tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-228427882024-03-06T22:46:03.765-05:00GeniusboyFiremelonTim Callahan's pop culture blogTimothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.comBlogger962125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-18522053995192388742014-12-02T04:11:00.004-05:002014-12-02T04:11:37.564-05:00Pax Americana: Trapped in a World He Never MadeI wrote about PAX AMERICANA for Comic Book Resources. I just had to break my self-imposed comic book exile for this one.<br />
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Read my thousand-or-so words <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=57263" target="_blank">HERE</a>!<br />
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<br />Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-89916914902373664102014-04-21T20:40:00.002-04:002014-04-21T20:40:13.834-04:00The Evolution of D&D Module Covers: 1979-2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This new one looks pretty dull by comparison, doesn't it?</div>
Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-39785405587693312302014-02-13T08:14:00.001-05:002014-02-13T08:15:07.373-05:00CRAWLJAMMER: Check it out if you like lasers and swords and RPGs and awesomeness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hey! I haven't posted here in a while and I should probably go back and add a few things like links to the last couple of years of BEST OF BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK COMICS and "Here's where I say goodbye to all those years writing for CBR" and all that stuff.<br />
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BUT! I haven't bothered to do that yet. (I will! Someday!)<br />
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Instead, I've been writing and drawing this <a href="http://crawljammer.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">old-school role-playing game zine called CRAWLJAMMER</a> which is basically all my favorite sci-fi and fantasy novels and movies and comics mashed up in to an RPG setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics. Only it's not really a setting, since I have rules for things like new character classes (Lizardman Mercenary!) and adventures on Venus and a part where my son writes about Lizardman space peasants and the kind of jobs they would have (Blue Bison Farmer! Treeslayer! Meatmaster!) and I make up things like critical hit tables for when a Skullcraft battles a Space Ziggurat.<br />
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Yeah, it's CRAWLJAMMER, and it's what I'm doing right now instead of writing reviews about mediocre superhero comics.Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-2057945632690889162013-05-11T20:13:00.000-04:002013-05-11T20:17:51.636-04:00The COMICS ALLIANCE Reviews: Rude, Kirby, McKeever, Ditko, and Eisner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/" target="_blank">COMICS ALLIANCE</a> was one of my favorite comics-related sites, which is why I asked editor-extraordinaire Andy Khouri if they'd be interested in having me come on board to write some things for them near the end of last year. It all worked out perfectly -- they did want me to review in-print graphic novels or collected editions for them -- and I started off with a review/retrospective on the glory of Steve Rude and the first year or two of <i>Nexus</i>. That post went live in early 2013.<br />
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I came up with a list of other books they might like me to review -- including things like <i>The Creeper</i>, and <i>Grimjack</i>, and <i>The End League</i>, and <i>Eddy Current</i>, and <i>Nextwave</i> -- and Andy highlighted the ones the CA readership (or the CA editors, or both) might care about the most, so I started working, expecting to build up a stack of reviews that could run on COMICS ALLIANCE throughout 2013, maybe sliding into a weekly routine once I figured out how to work this extra writing gig into my normal routine.
That never happened. I wrote a handful of retrospectives/reviews for CA and then, as you all probably know, COMICS ALLIANCE was shut down by its parent company without warning. I thought the site was just settling in to its witty balance of pop culture coverage and comic book analysis and had a long, ever-growing future ahead of it. That's why I was so happy to join the crew. But nope. It's all over.<br />
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I'm more saddened by not ever being able to read new material on the site, and the fact that a strong stable of writers and editors will have to scramble to find other paying work, than I am about losing the occasional paycheck for writing the kinds of reviews I had planned for CA. That was only ever going to cover the cost of the reviewed book and give me a little bit of spending money. I wasn't going to lose any money on the gig, but I wasn't going to make more than about $20 or $30 every week or two. It was just goofing-around-and-buying-a-few-comics-money. Nothing serious, but certainly helpful.<br />
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But, man, I miss the opportunity to be part of the COMICS ALLIANCE team and I'm sorry to see the site just stop dead.<br />
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I'll still be continuing my weekly <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?id=30&page=column" target="_blank">"When Words Collide"</a> column for <i>Comic Book Resources</i>, and though both my <a href="http://www.tor.com/features/series/the-great-alan-moore-reread" target="_blank">Great Alan Moore Reread</a> and my <a href="http://www.tor.com/tags/sandman%20reread" target="_blank">Sandman Reread</a> have come to an end at <i>Tor.com</i>, I have some other things in the works with the folks over there. But CA is no more.<br />
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For the record, here are my collected edition reviews that were published during my short few months at COMICS ALLIANCE:<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/01/08/mike-baron-steve-rude-nexus-omnibus-review-dark-horse/" target="_blank">Mike Baron and Steve Rude's 'Nexus': Exploding Preconceptions Since 1981</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/01/31/spirit-world-jack-kirby-dc-comics-hardcover-review/" target="_blank">Jack Kirby's Spirit World: We Are on the Outside</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/02/14/ted-mckeever-eddy-current-collection-review-image-comics/" target="_blank">The Inhuman Magnetism of Ted McKeever's 'Eddy Current'</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/02/21/creeper-steve-ditko-dc-comics-collection-review/" target="_blank">Mania and Dream Logic: Looking Back at Ditko's Cackling 'Creeper'</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/04/03/contract-with-god-review-will-eisner/" target="_blank">The Anatomy of Expression: Will Eisner and 'A Contract with God'</a><br />
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I'm pleased with all five of these entries, and I hope you enjoy them while you can. No one knows how long the CA site archives will remain available, and AOL owns the content I've linked to above, so it's unlikely that I'll be able to ever republish the pieces I've written for them.<br />
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Yeah. Comics. They'll break your heart.Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-33631837609050335262013-02-02T11:02:00.003-05:002013-02-02T11:04:43.612-05:00RAINBOW DASH Writer Ryan K. Lindsay Interviewed by Two MY LITTLE PONY Fans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In March of 2013, longtime CBR colleague and <i>The Devil is in the Details</i> editor and internet friend Ryan K. Lindsay will unleash a single issue of a comic book series that is destined to change the world. It's issue #2 of the <i>My Little Pony </i>"micro-series" featuring Rainbow Dash.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In the issue, the high-flying pony faces an insurmountable challenge: cloud goblins that threaten the skies!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I know what you're thinking: is this going to be the next <i>Watchmen</i> or is it going to be the next <i>Dark Knight Returns</i> or the next <i>Mr. T and the T-Force</i> or some divine combination of all three?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We'll have to wait until March to find out, but, until then, I have brought in a couple of junior members of the Geniusboy Firemelon editorial team to grill Mr. Lindsay on his intentions and his abilities. They're here to determine whether or not the young writer is cut out for the scrutiny of high-profile <i>My Little Pony</i> scholarship.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here they are -- two short interviews that may make or break Ryan K. Lindsay's career:</span><br />
