Don’t even get me started on Green Arrow…

This is a nice, poignant one from Tiges himself. He said it brought a tear to his eye when he received it! I hope he wasn’t referring to his hog’s eye.

I hope you all had a good Christmas. Mum got me a set of model paints, only they were ‘Citadel’ paints and so instead of being Yellow, Red and Blue, they were Iyanden Darksun, Mechrite Red and Mordian Blue. Oh, and it wouldn’t be nerd paint without the use of the word ‘chaos’, so I got Chaos Black! 

I am surprised they don’t use other overused nerd-terms like ‘procrastinate’ and ‘rape’ and ‘fail’. Nerds are the worst parrots of all aren’t they? ‘Meh’ this and ‘Shatner’ that.  They just repeat the same old 16 words, like Manowar do.

Apart from painting faces on all kinds of plastic objects, the other great feat of Christmas what I done was finish a 3 pager for Leigh Rigozzi’s anthology Blood and Thunder, due out next year. This is gonna kick ass because it’s being printed on the fabled rizzeria, a stencil printing machine!

Oh dear, me mum’s calling me to go and have lunch.  Happy Boxin’ day from Murrumbateman!  Friggin’ dial-up.  Can’t wait to go back to Melbourne.

I had a fantastic Christmas. At 24, I was up at 6:30 in the morning because I was too excited to sleep any longer. I sat and read until eight, when I finally ran around waking everyone up. (Jonathan is still learning how to do the whole Christmas thing; I attempt to wake him up for presents and he responds by groaning and pulling the cover over his head.) Jonathan experienced the blowout that is Christmas with my family for the first time this morning, and I think he enjoyed it. My brother gave him a guitar stand and my parents gave him “500 Days of Summer” as well as a stocking full of candy. Here is what I gave Jonathan for Christmas:

A la Garth Ennis's Preacher series.

Jonathan loves art books - duh - and Tezuka is the man.

Jonathan eyed this several times in a couple of different comic book stores. The set collects the entire manga series.

Jonathan and Josh also love to try new recipes, and Josh especially likes to experiment in the kitchen, so for both of them I got a fondue set, and for Josh I got a book of fondue recipes. I got the impression that Josh liked it a lot.

I got lots of awesome goodies for Christmas, too, including pearl earrings from my parents and some cute sweaters. Here are the fantastic additions to my reading that I received for Christmas:

My aunt managed to find my Amazon wish list, so she and my uncle had this for me.

This boxed set from Jonathan - he knows I want to read it... someday. Eventually.

From Jonathan, who knows I love the King Arthur stuff but didn't even realize how badass Tennyson was when he bought it! He got it mostly for the art, apparently, which is gorgeous.

Haven't read any Sandman yet, but have been wanting to, and now I know where to start thanks to Jonathan.

An awesomely literary Christmas, indeed. The only question now is… where to begin…?

Poulpe Pulps is a wonderful resource of vintage cover art with underwater and Octopi type creatures as the theme. This is great news for me, for I share an affinity with things of the deep, as my blog Octopus Confessional illustrates.

Here’s an excerpt from the Poulpe blog’s intro:
Welcome to Poulpe Pulps, an OCTOPIA BLOG feature. The octopus, known as poulpe in French, pulpo in Spanish, polip in Hungarian, and polypous in Classical Greek, is pluperfectly the essence of pulp.

Here you will find hard-to-locate images of science fiction, fantasy, and adventure pulp and comic covers featuring the wily octopus, courtesy of your hostess Francesca Myman.

Howdy:)
Man sagt, die größte Ehre, die ein Werk erreichen kann, sei eine Parodie darauf.
Ich weiß nicht ,ob meine Machwerke so schmeichelhaft für das Original sind, aber zumindest ziehe ich selbige ab und zu recht gerne gepflegt durch den Kakao. Hier werde ich meine bisherigen Comics posten, sowie (sofern ich hoffentlich die Zeit finden werde) weiter Strips posten…

In extremis is a Latin phrase meaning “in the farthest reaches” or “at the point of death”, generally referring to grave or exceptional circumstances. I want to go beyond the farthest reaches again and I believe I can do it. Yeah baby!

