Norway, Debt Ceiling

I am absolutely shocked to hear about the violence which broke out in Norway today. As of this writing the press is saying that more than 80 people have died in two blasts (miles apart) and a shooting rampage. At this time neither The New York Times nor the Times of London have repeated the story, but CNN is stating as many as 87 have died.

news article here

I have nothing to add at this time other than to quote from the CNN article:

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was not in his office at the time of the blast and was not hurt, officials said.

Afterward, he had a message to whoever may have been responsible: "You won't destroy us," he said. "You won't destroy our democracy. We are a small but proud nation. No one can bomb us to silence. No one can scare us from being Norway. This evening and tonight, we'll take care of each other. That's what we do best when attacked."

Let's all take a minute to think of Norway today, please.

Debt Ceiling

I do not pretend to understand the economics or politics of the debt ceiling issue entirely, other than to note that I am watching to see what sort of moment in history our elected officials choose to engage in.

History teaches us many things, mainly about how what we do today will be written about tomorrow. Let us hope that wisdom trumps egos and that politics and posturing do not mean we accidentally end modern civilization.

new "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" footage looks promising

I can't help but wonder - can movie audiences deal with a movie that is science fiction but not necessarily an action movie?

This clip looks very promising when you consider the themes of the Planet of the Apes movies.

Superman in the DCNu Relaunch - the press blitz, DC's bad copy and the internet reaction are wearing me out

When I saw the cover to Action Comics #1 (2011) I assumed it was a figurative cover, suggesting that Grant Morrison was taking Superman back to his earliest roots as the son of working class people who comes to the big city and fights corruption and crime in an over-the-top, two-fisted manner, siding with the little guy and duking it our with landlords and corrupt arms manufacturers rather than rogue robots or some nefarious alien menace.

The jeans, the t-shirt... it all seemed fairly symbolic of (and this will drive some of our readership crazy, but...) the "worker" Superman, the champion of the oppressed that populist-thinking kids in the 1930's saw able to right wrongs that couldn't be dealt with by a mortal man.  Superman was an avatar of justice in a world where most people were powerless against the machinations of class, money, politics and the unstoppable threat some bad men could become simply by wielding a gun.

Signal Watch Reads: Power Lunch (by J. Torres and Dean Trippe)

Power Lunch
First Course
by J. Torres & Dean Trippe
lettered by Ed Brisson
designed by Keith Wood
edited by James Lucas Jones

So, one tough thing about running a comics blog is that sometimes we are asked to preview materials and write a review.  And sometimes we read something and we try to be as fair as possible, even when we know that the item we're reviewing isn't something we'd normally read because of genre, topic, etc...  or worse, sometimes its something we didn't like.

I'm happy to say that I just don't have that problem here in any way, shape or form. I just straight up dug this fun, well written, well designed/ drawn all-ages book. 

The Giant Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg

I have very few memories of reading The Great Gatsby in high school.  Well, not exactly.  I have several flashes of memory of reading The Great Gatsby.

1. I remember finding all of the characters insufferable except Jay Gatsby, which I guess is correct.  But at the time, it made turning every page feel like I was lifting a 200 lb. steel plate.
2. I remember the book was a slim volume, but we spent weeks deciphering it like it was a set of clues as if we were our own little symbologists uncovering a Dan Brown "mystery".  
3. I don't remember a lot of hand waving about the "examination of the American Dream", but nobody telling me what the hell that actually meant.
4. I was somewhat obsessed with the Giant Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg because my instructor and my CliffsNotes were also obsessed with the Giant eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg.  
5. We had to do some sort of class project, and ours was a skit in which we re-enacted the fatal car crash.  I was very proud of the "Dr. T.J. Eckleburg" sign I'd made with Sharpies on poster board for set decoration. I also played Gatsby, I believe.  
6. By the time I decided to give the book another go, I had no memory of it save for
1. The green light at Daisy's dock and Jay reaching out toward it in the darkness
2. Somebody was hit by a car
3. The Giant Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg

ComicCon is coming (and I have to wonder if it isn't doing more harm than good)

This week ComicCon International will commence in San Diego (formerly the San Diego Comic Con - hence the adherence to SDCC in the interwebs).  Its the annual bacchanalia of all things geek-oriented which has become a darling for mainstream media coverage and seemingly part of the anti-life equation the entertainment industry and press constantly seeks that will unlock the key to eternal profitability with a minimum of effort.

If you had told me in 2001 that by 2011, ComicCon would become a well-known entity that draws a modicum of respect from both regular press and the entertainment industry, I would have slapped you and called you out for the liar you are.  But today, ComicCon has apparently swollen to over 100,000 attendees of all stripes, and by-passed comics to draw movies, TV and other sci-fi and fantasy media.  If you're reading this site, you probably didn't need to be told all that, but nobody ever accused me of under-writing.

