e.e. comics

it is difficult to say almost anything meaningful about chris ware's "i guess" (1991) without giving away the whole game, but ... he cleverly deconstructs the language of old-school golden-age comics in order to pack in two stories for the price of one.

(story and art by chris ware)

quote of the day

charles blow @ the new york times:

the attack on the republican establishment by the tea party folks grabs the gaze like a really bad horror flick — some version of "hee haw" meets "28 days later".

meet paul kirk

nairobi, kenya, august 1974:

archie goodwin, writer, may 1984:

in the spring of 1973 i was a freelance writer/editor for dc comics, packaging three war titles for them. the publisher, carmine infantino, wanted me to take a try at editing detective, which was then in a period of low sales. these are not bad circumstances under which to inherit a title, contrary to how it may sound. one's encouraged to tinker, to tamper, and try new things rather than preserving the status quo. if anything improves, you're a hero; if nothing works out, well ... the book wasn't selling that well anyway. to demolish any possible suspense: i didn't become a hero. there was no turnaround in detective's sales, but there was, as they say in show business, some artistic success. manhunter was responsible for most of it. with my lead character, batman, appearing in two other titles besides mine and with an already well-established stylistic foundation, i couldn't do anything too radical. he couldn't suddenly appear in a brand-new costume, exhibit vastly different powers, or (with any credibility) burn the cape and cowl, swearing to be the batman no more; none of the standard let's-try-to-get-their-attention-and-pump-some-more-juice-in-this-rag ploys. i didn't even have that second-best option of killing off a beloved supporting character; they'd already done that to alfred years before (rest easy; death was only temporary). any big change in the book, then, had to come in the back-up feature. what i wanted was something that would fit (however loosely) within the "detective" format of the book, but contrast vividly in terms of mood, character, and artistic style with the lead stories; something that would nail the eye of the casual browser and maybe eventually develop a following of its own, bringing the book a few readers beyond the dyed-in-the-wool batman fans.

spanning only seven episodes (six 8-page back-ups and a climactic 20-page lead story team-up with series headliner batman) from july 1973 to august 1974, the "manhunter" series resurrected a WWII costumed adventurer not seen in thirty years and mashed-up superheroes, sci-fi, martial arts and international espionage during its short run, all while accumulating a fistful of top honors from the short-lived academy of comic book arts:

1973 best writer (archie goodwin) 1973 best individual short story, dramatic ("the himalayan incident") 1973 outstanding new talent (walt simonson, tied with jim starlin) 1974 best individual short story, dramatic ("cathedral perilous") 1974 best individual story ("gotterdammerung") 1974 best writer (archie goodwin)

though only at the very beginning of his career, overnight sensation walt simonson's distinctive storyboarding, composition, linework and adventuresome use of typography and sound effects had become firmly established.

(art by walt simonson, story by archie goodwin)

the series has been reprinted in whole twice: "manhunter #1" (1984) and "manhunter: the special edition" (1999).

buh bye blackwater

it's official: the welcome wagon has been retired:

the iraqi government is actively pursuing any former blackwater personnel still working in the country, spokesman ali al-dabbagh told CNN in an interview sunday. "i don't think [the] iraqi government is willing to have any blackwater member, even if they are working in other companies, we don't like to see them here working in any company," al-dabbagh said. "instructions have been given to check if there is any blackwater member [in the country]. i advise him to leave iraq and not to stay in iraq anymore." ... officials are checking records in iraq's ministry of interior regarding blackwater — which is now known as xe — along with its related companies, subsidiaries or any members of the company working with other companies, al-dabbagh said. once that checking is complete, authorities will undertake whatever action is needed, he said. he said he had not informed the U.S. embassy of these measures. "i don't think we need to consult any others," he said. "it is an iraqi prevailing law and we have to practice that law in our country."

something tells me this will probably work.

you just might be a birther if ...

