Friday Fun for the 2 Sarahs
Jan 11I’ve recently become addicted to the UK quiz show, Mastermind. It’s a neat idea – contestants are asked two rounds of questions, but they get to pick the topic of the first round. This results in a lot of sports and nerd themes. There are some corkers involving Ghostbusters, HP Lovecraft, Douglas Adams, and the Sandman comics (all read out by the very proper, but always game host.)
I thought the Sarahs might get a kick out of the one above – bear in mind ladies, I got a perfect 17, no passes on the Ghostbusters. Good luck!
James Marsters or Frog-Faced Guy?
Jan 10A (paraphrased) conversation between me (Sarah) and my friend (Other Sarah).
Other Sarah: Sarah, will you please look at this photo? Someone is trying to tell me that it’s John Barrowman kissing James Marsters, but I don’t think it’s James Marsters!
Sarah: I don’t know, that looks like Marsters to me! Very…Marsters-y.
Other Sarah: Really? Because I think it’s the other guy on Torchwood, the Frog-Faced Guy. Do you know who I mean?
Sarah: Yes, yes…actually, I can also see how it would be the Frog-Faced Guy. But the nose…the nose is saying Marsters!
Other Sarah: See, actually, I thought the nose was what made it not Marsters.
Sarah: But the nose is all squished up against John Barrowman. (gestures) See?
Other Sarah: I can see that, but I still think it looks more like John Barrowman kissing the Frog-Faced Guy, not John Barrowman kissing James Marsters. I asked the person who sent it to me if they were sure it was James Marsters, and they were like (snotty geek voice), “Yes. It is.”
Sarah: Well, then it must be. (pause) Either way, it’s very sexy, no?
Other Sarah: Oh, yes.
Random Co-worker: These are the conversations I have to listen to.
(p.s. — I still think it is, in fact, Marsters. Any other opinions?)
Taking Hits Off the Source
Jan 09I’ve found it necessary to largely ignore the doings in the DC universe since the end of 52, since the storytelling has seemed so uneven, a conclusion I derive both from personal experience (read Countdown, dropped it) and byte after byte of negative reviews from the comics blogosphereoverse.
But over at Funnybook Babylon, David Uzumeri has used Grant Morrison (writer of the impending and allegedly climactic Final Crisis) and his past works and comments to construct an entirely plausible thematic framework for everything from the retcon punch to the death of the New Gods, and it makes scary sense. It’s almost essential reading for any modern superhero comics fan, as it has meaning not just for DCU continuity junkies, but for fans of Morrison as a writer and artist.
Here’s part one of “Hits Off the Source,” and here’s part two; David promises more as the story develops, and I can’t wait to read it.
One quote, that doesn’t do it justice–DON’T ASK, JUST READ IT:
Following Morrison’s common themes, as well as certain hints put forward in Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle where the Omega Effect does not annihilate but in fact forces the target to go through an infinite number of lives, drowning him in existential pain, it is therefore highly possible given current evidence that the being bringing about the Fifth World is the Source, which is also Anti-Life. That the war between New Genesis and Apokolips was fabricated by the Source to cause humanity to grow and replace the Fourth World with the Fifth. We know humanity is the cradle of the Fifth World, from Metron’s comments in Morrison’s own JLA #41. And man, doesn’t that just sound like a Crisis.
To the extent that this is true, it raises some VERY interesting political questions about DC’s editorial team–after all, none of these ideas have ever been credited to Morrison, and Dan DiDio certainly hasn’t been bashful about trumpeting his involvement with many of the stories executing the ideas. Is there some kind of wholesale conceptual swipe at work here, where Morrison has handed over his brain wholesale to DiDio in exchange for actually getting to do all the cool stuff he’s always wanted to do with the DCU? Or am I just a gossipy ninny of a comic book nerd who likes to speculate on situations without any knowledge (first, second, third, ANY hand) whatsoever?
Probably the latter.
The UMPC Begets the MID
Jan 08You probably don’t recall–hell, I barely recall yesterday, let alone two years ago–but in the early days of Alert Nerd, I wrote about the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC). The specs and prototypes looked sexy; the products turned out to be way overpriced and made zero blips on the consumer electronics radar.
(And yet, Asus makes a big splash in geek circles with their Eee PC, taking some of the same principles and marrying them to a very small laptop form factor. Hmm. All these crazy kids should talk more.)
Now apparently, the UMPC has given birth to the MID (Mobile Internet Device). Those who followed Nokia’s Internet Tablets over the past couple years (I owned one, for a couple days, back in June of last year) may be familiar with the concept–web access, IM, e-mail, games, music, movies, and other ephemeral crap, all crammed onto a PYT of a device. Lookit, picture!
I’d been skimming over lots of this year’s CES coverage, as I just can’t get a boner over big TVs and GPS units. But this…this is a horse of another color.
Many Long Boxes
Jan 08Tom Spurgeon has an interesting roundup and analysis of some recent articles about the decline of the comic book back issue market, at least as a fixture in local direct market comic shops.