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<b>INTERVIEW #1 BY LAUREN, AGE 8:</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Lauren:</b> Why did to choose to write about Rainbow Dash?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>RKL:</b> I actually pitched for a few of the ponies and my Rainbow Dash story was the one my editor, Bobby Curnow, liked the most. I chose her for one of my pitches mostly because she gets to do cool stuff with weather and the skies. That's an exciting skill set I thought would make for a cool story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Lauren:</b> What kind of story will this be? Is it adventure or comedy or is it scary?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>RKL: </b>It's mostly more in the action/adventure camp but there's one kind of jarring scene that's a PG level scare of sorts and I'm also hoping some of my jokes in there land. I don't know if writers are ever confident about their jokes in a script, I'm not.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Lauren:</b> Will you be retelling an episode in your own way or telling an original story? Why?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>RKL:</b> I'm telling an original story. Anything else feels like plagiarism. Well, it could be adaptation but that doesn't sound as dramatic. I'm telling my original story because that's what my editor wants but fortuitously that's also what I am most interested in, I wanted to bring some new things to Equestria.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Lauren: </b>Will your story take place in the past, present, or future?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>RKL:</b> Floating present.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Lauren:</b> Which minor characters will appear in your story?</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">RKL: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Applejack is the supporting character pony and Tank also gets to play a pivotal role. I've also created my own pony which I called, in the script only, Redford Pony. I think he's pretty rad.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Lauren:</b> Which My Little Pony episode is your favorite? (My favorite is the one where Rarity makes outfits for all her friends.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>RKL:</b> I'd have to go with 'Sonic Rainboom' but 'Read It and Weep' is definitely a close second. Rainbow is now my favorite pony so I like seeing her take center stage. She's an interesting character.</span><br />
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<b>INTERVIEW #2 BY ANDREW, AGE 12:</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Andrew:</b> How do you suppose you will make Rainbow Dash 20% cooler?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>RKL:</b> There is one thing I do in this issue that I guarantee makes Rainbow Dash 20% cooler, at least. It was actually the first thing that came to me and became the crux of this entire issue. I build to this moment and I'm certain it pays off. I obviously can't spoil it but I will stake my reputation on it.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Andrew:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> What will you do to capture Rainbow Dash’s pure awesomeness?</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">RKL: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You don't capture her awesomeness - I only hope to refract it through the fine crystals I use to divine my stories in the hopes of setting shards free to enter your brain stem.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Andrew:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> If you WERE planning to set the story in the future, I recommend renaming Rainbow Dash “Deathbow Dash” and giving her a trail of nuclear waste. Have you considered that?</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">RKL: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I actually have (this now serving as a legal record that I had the idea and thus when I use it I will owe you no compensation). Although my Deathbow Dash leaves a trail of smog across the sky.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Andrew:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> Are you sure you don’t want to make the story about post-apocalyptic rainbow ponies after the great cupcake war of the year 5000 AE?</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">RKL: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'm actually more interested in capturing the turmoil surrounding the aftermath of the Apple Famine of 4650. That was when Applejack had to travel to the stars to locate Celestial Johnny Appleseed and get him to bless her crop with his mighty seed. It's a cracker of a tale but if we get a green light for a sequel I'll talk with you about the Great Cupcake War of 5000AE. So long as we dedicate an issue to the Batter Battle of Lemony Knoll.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Andrew:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> Well, what about turning all the ponies into mutant cyborgs then?</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">RKL: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'm the guy who pitched a pony story involving a Kung Fu Tournament, don't think I won't straight up steal your ideas.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">WHAT DO YOU THINK READERS? WILL THIS <b>RAINBOW DASH</b><i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>COMIC FIND ITS WAY IN YOUR MARCH SHOPPING CART? IS RYAN K. LINDSAY TOO GOOD FOR COMICS? SHOULD THE JUNIOR MEMBERS OF THE GENIUSBOY FIREMELON STAFF JUST TAKE OVER THIS SITE AND TURN IT INTO A SHOPPING MALL?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">YOU DECIDE!</span>Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-52501769190857566082013-01-31T22:29:00.001-05:002013-01-31T22:30:23.513-05:00BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS: A When Words Collide Archive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the recurring features within my weekly CBR column in 2012 was something I called "Before They Were Famous" where I would write about the issue of a comic book series right <i>before</i> a more famous run began. I plan to do some more of these at some point in the distant future, but I wanted to have an easy-to-reference list of links to the entries I have already completed, so here it is!<br />
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BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS, via <i>When Words Collide</i> and CBR and me:<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=36200" target="_blank"><i>Swamp Thing</i> #19</a>, by Marty Pasko, right before Alan Moore came in and blew the roof off of American comics.<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37345" target="_blank"><i>X-Men</i> #66</a>, the last of the pre-Chris Claremont era X-Men with what seems to be a pretty weak Roy Thomas inventory story.<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38314" target="_blank"><i>Captain America</i> #32</a>, the Robert-Kirkman-written ridiculous conclusion to the post-9/11 take on the Sentinel of Liberty, prior to Ed Brubaker's relaunch.<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39119" target="_blank"><i>Supreme</i> #40</a>, another pre-Alan Moore comic, where Jim Valentino and Tom and Mary Bierbaum tell something that resembles a story but isn't very good by anyone's reckoning.<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=40296" target="_blank"><i>Batman</i> #403</a>, by Max Allan Collins, immediately before Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli presented us with the serialized "Batman: Year One."<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=40928" target="_blank"><i>Incredible Hulk</i> #330</a>, which was Todd McFarlane's first issue but the last of the Al-Milgrom-written issue before Peter David's monumental run began.<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42358" target="_blank"><i>Iron Man</i> #115</a>, written by Bill Mantlo, with David Michelinie and Bob Layton waiting to strike in the following issue.<br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42612" target="_blank"><i>Doom Patrol</i> #18</a>, the final Paul Kupperberg issue before Grant Morrison began his dadaist superhero masterpiece.<br />
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If you have any suggestions for other "Before They Were Famous" installments, let me know!Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-40697617296839708192013-01-21T22:55:00.001-05:002013-01-31T23:16:14.785-05:00The Great Alan Moore Reread: The Super-Index<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After sixty-five weeks, my Great Alan Moore Reread at Tor.com has reached its conclusion. To celebrate, and make it easier to reference any of the individual posts, here is the super-index of every installment of the series. Yeah!<br />
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I wrote a lot. But Alan Moore wrote a lot more. That guy's pretty good. Here's what I thought about almost all of his comics.<br />
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I have an intro post with <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-it-begins" target="_blank">It Begins</a> and then I explore the Moore catalog with my brain (click on any of the entries to go to the relevant post and enjoy):<br />
