the potential to mutate to a Turkey Goblin was that it would carry an odd chemical in its blood, something harmless to humans and the turkey, called tryptophan.

Master of all manner of vehicles, languages and seduction techniques, Clemens seems to have disappeared behind a pseudonym following the Turkey Goblin mission, never to be heard from again.

And that's when the young but clever former steam boat worker, Clemens, had an idea:  if we can't kill all the turkeys, let's, once a year, ensure a culling of the population before it grows and mutates.  Once a year, let's ensure a mass extermination of the birds while people can still eat them.

Lincoln looked at the blood-spattered blunderbuss in his hands, his own reflection glinting in the silver:  "The pilgrims, psychotic zealots that they were, may have given us an out on this one.  Men, we're going to give Thanks.  And we're going to do it each and every year, whether our brethren wish it or no...  We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, and in no way for a horrific new breed of murderous seven foot turkey goblins, shall not perish from the earth."

Douglass designed the messaging, Clemens helped run the PR campaign,  "Tiny" Edison invented a special pair of forks for turning turkeys over in a pan, and Undead Davey Crockett returned to his subterranean tomb where he lay, waiting to be called once again into service in the name of freedom.

On October 3, 1863, Lincoln brought the reign of terror to an end as later that November, the population of turkeys was culled before it could rise up and destroy us.

That's not to say that every once in a while a turkey doesn't make it through and grow and change.  And sometimes the Turkey Goblin comes for you in the night, its horrible "gobble gobble gobble" the last thing some men hear.

And that is the completely true story of why we have Thanksgiving.

Beware his terrifying gobble

 But, honestly, I have no idea why Canada has Thanksgiving, too.  Those dudes are totally in the clear.

DCU Animated Series "Young Justice" coming Nov. 26th

Late Edit 11/30/2010 - I keep getting hits to this post, which I wrote before the show aired. I actually reviewed the show shortly after broadcast.

There hasn't honestly been much in the way of press release stuff to the usual comic outlets about this new show, but that's okay. I get the basic gist of what they're doing, and I like the design. A sort of post "The Batman", post "Bruce Timm-style JLU" look, but building on the sort of classic DCU that the cartoons have been doing better than the comics for all but a year or two in there since Waid left JLA.

While there was value to the recent animated adaptation of Teen Titans to cartoons, I think its smart of DC to tie this new show and the Young Justice team back to the Justice League. Its something adults will appreciate as a teacher/ learner experience, and it gives the younger audience an intro to the DCU with a team of kids on the learning curve (who will, undoubtedly, push back against the adult authority figures and do stuff their own way).

Robin, Aqualad and Superboy

Kid Flash

Miss Martian

Expect the first few episodes to be a bit shaky as the show finds its grounding and its voice.  As much as I love Timm's Batman series, and Justice League series, both of those shows grew in quality each season in animation and storytelling (that said, I think Superman: The Animated Series had a surprisingly good first season, and Batman Beyond, but you could argue BB rode the coattails of the success of other Timm series).

I'm not clear on which version of which characters are in the series.  Superboy is clearly Kon-El (Conner Kent), and Speedy is Roy Harper, but is Robin Tim or Dick Grayson?  Is that Wally or Bart as Kid Flash?  As I am trade waiting on Brightest Day, I don't know the new Aqualad at all, but I'm glad he and Miss Martian (Manhunter's recent new pal) are in the line up.  I'm not sure if we're getting a Wonder Girl, but it seems like I heard we were getting Arrowette, which seems odd.

Given that I haven't been able to stomach Teen Titans since Johns left the title, I'm glad to see someone affiliated with DC is doing something to support the next generation DC characters.  DC Comics certainly has been doing a terrible job of it.

So set your DVR now, people.  7:00 on Nov. 26th, a full hour of DCU.

Our heroes

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Comic Review: 9/11 Heartbreaker

Title:  9/11 Heartbreaker
Author/ Artist:  Craig Staufenberg

This is the first reflection piece on 9/11 that I can recall reading by someone from a generation younger than my own, and in that alone, 9/11 Heartbreaker manages to be an interesting comic. At least I assume that Craig Staufenberg is somewhere in his twenties, given the perspective of the central protagonist.

