The World Explained with Britsh Comedy

Mitchell and Webb explain homeopathic medicine.

Mooning the Cheetahs

There's a fine line between tragedy and comedy that often get blurred. This is often true when it comes to celebrity deaths. For example, how long is it going to be before Michael Jackson jokes are OK again?
I would like to propose a simple rule of thumb about such celebrity demises. The more tragic a celebrity's death, the longer it takes for it to be funy. For example, Princess Diana jokes had a wating period before they were socially acceptable. However, David Carradine, who died in an ill-conceived attempt at auto erotic asphyxiation, becomes subject for mockery almost immediately.
I call ths the "Mooning the Cheetahs" rule after a Dilbert comic stirp on ettiquete which says that is OK to laugh at demise of others as long as said demise is so hilarious and deserved that it becomes a health hazzard not to laugh. The example given is a man who died, as the name of the rule implied, whilst mooning enraged cheetahs.
With this simple rule, Michael Jackson jokes should be OK agian in about a week.

Redneck Health Care Policies

A funny little video.

Late Comic Books: Unspeakable Atrocity or Unforgivable Sin?

As you can probably tell from the title above, I am not a big fan of one of the more pervasive problems in the comic book industry. I am speaking of course about late comic books.
Now, I'm not talking about when a book misses a ship date by a couple of weeks. Quite frankly, at that point, it's often due to last minute editorial changes and/or problems at the printer/ distributor.
Wha I do loathe , however. is when the writer or artist of a series decides that it would be OK to take a long break. That often means months or years passing in between issues of the comic. This isn't a problem for comics like Fell or Global Frequency that tell a self-contained story each issue.
The problem occurs when comics tell long -form story arcs. A realtively recent example is the comic book, The End League. The comic tells the story of the last group of superheroes on Earth on a post-apoclayptic world where the villains won. With an extremmely large cast of characters, the story contained multiple plot threads that were all finally woven together for a satisfying conclusion.
Or at least, I think they were. You see, by the time, one plot thread became important I had all ready forgotten about it due to the moths long delay between issues. I often found myself digging through back issues in order to find out where a particular character came from.
Thats the problem with late books. Sure, some people say that it's worth the wait so that the writers and artists can produce the best product possible. The problem is with monthly 22 page comic books there's not really enough product to justify the wait. Most comics take no more then ten minutes to read. Ten minutes after a protracted wait is not satisfying. Instead, it leaves me feeling cheated. Like I just wasted my time. This means I am less likely to pick up work by the writer or artist in the future. That's not something the shrinking comic book market can afford.

Utterly Awesome News

I probably haven't mentioned it before but I'm a real big fan of comic book writer and novelist Peter David. So I was pleased that he was co-writing a book called "Year of the Black Rainbow", a prequel to the Armory Wars fantasy series.
To clarify why this is totalyl awsome, I must tell you about the Armory Series itrself. It is a series that boasts a complex narrative about -- Well , it involves aliens, the end of the universe, and a Godlike entity called the Writer who is implied to be the author of the story, visting misery on the protagonists in his work because his personal life sucks. As you can imagine the whole story is kind of --- complicated.
What make is all the more amazing is that the Armory Wars is not a series of novels. Instead, it is a series of conept albums by the band Coheed & Cambria telling an orginal epic fantsy story. The albums that tell the story include The Second Stage Turbine Blade, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, and The Three Happy Bunneys go to Smiletown. (One of those albums may exist only in my head).
The reason that this is so cool is that the band is really embracing the idea of a multi-media expereince. There story is told both in the albums and though side-projcts like the afforementioned novelization. It is a truly unique way to write a fantasy story for the twenty-first century. Add one of my favorite wristers to the mix and there's absolutely nothing about this that I don't love.

Super Short Reviews: Hero Alliance

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, independent publishing was having a minor boom. One of the products of this boom was Hero Alliance. The idea was a sound one. What if instead of banding together as a traditional super-hero team, the heroes instead worked together as an informal union, helping and training each other as needed. There would still be team ups and battles but the series would have more of a focus on the personal lives of the central heroes.
This was fine in theory. Unfortunately, none of the characters were all that interesting. The team a was led by Victor, the book's main star, a pretty bland Superman pastiche. The only real twist brought to the character was that he had a secret identity the made Clark Kent look comparatively discreet. For God's sakes, the man's real name was Vic Torrance, everyone kept commenting about how he never seemed to age, and he ran a gym that catered to superheroes. Yet every single person would be surprised when they found out that he was really Victor. Keep in mind that this comic was supposed to be more realistic then its mainstream counterparts.
Then there was the Sentry. He was the team's version of Batman. I would talk more about him but that would imply that the character was in any way distinguishable from Batman.
Then there was the Golden Guard, Victor's girlfriend and daughter of the world's first superhero. Of course, she was a fully developed character and not an excuse for gratuitous T&A. Yeah, right.
This is all especially frustrating when you realize that the series had good ideas . For example, the Guardsmen, the worlds foremost hero team is murdered by the super villain, Sepulcher. The twist is that Sepulcher is not their arch-enemy but a third-rate villain who wears a rubber zombie mask. Instead of engaging the heroes in fight he knows he'll lose, he simply blows up their big ostentatious public headquarters. No one even know it was him until he boasts about it after the heroes make fun of him when he gets captured during a convenience store robbery. Remember, kids, if a supervillain robs a convenience store, it means that he's not very good at his job.
If this sounds like an enjoyable read, keep in mind that none of the events I just described are shown to us. No, since comic books are a visual medium, the writer decided that it would be a good idea to never show the death of the Guardsmen on panel. Instead, we get other characters talking about it and captions filling in the details. Keep in mind this event leads to the formation of the titular super team. So you know, it's a great idea that we never see it. We wouldn't want the audience that something into get the mistaken idea that interesting things happen in this comic.
Because, with rare exceptions, they really don't. Most of the characters just sit around talking in expository dialog. The comic has great ideas but fails to put them forth in an interesting way. This is, by far, Hero Alliance's unforgivable sin.

How Not to Name a Dog

This post will telly you why it is to name your pet dog after a religious figure. Especially when the dog is an aggressive Pit Bull like dog. Otherwise, when the police have to put it down when it attacks some one we get real-life headlines like this one.

Rockville Police Shoot Jesus.

It's just embarssing.