Friday, July 01, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
DC Comics relaunch - the 52 titles
DC Comics (which feels a little like saying 'ATM machine') are relaunching their titles. 52 of them. A new number one for each. More details here from comics news and rumour site, Bleeding Cool.
I've been tracking down what these titles will be and who will be writing and drawing them, which, I thought, if you're a nerd, might be of interest. Here's what I have so far, in no particular order, and with no promises as to accuracy:
UPDATE: The aforementioned Bleeding Cool have a more up to date list here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/07/an-updateable-list-of-the-52-dc-titles-for-september/
I've been tracking down what these titles will be and who will be writing and drawing them, which, I thought, if you're a nerd, might be of interest. Here's what I have so far, in no particular order, and with no promises as to accuracy:
- Justice League, written by Geoff Johns, drawn by Jim Lee
- Justice League International, written by Dan Jurgens, drawn by Aaron Lopresti
- Detective Comics, written and drawn by Tony Daniel
- Batman, written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Greg Capullo
- Batman: The Dark Knight, written and drawn by David Finch
- Batman and Robin, written by Peter Tomasi, drawn by Patrick Gleason
- Batgirl, written by Gail Simone, drawn by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
- Batwoman, written and drawn by JH Williams*
- Batwing, written by Judd Winnick, drawn by Ben Oliver
- Nightwing, written by Kyle Higgins, drawn by Eddy Barrows
- Batman Inc, written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Chris Burnham**
- Catwoman, written by Judd Winnick, drawn by Guillem March
- Birds of Prey, written by Duane Swierczynski, drawn by Jesus Saiz
- Animal Man, written by Jeff Lemire
- Superboy, written by Scot Lobdell
- Superman, written and drawn by George Perez
- Swamp Thing, drawn by Yanick Paquette
- Wonder Woman, written by Brian Azzarello, drawn by Cliff Chiang
- Green Lantern, written by Geoff Johns, drawn by Doug Mahnke
- Green Lantern Corps, written by Peter J Tomasi, drawn by Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna
- Green Lantern: The New Guardians, written by Tony Bedard, drawn by Tyler Kirkham and Batt
- Red Lanterns, written by Peter Milligan, drawn by Ed Benes and Rob Hunter
- Teen Titans, written by Scott Lobdell, drawn by Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund
- The Fury of Firestorm, written by Ethan Van Sciver and Gail Simone, drawn by Ylidiray Cinar
- Red Hood and the Outlaws, written by Scott Lobdell, drawn by Kenneth Rocafort
- Aquaman, written by Geoff Johns, drawn by Ivan Reis
- Flash, written by Brian Buccellato, drawn by Francis Manapul
- Hawkman, written by Tony Daniel, drawn by Phillip Tan
- Green Arrow, written by JT Krul, drawn by Freddie Williams II
- DC Universe Presents: Deadman, written by Paul Jenkins, drawn by Bernard Chang
- My Greatest Adventure
- OMAC
*Missing details here, and most likely, a lot of other places.
So, 32 down, 20 to go.
There are rumours of a Legion of Super Heroes title (that are a little too rumour-ish to put here just yet), as well as former WildStorm titles like Grifter. There are also rumours of Grant Morrison on a Superman title, and Action Comics hasn't been announced, and I can't imagine they wouldn't be continuing with the comic that Superman debuted in.
Will update as more information comes to hand.
UPDATE: The aforementioned Bleeding Cool have a more up to date list here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/07/an-updateable-list-of-the-52-dc-titles-for-september/
-N
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
I wrote something...
...five or so years ago.
Was cleaning up/looking at some of the mess I've left on the internet, and I found this. It's fiction, not great, and clearly derivative of a bunch of people, but it also made me laugh. Posted here in the vain (heh, Freudian) hope that it does the same for you:
Goldwyn and the Orang Utan - Part One.
Goldwyn's grandmother didn't talk to him much anymore, but as she'd been dead for three years, he didn't hold it against her.
Instead, he went down every morning to the fruit trees and collected that days fruit. To you or me this sounds like it would be a wonderful way to live. Eating only the best fruit from an entire orchard, living in a house the size of a small moon and no adults to spoil it.
But as poor Goldwyn soon found out, a diet of fruit leads to painful diahorrea, the moon is only fun if you have something to do with it and adults have their uses.
One morning Goldwyn decided to be spontaneous and walk into town. However, as he had no money and no sense of personal hygiene, he was soon chased away with sticks. He sat down in the orchard and thought how painful Bibles were when thrown at you. He was about to give in to hunger and start gnawing at his own leg, when he heard a voice coming from overhead.
