WonderCon Roundup

Even though I skipped WonderCon (for the first time in more than twenty years) last year, I decided to go ahead and go this year. The plan was to go on Sunday when it would be less crowded, and not fill up the day with various panels that give you information that you could eventually get on the internet. I wanted to spend time walking around and maybe even getting an autograph or finding some good deals on some comics that I had to pass up for various reasons.

I have to say that I had a great time. The highlight was that I got to meet Ted McKeever. While I can't say that I'm a super-huge fan of his work, I did really like his story for the Batman: Black and White anthology several years back. In fact, I like it so much that I share it with my students when I do my comic book lesson. It's really great because it gives me a chance to explain the nature of comics (or sequential art, if you want to get all pretentious) and how our minds have to fill in so much of the information that goes on between the panels. Not only that, but it's a very offbeat Batman story, and it relies very heavily on symbolism. My students often chuckle when I say that we're going to do a lesson on comics, but then they realize just how serious this stuff can be when I give them this story to read. Anyway, I got a chance to tell Mr. McKeever about this. He was really appreciative, and we got to have a short conversation on comics, symbolism, and teaching.

Another cool moment was going to the panel for IDW's Kill Shakespeare. If you don't want to click on the link, the basic premise is that you have a bunch of Shakespeare's famous characters interacting with one another (like Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Richard III, Juliet, Othello, etcetera) and the mission that's given to them is to kill a certain William Shakespeare. I bought the first issue, so I haven't read it yet. However, after listening to the creators, I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot of goofy fun that's right up the ally of people like me who like both Shakespeare and comics. It doesn't seem very highbrow, but it doesn't seem like a dumbed-down version of Shakespeare's famous creations either.

The cool thing is that one of the guys on the panel was an English professor at Stanford. He actually expressed that he didn't really like the concept of it, and he was worried that it would confuse too many people who had yet to be introduced to the real Shakespeare. He did admit though that he was probably more of a purist than Shakespeare himself would have been if he were alive today to give his thoughts on the comic. (I sure hope somebody drinks a beer in that comic - that would really make my day.)

Aside from that, I got some pretty sweet deals. I got a really cool-looking comic called Testament that tells old stories from the Bible, but it's not some cheesy Bible-lesson. It has some really great artists (Bill Sienkiewicz, Sergio Aragones, Steve Rude, etcetera) telling the stories. I even managed to get Aragones to sign his section for me. (If you read Mad magazine, then he's the guy who normally draws the little cartoons that you can find in the margins. He's also done a heck of a lot of other stuff.) I also got one that tells the story of Samson, and again, it's not some watered-down Bible lesson for kids. It treats it like it's supposed to be treated - like a legend, a classic story that has stood the test of time. It's really great looking stuff, and it includes the original (okay, an English translation) story from the Book of Judges at the end of the comic so readers can compare and contrast.

I also walked away with some cool deals and got a bunch of free comics from the DC booth. Some of it I'll read, but much of it will go into the big box of comics that I leave in my classroom for SSR.

Will I be going again next year? We'll see...

Comics Roundup for 3/31/10

So few books came out this week that I forgot to write about them. Here's what I got:

Blackest Night #8 (of 8) - This was a satisfying end to a very far-reaching story, and just like any good comic book story, it has you wondering what's in store for the heroes now that this particular crisis has been averted. It was also good to see that Sinestro didn't get to hang on to the White Lantern for very long, as even though he had the desire to beat back the Blackest Night, in the end it was all about his own glory. For Hal Jordan, it was about doing the right thing, and it only made sense that victory came when he got a hold of it. Another thing that I liked about the conclusion was how it was resolved by attacking it at its source, which was Black Hand. The solution also made perfect sense in context. Anyway, I'll be sure to pick up the beginning of Brightest Day at the very least.

The Amazing Spider-Man #627 - "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" indeed. After several lackluster issues (art-wise) it was great to see Lee Weeks on board. Looks like he's sticking around for the next issue as well. Not only that, but I hope that they can get Roger Stern to write some more Spidey stories in the near future. I just missed his initial run on the title back in the early eighties, but the bits that I have read are all pretty solid.

