Sort of what I'm Up to

In my head, this just improved Santa 1,000,000 percent

From Comic Alliance

I'm doing my last bit of traveling for 2010 and am attending a conference in Houston.  Lots of nice folks doing interesting stuff in libraries.

In a lot of ways, traditional public and academic libraries are likely behind corporate entities who have been struggling with business needs issues for decades in data management and deep storage.  In an institution such as a library that is asked to store literally anything that it is handed (and make it available to the world on demand), that management becomes a complex issue.  Its not enough just to have the item, but that item has metadata around it that describes the item.  The web's half-baked manner of tagging, keywords, etc... kind of works, but its not useful for preservation, curation, true findability and longterm use and storage.  Ie:  Its not enough to just have the thing and have it sitting on a server where Google might find it anymore than a traditional library would be terribly useful without a card catalog.

So.  Anyway, that's some of what I work on most days.  And its pretty focused at this conference.

The big challenge (not one that really falls into my jurisdiction) will be the mad scramble for the next few decades to turn paper into 0's and 1's, describe it and make it available.  Its one thing to have... stuff in a library, just sitting in a box or on a shelf.  Its quite another to imagine actually dealing with every page, every picture, every...  everything that can be in even the smallest library.  Not to mention trying to wrangle the brand new stuff created everyday and all the stuff that's deteriorating on shut-down hard drives, etc..  that never really existed as paper created in the past 20 years.

Its...  a big task.  So be nice to your local archivist, digital librarian, metadata librarian, what-have-you.

My part is the fun part, and that's working with these folks and trying to provide them with solutions, support, tools, etc...  And finding new opportunities for researchers to work together and find one another's work thanks to TECHNOLOGY.

Also, the catering at this thing was really good.  I confess to liking prosciutto more than I ought.

Here's Some Dapper Folks Enjoying the Holidays

I'm off in Houston and busy, so here's some pics of the office holiday party at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Don and Peggy ponder the meaning of the holidays

This makes me weep for myself when I ponder the office parties and lack thereof at my different employers

Parents! Don't Forget! December 5th is Krampus Day!

Parents, we all knows kids become a bit wily around the Holidays.  The lights, the sugar, the TV specials, the promise of presents...  Really, who can blame them?

But that doesn't mean you can't use a little good old fashioned Old School Eastern European terror to keep the tykes focused.

And that's why I'm encouraging you:  hey, this year, why not try Krampus?

Ah, the rattling of chains, the frightened screams of children...  It must be Christmas!

I covered Krampus a bit last year at LoM, but as the Holidays approach, it occured to me that I had some ideas about how Krampus could fit into the Yuletide season.  Originating out of Austria and Hungary (I guess), Krampus is a traditional holiday character who arrives in tandem with St. Nick before the holidays as a reminder of the horrific fate that befalls the kids on the naughty list.  Not a lot of shades of gray in Eastern European Christmas.

I'm just saying, when it comes time for encouraging good vs. bad behavior, sometimes kids need as much stick as they need carrot.  And sometimes that incentive for good behavior is the promise of getting smacked with chains and birch branches should your moody twerp of a kid act up.

Weird World of Jimmy Olsen: And then there was that time Olsen was responsible for the death of thousands

edit note:  special apologies to Mike Sterling of Progressive Ruin, who I belive is the originator of the "And then there was that time..." series of comics posts.

Holy smokes.

So over the Thanksgiving holiday I ran by Austin Books' Sidekick Store.  The ABC Sidekick Store is an outlet that opens only when the Comic Gods (Brad, I guess, who would look sharp in Sun God robes), consult the star charts and tea leaves and make decrees such as "Yea, in the days following the eating of the Turkey, we shall open the doors and release upon the public a torrent of $1 back issues".  Fortunately for me, some kids of days-of-yore didn't take good care of their Jimmy Olsen comics, and there's often some issues that I don't have, or if I do have them they ones here are sort of in "dollar" shape, so I'll grab a "reader" copy while I'm picking up Superman back issues (usually from the Bronze Age).

Yes, I am the guy buying those comics.

And so it was that I found myself  reading Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #120 over the weekend.