I was actually standing in the convention center this winter when I realized I was at the building that houses SDCC when I visited San Diego for a library conference* and noted that the SD Convention Center is actually a fairly small affair as Convention Centers go, especially in comparison to the mammoth halls of Vegas or even Houston or Austin.  Not that SDCC needs to grow, but when you think about the impact we all know SDCC has on the comics biz...  the size of the building tells us how small that business really is and that maybe its still a somewhat small affair in comparison to other industry conventions.

But sometimes I wonder if ComicCon isn't doing the industry and comics a bit of damage.

Weekend Round-Up: Soccer, Potter, More Potter and Not Much Else

In our household, Jamie is the Harry Potter nut.  I don't dislike Harry, but, as we recently discussed, I have questions.  Lots and lots of questions.

Knowing that Saturday night I would be homebound and watching watching Harry Potter and that Sunday I'd be down at the Alamo watching yet more Potter, on Friday I rounded up some pals and we hit The Crow Bar down on South Congress.  Its not bad, but my expectations of bars are very, very low.  Frankly, the nicer the bar, the more I do not want to be there.  It may shock you, but The League is not much of "see and be seen" sort of fellow, and prefers functionality in his nightlife.  I would rather drink with hobos down by the river than go to, say, Qua, the club that just makes me want to punch somebody.*

Some "Friday Night Lights" links as we shut down the stadium one last time

On social media I saw a few links up about the end of Friday Night Lights.  Some from PaulT, some from elsewhere.  Some good stuff.  I thought I'd share. 

An Oral History of Friday Night Lights
Austin's Omar G says a quick good-bye
Generation FNL
Another movie?

Signal Watch Reads: Superman 713

Superman 713
Grounded: Part 11
Written by Chris Roberson
Art: pages 1, 4-10: Diogenes Neves @ Oclair Albert
pages 2 & 3: Eddy Barrows & JP Mayer
pages 11-20: Jamal Igle & Jon Sibal
Colorist: Marcello Maiolo
Letterer: John J. Hill
Cover: John Cassaday & David Baron (Jeff Smith, variant)
Editors: Wil Moss & Matt Idleson

Two notes before talk more about this issue: 
(1) This is the issue that follows the kitty/Muslim controversy that got Roberson's issue #712 frozen and replaced with an inventory story from Kurt Busiek's post-Infinite Crisis run on Superman. 
(2)  This is the penultimate issue of the Roberson run on Superman, and while we've got one more issue, I'm a little bummed that there's only 20 more pages of Roberson's work (for now).

Just as its annoying when networks show episodes of a TV show out of order, we could have been very, very lost with the release of this issue had Roberson not done so much to make each issue episodic.  We may have missed a few story and character beats, but we're not utterly lost as Superman wanders into Oregon.  We've just missed a leg of Superman's walk, and we can only hope that the division running collected editions will see fit to include the missing chapter in the collected run.

Its unfortunate that we have to keep an odd editorial decision in mind in approaching the story, but (as we say almost daily at my office) "it is what it is".  And what it is is a really fun issue, and an appropriate one to lead toward a conclusion of Grounded, but to put a bow on the conclusion of this volume of Superman. 

FNL Wrap-Up: The Many "Y'all's" of Tami Taylor

Nobody fakes a Texas accent like Connie Britton. Maxwell posted this, and I'm stealing it.



I know "y'all" has taken off in the national lexicon thanks to the adoption in hip-hop, but it was a Southern thing. At that, when I was a kid and everyone was a transplant, we were being taught not to say "y'all" in school as it supposedly made us look a bit hill-billyish. It did not stick.

"Y'all" is a highly functional word, and anyone who lives in Texas knows the many, many meanings of the word (as demonstrated above by Ms. Tami Taylor). Yup, it's from "You all", which up north, I guess is "You guys". But it tends to pepper the conversation quite a bit more as a friendly, informal manner of address, and is used to warm up formal situations.

By the way, you hear people imitating Texans saying "y'all" to a single individual. This is incorrect. If "y'all" is said to an individual, say, over the phone, you should assume they have just asked about either everyone in your immediate vicinity ("Are y'all about to leave?") or your entire family or household ("what are y'all up to this weekend?"). It's a form of address to large crowds ("Y'all, I need your attention.") and a way of expressing despair ("Aw, y'all...").

A warning to those not from below the Mason-Dixon line: if you ever hear the phrase "f-bomb all y'all", something has gone very wrong, indeed, with the Texan with whom you are conversing. You can assume the famous Southern hospitality has just been dropped for that famous Southern hostility.