Astro City: The Dark Age - Book Four #3 (of 4) - I'm waiting for the series to end, and then I'll read the entire epic. I keep forgetting who's who when I go a month in between issues. I think that my head is filled with too many mythologies. I just can't keep up sometimes.

Comics Roundup for 3/24/10

I love comics. What did I get this week? Here goes...

Green Lantern #52 - This one fills in the space between the last issue of Blackest Night and the one that's coming out next week. It doesn't do much as far as the story is concerned, but it does elaborate on the ever-growing mythology of the emotional spectrum. I hope that Doug Mahnke sticks around for when this whole storyline wraps up, as his art is really great, especially with Christian Alamy's inks.

New Avengers #63 - Just like Dark Avengers, this fills in on the whole Siege storyline by giving us some flashbacks. Good thing, too, because there were some unresolved issues regarding Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Supposedly this series is going to reboot when Siege is over. I'm not sure that I completely understand the point, but since Bendis is going to write that one along with the main Avengers title, I'll probably pick it up.

Batman: Streets of Gotham - Paul Dini's back! Good thing, too, as it finally gets back to the storyline that I was itchin' to see continue. I also am finding myself liking Dustin Nguyen's artwork more and more all the time. I remember not really digging his style at first when he started drawing Detective Comics, but I quickly got used to it. By this point, I'm a genuine fan of his stuff. The characters have a lot of movement to them, and they don't look like they're posing for pictures.

Nemesis - I thoroughly enjoyed Kick Ass (here's hoping that the movie will be good!) so I wanted to pick up Mark Millar's latest offering from Icon. The fact that Steve McNiven was drawing it didn't hurt either. Pretty good stuff so far, I have to say. The basic concept is that you've got this supervillain who travels from town to town in order to create chaos and ultimately destroy a famous police chief. Now he has his sights on the chief of Washington, D.C. Nemesis has already crashed Air Force One and taken the President hostage. How the heck is Blake Morrow going to take this guy on? I'll be there for the next issue.

Captain America #604 - Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada, while addressing the criticisms from the Tea Party types over this current storyline, commented that the story hadn't completely played itself out, and those people should withhold judgment until it does. With this issue, we get a guy who's a Tea Party type act as one of the good guys. He even helps The Falcon out, and he denounces the fanatics/terrorists. Other than that, this was another solid issue. I find myself really digging The Falcon, and under Ed Brubaker, he's becoming one of my favorite characters. What's up with the crappy covers though? And what's up with the lame "Nomad" backup?

The Amazing Spider-Man #626 - Yet again, we have another artist whose style would be just fine for some other book, but it just doesn't work for Spider-Man. It's not quite as bad as the Electro/New Vulture issues, as at least it doesn't look like Spidey has a hernia while swinging through the city. The story was pretty good, and Parker's definitely having quite the pattern of bad luck. Next issue Lee Weeks will be drawing, so I'm excited about that.

Thor #608 - Considering how little we're seeing of the title character in this series, it's amazing how good it still is. Poor Volstagg is taking a pounding like never before. Also, it's good to see Kieron Gillen following up on issues from the last writer. I wonder about the new direction that the series will take under Matt Fraction. I'll be sure to check it out.

Puppy or not puppy, that is the question

Within days after Argos passed away, I was offered a puppy by my neighbor. She would always see me walking him, and she felt sad to hear that I had to put him down. Her dog had just given birth to a litter of puppies (eleven of them!) and she said that I could have the pick of the litter. Not only that, but she said that she wouldn't charge me anything.

My initial reaction was that this would be a bad idea. After all, I have a baby due in August, and as my friend Andrew Nolan pointed out, you have to spend at least fifteen minutes a day with one of those things. Apparently it takes a week or two before you can just point to the fridge and tell them to help themselves when they get hungry. Also, I've heard that there might be a time or two when I can't just pass the baby over to my wife. Puppies require even more work, of course, as you have to teach them how to speak English and how to hotwire a car in case you lose your keys.

