Oh, Leaguers. I am unsure of how to entertain you this evening. I don't have time for a "DITMTLOD" or any of my other wildly amusing columns.

Honestly, with two weeks down of me being sick, Jamie then being sick, and Lucy being sick in the middle... I haven't had much time to ponder the imponderables and dream up worthwhile ways to waste your work day. Not to mention work.

I work at a large, state university and classes ended today. Because I am responsible for delivery and creation of classes, in theory I should be breathing a sigh of relief. But the fact is, we have summer classes coming up, Fall classes to think about, and other projects to work on as well. It never ends, people.

DC Comics are continuing to rock my socks off. The titles are now clicking into one another like cogs on a a crazy comic book machine. It's a heck of a fun time. So, you know, when you GO TO FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, you can pick up any of DC's titles and jump into the frivolity.

Because I want to be fair, I want to mention that DC's oft-less than friendly competition Marvel is not exactly run by chimps. They've also got a big cross-over event going on under the title "House of M". It helps to have read "Avengers: Disassembled" in order to enjoy the series, but I am sure "House of M" will be fine on it's own.

Nice little side story. Apparently the cover artist for one of the House of M books cribbed an image of the King of Spain for his portrait of Magneto. Apparently the King of Spain's people found out and they are not amused. Read here.

The somewhat "edgy" X-Men spin-off series, X-Statix, was pretty much brought down about two years ago by a remarkably poor decision to have a story in which real-life/ real-dead Princess Diana was brought back to life as some sort of mutant superhero. Seriously.

I understand wanting to be edgy or whatever the hell people do when they want to draw attention to themselves. As long as it generates a decent story.

Apparently I have more of a nose for controversy than the publishers at Marvel, because at least I saw that the British Royals might not think too highly of this particular idea.

It appears that Marvel's execs caught wind of what Marvel-publishing was up to after the movie-end of the Marvel business walked into several meetings in Hollywood and ran into angry folks who had known the real life Princess Di.


No, really...

The comic was, of course, changed. But it was, of course, entirely too late.

The controversy was one of several factors that brought Marvel's then-President Bill Jemas down. That, losing all of their decent talent but Bendis and telling both customers and retailers to go jump in a lake. Funny how things work out.

I know. I'm shocked, too. I had no idea Spain still had a king.

Anyhow, there's something to for you to read up on.

And you thought it was all heat-vision and bullet proof skin...

Hey, Leaguers!

I have failed to previously mention it, but...

Saturday is Free Comic Book Day

As you might have noticed, The League of Melbotis has a passing interest in the comic book format of sequential art-storytelling. We at The League hope that you, not at The League, will take the opportunity presented by FCBD and check out the wide-world of comics.

It appears every store handles this event differently. Austin Books on Lamar in Austin, TX gives out one copy of each comic to all comers. While my local shop, Atomic Comics, gives out one comic per warm body. Atomic Comics is also at the mall and has a lot higher foot traffic.

Personally, I think giving out as many different comics as possible is a better business model. It widens the chances that new and old readers will try something on which they never read before.

While at the shop, I suggest you take a look at what's on the shelf. Some neat books are out there for every taste. If you don't know where to start, try asking one of the erstwhile employees of your shop for some hints and clues.

For help finding a shop in your neck of the Hyperverse, you can check out the Comic Shop Locator.

See you on FCBD!!!!

I am sure Jamie found this by way of Doug.

I believe the Mysterious M will enjoy this most of all.

Kitten War.

You see the Admiral as you want to see him.



I'll see him as he is.


Yarrrrhhh!!!

Everyone else is doing it...

Your Taste in Music:

80's Alternative: High Influence

Punk: High Influence

80's Pop: Medium Influence

80's R&B: Medium Influence

90's Alternative: Medium Influence

Progressive Rock: Medium Influence

80's Rock: Low Influence

Alternative Rock: Low Influence

Dance: Low Influence

Hair Bands: Low Influence

Old School Hip Hop: Low Influence

Ska: Low Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?

Movie viewing update:

In case you were wondering...

yes, I did watch part of the Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday night movie, "Man-Thing."

yes, it is based upon an obscure Marvel Comics character from the 1970's who is a rip-off of DC Comics' popular and critically acclaimed comic series Swamp Thing. No, nobody has read a Man-Thing comic in years.

No, I do not know why they chose THIS character to adapt to film.

Especially after Swamp Thing has been translated to 2 feature films, a TV series and a cartoon (as well as an unpopular line of toys).

Yes, Man-Thing was originally slated for theatrical release, was decided to go straight to DVD, then bypassed that and went straight to basic cable.

Yes, the movie was that dumb. Which means comic fans will choose this particular movie to champion and claim "it wasn't that bad." My friends, it was, in fact, that bad. It might even be Mansquito bad.

So it's been a pretty slow weekend. Not that I mind.

Lots of basketball all weekend. Lots of cleaning. Lots of comic book reading, and quite a few movies.

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. never saw it before. Actually lived up to the hype. I'd been avoiding this one as too many people told me it was "so good." Usually this is a big turn-off for me as it raises expectations that movies normally can't match. But I saw it without going out of my way to see it, and I did enjoy it quite a bit. Well directed, extremely well-written, and well-played. Anyway, I'm glad I saw it. Jim D. was correct again.

2) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Decent, but not great. It's been 15+ years since I read the books, so I was hoping it would feel fresh. Unfortunately, after the opening credits, the movie never really took off for me. It felt almost like an episode of a particularly good TV show. But not like a particularly good movie.

Additional note: Two different previews of note. a) Serenity. I never saw the original show, Firefly. But this movie looks very interesting. b) Herbie: Fully Loaded. Further co-opting my rock n' roll youth, this trailer features not only the lovable VW of my youth, but also a portion of Jane's Addiction's 1990 tune, "Stop". Anyway, I probably won't see Herbie: Fully Loaded, but it looks like they are making good use of modern movie making technology to breathe new life into a concept I thought was great when I was six. I hope a lot of six year olds see this flick.

3) Show Boat. I'd never seen this, either. I enjoyed it, I guess. I liked the numbers, costumes and whatnot. The end resolution of the movie totally left me scratching my head. But everyone in the movie could sing and dance. Better than, say, Cop Rock. Not as good as, say, West Side Story.

4) McClintock! This is probably the fifth time I've seen this movie, and everytime I see it, I'm absolutely wowed by the overt sexism, the celebration of which is kind of the point of the whole movie. It's sort of a last gasp of a by-gone era, and, indeed, the cultural zeitgeist of the the period in which the film was made trickles right into the movie. I dunno. For some reason I watch this movie over and over.

Suns played a great game tonight, especially the first quarter. I did get a little nervous at some point in the second quarter, but all-in-all, it was a superior effort. Their best hope in round two is that the Rockets and Mavs beat up on each other so badly that whomever passes on into the next round is all worn out and can't play.

Next weekend The League's Berkely Office is coming in for a visit. Brother-in-law Doug is coming on in for a visit. We're sure to have a rollicking good time as Doug is more fun a bag of chimpanzees. I hope we can keep him properly entertained.

Needless to say, we needed to clean the floor of all puppy-slime before Doug arrives. I am looking forward to the combination of Doug plus Lucy plus Mel plus Jeff. And just wait until we enter the RoboSapien into the mix. Should be fun.

Anyhow, hope all of you guys had a good weekend.