'I say, you, you with the six foot dreadlocks and stench of the damned. Could you be so kind as to offer a gentleman a hand?'
Goldwyn, convinced that it was god coming to finish off the job that the bible had started, ran for his life. Unfortunately his dreadlocks were six feet long, while he was only four feet long. He stepped on one and went arse over tit into a pear tree.
'Good lord, you pointed to the wrong end when you were asked where you'd like your brain situated didn't you?'
Goldwyn rubbed his head and looked up. It was a businessman. Goldwyn knew it was a businessman because of the jumpsuit and the copious amounts of orange fur. The business man looked down at Goldwyn.
'Now, are you going to help me or not?'
Was cleaning up/looking at some of the mess I've left on the internet, and I found this. It's fiction, not great, and clearly derivative of a bunch of people, but it also made me laugh. Posted here in the vain (heh, Freudian) hope that it does the same for you:
Goldwyn and the Orang Utan - Part One.
Goldwyn's grandmother didn't talk to him much anymore, but as she'd been dead for three years, he didn't hold it against her.
Instead, he went down every morning to the fruit trees and collected that days fruit. To you or me this sounds like it would be a wonderful way to live. Eating only the best fruit from an entire orchard, living in a house the size of a small moon and no adults to spoil it.
But as poor Goldwyn soon found out, a diet of fruit leads to painful diahorrea, the moon is only fun if you have something to do with it and adults have their uses.
One morning Goldwyn decided to be spontaneous and walk into town. However, as he had no money and no sense of personal hygiene, he was soon chased away with sticks. He sat down in the orchard and thought how painful Bibles were when thrown at you. He was about to give in to hunger and start gnawing at his own leg, when he heard a voice coming from overhead.
'I say, you, you with the six foot dreadlocks and stench of the damned. Could you be so kind as to offer a gentleman a hand?'
Goldwyn, convinced that it was god coming to finish off the job that the bible had started, ran for his life. Unfortunately his dreadlocks were six feet long, while he was only four feet long. He stepped on one and went arse over tit into a pear tree.
'Good lord, you pointed to the wrong end when you were asked where you'd like your brain situated didn't you?'
Goldwyn rubbed his head and looked up. It was a businessman. Goldwyn knew it was a businessman because of the jumpsuit and the copious amounts of orange fur. The business man looked down at Goldwyn.
'Now, are you going to help me or not?'
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Three mobile fail
So very angry with Three mobile right now.
Three SMS me today to inform me that a direct debit for last month's phone and (mobile) internet bill hadn't gone through.
It hadn't gone through because there wasn't enough money in the account at the time. There wasn't enough money in the account because we'd exceeded our downloads to the tune of $263.
Called to complain. Asked how it was reasonable to send out messages regarding late payments and yet not send out warning messages about going over download limits.
Answer: some customers found it annoying, so they removed the service for all customers.
THREE DO NOT SEND OUT MESSAGES WARNING YOU ABOUT DOWNLOAD LIMITS BECAUSE SOME CUSTOMERS FOUND IT ANNOYING.
The implication: this is not a techical consideration. Three can definitely send automated messages out reacting to information in databases (for example: late payments). They CHOOSE not to send out warnings about download limits.
Full disclosure and disclaimer:
- they are docking $50 from the bill
- they are charging me $16 next bill for failure to pay
- all views are mine and expressed in my capacity as a consumer and citizen
- I took my lunch break to deal with this
Argh. I find their position completely unreasonable. The $50 credit is something in the way of customer service, but in no way addresses the issue at hand.
Three could offer this service. If it annoys people, they could offer this service as an 'opt in' option.
I am seriously considering changing providers and also seriously considering taking my complaint further. I am not satisfied with the response I was given.
Ok, end rant, back to your regularly scheduled blah.
N
- blogged from the road.
Three SMS me today to inform me that a direct debit for last month's phone and (mobile) internet bill hadn't gone through.
It hadn't gone through because there wasn't enough money in the account at the time. There wasn't enough money in the account because we'd exceeded our downloads to the tune of $263.
Called to complain. Asked how it was reasonable to send out messages regarding late payments and yet not send out warning messages about going over download limits.
Answer: some customers found it annoying, so they removed the service for all customers.
THREE DO NOT SEND OUT MESSAGES WARNING YOU ABOUT DOWNLOAD LIMITS BECAUSE SOME CUSTOMERS FOUND IT ANNOYING.
The implication: this is not a techical consideration. Three can definitely send automated messages out reacting to information in databases (for example: late payments). They CHOOSE not to send out warnings about download limits.
