JLA vol. 3: Injustice League – Dwayne McDuffie and Alan Burnett

Comic Review by Mark!

How I loved those crappy Superfriends cartoons as a kid, mainly for the Injustice League. Finally someone decided to update the image and pit a bunch of nasty villains against the Justice League in a smart and violent way. I had just been talking to Cej about how the villains never seem to pull jobs like this and gang up against the good-guys. Well, job well done.

 Citizen Mom

AR Comics by Mark!

True story about how my Mom gained citizenship.

Citizen Mom

 The Alcoholic – Jonathan Ames

Comic Review by Mark!

Author Jonathan A (really?) is addicted to drugs and alcohol and is trying to make sense of his life, which means a review of it plus the loves, obsessions, writings, family, and 9/11 that goes along with it.  I’ve seen Ames perform his works a few times and it’s great–storytelling is a lost art–, which might be why I didn’t care for this so-so written, overcrowded plot.

 The Single Life

News by Mark!

Well, I’m single, again. I know I did the right thing, for both her and me, by ending the relationship, so how come I don’t feel any better? A damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation? I don’t know; all I know is that happiness seems a very elusive concept.

 Fables vol. 12: The Dark Ages – Bill Willingham

Comic Review by Mark!

The war is over. So all those fairy tale characters who escaped from their worlds to take refuge in ours during the reign of “The Adversary” just might be able to return home. Unfortunately, The Adversary was actually keeping some even darker forces under control and now at least one of them is free. It has been a while since I read Fables;  this is not as good as most of the earlier volumes, but a little better than the last. I was glad to see Willingham’s version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. 

 Filthy Rich – Brian Azzarello

Comic Review by Mark!

Trying so hard to be Sin City, and simply trying too hard, Azzarello’s tale of an ex-football star hired to protect a wild heiress from her own decadent ways doesn’t quite make it to the level of good noir.

 Your Guide to the Budget

AR Comics, Politics by Cej

click to enlarge.

I don’t understand how the Republicans have any credibility when it comes to the budget. They label themselves as fiscally responsible, but history belies that claim. (And, yes, for fairness and balance, many Dems are also bad.)

As with my last cartoon, it is ridiculous for people who ignored deficits under Bush to suddenly discover them under Obama. Moreover, it is even more hypocritical when you remember that the Bushies couldn’t wait to spend the surplus fast enough. If we had saved (or invested) that surplus, we might not be where we are now.

Everyone claims to want a balanced budget (especially easy when you are in the minority party), but no one acts that way. And when we did have a balanced budget in 1998, the Republicans were busy impeaching the president.

 Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters: Brave New World – Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray

Comic Review by Mark!

Who the heck is Uncle Sam? Yeah, I know the whole “I Want You” poster, but how did he become a DC superhero, what exactly are his powers, and why should I care? Unfortunately none of these questions are answered in this story that–and I rarely say this–had just too much going on. Something about an alien race infecting the Freedom Fighters. Maybe Renato Arlem’s art threw me as it was so dark (in color) and scratchy looking that it irritated my eyes.

 Drawing Board: Sleep Deficit Disorder

Drawing Board by Cej

This is one of those “simple ideas” that turns out to be more difficult than I originally thought. The main issue is: how much information is enough / too much to get the point across? I want to make it clear that lots of deficit issues occurred during the Bush years and no one said anything.

I feel like I need to list some of the more egregious expenditures in order to make the point. But do I need a timeline? I wanted to show the rising deficit as a graph in the background, but it may be too confusing. Paul suggested colors, which I experimented with as seen below. I also thought about losing the graph and just coloring the floating words.

Ultimately I went with what you see in the actual cartoon post. But I’m amazed at how difficult such a simple idea is to get across simply.

 Sleep Deficit Disorder

AR Comics, Politics by Cej

click to enlarge.

This one has been churning around my brain for a few months. And really, it could be used to call out conservatives on just about any issue that they conveniently ignored under the Bush reign; but deficit reduction is probably their most laughable hypocrisy. Plus it’s easier to make a pun with.

And Obama (et al) are such pussies for caving so easily on this issue. Yes, we need to address the deficit; but let’s get the economy moving first. Then it’ll be much easier to pay down the debt.

