ying_ko_4

They killed Batman in the comic books recently.  He was blowed up pretty good.  Still, it didn't bother me much at all.  For a couple of reasons, actually.

1.  There was hype.  We all knew they were going to kill him off.
2.  He won't stay dead. 

Nobody stays dead in comic books anymore.  It's as bad as, or worse than, Soap Operas.  And by him, I mean Bruce Wayne.  Bruce is dead.  Batman is still alive and well, but it's now Dick Grayson, the original Robin.  Who grew up and became Nightwing, then there was another Robin who they killed off, but he wasn't really dead...and then there was a third Robin who isn't a practicing Robin at present.  Now, Robin is Bruce's son with the daughter of one of his worst enemy's.

Confused?

Yeah...so am I.

And I'm not having a problem with Bruce/Bats being dead.  Namely because, like every other significant character who has "died" in a comic book, they come back.  Every time.  Without fail.  Like clockwork.

So, while Dick is fulfilling the promise of being the Kid Sidekick, he won't stay Batman forever.  Because Bruce will come back.  And be Batman again.

I sometimes wonder why I still read these silly things.

Moo Cow has been retired.  Moo Cow, the symbol of Radio Nowhere is now lolling in the fields, carefree and happy as a cow.

Behold, the NEW symbol for Radio Nowhere:  

This was drawn and colored by Bruce Rosenberger, artist of Dutchy Digest.  Hands down my favorite small press comic book.  If you happen to order any issues of DD (and you should), tell 'em Mark sent you.  They are an absolute hoot.

Thanks, Bruce!

This weekend had the PlanetComicon in Kansas City scheduled, so off I went.  It's only a couple of hours, and Erin Grey was going to be there.
Plus, it usually works out that I get to see Eric and his family when I go, but no luck today.

No, the weather conspired against that happening.  Big time.  In fact, the weather conspired against a lot of things...

Imagine wet, heavy snow or sleet or rain or combination's of all of them falling on your car, the road and accumulating at a furious rate.  Then,
double the nasty factor and you have a pretty good approximation of the ugly I had to deal with today.

I knew the forecast had called for winter weather, but we'd been handed that story before this winter and it never happened.  Brownest winter
I can remember in this part of the country.  So, I set sail and drove through the rain to KC and hoped for the best.  Around 2 pm, I looked out a window and saw that it was slushing...and Eric texted me that I may want to consider staying in KC as the WX was hitting this skids in a hurry.  Being a stubborn cuss, I figured I'd have to figure it out for myself.  So, I stopped by a couple of places and said my goodbyes and slogged out to the van in the slush.

Driving wasn't bad until I got on I-435. Which was around 1 mile from the show.  Then it became something close to bumper cars without bumpers.  Damn fools driving too fast because their 4 Wheel Drive vehicles will let them.  Morons don't realize that they then have to STOP sometime.  *sigh*  I did see quite a collection of cars that had either gone off the side of the road in spectacular fashion or slammed into the concrete median or hit the wires that are strung betwix and between the median in grassy areas.  They keep the fools on their side of the highway. Saves lives, and teaches costly lessons in damage to cars.  I did see plenty of people walking around their messed up vehicles, talking on cell phones calling for help.  So, it appears that the only damage done was to cars and trucks.

I had planned on going a ways on I-70 when I finally made it there, got some gas and used the phone to check WX radar.  Things seemed much clearer to the East, so I elected to head for home.  I was going to call Eric and inform him of my decision, but wouldn't you know it?  His concern for my safety had him calling me first.  We should all have friends like that, shouldn't we? 

The ride home was soggy, and except for a 5-6 miles stretch of sudden sleet and more bumper cars, relatively uneventful.  I got to listen to Mizzou play a solid, albeit losing game against UConn.  And in the midst of all the snow, while looking for the basketball game,  I stumbled across Mike Shannon calling a Cardinals spring training game.  It was sort of strange to hear baseball in a serious winter weather event.