Full disclosure and disclaimer:
- they are docking $50 from the bill
- they are charging me $16 next bill for failure to pay
- all views are mine and expressed in my capacity as a consumer and citizen
- I took my lunch break to deal with this
Argh. I find their position completely unreasonable. The $50 credit is something in the way of customer service, but in no way addresses the issue at hand.
Three could offer this service. If it annoys people, they could offer this service as an 'opt in' option.
I am seriously considering changing providers and also seriously considering taking my complaint further. I am not satisfied with the response I was given.
Ok, end rant, back to your regularly scheduled blah.
N
- blogged from the road.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Digital wakes
I saw something really sad today.
Not pathetic; sad. The search for a score to a tv series leads me to the composer's website*. Unbeknownst to me, he died in 2003 (I haven't investigated the cause).
What is sad, apart from his death, is his website.
This is where it's important to make the distinction between sad and pathetic, because in another light, the website could be characterised as pathetic.
The site is full of Flash, ambitious menu systems fly around the screen and let you play music, blue and steel gradients are everywhere.
On top of that there is no structure, navigation and menus are bizarre and almost every external link is broken.
The one section of the site that does still work and have activity was the forum, and that just leads to more things that could be described as pathetic**.
But the site isn't pathetic; I know what it takes to maintain a site, especially one as ambitious as his. And he isn't there anymore.
I also know that almost any site I've worked on would probably do worse if it was left alone for six or so years. Broken links, outdated protocols, dated visuals would only be the start. There are probably examples out there.
The difference is, in my case those sites really could be called pathetic.
I don't know why his site persists; a good guess is that it's being kept up by family or friends. A place to post memorials and let fans, find out more about him, find out he died.
The front page, what you get to from Google is a memorial. To get to what would have been the site when he was alive, is tricky. And apart from the forum nothing seems to have been updated since soon after his death.
I don't know, but I'm guessing whoever is keeping the site up doesn't have the technical knowledge, cash, or even the willingness to trawl through the site and fix or update anything. I imagine they pay the hosting and domain charges each year and try not to think about it.
Which isn't pathetic. It's heartbreaking.
Almost all of us leave a trail; digital evidence of our existence.
That trail won't go away when we die. Not immediately, anyway.
This is a new thing. This isn't the same as the works of a dead author, or articles in a newspaper article, or even just photos of someone who has since died.
Printed works can't change. A physical thing can't be updated. A new edition can printed, but the old editions still exist and you can't update them.
The web can change. We expect that the web is current, has been updated and if there is a person tied to a section of the web, especially now with social media, we expect that the changes will be made by that person.
This doesn't fit with our expectations of how media works with people who have died. As I was writing this, I kept referring to the composer's site in the past tense***.
But as far as websites go, there isn't any reason to consider his site as something that 'was' instead of 'is'.
The website didn't die, he did.
Luckily, I haven't had too many people close to me die who would also have large presences online. But I will.
And maybe I'll have to decide whether or not to maintain a site. Or pay hosting.Or maybe I'll just click a link.
And it will be really sad.
N
- blogged from the road.
*I haven't written his name intentionally, although I'm not really sure why. There are enough clues in there that you could find out anyway, or I'll even just tell you if you ask; who he was just didn't seem to be the point.
**The other site that could be called pathetic was apparently a long lost vestige of GeoCities or something similar. And I was initially going to write about it as well, in some sort of snide 'check out the fossil (with bonus crazy)' way. But in the end that just seemed mean. And lazy.
There's another post in that other site, but I'll have to come back to it to do it justice.
***To be completely fair, I also used the past tense to be in agreement with my opening statement; 'I saw something reall sad today.'
But as I edited the post, the past tense classification of the struck me, and I realised that it was an important part of why this 'digital wake' (in more ways than one,) was so different.
Not pathetic; sad. The search for a score to a tv series leads me to the composer's website*. Unbeknownst to me, he died in 2003 (I haven't investigated the cause).
What is sad, apart from his death, is his website.
This is where it's important to make the distinction between sad and pathetic, because in another light, the website could be characterised as pathetic.
The site is full of Flash, ambitious menu systems fly around the screen and let you play music, blue and steel gradients are everywhere.
On top of that there is no structure, navigation and menus are bizarre and almost every external link is broken.
The one section of the site that does still work and have activity was the forum, and that just leads to more things that could be described as pathetic**.
But the site isn't pathetic; I know what it takes to maintain a site, especially one as ambitious as his. And he isn't there anymore.
I also know that almost any site I've worked on would probably do worse if it was left alone for six or so years. Broken links, outdated protocols, dated visuals would only be the start. There are probably examples out there.
