Category: News

Via Chris Ryall at IDW Publishing, we have this drawing by John Byrne, featuring Popeye and an Uncanny X-team, too.

C’mon, you never once looked at those forearms and thought to yourself, “Stinkin’ mutie”? With forearms that big, to heck with retractable claws– he could have a whole retractable wolverine in there. Nevertheless, this is not how I imagined Byrne returning to the X-Men.

Colors by Leonard O’Grady.

We begin our look at the new film, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, first talking with creators Kami Garcia and Margret Stohl, then director Richard LaGravenese who moved the project from book to film and actor Jeremy Irons who steps into a key role. Plus Marvel tries its hand at the romance game and the JLA movie hits a road block.

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This is going to be old news by the time you’re reading this, but as a card-carrying DFH I am still obsessing over the gender and racial politics of the Super Bowl. And also the nerd politics.

First, a disclaimer: I’ve never been able to figure out football. Even when my son played it in high school, I couldn’t understand the rules. I know there are two teams fighting over a ball. I know there “downs,” and they matter. I know it isn’t soccer, which I do understand. So I’m only watching for the commercials, and because every other television station has surrendered and is running reruns.

(And even then, I switched to the Law & Order marathon on TNT occasionally, especially during the black-out.)

The commercials were depressing.

And they were depressing for a lot of reasons. For one, they weren’t very good. I get that, for the most part, they aren’t aimed at me, an older woman who isn’t into beer and lives in a city where she doesn’t have to own a car.

(I should say, however, that if anyone could manipulate me into buying a car, it’s <a href=”

Hamm and Willem Dafoe.)

So, yeah, there were commercials that tugged our heartstrings, with tear-jerking odes to soldiers and farmers and horses.

There were celebrities making unexpected appearances, like Oprah and Seth Rogan and Kelly Cuoco and Tracy Morgan and Paul Rudd. And, most surprising, dead Paul Harvey.

There were ads for summer movies, which are fun to see when it’s cold out.

There was the gross Go Daddy ad, which I believe is deliberately bad so we’ll talk about it, and therefore I’m going to stop now.

On average, the ads celebrate bros. The people in the ads are men who drink beer and eat chips and drive around. If there are women, they are either unobtainable sex objects (who are obtainable if you use Axe body spray or drink Budweiser) or affectionate scolds. It is as if to be a woman is to be the responsible adult, and that is to be avoided at all costs. A real man has no impulse control, and if he’s successful, women will take care of him.

If this is what men want, that’s really sad. I would be more inclined to believe that it’s what the advertisers want men to want, and so they try to sell this attitude along with their product. Or maybe the lowest common denominator is lower than I thought.

As a palate cleanser, you might enjoy this. I can’t say the men in the ad are particularly my type (big pecs don’t do it for me), but the ad is funny, to the point, and assumes a certain amount of intelligence in the target audience.

The other thing I learned from the Super Bowl this year is that, even though my initial reaction was that making this movie was a stupid idea, I desperately need to see The Lone Ranger.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman and the Comic Book Industry of the Future!

I’ve already received e-mails about this. Encouraging me to go nuclear on DC Comics’ for hiring Orson Scott Card to write a story for the new Adventures of Superman digital comic, as reported by IGN.

The first two chapters are by Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston, Chris Sprouse and Karl Story, the third by Jeff Parker and Chris Samnee; teling of Superman’s first meeting with Lex Luthor. Future chapters include work by Dan Abnett. Ed Benes, Mitch Breitweise, Giuseppe Camuncol, Nathan Edmondso, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Christos N. Gage, Marc Guggenheim, Justin Jordan, Matt Kindt, JT Krul , Max Landis, Andy Lanning, David Lapham, Jeff Lemire, Michael Avon Oeming, Riley Rossmo, Stephen Segovia, Bruce Timm, Marcus To and Marv Wolfman.

But Orson Scott Card is on the board of directors for National Organization for Marriage, an association committed to stopping the legalisation of gay marraige. And as a result of this, and a number of unpleasant statements he’s made regarding the issue of homosexuality, has been the subject of a number of boycotts. And it looks as if one is brewing for this Superman story.

I think that’s wrong.

There are a number of comic book creators who believe something very different to what I do. Some of those beliefs offend me. Sometimes they even inform their art, something that Card is unlikely to be accused of in Superman.

Some try to draw a line between an opionated person and an activist. I disagree, any famous person who expresses an opinion, especially in this day and age, de facto becomes an activist for that opinion.

It’s a very dangerous game, it has led in the past to witchtrials, McCarthyite or otherwise, and it’s no better than the actions of, say, One Million Moms. And next time? It could be you…

You won’t need magical powers to take a journey down the Yellow Brick Road; just point your favorite browser to the latest Chrome Experiment, “Find Your Way to Oz.” Developed in collaboration with Disney and UNIT9 in anticipation of the upcoming film, Oz The Great and Powerful, this experiment takes you through a dusty Kansas circus and leads to a vibrant land, following in the footsteps of the Wizard himself.

Like any good circus, there’s plenty to keep you entertained: compose your own music, play with a fun photo booth and create your own movie with a zoetrope. The path to Oz also involves confronting an ominous tornado; surviving it completes the journey, enabling fans of the movie to watch an exclusive unreleased clip from the film.

Chrome Experiments like “Find Your Way to Oz” would have been impossible a few years ago. Since that time, the web has evolved and allowed developers and designers to create immersive beautiful experiences. For “Find Your Way to Oz” the 3D environment was built entirely with new technologies such as WebGL and CSS3. It’s enhanced by rich audio effects thanks to the Web Audio Application Programming Interface (API). The photo booth and zoetrope were built using the getUserMedia feature of WebRTC, which grants webpages access to your computer’s camera and microphone (with your permission).

For the best experience, you’ll need to use an up-to-date computer built to handle intense graphics. It also works best with a webcam and a modern browser that supports WebGL and WebRTC, like Chrome. The experience also works best on For tablet or smartphone users, we have a smaller scale yet equally enjoyable experience that you can try with the latest Chrome browser on your Android device, iPhone or iPad.

If you want to learn more, or run away and join the developer circus, you can get an explanation of the technologies used on the Chromium blog or in Google’s technical case study.

Start your journey towards the yellow brick road at www.findyourwaytooz.com.