When DC's 3rd weekly series, Trinity, ends in a few weeks, DC is trying a new format for a few weeks as a weekly series. They're calling it "Wednesday Comics", and I think this could be one of the most straight up fun comics to come out of either of the Big 2 in a while.
They're allowing top-flight talent to run rampant across the DCU in non-continuity stories (I think). It's being printed on big ol' newsprint sized pages, I think, so its a lot of comic per comic.
Paul Pope released some panels from his take on Silver-Age Sci-Fi hero (who really harkened back to 40's and 30's era sci-fi) Adam Strange.
I've not been a huge fan of Jim Starlin's take on the DC Cosmos (with the exception of "Mystery in Space"), but I think its because I wanted less Starlin and more of what Pope is doing here:
click to embiggen
There's going to be all-new Sgt. Rock, Karl Kerschl on Flash, Gaiman and Mike Allred on Metamorpho, etc...
While lightning does not travel like a virus, before we all believe we're doomed from pig flu, let's get a handle on the statistics. Or else I suggest we start treating lightning as an epidemic.
As of today, they found 40 non-fatal cases of the flu in the US. You are more likely to die from lightning as of today in the US than you might from Pig Flu.
That could change tomorrow, but the number of cycles being lost as everyone calms everyone else and explains basic hygiene is sort of nuts. And I sincerely hope we don't see a return of La Grippe. I'm just not sure we're there yet.
ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm sorry to report to all you ladies out there in Leaguer-Land that one Douglas Foster McBride is now off the market.
Doug is, of course, Jamie's brother (and has been for some time now). He's a fantastic person, and we're all very lucky he hasn't turned on a one of us yet.
Yes, this weekend Doug and his very special lady-friend, Kristen, decided to become engaged for marriage. Reportedly, Doug liked it, and, thusly, put a ring on it.
Our congratulations go out to the happy couple. We wish Kristen the best of luck with living with Doug for the rest of her life.
No details on the wedding yet, but we know those two crazy kids are just meant for each other. May they find all the wedded bliss Jamie and I have found.
So, congrats to Doug and Kristen, to the McBrides and Boney families. And to me, and my hopes for an open bar.
And because I know this is the sentiment Doug is feeling in his heart right now...
It's, apparently, bacon-flavored vodka. As if someone reached into my brain and said "what sort of evil scheme can we concoct to get this near-tee-totaler to drink? Oh. My. Weird and sad."
The Admiral sent me these pics. They were associated with a made-up story about the plane as a failed Soviet experiment in a giant K-7. If you look at the pics closely, its somebody's 3D modeling project. Blow them up to full size for detail, and its sort of video-game-style 3D. So I don't know if someone was playing a prank or if they were just generating a story to go with their idea.
Still, its a cool concept for a model. Just neat stuff.
So, yesterday League-Pal Julia P. alerted me that her sister, who is a student worker at UT, had landed passes to an amazing event on campus. And, apparently, Rachel's friends are a bunch of dorks with no sense off history or the American Spirit, because they passed up a chance to see three living legends.
This evening I joined Julia, Rachel, Shoemaker and a few hundred other folks to see a panel/ reunion of the Apollo 8 Mission members of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders.
If you don't know who those guys are, well, you should probably watch more TV or whatever the hell I did to know who they were (I do read, occasionally, but let's be real).
LBJ's daughter, Lynda Johnson Robb, opened, and was hilarious. Must be nice to be a Robb and LBJ's daughter, but, anyway, it was terribly sweet.
Moderated by Jim Hartz, the panel more or less took Apollo 8 from start to finish, and gave Anders, Borman and Lovell an opportunity to share some great stories from the mission. And, of course, to describe what it must have been to have been to be the first people to see Earth from beyond orbit, one of the defining moments in human history.
The first Earthrise photo, as snapped by the Apollo 8 mission
It was interesting to hear the context in which these gentlemen described how they thought of the space race, just as much or more a true front in the Cold War and a way to defeat our ideological enemies, as much as building a monument to innovation and achievement.
Some of the Apollo ground crew was in attendance, including Chris Kraft, one of the mastermind of NASA Mission control. The astronauts were more than generous in giving credit where credit is due, and reminded the audience of the extraordinary work that went into putting the missions together.
Its a tough night to describe. We've all got a little hero-worship of these guys, and if you don't, you should. These are the ones, both astronaut and engineer, who achieved the unthinkable and created a new way of looking at the world and the place of our little blue marble against the cosmos. And while they speak knowingly of the weight of the mission, its unpracticed and honest when all of them described the how's and why's of being a part of the Apollo missions in straightforward terms.
I don't know if mankind's destiny is beyond this little backwater planet on the edge of an unremarkable galaxy, but I like to think of how America and even Russia put forth their greatest efforts by their best and brightest to achieve the unachievable. That a war could be fought by sending rockets to space rather than at one another, and that in doing so, return to our planet wiser, with greater knowledge and with new dreams for mankind.
Lynda Johnson Robb mentioned that her father sent copies of the Earth Rise photo to every single leader of a nation, not as a sign of Earth's might or technical superiority, but as a sign of our world as it is. A bright dot against the dark, and that's what we have in common.
Years ago someone sent this to me for The League of Melbotis Christmas Spectacular, and its largely why I know about the Apollo 8 Mission.
On Christmas Eve, 1968 the astronauts of Apollo 8 were in orbit around the moon, unsure if they would return safely to Earth, roughly 238,857 miles from Earth. Family. Safety.
1) comforted to know there are fewer bullets available? 2) terrified that all the bullets are sold to people who would use them against me? 3) disappointed that Central Texas is also full of wingnuts that believe an Obama administration would mean the end times and who are stocking up, a la Timothy McVeigh? 4) angry with ammunition suppliers for failing to keep up with demand? 5) curious as to who owns the bullets? 6) joining Lou Dobbs in believing its all the Cartels? 7) buying my own weaponry and getting ready for my life to turn into "The Magnificent Seven?" 8) not surprised? This is Texas. 9) admitting its me who has all the bullets? 10) thinking bullets should cost $5 a piece if cigarettes are $7 a pack.