I was 26 during 9/11, had worked for a few years out of college and didn't have teachers and parents trying to explain or explain away the madness of what people do.  And so part of reading the comic is sorting through the differences in perspective between those of us who think of 9/11 as a "before and after" scenario versus coming to adulthood with 9/11 has an historical fact. 

And looking at the past to inform the present to decide for the future seems to be what Staufenberg's story seems to be about at the core.  The narrator leaps from the concepts of documenting the memories of the remaining population of Japan that survived World War II (and their reluctance to do so), to documenting the memories of young New Yorkers and 9/11, to wondering what became of the memories of the founders and builders of the great cities and towns of the East Coast and the Ozymandias-like fate of their achievements.

While I think the metaphor works, it feels like it could have been more greatly expanded upon.  The attempt to tie the personal past to the larger world seems a bit unfulfilled, and as its not exactly clear who our narrator is, it feels like a missed opportunity.

The comic is brief, really.  Staufenberg has produced the story as a single, 32ish paged comic.  His rendering style is loose and, frankly, somewhat rough, but that doesn't mean he doesn't make the look work in his favor in the style of cartoonist more than an illustrator.  As I see this comic sitting on the shelves in the same section as everything from James Kolchaka to Jeffrey Brown, embracing the limitations and making them work for you is part of what cartooning is about, rather than illustrative art. 

Also stylistically, this is a comic, but not one that uses word bubbles, etc...  Instead, the prose match the flow of the sequential art, and its an interesting way to manage the story, which so very much takes place in the head of the narrator.

As a first effort, 9/11 Heartbreaker is a very interesting read.  I like the core of the concept and genuinely enjoyed the execution once it became clear where the author was headed, but I'd like to see the concept expanded a bit more.  It feels like there's an idea that gels, but you're just seeing the start of it when the story draws to a close.  Perhaps more time, more pages, etc... if Staufenberg allows himself to return to the comic, he can take this to depths and dimensions of his established contemporaries. 

I very much like this first effort, I and I look forward to seeing what we see from this same writer/ artist in the future.

Order a digital copy here

Order a print copy here

On the Road

This isn't a road outside of San Angelo, but it could be

I've been driving to and fro across this great state of Texas, most recently in San Angelo.  I am not a big traveler for leisure, and my family tended to head East when I was growing up, so I had never been further west than Kerrville, Texas until I was 20 years old and went out to San Angelo for a wedding.  Of course, now I've been to California a few times, Seattle, etc...  and lived in Arizona for four years, but, mentally, I still tag San Angelo as the start of "the west" for myself.

Its a lovely drive.  Try it sometime.  Texas has a lovely Hill Country, and on 71, you get to cut right through the Hill Country for about 1.5 - 2 hours (and then you hit West Texas, and that's a bit more...  flat).

While driving I listen to a lot of audio books.  This year I've listened to stuff like Catch-22, On the Road, and Slaughterhouse Five (all of which were rewarding "reads", btw).  I don't generally read that much of what's on best seller lists as I'm already about 20 years behind the stuff you're supposed to read, and, on average, I generally don't like the books I wind up reading that are the books you see on airplanes.  But...

So, Jamie reads lots of comics at my recommendation.  In fact, she just read the entire recent runs on Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night related material.  But she also reads just an insane number of actual books without pictures and stuff, so, as I was between books, I asked for a recommendation.

I'm about 90% done with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Its definitely an interesting book, and I can see how its become a big hit.  Originally written in Swedish, I wonder how much has been lost in translation, what I'm not getting as I know absolutely nothing about Swedish social norms, and, as the book is read by an actor I'm not particularly in love with (the guy who read Catch-22 was amazing) who I think has genuinely straight up had some weird interpretations of some of the dialog, I keep feeling there's a bit of a haze between me and the actual book.

But I do like the book.  You definitely realize you don't like a book quickly when you're stuck listening to it for more than an hour and you can't keep paying attention.  More on that when I finish in the next few days, I suppose. 

Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates since Sunday.  Its going to be fairly busy straight through the holidays, I'd guess.

Green Lantern Trailer is Up

...and now comes the part where we find out if anyone but comic geeks are going to care about Hal Jordan and his space cop pals.



