We're not crazy about the SOPA Bill

I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/6377/uncensor

I don't ████████████ ████ it in for the ████ or the ████. ████ █████ █████ ████████. But ████ I do ████ a ███████ ████ is the ████ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ █████ 95% of the ████████ on the ████████ a █████ █████.

No, you ███████'t be █████████ ███████████ ██████ or ██████, you █████. But ████'s █████████ now is ████ a ████ has ████ ███████ ████ █████ an ████████ ██████ of ███████ ██████ ██████ ████████████ █████, █████████ ████████ █████████. If you ████, ███████████, a ██████████ ██████████ ████████, go █████ and ███████ ████.

I ██████ █████████ ████ ███████.

Signal Watch Reads: Action Comics #4

Action Comics #4
Superman and the Men of Steel
writer - Grant Morrison
penciller - Rags Morales
inkers - Rick Bryant & Sean Parsons
colorist - Brad Anderson
letterer - Patrick Brosseau

One of the funniest things about this issue wasn't what was on the page so much as a few comments I read online. Man, a lot of superhero comics fans really, really do not know their Superman. Even after the recent terrific Brainiac storyline in Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, culminating in the crazier and better bits of the conclusion of the massive New Krypton storyline.

SW Advent Calendar December 12

Scout and Lucy have the spirit of Christmas a-glowing from within...

Dames to Watch Out For: Today is Jennifer Connelly's Birthday

which gives me an excuse to post a picture of Jennifer Connelly.

along with some dude's 'stache

Ah, Ms. Connelly.

Unlike a lot of her contemporaries, Connelly never really became part of a Brat Pack or became known in the sort of faddish way many actresses get used up and spit out, only to wind up on absolutely terrible Lifetime and Hallmark Channel holiday movies.  Which I've been watching again, and they are awesome.

Connelly was a child actress, showing up in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America as the 12-year-old Deborah, but I remember her as the girl from Labyrinth that I was crushing on and who was pursued by David Bowie and Muppets.  Of course later she wound up as Bettie Page stand-in Jenny in The Rocketeer, which is worth watching just for Connelly in a cocktail dress.

She's gone on to all sorts of work, and has carved out an interesting career for herself while not melting down in public, but managing to mostly appear in movies I just never see.  I think the last of her movies I saw was the iffy remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Still, my hat is off to Connelly, because, dang, yo.  You keep being you, Ms. Connelly.

ah, heck.  here's Ms. Connelly in that cocktail dress.

a wee bit more on Superman Family kids' comic

DC Comics' blog made a formal announcement today regarding the Superman Family Adventures comic I mentioned Friday.

It sounds exactly like the sort of thing I was hoping DC might do this year.  Well, 2012 is close to this year, so I'll take what I can get.

From the article:

This May, the Eisner Award-winning creative team of the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling TINY TITANS, Art Baltazar and Franco, will continue bringing their wonderful and unique humor to DC Comics with the new ongoing monthly series, SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES. The series will be starring (you guessed it!) the whole Superman gang – Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, Bizarro, General Zod and … Fuzzy the Krypto Mouse!

As near as I can tell, Fuzzy the Krypto Mouse is all-new, but its been a while since anyone was added to the Legion of Super-Pets, so I welcome Fuzzy with open super-arms.  (But "Krypto Mouse"?  Could he be Streaky's nemesis?)

This is, of course, in tandem with the line of kids' Super Pets books which will soon have volumes featuring Super Turtle, Comet and more Krypto and Streaky.

I did notice on the bigger image DC provided of the FCBD comic that Superman is in his new suit.  I'll be curious how Jim Lee's design translates.

the kids love a high collar!

But, yup, that's Superman.  I am pretty excited about this!

Signal Watch Watches: Hugo

When the trailer hit for Hugo, I think a lot of folks were bemused or confused. Scorsese made his bones with some tough subject material, is closely associated with his gangster work like Casino and Goodfellas, and still turns out good stuff, the most recent that pops to mind for me is The Departed and the doc Public Speaking.

Of his contemporaries, Scorsese never went off the rails as much as Coppola and Lucas seemed to after their initial decade or two of success. He's been consistent, usually sticking to fairly mature material even when handling a costume drama like The Age of Innocence.  Thus it may have been, I raised an eyebrow when I saw he was doing a family movie for release at Christmas with 3D, storybook sets, a bright-eyed little boy a lead and dogs.  I still wanted to see what he'd cooked up, but more or less planned to write it off as Scorsese's holiday-film lark.

Firstly, Hugo is not at all the movie I believed it would be from the trailer. Nor the poster. And, I'd argue, its barely a kids' movie. Or, if it is for kids, its not going to slow down for your dopey kids as it goes about telling very exactly the story it has in mind.

SW Advent Calendar December 11

Thanks to Nicole for this video.

Actually, this video might actually be of Nicole.

SW Advent Calendar December 10

This evening we host our annual Holiday Party.*  Were we only so lucky as to have Enemy Ace come flying in out of the snow to party crash as he did in the story "Silent Night" from Christmas with the Superheroes #2.

*you're invited.  Come on by!

SW Advent Calendar December 9

...why is Santa so HUGE?  And shouldn't Wonder Woman put on some pants if she's going to sit down in the snow?

So, so many questions...

Superman Family Kids' Comic Coming?

Well, this looks three kinds of promising.

Free Comics Book Day is announcing their upcoming titles for this spring/ summer, and included in the "Silver" book announcements, I read the following:

DC COMICS 

DC Nation Super Sampler / Superman Family Adventures Flip-Book

(W) Art Baltazar, Franco, Various (A) Dario Brizuela, Art Baltazar, Various

This super sampler is the place to check outGreen Lantern Adventures and Young Justice, two sensational new comic series from the DC Kids line based on Warner Bros. Animation’s popular Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice, featured on the upcoming DC Nation programming block on Cartoon Network in 2012. The sampler includes two exciting, all-new stories that readers of all ages will enjoy. Plus, get a sneak-peek at the brand-new Superman Family Adventures monthly series from the Tiny Titans creative team!

Let me pull out the relevant/ exciting part.

Plus, get a sneak-peek at the brand-new Superman Family Adventures monthly series from the Tiny Titans creative team!

What?!  That could be AWESOME!

So maybe this summer we're getting a kid's version of The Superman Family?  Well, count me in.

You can see Superman in the little bullet there towards the bottom of the cover.

It's a nice little surprise in my day.