The difference is, in my case those sites really could be called pathetic.
I don't know why his site persists; a good guess is that it's being kept up by family or friends. A place to post memorials and let fans, find out more about him, find out he died.
The front page, what you get to from Google is a memorial. To get to what would have been the site when he was alive, is tricky. And apart from the forum nothing seems to have been updated since soon after his death.
I don't know, but I'm guessing whoever is keeping the site up doesn't have the technical knowledge, cash, or even the willingness to trawl through the site and fix or update anything. I imagine they pay the hosting and domain charges each year and try not to think about it.
Which isn't pathetic. It's heartbreaking.
Almost all of us leave a trail; digital evidence of our existence.
That trail won't go away when we die. Not immediately, anyway.
This is a new thing. This isn't the same as the works of a dead author, or articles in a newspaper article, or even just photos of someone who has since died.
Printed works can't change. A physical thing can't be updated. A new edition can printed, but the old editions still exist and you can't update them.
The web can change. We expect that the web is current, has been updated and if there is a person tied to a section of the web, especially now with social media, we expect that the changes will be made by that person.
This doesn't fit with our expectations of how media works with people who have died. As I was writing this, I kept referring to the composer's site in the past tense***.
But as far as websites go, there isn't any reason to consider his site as something that 'was' instead of 'is'.
The website didn't die, he did.
Luckily, I haven't had too many people close to me die who would also have large presences online. But I will.
And maybe I'll have to decide whether or not to maintain a site. Or pay hosting.Or maybe I'll just click a link.
And it will be really sad.
N
- blogged from the road.
*I haven't written his name intentionally, although I'm not really sure why. There are enough clues in there that you could find out anyway, or I'll even just tell you if you ask; who he was just didn't seem to be the point.
**The other site that could be called pathetic was apparently a long lost vestige of GeoCities or something similar. And I was initially going to write about it as well, in some sort of snide 'check out the fossil (with bonus crazy)' way. But in the end that just seemed mean. And lazy.
There's another post in that other site, but I'll have to come back to it to do it justice.
***To be completely fair, I also used the past tense to be in agreement with my opening statement; 'I saw something reall sad today.'
But as I edited the post, the past tense classification of the struck me, and I realised that it was an important part of why this 'digital wake' (in more ways than one,) was so different.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Comic book fan stereotypes based on their favourite creators
In the tradition of Lauren Leto's Stereotypes of readers based on their favourite authors (http://laurenleto.wordpress.com/readers-by-author/) here are:
Stereotypes of readers based on their favourite comic book creators*:
Comic stereotypes
Alan Moore:
90% = people who read Watchmen because Time/Rolling Stone/other magazine said they should. The other 10% = disgruntled former Stone Masons.
Warren Ellis:
People who find the 'Kill me' scene from Alien poignant.
Garth Ennis:
People who find Warren Ellis' stuff 'too fluffy'.
Brian Bendis:
Fans of David Mamet who still have their Spider-Man pyjamas.
Greg Rucka:
Fans of David Mamet who still have their Batman pyjamas.
Gail Simone:
Janet Evanovich fans who still have their Wonder Woman pyjamas.
Frank Miller:
People who think Jack Bauer is a real person. What? No, I'd never live in the city.
Scott McCloud:
People who would have a BA: Comics if it existed.
Will Eisner:
Frank Miller and Scott McCloud.
Matt Fraction:
Geeks who got hot.
Brian Wood:
Geeks who got into zines.
Ed Brubaker:
Fans of The Wire.
Brian Azzarello:
Fans of Wire and The Usual Suspects.
Steven Grant:
Fans of The Wire and The West Wing.
Brian Lee-O'Malley:
People who own an original Walkman and a NES.
Chynna Clugston-Major:
People who own a Walkman but never owned a Nintendo.
Kieron Gillen:
People who own a Walkman, a Nintendo and really want to sleep with Neil Gaiman fans. And made a zine about it.
Neil Gaiman:
Used to be: girls who read comics and goths. Now: everyone. Seriously. Can't swing a cat.
Jill Thompson:
People who treat their cats like people.
Stan Lee:
Fans of the Beatles.
Jack Kirby:
Fans of the Beatles from Revolver onwards.
Paul Pope:
Frank Herbert fans who cut their own hair and wish they could afford a subscription to Suicide Girls.
Jason Aaron:
People who thought the Sopranos was a little 'too fluffy'.
Chris Claremont:
People who can quote the Comic Book Guy.
Mark Waid:
People who can pick when the Comic Book Guy gets it wrong.
Jeph Loeb:
People who don't care when the Comic Book Guy gets it wrong.