In all fairness, this sort of looks like Geoff Johns' Green Lantern with a fine layer of Ryan Reynolds cheese. Its going to take some doing to get used to a Hal that's Hollywood's version of a smart-alecky wise guy rather than the comics' teeth-gritting semi-smug hard-ass.

Austin Comic Con Wrap-Up (Year 1)

So, this was the first year Wizard World had brought a Con to Austin.  There were certainly highs and lows, but its a great start and something this part of the state can use and obviously support.

My day today was very different from Day 1 as I actually spent time with people I knew.

Okay, technically, I don't "know" Captain Marvel

Jamie decided to bail on me to spend an afternoon with PalNicole, so Jason took me up on the ticket.

At the Con I met up with Corpsman MattA.  MattA and I go way, way, waaaaaaaay back.  He informed me I was responsible for his first purchase of a comic circa 5th grade when we were both reading West Coast Avengers (I know, I know).  Anyway, I hadn't seen Matt since 1990 when I moved from Austin to the Houston area.  This was all pre-email and whatnot, so, younger readers, it used to be possible to lose track of people.

...Seriously, had not seen the dude in 20 years.  Comics, bringing geeks together.

Anyhow, Matt had brought his daughter, who was terribly sweet, and we all sought out R2-D2 together.  (There was a full-sized R2-D2 replica driven by remote control.  It had all sorts of moving parts and was may as well have been the one used in the movies.  Just great detail.).

a semi-anonymous child, R2D2, MattA's loud shirt and Jason's leg and sandal

 I also met up with JackBart and his friend (whose name I can just never remember).  I also ran into a high school pal, Phil, who I hadn't seen in...  man, I don't know.

The floor was busier today, and it seemed like the dealers had gotten a little more serious with their inventory since Friday as some (not even most) of the booths looked like they had new and more stuff out.  I spent far less time today around the autograph tables just gawking, mainly because I'd already fulfilled my primary objective of obtaining Ms. Gray's autograph.

It definitely seemed like there were more people in costume and far more kids, something I hope the vendors alter the show for next year.  If kids are going show up, it seems like vendors could better cater to the little miscreants.

And then, suddenly... Phil!

I picked up 3 prints from an artist named Terry Huddleston.  He has something of a cartoony, almost Jeff Smith-ish style that I really dug.  So I now have pics of Superman, Wonder Woman and The Atom that I'm going to have to figure out where to hang.

In addition to the Jimmy Olsen and Superman back issues I found on Friday, today I found a copy of The Great Superman Book.  Its not exactly the holy grail of Superman collecting, but I'd never seen a copy of the book before (its basically a big Superman reference book from back in the day).

Cosmic Boy must have used his Legion Time Bubble to bring 80's black-suit Spidey to 2010

Artist's Alley was full of people working on independent stuff, name artists (Greg Horn, Mike McKone, etc...), and just a lot of folks who just want to be in the game one way or another.  I came very, very close to getting a Dean Trippe sketch, but he looked very swamped.  Next time.  I want to see what he does for Krypto.

And...  local Austin artist Tim Doyle was in attendance with his own work and the guys working with Intergalactic Nemesis, a sort of comics/ live-action/ multi-media project.  I really want to get some of Doyle's work, but I can never figure out where it could go...

I was stunned to learn that JackBart knows nothing about Jack Kirby's New Gods series, and so he was a bit baffled when this happened.

Despite what Jason and Jack believed, this guy is actually not just a crazy hobo

It sounds like Wizard World was happy enough that they've already rented the space for the same weekend next year.  That's good news.  I can only hope this thing continues to grow.  Austin can fully support an event like the Comic Con.

If I had one beef, its that the stars of the show, Burt Ward and Adam West, were mostly available yesterday in what was officially dubbed "Batman and Robin Day" by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.  Its not the fault of anyone but myself for not paying attention to the signing schedule, and, of course, I chose not to attend yesterday.

I'd lie if I said that the Con isn't good people watching.  It is, indeed, generally a good time seeing people in a good mood doing their thing, whether its looking for comics, meeting celebrities or dressing up in a convincing Catwoman suit.  And, sincerely, whether you're into comics or not, there are worse ways to kill a few hours on a Sunday.