The feature story was about how Superman, for no particular reason, propagated a misconception that Jimmy had obtained "Hyper-Strength", which led to Jimmy believing he had accidentally killed Perry White (who wasn't really Perry, but Superman in disguise.  Back in the day, it was all about disguises. I have no idea what issues editor Mort Weisinger was working through, but they were many). And, as always, Jimmy refused to learn anything from Superman's chicanery.

In the 8 page back-up story?  Jimmy kills 2200 people and calls it a "boo-boo".  I am totally not kidding.

In this tale, Superman is duped into looking in other eras, but Jimmy tracks The Climate King to 1889 (yes, the year), where the Climate King is wreaking general mayhem.  Olsen and the Climate King tussle, Jimmy steals a "Sun Wand" from CK (basically a laser), the beam of which goes astray, knocking over a dam. 

Which leads to the following:

Oops, Jimmy!  Ha ha ha!  ...hey, wait a minute...

For those of you who didn't bother to read the panels, what's been clearly stated is that Jimmy Olsen caused the Johnstown Flood of 1889.  According to Wikipedia (that has no real motivation to lie), the flood killed 2200 people and did untold damage.  The place even has its own National Park.  And here's an article.

And here, gentle readers, is where our story ends.
 
That's it.  That's all she wrote.  After that is an ad for a toy car, some fan letters, a half-baked humor strip called "Ollie", ads for Sgt. Rock and Batman in Brave and the Bold, an ad for a submarine toy, an ad for fake mustaches (I have no idea), and the back cover selling you 100 Toy Soldiers for $1.25 (which, even in 1969 dollars, seems like a steal).

By today's standards, that page alone would be a summer cross-over and three-year-in-the-making event, with the scenes of the 4 panels above spreading out over at least three issues.  But back in the day, you could kill 2200 people and be reasonably certain that it just wasn't going to be mentioned ever again.  I assume Jimmy was home by supper and slept like a baby.

I know the Comics Code Authority had their hands full and likely didn't keep a World Book Encyclopedia handy, but the mind boggles. 

Most curious is that there's no reaction seen by Superman to the news that his "Pal" has been uncovered the the source of a terrific tragedy.  Is he giving an "aw shucks" smile?  Is he staring on in horror, knowing that he has no ability to change the course of history? Was life really that cheap in Metropolis in 1969?  Was Superman covering Jimmy's tracks?  Was there a philosophical "no fault if you're in the past, sorry about that butterfly" rule in effect?

Just when I think I'll see nothing new in a Jimmy Olsen comic...

My Spidey is on Broadway

Things I think are an okay idea:

1)  Broadway musicals
2)  The music of U2 up to Zooropa (but, really, not much since then.  Sorry, Bono)
3)  Spider-Man
4)  Magic tricks on stage

The combination of these things...?

I cannot say if this is either really great or really terrible

In the case of the soon-to-premiere Spider-Man themed live-action stage musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, we're getting a singing, dancing Wall Crawler and Mary Jane Watson led by a director with what seems like an increasingly Ahab-esque desire to recreate special effects usually seen only in movies (and thanks to CG, at that), and who, apparently, is figuring out that in order to do the things Spider-Man does in the comics and movies, one would need the proportionate strength, speed and agility of a spider.  Us mere mortals tend to break.

Our own Horus Kemwer suggested this NYT article as blog fodder, and its an interesting read.

I'll be honest:  I don't care if the Spider-Man musical succeeds of fails.  I do want it to succeed, because, hey...  I like for people to have jobs and whatnot.  But...  I don't really have a dog in this fight.

• I like Spider-Man in general, but have been off the character since the 1-2 punch of Spider-Man 3 and One More Day.*  
• I like movie musicals and the (better staged) musicals I've seen on stage**.  
• I am not enamored of U2 in the way the producers seem to have bought into.  
• And, frankly, I've found the early looks at the costumes of the villains that I've seen (they kept Spidey's classic reds and blues), pretty much exactly why comic fans cringe when they hear the phrase "re-imagining". But the fact that the Sinister Six seems to at least get alluded to in the commercial for the show wins me over a bit.
• It would be sort of interesting to see Spidey beat back the doom-sayers

Here's that commercial:



As a side bar, after growing up reading Spidey, my first thought when I hear "lavish Broadway musical" is the inevitable jab they would have done in the comics showing Peter Parker unable to afford getting into see a musical based on a fictionalized version of his own story, and, should he get in, being fairly embarrassed of a singing, dancing version of himself.  I can almost see the "Oh, brother!" thought bubble now.

