ABEHM
A Brown Eyed Handsome Man

Monday February 14, 2005

SPOON!

I have chocolate.

I should be writing on Revenants, but, well, I’m not. Still, by the time I’m done with whatever I ramble on and on and bloody ON about here, there should be plenty of tonight left. And, as I did my laundry today, all tomorrow, too, even assuming I don’t roll out of bed until 1 p.m. or so, as is my fondest wish at the moment.

My Alien Arena rules for HeroClix went over with the faint, moist thud one generally hears when accidentally dropping a pair of wet jeans onto the laundromat floor. Mike Norton was kind enough to hang a comment there, mostly to bump the thread back up to the top of the front page in hopes someone else might show an interest, but it was all for naught. It matters little.

I have chocolate.

My Friend Whom Must Not Be Named sent me a big package o’ goodies today, or, rather, the package was sent days in the past, and it arrived today. It contained chocolate. Also, books -- Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron, and Judgement of Tears, all by Kim Newman, as well as A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle. And a great deal of junk food – gourmet pepperoni, mini packets of various cookies and snack mixes, one-serving pouches of microwave mac n’ cheese (a personal favorite), many little one serving boxes of sugary breakfast cereals (another personal favorite, but, Good Lord, man, they’re all personal favorites, that’s why I love getting packages from this particular friend), and, you know, much more stuff I’m not bothering to type right now. And, of course, HeroClix.

My friend had ordered REV (Rookie, Experienced, Veteran, for those of you who still petulantly refuse to Catch The Fever) sets of Rogue, Shadowcat, and the Constrictor for me off E-Bay, as well as a Veteran Hellboy, when I couldn’t find those figs cheaply (or at all) at any of the online hobby shops I normally do business with (Gathering Ground, Popular Collections, IconUSA, if you care, or, actually, even if you don’t). In addition to those (which I’ll pay my friend back for) I also received, much to my delight and surprise, two Spider-Man Uniques (the X-plosion fig where he has the web-shield, and the Clobberin’ Time one, where he has six arms, which is the closest thing to a click of the goddess Kali we’re likely to see any time soon) and, wonder of wonders, Count Nefaria, the last Unique from Mutant Mayhem I’d really wanted to get.

So, it’s been a good day for me, all the way around.


But she likes to keep me guessin
she’s got me on the fence
with that little bit of mystery
she’s a complex kid
and she’s always been so hard to figure out
yeah she always likes to leave me with the shadow of a doubt


EVEN THE LOSERS GET LUCKY SOMETIMES

I mentioned on my last blog page that I’d recently gotten a CD of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s amazing 1979 album Damn The Torpedoes. I didn’t mention, however, just how delightful it is to re-experience this CD after maybe ten years without owning a copy in any medium.

This record was probably the very first album I ever bought on vinyl, during my sophomore year of college (which would have been 1980-1981, for the latter day Okhrana agents out there keeping track of the names, dates, and places). In my odd childhood I never owned a turntable of my own, but my college roommate that year, the Late Great Jeff Webb, had one, so I bought quite a few albums right around then… this one, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell, and several by a British band named City Boy being the ones that I can immediately pull out of memory.

I may still have that copy of this album on vinyl, somewhere in a box, but I still don’t have a turntable, so it wouldn’t do me much good. I had this same album on cassette tape for a long while, but it, like my two Eagles Greatest Hits and a couple of Eurhythmics and a few Blue Oyster Cult cassettes, was stolen from my then-girlfriend Kristy’s car back in 1990 or thereabouts. And while I’ve picked up a few Tom Petty albums since, also on cassette (which I can listen to when I want to, but, having been spoiled by the much more convenient media of CDs, I don’t, much), I hadn’t managed to get this one back, until Saturday, when I got it in the mail from my friend who has decided to spoil me rotten this month.

The hits off this album, which you’ve probably heard if you ever listened to rock n’ roll radio in the 1980s, or if you listen to oldies stations now, are Refugee, Here Comes My Girl (a weird predecessor to rap, as Petty more recites the verses and only really sings the chorus, but for him, it works), and the endearingly bouncy, utterly habituating Don’t Do Me Like That. I’d heard these tracks enough over the years on the radio to keep me more or less familiar with them, but I’d forgotten some of the other really delightful musical gems in this collection, like the bittersweet, hard-driving lyrical snarl of Even The Losers, the wide eyed disbelief and appall so hilariously expressed in What Are You Doin’ In My Life?, and the wonderfully innocent, upbeat appeal of Shadow Of A Doubt, which is such a hook-laden, beautifully crafted little sparkler it amazes me it wasn’t released as a single itself.