I picked up a few books, all at half price at the convention.  I got Vol. 2 of the Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Heroes (with the BRONZE cover...) a couple of Birds of Prey TPB's, two volumes of Sherlock Holmes comic strip reprints (The Malibu books) All but volume 2 of the manga series Record of Lodoss Wars Chronicles of the Heroic Knight ($1 each) and the Girl Genius Omnibus (also for $1).  Mike Worley gave me his original of a piece he did for a book for Brian Miller.

http://www.worleytoons.com/Tommi_finalv1.jpg

I also snagged a nifty Hawkgirl wall plaque, with the design from the Justice League tv show.  They did a great job on simplifying the existing designs for that show.

Erin Grey was quite nice to talk to, and the rest of the folks I stop by and say hi to were all pleasant and chatty.

So, that's the Con report.  Glad to be home safe and sound...and dry!

For years, I've admired comics creator Tony Isabella.  He has taken stands about creators rights that have quite honestly cost him work in the comics community.  He won't back down, speaks his mind and is pretty brave about it all.  Kudos to him for that.

Tony lost a bucket of my respect recently.  On an Yahoo Group we both belonged to, somebody posted a link to a news article about Harlen Ellison suing Paramount over back pay for a Star Trek episode that aired 38 years ago.  Ellison is always suing somebody, and is a worthless fuck of a human being.  But, even worthless fucks of human beings deserve their day in court, and if Ellison enjoys litigation, more power to him and his lawyers.  (Ellison is a worthless sack of human skin because he groped Connie WIllis on stage during the 2006 Hugo awards.  What an ass-hat)

So, somebody unwisely posted something about this over on Tony's message board.  Not smart.  Why? Because they don't invite discussion on Tony's message board.  They invite agreement, they invite and promote their own agenda, they don't deal with dissent or opposing opinions well at all.  Which, to be fair, is pretty common around the internets. 

There isn't much room for intelligent discussion anymore.  Group owners, bloggers, message board managers, all want to exert some sort of control over what is said, and like that.  Outside of decorum issues, I think this is nuts.  Freedom of speech isn't the same as Freedom FROM speech.  And Tony crossed the line.

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/tony/?read=194623

He tossed somebody who disagreed with him.  Came right out and said that pissing him off on his own board wasn't a good idea.  That disagreeing and arguing with him about this was not allowed.

He has, in short, become a censor. Big Brother.  A Nanny Message Board Owner.

The group we both belonged to?  He left.  After stating the could no longer read the venom and bile directed at Ellison and his Holy Crusade.   The sad thing here is that there wasn't any venom.  Nor bile.  Just some people asking questions.  All very civilized, as a matter of fact.  One person made a poor analogy, was called on it and he APOLOGIZED for it!  Copped to it and apologized!  Amazing for the internet...

Tony's parting shot at everyone before he hit 'send' and quit was that he was embarrassed and ashamed of us as comic fans.

Well, Tony...I am ashamed and disgusted with you.  I know you're on my Facebook Flist, and I believe that if you don't personally read this, someone from our mutual friends will point this out.  No attempt to talk nasty about you behind your back.

You don't combat ignorance with silence.  You don't combat a problem by turning your back.  You don't educate anyone with Censorship.  No matter how tired, cranky or close to the situation you are.  You were wrong in this, Tony.  100% totally wrong.

Shame on you.

(comments are open to non-LJ commentors.)

Regular readers will recall that last July, I had the pleasure of regaling you with the first, epic, TITANIC meeting between Baseball Boy (that would be me) and Dr. Botany and his loyal sidekick, The Sprout.  (If you haven't read about this Marvel-ous Event, I suggest you do so....)

Tom Lammers and his Undergraduate Intern something or other, Laura K. are in St. Louis, MO again, hanging out at the Missouri Botanical Gardens doing research, labelling, indexing, indentifying and other nefarious and scientific plant type stuff.   Given the close proximity of St. Louis and Central Missouri, Dr. Botany and The Sprout traveled here for a visit.  

We visited for a couple of hours, talking about plant stuff, travel stuff, comic stuff, painting stuff, and stuff stuff.  Turns out The Sprout has a neat part time gig being a corpse for Murder Parties.  Gets paid, fed and bumped off.  Only to rise again.  That probably explains why she loves Zombie Movies so much.  She identifies with them.