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<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-marvelman-miracleman-part-1" target="_blank">Marvelman/Miracleman Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-marvelmanmiracleman-part-2" target="_blank">Marvelman/Miracleman Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-marvelman-miracleman-part-3" target="_blank">Marvelman/Miracleman Part 3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-marvelman-miracleman-part-4" target="_blank">Marvelman/Miracleman Part 4</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-early-years-miscellany-star-wars" target="_blank">Star Wars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-v-for-vendetta-part-1" target="_blank">V for Vendetta Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-v-for-vendetta-part-2" target="_blank">V for Vendetta Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-skizz" target="_blank">Skizz</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-captain-britain-prologue-via-doctor-who" target="_blank">Doctor Who</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-captain-britain-part-1" target="_blank">Captain Britain Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-captain-britain-part-2" target="_blank">Captain Britain Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-future-shocks" target="_blank">Future Shocks</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-swamp-thing-part-1" target="_blank">Swamp Thing Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-swamp-thing-part-2" target="_blank">Swamp Thing Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/02/the-great-alan-moore-reread-swamp-thing-part-3" target="_blank">Swamp Thing Part 3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/02/the-great-alan-moore-reread-swamp-thing-addendum-plus-superman" target="_blank">Swamp Thing Meets Superman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/02/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-superman-stories" target="_blank">Superman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/02/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-1" target="_blank">Watchmen Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-2" target="_blank">Watchmen Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-3" target="_blank">Watchmen Part 3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-4" target="_blank">Watchmen Part 4</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/the-great-alan-moore-reread-green-arrow-vigilante-and-omega-men" target="_blank">Green Arrow, Vigilante, Omega Men</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-green-lantern-corps" target="_blank">Green Lantern Corps</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-ballad-of-halo-jones" target="_blank">Halo Jones</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-batman-stories" target="_blank">Batman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/the-great-alan-moore-reread-from-hell-part-1" target="_blank">From Hell Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/the-great-alan-moore-reread-from-hell-part-2" target="_blank">From Hell Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/the-great-alan-moore-reread-dr-a-quinch" target="_blank">DR and Quinch</a></li>
<li>I<a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/the-great-alan-moore-reread-in-pictopia" target="_blank">n Pictopia</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/the-great-alan-moore-reread-big-numbers" target="_blank">Big Numbers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/the-great-alan-moore-reread-a-small-killing" target="_blank">A Small Killing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/06/the-great-alan-moore-reread-spawn" target="_blank">Spawn</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/06/the-great-alan-moore-reread-violator" target="_blank">Violator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/06/the-great-alan-moore-reread-1963" target="_blank">1963</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/06/the-great-alan-moore-reread-wildcats" target="_blank">WildCATs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/the-great-alan-moore-reread-spawn-wildcats" target="_blank">Spawn/WildCATs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/the-great-alan-moore-reread-mr-majestic-voodoo-and-deathblow" target="_blank">Mr. Majestic, Voodoo, Deathblow</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/the-great-alan-moore-reread-supreme-part-1" target="_blank">Supreme Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/the-great-alan-moore-reread-supreme-part-2" target="_blank">Supreme Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/the-great-alan-moore-reread-supreme-part-3" target="_blank">Supreme Part 3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/the-great-alan-moore-reread-judgment-day" target="_blank">Judgment Day</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/the-great-alan-moore-reread-youngblood-and-glory" target="_blank">Youngblood and Glory</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-spirit" target="_blank">The Spirit</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/the-great-alan-moore-reread-tom-strong-part-1" target="_blank">Tom Strong Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/the-great-alan-moore-reread-tom-strong-part-2" target="_blank">Tom Strong Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/the-great-alan-moore-reread-tom-strong-part-3" target="_blank">Tom Strong Part 3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/the-great-alan-moore-reread-tom-strongs-terrific-tales" target="_blank">Tom Strong's Terrific Tales</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/09/the-great-alan-moore-reread-promethea-part-one" target="_blank">Promethea Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-promethea-part-two" target="_blank">Promethea Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-promethea-part-three" target="_blank">Promethea Part 3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-top-10-part-one" target="_blank">Top 10 Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-top-10-part-two" target="_blank">Top 10 Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/10/the-great-alan-moore-reread-smax" target="_blank">Smax</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-top-10-the-forty-niners" target="_blank">Top 10: The Forty-Niners</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-tomorrow-stories-part-one" target="_blank">Tomorrow Stories Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-tomorrow-stories-part-two" target="_blank">Tomorrow Stories Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-part-one" target="_blank">The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-part-two" target="_blank">The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Part 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-part-three-black-dossier" target="_blank">The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-part-four-century" target="_blank">The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-lost-girls" target="_blank">Lost Girls</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-albion" target="_blank">Albion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-neonomicon" target="_blank">Neonomicon</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-alan-moore-legacy" target="_blank">The Alan Moore Legacy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/01/the-great-alan-moore-reread-the-all-time-top-10-best-comics-written-by-alan-moore" target="_blank">The 10 Best Alan Moore Comics of All Time</a></li>
</ol>
<div>
Yup.</div>
Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-60674015923553202612013-01-15T00:04:00.000-05:002013-01-15T00:04:16.891-05:00The Splash Page Podcast: 2013 Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht61eiv_Q4C2nGt1KQ-41oBy-xLtU-IWiIZHzOCNSuPhHHG4HKT4jTMGJHnIvlI0hwv7prnMDZuWoCJQA7s95zEI9ujlB22Y61jFy8MvrYtJLNCQvxs9hu-oeiy12qoeOC9bQxvQ/s1600/cap193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht61eiv_Q4C2nGt1KQ-41oBy-xLtU-IWiIZHzOCNSuPhHHG4HKT4jTMGJHnIvlI0hwv7prnMDZuWoCJQA7s95zEI9ujlB22Y61jFy8MvrYtJLNCQvxs9hu-oeiy12qoeOC9bQxvQ/s200/cap193.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
My old Splash Page co-host, Chad Nevett, hates Captain America.<br />
<br />
I know.<br />
<br />
I know.<br />
<br />
But it's not really his fault. It's his culture.<br />
<br />
In this <a href="http://thesplashpage.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/the-splash-page-2013-special/" target="_blank">SPECIAL 2013 SPLASH PAGE</a> podcast episode, Chad and I talk for nearly three hours about comic book stuff (along with other stuff, like housing prices and donations to old people). It may be the final episode of The Splash Page podcast ever. You should probably listen and learn.<br />
<br />
If you didn't click on the link above, you can listen to it by clicking <a href="http://thesplashpage.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/the-splash-page-2013-special/" target="_blank">HERE</a>!Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-45207861670586926812012-10-14T00:14:00.002-04:002012-10-14T00:22:44.946-04:00THE CHEMICAL BOX Episode 20: Featuring Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Joey and Alec invited me to join them on THE CHEMICAL BOX podcast episode #20, so I did. Actually, I may have invited myself, and they said "yes." That might have happened.<br />
<br />
Anyway, you can <a href="http://thechemicalbox.blogspot.com/2012/10/episode-020-disconsolate.html" target="_blank">go listen to opinions that I probably contradict in later columns and conversations</a>, but at the time of the podcast I said what I meant and I meant what I said.<br />
<br />
You probably want some annotations for the episode. So here you go!<br />
<br />
CHEMICAL BOX EPISODE 20 ANNOTATIONS<br />
<br />
1. Luckily for us, DC Comics has changed the historical record so that we know that Superman did NOT appear in 1938, because that would be silly. He obviously first appeared in 2011. That is a verifiable fact! <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/characters/superman-in-comics" target="_blank">DC says so</a>.<br />
<br />
2. Rob Liefeld left DC and people talked about it. <a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/08/23/rob-liefeld-quits-dc-on-twitter-names-names-and-points-fingers/" target="_blank">That happened forever ago</a>, but this podcast is timeless!<br />
<br />