Can Man Solo replicate the powers of Silver Surfer? What do you think the Falcon is for! Doom is smarter than both Reed Richards and Iron Man so he is the only one who can do it because he has knowledge of magic and mysticism. Besides Dr. Strange, he is the most powerful sorcerer in Marvel. And when Dr. Strange buys it, he will definitely inherent the title of Sorcerer Supreme. So the Earth needs Doom to protect the planet from alien invaders. Doom is the ultimate anti-hero!

We need more Doom and less Reed Richards. I really don’t like that guy……..

Normally I’m not a big fan of the Beat poets. Most of them just ramble in some metaphysical arrogance and people eat them up, but Lawerence Ferlinghetti had that right mix of art and cool to him to not be completely full of himself. In lieu of that I present to you Junkman’s Obbligato. here’s an excerpt:

I am a social climber

climbing downward

And the descent is difficult.

The Upper Middle Class Ideal

is for the birds

but the birds have no use for it

having their own kind of pecking order

based upon birdsong.

On a similar train of thought, I’m a huge fan of Kate Beaton’s work on her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant. One of her more recent strips pokes fun at hipsters of different eras, and it definitely gave me a laugh.

Merry Christmas another made up holiday for you to spend your last piece of man-made evil. proceed into oblivion……lol

And on the subject of grudges i think these emotions are useless. Let people be stupid,immature,plastic, etc. Why should it really matter to your existence.  You give them that avenue to exist just let them fuck off.  Ive used this it works wonders.  Try it when u have a have a chance.

“Don’t hold grudges; it’s pointless. Jealousy too is a non-cathartic, negative emotion.”

And here is the prodigy the world is really on fire……..so much bullshit out there…….have fun

and here is another pic from revenge of the fallen enjoy the detailed art.

power-up prime

…MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone

Today’s picture is of my Christmas haul, Santa was pretty good to me this year.

Close up of the haul

3 Pullips: Aya, Happy Birthday Pullip 2 and Street
1 Dal: Sakura
1 each mini Pullip- Maritime and mini Dal- Pink Alice
1 Blythe: Punkaholic People
3 Anime Figures: Chobits Chii Figure by Lilics Limited Edition Version, Gurren Lagann Yoko Figure by Kotobukiya and Evangelion Rei 1/4 Scale by Aizu Project
1 DX Hot Toys Joker
Tekken 6 Special Edition with Joystick
Watchmen Complete Story Special Edition Blu-ray and Rorschach Figure
and a bunch of little Nadesico kits because I love me some Nadesico ^^;

Also not pictured here but I received enough gift cards to Denver Doll to pay off my Puki Pong Pong who is currently on layaway.

:goes back to trying to figure out how to assemble the Dora kitchen playset ^^; :

It’s a Christmas miracle! Not only do you guys get 2 strips, but they are in brilliant RGB color! Anyway, we’ll be back Monday with our regularly scheduled program.

oliver the penguin says merry christmas! : )

5. Golden Age Doctor Fate Archives 2.3 pounds

4. Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus 3.75 pounds

3. Captain America Omnibus 4.75 pounds

2. Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus 6.1 pounds

1. Uncanny X-Men Omnibus 6.9 pounds

-xkcd

Just when I thought there was nothing worth following online IJSRG comes up with the goods and starts season 3 of the Marvel/DC franchise.  Good stuff so far as we see in the prelude and episode one.  As with all good story-telling there’s sufficient to keep us interested whilst in no way allowing us to know how things will turn out.  I look forward to future episodes with great anticipation.  Enjoy.

Shalom

dmcd

Title indeed lifted from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song of the same name. The time: July and August of 2001. The place: Midwest/Western United States.