Here's the thing though. Even though I still have ol' Willy, I want another dog. One reason is that I want a guard dog. Argos wasn't just a pet - he had a job. That job was to bark at people walking by the house. Sure it was annoying sometimes, but it certainly made me feel better about leaving the house. From what I've read, a barking dog is a big deterrent to thieves. Also, walking is the only form of exercise that I enjoy. Kirsti and I have a stationary bike that's more of a piece of furniture right now. There's no way in hell I'd get a gym membership. I like walks, and I've found that if I don't take one every day, it starts to have an impact not only on my physical, but on my mental health as well. Having a dog gives me the motivation to go on a walk every day, as I feel guilty if I don't do it.

But why not Willy? Haven't I been making progress with him? Well, yes and no. He's definitely getting better at it, but the fact of the matter is that he's just not a good walker. He's still overwhelmed when he goes outside, and sometimes walking him is far more stressful than relaxing. One of my plans was to continue to take Argos on walks when I had the baby, but the baby would come along with us (usually in the stroller, but there are also those thingees where you wear the baby in front or in back. I haven't looked into those too much.) I fully realize, of course, that my walks might get cut short as the baby might want to stop for a beer or something. Still, I think that these walks would be good for me, the dog, and the baby. And one thing's for sure - I don't want Mr. Stress-case Willy going with us. Will he be a good ol' Uncle Willy indoors? I'm sure of it. But a walkin' Willy? Not so much.

After some discussion, Kirsti and I determined that maybe we should get an adult dog - either a German Shepherd or a Rottweiler (or a mix of the two, as Argos was). We have enough familiarity with both breeds where we feel confident that we can handle them. We actually went down to the animal shelter yesterday, but we didn't find anything that suited us. (There was a beautiful Shepherd, but somebody already adopted him.)

On the way home, we saw our neighbor, and we got to take a look at the puppies. In a word - they were awwwwwww so cute! This is a good enough of a reason to get one, I think. After all, things that are cute in the moment remain cute forever, and there is never any other thing to consider as cuteness trumps all. After all, Argos was cute as a puppy, and we never had any trouble with him because he was super cute. When he destroyed the side of our shed, it was okay, because he was cute.

Seriously though, we got to meet the parents of these puppies. The mother was pure Rottie, and when we came in, she calmly stood up and greeted us, not worrying for a second about us touching her puppies. In fact, she enjoyed a little attention herself. The father, who is half Jack Russel and half Australian Blue Heeler, was also a nice dog. He was a little bit more energetic than mommy, but he was friendly and docile. As for the puppies themselves, if you told me that they were 100% Rottie, I would have no problem believing it.

Kirsti and I are leaning towards accepting my neighbor's very generous offer. If Kirsti was due next month, then we'd easily turn it down. The fact of the matter is that we have several months to break the new puppy in before the baby is born. Sure, you can't completely train a puppy in that time, but training a dog is a continuous process. We've never had a baby before, but this isn't our first rodeo when it comes to getting a dog. This time, we go in with a lot more knowledge and preparedness, and we'll be able to select a dog with the right temperament for what we want. Also, Kirsti's taking the entire summer off, which will give her a lot of time with the puppy. As for myself, I'm going to have most of the summer off, and that'll give me a chance to socialize and train the dog.

I fully realize that you don't know what you're in for with a baby until you actually have one. I also fully realize that even though I fully realize that, I still probably don't fully realize that. Is it possible that this is a huge mistake? Sure. But you know what? I've been making mistakes my entire life, and I'm still here. Not only that, but I'm not going in this alone - I do have my wife with me. I've already heard some "It's a huge mistake!" bits of advice, and trust me when I say that it's nothing that I haven't already contemplated in my own head. After all, I've heard a rumor that some people, when they have a baby, actually wind up with two babies! Some wind up with as much as three! All at the same time! Of course, you don't hear about these babies too much, as our tradition is to leave them in the evil forest so they can die. There's no way you can possibly raise two babies at a time.

