Comic Books

To understand me, there is one thing to know: There are very few things more important to me than comic books. Now, I'm not saying that I am to comics the way the hardcore music fan is to music or the hardcore movie fan is to movies, in fact nothing gets under my skin more than the loud, know-it-all comic-book guys (especially when they don't) that inhabit the comic store on new comic day and/or Friday night and/or Saturday. You know the kind of person I am talking about, the one who confuses his opinion with the truth.

There are two kinds of comic book readers, I think: Those who starting reading them as children and those who start reading them in high school or college. I also think that tension between those two camps is never going away because neither side will ever accept the other's point of view. For myself, I don't begrudge more mature titles and themes appearing in the comic format, but I also don't think that the mainstream comics should move too far away from being accessible to kids. In my world, Batman and Detective Comics, for instance, would always be suitable for kids, while a more mature version of the character would appear in a special line available only in comic shops.

Continued
You see, what I am is a person who fell in love with comics at a very young age and I've never forgotten that feeling; I'd go so far as to say that my continuing reading of comics is because I am trying to capture that feeling again. What feeling? The feeling of excitement and wonder that was promised in ads like these:









(Images from Dial B for Blog.)

So, if I am not getting that feeling from mainstream comics why do I still buy them? Because I love them. I love the fact of them. I love them for the same reason Uncle Scrooge loves all the coins in his money bin: It is all about what they represent?

What do they represent? I never could explain it, it was an ephemeral thing that I thought only another person who started reading comics early could understand. Then Tom Beland in his excellent comic book, True Story, Swear to God, encapsulated the reason perfectly. TSSTG explores the true romance between Beland and the love of his life, Lily. In the page excerpted below, from TSSTG #9, Lily has just gone to the comic book store with Tom for the first time:



















Now, I'm not saying that I saw my parents die of cancer, but I think each of us has something from our childhood that we cling to because we don't want to lose the memories or feelings that thing, possibly subconciously, stirs up. For me, it is comic books. All comic books that meet my standards of "good."

All that was a lead-in for a change of topic here. I like popular culture, but comic books are the one thing that make me happy even when they depress me. Starting with a change in the title on Blogger to "Just Imagine," I'm going to post about comic books predominantly. I may not be able to be as current as this week's comics, especially since I get my comics once a month, but I will address comic books on the whole on a more regular basis. I'll still address other topics, but comic books will be the raison d'etre for this blog from now on.

Stick around, if you like. To quote Bill Cosby, "If you're not careful, you might learn something."

Odds & Ends

As I prepare for a refocusing of this blog, let me clear out my inbox.

1. Clerks 2 has a trailer of sorts here. Either you love Kevin Smith's work or you don't, there doesn't seem to be much middle ground with his movies. I don't think I've disliked any movie he's made, though I found his Degrassi: The Next Generation not to be my cup of tea.

I really liked Jersey Girl. There is nothing funnier than watching Ollie (Ben Affleck) and his seven-year-old daughter, Gertie (Raquel Castro), reenact the opening number of the second act of Sweeny Todd and George Carlin has never been better as an actor and not just playing "George Carlin." While I am happy that Smith is returning to his View Askew-verse, it is a shame that he let the "poor" box office of Jersey Girl keep him from moving into other movies. That the movie didn't meet expectations was more an artifact of (a) the Affleck and Jennifer Lopez coupling and (b) Gigli. (Smith supposedly told Sony to hold Gigli back until after Jersey Girl was released. They didn't, so both movies suffered, even though Jersey Girl is the superior film.

Anyway, the Clerks 2 trailer is there. I hope the movie does well; I want to see the animated Clerks movie we were promised during the commentary on the DVD for Clerks: The Animated Series. Besides, Rosario Dawson deserves to be in as many popular movies as possible, not just because she's nice to look at, but she was the only Pussycat in the Josie and the Pussycats movie who understood what the movie was and what it shold have been. Just for that alone, she deserves to be in more Sin Citys and less Alexanders.

