TV Review by Mark!
Did you ever have an X-Mas morning were you got something you waited so long for only to be terribly disappointed? I haven’t, but I bet it feels like this. Season three continues the mystery and adventures of the good, bad, and ambiguous people with super powers and follows how it affects their lives and who is after them for various reasons. This season suffers from poor writing partly to do with the over abundance of characters providing less time for development, yet it is more than that as individuals make life altering decisions, change them, and then change them again, not only within the space of a few episodes, but within single shows! Undoubtedly it is done to continue to intrigue and entice viewers but in reality it cuts us off from true connections. The problem is deeper than indecisive characters, as the plot is internally inconsistent and silly at times. 
Writers need to make sure that if they allow someone to come back from the dead due to a power or have once been injected with blood from such a person (and thus are able to come back to life), then all people with that power or with that blood should. Stop having saints become sinners and sinner saints in the course of two seconds; simply changing a person’s personality isn’t the same as character development. Likewise, stop having scene like: “I hate you, you killed X!” “Sorry?” “I love you”. Similarly, stop the whole “I don’t trust you!” “I’m doing it to protect you” “Ok, I believe you…. I don’t trust you” as it gets real old if you do it every episode for two seasons. Stop giving powers and taking them away and presenting more and more people with multiple powers, explore what an individual power can mean to a person. Stop making just about every female character blond. Stop having character staying in the same place when everyone and their most hated foe know where it is. Make sure you keep events in order, it is bad enough that the “previously” segments aren’t always what was previous or that the occasional deleted scene is key to plot (I’m looking at you chapter 12), but don’t have a major get-away scene for Peter be right before the scene when he gets the power to get away! This is show about comic book heroes; did you think comic book geeks wouldn’t notice such things?! If homeland security is as pathetic as depicted here (two wanted foreigners can fly in and out of the county without difficulty?) then we are all so dead. And just because you say you are going to be part of an underground cell doesn’t magically mean you have the resources to do so. And finally, stop having people fall in love, whether romantically or parentally, and then have them completely forget all about the love interest. The end result of all this ranting is that the show is sloppy, doing within a couple of episodes what should be a story arc for an entire season. The only aspect that rings true is the relationship between Ando and Hiro. Other than that, the show has become a failure and I’m done with it.
News by Mark!
For those looking to get into a new sport, one that is as expensive as it is a babe magnet, then this might be for you. Check out this video of my brother-in-law made by a beach goer named Stephen, who turned out to be a friend of my family.
Book Review by Mark!
I had heard of this book some time ago. I was at a friend’s party and about half the people there had met through me. Marshall said I was what the book calls a Connector, someone who provides relationships between people (it’s a compliment although I think I’m closer to a Maven, someone who provides information and aid to others). The theory is that a few seemingly insignificant events or people cause massive changes (tipping points) in the course of events and Gladwell provides various examples (the reduction of crime in NYC and the rise of syphilis in Baltimore) of the principle in action–which he equates as “epidemic” spreads. It is very interesting and I wish the audiobook I had wasn’t abridged as I am not 100% convinced by the argument, and maybe more examples would convince me that little things can make as big an impact as having a lot of money or being lucky.
See Cej’s review here.
Comic Review by Mark!
In the future, a weapons inspector is sent to Titan to investigate a mysterious alien find. This isn’t a bad tale…eventually. It starts off a little jumpy as Ellis doesn’t have the pacing right, and the dialogue suffers from characters trying to be too clever, but it does become action packed and interesting. If you happen to have it, give it a try, but don’t go out of your way. 
Comic Review by Mark!
Various writers try to make the X-Men and their move to San Francisco interesting and fail. Maybe because the stories were short and disjointed.
Drawing Board by Cej
Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Overpopulation comic.
The initial word doc:
Some early sketches. A few of these were drawn “actual size” in order to trace them later.
Once I had all the images pretty close, I traced or re-drew them on the comic board.
Then I inked the panel borders with a pen and ruler.
Then I began inking the image itself with pens.
With most of the fine linework done, I used a brush for the large black areas.
And finally, I used a pen again to create the text (lettering).
At this point, I erase all the extra pencil lines and scan the image into the computer.
On the computer, I clean up some mistakes and redo the lettering (for easier reading).
I realized later that the final tier of panels had images that were fairly similar (head and torso shots), so it might have been better to mix those up a bit.
You can see the final image here.
AR Comics, Politics by Cej
Click to enlarge.
I worry about lots of stuff; and the idea that we are now at 6.7 BILLION people on the planet kinda terrifies me. Of course, when I mention this to people, I get funny looks (at best).
