Beetle Bailey on communism

I was telling a friend tonight about where I am with my writing at the moment: the book, getting back into the swing of op-ed writing, what have you.  He asked me why am I writing at all: for fame and fortune or to get a message out that's burning my bosom up from the inside.

I want a bit of all of that, to be honest.  After half a lifetime of battling demons, I still hope to find a little success as a writer.  It doesn't have to be an awful lot of fame or acclaim.  That's never been what this blog is about or anything else I've put my hand to for that matter.  I suppose if there is a gauge I'm going by, it's that I wind up feeling like Dad would be proud of me.  He never gave up on me and I want to do right by that.

Anyhoo, my friend said that if there was a message to be shared, that a true writer would get it out there.  Even if it meant making graffiti art of it.  That reminded me of this Beetle Bailey cartoon from several years back.  Amazing how much wisdom there is to be found in a comic strip...

(Click image to embiggen)

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CALVIN AND HOBBES did INCEPTION first!

Props to GeekTyrant for noting that years before Christopher Nolan's cinematic foray into dream country with Inception, that Bill Waterson was already "kick"-ing around the idea in Calvin and Hobbes :-)

Y'know, this would explain some things about Calvin, when you think about it...

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Bill Watterson gives interview about CALVIN AND HOBBES

It's been fifteen years since Calvin and Hobbes took their sleigh ride off the comics pages and into cartooning history. They haven't been seen since and now in an extremely rare interview, Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson looks back on it all and reflects on the strip's enduring charm... as well as his thoughts about ending the cartoon's run at the height of its popularity.

I'm not gonna hit the "publish" button on this post without saying that in my opinion, Calvin and Hobbes is the all-time greatest comic strip ever. Hard to pin down a favorite "arc" but the one about the snow goons stands out in my mind as classic Calvin :-)

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So you want some more STAR TREK, do ya?

I honestly can not remember the last time I have seen this many people so jazzed about a movie as is happening right now with Star Trek. It's like a kind of magic that we had taken for granted in summer blockbusters had gotten lost somehow, and now it's been found again. If you haven't already you seriously owe it to yourself to see Star Trek the way it's meant to be viewed: in a crowded theater with a wide variety of people who have no idea what a thrill they are in for.

(By the way, my good friend Phillip Arthur has just served up his own rave review of Star Trek. And here's the review by Yours Truly :-)

And if you've seen Star Trek and are dying for more of this relaunched saga, then I'll strongly recommend Star Trek: Countdown, IDW Publishing's official graphic novel prequel to the new motion picture. With a story provided by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who scribed the Star Trek screenplay), Star Trek: Countdown reveals the origin of Nero and the chain of events that bleed into the movie. It also very deftly ties together the "classic" Star Trek timeline with the one established by J.J. Abrams' reboot (I especially like the explanation for how the Narada is so overwhelmingly powerful a ship for what is supposed to be a simple "mining vessel"). How good is Star Trek: Countdown? Let's put it this way: on some levels it darn nearly redeems the fiasco that was Star Trek Nemesis.

Star Trek: Countdown should be available at most good bookstores right now, and it's also available on Amazon.com, including in that newfangled "Kindle" format. However you get it (legally 'course), it's a rollickin' good helping of dessert after the spectacular feast that is the new Star Trek movie!

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Today's DILBERT and FOXTROT strips

Today is Sunday, which means our favorite comic strips are bigger, longer and in glorious four color. Here are two of today's that I thought were particularly funny. The first is from Scott Adams' Dilbert...

And then Bill Amend serves up today's helping of Foxtrot. As a new player of Warhammer 40,000, I totally dig Jason's horror at mixing Space Marines with Orks in the same box...

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The world's greatest superhero is a giant bulldog

Sometimes you come across something on the Internet that is so overwhelmingly kewl just on the basis of the obvious amount of passion and intelligence poured into it, that you can't wait to praise the effort and share it with others.

