Category: News

Just in from the AP:

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan authorities plan to impose fines on cable television companies that refuse to stop airing the animated television series “Family Guy.”

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami says the program should be pulled from the airwaves because it promotes the use of marijuana.

He said Thursday that cable networks that broadcast “Family Guy” would be fined by Venezuela’s telecommunications regulator if they refuse to dump the program.

And you all know what the folks at Family Guy think about that sort of thing, right?

You don’t? Maestro, take it away…

If you haven’t seen it, here’s the episode in question.

Jesse Ventura was elected governor, so why couldn’t a costumed mystery man serve in the U.S. Senate?

Paul Kirk, the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s temporary replacement, shares a name but (probably) not the predilection for vigilante crime-fighting, with Manhunter, a DC character with an interesting history. 

In the comics, Paul Kirk used decides to become a crimefighter when his friend, Empire City
police inspector Donovan, was murdered by the supervillain known as the
Buzzard. He wore a superhero-like red costume with a blue mask. While
he had no superpowers, he was an above average athlete and possessed
superior tracking skills. Later, he went off to become a big-game hunter, but was killed by an elephant, then brought back to life by a secret society intent on ruling the world (insert obligatory Obama/ACORN reference here) and set up to lead an army of clones of him, but he rebelled and brought down the Council in a story chronicled by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson.

That doesn’t seem to describe the real-world Paul Kirk, but who knows? He could be a man of hidden talents.

Or it could be yet another one of those Paul Kirk clones running around…

There was a lot going on today, so let’s see if we can get these Quick Picks done in ComicMix Six words or less.

• A lawyer explains the Kirby lawsuit.
• Heroes ratings nosedive, its worst ever.
• Peanuts lookalike kids can win big.
• Daredevil movie reboot coming, no Affleck.
• Whedon confirms Buffy: Season 9 comic.
• Ghost Rider 2 wheelie-ing into theatres.
  
• Obama cover fad jumps the shark.

What was missed? Comments are open.

Remember Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg? Roy Crane’s Buz
Sawyer and Captain Easy? Alex
Toth? How about much of that beautiful black and white art in Warren’s
magazines Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat?

The one thing they all had in common – along with a hell
of a lot of other great art – is the fact that they were drawn on Duoshade
boards. That’s a certain rather expensive type of paper that allowed an artist
to brush a developer solution over an inked drawing creating different types of
horizontal lines for shading. Originally, they boards replaced the painstaking
task of cutting and pasting the effect onto the original art. It allowed certain
types of dramatic shading and feathering techniques (that’s a line that
consists of teensy tiny lines, giving a softer edge to that line).

Note my use of the past tense.

Now Graphix, the company that makes Duoshade boards (as
well as the Unishade boards, which is a similar type of stuff) has discontinued
production because production has grown more difficult and costly to produce
and demand as declined over the years. Younger artists use their computers –
not necessarily a complete substitute – and many are unaware of the existence
of the product.

Sadly, this comes at a time when the reproduction of comic
art in America has never been better. In the past, some of these types of
effects would close up or turn to mud. With better printing and better paper,
Duoshade – when properly used – gave us some beautiful artwork.

Yep, it’s that time of year again, it’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day, an important holiday in the Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Extra points if you conduct your Rosh Hashanah services while talking like a pirate.

If you need pointers, watch this:

In honor of this sacred day, I’m curling up with a bottle of rum.