Even a more downbeat, slower track like You Tell Me has an addictive bite.

The album has two lesser tracks, the mediocre, fairly generic fast rocker Century City, and the musically beautiful but lyrically incoherent Louisiana Rain. The latter track sounds lovely and is a pleasure to listen to, but reading the lyrics in the liner notes along with the song is a mistake, as they not only make absolutely no sense, but they were clearly written by a severely hungover Petty, probably on a napkin in five minutes, so he could finish out the album.

Musical taste is, of course, largely subjective, and I know Tom Petty is one of those singer-songwriters who has had a long enough, and successful enough, career to have earned the contempt of thousands simply for being popular. I generally enjoy his music, sometimes very much indeed, especially his material from this album (where I feel he really started to hit his stride consistently) up through his 1989 solo effort, Full Moon Fever. In between these two albums, Tom and the Heartbreakers put out four more excellent albums -- Hard Promises (1981), Long After Dark (1982), Southern Accents (1985), and Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987).

Over the course of Full Moon Fever, I can really hear Petty’s talent dwindling. Zombie Zoo and Feel A Whole Lot Better seem to represent Petty at nearly full strength, but monotonous crap like A Mind With A Heart Of Its Own seems to presage the lackluster drone that was going to become Tom Petty’s signature through his utterly mediocre or outright bad 90s releases. Full Moon Fever generated a hatful of hit singles, but none of them really reward a good hard listen, nor would I ever bother hitting the repeat button so I could check out Free Fallin, I Won’t Back Down, or Runnin Down A Dream again.

But Damn The Torpedoes literally rocks my world, and I’m very pleased to be listening to it again, even as I type this.


Listen honey, can’t you see
Baby you will bury me
If you’re in the public eye
Givin’ someone else a try
And you know you better watch your step
Or you’re gonna get hurt yourself
Someone’s gonna tell you lies
Cut you down to size
Don’t do me like that
Don’t do me like that
Well, I love you, baby
Don’t do me like that


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AVENGERS

Over on Mike Norton’s generally excellent blog Miraclo Mile , where he’ll pull your comment in a heartbeat if you say the mystical phrase ‘Ward’ (Bubastis alone knows what he’d do if you brought up June, Wally, or the Beaver), mention is made of Fred Hembeck giving other comics related bloggers the ‘homework’ assignment of coming up with a list of 100 Things They Like About Comics. Mike posted his, and also wondered if this would be shortly followed by a fad for posting 100 Things You Hate About Comics. I am, as nearly always, well ahead of the pack on this, as I long ago posted such lists here , here, and here , for anyone who cares (and, well, they’ll still be there even if you don’t care, this isn’t subjective, or anything).

While there are only 28 actual comics stories (or comics runs) listed in each article, those out there with a few grey cells to rub together (and I feel quite fortunate that all my tiny audience are really rather intelligent, except for, you know, that idiot over at Speedmonkey) can fairly easily get to a list of 100 things I like and hate about comics from reading those articles, if only by assuming that (for example) as I’ve listed “One Shot Hero” as one of my favorite comics stories of all time, I must, therefore, also very much like Cary Bates, Dave Cockrum, and the Legion of Superheroes, especially when done by Bates and Cockrum (and they’d be right).

Similarly, if you take a look at the smaller list in the third article of comics stories nearly every other fan likes that I think are crap, you should fairly easily be able to figure out that since I’ve listed John Byrne’s Man Of Steel, I really hate John Byrne’s comics writing, and then apply that to pretty much every writing assignment Byrne has blackmailed hapless editors into giving him by unprofessionally and childishly insisting that he won’t draw anything unless he gets to fill in the word bubbles, too.

I suspect if you list separately every piece of garbage Byrne has ever abused a typewriter or word processor into printing out, and then drawn stick figures around so moronic fans would buy the drivel, you’d easily get to 100 right there. But that article also talks about badly overestimated nonsense like Denny O’Neil’s very nearly unreadable 1970s work on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, too, so, really, as far as a 100 Things I Like Or Dislike About Comics list goes, well, my work here is already done… almost.