2. I found this great time waster over Christmas. I can't even describe what it is, but once you start playing with it, I think you'll understand why it is indescribable. I think there is something calming about it (though I wish there were more options) as you try to create something out of what you are given. Just so you know, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page there are variables that you can control; my one complaint is where the controls are located. In a perfect world, everything would fit nicely on the screen, but "game" is free, so who am I to complain. By the way. one suggestion: You'll be much calmer if you click on "NAMEKUJI" to make the bouncing thing stop or disappear. While I understand that destruction/entropy follows creation, it is unpleasant to have it happen in the moment.

3. I'm not big on the Sudoku like everyone else appears to be even after someone finally explained in simple terms how the puzzle works. After that explanation my first statement was that it should be possible to write a program that solves every possible Sudoku since there are only a finite number of ways the numbers can be ordered in the grid. Well, someone did and here's a link to a free Sudoku solver. I've tried it a few times and it works, plus you can't beat the price. The even freakier original version, complete with zombies, may be found here. That version reminds me more of a circle of hell, but watching the zombies bounce and bob like those giant air-filled pseudo-balloon men is rather entrancing.

4. In the sixties and seventies, one of the best things about being home from school sick (apart from being home from school) was getting to watch interesting daytime television, i.e. game shows. Those days are long gone, but this site will tell you more than you ever want to know about The Price is Right. Some interesting things I found was this page showing clips from the first five episodes. Watch the opening of the first one to see how strangely quiet the audience is compared to the show today. On the front page, be sure to click "Check out this priceless moment from 1982!" to see cast openly and honestly tipsy. (Windows Media Player required.) After that, be sure to scroll down the page to see how skeletal Bab Barker has become in the twenty-three or so years since that clip.

5. Some incredibly beautiful images taken by the Hubble telescope are posted here. Don't be surprised at the amount of time you'll lose gazing at these pictures.

6. If you have a blog, through alogrithms I don't care to learn about or understand, you can go here to find out how much it is worth. On the Internet as in real life, I am a hundred-aire.

7. One of the greatest cartoons ever made is Chuck Jones's and Michael Maltese's One Froggy Night. This site gives you all the background you'd ever want to know about the songs Michigan J. Frog performs for his solitary audience of one.

8. I can't even find the words for these quizzes. Suffice to say, forget anything about science, which God gave us the ability to divine, at the frint page.

9. A site that doesn't seem to get enough recognition is The Internet Archive. As the project describes itself:

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an ‘Internet library,’ with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.

In other words, whenever you see a dollar DVD of Bugs Bunny cartoons, you can find them at The Internet Archive for free. Explore to your hearts content.

10. If you were born after 1970, you probably never listened to a children's story record and if you did the were probably hand me downs. This site has taken it upon itself to perserve just a fraction of these recordings, one a week during 2005 and 2006. Browse through the listings for a memory or two or to hear what was a very common recreational activity for kids not so long ago, but is now being relegated to hoop rolling and mumbleypeg.

11. Admit it. Like me, you've probably thought about disappearing and starting over with no baggage. This site tells you how to do, though I don't think it provides an explanation on how to find the courage to follow through with cutting off all ties and starting over.

12. To help keep viewers from changing channels when a show is finished and allow more time for commercials, the networks have been decreasing introductory titles and theme music. If you are like me and enjoy cartoon themes. Toon Tracker provides a whole slew of them from the forties to the eighties. I don't know about you, but I can never hear the Rocket Robin Hood, Mighty Hercules, or The Mighty Heroes enough. Where are those DVD collections?

13. Finally, we, my wife and I are at a time in ouut lives when out thoughts turn to having children. Beyond the normal things one thinks about that lead up to that moment, other things make themselves known, such as what to name the baby. Your tax dollars at work, the Social Security Administration provides this site, which provides statistical data regarding the most popular names for babies. This site provides the same information, but in a much more fun and dynamic way.

14. Hopefully this week will see more posts on my most favorite topic of all. To get you ready for the future, here is a site where the owner has taken it upon himself to discuss and post the Jack Kirby-drawn monster stories from the pre-Marvel Atlas Comics. Once you've had your fill of such delightful creations (written by Stan Lee) as Monstro,



the Insect Man,



Gargantus,



and Fin Fang Foom,



you can ponder when comics took the ugly left turn that made such creations less palatable.