Bonus points to those who recognize “Big Lou” somewhere in this comic.

Merry Christmas, folks! I hope everyone’s Christmas is going well.

I got a pretty cool music-related gift this year from my girl — the KISS Kompendium! A massive 1200+ page hardcover collection of KISS’ comics from the ’70s to today! Awesome!

Written by Paul Dini
Directed by Butch Lucic
Originally Aired: December 6, 2003
DVD: Justice League, Season Two

Summary: After averting a crisis on an alien world, the Justice League splits up to grab some personal time during the holiday season. Superman invites J’onn home for Christmas, Hawkgirl shows Green Lantern how she celebrates, and Flash lives out an Arnie movie.

Arc Notes: Hawkgirl and John go on their first date, and Hawkgirl kisses John, even though he’s not conscious.

Focal Characters: It’s an anthology episode.

Team Members: Superman, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, J’onn J’onzz, Flash

Villains: The Ultra-Humanite shows up in Flash’s segment.

Debuts: First time J’onn takes his “John Jones” form in the series.

Background:

One of J’onn J’onzz’s more amusing character traits in his comic form is that he has a fondness – occasionally characterised as a borderline addiction – to Chocos, the DC Universe’s brand-erasure equivalent to Oreo cookies. While I’d normally save this type of thing for a Weekend Aside, since Saturday is Boxing Day and I’ll be hunting for a new laptop I might as well group it in here since it’s referenced in this episode.

The amount of spinoff JLA product after it turned into a hit was staggering; DC never hesitated to have the Justice League show up in a new title or give creators who were slightly interested in the characters a miniseries, as everything with the JLA name on it sold in big numbers for about three years after the relaunch. The best example of this is that J’onn got his own series. Considering J’onn has always held the role of the prototypical “team book” character who’s great in a large cast but unable to carry his own title, this was proof that the JLA would sell anything. Of course, the fact that John Ostrander – creator of Suicide Squad, my pick for best book of the 1980s, as well as the man who turned Barbara Gordon into Oracle – was on writing duties didn’t hurt.

Anyway, beneath one of my favourite comic covers of all time lies a story wherein J’onn flashes back to his days with Justice League International (we’ll cover them in more detail one of these weekends), specifically to a prank played on him by resident jokesters Booster Gold (we’ll cover him in more detail later when we get to Unlimited) and Blue Beetle (… who, sadly, never appeared in DCAU, although his successor, Jamie Reyes, appears fairly regularly in Batman: The Brave and the Bold), Knowing J’onn’s love for the creme-filled chocolate delights, the Blue & Gold steal J’onn’s stash, as well as buy up every cookie on the island of Manhattan.

Suffice it to say, things don’t go well, and eventually JLA chief Max Lord and Batman (who was on the team in those days, even if he vigorously denies it to maintain his good name) are called in to straighten things out. This is one of the funniest single comic issues I’ve read, simply because, well, J’onn acting like a cross between a green-skinned hero who plies his trade at Marvel and Cookie Monster is really funny. It’s not my favourite J’onn storyline – Brian Augustyn’s brilliant  ‘pulp’ detective tale in the first JLA annual takes that honour – but it’s the most enjoyable to read by a mile.

Thoughts on the Episode:

You’d think that it would be easy to write a good Christmas anthology episode for Justice League, but this is ultimately a lot less successful than the previous Batman effort. It’s probably because it’s played relatively straight again, although at the very least there is an attempt to make it feel like a traditional holiday special. As the episode is broken up into three stories much like Holiday Knights, albeit interleaved this time. I’ll cover it the same way as that episode for consistency’s sake.