See, the problem is, I wrote all that stuff a few years back, and a few years back, I hadn’t read one of the greatest superhero comics stories every produced, because, well, it hadn’t been produced yet. So, while those articles I noted above do very nearly cover the waterfront, I really can’t in fairness bring all this up without spending some time talking about perhaps the finest four volume miniseries to come out of mainstream superhero comics in the last thirty years - - Kurt Busiek’s and George Perez’s JLA/Avengers.

Honestly, I can’t get over how good this story is. For one thing, this was a much anticipated, long promised crossover that every true blue red blooded superhero comics fan has wanted to see for forty years. It had been on the drawing board three times prior to this, and all three of those times, the artwork was fabulous (it’s always been Perez’s assignment) and the story was appalling (two of the past projects were supposed to be written by Gerry Conway, one of them was assigned to Roy Thomas, and every single plot was the most deplorable drivel imaginable outside a Chris Claremont X-Men Annual).

Yet even leaving aside the fact that Busiek took a project that in the hands of every previous writer had been nothing but crap and did something worthwhile with it, this story excels entirely without comparisons to its utterly execrable predecessors. Busiek innately understood what Conway and Thomas couldn’t seem to grasp – that an event like the first, and probably, only, meeting between the Justice League of America and the Mighty Avengers was BIG. It was eagerly anticipated, it was literally a clash of titans, it was world shaking and epoch making – and it had to be more than simply one more interdimensional team up story hastily thrown together to make a few quick bucks, where a couple of superheroes from two rival companies got together and fought a couple of similarly dimension-baffled supervillains.

That last description is all that the various Marvel-DC crossovers had been up until JLA/Avengers came out, and it was pretty much all that Busiek’s non-writing predecessors had planned and plotted for their versions of the book. In one preceding plot, the JLA and the Avengers were supposed to fight Ultron and Amazo, because, you know, both of those guys were androids. Yeah. That’s about as good as it got, too.

Not so with Busiek on the job, though. Busiek has written some great stuff, and he’s written some wretched stuff, and he’s done long stretches on books which were nothing more than mediocre (the phrase "Power Company" very nearly leaps unbidden from my lips at this juncture, but I’ll let it pass). But with JLA/Avengers, Busiek capped his career and gave purpose to his existence. If he never writes another readable word (and in fact, he has; his current work on JLA is very interesting so far), it won’t matter; with this miniseries, he has with one stroke redeemed himself for any number of wretched issues of Power Man/Iron Fist, fairly boring Conan stories, and a thousand near criminal creative larcenies in Astro City.

Unlike Marvels, one of Busiek’s other generally well received projects, JLA/Avengers never lets down and never loses focus. I’m an avid follower of Kurt’s work, even to the point of once having a complete set of his Liberty Project series, and his runs on any particular title tend to start out strong and then begin to slump somewhere in the middle. Sometimes he’ll get it back again before the end, but that’s rare; generally, you can see him struggling to re-attain the heights he was hitting in the initial numbers, but ultimately he fails, and moves on to another project.

I expected this to happen in JLA/Avengers, and I was delighted when it didn’t. Kurt got this assignment on the basis of his long run on Avengers and a very few fill in issues he did on Justice League of America back in the mid 1980s, but still, the obvious love he feels for both teams shines through in every panel and every lettered sentence in every chapter of this miniseries. From issue 1, where both teams first separately journey to and travel around observing each other’s Earth to their mutual disbelief and disgruntlement (Captain America is revolted by the near godlike worship the JLA is regarded with on their world, while Superman is rather dismayed to find the Hulk loose in the Chicago meat packing district unmolested by the seemingly hapless local authorities, and Batman beats the living crap out of the Punisher, albeit, regrettably, off panel), through issue 4, where the entire roster of both JLA and Avengers assembles to battle every supervillain who has ever existed to save both universes, and Superman ends up wielding both Captain America’s shield and (briefly) Thor’s hammer, Busiek and Perez never once fail to deliver a palpably epic feeling to their titanic tale.