3. I say "Batman, Inc" is the "only DC comic I am an active reader of at this point" which is not only an awkward phrasing, but it's also untrue. I also read "Batman" and "Action Comics" and "Wonder Woman." But I still think "Batman, Inc." is the best monthly comic from DC, and therefore Joey's opinion is the correct one.<br />
<br />
4. Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja is also good. On Twitter, Matt Fraction sometimes refers to the comic as "Hawkguy," which is funny, but not as funny as that time I showed a clip from Michael Mann's "Last of the Mohicans" to my American Lit class when I was teaching about American Romanticism and one of the students thought I kept calling Daniel Day Lewis's character "Hot Guy" and was a bit freaked out by my repeated emphasis on his hotness.<br />
<br />
5. I do get paid to write about comics, but contrary to what I say in the podcast, I couldn't literally buy every comic that comes out, because a LOT of comics come out every week. Have you ever read Diamond Previews? That is like a thick magazine of bad choices. Plenty of them.<br />
<br />
6. These sci-fi and fantasy books are so much more fun to read than 99.9% of all comics written this year: <a href="http://www.wildsidebooks.com/assets/images/large/carter-warrior_worlds_end_large.jpg" target="_blank">THIS ONE</a>. AND <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/The_dying_earth_by_jack_vance.jpg" target="_blank">THIS ONE</a>. AND EVEN <a href="http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n7412.jpg" target="_blank">THIS ONE</a>.<br />
<br />
7. Joey alludes to <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=column&id=15" target="_blank">The Basement Tapes</a> at CBR, by Matt Fraction and Joe Casey. Totally worth reading, if you haven't already. It will probably change your life.<br />
<br />
8. I became very ill a week after saying "I feel amazing" and taunting Joey and Alec and I totally deserved it.<br />
<br />
9. Is Rick Remender the greatest Marvel writer or the greatest HUMAN BEING on the planet? I don't think we answer that question at all. I make some analogy about cool parties instead. Cool parties are the best! But another way to say it is, "after you're 30, parties always seem like something that you are unlikely to have fun attending." Unless you're that old guy who crashes the party at the Weir's house in "Freaks and Geeks." That guy has fun every day of his life, obviously.<br />
<br />
10. I watched all of the episodes of "Freaks and Geeks" last weekend. I didn't mention it on the podcast because the podcast was recorded weeks before I watched all those episodes, and therefore it has no place in these annotations, but if DC can pull off their revisionist history then I can say "Freaks and Geeks" whenever I want.<br />
<br />
11. My China Mieville Top 2: #1 "Perdido Steet Station." #2 "The Scar." I don't really like any of his other books all that much, but I REALLY like those two novels. You should read them someday so you can fully understand our sophisticated conversation about "Dial H." It's deep.<br />
<br />
12. When someone writes the definitive unauthorized biography of Karen Berger, I will read it.<br />
<br />
13. Marvel Augmented Reality is the worst thing to happen to comics. It is the chromium covers of the 2010s, but worse. The chromium covers mixed with motion comics mixed with cd-roms, all in one.<br />
<br />
14. Joey's theory about the new DC logo may have been roundly refuted by all parties involved, but he is so enthusiastic about it that it must be true.<br />
<br />
15. I think Phil Jimenez abandoned <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3d/Otherworld_1_cover.jpg/250px-Otherworld_1_cover.jpg" target="_blank">THIS</a> weird and interesting comic he created to go and tackle that off-the-rails Donna Troy miniseries that was a complete mess. Whatever happened to "Otherworld"? Will it ever be completed, Phil Jimenez???<br />
<br />
16. This is a really long podcast, I hope you love it as much as Alec Berry loves comic books!Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-71827484682944102822012-08-13T13:03:00.001-04:002012-08-13T13:03:54.242-04:00Goodbye Joe, and Thank You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-33683889183918355182012-07-24T00:36:00.004-04:002012-07-24T00:36:54.420-04:00Keith Giffen talks OMAC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx2m0OEAiVAxQtX_vwciyGMA-KFtyHo23uyl30su5M2h4lYYb-Tlw1pMjv3nmkyOe91IQ5Y0oicGEYkCGCkY9sPS9ej3xSkbB0TjS7J4GUpi2mPRY77Ntc5s4Qbgexh6CvSXDmw/s1600/omac-001-pic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx2m0OEAiVAxQtX_vwciyGMA-KFtyHo23uyl30su5M2h4lYYb-Tlw1pMjv3nmkyOe91IQ5Y0oicGEYkCGCkY9sPS9ej3xSkbB0TjS7J4GUpi2mPRY77Ntc5s4Qbgexh6CvSXDmw/s200/omac-001-pic1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I talked to Keith Giffen the other day, doing research for another project I'm working on, but later in the conversation he started recounting his experiences on OMAC, a project he clearly enjoyed, and because OMAC has absolutely nothing to do with the article I'm writing, I figured I'd share what he had to say about the series here, since it's turned into process week at old Geniusboy Firemelon productions.<br />
<br />
Giffen talked about how he never outlines or thumbnails what he's drawing, and on OMAC, he would take Dan DiDio's plot and then, he says...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
would go through the book, and, up front, I would do the panels that I don’t
want staring at me when the deadline’s tight. I call them the ‘kitchen sink’
panels, the two-page spreads, whatever. Get that out of the way. So I work out
of order now, but I still don’t outline. I’ll have page 14, and page 18, and
page 20, and now it’s time to put them together. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So, without knowing what he's actually going to draw on pages 1-13, 15-17, and 19, he drew the other pages based on where he thought the big images should go. Then he filled the rest in, almost improvisationally, following DiDio's plot, unless he decided to throw something else in for fun, like when Superman appeared, just because Giffen thought he should pop into the story. </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It keeps it spontaneous with
me, because I can surprise myself. And I like to think it translates to the
work and keeps it spontaneous for the reader, and they’re never quite sure what’s
going to happen next.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">OMAC's long gone as a New 52 series from DC. But it was fun while it lasted, and Giffen's energetic improvisation was the major part of its charm.</span>Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-24065890757269563982012-07-20T08:00:00.000-04:002012-07-20T08:52:24.240-04:00Charles Forsman: On His Process and Paper Over Digital<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
wrote my upcoming "When Words Collide" column as kind of a feature
article about Charles Forsman and his new microcomics publishing
venture. Well, I suppose it's about more than that. It's like
Forsman's comic book life story, and everything that led up to him
working in Hancock, writing and drawing books for Fantagraphics, while
he pumps out Risograph-printed minicomics by a bunch of talented
artists. Look for it on Monday at CBR.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But our conversation led in a couple of directions that didn't end up fitting into the column, so here are some outtakes that didn't make it into my piece. First, Charles talking about his process:<br />
</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It usually does start with writing, usually in the sketchbook. It starts with
paragraphs of what’s going to happen, maybe. Then I break that down into
chapters, with further description, and then I use that one page in a sketch
book, for TEOTFW, and I work very teeny tiny in there.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A lot of cartoonists draw and redraw
and do several drafts, full size…and I’ve been more laborious with my work in
the past…but with this I’m more worried about just telling the story and not
drawing fancy. </span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Even the original art is small to
keep things quick.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ll do thumbnails so tiny no one
else can read them, and I’ll put the dialogue outside. Jason Lutes shared his
process when he was at CCS. He has two little boxes for a page, on one sheet of
paper, and he’ll write the dialogue outside. So that’s how I’ve been working
recently.</span></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It always changes from project to
project. Sometimes I’m loose, and sometimes I need more structure, but that
sort of idea is what I stick to. Quick thumbnails. Because I feel it keeps the
spontaneity. I don’t like to labor over it too much, because I feel it makes
things too stiff.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And here's Charles responding to me when I said something like: "Most people today, if they wanted to do draw something quick and spontaneous for fun, and get it out to readers, would just do a webcomic. But you seem to reject that idea and spend all this time making small physical copies of your comics. Why not just do it all digitally?"</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
personally can’t read stuff on the screen, at my computer. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The
way I tell stories, I need that page. I have so much trouble just determining a
trim size I’m going to use. With a computer there’s so many options. I could do
full color…it just feels too unlimited. I respond to limitations a lot better.