Although we Americans live in the “developed world,” overpopulation does affect us. It can be hard to see, which is why in the comic I tried to point out some of the everyday consequences of too many people; I didn’t include some of the more disturbing trends like climate change and peak oil that no one wants to discuss.
Now you could argue that many of our problems are the result of poor resource management—and you’d be right. But population and limited resources are two sides of the same coin: there are too many people using too much stuff and doing it incredibly inefficiently (and unfairly). And even if we were to become extremely conservative*, we’re still going to have tremendous challenges in meeting the needs of the 9 billion that are expected to be here soon.
*Obviously, I’m using the word in the “using less” sense, not in the “let’s give tax cuts to rich people” sense.
Excellent short talk on population growth from
TED.
Comic Review by Mark!
I thought this tenth volume would continue the ninth, The Wild Hunt, but should have realized it wasn’t since they were released too close together. This collection of a few Hellboy stories are OK, especially “The Crooked Man” wherein Hellboy deals with rednecks’ legends, and “In the Chapel of Moloch” which is a welcome return of Mignola’s art. It is the latter that reminds me that Hellboy and Mignola’s art really go best together. It is a shame that the character is so popular to allow Mignola to concentrate of the one aspect of the work and ignore the other. 
Comic Review by Mark!
Whedon can usually be relied on to put together a good story. Action, romance, backstabbing, plot twists, and loss are all part of the game. Unstoppable is no different. He has some of the more popular mutant heroes dealing with an alien race bent on the destruction of Earth; well, to be fair, it is the destruction of Colossus that they care about since he is destined to destroy their home-world. Yeah, I know, go figure, but they aren’t interested in hearing anything other than “He’s dead”. In the beginning, I had some trouble getting into the tale as there were a bunch of changes to the Marvel Universe which I wasn’t aware of (Yeah, I know, go figure), but soon enough I was hooked. Was it the best? No. Did I enjoy it and would I read another? Yep. 
Comic Review by Mark!
I really don’t care anything about the Justice Society of America or the villains they fights since I don’t really know much about these second string (at best) heroes and villains. However, Van Meter’s tale about a group of villains who get together and plan a heist in order to save the life of one of their own was pretty darn good. The characters came alive with real personalities, hopes, dreams, regrets, and insanities. The heroes? Not so much so. But who cares? The story wasn’t about them. The next story, by Peter J. Tomasi, was. His short tale was about the original Flash, the guy with the winged helmet, and the super hero pugilist, Wildcat. Again, I don’t care anything about either of them, and despite this story of them continuing to bond while fighting an enemy left over from WWII, which wasn’t bad and did have characterization, I wasn’t moved enough to try and care. 
AR Comics, Drawing Board by Cej
Click to enlarge.
Drawing Board
My original plan was to use word balloons, with the characters saying
1: “Are you sure there are fireworks tonight?”
2: “Yes, Yes. Any minute now.”
But then I decided that this looked a little like a typical New Yorker cartoon. And, since I intended this as a thank you card to Mark’s parents for hosting me in the Hamptons over July 4th/birthday weekend, I figured they might appreciate the New York flavor. So word balloons become a caption (in Times New Roman italic, naturally).
I was a little concerned that the joke might be harder to understand without the extra exposition, but JoAnn got it immediately, so that helped confirm that it was a good choice.
Comic Review by Mark!
Members of the old Teen Titans get together a new generation of super powered teens, namely Impulse, Wonder Girl, Superboy, and the latest Robin, to train and help each other and the world. Of course before that can happen they’ll have to deal with some medaling adults and ghosts of the past. Typical of a Geoff Johns story, it isn’t bad; there just isn’t much to keep me wanting more. 
AR Comics by hardtravelinghero
Mark! has a little friend helping him eat.
TV Review by Mark!
The History Channel provides some great, informative television (when it is not rotting viewers brains with crap about aliens making pyramids). This multi-part series goes through a basic history of the USA (if you couldn’t figure that out from the title) and it is pretty good, but I can’t stand it when such programs have random commentary from celebrities. I know it is suppose to make the documentary more accessible, yet all it does is piss me off. I really don’t care what insights an ex-football player has about American culture.
Comic Review by Mark!
This short, in height, graphic novel is based on the failed 1928 Italian airship expedition to the North Pole. The sketchy, B&W art is both simple and wonderful, but the story is really more of a number of set-ups (various characters and situations are introduced) without conclusion than a satisfying tale. 