This story needed to be HUGE and by God they made it huge. Busiek may have indulged himself slightly by writing in an appearance of the otherwise nearly forgotten (and utterly forgettable) Triathlon, but he had the sense to keep it brief, and more than made up for that quick self indulgence (he created the character during his run on Avengers) by contriving an extremely lucid mechanism for resurrecting the Silver Age versions of both Avengers and Justice League for long stretches of the middle two issues of the series. It was wonderful to watch Hal Jordan and Barry Allen back in action again, and seeing Busiek actually weave the truly dreadful plots and idiotic story contrivances of the Modern Age continuities at both DC and Marvel into his story and making them a fulcrum for these characters’ essential, long unseen larger than life heroism and self sacrifice was absolutely exhilarating.

This is great, great storytelling. If you’re a superhero comics fan and you haven’t read it, order a copy right now.

In short, you may, if you wish, extrapolate a list of a Hundred Things I Like About Comics, and a Hundred Things I Dislike About Comics, from the three articles I posted links to. And you’re going to have to put Kurt Busiek on both of them.

Of course, if I made up a list of a Hundred Things I Like About Reality, and a Hundred Things I Dislike About Reality, Kurt would be on both of them, too, for entirely different reasons I won’t go into here.

George Perez, on the other hand, is firmly on the Good List. In both categories, since I met him at a mini-con once and he seemed like a really nice guy, as well as a brilliantly talented artist.

Okay. I could write a lot more here, but I need to go turn some apartment dwellers into undead ghouls. For at least 2,500 words.


Well you followed me all around New York City
tryin to make people think I wanted you with me
I can only hope that they didn’t believe you
I can’t understand why I have to deal with you
What are you doin in my life?
What are you doin in my life?
What are you doin in my life?
I didn’t ask for you


RULES OF THE ROAD

In one of his many invaluable essays on life in Hollywood, Mark Evanier described his first meeting with legendary TV comic and icon Milton Berle. Upon being introduced to Uncle Miltie and shaking hands with him, Mark, who is a pretty witty guy, blurted out without even thinking about it, "Wow, I didn't recognize you in men's clothing". According to Mark, this soured Uncle Miltie on him from that point forward, because Mark had broken Rule Number One When Hanging With Milton Berle, namely, Never Be Funnier Than Milton Berle.

I'm reminded of that anecdote now.

Recent experiences at Electrolite being pretty much entirely similar if not completely identical to my previous experiences at Uppity-Negro.com and TampaTantrum.com, I thought I'd take the time to extrapolate whatever wisdom there is to find in the whole mess. Here's The Deal, as far as I can see:

If you want to make friends and influence people when you head out onto the blogging trail, at least, as regards your posting comments on other people's blogs, you MUST NOT:

(a) seem smarter than the person writing the blog you are posting comments to

(b) be funnier than the person writing the blog you are posting comments to

(c) be a better writer than the person writing the blog you are posting comments to

(d) be correct when you point out some manner in which the person writing the blog you are posting comments to was wrong, and/or

(e) Upset The Wimmenfolk On The Blog.

Rule E comes mostly out of my experiences with Aaron Hawkin's Uppity-Negro blog. He gets a lot of female posters and like any of us male geeks would be in that admirable position, he is thoroughly whipped by them. If a new reader comes along and does anything whatsoever to offend the babes on Aaron's blog, that new reader can expect a cold shoulder from Aaron roughly the size of the Greenland glacier. I don't really blame Aaron for this; for a male geek, positive female attention is a jewel beyond price, and if I ever had any women posting to my blog who weren't related to me by marriage, I'd most likely dance and sing like a puppet on a string when they cracked the lash, too.

I should add to this that I've learned, from Electrolite, that one Must Not Be Whimsical, Oblique, or Overly Geeky When Posting To A Big Important Political Marketplace of Ideas Type Blog, because those guys just have no time for Theodore Marley Brooks or Cornelus van Lunt references, regardless of how amusing or entertaining you and some others may find them.

Now, I am posting this to point out that while these may be the universal Rules of the Road on other blogs (and as far as I can see, they are, indeed, pretty much universal) you can ignore them here. I don't care if you:


(a) seem smarter than I am, I like people who are smarter than I am, as long as they're not jerks about it;

(b) are funnier than I am, then I get to laugh at your witty remarks, and hey, that's all good;

(c) are a better writer than I am. Although I'm in a peculiar place as regards writing skills; good enough to be better than nearly all the amateurs out there, not good or lucky enough to be a professional at it. So if you are a better writer than I am, you are probably a professional writer and therefore do not have time to post comments on other people's blogs, so this probably doesn't matter, as relates to this blog;