...	you're just now realizing bill o'reilly, ann coulter and glenn beck are idiots.
...	you think a clever alias for a stealth muslim is "barack hussein obama".
...	you prefer online grand juries 'cause it gets kinda stuffy under your white hood.
...	your boycott of hawaii doesn’t interrupt any of your plans.
...	you're sure all birth certificates are printed in australia.
...	you think the "white house" means exactly that.
...	the deli counter guy asks "american or swiss?" and you say "vattel!"
...	hawaii's health dept has your phone number on call-blocking.
...	you're "damn shure" you're a natural born citizen — 'cuz both your parents are brother n' sister!
...	your lawyer takes payment in fillings.
...	your team's down 0-60 and you're still betting.
...	you think "usurper" is a quaint southern euphemism.
...	susan herbert can count on your vote in 2012.
...	you pray nightly for the usurper's downfall — to the same god that ignored you on election day.
...	you think "dismissed without prejudice" means your case wasn't racist enough.
...	you think it's long past time we closed the border — with hawaii.
...	you learned a moving and historic lesson about democracy last year — from honduras.
...	you won't be satisfied 'til you see the death certificate.
...	you don't believe everything you read on the internet — just the really friggin' stupid stuff.

a new year's guarantee

one more doomed resolution ... and a few healthy giggles (at least for me) to look forward to in 2011:

the 2010 new year's resolution of all good conservatives should be to achieve the goal of restoring the u.s. constitution this year. if the kenyan usurper is still in office a year from now, we will have failed.

politics 2010

i see no surprises in the coming year — conservatives will triple-down on their special brand of crazy ...

... which unfortunately for the rest of us means another year of non-stop lies, attacks, obstruction, fear-mongering, tantrums, tea-bagging and general misanthropy, all in a craven effort to poison the taste of liberal governance.

it's a brain-free strategy that doesn't require them to actually tackle real problems, like jobs and money, the kind real people worry about. no doubt the increasingly impolitic-looking defection of parker griffith (r-al) and increasingly divergent polls from increasingly GOP-chummy pollsters are sending visions of sugar-plum majorities dancing in their rovian heads.

but, as i noted in "no rewards for failure", conservatives need to pay attention not to democratic but republican ratings. because as frustrated and disappointed as the electorate appears with the struggling democrats, john q. public is giving no points to republicans, whom john q. continues to rate worse.

the bad news for the GOP: voters still trust president obama more than republicans, even on health care. the numbers: economy, obama +12; health care, obama +7; afghanistan, obama +12; energy, obama +10. what's the lesson? even though americans disapprove of president obama's record on many domestic policy issues, they do not see the republican party as a viable alternative.

at the very least, john q. recognizes that democrats are at least trying to address real problems, even if he isn't entirely sold on their solutions. as long as republicans continue to hold their breath, stamp their feet, wave their guns and threaten to repeal health reform, john q. is not going to switch horses in midstream, especially if the other horse is a crabby, flea-bitten nag.

conservatives will remain too cynical to realize that their 24-7, it-goes-to-11, non-stop attack-poodle shtick actually alienates those of us living outside their echo chamber. unleashed without any sense of moderation or proportion, their constant carping has already become impossible to take seriously. but, desperate to make any muck stick, republicans will continue to take every possible opportunity to politicize every event and loudly accuse every democrat of ... something, whether it's simply accepting prestigious international awards or making sales pitches for the olympics. why stop now? unfortunately for the GOP, anybody who's not a political junkie will simply tune this noise out — and with it the noisemakers.

still, conservatives need only knock off one democratic senator to bring congress to a literally screeching halt, especially if the house, even if left its sizable margin, chooses to defer to the senate, as it appears resigned to do in order to pass a health reform bill. but that is a dilemma for 2011 and 2012.

blue dawn

up to the L’s. we are still a free country. but only for a few more minutes.