That's what I felt after finding Lockjaw, The World's Greatest Superhero. It's a very detailed site that, with great affection and eloquence, argues why Lockjaw of the Inhumans from the Marvel Universe is the best comic book character around. In terms of innocence, nobility, and utter power, this Terrigen Mist-altered bulldog lives a life of romp, play, and the occasional rescuing of the universe on his own terms. Not even Galactus comes close to matching Lockjaw's unrestrained abilities, the author insists.

Gotta give the props to whoever made this site. And hopefully Lockjaw will be a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, instead of just getting to scratch his ears :-P

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Finally have a Rorschach action figure!

Ever since the first time I read Watchmen, I've thought it would be neat to have an action figure of Rorschach to decorate my shelf or computer desk with.

It's taken twenty years, but today I finally get my wish...

Found it at Books A Million in Greensboro while out on some business this morning.

Now all we need is for someone to make a big plush Rorschach doll that goes "Hurm" when you pull the string :-P

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It's the trailer for WATCHMEN's TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER with the voice of Gerard Butler!

If you've never read Watchmen (what's the matter with you? Go read it now!) then this requires some 'splainin'. In the graphic novel there's this kid who's reading a pirate comic book at a newsstand. The comic book, Tales of the Black Freighter, is shown to us the readers as a "story within a story" and it parallels a lot of what's going on in the greater scheme of Watchmen. Zack Snyder didn't have enough time to include it in the feature film adaptation of Watchmen, but it's important enough that it's coming to us next month as an animated feature on DVD and Blu-ray! And the word is that months afterward when Watchmen itself is released for home consumption, that an "ultimate edition" will be coming out that splices together the live-action movie and the animated Tales of the Black Freighter.

So with that said, here's the trailer for Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter, featuring the voice of Gerard Butler (Leonidas in 300) as the marooned mariner...

Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter will also include Hollis Mason's autobiography Under the Hood.

Thanks to Phillip Arthur for the heads-up!

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"Silent Interlude": 25 years later, G.I. JOE comic still rattles the industry

Twenty-five years ago this month, in January of 1984, G.I. Joe #21 from Marvel Comics hit the newsstands. The cover promised "The Most Unusual G.I. Joe Story Ever!!"

What an understatement...

Marvel might as well have declared G.I. Joe #21, the now-legendary "Silent Interlude" issue, as being "The Most Unusual COMIC BOOK Story Ever!" and now, a full quarter-century later, there would be very few fans of graphic art literature who would disagree.

"Silent Interlude" was the issue that broke all the rules of what a comic book was supposed to be. And I think it could even be argued that it forever shattered conventional wisdom on what a licensed property tie-in was fully capable of achieving. From the day that G.I. Joe #1 came out in the spring of 1982 onward, the comic book was generally regarded as a glorified advertisement for the popular Hasbro line of action figures.

And then came Issue #21. Written and drawn by Larry Hama, "Silent Interlude" would become the most talked-about, the most widely praised, and at the time among the most controversial comic books ever published. It permanently elevated G.I. Joe away from its perception of being a "toy franchise" and into the realm of exceptionally mature narrative.

"Silent Interlude" also laid down the foundation for all the G.I. Joe continuity that was to follow for the next ten years and beyond. It established mysteries and connections that have come to be regarded as some of the finest storytelling that the medium has yet produced.

And "Silent Interlude" did it all... without a single word of dialogue or any other written exposition.

Hama's now-classic tale of Snake-Eyes infiltrating Destro's castle to rescue captured fellow G.I. Joe team member Scarlett, and his battle with the Cobra ninja Storm Shadow, was experimental theatre of the highest form. The absence of text proved that it could not stop a well-executed, high-stakes tale loaded with action and enigma. If anything, having no written words escalated the intensity of "Silent Interlude".

Two and a half decades later, G.I. Joe #21 is widely hailed by many of the recent generation of comic artists and writers as the single issue that most inspired them to enter the industry. And as if it needed further testament to its impact, "Silent Interlude" has consequently become one of the most parodied graphic stories in history (including one especially memorable cover for an issue of Deadpool).