(d) correct my mistakes; unlike apparently 95% of the remainder of the human race, I am under no illusions as to my own infallibility and simply don't care if someone points out that I am wrong about something. Being wrong about things does not strike me as either a character flaw or a shameful embarrassment; we are all wrong about a lot of things every day of our lives, and that's just how that works;

(e) Upset My Wimmenfolk. Well, actually, I shouldn't say I don't care if you upset my wimmenfolk, I do, the very thought deeply offends me. However, it's just that the wimmenfolk at this point on this blog are my mom, my cuz in law, and my sister in law, and if you do something to upset them, I strongly doubt the authorities finding what's left of you will be able to identify you without a DNA comparison. My mom, and any woman who marries any of the males in this family and stays married to him for any length of time, are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. So offend them all you want; it's a self correcting problem.

Oh, and I like geeky references and would just adore whimsical, cleverly elliptical posts to my comment threads, although I suspect I'd get annoyed if someone started posting a whole lot of Harry Potter-speak here, just for one example.

If there is a universal rule on this blog, it is quite simply, Do Not Be A Bigger Asshole Than The Blogger. In fact, if you can avoid it (and most of my small number of regular posters avoid it with style and panache) Don't Be An Asshole At All. I am quite a big enough asshole myself to supply all the assholiness necessary for any blog, and I will continue to keep this blog well furnished with stupid remarks, doltish mistakes, whiney rationalizations, and defensive recriminations by the ton lot, there can be no doubt. You need bring none of your own asshole nature with you, I have plenty and am always willing to share.


THE INEVITABLE DISCLAIMER

By generally accepted social standards, I'm not a likable guy. I'm not saying that to get cheap reassurances. It's simply the truth. I regard many social conventions in radically different ways than most people do, I have many many controversial opinions, and I tend to state them pretty forthrightly. This is not a formula for popularity in any social continuum I've ever experienced.

In my prior blogs, I took the fairly standard attitude: if you don't like my opinions or my blog, don't read the fucking thing.

Having given that some more thought, though, I'm not going to say that this time around, because I've realized that what this is basically saying is, 'if you don't like what I have to say, tough, I don't want to hear it, don't even bother to tell me, just go away'.

And that's actually a pretty worthless attitude. It's basically saying, 'I don't want to hear anything except unconditional agreement and approval'. And that's nonsense. This is still a free country... for a little while longer, anyway... and if you really feel you just gotta send me a flame, or post one on my comment threads (assuming they actually work, which I cannot in any way guarantee) then by all means, knock yourself out.

Unless your flame is exceptionally cogent, witty, or stylish, though, I will most likely ignore it. You do have a right to say anything you want (although I'm not sure that's a right when you're doing it in my comment threads, but hey, you can certainly send all the emails you want). However, I have an equal right not to read anything I don't feel like reading... and I'm really quick with the delete key... as various angry folks have found in the past, when they decided they just had to do their absolute level best to make me as miserable as possible.

So, if you don't like my opinions, feel free to say so. However, if I find absolutely nothing worthwhile in your commentary, I will almost certainly not respond to it in any way.

Stupidity, ignorance, intolerance... these things are only worth my time and attention if they're entertaining. So unless you can be stupid, ignorant, and/or intolerant with enough wit, style, and/or panache to amuse me... try to be smart, informed, and broad minded when you write me.


 

ALL DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED




WHO IS THIS IDIOT, ANYWAY?

ARCHIVES:

Friday 4/18/03

Saturday 4/19/03

Sunday 4/20/03

Sunday, later, 4/20/03

Monday, 4/21/03

Tuesday, 4/22/03

Wednesday, 4/23/03

Thursday, 4/24/03

Friday, 4/25/03

Monday, 4/28/03

Wednesday, 4/30/03

Friday, 5/2/03

Sunday, 5/4/03

Tuesday, 5/6/03

Thorsday, 5/8/03

Frey's Day, 5/9/03

Day of the Sun, 5/11/03

Moon's Day, 5/12/03

Tewes Day, 5/13/03

Woden's Day, 5/14/03

Thor's Day, 5/15/03

Frey's Day, 5/16/03

Satyr's Day, 5/17/03

Tewes's Day, 5/20/03

Woden's Day, 5/21/03

Frey's Day, 5/23/03

Satyr's Day, 5/24/03

Day of the Sun, 5/25/03

Tewes's Day, 5/27/03

Woden's Day, 5/28/03

Thor's Day, 5/29/03

Frey's Day, 5/30/03

Satyr's Day, 5/31/03

Day of the Sun/Moon's Day, 6/1&2/03

Woden's Day, 6/3/03

Thor's Day, 6/5/03

Satyr's Day, 6/7/03

Moon's Day, 6/9/03

Tewes' Day, 6/10/03

Thor's Day, 6/12/03

FATHER'S DAY, 6/15/03

Tewes' Day, 6/17/03

Thor's Day, 6/19/03

Satyr's Day, 6/21/03

Day of the Sun, 6/22/03

Tewe's Day, 6/24/03

Thor's Day, 6/26/03

Frey's Day, 6/27/03

Day of the Sun, 6/29/03

Tewes' Day, 7/1/03

Thors's Day/Frey's Day, 7/3&4/03

Moon's Day, 7/7/03

Woden's Day, 7/9/03

Frey's Day, 7/11/03

Moon's Day, 7/21/03

Thor's Day, 7/24/03

Moon's Day, 7/28/03

Frey's Day, 8/01/03

Saturn's Day, 8/02/03

Saturn's Day, 8/02/03

Tewes' Day, 8/05/03

Thor's Day, 8/07/03

Frey's Day, 8/08/03

Satyr's Day, 8/09/03

Tewes' Day, 8/12/03

Woden's Day, 8/13/03

Frey's Day, 8/15/03

Day o' de Sun 8/17/03

Tewes' Day 8/19/03

Thor's Day 8/21/03

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Moon's Day 8/25/03

Woden's Day 8/27/03

Satyr's Day 8/30/03

Moon's Day 9/1/03

Th/Fr'day 9/4&5/03

Mday 9/8/03

Wday 9/10/03

Thday 9/11/03

Snday 9/14/03

Mday 9/15/03

Wday 9/17/03

Saday 9/20/03

Mday 9/22/03

Satday 9/27/03

Snday 9/28/03

Wday 10/1/03

Thday 10/2/03

satday 10/4/03

tsday 10/7/03

frday 10/10/03

satday 10/11/03

sun/monday 10/12&13/03

tuesday 10/14/03

thursday 10/16/03

saturday 10/18/03

sunday 10/19/03

monday 10/20/03

tuesday 10/21/03

friday 10/24/03

saturday 10/25/03

monday 10/27/03

tuesday 10/28/03

thursday 10/30/03

friday 10/31/03

saturday 11/1/03

sunday 11/2/03

monday 11/3/03

tuesday 11/4/03

wednesday 11/5/03

thursday 11/6/03

saturday 11/8/03

sunday 11/9/03

tuesday 11/11/03

wednesday 11/12/03

friday 11/14/03

sunday 11/16/03

thursday 11/20/03

friday 11/21/03

sunday 11/23/03

thanksgiving thursday 11/27/03

Sunday 11/30/03

Tuesday 12/2/03

Monday 12/8/03

Wednesday 12/10/03

Monday 12/15/03

Friday 12/19/03

Monday 12/22/03

Thursday 12/25/03 Christmas Day

Wednesday 12/31/03 New Year's Eve

Friday 1/2/04

Monday 1/5/04

Friday 1/9/04

Monday 1/12/04

Thursday 1/15/04

Tuesday 1/20/04

Saturday 1/24/04

Tuesday 1/27 & Wednesday 1/28, 2004

Thursday, 1/29/04

Sunday, 2/1/04

Tuesday, 2/3/04

Thursday, 2/5/04

Sunday, 2/8/04

Tuesday, 2/10/04

Thursday, 2/12/04

Sunday, 2/15/04

Sunday, 2/17/04

Tuesday, 2/23/04

2/25/04

3/21/04

3/24/04

3/28/04

4/1/04

4/4/04

4/8/04

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4/12/04

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4/26/04

10/11/04

10/17/04

10/19/04

10/24/04

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10/31/04

11/03/04

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1/1/05

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1/13/05

1/17/05

1/18/05

1/23/05

1/30/05

2/5/05

2/13/05

2/14/05


If you’re wondering where all the archives BETWEEN late April and mid October are, well… for various reasons, all that stuff has been retired for the time being. When and if I get a different job, I’ll make it all available again. Until then, discretion is the better part of valor, etc, etc.

