Signal Watch Reads: Superman #3

Superman #3
A Cold Day in Hell
script & breakdowns - George Perez
penciller - Nicola Scott
inker - Trevor Scott
colorists - Brian Buccalleto, Brett Smith, Blond
letterer - Carlos M. Mangual
cover - Perez & Buccelleto
associate editor - Wil Moss
editor - Matt Idleson
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
this review is of the print edition

The storyline taking place five years after the events in Grant Morrison's Action Comics continue, with Superman established but not the paragon of trust in Metropolis that readers may have been familiar to readers of prior Superman series.  There's most definitely a bit of "One Year Later" fatigue setting in as characters speak elliptically about the past, established relationships, etc...  and it can feel a bit more like we're picking up a comic that's been running for a while than stepping into the start of something new.  Which, truthfully, seems to defeat some of the purpose of a "relaunch".

No Post Tuesday

Instead, I leave you to ponder the Fortress of Solidarity.

click to enlarge

Doug and Kristen were still with us Monday night, and I had an early morning.  No post for you.

Happy Birthday, Gloria Grahame

We've talked Ms. Grahame before.  Today is her birthday.  Happy B-Day to you, wherever you are.

Grahame born in 1923 and passed in 1981 at the all-too young age of 57.

Nice Holiday and Muppets

Hey!  Welcome back from the Thanksgiving Holiday.

We had a very nice weekend.  For a brief rundown:  Thursday we didn't actually do Thanksgiving.  

I got up, watched the parade as much as I could, and thanks to a very busy schedule for the next few weeks, figured I better hang our Christmas lights.  So, that's done.  Dug and K arrived around 3:30, so we had a nice, oddly-timed meal (not quite lunch, not quite dinner), and then they headed down to San Marcos.

We watched the UT game at my folks' with some family friends, and, of course, enjoyed that outcome.

Friday I really didn't do a lot.  Austin Books and Comics was having a Black Friday sale on back issues (and who am I to not support local business?), so I headed down for 1/2 off on back issues between 8:00 and 10:00 AM, and then picked up 4.5 lbs. of back issues at the ABC Sidekick store, where they were literally (and hilariously) selling comics by the pound.

I have a lot of 70's-era Superman comics to get through.

My workout schedule was destroyed during all this, so in the afternoon I headed to the gym and did a few extra minutes on everything.

And then Friday evening I caught up with longtime pal ShaunaC and her husband, Fred.  It was terrific catching up.  Too long inbetween seeing each other, but what are you going to do?

Saturday we had Thanksgiving Dinner at Judy & Dick's in San Marcos.  My brother and folks also came down, along with longtime League-pal Heather "Daredevil" W.  

We capped off Saturday by coming back to the house and watching a slew of short subjects, many of which were Holiday themed, all of which were awful, including 1980's syndicated Superboy episodes and the now-infamous-at-our-house We Wish You a Turtle Christmas, a cynically, cheaply and quickly produced series of videos featuring live action turtles from the touring production, clearly with no script or real rehearsals.  There's something bizarre and dream-like about the entire production, with nothing making sense and everything sort of geared to drive you mad.  I'll leave it to Cinemassacre to explain the video as best one can.  

Anyway, that (and maybe a festive cocktail or two) is why this happened:

I should mention we were also screwing around a lot this weekend with the iPhone App that The Dug is currently employed to develop. It's called Vlix, and its actually really neat. They just released a holiday-themed version you can download for free. Just search for "vlix" on your app store.

The Holiday App and Vlix deal in short videos, so the Holiday app is really an easy way to make a video Christmas card.

Announcing the Signal Watch Video Channel

This isn't really that exciting, but thanks to the power of Vlix (an app available on your iPhone - and The Dug's employer) and their recent holiday edition of the app, we found ourselves creating a handful of videos over the weekend.

So, we've added a tab in the row at the top of the page so you can get to our YouTube Channel, or, of course, you can get there via this link.  Feel free to subscribe so you don't miss any of the excitingness.

And, yes, this will include future Santor videos.  But it'll also feature content not on the site, so, there you go.

Right now, you can get a peek at a behind-the-scenes look at our transition from Thanksgiving to the Christmas season.

Prepareth, Ye! It is Santor.

More New DC 52 Reviews: Green Lantern Corps and New Guardians #1

I know, I know.  September was a long time ago, but the truth is, I needed a breather.  52 new titles is a lot to process.

If you've followed this site for any length of time, you know I'm a Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps fan in concept and in practice, which is why the mediocrity of this summer's outing at the cinema felt like such a kick in the shins.

DC launched 4 Green Lantern titles, including a Red Lanterns titles, which I've already discussed.

New Guardians will feature Kyle Rayner and a medley of the rest of the rainbow array of ring bearers (Black and White seem to be off the table).

While I appreciated the issue (written by Tony Bedard) opening with a riff on the origin of Kyle Rayner and what DC was doing back then*, its weird, context-free, and features no mention of when this was all happening, until a few pages later, they note "oh, now we're in present day".  Its a weird swing and a miss as the issue is trying to be new reader friendly, but instead managed to confuse a GL reader like myself for a page or three.  I can't imagine what a new reader would think was happening.

Its kind of an odd-ball issue as its sort of half a set-up.  In addition to the aforementioned origin pages, we see as rings from several corps abandon their various owners from various sectors and seek out Rayner, leaving most of the owners in a lurch.  And then they show up.  And that's it.

New John Hodgman ad for "That is All"

I still need to get this book.

Santor, he cometh

As we roll into the Holiday Shopping season...

As we begin the Holiday Season, remember that your Christmas shopping need not be just another annoying trip to the mall.



Try to enjoy yourself a little this Christmas.