Posts by Cpl_Otter:
- Of course, DC’s official 52 website is http://www.dccomics.com/sites/52/.
- Newsarama has weekly interviews with 52 creators. Previously, they have talked to Steve Wacker and sometimes some of the writers. Since Wacker’s departure, the columns have continued, so I expect they will keep going for the remaining weeks. These interviews offer the best teasers and the most insights on previous stories. For example, it was here that I realized that the story of the three space-stranded heroes– Starfire, Adam Strange, and Animal Man– is a riff of Homer’s Odyssey. The most recent installment for week #22 is here.
- Comic Book Resources hosts The 52 Steps, a weekly article by Justin Eger. His write ups include a lot of background as obscure characters appear. The article seems to be posted by Saturday or Sunday each week. The most recent installment is here. His past articles are conveniently archived at the bottom of the page.
- 52 Pickup is a blog by Douglas Wolk. It tends to be the first of these articles to appear each week.
- Major Spoilers is a blog by Stephen Schleicher. It is not specifically dedicated to 52, but most if not all of the issues have been covered here.
- Wizard Magazine hosts 52 Roundup. Although I have not been following this one, its past articles are conveniently archived, so I may just go back through them some night.
Here’s a Stan Lee cameo I’ll bet you missed…
September 2nd, 2007Since we’re on the Stan Lee thing again, I will bet anything that you missed this cameo. In fact, my wife had to point it out to me. Something in my head just wouldn’t accept it. If I ever get to meet “The Man,” the first thing I’ll ask him is: “What the heck were you doing in Princess Diaries 2?” Poor Julie Andrews…
I am afraid his response will be, “What the heck were you doing watching Princess Diaries 2?”
Fan Expo in Toronto
August 27th, 2007Fan Expo Canada was held this past weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, in the shadow of the CN Tower. That is, it would have been in its shadow if the sun had been shining, but it was an overcast and occasionally rainy day. The Convention Centre itself seems to be mainly underground anyway.
Legion of Super Males at McDonalds
August 26th, 2007Please allow me a moment to gripe about the Happy Meal Toys at McDonalds. The current toys are characters from the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon. The promotion has gone on now for several weeks and is nearing its end. I just got Bouncing Boy today, though he doesn’t actually bounce. Somebody missed an opportunity when they didn’t make him out of that rubber that super-balls are made from. That would have been cool. In fact, not only does he not bounce, he can’t actually stand independently at all. He is in a pose that makes it impossible. Of the “good guys,” only Brainiac 5 has the capability of standing on his own. They seem a bit ridiculous that way, but that’s not what I’m complaining about.
At times McDonald’s offers two sets to choose from- the “boy toys” and the “girl toys.” I won’t begin to suggest that this practice is very un-PC of them. It’s been my experience that my daughters really do want Barbie toys over Matchbox cars, and I’m sure parents of boys experience the opposite. You can argue that we’ve programmed them that way, but that’s not my point either.
Somewhere along the line, some executive decided that superhero toys must be “boy” toys, so the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon tie-ins are promoted as such. The counterpoint to the boy’s choice now are stuffed animals tied to the Build-A-Bear Workshop stores. I think it could be argued that both the Legion and the animals could have been designed and promoted in a way to appeal across the genders, but there’s more that bothers me.
Since the decision was made that the Legion was going to be for boys, only the male members of the Legion were manufactured. Thus, we have Superman, Lightning Lad, Brainiac 5, Timberwolf, and Bouncing Boy, but there is no hope of getting a Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, or Triplicate Girl. They are also offering three villains- Mano, Tharok, and Validus. It seems absurd that their packaging identifies each one as a member of the Fatal Five, but there are only three of them. Of the two that are missing, I’m guessing the Persuader’s axe looked too violent for a Happy Meal, but the Emerald Empress was almost certainly left out merely because she’s a girl. Girls are too icky, apparently.
Cpl. Otter’s Photo Parade from San Diego
August 9th, 2007Thanks for your patience. I finally have the time to put together the pictures that I took in San Diego. I guess I’m not that late, since Comic Book Resources just finished their Photo Parade today too.
For more of picures, click on the Extended Entry, below. I should have some edited video done in the next few days too.
One New Episode of Heroes Will Be Several Months Late
July 30th, 2007See, now this is exactly what I meant about not knowing what the big stories are while you’re at Comic Con. While I was outside of the room with thousands of others hoping in vain to get in to NBC’s Heroes panel, Comic Book Resources was inside reporting on what was going on. It’s Monday morning now, and I only just learned that in addition to the entire cast being there, Kevin Smith made an appearance because he has signed on to do one episode. Read more about it like I had to with this article.
Cpl. Otter’s Tips for the Con
July 29th, 2007The San Diego Comic Con is both exhausting and exhilarating. There’s and overload of things to see and it seems like you get to see so very little of it. It is both very frustrating and a heck of a lot of fun.
As I wrote before, when you’re actually here, you’re only able to see a tiny little bit of everything going on, and the people reading on the Internet at home are the ones getting the big picture and all the breaking news. Since there’s not much in the way of news stories breaking from the con that I didn’t get from the Internet, I thought instead that I would share a few tips I’ve learned after coming here the past two years.
