Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

CBR With News from the Emerald City (ComiCon)

Some highlights:

• Bendis insists that he hasn’t seen a correct guess to the identity of the “Mystery Avenger.” Let’s see… it’s kind of an all-star cast of the Marvel Universe with Cap, Iron Man, Spidey, and Wolverine. The mystery Avenger appears to know martial arts. He’s holding his hands on the cover in a way that could be a martial arts stance… or like a mystic would as he casts a spell. Without the Witch, they are a little light in the magic department. And that Dr. Strange fella is a martial artist, and he did pretty much wrap up and finish everything in Avengers Disassembled. So, I’m thinking all the signs point to…Dr. Doom (what other world class mystic would need to cover their face?). ^_^
• Interestingly enough, the longest line of the convention was for Jhonen Vasquez (creator of “Johnny the Homicidal Maniac” and “Invader Zim”). He also wins the prize for the most rabid fans. I even heard one of the bigger publishers say, “Damn. We’ve really got to get some of that Goth money.”
• “Golden Agers”–a retirement home heroes mini-epic by Robert Kirkman and Scott Kurtz.
• Kurt Busiek’s working the Conan series toward the adaptation of Howards’ “Tower of the Elephant.”
• DC recently “found” a Batman/Clayface story written and drawn by Mike Mignola sixteen years ago. How the heck do you lose something like that?

And there’s a lot more at the CBR article.

• Batman Begins is off to a decent start. At least the trailer made me want to go see it, which is the primary goal of a trailer. It’s odd…I’ve seen trailers out there that seem to forget that. It can’t be that hard to look through some footage and think to yourself, “What would make me want to go see this movie?” Could it? Oh well, I’ll have to investigate that another day.
• Also on the trailer front, Brian Frey chats with Comic Book Resources about the “Battle Hymn” trailer being used to promote this new Image mini-series by that B. Clay Moore writing/marketing fella.
• Super Bowl. Close game for a moment there at the end, but the game itself felt weird. Was it just me or did it seem like the teams weren’t really hitting that hard in the game? Maybe I’ve just grown numb to the violence.
• Speaking of the Super Bowl and it’s halftime show by Paul McCartney… February 7th (today in my little corner of the world as the clock rolls past midnight) was the day the Beatles first arrived in the United States waaay back in 1964.
• Spook’d #11 is up. Probing documentarian Alastor uncovers some secret footage of the Monster League’s cruel attempts to increase their popularity.

• Vampire Hunter D manga gets the translation treatment and will be published here in the U.S. by Dark Horse.
• Wish I could have made it to this convention this weekend. Maybe next year…
• Black Canary…Green Arrow…Justice League Unlimited…pretty fun episode. For television animation, that Canary fight scene at the beginning of the show was really good. If you missed it, I recommend giving it a watch if they replay the episode this week.
• Opening a soda bottle while driving down a twisty, curvy, hilly backroad isn’t really a safe thing to do.
• Super Bowl prediction: Philadelphia – who cares?, New England – meh. Sure, these teams can make things happen, but this doesn’t really “feel” like an exciting matchup to me…call it a hunch. I am a fan of running backs though, so It’s good to see Westbrook uninjured and taking part in the playoffs this year. And after all those productive (though seemingly volatile) years in Cincy, Dillon’s in the big show. That’s gotta feel good. I think one of these two will be the person that wins the game for their team.
• Today in history…1891…The Dalton Gang attempts their first train robbery. They failed. And the big secret to how their robbery was thwarted? By a heavy door on the cash car and a guard locked inside that refused to open the door. I like a story where common sense wins out.