It’s almost like a challenge to tell what I want to tell and do what I want to
do in eight pages.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The
thing that I discovered…serialization is just -- the type of comics I do, everyone’s
worried about the graphic novel, with one big story….small publishers aren’t
printing them any more. Nobody’s buying them. It wasn’t something I even
experimented with, until I accidentally did it with this series. All of a
sudden, I was having cliffhangers, and it was really fun. And people were
coming back month in and month out. I know serialization still goes on with the
superhero comics, but it was something I felt like I had to rediscover for
myself. It seemed like something that was gone from my comics scene. And I love
it. It makes me sad that it’s not around anymore.</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There’s
that romantic idea of comics being a throwaway artform, that I still kind of
like. I like that it’s just a dollar and that it’s on copy paper and it’s not
something to really cherish. I really respond to that, that you can tell a
great story without high production values.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I really like what Charles and his friends are up to, and <a href="http://oilycomics.com/">Oily Comics is definitely worth checking out</a>. </span></div>Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-89952562227178365382012-06-19T15:41:00.004-04:002012-06-19T15:41:56.501-04:00Heroes Con 2012! I Will Be There, Will You?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLA7eqkW37jW8PVoeYlROKGAmx5gilq5SuBB2tvtP65kw_wBuh57sMg9eDcRKE8w8qBAVp9Xww9Q2jtj4tJa6GEUFusZ7l6OrQyqVtJEVmSb784HnxVhoaBoYuUNxBCHUk8zkOJQ/s1600/HC2012+Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLA7eqkW37jW8PVoeYlROKGAmx5gilq5SuBB2tvtP65kw_wBuh57sMg9eDcRKE8w8qBAVp9Xww9Q2jtj4tJa6GEUFusZ7l6OrQyqVtJEVmSb784HnxVhoaBoYuUNxBCHUk8zkOJQ/s200/HC2012+Logo.png" width="200" /></a></div>
Hey! I will be at Heroes Con from Friday through Sunday this week, moderating a couple of panels over the weekend (With the Immonens! With Don Rosa! With Geof Darrow!) and selling copies of "Grant Morrison: The Early Years," "Teenagers from the Future," "Minutes to Midnight," and maybe more!<br />
<br />
I will be set up at table AA-215. Stop by and pick up a book. Or just stop by to say hi!<br />
<br />
See you there!Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-42298096573946463522012-05-30T07:00:00.000-04:002012-05-30T07:00:13.773-04:00Playtesting DnDNext Part 6: Mini-Taur<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Partially disoriented by the magical befuddlement of the Minotaur Maze in the Caves of Chaos, Bob the Dwarf, Lily the Halfling, Cary Cycax, and new girl Lucy battled a dozen pesky stirges, which didn't do much damage but took about ten rounds to wipe out and didn't gain them a single coin of treasure, which they didn't much enjoy.<br />
<br />
Aimlessly wandering left, then right, then left, they chanced upon the cavern that led straight to the Minotaur's hangout. Making plenty of noise as they approached (they all rolled below 10 on Dexterity or Stealth rolls), the Minotaur came charging.<br />
<br />
For this big battle -- likely the final combat before Television's Ryan Callahan and the heart-and-soul of Cary Cycax had to head back to New York City as the weekend drew to a close -- I decided to spring the Dwarven Forge pieces out of semi-retirement. It was a chance to test D&D Next with a tactical battlefield. The theater of the mind gave way to miniatures and 5'x5' squares. Line of sight could be clearly determined. It was new D&D, 4e style.<br />
<br />
And it felt like it.<br />
<br />
I like playing 4th Edition, and I've seen players of all ages pull some fun tactical combos during combat. But D&D Next, until this Dwarven-Forge-enabled session with the Minotaur, felt more wide open. Anything was possible.<br />
<br />
The Minotaur battle, with the D&D Next rules, but the detailed 3D battlefield and miniatures felt clinical compared to the fun we'd been having with the new rules until then. Here's what happens: once you turn the game from a conversational, improvisational, imaginative game with some dice rolls to a game that has a board and tiny little figures and a specific dimensionality, the creativity turns from artistic imaginings and "yes, and..." to precise tactical moves and linear decision-making.<br />
<br />
Let me put it this way, when you play Monopoly, you don't imagine that you are actually a giant top hat marching through Atlantic City, wheeling and dealing with renters. Once D&D takes a miniature-based focus, it becomes a game where the attention is on what's in front of the players on the game board, rather than what the players themselves are doing and saying.<br />
<br />
And 4th Edition cannot accurately be played without miniatures and battle maps. D&D Next can. And should.<br />
<br />
It was a good idea to test D&D Next, in this Minotaur encounter, with minis, to see what happened. But the battle was dry, almost colorless, compared to the previous battles. So now we know. Leave the Dwarven Forge in the basement. Use it to re-enact Dolph Lundgren Punisher scenes with Heroclix.<br />
<br />
The Minotaur battle also taught us another thing about the mechanics of D&D Next. The "Disadvantage" disadvantage is devastating. The Minotaur was blinded in the first round, and though he lashed out at Bob the Dwarf and hit him a few times, he stumbled over rubble and missed far more often than he hit. And Lily and Cary Cycax blasted away from a distance, doing over 100 damage to the Minotaur in just over a handful of quick rounds.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that D&D Next, already accused of giving less options to characters, didn't become roll-hit/miss/damage/or-not/go until we played with the miniatures. It was the context of the game, not the rules themselves, that changed it to become more vanilla.<br />
<br />
Luckily, the flavor returned to the game when the Minotaur was killed, Cary Cycax cut off his head as a trophy and the hidden treature horde was found. Secure in the hidden treasure room, the adventurers camped out and took their first long rest since entering either the Gallery of Death or the Minotaur Maze. And with some time on his hands, and the smithing/armoring skills of Lily the Halfling, Cary Cycax decided to customize his scale mail, by weaving the Owlbear hide into his protective gear.<br />
<br />
By the next morning, the adventurers were ready for more, and Cary Cycax, Cleric of Pelor, had a new, intimidating look to match the brave face he wore as he prepared for further adventures in the Caves of Chaos:<br />
<br />
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THE END (FOR NOW)Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-53209523863280962372012-05-29T07:00:00.000-04:002012-05-29T07:00:13.326-04:00Playtesting DnDNext Part 5: Owlbear Rug<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Owlbear, as it turned out, wasn't particularly difficult to kill at all. A few well-placed blasts of holy light, some hacks from the greataxe and smashes of the warhammer, and a sneaky backstab and the Owlbear was slain before he could knock any of the good guys unconscious.<br />
<br />
Because of the low hit point totals for the adventurers, after their Ooze troubles, I did lower the Owlbear's hit points (figuring that it would make for a more even matchup, and it made in-story sense since the creature would have just finished fighting and possibly devouring Lucy's friends just moments before).<br />
<br />
But I didn't need to lower the hit point total. They would have easily defeated the Owlbear anyway.<br />
<br />
They decided to take a short rest in the Owlbear's lair, and Lily noticed that her character sheet gave her a trade that she hadn't yet talked about. She decided she had a blacksmith background, and between the metal of Lucy's fallen comrades and the equipment they all had in their packs, she could repair the armor and weapons damaged by the Ooze.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Cary Cycax skinned the Owlbear, taking its pelt as a trophy.<br />
<br />
After their rest, they checked out the final section of the Gallery of Death, and decided not to mess with the remaining Ooze. They'd had enough. Bob, Lily, Cary Cycax, and their new Cleric pal Lucy (who, if not a muppet played by an 8-year-old girl, would likely have been drawn into fierce theological arguments by Cary Cycax) crept back out into the thicket outside the caves and decided to climb higher, looking for another cave entrance.<br />
<br />
What they found was mythical. Literally. From that Perseus story. It's pretty famous.<br />
<br />
Google maps would have placed them at 1 Minotaur Main Street, Caves of Chaos, Gygaxianville.<br />
<br />
TO BE CONTINUEDTimothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-61373377057069259642012-05-28T22:47:00.000-04:002012-05-28T22:49:08.621-04:00Playtesting DnDNext Part 4: The Ooze<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Instead of returning to the Kobold-kluttered entrance to the Caves of Chaos, Bob the Dwarf, Lily that Halfling, and the legendary Cary Cycax headed deeper into the ravine straight into the Gallery of Death, where they faced one wandering monster after another, starting with the vicious Gray Ooze.<br />
<br />