The play has had a widely publicized and troubled past, including cast injuries, a complete lack of money, dead producers, very public rehearsals that went supposedly pretty badly, reportedly complicated and oft-failing wire work, a spot on the Today Show that went over like a lead balloon, and costumes that left many scratching their heads (not Spidey, btw.  He looks like Spidey). 

Its not that the costumes are, as my officemate pointed out, any sillier than the original Green Goblin costume.  But as has always been the case with the movie and television adaptations, there's a certain...  irregard for the source material that's just part and parcel of people who aren't fans adapting the comics to other media. 

oh boy

And there's this:

“What I really wanted to do, and what the ‘Spider-Man’ movies and comics haven’t done, is go to this absolutely fantastical, mythic place that is out of time, somewhere between reality and the dream world,” she said.

(cough)  (crickets)

Oooooookay.

"Making it dreamlike", "mythic" and "fantastical" is (a) not what Spider-Man is about as a character -but, hey, its your show, (b) I assure you, they've gone there already dozens of times before in comics, cartoons, etc... and (c) be careful that "dreamlike" isn't a dodge for "wow, this is a muddled, goofy-looking mess". 

According to early reviews of the show from preview night, unfortunately,the show may tilt toward option C.  The notes suggest that the show is far from ready and that the vaunted flying FX?  Pretty much what you see at Cirque (which...  I saw one Cirque show but my memories are hazy).

• Comics Alliance artfully breaks down the NYT's review so you don't have to. 
• iO9 loves the living hell out of the thing (although trying to win your argument by citing evidence that its no worse than the stuff that made me quit reading Spidey comics is a pyrrhic victory, at best).

At the end of the day, a DOA Spidey musical won't tank Julie Taymor or even really Spider-Man, in any meaningful way.  Its just the umpteenth non-invested creator deciding "I know better than the people who make the comics and movies, the fans of the material, and if this fails, its 'cause comics/superheroes are dumb".   And in a recent 60 Minutes story, Taymor and company come off as a bit defensive and its not too early to start seeing the finger pointing at an audience who will not "get" Taymor's vision.

What's funny about Broadway is that as much as comics have fanboys, so too does the Great White Way.  Surely they don't think of it as such, anymore than Fantasy Football fans think of themselves as playing Dungeons & Dragons with football stats, but there's also an appreciation for the specialties of the theater, a differing perspective, etc... and   I foresee a lot of rationalizing and posturing around the "magic" of the show and the uncultured masses who can't appreciate legitimate theater (which has varying levels of truth). 

Spider-Man is bigger than any single piece here in a way that's going to be treading into new territory for all involved (possibly even U2).  In some odd ways, its going to be two geek audiences going head-to-head.  Spidey fans and the general audience don't care if Julie Taymor made Lion King a puppet show or not, just as its not on the docket for theater-lovers to care about 40-odd years of Spider-Man comics. 
So, look...  I'm never going to get to Broadway to see this show.  Even if I were in NYC, there's nothing that says I can afford to see a show at $100 a ticket.  As of today, its unlikely the show can travel, given the technical challenges.  So let's call it a draw.

Frankly, I choose to invest my excitement in the Batman Live Arena Show.  Sure, its a show aimed at 5-year-olds and their parents, but its also most definitely going to be BATMAN, its likely to come to Texas, and nobody will care if I'm eating an enormous pretzel and drinking a Coke while watching Batman punch the Penguin in his smug little face***.  I can expect a Batmobile, explosions, Bat-villains and all other forms of Bat-Malarkey.  Not what Bono and Julie Taymor decided to do after seeing the movie poster for the 3rd movie and catching part of the first movie on an airplane.

But, you know, I also genuinely hope that this Spider-Man play will be good and make a fortune. Because, seriously, that would be the greatest stunt of all.

Bonus Link:  A Quick Look at Previous Attempts at Superhero Musicals

*and there's a whole other post in here somewhere about how Spider-Man has succeeded in reaching the cyclical state of icon-hood that DC deals with every day and how Marvel is fumbling that ball
**I have only seen one musical actually on Broadway, and only a handful of touring productions
*** this same scenario involves Jamie buying a glow necklace and a giant foam finger reading "Batman #1!"