The Flash / Ultra-Humanite segment is my favourite of the three, although that’s possibly the inherent Flash bias speaking again. On the other hand, there actually is a bit of a – gasp – message behind this one, as it focuses on kids craving the hot toy of the moment, a rapping robotic duck that makes “poopy noises”, but in the end being impressed by a take on a more traditional Christmas story. The idea of the Humanite as an evil NPR listener is a great way to take him; Justice League is a series with a couple of articulate apes, but he’s easily differentiated from Grodd by actually being cultured instead of merely speaking intelligently. Acts like attacking statues because they offend his sense of propriety are certainly unique to the show, feeling pulled from the 60s Batman TV series. Playing him off against Flash reliving an Arnie movie – with the cute twist of being able to superspeed directly “to the source” in the north… of Japan… – is nice, and the plotline follows something of a traditional Christmas episode plotline, with Humanite ultimately being redeemed thanks to his nostalgia for the holidays of his youth. Even with the ending, this plotline doesn’t take itself seriously, and it’s better for it.

The other obviously Christmas-y section sees Superman taking J’onn home to Smallville and J’onn experiencing the holidays from the Kent family’s perspective. There isn’t exactly a plot going on behind this one, just a series of scenes where J’onn gets a peek at Superman’s more human side for the first time. Superman going home to Smallville to keep him grounded, as it were, is a great character point, but once there J’onn is a passive observer for the most part, although he does befriend let’s-call-him-Streaky via the hauntingly beautiful Martian music at the end of the episode. It almost seems as though Dini wrote this entire sequence to get in the one inside gag about the cookies, and if so, I salute him for it. Since Superman: TAS never did a Christmas episode, this isn’t a bad substitute, but taken in isolation from the rest of the episode it becomes obvious that there’s not much substance to it.

The one section of the episode that’s actually related to the overall Justice League story sees Hawkgirl bemused that the normally serious John Stewart is having a great time in the snow, and winds up engaging in a snowball fight with him that comes off really well (a combination of her usual nature and semi-obvious flirting). She then invites him to indulge in her own form of celebration, which leads to John doing the fish out of water routine prior to a giant bar brawl. This has the most action of the three sequences, and Hawkgirl blaming John for the mace shot to the monstrous alien is very funny, but the whole point is basically for Hawkgirl to kiss an unconscious John before curling up next to him for the night. After his overplayed “I’d give my life for you” speech in a prior episode, this is a welcome return to their relationship being more subtle, and it leaves the episode with the pastoral scene of two Leaguers curled up amidst the wreckage of an offworld bar. It’s oddly fitting.

The episode itself is no Holiday Knights – not enough humor or Christmas warmth – but in actually managing to advance the long game plot it winds up being more than a throwaway Christmas episode. The only other real complaint is that they couldn’t find a way to work Wonder Woman into it somehow, if only for a glance at holiday season on Themyscira. Unless of course she was also hanging around the Watchtower….

Grade: B-.

Random Thoughts:

• This story was one of Paul Dini’s last writing credits for the DCAU, as at the time of this episode he was shifting into his role as writer on Duck Dodgers, prior to taking on story editor duties on Lost. He would return to write one episode of Unlimited.
  
• Sneaky little mention of Barbara, plus Kara has apparently acquired a “super-cat” since the last time we saw the Kent Farm.
• How the heck has Hawkgirl been offworld since she was beamed to Earth? I thought it was supposed to be another problem with her cover story, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe she borrows the Javelin on weekends and flies around the galaxy or something.
• Is it me, or does the alien Hawkgirl high-fives when she walks in reply “Arriba”?
• Batman begging for Christmas Eve monitor duty is a perfect character note.

Line of the Epsiode: “Oh, we’re no strangers to aliens in this house.” Pa Kent has always been one of my inexplicably favourite characters, either in animated, live-action or televised form. It’s a shame they keep killing the man off.

Flash Line of the Episode: “I kinda liked it when he made the poopy noises… but this is good, too.”

Next Justice League: The return and origin of Vandal Savage in “Maid of Honor.”

Next Side Story: Talia plays Marion to Bruce’s Indy in “Avatar.”