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MacInTalk and why I love the Internet, part XLIII

So I’m watching WALLE, and I’m thinking to myself that the voice of the ship, AUTO, is real familiar, and so I call up IMDB. And lo and behold, it is familair– it’s MacInTalk. The happy folks at Pixar tipped their hats to Apple (gee, can’t imagine why).

Then I look deeper. Dang, IMDB gave MacInTalk its own character page. Very neat.

And then I scrolled down to the message boards, and I saw the various comments…

Met him last night…
Macintalk for Best Supporting Actor!

This guy is in every fcking movie!
So overrated.

People say I look like him!!

Is it true he’s dating Keira Knightly?

I think I read that somewhere. Maybe People magazine? I don’t know but it would be cool if it was true!

He’s quite the player. He’s also been seen with Agnes, Kathy, Princess, Vicki and Victoria, as well as Trinoids, Zarvox, Pipe Organ and Bahh. There are even rumors about him and his pet dogcow, Clarus.

You people are all insane! MacInTalk and Keira have repeatedly DENIED any relationship. All this kind of talk does is further confuse people who’ll readily believe anything they read. CAN’T YOU LEAVE THEM IN PEACE? Anyway, MacInTalk was seen in Ibiza two weeks ago snuggling up to Salma Hayek on the beach, so you can make up your own mind about that …

Nude pictures – real?

Oh, that is SO photoshopped. FAKE!! Can’t you see it’s Mac’s (read/write) head on a Hitachi platter and chassis?

You don’t even want to know about discussion of the sex tape on Robby The Robot’s page.

Convention Cookies

Conventions are an excellent place to catch a glimpse of your favorite celebrities, hear the latest gossip on your favorite shows, and buy as much awesome stuff as you possibly can. Conventions are not, however, renowned for their food. While finding an affordable and delicious balanced meal can be difficult when you are away at a con, you can certainly bring along something more exciting than a bag of chips and some stale licorice for snacking. So if you’re going to the The New England Webcomics Weekend 2009 or Lunacon this weekend, here are two of my time tested favorite cookie recipes and an easy no-bake snack.

Amazingly Easy Convention Crunchies

3 cups healthy unsweetened or lightly sweetened crunchy cereal (Kashi, All-Bran, Cheerios, etc.)
1 12oz bag of baking morsels (chocolate, butterscotch, etc.)

In microwave safe container, melt morsels on medium. Stop every 20 seconds to stir. When all chips melt and stir easily, it is ready (microwaves vary).

Put cereal in a large mixing bowl.

Pour melted morsels over cereal and coat as evenly as possible.

Spread mixture on wax paper to cool (about 2 hours)

Break up into cookie-sized pieces and store in airtight container. Refrigerate if desired.
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The Un-Ethics of Watchmen Part III: Dance of the Philosophers

For parts 1 and 2 of this article, go here and here.

Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test , edited by Mark D. White from CUNY’s College of Staten Island and a veteran of Wiley’s (Blackwell’s) Philosophy and Pop Culture series, is a volume with results as mixed as the characters in its subject matter, but not nearly as dark. Philosophers are generally optimists and idealists, by character (unless you’re a grumpy nihilistic existentialist, like Camus or Sartre).

This volume happens to be heavy on professors and related professionals from the NY area (6 out of 17 contributors), a comics mecca, but has no dearth of experts from around the world (UK, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Venezuela). All but one are at least part-time academics. The book itself (trade paperback, 227 pp., $17.95/$19.95 Canada) has solid production values, a good table of contents and index, and snappy little contributor bios, complete with Watchmen in-jokes.

I wish it had a glossary and story summary included amongst its study aids. Some of the articles are overly verbose in their explanations, to my mind – get to the point! But this is always one of my irritations with academia, even as an academic in one aspect of my life, myself. Say it simply, succinctly, and straight-forwardly, especially in a volume aimed at the every-person who wants to expand their knowledge and experience of the genre they’re reading or viewing. But what most of the authors have to say is thoughtful, insightful, and has some meat for comic book carnivores to gnaw on. Of course, this volume would mean nearly nothing to someone who hasn’t read the novel or seen the movie, despite its solid philosophical groundings, as the world and the characters and their dilemmas are essential to the whole discussion, some of which has been going on since Watchmen was first released more than 20 years ago. This is a bone people love to chew on and probably one of the reasons why Time magazine included it on its list of the 100 Greatest American Novels of All Time.

White saved the best article for last and it couldn’t be categorized, so ended up in the otherwise weaker catch-all final section, “This is not your father’s comic book”. It is by Finnish contributor Taneli Kukkonen. He focuses on Rorschach, our point of view character, and The Comedian, our two characters who’re the least ethical, rough around the edges, to say the least, and the ideas of irony, jokes, and humour in general are all seen through the lens of Kierkegaard, a Finnish Philosophical hero (and considered the founder of the school of Existentialism, but without the nihilism that would later creep into it).

Kukkonen’s brilliant writing and exposition of Kierkegaard and Watchmen in light of this philosopher almost seduces you into believing that Rorschach really is wholly ethical and therefore a real good guy. So close!