Exactly Why I Have a Hard Time Whining About the new Green Lantern Movie Trailer

Our Valued Customers reminds us:  Don't be That Guy

Regarding the Green Lantern Movie Trailer:

More Our Valued Customers

RIP: Irvin Kershner Merges with the Infinite

iO9 reports that Irvin Kershner, Lucas mentor and director of The Empire Strikes Back (the best of all Star Wars-related media) has passed in LA. He was 87.

here.

RIP: Leslie Nielsen Merges with the Infinite

The New York Times is reporting that movie legend (in my book, anyway, and I will fight you if you say otherwise), Leslie Nielsen, has passed at the age of 84.

It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside.

It's not much of an anecdote, but the first movie to ever literally make me fall out of my chair laughing was The Naked Gun.  I don't even remember exactly what scene took the cake, but I remember being in middle school at the Arbor Cinema and Lt. Frank Drebin was the funniest thing I'd ever seen (it was likely the scene where Drebin breaks into Ricardo Montalban's penthouse). 

Anyway, what I truly remember is finding myself having doubled over and the slid right out of my chair.  Always interesting when you find out a figure of speech has a basis to it.  But that's exactly the kind of movie it is (when you're 13), and that's the kind of effect Nielsen's delivery had on me.

The great thing about Nielsen was that he seemed like the straight man, but whether as Drebin, Dracula or Dr. Rumack, he got the best dialog and he delivered it with aplomb.

Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

Jane: Goodyear?

Frank: No, the worst.

The Arbor Cinema has since been replaced by a Cheesecake Factory, and the third Naked Gun movie was, frankly, not great, but a generation of people grew up believing you need to be able to deliver ridiculous dialog with a completely straight face and tough guy demeanor.

And somewhere along the line, some kids might decide they'd rather be a Frank Drebin than a Magnum PI or whatever.  I'm just saying.



I am, also, of course, a huge fan of the movie Airplane! (and its sequel), and even as a pretty small kid thought "that doctor guy is awesome".  Nielsen played Dr. Rumack, who somehow either had the best lines or the best timing in the movie.  Who else could sell "and don't call me 'Shirley'"?



In college I finally ventured to the Paramount one balmy summer evening to see Forbidden Planet.  After having had grown up with Nielsen as a comedic actor, I was suprised to find him as the leading male star of the science fiction classic.  Every day when I pass down my stairwell, I pass under the movie poster from Forbidden Planet and Nielsen's name. 



One highlight of living in the greater Phoenix area was that I believe Nielsen appeared on local safety commercials.  I have no idea why Leslie Nielsen and Alice Cooper were teaming up to appear in these ads, but it was always a treat to see the guy show up on TV, clearly enjoying goofing around in the name of safer driving.

I am, of course, very sad to know that Nielsen has passed, but he left a terrific bunch of movies and TV shows behind (if you've never seen Police Squad!, the show that started the Naked Gun series, I highly recommend). 

Let's bid a great actor adieu.  Surely, he will be missed.

Short Batman Comic Book Review: Detective Comics 871

Written By:  Scott Snyder
Art:  Jock
BackUp feature art:  Francesco Francavilla

Oh my God, somebody at DC remembered that Batman is supposed to be a detective who solves mysteries.

That is all. 


(I also liked this comic, btw.)

Review you don't need: Young Justice premiere on Cartoon Network

Last night Cartoon Network debuted their newest show for what's becoming a sort of all-ages action block (other shows include Star Wars Clone Wars, Generator Rex, Sym-Bionic Titan, and Ben 10).  Based very loosely upon DC's long-defunct Young Justice title (written entirely by Peter David, if memory serves), this cartoon pulls together some of the teen-aged side-kicks of the DCU into a team, but unlike its predecessor, Teen Titans, this series clearly takes place within the larger, more expansive DCU and acknowledges the legacy aspect of the DCU as the major plotpoint. 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how, online, some comic reviewers give Smallville critcism for playing to the DC Comics fanbase with familiar names, etc... from DC Comics.  Frankly, I'm not sure I really understand the snark anymore.  Once you move the character of Superman into the DCU proper, it kind of only makes sense that you DO show those characters and/ or use them when appropriate.  "Fanwank" or not, the DCU has been around for 75 years across just thousands of titles.  Why not use those things?

