There have been so many shocks and surprises and the internet just can’t be broken anymore. It’s become tougher, like when you tear a phone book into pieces and eventually it just won’t rip anymore. How do you tell who’s who and what’s what in this new world out there? Don’t worry. I’m here to comfort and guide. Welcome to the world outside B@N. Welcome to Meanwhile….

I’m going to start this off with a post that really hit home as I’m getting ready for my wedding. See, Those Wednesday’s Benhatt is getting married too. He needs some help with his wedding gift to his wife and I thought it was worth giving him the top spot here at Meanwhile to see if anyone could help him. Don’t worry. He’s not asking for any kind of monetary donation. Take it away Benhatt.

She’s the best, she’s my center. And just saying this everyday doesn’t feel like enough. That does not mean, however, that I can afford a pair of diamond earrings.

And this is where you come in people out there in Internetland. See her last name is Chick (I shit you not) so guess what she collects? We have adorable yellow birds doing adorable things (like singing) and not so adorable things (like flipping the finger). So I had this idea: get as many drawings of a chick wearing a hat (just go with it) as possible. Print it out of nice paper, have it bound nicely and bam thoughtful present.

Here’s the problem: I can’t draw. Not worth a penny. So if you can draw— hell even if you can’t— and you feel like helping a guy out with a present send it to Thosewednesdays@gmail.com. I can’t pay you, but someday you can call on me for a favor…I don’t know.

I don’t care what else is going on in the picture if you feel inclined to make it elaborate. I mean it could be a monster chick in a hat destroying Tokyo. Just remember that I will be giving it to her on our wedding day so have some level of respect. Thanks to everyone who helps out in advance.”

So help the guy out will ya? I’ll try to finish drawing mine this weekend.

Now, on with the rest of the links.

Some people didn’t like Nightwing Annual #2 very much.

This was like if someone asked me “Hey, what’re some things you don’t particularly care to ever see in a comic?” and then put everything I listed in that comic. It’s gross and not good. I mean, cool, heroes have/should have/do have sex and relationships but for some reason Babs talking to Dick Grayson about losing his virginity to Starfire just comes off mad creepy in that weird nerdy sort of way that comics do so well. I’m not even a prude, man. I own the Bomb Queen trade, I am all about some gratuitous nudity and graphic violence. This, though? This is yuck.

And some people do.

So that’s what got me curious about this one, and it turned out to be a solid read. Of course, that’s not really a surprise: Marc Andreyko regularly knocks it out of the park when it comes to solid, character-driven stories rooted firmly in the DCU over in the woefully underappreciated Manhunter, and his work here lives up to it very well, with a great retrospective on Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson’s relationship, and one of Barbara’s best lines in years.

I’m in the “liked it” camp myself.

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Violence is still strong in the blogosphere.

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Remember that meme I posted with the Kirby face? Here are some of the entries.

While you’re there you should check out Lex Luthor’s line to the future.

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I want these stickers. Who knew Dr.Doom was all about fashion?

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Wow. Lots of talk about crotches this area and how they make people feel weird, or not.

Chris does a good job of summing everything up while The Hurting decides to publish Wang Watch 2007!

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Looking for a realistic take on how people would react to the Batmobile on the streets? Dave has you covered.

A news helicopter is thrumming overhead – you must be close. You hear it before you see it – a deep rattling in your chest. Then, for a brief second it flashes past on Grand. Camera flashbulbs go off and people cheer. Out of breath, you make it to Grand just in time to see the big bat winged rear end of the Batmobile swing around a corner, followed by an SUV of screaming girls and a couple of paparazzi on scooters.

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Lots of nice work out there on artists blogs this week.

These covers to the new Friday the 13th comic almost made me want to pick it up. Almost. They need to put Dustin Nguyen on something big.

Karl Kerschl can lay down a pretty good cover himself. He’s taking commisions again, you know. Yet another talent that needs a big gig.

Congrats to my brazillian blogging pals Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba for being nominated for an Eisner. At this point I’ll buy almost anything they put out. Ba is the main reason I’m even looking forward to Umbrella Academy.

Well that and the pretty James Jean cover. Speaking of James Jean, check out his submission to I Am 8-bit.

I also have to send a congrats over to Asaf Hanuka for Pizzeria Kamikaze’s nomination.

The talented Eddie Campbell lets us get a peek at Alan Moore’s scripting of From Hell and how he did things differently.

I love Mike Wieringo, but he really needs to get permalinks so I can link to specific posts on his site. Is Jeff Parker reading? Didn’t you help him set up his site? I know you’re super busy writing kick ass comics lately, but see what you can do, huh? Anyway, check out Ringo’s blog. Mike posts a new sketch every day and all of them deserve to grace your retinas.