But there is one more praise that I am obligated to give "Silent Interlude". I can say now that G.I. Joe #21, and how its story continued to play out over the next few issues after that, was what began turning my very young mind toward what became a life-long interest in modern history. And I think that many people of my age bracket will also readily admit that Larry Hama's work on G.I. Joe made us very curious, for the first time, about what happened in Southeast Asia. Until Issue #26 a few months later, "Vietnam" was just a word that I didn't care to understand. The G.I. Joe comic book first opened my mind about the conflict... and a quarter century later, I'm still trying to grasp it all. A lot of us are.

So let's pretend that Yo Joe Cola is a real drink, and hoist our glasses in raising a toast to "Silent Interlude": not just the greatest G.I. Joe story ever, but one of the greatest comic book issues of all time! :-)

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If you haven't been reading WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN...

...then you really owe it to yourself to go find the back issues, or if you're patient enough then to wait for the trade paperback and buy that as soon as it comes out. 'Cuz this seriously might be the greatest story about Wolverine that Marvel Comics has ever published.

I first wrote about the "Old Man Logan" arc back in August when Wolverine #66 hit the stands. The story begins fifty years in the future, long after Logan wandered away and threw himself into self pity following the night that the bad guys finally conquered the country (and maybe the world). In all that time, Logan hasn't "popped his claws" even once, having relegated himself to the role of a pacifistic farmer, husband and father. During the long odyssey that he and the now-blind Hawkeye have taken across the ruined plains of America, there have been heavy hints that whatever it was that drove Wolverine to renounce violence, it must have been very, very bad.

With Wolverine #70 and Part 5 of "Old Man Logan", now we know what it was.

My God...

Wolverine has long been the most popular mutant in the Marvel stable. But I don't know, in the almost 35 years since the character was introduced, if there has been a single story... nay, a single issue... that has evoked so much both horror and empathy for the guy. Whatever it was that you thought might have been cause for Wolverine to "throw down his sword" and walk away from the fight, that probably is still not anywhere close to what writer Mark Millar came up with. I'm not saying that it will go down in comics history as being anywhere as tragic as the death of Gwen Stacy, but ya gotta give it up for the crew behind "Old Man Logan": they definitely went for broke and into places that even as often a dark a character as Wolverine, has never gone before.

"Old Man Logan" is highly recommended, even if, like me, you are only a casual reader of comic books.

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Alan Moore is gonna be honked-off angry...

Zack Snyder has confirmed that he has changed the ending for the movie version of Watchmen, which he's directed.

So we will not be getting to see the "alien squid" after all...

In the past few weeks I've found myself wondering what the "squid" might possibly look like translated to screen. And that led me to think that perhaps Guillermo del Toro would have been the "go-to" guy for giving it the appropriate gruesomeness. Now it turns out that the climactic moment of most widely-acclaimed graphic novel has been... altered?!

Snyder did read Watchmen, right? I mean, he knows what the ultimate purpose of the "squid" is, yes?

I am now officially skeptical about how this is going to work. No wonder Alan Moore - the creator of Watchmen - harbors such legendary frustration about film adaptations of his efforts.

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WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN looks like a terrific arc

It's been awhile since I picked up an issue of an ongoing comic book, apart from the odd Star Wars-related one-shot every now and then. But yesterday Lisa and I were in the Borders in Greensboro and the cover of Wolverine #66 intrigued me enough to purchase a copy. Written by Mark Millar (recently known for the Civil War arc that raged across most of the Marvel line), it's the first chapter of the "Old Man Logan" saga.

And based on what I enjoyed reading last night, "Old Man Logan" might become the best story involving Marvel's most popular mutant since the groundbreaking Origin over six years ago.

The "Old Man Logan" arc takes place fifty years after "the night the heroes fell" and the bad guys finally conquered America. The land is now carved-up into a series of territories and whatever it was that happened, it completely broke Wolverine's spirit. He wandered off into the wasteland, completely renounced violence, dropped his heroic moniker and became simply Logan. When the series begins we find that he's got a wife and two children, eking out an existence as a tenant farmer in California and trying to pay off his landlords.