OTHER FINE LOOKIN WEBLOGS:

Pen-Elayne on the Web

Dean's World

Eyesicle

Reach-M High Cowboy Noose

Peevish

Pop Culture Gadabout

Vanessa's Blog

Bored and Broke

Mah Two Cents

Miraclo Mile, by Mike Norton

If anyone else out there has linked me and you don't find your blog or webpage here, drop me an email and let me know! I'm a firm believer in the social contract.

BROWN EYED HANDSOME ARTICLES OF NOTE:

Buffy Lives! Her Series Dies! And Why I Regard It As A Mercy Killing..

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN, MARK EVANIER & ME: Robert Heinlein's Influence on Modern Day Superhero Comics

KILL THEM ALL AND LET NEO SORT THEM OUT: The Essential Immorality of The Matrix

HEINLEIN: The Man, The Myth, The Whackjob

BILL OF GOODS: The Words of A Heinlein Fan Like Nearly Every Other Heinlein Fan I've Ever Met, But More Polite

FIRST RAPE, THEN PILLAGE, THEN BURN: S.M. Stirling shows us terror... in a handful of alternate histories

DOING COMICS THE STAINLESS STEVE ENGLEHART WAY!by "John Jones" (that's me, D. Madigan), & Jeff Clem, with annotations by Steve Englehart

JOHN JONES: THREAT OR MENACE!

FUNERAL FOR A FRIENDSHIP

Why I Disliked Carol Kalish And Don't Care If Peter David Disagrees With Me

MARTIAN VISION, by John Jones, the Manhunter from Marathon, IL

BROWN EYED HANDSOME GEEK STUFF:

Doc Nebula's HeroClix House Rules!

Doc Nebula's HeroClix List!

Doc Nebula's Phantasmagorical Fan Page!

The Fantasy Worlds of Jeff Webb

THE OMNIVERSE TIMELINE

World Of Empire Fantasy Roleplaying Campaign

The Jeff Webb Art Site

S.M. Stirling

BROWN EYED HANDSOME FICTION (mostly):

NOVELS: [* = not yet written]

Universal Maintenance

Universal Agent*

Universal Law*

Time Watch

Endgame

Earthquest

Earthgame*

Warren's World

Warlord of Erberos

Return to Erberos*

ZAP FORCE #1: ROYAL BLOOD

Memoir:

In The Early Morning Rain

Short Stories:

Positive

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Leadership

Talkin' 'bout My Girl

No Good Angel

No Time Like The Present

Pursuit of Happiness

The Last One

Pursuit of Happiness

Return To Sender

Halo

Primogenitor

Alleged Humor:

Ask A Bastard!

On The Road Again

Meeting of the Mindless

Star Drek

THE ADVENTURES OF FATHER O'BRANNIGAN

Fan Fic:

The Captain and the Queen

A Day Unlike Any Other (Iron Mike & Guardian)

DOOM Unto Others! (Iron Mike & Guardian)

Starry, Starry Night(Iron Mike & Guardian)

A Friend In Need (Blackstar & Guardian)

All The Time In The World(Blackstar)

The End of the Innocence(Iron Mike & Guardian)

And Be One Traveler(Iron Mike & Guardian)

BROWN EYED HANDSOME COMICS SCRIPTS & PROPOSALS:

SERAPHIM 66

AMAZONIA by D.A. Madigan & Nancy Champion (7 pages final script)

AMAZONIA (Alternate Draft 1)

AMAZONIA (Alternate Draft 2)

AMAZONIA (World Timeline)

TEAM VENTURE by Darren Madigan and Mike Norton

FANTASTIC FOUR 2099, by D.A. Madigan!

BROWN EYED HANDSOME CARTOONS:

DOC NEBULA'S CARTOON FUN PAGE!

DOC NEBULA'S CARTOON FUN, PAGE 2!

DOC NEBULA'S CARTOON FUN, PAGE 3!

WEIRD WAR COMICS COVER ART.

ULTRASPEED!

Help Us, Batman...

JLA Membership drive

Don't Leave Us, Batman...!

Ever wondered what happened to the World's Finest Super-team?

Two heroes meet their editor...

At the movies with some legendary Silver Age sidekicks...

What really happened to Kandor...

Ever wondered how certain characters managed to get into the Legion of Superheroes?

A never before seen panel from the Golden Age of Comics...

BOOM!

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