in the wee hours of christmas eve at our favorite right-wing watering hole, our troubled nation's watchers on the walls of freedom awoke to find themselves in a terrifying new country ...

and at 0712, america died. 51 votes May God Have Mercy on America

yes, after months of valiant but ultimately futile struggle, the iron fist of health care reform had descended upon america.

the democrat party is now the Communist Party of America. the takeover is complete. they haved reached their 96 year old dream in 2009. we must work hard to make sure that december 24, 2009 is the high water mark of the democrat party in america. this is OUR country, not theirs. they have engaged in tyranny. ten generations of americans are watching to see if the freedom they bequeathed to us was worth the cost. we dare not fail their sacrifice. it starts today.

democrats are the enemy of freedom. they have drawn a line in the political sands. we must step across and take back OUR country. that is our task from now until november 2, 2010. lord god, give us the strength, so that we will not fail.

this is their big historical moment. let’s all celebrate the loss of our freedom. may they all have the worst new year possible.

i had to turn off the tv. i’m weepy and nauseous at what is happening to our country.

our beloved country sees a dark day, indeed.

(if i remember correctly, "your" beloved country was on the brink of total economic collapse a year ago ...)

there are no blurred lines this morning about who voted to arbitrarily kill or enslave me and mine under the rubric of "health care." every last dirty damned democrat in the room. "blue dogs" and "independents" have proven to be neither. even the RINOs did not in the end vote for this, and i will give them credit whether it is deserved or not.

i want to be the first to thank the DIM-oc-RATS for making clear who they are: marxist tyrannical rat bastards. the lines are clear. do not forget. vote. resist! resist! resist! as an aside, i find it difficult to fathom their hatred for the children, christmas and for our culture. it is obvious they are the spawn of evil. pox on them all.

it starts today. indeed it does. i've been working up to it since november, but it truly starts today.

(... yup, right after i take care of this big bag of cheetos.)

i took down the stars & stripes yesterday. now i just fly the gadsden flag.

i’m not flying my flag again until we take back our country. no. fly your flag. it is now the symbol of the resistance. besides, it annoys liberals to no end.

if it’s going to save all these poor people from death and suffering, why the F**K are they waiting until 2014 to implement it? i guess the democrats just enjoy seeing death and suffering.

it is amazing. well, guess i’ll head on over to walmart and pick up some more ammunition. have a merry christmas all.

how, indeed ...

nineteen years later and i'm still scratchin' my head. of course, the premise might be a tad flawed ...

(art by bill watterson)

how i learned to stop worrying

... about the coming machine slaughter and love HP!

from gizmodo:

this is awkward. it appears that HP's new webcams, which have facial-tracking software, can't recognize black faces, as evidenced in the above video. HP has responded: we are working with our partners to learn more. the technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. we believe that the camera might have difficulty "seeing" contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting.

so this difficulty somehow escaped HP's attention because ... ???

help me out here, HP.

to the victim go the spoils

stories of unhappy spouses looking for ways to unburden themselves of their no-longer-welcome partners have long been the fodder of noir fiction. but this 1952 tale from ec comics' crime suspenStories #11, in which we vicariously partake of one grimly-determined housewife's methodical, punishing and stomach-churning recipe for murder, is like watching someone crawl through broken glass (but without a drop of gore) — a true testimony of dedication to one's art.

(story by al feldstein; art by jack kamen)

no rewards for failure

the washington post:

the latest NBC/wall street journal poll suggests the country is slipping back into the pessimism it felt before last year's presidential election with just one in three american saying the country is headed in the right direction while 55 percent said it was off on the wrong track. less than three in ten (27 percent) said life would be better for their children than it is for them and six in ten agreed with the statement that the country was in a "state of decline." democratic pollster peter hart, who helps conduct the NBC/WSJ poll, called the results evidence that "optimism has crashed through the floor board." remember that much of obama's appeal is centered on the ideas of hope and change; if voters see his administration as overseeing more of the same, there could be considerable backlash from voters against democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.

