Steampunk Star Wars!
June 15, 2008
In case you haven’t seen these yet. So very cool. More Here. Including Gaslight Justice League!
Superheroes.
June 1, 2008
John Hodgman wrote a great review for today’s New York Times on comics. Though it still irks me that the Times tends to lump all genre material together for these kind of group reviews, it is nice to see them get some respected ink. The best part of his essay was the review of Jack Kirby’s reprinted Fourth World Omnibus - a psychedelic, epic space opera about warring gods and superheroes.
Superheroes.
What tickled me so much about Hodgman’s review was the focus a classic superhero story. It’s become trendy, if not yet fashionable, to praise comics as a medium while ignoring the slightly awkward, pimply-faced gorilla in the room wearing tights. I wholeheartedly agree that comics is much more than men-and-women-in-capes, it’s a platform for telling all sorts of stories.
But I love superheroes. I love the history, the legacy of decades worth of stories written drawn by hundreds of writers and artists. Most of those writers faded into obscurity, and a few achieved a certain level of fame, but they all contributed to the greater whole, this enormous shared world mythology. There’s really nothing else like in popular culture. We meet these characters when we are young and they stay with us forever. Batman. Superman. Spider-man. How many different hands have touched their stories? And how long will their stories go on?
Plus, I mean, c’mon. Admit it - Batman’s just cool.
Gary Gygax Eulogized in NY Times
March 9, 2008
So many know that geek patriarch Gary Gygax died last week. The co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons has been eulogized on so many blogs, on so many websites that I didn’t feel that I had much to add. D&D influenced an entire generation. It shaped the landscape of fantastical literature. It brought together the nerds who would go on to build the information technology of today.
And the New York Times has taken notice. God rest ye, Gary.
A Must-Read Miscellany
February 6, 2008
I wasn’t much of a reader as a kid. I came to the skill late. I didn’t start reading for pleasure until around age ten or eleven. (It’s ironic, but not necessarily atypical for someone in my profession. )
Sorry to say that throughout much of my boyhood, books were great for building forts for my GI Joes.
Except for my World Almanac phase. Every kid has his quirks, and one of mine was a short-lived obsession with the eclectic mix-mash of trivia and lists behind the yellow cover - god how I loved lists. Still do. I carried a dog-eared and coca-cola stained copy around with me at odd times. I peppered my speech with interesting facts about the cabinet of our 22nd and 24th president, Grover Cleveland (it’s true. look it up in your almanac)
That’s why this book makes so darn happy - Schott’s Miscellany is the almanac to end all almanacs. Oceanic Dead Zones? Check. Swimming the Amazon? Check. James Bond and Drinking? Check.
I’m so tickled with this book that it has earned its own tag. So go get one and let’s exchange useless, wickedly entertaining facts and figures. C’mon, do you know the list of Geipan and Alien Sightings 2007?