Obama claims that, “like people, the government needs to tighten it belt,” but that’s exactly wrong. Unlike households, the government is in a unique position to drive the entire economy. Governments should step on the gas (spend) when the economy slows down and ease off (save more) when the economy is going gangbusters.

Remember the hole Reagan and Bush I dug for us? Remember the surplus Clinton left us with? What the rise of the internet did under Clinton, “green” tech can do under Obama if we just use the stimulus money in targeted ways.

 Pitch Black & The Chronicles of Riddick

Movie Review by Mark!

Two mediocre sci/fi movies that follow the adventures of Riddick, a criminal/warrior/antihero, as (in the first movie) he helps a group of people survive on a desert planet where monsters, who attack when there is darkness, stalk them, and (in the second) fights a seemingly unstoppable empire bent on destruction. There are interesting ideas and some nice f/x here, but just too much cliche and not enough strong plot or character development.

 DNC Thought Process

AR Comics, Politics by Cej

This is another quickie comic that has been sitting around for awhile.

I should call this “DNC No Thought Process” since the answer to every problem is “be more conservative.” It doesn’t help that the national media and Democrats themselves label even the slightest leftward direction “radical.”

What happened to the true liberals? (I’m sorry, but Obama is at best a moderate Dem, despite what Glen Beck tells you.) Outside of a handful of senators (Sanders, Franken, Feingold), every one of them can’t wait to race to the “center” fast enough. Nevermind that the center has drifted so far right that even Nixon would be considered a liberal today (he wanted crazy things like affordable tuition and health care reform).

The bottom line is, given the choice between a Republican and a Republican wannabe, people are gonna go with the real deal.

 The Black Adder

TV Review by Mark!

My mother got me the the collected series as a present since she knew how I’d always watch this growing up. Every season of this BBC television series brings us a different incarnation of the scoundrel called Black Adder and his constant quest to become king of England. If you never heard of this show 1] you’re missing out on a hilarious historical comedy 2] you never watched the TV show House. Rowan Atkinson, AKA Mr. Bean, plays Black Adder during various, but always funny, periods of British history from the 14th to 20th centuries.

 Birds of Prey vol. 7: Dead of Winter – Gail Simone

Comic Review by Mark!

I’ve enjoyed Simone and her work on the superhero team of woman (lead by Oracle (the former Batgirl) and comprised of second string heroes) as she managed to give life to many underestimated and underutilized characters. However, this collection just had far too many heroes and villains fighting it out in order to stop the rise of a former Soviet strongman to capture and hold my attention.

 Drawing Board: Circular

Drawing Board by Cej

The text would read something like “the circular that I get in my mailbox every Wednesday”

Can’t decide if this should be a comic or a piece of artwork, with an actual circular pasted in the center.

 JLA: Kid Amazo – Peter Milligan

Comic Review by Mark!

What little I knew about Amazo just annoyed me. He’s a robot with all the powers of the Justice League’s superheroes such as Batman and Superman (sure, I have no problem with the Flash and tapping into the “speed force” so he can travel at impossible speeds, but with robots I draw the line). Yet I thought Milligan’s addition of yet another Amazo–his “son”, which should have annoyed me even more–was pretty good. He merges the philosophy of  Friedrich Nietzsche and the struggle to overcome pedestrian notions of good/evil with Kid Amazo coming to terms with his being created as nothing more than a weapon along with the JLA’s own trouble with being a cohesive, moral team. There’s an added romance element that I don’t think work, but overall an enjoyable read.

 Time to Vote!

Politics by armzrace

It’s time to vote!

For those of you who live in Texas, and Harris County specifically, early voting has begun. You can find a map to an early voting place here.

If you vote on Election Day (Tuesday, March 2), you can find your voting place here.

This is a Primary, so you’ll have to choose EITHER to vote in the Democratic Primary OR the Republican Primary.

