Brad Guigar’s Evil Inc. comic strip was bound to be noticed by the people at Fox Business News sooner or later, it’s their kind of company. So yesterday, Brad was interviewed by the standard Fox News panel of a blond guy, a brunette guy, and a blonde woman on their show Happy Hour yesterday. Since Fox won’t let you embed video– I guess they really need the traffic– you can watch it on Brad’s site.
Now if you want scary, I suspect there are more people reading Brad’s strip daily than are watching Fox Business News…
On this day in 1921 the Great Bird Of The Galaxy, Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, was born in El Paso, Texas. Gene was known as a writer for Dragnet, Naked City, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Lieutenant, The Questor Tapes, Genesis II, Planet Earth, andStrange New World.
Oh, all right, Star Trek, Earth: Final Conflict, and Andromeda. And even a few comics series– don’t tell me you don’t remember Gene Roddenberry’s Lost Universe from Tekno Comics?
He died in 1991 and his ashes are in orbit now, so when we say the Great Bird Of The Galaxy watches over us, we aren’t kidding. Thanks again for letting us all play in your world.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and he ponders what would different systemic international relations theories predict regarding the effects of a zombie outbreak:
Now, some would dispute whether neoconservatism is a
systemic argument, but let’s posit that it’s a coherent IR theory. To
its credit, the neoconservatives would recognize the zombie threat as
an existential threat to the human way of life. Humans are from Earth,
whereas zombies are from Hades — clearly, neoconservatives would argue, zombies hate us for our freedom not to eat other humans’ brains.
While
the threat might be existential, accomodation or recognition are not
options. Instead, neocons would quickly gear up an aggressive response
to ensure human hegemony.
However, the response would likely be to invade and occupy the central
state in the zombie-affected area. After creating a human outpost in
that place, humans in neighboring zombie-affected countries would be
inspired to rise up and overthrow their own zombie overlords. Alas,
while this could happen, a more likely outcone would be that,
after the initial “Mission Accomplished” banner had been raised, a
fresh wave of zombies would rise up, enmeshing the initial landing
force — which went in too light and was drawn down too quickly — in a
protracted, bloody stalemate.
I’m waiting for the feminist theory of zombies any day n– whoops, never mind, Annalee Newitz has been there, done that, and eaten the brains. Maybe we can do something with Sarah Palin…
Via Cynopsis Digital: Google is now enabling authors
and publishers who sign off under various Creative Commons licenses to
distribute their works for free using the Google Books platform. The highest profile comic-book that would be immediately eligible for inclusion would be Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now comic miniseries from IDW Publishing.
The
Creative Commons organization has been busy this year launching programs
like the
Attribution-ShareAlike agreement with Wikipedia that enables
interoperability between Wikipedia licenses. This new alliance allows
independent writers, artists and publishers, both existing Google Partners and
non-partners, to distribute, commercialize and protect the reuse of their
works. It’s a flexible license built for the digital age, with settings
that authorize creative remixes and mash-ups that give credit where
credit is due.
Books that have been made available under a CC license
have been marked with a matching logo on the book’s left hand navigation
bar, allowing users to download the books and share them freely. “If
the rightsholder has chosen to allow people to modify their work, readers
can even create a mashup - say, translating the book into Esperanto,
donning a black beret, and performing the whole thing to music on
YouTube,” writes Xian Ke, Associate Product manager, Google Books in
a
blog post.
Google says representatives of the Book Rights Registry
intend to allow rightsholders to distribute CC-licensed works for free,
pending court approval of a settlement. In the meantime, Creative Commons
proponents such as
Lawrence Lessig have make their works available on Google Books using
the CC licenses.
Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all.
• Mark of the Demon signed by author Diana Rowland
• Child of Firesigned by author Harry Connolly
• Luck in the Shadows signed by author Lynn Flewelling
• Black and White signed by authors Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge
• G.I. Joe vs. Cobrasigned by author Pablo Hidalgo
• Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi/Death Troopers Double-sided Promotional Posters signed by authors Aaron Allston, Christie Golden and Troy Denning
• Star Wars-The Essential Atlas signed by authors Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry
• G.I. Joe Above and Beyond signed by author Max Allan Collins
• The Comic-Con Exclusive: Talisman Issue #0 signed by colorist Nei Ruffino
• Mirrored Heavens signed by author David J. Williams
All you have to do is submit your name, email
address, mailing address and which prize you would like to win to info@suvudu.com between 12:00 AM on August 10, 2009 and 12:00 AM on August 21, 2009.
Remember, kids: even if it’s your name, you’re not always (W)right.
UPDATE 4:30 PM: Mike Weber notes below that the original link above no longer works. It seems that a lot of people took him to task, but what apparently shamed him into changing was someone pointing out what his recently adopted Catholic Church has to say on the matter:
“It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object
of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves
condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a
kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental
principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person
must always be respected in word, in action and in law.”
– “On The Pastoral Care Of Homosexual Persons”, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Accordingly, Wright has taken down the original post, and I feel no further need to shame him about it, preferring to believe that he’s going to try and reconcile the matter in his heart and with his God.
“The Comix4Sight.com benefit for comics veteran John Ostrander has raised $31,322.00 thus far,” committee co-chairperson Mike Gold revealed today. “And we still have more than 100 great pieces of original art, signed books and prints, and manuscripts to auction off!”
“Contributions are continuing to pour in, even after the benefit at the Chicago Comic-Con,” program coordinator Adriane Nash stated. “In the past several days, we’ve received material from Paul Gulacy, Jason Owen, golden age great Fran Matera, the cast of The Simpsons, and so much more.”
“The auction held last week at the Chicago Comic-Con raised half the current total in about two hours,” Nash continued. “We wouldn’t have had time to present everything if we had all night.
“Details about the upcoming auctions, including a full schedule of sales, will be posted online at www.comix4sight.com beginning Wednesday August 19th. As we’ve stated, we will donate any excess revenue to other comics professionals suffering from major vision issues or to The Hero Initiative, whose help and assistance has been critical to our success,” Nash concluded.
A 27-year veteran of the comics field, Ostrander is undergoing a series of operations and medical treatments to fight off blindness and glaucoma. “The response from the entire comics community has been overwhelming,” Gold noted. “The cost of these John’s procedures has been through the roof and are only partially covered by insurance.”
The Comix4Sight.com committee includes Nash, Gold, writer Gail Simone, and getthepointradio.com’s Mike and Kai Raub. Auctioneers included WGN-AM radio news director Charlie Meyerson, artist Hilary Barta, comics/movie attorney Ken Levin, and yours truly. Monetary contributions are also gratefully accepted by check or through PayPal at Comix4Sight.com. Individuals and corporations interested in making contributions should send them to:
Mike Gold and Adriane Nash
arrogantMGMS
304 Main Avenue, #194
Norwalk, CT 06851
A full list of contributors will be posted at Comix4Sight.com.
Some days, the headlines just write themselves.
First, we had the worry about 
Via 
The title is a killer: 
“The 