The acidic watery tendrils of the Ooze bludgeoned Bob the Dwarf, eating into the shiny new shield and the fear of metallic decay on the heavily armed-and-armored warrior led him to flee the scene and gather his thoughts alone in the thicket outside as his allies tried to tackle the Ooze, without much luck.<br />
<br />
Cary Cycax blasted the Ooze with holy light and Lily flung rocks from her sling, but the tide didn't turn in favor the intrepid heroes until Bob remembered that he had a piece of equipment to be named later, "from a previous campaign," according to his character sheet. He declared that it was an Obsidian Sword, a normal melee weapon in all respects, but invulnerable to the Ooze's metal-destroying touch.<br />
<br />
Awesome. He hacked it to bits.<br />
<br />
A handful of roaming rats nibbled at their ankles as they marched onward, deeper into the Gallery of Death, their footsteps crunching over the bones of other, less able, adventurers. (Probably from the original edition, when a Magic-User would get stuck with 2 hit points and cloth armor for extra deathening.)<br />
<br />
The noise of footsteps, clanking armor rushing toward them, echoed through the caverns.<br />
<br />
It was Lucy, Cleric of Moradin. Played by...my daughter's muppet.<br />
<br />
My daughter declared, at the beginning of the day's game, before entering the Gallery of Death, that her muppet wanted to play too. So...a chance to test out the Cleric of Moradin, with the muppet rolling her dice and a tiny voice from behind the chair making decisions for the character. (Don't let my daughter know, but I could totally see her moving the muppet's arms and mouth. Shh.)<br />
<br />
Lucy the Cleric of Moradin had lost her party in the caverns. They had been killed by the Owlbear who took the bodies back to its lair.<br />
<br />
Bob, Lily, and Cary Cycax joined Lucy in her quest for vengeance, with Owlbear hate in their hearts, and lingering injuries from the Ooze battle. But they were not to be deterred. There was an Owlbear to kill, and how difficult could that be?<br />
<br />
TO BE CONTINUED <br />
<br />
<br />Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-317817184592366442012-05-27T09:44:00.000-04:002012-05-27T09:44:47.094-04:00Playtesting DnDNext Part 3: The Legend of Cary Cycax<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Part Three of my family's continuing adventures in playtesting DnDNext. Read <a href="http://geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com/2012/05/playtesting-dndnext-part-1-pit-of-doom.html">Part One</a> and <a href="http://geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com/2012/05/playtesting-dndnext-part-2-kobold-and.html">Part Two</a> if you haven't. Both good.</i><br />
<br />
Day One of playtesting, about 45 minutes total, brought Bob and Lily into wily combat with wandering Bugbears and guardians of a nasty Kobold nest. There was little role-playing, but plenty of improvisational battle moves.<br />
<br />
Day Two of playtesting brought a different flavor, with the arrival of Television's Ryan Callahan, who joined our playtest group for the weekend, playing the righteous Cleric of Pelor, named Cary Cycax.<br />
<br />
Television's Ryan Callahan played Cary Cycax as a declarative huckster of the sun god, proselytizing with nearly every sentence he uttered.<br />
<br />
Bob and Lily joined forces with Cary Cycax to journey back into the CAVES OF CHAOS, but first they headed to the town of Mort, which they made up, because they said they could rest there and get some supplies.<br />
<br />
On the way to Mort, only a few miles hike through the deforested landscape -- Mort was built using a primitive clear-cutting strategy -- they were attacked by a pair of Goblin brigands who were easily dispatched by the ray of light from Cary Cycax's staff and the vicious cleaver of Bob the Dwarf. Television's Ryan Callahan, unprompted, eloquently described the soul of a dead Goblin leaving his body, as his corpse withered under the eye of Pelor. Playing off this kind of make-up-the-details-as-you-go roleplaying, my son described the gushing blood from his Goblin victim washing over his Dwarven body, healing all his wounds with magical power.<br />
<br />
I vetoed that one.<br />
<br />
For everyone on the D&D forums whining about how DnDNext relies too much on DM fiat, I will say as I have always said, "any decent DM will say yes to anything, unless it is completely out of the realm of even fake-medieval-super-magical reality." So no magical healing blood spewing from Goblin bodies all of a sudden.<br />
<br />
When they arrived at Mort, I had each player name one famous town landmark. My daughter said, "The Great Window," my son said, "The Casino," and Television's Ryan Callahan said, "The Bottomless Trough." "Is that the name of an all-you-can eat restaurant?" "No, it's just a trough, that's bottomless."<br />
<br />
The Great Window turned out to be a platform looking out in the distance toward a simmering volcano. The Bottomless Trough turned out to be less interesting than it sounds, and it didn't even sound interesting. And the Casino -- renamed The Gaming House of Mort -- led to a rousing game of Three Dragon Ante, where Lily the Halfling used her "Luck" to win a handful of gold pieces and a Dwarven heavy shield for Bob's use -- assuming he could find a one-handed weapon to use instead of relying on his greataxe. Didn't those dead Goblins have maces? They did. Bob could run back outside of town and pick his choice of bloody Goblin mace for no money down and no easy payments of 0 gps per day.<br />
<br />
The party slept at The Inn. Tomorrow, THE RETURN TO THE CAVES OF CHAOS, healed-up and now with a heavy shield. Of justice.<br />
<br />
Speaking of justice, friend, have you let the divine light of Pelor into your heart? <br />
<br />
TO BE CONTINUEDTimothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-14515469385193863002012-05-26T21:00:00.000-04:002012-05-27T09:42:44.430-04:00Playtesting DnDNext Part 2: Kobold and Run<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Part Two of my family's continuing adventures in playtesting DnDNext. Read <a href="http://geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com/2012/05/playtesting-dndnext-part-1-pit-of-doom.html">Part One</a> if you haven't. It's good.</i><br />
<br />
After defeating the Bugbears, and getting mightily bruised in the process with no healing in sight (without a Cleric around, healing doesn't much happen in DnDNext until an overnight sleepover), Bob the Fightin' Dwarf and Lily the Rogueish Halfling entered the CAVES OF CHAOS [Booming voice].<br />
<br />
Tentatively.<br />
<br />
Though accustomed to balanced encounters and passive perception from 4th Edition, my son, playing Bob, was wise enough to slowly lead the procession into the nearest cave entrance, where he uncovered a dangerous pit trap before falling into it himself.<br />
<br />
That pit trap would become the centerpiece of their entire anti-Kobold strategy soon enough, for within a round, six Kobold guards chanced upon our already-battered heroes.<br />
<br />
Spear-flinging and responsive strategy ensued.<br />
<br />
My daughter, playing Lily, leaped backwards over the pit and enticed the Kobolds to try to come toward her, picking them off with her sling when they tried to maneuver around the fragile edges of the ten-foot drop. Bob swung his greataxe with gusto, slamming nearby Kobolds into cavern walls and -- in a desperate move with only a few hit points remaining -- swung his axe into the spine of one last Kobold, catapulting its corpse on top of its fallen brethren in the pit below.<br />
<br />
Two of the Kobolds had already fled deeper into the caves, presumably to get help, but our tiny wounded party didn't pursue. They staggered out of the mouth of the cave, into the sunlight, seeking help. They couldn't delve further without healing, or without assistance from the gods.<br />
<br />
Luckily, Cary Cycax, Cleric of Pelor, was only a few hundred feet away.<br />
<br />
TO BE CONTINUEDTimothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-59334875110227049032012-05-25T18:57:00.000-04:002012-05-27T09:44:16.408-04:00Playtesting DnDNext Part 1: Bugbears Eat Meat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As you may (or may not) know, Wizards of the Coast released their public beta test of the new D&D rules yesterday. Currently called "DnDNext" or some variation of that, the rules are stripped-down and much more in tune with the simpler, earlier editions, pre-bloat, and they are a clear attempt by Wizards to engage players young and old by paring D&D back to its most essential components, while still making the system run smoothly.<br />
<br />
The playtest rules are closer in spirit to the game I first started playing -- with the Moldvay Basic rules, 30 years ago -- than the 4th Edition rules that have been the core game for the past three years.<br />
<br />
My daughter, the artist in the family, just discovered my Basic D&D books last week, after asking about how long I've been playing. When I showed her all the dungeon maps I created when I was 10, she busted out the old graph paper and started making her own, full of traps and secret doors and dangerous passages.<br />
<br />
She's part of my DnDNext playtest team, definitely, with her two years of experiences (even at only age 8) with 4th Edition, and her multiple-sessions-worth-of-experience with both Gamma World and Mutants & Masterminds. She prefers Dexterity-heavy sneak-attack characters in every kind of game she plays.<br />
<br />