In Logan's case, this turns out to be the inbred progeny of Bruce Banner. Imagine the degenerate hillbillies of Deliverance as a gang of Hulks. If that alone will not hook you into "Old Man Logan", I don't know what will.

The Hulk Gang beats Logan to a pulp and threatens to kill his family if he can't pony up the rent. Hawkeye - now a blind man - tells Logan that he's got a delivery to make on the East Coast and if Logan can help him get there, his family will get all the rent money they need to pay off the Hulks. By the end of the issue, Hawkeye is in the driver's seat of the rebuilt Spider-mobile with Logan navigating, as the satellite system shows them the three thousand miles they must maneuver through the dominions of Kingpin, Doom, and the threat of much worse in order to reach a place called New Babylon.

Mark Millar is saying that "Old Man Logan" is shooting for the same kind of vibe as The Dark Knight Returns. I can see that here. And in addition to Deliverance there's also a sense of The Grapes of Wrath and maybe even Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at work in the story, with Part 1's final shot of Wolverine and Hawkeye driving off into the East toward whatever adventure awaits.

I'll definitely be picking up Part 2, and probably the rest of this eight-issue series as well. Well worth looking into, whether you're a die-hard Marvel geek or a more casual fan.

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DC rolling out Gears of War comic this fall

WRAL is reporting that Cary-based Epic Games and DC Comics have announced plans to publish a Gears of War comic book/graphic novel this fall, in the lead-up to the release of Gears of War 2. The story is to be set after the conclusion of Epic's 2006 mega-selling video game, which saw main character Marcus Fenix giving humanity a dire-needed victory over the Locust Horde.

A few days ago I wrote that I'd finished playing the game and how much I enjoyed it but that some more back-story would have been nice. I'm guessing this new comic is going to "flesh-out" the Gears of War saga greatly. Oh yeah, I started playing it again last night on Hardcore mode. So far so good... but I still doubt that I'll ever try it on Insane :-)

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Most obscene depiction of the Hulk ever

This is something that you won't be able to get out of your mind once you see it, so consider yourself warned.

Credit goes to Shane Thacker for finding this... thing.

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Marvel Universe: Maybe it's time for a reboot?

Geoff made this comment on the post about Captain America getting killed in the Marvel Comics...

"Marvel is a crazy universe. I can't believe the did this."

Me neither, Geoff. But it does lend some validity to something I've been thinking for awhile, about the Marvel Comics universe...

It's this "moving time" principle by which Marvel establishes that all of its comics are canon, even though most of them now contradict real-world stuff. I mean, it's like Tony Stark was originally wounded in Vietnam and that's what led him to become Iron Man. The thing of it is it's 2007 and Stark would now have to be, what in his sixties-seventies by now, if he started then? The Fantastic Four's fateful spacelaunch happened because America had to beat "the commies" - as Susan Storm put it - into space. See where the problem there is?

Well, the thing of it is, Captain America is firmly established as a product of World War II. So is Nick Fury. And with more and more years that pass by, well... it's really starting to stretch belief that these guys, even with the Super Soldier Serum and the Infinity Formula would still be fighting the good fight. There's a few other things mucking-up Marvel's moving timeline, but World War II is the big kahuna of them.

So, maybe it is good and proper that Captain America die now. And let him stay dead.

And maybe along with him, Marvel can do something drastic to make these stories last forever, instead of creeping into obsolescence.

So here's my proposal: with Captain America, and the events of the Civil War, let the Marvel Universe as we have come to know and love it... have it stop. Right here. In 2007. Make that the new immovable date in Marvel history. Everything that has happened in the Marvel Universe, let it be reckoned as happening between World War II and 2007.

And then, reboot... or perhaps "reboost" would be a better way to put it... the entire shebang.

No, I'm not talking about something like the Ultimates line (which put me off with that ridiculous "Ga Lak Tus" thing). I mean something more daring... and the more I think about it, more right.

Marvel should start every character in the Marvel Universe as they are now, and then, year by year, chronlogically age them as they would in real life, if their lives really did start at 2007 and proceeded forth.