As an added bonus, Friend Eric came from Kansas City to join in the festivities.  Thus, we had three members in good standing of the oft-mentioned KirbyKomics Yahoo Group (and it's a bunch of Yahoo's in the group, lemme tell ya!).  I dunno if it counts as an official meeting or anything, but it sure as heck was fun.

After talking about all the "stuff" and making silly and funny remarks about our 17 pound cat (poor, Stoopid Polly), we loaded up in the Baseball-Mobile (or Mini-van, whatever suits you) and headed to HuHot for lunch.  Elaine went in her car as she had errands to run after lunch.  It was going on 2:00 pm (in the afternoon even!) and the place was pretty well packed.  After a short wait, we hit the line, hit it hard and enjoyed.  Mongolian Grill is so much fun, and so tasty....

After we bid Elaine adieu (sniff), we again piled into the Battle Wagon and headed to the Capital of the State of Missouri (Jefferson City) to The Antiquarium.  It's a comic shop and used book store that is one of those really neat, offbeat whacky places everyone should visit if given the chance.  Everybody except Eric bought something to read.  Tom went in looking for comics that he was looking for and found old Science books and such.  We spent close to an hour just looking around and talking with the owner.

After that, we headed to another landmark in Jeff City and that's Central Dairy.  It's an old ice cream parlor.  Green porcelain covered cinder blocks, wooden booths and more ice cream flavors than you can shake a dipper at.  The beauty of the place is that Central Dairy doesn't run this place to turn a huge profit.  A pint container of handipped ice cream is around $3 or so.  It's like 4 scoops of whatever you want.  Me?  I get strawberry cheesecake on the bottom and top it off with chocolate.  Woo Hoo! 

As it is never really too cold for ice cream, this seemed like the thing to do.  Even with the time that Eric had spent in Columbia, he'd never been to Central Dairy, so that was a treat for him as well.  Tom and Laura enjoyed it, and I always do.

Silliness aside, it was a terrific afternoon spent yakking about silly things that we all enjoy.  I look forward to more such fun adventures!

Evil, Inc. is hands down my favorite web comic.  That's most likely because it takes the storytelling conventions of Super-Hero comics and turns them on their ears.  It's funny, punny, and Brad Guigar the creator is one of the friendliest blokes you'd ever want to meet.

Word play abounds, good/bad gags are par for the course and the story keeps moving.  Add this to your Daily RSS feed (if you have one) and see what I mean.  It's hysterical, insightful and skewers the super-hero genre where it needs it most.

8:48 A.M. found me on the Gold Wing, zipping along I-70, somewhere between Columbia and Concordia, MO, the Brian Setzer Orchestra is a gonna "Rock This Town" and they are blaring their intentions out of the speakers as I was heading to Kansas City to go to the MoKan Comics Conspiracy (which is about the dumbest name for a convention I've every heard in all my born days...).   The black-eyed susans littered the side of the highway scenery, combined with a few smaller trees with leaves turning red, made for some pleasant visuals down the road.  The lack of rain, and bountiful sunshine also contirbuted.

Besides the funny book show, I was also going to see friend Eric, meet his friend Matt, and also be able to see Eric's charming and long suffering wife, Sarah and their two little boys.  I wheeled into Eric's driveway, stowed my motorcycle stuff, changed shoes, and away we went.  I learned from last year that engineer boots on conrete for several hours can be wearisome on my feet.  I started throwing money at dealers almost immediately upon  arrival, using my handy-dandy nerdy checklist to fill holes in my collection.  Very quickly, I filled one of the reusable grocery sacks I brought from home.  So, I felt the need to empty it out in Eric's car, and go back in to refill it.  Which I did, thank you.

In between bargain hunting, I spent some time being a geek and hanging around the comics creators (writers and artists).  Sergio Aragones and the entire Groo Crew were there.  I've never read any Groo.  It just never appealed to me.   But I have read some other stuff that Aragones wrote, so I stopped by to tell him how much I enjoyed the recent Bat Lash series, and his work on The Spirit.  Since the Spirit is something of a sacred cow of mine, comics wise, he had to be doing a good job.  I even had my picture taken with Sergio!  (click here...then come back!)