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How to make a Dr. Manhattan cocktail

From The Eaten Path:

Ingredients:

2 oz. clove-infused gin
1 oz. dry vermouth
1/2 oz. St Germain
Splash of blue curacao
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Place several ice cubes in a mixing glass or cocktail shaker. Don’t skimp on the ice (I use about five cubes per drink), as Dr. Manhattan is to be served straight. Chill a glass on the side by filling it with ice or placing it in the freezer.

Add 2 oz. of clove-infused gin, then 1 oz. of dry vermouth. Follow with 1/2 oz. of St. Germain (the good Doctor still knows how to love, after all). Throw in a couple dashes of Peychaud’s bitters- I use Peychaud’s instead of Angostura because of their red hue and less punchy flavor. Finally, add just a bit of blue curaçao, enough to give the drink a crystal blue tinge without making the end result too sweet. Stir all of the ingredients thoroughly (I usually stir for half a minute or so) to ensure that they are well mixed and well chilled. This drink does not get better as it gets warmer.

Strain the mixture into the chilled glass and serve immediately.

Serve with a giant blue swizzle stick. The blueberries are optional.

Drink enough of these, and the morality of your actions will escape you too.

Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month, part two

To the list of Wolverine artists that we’re appreciating because Marvel isn’t, it seems we sadly must now add Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein.

Why? Because of this cover. The Washington Post lists the artist as Morry Hollowell, completely skipping over the work of the original artists.

Unless they’re really trying for the Pop Art thing by not acknowledging the original artists…? Hey, it worked for Roy.

ComicMix Quick Picks – March 18, 2009

natasharichardson-5425275Some items from the past few days:

  • Sad news: Natasha Richardson, scion of the famous Redgrave acting family and star of the film adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale, has died from injuries suffered in a skiing accident. Our condolences go out to her husband Liam Neeson, their two boys, and the rest of their family.
     
  • David Prowse, the body of Darth Vader and the man who got Christopher Reeve bulked up to play Superman, is completing treatment for prostate cancer.
     
  • Family Guy has won its lawsuit against a music publisher that claimed that the allegedly anti-Semitic lyrics of “I Need a Jew” damaged the reputation of their song, “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the Disney film Pinocchio. The song and the episode in which it appears, “Once Upon a Weinstein,” have faced accusations of anti-Semitism before. Fox refused to show the episode when it was originally produced; audiences didn’t get to see it until 2003, when Cartoon Network broadcast it.
     
  • In other legal news, German book publishers are suing file sharing readers. Not ISPs… readers. German book publishers’ association leader Alexander Skipis said "his group intends to keep German courts busy with thousands of lawsuits. He also called P2P file sharing "organized crime" and lamented that politicians were ignoring the impact illegal downloads were having on book publishers."
     
  • And in case you missed it: Neil Gaiman on The Colbert Report.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Amy Goldschlager is an editor at findingDulcinea, the Librarian of the Internet, and SweetSearch, the smarter search engine.

What was your most profitable comic collecting find?

One of the details in the story of Action Comics #1 sells for $317,200 was that the person selling the book found it in a second-hand store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old, and bought it for 35 cents. Obviously, he’s the current all-time champ in the single issue category, with Chuck Rozanski holding the award for bulk purchases with the Mile High Collections.

But it occurs to me that most collectors have at least one great find in their collections. The issue to the right is mine, Man Of War #1, from 1940, which my father and I found in a coin collectors store in Lake Ronkonkoma in the late 70’s-early 80’s. I bought it for $3, and it’s worth about $1000 today. At the same store, I also bought a copy of the first edition of the Overstreet Price Guide, which is worth a few hundred bucks now as well.

How about you? What was your greatest find?

Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month

Marvel’s press release:

Marvel is proud to announce that in honor of Wolverine‘s 35th anniversary, numerous Marvel titles will feature Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant Covers in April, as part of Wolverine Art Appreciation Month. In the tradition of Marvel’s previous variant cover programs, featuring everything from villains to zombies to monkeys, select Marvel titles will feature variant covers spotlighting the most popular X-Man through a unique lens! Inspired by some of the world’s greatest artists, these variant covers depict Wolverine like you’ve never seen him before, in styles reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and more!

"This is a huge year for Wolverine as he proves why he’s arguably one of the most popular characters in the world," explained Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief. "He’s not just popular with fans but also with artists, as evidenced by how many of today’s top comic artists jockey for a chance to draw him. This got us thinking: what if Wolverine had been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years? What great, classic artists would want a crack at drawing a Wolverine cover?"

We here at ComicMix are hereby starting Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month. This will pay tribute to the great, classic artists that have gone into creating Wolverine over the years, yet somehow are not getting their fair share from Marvel over the character to which they contributed so much, and who have been underappreciated in so many other ways.

So please, take a moment to thank:

In particular, if you’d like to honor the late great Dave Cockrum, please consider purchasing some of his file copy comic books from his estate to help his widow Paty. The list of available books is here.

The bright side to low second weekend ticket sales for ‘Watchmen’

The conversation between Mike Gold and myself:

MG: Actually, it’s probably a good thing that the numbers for Watchmen this past weekend weren’t so great.

GH: Okay, why? I mean, it’s not a flop, it’ll still make its money back, even if it’s no blockbuster.

MG: Exactly. If it was a blockbuster, they’d be more tempted to make a sequel.

GH: …point well made.