Yes, I mean let's see them grow. Let's see them age. Let's see them meet all the challenges that come with those things. And then, one by one, let them die.

If Peter Parker were a real person and he was 15 years old in 1962 when Spider-Man first appeared, he would be sixty years old now. Personally, I think an older, wiser Spider-Man would be a wonderful thing to behold. Peter Parker is the paragon of everything that is good and noble about human character and determination. But for him to mean anything as a symbol for us... well, he has to be like us. With all the weaknesses and frailties that come with living a life bereft of things like whole-body cloning and whatnot.

Whether at the hands of one of his enemies, or from illness, Peter Parker should be given the chance to die like the rest of us. All of these characters should. Because that's what it's going to take if they're meant to persist as metaphors for everything that is good, and bad, about humanity.

If Marvel is wise, they will do this. Start a long-term strategy where the characters from this point on will age chronlogically alongside real time. And one by one, let them go into that long twilight.

But as they go, introduce new characters to take up the mantle after them.

Let some new kid pick up the shield and go forth in Captain America's name. Give Spider-Man a child who inherits Parker's abilities. Let there be a new Fantastic Four led by Franklin Richards... with his daddy Reed advising the team as "leader emeritus". As for Hulk: he might be one of the few characters who could persist for some time, what with his gamma-enhanced biology. The same with Wolverine. The fun thing about those guys is that they are going to live a long, long time: well, let's see how they adapt to the changing times and let them be a "cipher" through which we come to see the world around us in the way that only comics can do.

I don't think that this would mean the end of the "classic characters". Not by a longshot. Marvel can still publish stories set within the 1941-2007 timeframe, and this would give them a chance to re-interpret a lot of those pre-existing stories so that very messy thing called Marvel continuity could finally get the cleanup it's been screaming about for ages.

(Hey who knows: maybe in long-term Marvel canon, the "clone saga" really didn't happen after all.)

I really doubt the honchos at Marvel are going to follow through with something like this though. But that's how I would manage things if I were editor-in-chief over there. Use Captain America's death (assuming he stays dead) as an opportunity for some much-needed growth against rising graphic stagnancy.

If nothing else, think of this: the X-Men would die. And they would remain dead... forever!

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Captain America has been assassinated!

Breaking on news outlets everywhere now. Cap had just surrendered after the events of Marvel Comics' Civil War #7 and was being taken into a courthouse when he was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant.

I say: if he's dead, let him stay dead. Let his death have meaning. 'Course this being Marvel Comics, it's probably only a matter of time before Doctor Strange does some mystical hoodoo and not only resurrects Cap, but mind-wipes everyone on the planet into forgetting that Civil War took place, that Spider-Man unmasked himself, will make Mar-Vell dead again too etc...

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What the... CIVIL WAR is over and WHO won?!

Jeri Rowe's article a few days ago at the News & Record was the first time I'd heard from Marvel Comic's Civil War storyline in some time. I did a little follow-up reading and knowing what I know now - yes even considering the DUMBEST thing that Marvel Comics has EVER done - I must say that it sounds like I've missed quite a show, just going by how this ended...

In case you haven't heard, in Civil War #7 the whole thing about superhero registration - which Tony Stark aka Iron Man has led the charge for and which Captain America has led a resistance movement against - comes to a violent crescendo. And... Captain America surrenders! The Superhero Registration Act is now fully enforced. Cap is taken away in shackles and Stark is now the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (if you know Marvel comics you know how big a deal this is). What's more, each of the fifty states is set to get its own team of superheroes as part of "the Initiative".

Whoa...

If Marvel doesn't "pansy out" and opts to play for keeps with this, it might be the most invigorating thing they have done to their comics line since... well, in a gosh-awful long time that's for sure! What I mean by that is, Iron Man better not decide that superhero registration was a bad thing after all and have Doctor Strange mystically mind-wipe the whole Earth from remembering it ever happened.

If Marvel decides to abide by what they've inflicted on their universe and not to play it safe, then I might forgive them for resurrecting Mar-Vell. I might even forgive them for the legendarily horrible "Clone Saga", too.

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