For Those Who Came In Late . . .

Aware that the address of this blog may be offputting, it would probably make sense, once a year or so, to repost my explantion of the title from my first post on July 3, 2005:

I guess the title of this come's off as argumentative and maybe it is -- What are you going to do about it?

Here's the meaning: I feel like a complete idiot all the time. In general, learning new things or doing just about anything is incredibly difficult for me and always has been. I basically peaked academically when I left the third grade and my report card showed that I'd also completed the sixth grade reading level. It has been downhill ever since.

Of late, things have improved thanks to television PSAs, testing, and medication, however, that does not remove the fact that for the bulk of my life I have felt like a complete idiot. During that same timespan, I always felt that since I'm an idiot, the little bit I know and understand can't be difficult, so why doesn't anyone else. As such, I, in general, have always been disappointed with people because most of them come off at least as idiotic as I am.

Now, if I know you and you are offended by that statement, get over it: If I have a personal relationship with you, I obviously think you aren't any more idiotic than I am. I don't need a person to know everything (that is the unreasonable expectations of voters during presidential candiates; I don't need a president with every answer at his fingertips, I just need a president who knows where to go for the answer), just know some things and be able to be logical about the rest. Or don't be a jerk. That makes up for a lot of sins.

There you go, the title explained. It isn't as bad as you thought, is it?

A Cat Tale

Ya see, we own cats. I never wanted cats and would have been happy with just some feeder goldfish in an aerated tank. However, my wife wanted a "real" pet, since she grew up in a home where animals weren't looked on as companions, so we got a cat. From that one cat we expanded to owning six cats, which is where we stand now.

Before I owned a cat, I didn't like them. That was truly a prejudice born from ignorance. They have more personality than I had expected and not as aloof as a non-cat owner would think. I admit that they don't listen and it is a rare cat that recognizes his or her name, but I'm glad we have them.

There is a site called Kitten War. As may be divined from the title, the site allows kittens to "fight" over who is the cutest: Pictures are presented of two kittens and you are supposed to choose which you think is cutest. After looking at the site for a while, we submitted pictures of the new cats from two-and-a-half years ago. Only one was accepted and it can be viewed here. (Kemper is the upside down one.) If you want to decide a battle or two, scroll down to and then click on "Start a new kitten battle!" I'll warn you, the site can eat up your time.

If you want to see something that only a cat owner has ever seen before, go here, but you've been warned. It is as equally a captivating time waster.

Movies I Have Seen 2005 Edition

Two years ago in his bi-weekly column in the back of Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King mentioned in passing that he keeps a movie journal where he records all the movies he has seen. For some reason, I loved that idea and began keeping one, too (and wishing I'd started one twenty-five years earlier). Without comment, here is the complete list of every movie I watched this past year and, yes, I did watch some movies more than once.

January
1: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
3: Pride of the Yankees
The Magnificent Ambersons
Of Human Hearts
The Gorgeous Hussy
State Fair (1945)
4: The Ice Follies of 1939
10: The Many Loves of Edgar Allan Poe
12: Finian's Rainbow
15: Finding Neverland
16: Beau Brummel
Elektra
20: The Cookout
Pride and Prejudice
21: Little Black Book
Napoleon Dynamite
25: The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
28: Million Dollar Baby
29: De-Lovely
Sideways

February
5: Are We There Yet?
7: 12 Angry Men
11: Hitch
12: The Wedding Date
The Jazz Singer (1927)
White Banners
Little Caesar
13: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931)
16: Longitude
. . . And Justice For All
18: Raintree County
25: Forbidden Planet
General Spanky
26: Constatine
28: Cleopatra (1934)

March
8: Funny Girl
10: Cimarron (1931)
In Old Chicago
12: Be Cool
13: The Great Ziegfeld
19: Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Disraeli
22: Between Two Worlds
King's Row
25: Guess Who
26: Julius Caesar (1953)
30: On the Waterfront

April
1: Sin City
Beauty Shop
16: The Stand-In
17: Twelve O'Clock High
27: Captain Blood