The local CBS affiliate did some stories and interviews on Comic Con.

• KEYE visits Austin Books in anticipation of Austin Comic Con (aka:  Brandon patiently deals with insane local reporters)
• KEYE interviews Gil Gerard and Erin Gray
• KEYE's reporter with the eye-lift interviews Adam West
(what a swell guy)

"Our Valued Customers" demonstrates why I am so quiet at the comic shop

Comic fans are are own worst enemies.  

What's difficult to communicate to the non-comic's culture readership is how...  weird and random comics fandom really is.  The closest thing I can compare it to is rabid sports enthusiasm, mixed with the utterly subjective certainty of film reviewers,  blended with the critical thinking that one associates with fans of MTV's The Real World and hyper-injected with an amazingly high dose of aggressive and unearned hostility cultivated from a lifetime spent believing that succeeding at first-person-shooter games somehow validates you as a bad-ass with an understanding of how the world "actually works".

In some ways, its inspired me to try to make my writing about comics at my own blogs and for other sites...  a little less knee-jerky, maybe critical of myself as a reader, maybe critical of assumptions in the comics blogosphere, etc...  I dunno.  I've tried to take it up a notch and hope that comics, that I genuinely believe smart people work on trying to do their best, are worth talking about.

But, man, sometimes my fellow comic-geeks really get me down.

All of that is to say:  Mike Fennelly of Team Swizzlebeef has sent along a link to a comic blog that does nothing but document the horribleness of comic fans shopping at a particular store somewhere on the East Coast (which sort of flavors some of the awfulness, I suspect). 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I direct you to:  Our Valued Customers

a supposedly completely true account of working behind the counter at a comics shop and the terrible, creepy, geeky, weird, furious and reprehensible things people say in comic shops.  

I can't say none of this is accurate.

Pretty much captures the essence of the issue

You kind of have to read post after post to get the feeling of what goes on in fandom, because there's not much difference here between what one sees depicted, what one hears at crummier comic shops, and what appears in comment sections on comics sites across the internet.  And this is why comics shops and fandom are part of why I worry about the industry.

And there's something about creator Mr. Tim's style that just really captures the vacuousness and pathos of the bad apples spoiling the whole barrel.

Now, let me be clear: part of my enjoyment of shopping at Austin Books hasn't just been the selection, the knowledgeable staff, etc...  but also the fact that somehow the store has cultivated a culture in which I don't seem to ever get stuck listening to lunatic rants while I'm browsing.  Moreover, the staff aren't the ones starting the rants.  I can't tell you how rare and wonderful it is not to find yourself listening to customers and clerks ranting on and on, as, truly, that's S.O.P. at shops across this great land. 

I confess, in some ways my desire not to be the ranting loon has meant I am super-quiet when I'm at any comic shop, or even at the Austin Con.  I think those of us with some investment in comics know we're one step away from talking ourselves right into that point where we just realized that, in our enthusiasm, we made someone else really uncomfortable.  Age has taught me never to assume anything, especially that someone shares my opinions (which I don't think are all that controversial when it comes to comics), but I think I'm also fairly sensitive to not wanting to ruin someone else's good time. 

At the end of the day, sure, I read comics because I enjoy the plots, the stories, the "what-ifs", etc...  but its supposed to be fun.  I forget that as much as the next guy*, but I try not to be crazy or come off as an uninformed, uncritical doofus.  I guess its largely in the eye of the beholder.

Anyway, without further ado:  here's that site. 



*note the ongoing color commentary on comics since 2003

I totally do not have any pictures of Poison Ivy from the Austin Comic Con

Dear internet,

Yes.  I was also at the Austin Comic Con yesterday.  I also saw the young lady dressed as Poison Ivy, and I also noticed she was nigh-naked. 

I can also see that you, internet, ran home and immediately began Googling for images of this young lady.  Your reasons are your own, but thanks to Sitemeter, I can see the search terms used to land on Signal Watch.

I did not take pictures of Miss Ivy.  You will not find them here.   Good luck finding those images elsewhere.

And may God have mercy on your souls.

This is my new "Ann Coulter naked".  A tragic way to get a spike in hits.

Sincerely,

The Signal Watch Editorial Staff