Comics Roundup for 3/17/10

Here's what I got:

The Amazing Spider-Man #625 - While the artwork was a step-up from last issue, I'm still a bit disappointed with the artists that they've had on this title for the last several issues. Obviously, I'm not talking about the likes of Marcos Martin and that one guy who has a somewhat similar style whose name escapes me. Maybe they just set the bar too high at the beginning of the whole "Brand New Day" with the likes of Steve McNiven, Salvador Larocca, and Phil Jimenez. Anyway, the story was pretty solid, so that's okay. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Roger Stern/Lee Weeks "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" storyline.

Echo #20 - I probably need to reread the past several issues, but I have this feeling that the cover of this issue gave away the big reveal at the end of the issue. It looks like that one creepy Asian guy is back, and now half of his face has been blown off. Pretty cool. Anyway, this remains a cool series, with a good mixture of plot and character development.

Siege #3 - This is the kind of thing that reminds me of why I love comic books. After the past couple of years of seeing the bad guys in charge, it's great to see the Avengers come back, with Steve Rogers as Captain America again. Also, it was great to see Spider-Man play such a major part in all this. It definitely makes it all make even more sense when he'll be a part of the regular, ongoing Avengers series. Not only that, but this issue ends on a pretty decent cliffhanger. Let's hope the final issue pays off.

Dark Avengers #15 - I really like the way they're handling this particular crossover. You don't need to read this to enjoy the main storyline, but it's cool to see a bit more backstory that this issue provides. Turns out that Bullseye is kind of a jerk. It's bad enough that he was so eager to kill the Sentry's wife in the first place, but first he has to screw around with her and insult her before he finally does the deed. Screwed up, but entertaining, stuff.

Batman #697 - Not much to say here, only that this is another solid issue from Tony Daniel. I'm glad that I kept with the series even when I was ready to drop it. Still, I should probably reread the entire storyline once the concluding chapter comes out. It turns out that he's sticking around for a while after that, and I'm just hunky-dory with this proposition. I think it's a safe bet that Bruce Wayne won't be back in time for #700 though.

Spider-Woman #7 - The final issue? What the ___? I was getting ready to stick with this series for the long haul, and all of a sudden this is going to be the last one? Brian Michael Bendis gives his reasons for ending the series (most of which have to do with artist, Alex Maleev) at the end of the issue, but still I gotta say that I didn't see that coming. Oh well, I'm looking to drop books, and even though I was warming up to this one, I guess it's nice to not have to decide that it's going to be one of the ones that I'll drop. Overall, a satisfying issue, and a good end to a short-lived series.

I've given up...perhaps.

While I don't exactly have a huge audience for my blog, I do get a fairly decent amount of hits. Some individual posts have gotten up to 60 hits - My post where I speculated on the Green Lantern movie has received 90 so far. For the most part, I seem to average about 20 hits a day, and that doesn't count the MySpace version of this blog. Surely, not all of these hits represent actual readers, but I figure if even as many as five people a day check out my blog, that's pretty cool - especially considering that it's mainly my random musings, and I'm not offering any kind of critical information on anything newsworthy.

Anyway, my posts have tapered off. One of the reasons is simply due to exhaustion from the Blog-A-Day/Haiku-A-Day/Movie-A-Day marathon. Another is that I feel that I have exhausted a topic that I used to write about quite a bit. No, there will always be things to say about comic books, so long as I'm still reading them. I'm sure that I'll have things to say about beer and Shakespeare as well. What I'm pretty much spent on is religion.

I always say that it's best to keep an open mind and never get to a point in your life where you feel that you have all the answers. I especially feel this way when it comes to matters of faith and religion. Shoot, that was my attitude even when I was a believer, and I felt that I needed to keep it that way when I finally lost my faith. Basically, it took me about five years of not believing to finally admit that I didn't believe, and it took me another five just to make certain.