One thing that has never made sense to me (except from a logistical standpoint in the editorial offices at DC) is why DC hasn't treated Teen Titans as an academy for the Justice League (just as New Mutants was for X-Men).  I understand that there was a certain "rebellion" factor in Teen Titans, but after Wolfman's run on the book, it often wound up feeling a bit like the adult figures shuttling the kids off for the weekend.  David's Young Justice somewhat addressed this issue, and in addition to some branding issues, I can understand why the developers of this cartoon picked up

This show was very, very heavily into DCU continuity without making it a blocker for understanding or accessing the show.  The story begins with several "sidekicks" given their first access to the Justice League's HQ (The HALL OF JUSTICE), only to learn that the Justice League is giving their sidekicks use of the coffeebar and library (seriously) but not including them on the actual team, Green Arrow's sidekick, Speedy, walks out on the the JLA.  Soon, the remaining sidekicks (Robin, Aqualad and Fid Flash) decide to pick up a small emergency the JLA dropped in order to deal with a planetary threat.

And shenanigans ensue.

A secret lab is dicovered, a Superboy liberated, badguys thwarted, alliances forged, property damaged, threats suggested and authority figures challenged.

Its an interesting take.  These sidekicks are in their late teens, and they make a compelling case with "why train us up if you don't intend for us to play ball?".  After all, none of these superheroes are parents to their sidekicks, and expectation of a full partnership isn't completely unreasonable, and appeals both to kids watching the show and to, frankly, all of us who were left wondering why we were sitting at the kids' table when we felt we'd moved beyond that point (ie:  all of us).

In some ways its stunning how much of an effect Kirby had on DC despite his relatively small output at the company in comparison to tons of other creators.  Kirby developed Project Cadmus during his run on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (seriously), as well as reviving/ revising his own creation, the Golden Age character The Guardian, who had been a part of the 1940's-ish Newsboys series, and, of course, Dubbilex, all of whom appear in the episode.  "Blockbuster" was a Bronze Age Batman villain on, I think, Earth-2, but who pops up from time to time. 

I'll be honest, when DC introduced Superboy during the Reign of the Supermen storyline, I wasn't a fan (he was supposed to be a clone grown at Cadmus to replace Superman should he die.  Which, of course, he just had).  Kon-El was depicted in a way that I always found off-putting and, frankly, kind of dim and demonstrative of the limitations of DC's stable of writers. Geoff Johns' reimagining of Kon-El in the rebooted Teen Titans went terrifically far to rehabilitate a broken character, giving him something resembling self-awareness and concern about his relationship to the "S", and its that version that seems to have popped out of the cloning tube in this show.

The show also saw the introduction of Miss Martian to animation and helped usher in the new Aqualad, as seen in the pages of Brightest Day (a comic I haven't actually read yet, but DC and the animatiuon department decided to work together to develop the character).  And, as I understand it, we'll also see a different take on Artemis, who is Wonder Woman's sort of frenemy in the comics, but here will be portrayed as a sidekick. 

The story is kind of nuts and bolts basics, but its a very, very good start.  I think they picked an appropriate scale for a threat, demonstrating both the strengths and weaknesses of the concept of the junior team, and they aren't screwing around with "is this the DCU or isn't it?" that became a meta-issue with the last Teen Titans series.  We've not only seen Superman and the entirety of the Justice League, but seen Superman kind of flip out realizing he's been cloned.  Batman making a difficult but reasonable decision.  And we've now got a very interesting way to give kids and adults new to the DCU a way to look at the DCU that won't make them feel like they're reading "dad comics". 

I was never a fan of the original Aqualad, but I am curious about the new one (this isn't Garth, who was like a weaker, dumber Aquaman).  Haven't quite figured out exactly what his powers are, and I really don't know anything about his history, but he seems to have Aquaman levels of strength, which is cool, plus some sort of "water power game grips". 

With the wide cast of the JLA shown (including Zatara, which seems random at first blush), I expect that we'll see more and more of the younger cast rolled out.  Surely Speedy isn't gone forever.  And where walks Zatara, won't we seen Zatanna? 

Anyhow, very promising start.