Oh, I almost forgot, Project Rooftop is still doing their thing, this time with Corsair.

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Where the hell is the Hall of Justice located anyway?

Personally, I’m picturing it on the site of National Cathedral (because no one knows what the point of that is in our universe, let alone the DCU). Big area, lots of room for trees and a reflecting pool, but still located directly at an extremely public location (the intersection of two great thoroughfares, Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues).

Thanks, Scipio.

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Your meme for the week? Who does Mary Love?

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Is Superman: The Animated Series neoclassical or post-modern?

I don’t know if the animated Superman is neoclassical or postmodern. I just know it’s not modernist because it didn’t invent it all entirely new from the ground up but was an amalgam of old, recent and entirely new. I’m hesitant to call it neo-classical because I don’t necessarily think there is a canon from which these stories are based. Which makes me think it’s postmodern with a lot of new additions and interpretations but without discounting the entire past of Superman. In fact quite the opposite, I think there is a reverence and love for the past of Superman that is referred to and explored via this new interpretation.

It’s entertaining. That’s what it is. I just finished watching Justice League Unlimited Volume 2. That’s a pretty entertaining show too and really goes to show how talented a writer Dwayne MacDuffie is.

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The Institute for Korvac Studies and the search for the real Jim Shooter.

And how are we to account for “Shooter”’s lengthy career working for DC, Marvel, Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway over a thirty-year period? Given the scant biographical information available on him, this resumé means “Shooter” would have had to start writing comics at age 14—a clear impossibility! Could a 14 year old have experienced enough life to imagine the nobility of Ferro Lad sacrificing himself by flying into the Sun-Eater? Could a mere teenager have imagined the unrequited love of Duo Damsel? Could he have felt the betrayal of Superboy being kicked in the groin by his own super-pet?

I think not. The adventures of the Legion of Super-Heroes, to say nothing of the Korvac saga, are the work of a mature artistic sensibility and could not possibly be the work of some plebian teenager from the wilds of western Pennsylvania, and those who say otherwise are elitists who simply cannot accept that all great art is produced by the social elite.

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Here’s a list of all the literary mashups I posted a while back, courtesy of Lurking Rhythmically. While there check out her realization that Green Lantern’s Oath is actually in iambic tetrameter.

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Fun with spelling courtesy of Mike Sterling and the Avengers.

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I like NeilAlien’s take on the Spider-man Musical.

Spider-Man sings “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Swinging For”
Uncle Ben’s ghost serenades “Beautiful May”
Doctor Octopus seduces Gwen Stacy with “Ock-Tongue Baby”
Webbed-up bank robbers lament “Sunday Sticky Sunday”
Peter Parker sings “I Will Wallow”
Flash Thompson pines for Betty Brant with “(She Moves In) Mysterio Ways”
Daredevil wishes for a place “Where The Streets Have No Crime”
Electro belts out “Fried (In The Name Of Love)”
Aunt May’s doctor warns of yet another medical condition in “New Tears May”
Ben Reilly sings the sad song “Clone”
Stan Lee sings “With Or Without You” to Steve Ditko

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Snapper Carr Appreciation Week (sort of) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. That was a short week. That’s ok though, Snapper doesn’t do it for the accolades.

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MightyGodKing still wants to write the Legion. At this point I say we let him try since I like most of his ideas.

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“The Most Beautiful World in the World” by Johnny Bacardi and Harry Nilsson.

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Professor Xavier is not Martin Luther King Jr.

While both have a dream of a better world for their respective repressed minorities, Martin Luther King was a pacifist who refused to use violence, even to defend himself.

Professor X trained his students to be masked vigilante freedom fighters who beat the crap out of anyone, human or mutant, who gets in the way of his goals.

No, Professor X’s belief that mutants have the right, and sometimes to the need, to use violence to defend themselves makes him a lot closer to, appropriately enough, Malcolm X.

While we’re at it, Magneto isn’t Malcom X either.

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Benhatt explains the different types of retcons seen in comics today.

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I thought I knew her.

You see, the secret is that, even though none of us can say we know who Wonder Woman is, its always been very clear that she knows who she is. There’s trouble connecting with other people, and the gods, and her purpose, but Diana has always been centered in herself. Confident. She knew exactly what she was inside.

Its a great departure from a lot of the other characters in comics, always soul-searching. Diana had her soul, her problem was where it fit with everyone else’s. The world would fall apart, and Diana always knew who she was and what she was doing. to the end of Rucka’s run, she knew. It was comforting.

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Finally, I second the motion that a Krypto vs. Titano comic needs to be made ASAP.

Now stop reading this column and get to work on that Chick illustration for Benhatt will ya?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Meanwhile.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.