The other member of my DnDNext playtest team is my son, now age 11, who has also been playing 4th Edition D&D for two years, along with Gamma World and Mutants & Masterminds. He likes to play weapons-master characters, ones that can smash stuff with axes and swords and maybe do some cool cinematic moves at the same time. He's an astute critic of these games already, and he can tell you why he likes Gamma World better than 4th Edition (more creative potential, more absurdity) and he comes to any tabletop game with hundreds of hours of video game experiences and a preference for pixels over papers and pencils.<br />
<br />
So we busted out the DnDNext playtest packet, on my iPad, with just a character sheet printed out for each of the two players. My son chose the Dwarf Fighter and my daughter chose the Halfling Rogue. No surprises there.<br />
<br />
I went mini-less and battle-map-less, because if there's one thing that would emphasize that DnDNext is NOT a tweaked version of 4th Edition, it's the lack of map-centric powers and abilities. Sure, we could have used a map to show positions in combat, but it wasn't necessary -- a few quick lines on a piece of paper showed where everything was in relation to one another -- and the battle in the "theater of the mind" was just as much fun for the kids than anything they'd ever played in 4th Edition or Gamma World or Mutants & Masterminds.<br />
<br />
But I'll get to that later. <br />
<br />
Before we started on our way, with Bob the Dwarf and Lily the Halfling on their way to explore the Caves of Chaos, my son expressed hesitation about his underpowered character. 15 AC for a fighter??? No special moves??? He declared DnDNext a terrible game, even before we started marching the characters toward their cavernous doom.<br />
<br />
My daughter didn't care either way, she just wanted to make sure her character was named after one of her friends at school.<br />
<br />
On the way to the Caves, they chanced upon a couple of Bugbears gnawing on an animal carcass. Bob the Dwarf charged in, greataxe blazing. Lily the Halfling tried to climb a tree and leap down on them from above. She failed her first attempt, but chose to use another action to try again, figuring that leaping from above, even delayed a turn, was better than charging in with her tiny dagger.<br />
<br />
They dispatched the Bugbears swiftly, with Bob improvising a move to smash one of the monsters into the other, knocking down his foul compatriot, and Lily dropping down to stab the fallen Bugbear in the eye. Vicious little kids, desensitized to violence, what has this country come to, etc, etc, it was awesome.<br />
<br />
My son's negativity lingered, but once he got to the Caves of Chaos, everything would change and his grumpy playtesting approach turned to, "hey, this was a lot more fun than I expected."<br />
<br />
Find out why next time.<br />
<br />
TO BE CONTINUED!<br />
<br />Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-12375104069728726312012-05-13T21:34:00.000-04:002012-05-13T21:34:00.586-04:00Wednesdays: Come Out and Play<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Wednesdays, beginning on May 16th and running for the next three months, I will be running D&D Encounters at Fantasy Realms in Pittsfield, MA from 4:30-6:30 each week.<br />
<br />
The May 16th session is for character creation, and each following week will feature a mini-installment (or encounter) of the "Web of the Spider Queen" adventure written by Logan Bonner.<br />
<br />
The whole purpose of the D&D Encounters program is to bring in new players, and to have some regular fun for people who can come in for a week, but might miss other weeks, and everyone can still have a good time. If you don't create a character -- or bring a suitable character to play (email me for details) -- then you'll play one of the cool pre-gen characters provided by Wizards of the Coast.<br />
<br />
Why am I running D&D Encounters locally? Well, I want to play it, and no one else is running it, so I might as well just take charge of the thing. And I've been running D&D games at home with friends and family for the past two years and a little bit after school this year, so I figured making it a formal weekly thing would be a good idea.<br />
<br />
All my friends and family members and anyone else can swing by on Wednesday afternoons and play.<br />
<br />
It's limited to 5 players per week, so contact me or Fantasy Realms to sign up for certain Wednesdays, and I will see you there!Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-66097348016393555952012-04-20T00:36:00.001-04:002012-04-20T00:40:04.076-04:00Kickstarting the Image Revolution<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Earlier tonight -- though I guess it would be earlier this morning by the time this is posted -- I put out a call for donations for Patrick Meaney's upcoming <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sequart/comics-in-focus-the-image-revolution">"Comics in Focus: The Image Revolution"</a> documentary. I said I would match whatever donations were made within the hour, up to $500.<br />
<br />
I was happy to do it. (As I write this now, and the clock is running down on the hour, it looks like I will end up matching $245 in donations.) Even though I have old ties with Sequart, the gang behind the documentary, and got my start in comics punditry writing for a now-defunct version of their website, I heard about the documentary the same time everyone else did when it was announced on Kickstarter (though maybe I guessed it a little earlier than most, with Mike Phillips's Andre Agassi references on Twitter, and my ability to plumb the depths of Professor Phillips's subtle mind.)<br />
<br />
Because I know Patrick, and I was a talking head in the Grant Morrison documentary, I will likely get a chance to provide some historical context on camera for the Image doc. But that's not why I donated money to help fund the project.<br />
<br />
I also find myself increasingly fascinated with Image Comics, and early Image comic books specifically. My interest in that era predates the current retro-enthusiasm generated by the excellent work guys like Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell and Brandon Graham and Friends are doing on the relaunched Extreme titles. Basically, as corporate comics become more obviously manufactured products pumped out into the marketplace, it's fun to go back and look at the early Image books and see a bunch of young guys making marks on paper and churning out things to entertain themselves and their fans.<br />
<br />
Many of the early Image comics aren't good by what I used to call my objective standards of comics criticism. But I'm less and less interested in that -- pulling myself away from doing traditional reviews has been healthy in that regard -- and more and more interested in seeing weird images and offbeat narrative choices that may not even be in the best interest of the stories being told. The imperfections, writ large, are endearing. I genuinely love them. And the fact that the Image founders shook up the industry, that's a monumental event. But that's not why I donated money to help fund the project.<br />
<br />
I donated money to help fund the project because I know how Patrick and the guys at Sequart operate. I know Julian Darius and Mike Phillips (and friends) have constantly invested their own money into projects, before even asking for a penny from anyone else. I know for a fact that I was paid royalties on my books before those guys even made any kind of reasonable profit from the sales. They reinvested whatever money came out of those early book projects to fund other books, and, later, movies, that had no real shot of making any kind of money. They did it to get more people involved. To grow the brand, not to become rich, but because they wanted more people to say and write and direct cool, interesting things about comic books.<br />
<br />
So, know this, if you're ever faced with donating to help a Sequart or a Patrick Meaney project: the money goes right into helping make the project happen, along with whatever personal money everyone involved can scrape together. And they will do right by you, because that's just how those guys are.<br />
<br />
And with your help, with all of our help, they can keep producing interesting books and films and websites and whatever else they think we might like to see. And they will do it because they love it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sequart/comics-in-focus-the-image-revolution">The Image Comics documentary Kickstarter</a> ends in a few days. Donate if you have the chance. If not, keep your eyes peeled for whatever they have coming up next. It will be worth your time, for sure.Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-91473146610701292462012-03-25T20:31:00.000-04:002012-03-25T20:31:22.203-04:00Jonathan Hickman = Jared Harris<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2hT881sQ6DvqYqRiPFqvkdLdaz2iNwYddI7TzElhJLQDK7YxNZhCWVuwUGTo26IchML9C1gWFb6rtKU65lD_abO0wJdGAn_eg1mmLrSXxfq4UyTnn2zHsVFeEwkM0pN5Atb3R9g/s1600/lost-in-space-tv-show.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2hT881sQ6DvqYqRiPFqvkdLdaz2iNwYddI7TzElhJLQDK7YxNZhCWVuwUGTo26IchML9C1gWFb6rtKU65lD_abO0wJdGAn_eg1mmLrSXxfq4UyTnn2zHsVFeEwkM0pN5Atb3R9g/s200/lost-in-space-tv-show.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not the 1998 Film</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I was flipping through the channels yesterday and I caught a minute of the 1998 Matt LeBlanc vehicle better known to cinephiles everywhere as <i>Lost in Space</i>. When I saw Jared Harris on screen, everything clicked into place (I actually saw the entire movie in the theater when it came out, all those years ago, because time somehow moved slower back then): Jonathan Hickman's <i>Fantastic Four</i> run is entirely based on the 1998 <i>Lost in Space</i> film.<br />