I think that this is why I posted on these matters for so long and why I so vigorously got into debate with people (mostly online) about the matter. I figured that maybe there was some chance that I was getting it wrong. Maybe there was some argument for a god's existence that I just didn't hear yet. Maybe there actually was a logical and sensible way to reconcile how a loving god could allow for so much suffering in the world.

I'm coming to the realization that it's just not happening. I've debated so many people, and I keep hearing the same things - many of those things I once used to say and have long since rejected. These aren't even people who all know each other and I need to branch out and try some different folks. The thing is, all these people just keep saying the same stuff, and it's starting to bore me. I mean, if I hear the "God allows suffering because we have free will!" argument one more time, I might go into a coma due to its sheer tediousness. I might also vomit fire if people give me the arguments of the ridiculous apologetics of C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel. I might even turn into a chimpanzee and raise an army of damned, dirty apes if I hear any more arguments about how intricate and amazing the world is while completely ignoring things like parasitic eye worms.

Or maybe this is finally starting to really cement in my head because my best friend just died of cancer. A loving god wouldn't let dogs get cancer. Yeah, I know, people might interpret this into the "You sound really angry" argument to dodge the fact that I'm right. If ever there was an argument that was a slam-dunk against the existence for a loving deity, it's that one. Maybe you guys should cut your losses and try and convince me that Odin exists by this point.

I suppose another possibility is that Epicurus already took care of this issue long ago when he posed his riddle:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Am I done with this topic? It feels like I am, but only time will tell. Sometimes I like to write for the sake of it, but as of now I'll just be repeating myself, I think.

Fire them lousy teachers!

If you've been following Obama's education overhaul ideas, you've probably heard that one of the supposed "solutions" to fixing our schools is to fire all the teachers at schools with students who test poorly. Makes sense, right? If the kids aren't testing well, then they aren't learning. If they aren't learning, it's because the teachers aren't doing their jobs very well.

There is a school in my district where there are really low test scores and a high dropout rate. My school fares much better, and the obvious reason is that we simply have better teachers at my school. Of course, there's a school that does even better, so even though we're pretty darned good, we're not quite the best. Sure, some folks like to point out that the lower-performing school has more students from a lower socio-economic class, and the one that does well is in a relatively wealthy neighborhood. But what does that have to do with anything? George Bush even said that "All children can learn." Are you going to argue with him?

It's also fantastic that we'll finally get rid of all these bad teachers. After all, you might not know this, but there is a virtual army of qualified, talented would-be teachers who just can't break through the front door due to all of these crappy teachers with their "tenure" who aren't making way for this fresh and exciting top talent. Well, fear this no longer!

I remember when I was teaching summer school some years back, there were a couple of teachers who were having a tough time getting a regular job in my district. And let me tell you, these guys were grade-A talent! They commanded so much respect from the kids that they felt comfortable letting the kids wander around the hallways almost a half hour before class was over! That's some pretty good control. I'm not good enough to trust my kids to just go waltzing out the door on a whim. I have to be some kind of crazy control-freak who wants them in the classroom until class is over!

Thank goodness we're not trying to do something and hold the kids and their parents accountable in this scenario. After all, we teachers see these kids for nine months (not counting weekends and holiday breaks) a year. How can parents compete with us for the hearts and minds of their children? I'm sure that there are a lot of parents who have books around their house, take time to talk to their kids about world events, science, and literature, and yet they still can't get their kids enthused due to the horrible job that some of these teachers are doing.

And how can we expect the kids to learn when they have better things to do? Some of them would rather hang out with their friends than do their homework. Well, maybe that homework is hella boring and gay. If these crappy teachers would stop giving such hella gay boring retarded assignments, then maybe the kids would be more enthusiastic about going to school and would actually start trying! One thing's for sure, if they're not learning, it certainly can't be their fault. If some kid only shows up to class once a week, sleeps through the class, and doesn't do any of his or her work, clearly it's the teacher's fault.