Also: fans of 80s action flicks.
Leah Moore:
People who own a Walkman and a Tarot deck but never owned a Nintendo.
Hope Larson:
People who make their own t-shirts.
Chris Ware:
Laudenum/absinthe addicts who listen to Garrison Keilor.
Chris Sprouse:
Laudenum/absinthe addicts who don't read printed comics.
Mike Mignola:
Nick Cave/Tom Waits fans.
Koike and Kojima:
Frank Miller fans who have kids.
Mike Allred:
Monkees fans who make their own superhero costumes.
Mark Millar:
Quentin Tarantino fans who just bought new Superman pyjamas.
Grant Morrison:
Absinthe addicted fans of the Beatles from Revolver onwards who watch Days of Our Lives while on shrooms.
Geoff Johns:
People who still own all their superhero pyjamas. And just bought a new set.
*This list is not exhaustive, mostly contains writers, of print comics, and above all is meant to be a laugh. Any offense is completely unintended, and completely down to my lack of comedic ability.
- blogged from BlogPress
Stereotypes of readers based on their favourite comic book creators*:
Comic stereotypes
Alan Moore:
90% = people who read Watchmen because Time/Rolling Stone/other magazine said they should. The other 10% = disgruntled former Stone Masons.
Warren Ellis:
People who find the 'Kill me' scene from Alien poignant.
Garth Ennis:
People who find Warren Ellis' stuff 'too fluffy'.
Brian Bendis:
Fans of David Mamet who still have their Spider-Man pyjamas.
Greg Rucka:
Fans of David Mamet who still have their Batman pyjamas.
Gail Simone:
Janet Evanovich fans who still have their Wonder Woman pyjamas.
Frank Miller:
People who think Jack Bauer is a real person. What? No, I'd never live in the city.
Scott McCloud:
People who would have a BA: Comics if it existed.
Will Eisner:
Frank Miller and Scott McCloud.
Matt Fraction:
Geeks who got hot.
Brian Wood:
Geeks who got into zines.
Ed Brubaker:
Fans of The Wire.
Brian Azzarello:
Fans of Wire and The Usual Suspects.
Steven Grant:
Fans of The Wire and The West Wing.
Brian Lee-O'Malley:
People who own an original Walkman and a NES.
Chynna Clugston-Major:
People who own a Walkman but never owned a Nintendo.
Kieron Gillen:
People who own a Walkman, a Nintendo and really want to sleep with Neil Gaiman fans. And made a zine about it.
Neil Gaiman:
Used to be: girls who read comics and goths. Now: everyone. Seriously. Can't swing a cat.
Jill Thompson:
People who treat their cats like people.
Stan Lee:
Fans of the Beatles.
Jack Kirby:
Fans of the Beatles from Revolver onwards.
Paul Pope:
Frank Herbert fans who cut their own hair and wish they could afford a subscription to Suicide Girls.
Jason Aaron:
People who thought the Sopranos was a little 'too fluffy'.
Chris Claremont:
People who can quote the Comic Book Guy.
Mark Waid:
People who can pick when the Comic Book Guy gets it wrong.
Jeph Loeb:
People who don't care when the Comic Book Guy gets it wrong.
Also: fans of 80s action flicks.
Leah Moore:
People who own a Walkman and a Tarot deck but never owned a Nintendo.
Hope Larson:
People who make their own t-shirts.
Chris Ware:
Laudenum/absinthe addicts who listen to Garrison Keilor.
Chris Sprouse:
Laudenum/absinthe addicts who don't read printed comics.
Mike Mignola:
Nick Cave/Tom Waits fans.
Koike and Kojima:
Frank Miller fans who have kids.
Mike Allred:
Monkees fans who make their own superhero costumes.
Mark Millar:
Quentin Tarantino fans who just bought new Superman pyjamas.
Grant Morrison:
Absinthe addicted fans of the Beatles from Revolver onwards who watch Days of Our Lives while on shrooms.
Geoff Johns:
People who still own all their superhero pyjamas. And just bought a new set.
*This list is not exhaustive, mostly contains writers, of print comics, and above all is meant to be a laugh. Any offense is completely unintended, and completely down to my lack of comedic ability.
- blogged from BlogPress
Sunday, March 29, 2009
DSC00733
DSC00733
Originally uploaded by nickellis
Fresh bloods? Bloods? Are they suggesting that each of these players carry different blood? (I suppose technically, that's correct, and if you're being pedantic then you should be careful around technicalities. Also, it'll probably turn out that 'bloods' is more grammatically correct than 'blood', but it reads very awkwardly, so I'm sticking to it.) N
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