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Man Fired By Drunken Lemurs

  • News
  • December 20, 2007

 

Well, the bad news is, a Fort Madison Iowa casino worker got fired for posting a Dilbert comic strip (above) on a company bulletin board.

David Steward told the local unemployment compensation judge that he felt the strip would help cheer people up after the casino dismissed 170 employees on its way to going out of business. No great long-term loss to Steward, as his job was going blooie as well. The casino’s human resources director said management was highly offended by Steward’s action. Evidently, they only had a short time to take umbrage.

The good news is, the unemployment compensation judge sided with Steward. It was a "good-faith error in judgment," the judge said. He’ll get his unemployment comp, along with the other employees who lost their jobs.

 

An Agnostic’s Christmas, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • December 20, 2007

It’s an odd time of year if you’re an agnostic. It’s especially odd if you’re a church-going agnostic like myself. Oh, I suppose it could be said that Christmas is an odd time of year for everyone one way or another. We rush around spending money we don’t really have buying gifts for people, some of whom we don’t really like. Amidst the desperate scurry, we try to convince ourselves that it really is the happiest time of year and, for some, perhaps it is.

Christmas isn’t just a “holiday” in the sense that the Fourth of July is a holiday. It’s a holiday in the sense of being a “holi-day” – a holy day. It celebrates the day Jahweh became Jesus; the day that, according to the story told, God came off His (Her) mountain and incarnated as a mortal child, a baby boy. That’s what underlines the whole Christmas concept. The mythology has that at its root.

The existence of Jesus (as a mortal) I can buy; the existence of Yahweh (or any other god), not so much.

Aside: before anyone starts chiming in about the pagan roots of Christmas, I know all about that. I don’t believe in your gods, either. And few if any folks are celebrating the pagan rituals; if they still have meaning, it’s only because the majority of people see them in a Christian or quasi-Christian context. Yes, the Church swiped your ideas and co-opted them. Get over it. (more…)

Spears’ Parenting Book Deal Off

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

The Reuters headline says it all:

Spears’ parenting book off after teen pregnancy

Their lead paragraph:  "A Christian publisher said on Wednesday it has called off a parenting book written by Lynne Spears — the mother of troubled pop star Britney Spears and her pregnant 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn."

Don’t you just hate it when somebody drops a bomb on you right before Christmas?

2000 AD, Straight To You

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

You’ve heard about 2000 AD<span style=”font-style:

normal”> – most recently, on ComicMix Radio. I doubt that there’s been a more influential comic book published in the past three decades. Cutting edge at the outset, the various series launched in 2000 AD were as different from the norm as Marvel was from DC back in 1961.

I was lucky enough to read the first, oh, couple hundred issues of the weekly publication from the very first issue (OK, prog), as friend, fan and later 2000 AD editor Richard Burton sent ‘em to me with a note saying “Hey, look at this!” Since then, the weekly became the showcase for a lot of the best talent to appear in the medium. A complete list would frighten you, but at least I can provide a short and highly incomplete list: Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Ian Gibson, Brendan McCarthy, Kevin O’Neill, Bryan Talbot, Alan Davis… good grief, the list goes on forever.

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Harry Potter goes to South Park

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

harry_potter___south_park_by_sam_x_frank-1225224Deviant Art, a website devoted to the “art and skin community” (i.e. tattoos and other cool stuff) has a post today that combines two of 2007’s most popular fictional locations. Posted by Sam, who seems to be something of a Potterphile (including his favorite Wii game), it contains 45 of J. K. Rowling’s finest.

“This is basically a thing I started when I was bored and it developed, and developed…” says Sam, in case you couldn’t tell.

Besides South Park and Potter, Sam’s a fan of My Chemical Romance, which may be the new geek trifecta.

 

Don’t Count David Tennant Out

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

According to Outpost Gallifrey, don’t put too much into all those rumors about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who at the end of this season.