<br />
Jared Harris plays what amounts to a time-travelling future Franklin Richards.<br />
<br />
Cracked the code. Your move, Hickman.Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-40949633456337893692012-03-23T22:49:00.002-04:002012-03-23T22:54:27.428-04:00Tucker Stone Destroys for Fun and Profit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If Tucker Stone only wrote his hilariously scathing reviews on a chalkboard outside of Bergen Street Comics, I would be sure to make extra trips to Brooklyn just to enjoy his prose. I have obsessively clicked on <i>The Factual Opinion</i> some late Sunday nights, when I'm working on some column for a deadline, hoping that his <a href="http://www.factualopinion.com/the_factual_opinion/comic_of_the_week/">"Comics of the Weak"</a> would miraculously update, even though half of the comics he writes about so savagely are ones that I regularly enjoy with unrestrained enthusiasm.<br />
<br />
But somehow, shifting his weekly take-down of "mainstream" comics to <i>The Comics Journal</i> site has added a weird new dimension to his words. Because now, though his tone is exactly the same as it has been for years, his biting mini-reviews have the weight of authority behind them.<br />
<br />
Coming as a weekly (or less-than-weekly, more recently) blog post on his own faux-haughty Factual Opinion site, Tucker's snarky vitriol seemed like harmless but gut-punchingly entertaining pub talk. The sort of ultimate example of how we might all like to rant about the terribleness inside the comics that we find ourselves reading. And if you've been following Tucker's writing over the years, it's seemed that some of his exaggeratedly vicious criticism has become less and less of a pose and more and more of an acceptance that, yeah, these comics are pretty much as bad as he's been saying. At least, that's what seems to be reflected from his point of view. Increasing disillusionment from a source that was barely illusioned to begin with.<br />
<br />
The comments, though -- and I should know not to read comments ever, sure, yes, I know -- on <a href="http://www.tcj.com/the-best-female-power-fantasy-is-a-male-sexual-fantasy/">his second-and-most-recent TCJ column</a>. His newly-relocated "Comics of the Weak." These comments remind me that because The Comics Journal barely covers front-half-of-Diamond-Previews comics, Tucker's words are not only seen as authoritative about the individual comics he writes about, but they're also seen as representative of an entire massive subsection of comics. Tucker indicts all of "mainstream" comics by ridiculing his particular selections on a weekly basis, to an audience that seems reassured in its bias.<br />
<br />
"Aha!" they shout. "We knew those COMIC BOOKS were unreadable all along. Why, we gave them up years ago to focus on archiving our Ernie Bushmiller collections and waiting for the new Alison Bechdel. Thank you, Tucker Stone, for reminding us that we no longer have to waste our time on nonsense."<br />
<br />
It reminds me of the "Little Cinema" in the lower level of the small museum here in my town. My wife and I used to go there to see independent and art house films every month or two. And the place would always be packed with retired folks, and they would laugh at all the wrong parts of every movie and applaud at the end of everything, seeming to miss the point of what they saw but yet clearly entertained by every moment. They would, haltingly, scoff at any mention of the big summer blockbuster playing at the multiplex.<br />
<br />
I think of that crowd when I read some of the comments underneath Tucker's new column. And I think of these shambling septuagenarians (or worse, their snarling adolescent nihilist pals) interpreting a few funny, too-true reviews as some kind of blanket criticism of everything that comes out of Marvel and DC and IDW and Boom and whoever else publishes comic books that have action and punching and explosions and important conversations about whether society hates the protagonists or fears them. And I think of those readers feeling safe in their choice of sticking with <i>The Collected Nancy Artist's Edition</i> and I hate them in their narrowmindedness.<br />
<br />
Then I turn and begin to celebrate all the variety and genre-smashing comics that those readers might be missing if they let Tucker turn them away from everything that the "mainstream" comic book publishers have to offer.<br />
<br />
But, sadly, I can't even muster the energy to do that. I can't advocate for <i>Justice League International </i>or <i>Dominique Laveau</i> or <i>X-Factor</i> or <i>Peter Panzerfaust</i> or even the comics I like. I like them, these days, the way I like Chocolate-covered Peeps and the doodles of Inspector Gadget in the corners of my notes for work. But I don't advocate for them, necessarily.<br />
<br />
Tucker may be right after all, even if he doesn't mean it. (Though he totally does.) And I'll be obsessively clicking on TCJ.com, waiting for more.<br />
<br />Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-37097198298978807662012-03-15T19:27:00.001-04:002012-03-15T19:32:29.632-04:00I Watched This Thing Called "Game of Thrones"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgO-WiAO2lU5XXvcCAt8r8zT4F7-i3fe1h73SiqzZXOfBq2mDfjGWo-qNYQv1nRGok0Z1aX-iZwt4-tEpHOklYCt-e1FMe_6TFmHLU4pTijwKZtshDs-ODZs96ZdQzKm6Jt9QKg/s1600/game+of+thrones+images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgO-WiAO2lU5XXvcCAt8r8zT4F7-i3fe1h73SiqzZXOfBq2mDfjGWo-qNYQv1nRGok0Z1aX-iZwt4-tEpHOklYCt-e1FMe_6TFmHLU4pTijwKZtshDs-ODZs96ZdQzKm6Jt9QKg/s200/game+of+thrones+images.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boromir is Very Sad</td></tr>
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The place where I buy my comics is called "Fautasy Realms," according to the sign. That's no typo -- that's just an upside down, dot-matrix-printed "n" in the store name, officially.<br />
<br />
Back when Fautasy Realms was called "Virtual Reality," the owner talked about George R. R. Martin a lot, specifically about the sense of realism in his "Song of Ice and Fire" series. That didn't make me want to read the books.<br />
<br />
A few years ago, when rumors of an HBO "Game of Thrones" project started bubbling up, and everyone freaked out about how amazing such a thing would be, I looked into the books a bit, and then realized that George R. R. Martin was the same guy who wrote that thing in "Wild Cards" about the superhero who was also a Volkswagen Beetle or something. So I stopped looking into the books.<br />
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Then, a bit before "Game of Thrones" actually premiered on HBO, I heard Sam Humphries, who I respect greatly for his wit and wisdom (long before he was a superfamous Marvel Comics Writer Extraordinaire), say that he loved the "Song of Ice and Fire" series even though he HATES ALL THINGS WITH ELVES AND SWORDS AND WIZARDS. So I bought "Game of Thrones."<br />
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I don't have HBO. <br />
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I tried to read "Game of Thrones" on a family cruise last summer, but I couldn't remember (or care to remember) all the characters in the opening 50 pages and I decided to read every New Mutants comic instead. I think I made the right choice.<br />
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I tried reading "Game of Thrones" again over the winter, and I got 150 pages into it, and I liked that Tyrion guy well enough but, let's be honest...it's a sleazy book, isn't it? Super sleazy, with incest and underage barbarian marriage-rape and mostly just a lot of pages that are like all the boring bits of "Lord of the Rings" without all the monsters and wizards and fancy obsession with British cuisine and pipe smoking. Also, it was just about the most plodding mystery story ever. Starring a guy named Ned.<br />
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I finally watched "Game of Thrones" last week. The whole first season.<br />
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Halfway through, I still thought it was sleazy and dull and yet the performances were strong enough to keep me watching and it looked nice all wintry and fur-lined and swordy.<br />
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But by the end, I wanted to know what happens next.<br />
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So I bought "A Clash of Kings." I have read the first two chapters. I think maybe I should go read all the "Youngblood" comics instead.<br />
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Though Boromir was pretty good in all those TV episodes. Too bad how it turned out for him. He'd make a good Chapel in the big-budget Youngblood movie. Boromir for Chapel. 2012!<br />
<br />Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-39654275661926531402012-03-11T22:11:00.003-04:002012-03-11T22:11:37.041-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sean Witzke says it better than I ever could: <a href="http://supervillain.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/jean-giraudmoebius-1938-2012/">Jean Giraud/Moebius 1938-2012</a>.Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.com0