I’m voting in the Democratic Primary, and here are my picks (Note: I’ve only listed contested races, although I recommend voting in uncontested races as to give candidates a sense of their level of support):

United States Representative, District 18: Jarvis Johnson

United States Representative, District 22: Doug Blatt

Governor: Bill White

Lieutenant Governor: Linda Chavez-Thompson

Commissioner of the General Land Office: Hector Uribe

Commissioner of Agriculture: Hank Gilbert

State Representative, District 146: Borris L. Miles

District Judge, 113th Judicial District: Christina Bryan

District Judge, 157th Judicial District: Shawn Thierry

District Judge, 180th Judicial District: Lori Gooch

District Judge, 189th Judicial District: Andy Pereira

District Judge, 190th Judicial District: Jim Wrotenbery

District Judge, 234th Judicial District: Nile Copeland

District Judge, 245th Judicial District: Janiece Horn

District Judge, 247th Judicial District: Clinton “Chip” Wells

District Judge, 248th Judicial District: Trent Gaither

District Judge, 270th Judicial District: Charles Spain

District Judge, 281st Judicial District: Donna Roth

District Judge, 295th Judicial District: Paul Simon

Family District Judge, 308th Judicial District: Bruce Kessler

Family District Judge, 310th Judicial District: Judy Dougherty

Family District Judge, 311th Judicial District: Steve Herskowitz

Family District Judge, 313th Judicial District: Marc Isenberg

Family District Judge, 314th Judicial District: John Stephen Liles

Family District Judge, 315th Judicial District: Bill Thursland

County Judge: Gordon Quan

Judge, County Court at Law No. 1: Steve Reilley

Judge, County Court at Law No. 2: Damian E. LaCroix

Judge, County Court at Law No. 3: Damon Crenshaw

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 1: Beverly D. Melontree

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 2: Mary Connealy Acosta

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 3: Judith Snively

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 9: Silvia Pubchara-Munoz

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 10: Lori Chambers Gray

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 12: Robert “Bob” Cardenas

Judge, County Criminal Court No. 13: John V. O’Sullivan

Judge, County Probate Court No. 2: Joellen Snow

Judge, County Probate Court No. 3: Mary Galligan

County Clerk: Sue Smith Schechter

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3, Place 2: Denise Graves

—

Special thanks to Melody P. and Mike Ll. for help with this long list of candidates!

 The Kite Runner movie

Movie Review by Mark!

I saw the movie version of Khaled Hosseini’s book and was impressed and depressed as the story traces Hosseini’s life as a child of privilege in Afghanistan prior to the Soviet invasion, through this life in America, and back again to a now Taliban ruled Afghanistan wherein he attempts to come to terms with his and his family’s dishonor. I don’t want to write more as it’s better to see or read it for yourself, but be prepared for lots of rape and violence.

 The Physics of Star Trek

Book Review by Cej

Krauss, Lawrence. The Physics of Star Trek. New York: HarperPerennial, 1996.

When I was younger, I watched Star Trek for the action and adventure. As I grew older, I was interested in the social commentary. I always liked the characters. But I never watched Star Trek for its grasp of science; and the more I learned, the more I tried to ignore Star Trek’s version of physical reality so that I could keep enjoying the show.

I enjoy well-written science-for-laypeople books, but I’ve largely avoided “hook” books like this one as I figured they were likely poorly researched. But when I learned that The Physics of Star Trek was written by physicist Lawrence Krauss, I decided to take the plunge. Krauss is great at taking grand concepts and making them clear. (And if you have an hour, here’s a video in which he explains the entire universe—yes, it’s an hour long, but it’s also the entire universe!)

Unfortunately, Krauss is also a huge Star Trek geek. I mentioned that I really like the series, but not to the extent that I can quote chapter and verse of each episode; nor do I remember the 5^th lieutenant’s name on that ship that the Enterprise encountered in that one episode—you know the one that I mean. Krauss can, and it’s a bit much for my tastes.

I enjoyed The Physics, but I can’t really bring myself to recommend it. It’s a bit too heavy on the geek, and while the science is good, I’m not convinced that it is the best place to start for someone who knows nothing about physics. The book is organized around Star Trek concepts (like faster than light travel and transporters) rather than scientific building blocks; and while that may make it accessible to Trekies, I can’t help wondering if it winds up leaving them a bit lost in space.

So to summarize some of Krauss’s main points: (most of) the stuff you see in Star Trek is largely impossible (yes, even in the future), and the stuff that isn’t impossible would take so much energy and effort that it might as well be impossible.

Which is basically why I watch Star Trek for the characters and the social commentary.

 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules – Jeff Kinney

Book Review by Mark!

Greg, nerdy middle-schooler, returns along with a brand new diary which he uses to chronicle his misadventures. Short, daily entries coupled with awesomely simple illustrations takes the reader through the hilarious problems (often of his own making) with school, family (especially with his brother, Rodrick), and friends (well, a friend).