this is GGRRREEEEAAAAATT NEWS FOR REPUBLICANS!!!! ain't it?

or maybe not ...

daily kos, on the same poll:

the bad news for the GOP: voters still trust president obama more than republicans, even on health care. the numbers: economy, obama +12; health care, obama +7; afghanistan, obama +12; energy, obama +10. what's the lesson? even though americans disapprove of president obama's record on many domestic policy issues, they do not see the republican party as a viable alternative. at some point, that may change, because the GOP is also the only alternative, but for now, the country is not looking for president obama to be more like republicans — they are looking for him (and the democratic congress) to deliver on the change they voted for in 2008. if the white house can deliver, the GOP will be left out in the cold, partying with the teabaggers.

the GOP won't be winning any rewards for sitting out a constructive debate on health care reform. had they developed a real plan and defended it honestly, instead of dangling promises of pretend plans while screeching "no!no!no!" to everything else and patting themselves on the back while cheerleading failure, they might now be looking like a credible alternative.

but of course, that would require the GOP being interested in reform in the first place.

from ridiculous to sublime

digby @ hullaballoo:

... saying that it "covers everyone," as if there's a big new benefit is a big stretch. nothing will have changed on that count except changing the law to force people to buy private insurance if they don't get it from their employer. ... nobody's "getting covered" here. after all, people are already "free" to buy private insurance and one must assume they have reasons for not doing it already. whether those reasons are good or bad won't make a difference when they are suddenly forced to write big checks to aetna or blue cross that they previously had decided they couldn't or didn't want to write. indeed, it actually looks like the worst caricature of liberals: taking people's money against their will, saying it's for their own good.

david waldman @ daily kos:

this is, of course, quite true. to sell a bill that imposes a federal mandate on you, individually, to buy insurance from a private provider doesn't "expand coverage," it expands tax penalties. ... what do we think people hear when they hear that this bill, would "provide 29 million americans health care"? why not a bill that would "provide 29 million american families with a home of their own" ... provided they buy themselves one? that, or course, would be ridiculous. but let's add just a little more ridiculousness. what if we "provided" millions of american families with homes of their own... provided they buy themselves one... or else face a penalty under federal law? see? from ridiculous to sublime!

a snake prepares his escape hatch

dana bash:	any chance joe lieberman would run [for reelection] as a republican [in 2012]?
joe lieberman:	i don't know what i'll run as. i like being an independent, so that's definitely a possibility, but i'd say that all options are open.
dana bash:	really?
joe lieberman:	yeah. it's unlikely that i would run as a republican, but i wouldn't foreclose any possibility ...

things you can do in dc when you're dead

earth's most powerful hero is neither dc comics star attraction superman nor his closest competitor (in terms of both abilities and promotion) captain marvel. no, that honor belongs to the less well-known figure called the spectre, who distinguishes himself from all comers by being not merely a super-man, but rather a super-ghost.

after being brutally murdered by gangsters, "hard-fisted" detective jim corrigan returned to crime-infested cliffland (cleveland?) sporting a chalky pallor, green cloak and trunks and a psychedelic array of powers — many on rapid-fire display in this single episode, "the tenement fires", from 1940's all-star comics #1.

besides the standard-issue ghostly powers of flight, invisibility and intangibility, the spectre's multipresence — the ability to be in two or more places at once — allows jim corrigan to examine clues on earth while his alter ego interviews victims just outside the pearly gates:

his clairvoyance allows him to sense "tremendous evil afoot":

no power rings or magic spells here — his sheer will alone defines omnipotence:

making levitation, of course, mother-and-child's play:

as well as transmutation — here turning fire to ice:

and size-shifting:

and illusion, now a comet:

and telepathy — reading mens' minds — literally:

coolest of all, his immortality gave his writers the unique luxury of being able to brutally murder his alter ego again and again, on a regular basis:

and what's a vengeful spirit without an evil eye — looks that can literally kill?