Last week, co-star Catherine Tate told famed British broadcaster Jonathan Ross (In Search Of Steve Ditko) she thought that 2008 might be Tennant’s last. Last night, Tennant told the BBC’s Richard Bacon "It’s a decision I’ve not been forced to make, so I’m just going to play my cards close to my chest as long as I can. Despite what Catherine might have you believe, I haven’t made any decision about the next series yet."

Tennant confirmed he will be staring in four extra-long dramas in the year following the next season, allowing him to fulfill his stage commitments. After that, it’s anybody’s guess.

In an unrelated matter, the London Daily Mail is reporting Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders may be taking on the role of Doctor Who for a special episode. If she does, she’ll be joining AbFab co-star Joanna Lumley as the only female doctors; Ms. Lumley joined Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent at the Doctor in Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, which some consider to be outside regular continuity.

More of My Favorite Things, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • December 19, 2007

elayne100-5596635The combination of my temporary unemployment and inclement weather has enabled me to catch up on my DC comp box reading, so I can finally pick up where I left off a few weeks back. Mind you, I was looking at October books at the time and since then the November box came in. Still, a couple of the same caveats apply as last time — I haven’t seen the comics from the last few weeks, which gives me a bit of a headache when Robin gets his Suicide Squad advance comps and the issue in question (#4, in stores now) cross-references an important plot point in a Checkmate issue I’ve yet to see. So a lot of these observations will be about the issue prior to the one most comic fans have already seen, but in most cases the artists are the same.

Also, as before, I won’t cover every artist who did a good or serviceable job, just the ones I considered my very favorites of this most recent batch. Any omissions are not to be taken as an assumption that I didn’t like other stuff. And yes, I’m still talking more about how the art affected me viscerally than using technical vocabulary, which makes these more overviews than reviews per se. I miss full-on reviewing, but I just don’t seem to have the time any more.

While I stopped at the letter "F" last time, I wanted to mention a couple books which hadn’t come out at the time. Onward, then:

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Archie, Judge Dredd, and Elves!

 Kids, Grab Your Wallets!

It’s the last shipping week before Christmas, and the Funny Book Elves have unloaded an avalanche of new comics and DVDs. ComicMix Radio gives you the inside intel needed to make you ready to shop! Plus:

• 2000 AD finally gets into the 21st century

• Larry Hama is back and he brought some Spooks

• Archie has a new Editor-In-Chief

And some of our  own brand of holiday cheer awaits you, too, once you… Press The Button!

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special fan film

  • News
  • December 18, 2007

lobo3-4068797So we first told you about this back in August. You’ve probably expunged it from your memory already, and you need it, now more than ever. So we re-present to you the video adaptation of The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, and Simon Bisley, now all in one piece and with a nice Christmas border.

(Do we really have to tell you that it’s not safe for work or kids? NOT SAFE FOR– ah, you know.)

Driving The Big Boat, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • December 18, 2007

Maybe we ought to retire the word “hero” and designate the characters whose needs and actions drive the story, more technically and accurately, as “the protagonist.”

(You’ve guessed that we’re continuing our incredibly prolonged discussion of the evolution of superheroes?  Good.)

As mentioned in an earlier installment of this blather, the word “hero” is derived from the Greek and means, roughly, “to protect and serve.”  (Lest anyone think I’m a scholarly dude who actually knows Greek…I wish!) The problem nowadays is defining exactly how the protection and service is to be accomplished.  In other words, what kind of person do you admire, and why do they do what they do?  Who do you favor mor e– Mother Theresa or the late Colonel David Hackworth, our most decorated combat veteran?

I never met the good nun, but I did spend an hour or so with Colonel Hackworth once and liked him very much.  I don’t think I would have enjoyed Theresa’s company a whole lot.  But maybe she was the more heroic of the two, if we count heroism as doing deeds that take courage and accomplish long-term good.  Going out every day to deal with disease and poverty…it must have taken guts and it can’t have been easy.  Easier than facing enemy guns?  I have no idea what measurement we can use to quantify such things.  Maybe there is none.

Col. Hackworth did what he did repeatedly and must have often known what he was getting into and, presumably, chose to do it anyway.  But I’m wary of heaping too many accolades on folk who, in a military situation, do one brave thing because…

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