May
7: The Story of Louis Pasteur
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
13: XXX 2
14: Kingdom of Heaven
15: Hell is for Heroes
16: Dodge City
17: How the West was Won
18: Alleghany Uprising
19: The Revenge of the Sith
20: The Died with Their Boots On
25: Our Town
26: The Cocoanuts
27: Madagascar
28: Black Narcissus
Gentlemen Jim

June
2: Objective Burma
3: The Longest Yard (2005)
Kim
5: The Kennel Murder Case
The Bishop Murder Case
8: Nick Carter, Master Detective
Dick Tracy (1937)
10: Cinderella Man
12: Destry Rides Again
14: The Secret Garden (1949)
17: Batman Begins
18: Becky Sharp
Ah, Wilderness! (1935)
23: Beyond the Sea
25: Bewitched
28: The Caine Mutiny
A Few Good Men

July
1: War of the Worlds (2005)
7: Gabriel Over the White House
9: Fantastic Four
12: Raintree County
15: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
17: Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
28: Sky High
Must Love Dogs

August
2: Yankee Doodle Dandy
3: "G"-Men
5: Ride the High Country
13: The Wedding Crashers
20: March of the Penguins
23: Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie
Words and Music

September
2: The 40-Year-Old Virgin
9: The Man with the Screaming Brain
10: So I Married an Axe Murder
24: Bobby Jones
Just Like Heaven
25: Boogie Nights
30: Serenity

October
1: A History of Violence
7: Battle Circus
8: Crash
Fever Pitch
9: The Upside of Anger
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
14: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
17: The Strawberry Blonde
20: tom thumb
21: Young Tom Edison
The Incredible Shrinking Man
20: The Legend of Zorro

November
3: War of the Planets
From the Earth to the Moon
13: Caddyshack
18: Walk the Line
Harry Patter and the Goblet of Fire

December
4: Luther (1973)
5: One of the Hollywood 10
6: Holiday Inn
7: Good Night, and Good Luck
9: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
16: King Kong (2005)
30: The Ringer
The Cooler

There Comes a Time When You Have to Accept Things As They Are

Basically, if I want to have any kind of Internet life I have to accept the fact that, for whatever the reason, I am going to be disconnected from a/the DNS server requiring me to reboot my modem and router. It makes no sense that I have to do this since our home network worked fine for years, but if I have to, I have to. It is easier to do that than to fight a battle with my provider over an event that they seem to not appreciate or are unwilling to admit occurs. Besides, over Christmas, I was looking at the forum for another provider when I was in Pittsburgh and their customers have the same problem. I guess I found inner peace knowing that I am not alone.

Our Long National Nightmare May Be Over

Well, actually, it isn't a national nightmare; it is more like my personal pain in the neck. After almost two months, three routers, a network expander, and having the cable company come out and move the modem to a different location in futile attempts to have Internet service that didn't just decide it wanted to stop working whenever it wanted, we've had a stable signal for over twenty-four hours. None of our computers have been dropped from the Internet and things are coasting along with a problem. Hopefully, this is the harbinger of better things (on that front).

The problem, for those who care--and if you don't you can skip down to the nest paragraph--appears to have been the modem. Since the beginning of this mess, I've always suspected that the modem was at fault, but because the provider can remotely check it, they never saw a problem. After we had the modem moved, I was able to connect my Xbox directly to the new wireless router and I found that I was still not always able to connect to my Xbox Live account. I used the Xbox troubleshooter and found that the Xbox (and by extension all of our computers) was unable to connect to the DNS server. Calling customer support, the person on the phone started walking me down the merry path of rebooting the modem and router; I just cut him off, told him I've done this far too many times to do it again, and that I shouldn't have to do reboot the modem every other day. He transferred me to the "local" office (good bye, India) where the person there started the ritual of telling me how to reboot the modem. I cut her off and plainly told her the problem and that I want a new modem. I installed it Tuesday and no problems. Here's hoping things stay this way and I can try posting more regularly.

As a gift for reading this after all this time, may I offer this site and/or this site as today's time wasters. Enjoy, but if you don't get enough work done today, I'm sorry.