(art by bernard baily, story by jerry siegel)

i'm shocked

... just shocked, i tell you, that lucy yanked the football away again:

in a move that senior leadership aides say has left them stunned, sen. joe lieberman (I-CT) has told senate majority leader harry reid (D-NV) that he will filibuster a tentative public option compromise unless it's stripped of its key component: a measure that would allow people aged 55-64 to buy insurance through medicare.

90 days ago

atheist powers — activate!

from 2009's dark reign: the list - wolverine, a tongue-in-cheek novelty one-shot wherein theism can be hazardous for your health, as described by pharygula's pz myers:

the godless must have some fans in the comic book world. in an issue of the list: wolverine, the heroes fantomex (a genetically engineered supersoldier) and captain marvel are faced with an army of zombie-like creatures, people who have been infected with an evil virus that can only take over your mind if you believe in some sort of god. so they swing into action, safe from the infection, because neither one believes in gods.

the money quote: oh, snap!

(art by esad ribic, story by jason aaron)

... meanwhile, back in birfistan

where the beat goes on:

are there any billing records extant for stanley ann dunham's labor and delivery at the hospital? any billing records for pediatric care? any inoculation records for the infant and toddler bama?

thus ends another thrilling episode in "as the birthers churn". thanks for tuning in!

an educational comic

ec comics, king of crime, horror, sci-fi, satire and war comics of the '40s and '50s, was put out of business by rising anti-crime sentiment and opportunistic rivals, a purge which tossed out many babies with the bathwater, such as this expertly-developed 1953 lesson in crime and punishment — from a child's perspective.

(story by bill gaines and al feldstein; art by jack davis; cover by johnny craig, jack davis and graham ingels)

kobayashi morituri

the rest of task force 141 brought in the ACS, allen. two men took down an entire base. i ask much more from you now. yesterday you were a soldier on the front lines, but today, front lines are history. uniforms are relics. the war rages everywhere and there will be casualties. this man makarov is fighting his own war and he has no rules, no boundaries. he doesn't flinch at torture, human trafficking or genocide. he's not loyal to a flag or country or any set of ideals. he trades blood for money. he's your new best friend. you don't wanna know what it's cost already to put you next to him. it will cost you a piece of yourself. it will cost nothing compared to everything you'll save.

that was your mission commander speaking. you're a covert cia operative inserted into a freelance russian terror group.

their plan: kill everyone in a busy moscow airport during broad daylight.

your mission?

for some reason, you're never actually told.

and that's the set-up to the graphic and controversial airport massacre scene in infinity ward's latest first-person shooter call of duty: modern warfare 2.

*** warning: spoiler alert ***

the faint of heart have the option of skipping this mission. those who choose to participate have only two options: to idly watch or to shoot. you may shoot bystanders or you may shoot your teammates.

either way, the scene ends the same. you die.

star trek fans will be reminded of the kobayashi maru scenario:

the infamous starfleet academy test challenges the cadet to rescue a defenseless ship under enemy attack. however, despite the superficial similarities, the airport massacre is no kobayashi.

that's because your mission is not to save innocent lives and/or to stop the terrorists. you're not there to learn how to conquer fear in a no-win situation. you're not there to stare down death and go out a hero.

your mission is to die, so that your corpse can trigger the next world war.

according to the game's story arc, each of the characters you inhabit is only the unwitting pawn of your mission commander, who is ultimately exposed as a traitor. at the end of the airport massacre, the terrorists leave your corpse as evidence of american treachery, which provokes the new ultranationalist government to launch a massive surprise invasion of the U.S.

so the airport scene was made a no-win situation not as a character-building exercise. it's no-win because the game simply can't move forward without it, even if you are allowed to skip it. and unless you enjoy the methodical, withering, loud and joyless mowing of screaming civilians, you might want to.