Titans in Toronto – or – Birds of Prey Across the Border
June 11th, 2007For the second time, I made the two hour trip from Buffalo, New York, to Toronto, Ontario, for the Paradise Toronto Comicon. The convention was held Friday-Sunday, June 8-10, although I was only there for Saturday. It was held at the Direct Energy Centre, which people in the area will know as the building that is just inside the Princess Gate on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. It was quite an enjoyable day, and I highly recommend it to anyone who lives a reasonable driving distance away.
For more on my time there, including notes on the Birds of Prey and Teen Titans panels I attended, click on the extended entry.
Maybe Firefly Did It
April 24th, 2007Was Firefly mad because he isn’t a featured villain in the upcoming The Dark Knight? Could be. There was a fire in a vacant Chicago post office building where filming has been occurring for the upcoming Batman Begins sequel. Onlookers assumed it was part of the filming, but the District Fire Chief confirmed it wasn’t. He said it was caused when insulation inside the building’s “very old ventilation system” caught fire.
Spidey Swings To The Bright Lights Of Broadway
April 20th, 2007Webbing will soon be decorating a Broadway stage as a musical based on Spider-Man is in the works. It will be directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor and feature songs from U2 bandmates Bono and The Edge.
Gail Simone’s Wonderous New Gig
April 13th, 2007Gail Simone has been officially named the new writer of Wonder Woman. Her run begins with issue #13, which follows a 2 issue arc by writer J. Torres.
Dynamite Entertainment Whips Up Zorro
March 21st, 2007Dynamite Entertainment has acquired Zorro to add to their licensed character stable. I think that with the good work they’ve done on The Lone Ranger that this will be a good fit. I also remember back when Topps Comics had the rights to both Zorro and the Lone Ranger Joe Lansdale and Tim Truman had a mini-series meeting of the 2 franchises planned, but it never saw publication. I wonder if that could be revived now.
And I guess this means that the Zorro series from Papercutz will be ending too. While I enjoy Papercutz’s Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew graphic novels their Zorro just didn’t appeal to me.
$6 Million Just Don’t Cut It Anymore
February 13th, 2007British actress Michelle Ryan will star in NBC’s upcoming re-make of The Bionic Woman. Ryan will play a bright woman who is transformed into a technological wonder with $50 million worth of bionic components implanted in her body. No word yet on whether Col. Steve Austin or Oscar Goldman will appear too.
New attraction for Cleveland: Ralphie’s house bought by fan.
November 22nd, 2006According to this story in Yahoo! news, the Cleveland house used in the filming of A Christmas Story has been bought by a fan. It is his hope to open it as a tourist attraction. Yes, he’s already put the leg lamp in the window. A slide show of the house accompanies the story.
When 52 is greater then the sum of its parts
October 8th, 2006There are a number of websites and blogs that I am now checking regularly in order to get the most out of my issue of 52 each week.
I’ve been excited about 52 since its announcement, and was pretty much committed to buying each issue from the start. I’ll have to admit, though, that checking in at sites like the ones above is helping me sustain my interest and pique my curiousity in the developments.
Another look at the Clone Wars
October 8th, 2006George Lucas is developing an animated series on the Clone Wars era of Star Wars. The series will include Anakin, Obi Wan, and other familiar faces, although the voices will not be the actors from the movies. More details can be found in this article at Yahoo! news.
First episode of “Heroes” now available online
September 18th, 2006The first episode of the much-hyped NBC program, “Heroes,” is now available online at tv.yahoo.com. Kistler did a great job reviewing the episode, so I won’t waste space here repeating anything. I will say that I’m looking forward to watching more of the series. It debuts on NBC on Monday, September 25… but why wait for that?
Graphic Adaptation of the 9/11 Report
September 18th, 2006The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, certainly seems to fit the description of a comic about the events of September 11. The presentation is on Slate.com‘s website, a politically liberal site.
I discovered this a week too late to post it on the anniversary, and honestly, I have not had a chance to go read it all myself. It’s over a hundred “pages” long. At this point, I can at least say that it appears to be a compelling presentation of the material, if nothing else.
Crikey!
September 4th, 2006Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed. My first reaction was the fear that this might be a bad joke. He was a favorite of my wife’s. We haven’t watched him much recently, but several years ago when we subscribed to cable, it seemed like we watched him all the time. There are lots of animal shows, but he made us gasp and laugh, and yes, occasionally, gave us something to think about. He made you feel his excitement, and we even watched his family grow. We liked watching him, and we felt like we genuinely liked him.
Why did he do it?
Plastic Man Pilot
August 24th, 2006A video has shown up on YouTube of the pilot for a Plastic Man animated series. The episode was produced by Andy Suriano and Tom Kenny. Kenny, who is well known as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, is also the voice of Plastic Man. Dave Coulier (“Joey” of Full House) is also a featured as the voice of Eel O’Brian’s parole officer.
The episode shows a lot of promise. Visually, it took a lot of cues from the recent Plastic Man comic book by Kyle Baker. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the series was picked up by Cartoon Network.
[...aaaaaaand it's already been removed by YouTube. Sorry folks. - Ye Ed]
Hitting people on the head with an anvil is OK in Britain
August 21st, 2006“Smoking scenes in ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons are now banned in Britain, following a viewer’s complaint to the government agency that polices the airwaves.” See the complete article at Yahoo news.
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