I have to admit that going through long boxes of comics, or digging through bargain bins, sort of makes me feel like a bit of a dumpster diver.  Especially in a Convention setting.  But, with all the nifty bargains I picked  up, I shouldn't complain.  Eric found some things he was looking for, including a small ton of comics for his not quite 2 year old son.  The little guy sits there and lets you read the whole darn comic book to him.  Apparently, he's riveted to them.  Which is a good thing.  Should help him learn to read on his own and appreciate the beauty of sequential art as a medium for telling stories.

Meeting Matt and his family was a real treat.  Matt is a friend of Eric's from Eric's Karate Club, and both are members of the KirbyKomics Group of Yahoo's, I mean Yahoo Group that I belong to, so that made for an interesting and fun get together.  My only regret is that Matt and family couldn't join us for dinner at this nifty German place in Independence.  A place called the Rheinland Restaurant and you know what?  I TRIED THE VEAL!!!

That's right!  I wasn't there all week, I did tip the waitress, and I tried the Veal!  Jagerschnitzel, to be exact.  Und it vas gutt! (Comic book German for ya, right there).  It was served with a side of Spatzle, and the whole thing was great.  Had I not been looking at a 120 mile ride home, I would've had some yummy dark German beer in a bucket big enough to dive in.  Alas, keeping what few wits about me whilst piloting the Gold Wing home won out, so I had Apple Cider instead.

Visiting with Eric and Sarah and getting a little caught up with them, in between paying attention to the kids was lots of fun.  I always enjoy seeing them and spending time with them.  I have got to get Elaine to go with me to the Rheinland.  She won't try the veal, but they have plenty of other stuff I believe she'd like.

The ride home was uneventful, which is a good thing.  I did realize that I had conflicted perspectives, often at the same moment.  Or so it seemed...I would look at the odomter, and marvel at how much ground I covered in what I thought was a short time.  I was going to get home so much sooner than I had originally thought.  Yay me!  Then again, I'd immediatley think, I've still got so far to go!  I'll never get home!  WAUGH!

I made it home in good time, hugged Elaine mightily (because I missed her) and pretty well collapsed in a tired puddle on the floor.  I'm getting too old for this sort of stuff.  :-)

A terrific song by Harry Chapin, BTW...

I am in the process of cleaning out the comic collection, getting rid of the stuff that doesn't fit in my collection perameters.  So far, I've had pretty good luck selling off a good chunk of my goal.  Yesterday, for example, I hauled the contents of this shopping cart to the local grocery store.  They are a post office substation, and do media mail shipping.  The  total weight of the comics I sent to one guy was over 120 pounds.  That, my friends, is a lot of comic books/magazines/comic related stuff.

This particular series is so hit and miss these days, that I'm never quite sure what to expect.  This issue had me chuckling at the cover, but that never means anything more in the DCU.  Covers these days don't always give you a serious indication of what is going on inside.  Sometimes, it's just Artists Wankarama making with pretty pictures that have nothing to do with the contents.  But..I wander off topic!

Superman is often described as The Big Blue Boy Scout.  Right or wrong, whatever it is that makes Big Blue the role model for other heroes, that's the perception.  Teaming him up with Catwoman, who can be a hero or a thief, depending on what time it is or what her mood is, sounds like a recipe for disaster.  However, that's not the case in this funny book.\

Selina Kyle is an interesting character, and seldom moreso than in this issue.  Most female characters in the DCU are too awestuck to react to Supes the way Kyle does.  Pure, unadulterated, primal lust.  She likes what she sees, and Clark being Clark, he doesn't know how to react to it.  He doesn't trust her (with reason) and he has his hands full.  The best bit is when they decide to crash an underworld auction in disguise.  Catwoman dresses Superman up like Clark, who is damn near beside himself with panic as a result.  Too funny.

In the end, Clark goes with his instincts.  Not about Catwoman, but regarding Batman.  Bruce trusts Selina and in the end, that's enough for Clark.  If you want to read a comical comic book, this would be the issue to grab.

Talk about psyched!  There was some material from this on the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD I reviewed recently.  it was quite rough, yet very entertaining...I'm stoked about this release.  Probably as much as I was about Justice League: The New Frontier

EDIT:  Changed to YouTube version....