thebitterguy

Over on Mark Evanier's blog (which is such a great read, if only for his tales of the origin of Scrappy Doo) he reminds us that it's been 50 years since George Reeves died.

I remember that and I remember the great sense of shock my friends and I all felt. It wasn't the first time we'd heard a favorite TV person had died. Lou Costello had passed away three months earlier. But Mr. Costello's death was pretty normal and anyway, he wasn't Superman. The death of Superman cried out for twists and turns and a surprise ending...and while you played with all that, it was easy to forget how dreadfully sad it was. There was something about George Reeves on TV...some little twinkle and sense of humor that underscored his acting. When I've interviewed Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane to his Clark and Superman, I always ask her, "Was he has nice a man as it seems to us watching at home?" She always replies, "Even nicer." I think I'd rather remember than than the way it ended.

Reeves tenure as Superman predates... well, it predates me, significantly. I saw a few episodes of the show, but mostly I saw the Superman episode of I Love Lucy. Then there was the Afflect movie from a few years back.

Q: Will you ever do Pirates vs. Ninjas?

A: I don't know. I hope not-- this meme (along with Monkey/Robot and Caveman/Astronaut) has been around so long, everyone is so deeply entrenched in their beliefs couldn't change your mind even if we wanted to-- and no matter the scenario, someone would take issue with it (not stealthy enough, not nautical enough, etc. etc.). Get the entire internet to reach a consensus on how we should simulate the fight, and then MAYBE we'll do it.

Nice. Get the internet to reach a consensus. Didn't Cory Doctorow do a short story about that?

So, Over on MGK.com there's a regular feature called "Thursday Who's Who" that is only intermittenly interrupted for So You Think You Can Dance commentary (and Jesus, I wish I was kidding). Thursday Who's Who takes a character from DC's brave attempt at OHOTMU goodness and rates them on the Rex The Wonder Dog scale.

Today's feature takes us back to the good old days, when new features would get a 12 page introduction in DC Comics Presents or Teen Titans (which, ironically enough, got a 12 page introduction in DC Comics Presents) or, in this case, Legion of Super-Heroes. The chracter is Dark Opal, the villain of the DC Maxi-series Amethyst.
MGK describes Amethyst's concept as such:

Nowadays the concept of an ongoing fantasy comics series targeting young girls seems like the sort of thing that makes DC editorial go “hsssst!” and then cower in the darkness. “Catering to different demographicsss.. it burns us, precious, it burrrrrns.”

That phrase, btw, made me spit my tea all over my computer monitor.

Amethyst seems silly, if only because it sounds like the standard "magical princess from another world" trope (much like Power Pack is about a group of kids who get super powers form their magical space pony, and a shiny cyber-nickel to anyone who can link me to the TV Tropes pages for those two). But the series was well liked by its readers, which for some reason I wasn't one of. It's one of those DC stories from the past that are not currently available, much like Atlantis Chronicles.

And no, I'm not gonna shut up about that. You can get Camelot 3000 in trade, but not a book that does something interesting with Atlantis? Fuck that shit.

Anyway, yeah, Amethyst was neat.

Over on his website, Peter David ponders the news about a possible Buffy Remake.

I could very well be wrong–in fact, wouldn’t be surprised if I was–but I see this as a big negotiating ploy. I think that at some point the producers must have approached Whedon, he had terms they were reluctant to meet (money, creative control, whatever) and so they’ve gone public with the notion that they’re willing to proceed without him in order to gain negotiating leverage.

He also points out that Gene Roddenberry was strongly involved with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but encouraged people to skip The Wrath of Khan. Which is, at the very least, an interesting anecdote.

I would like to say that appending "-fail" to anything that proves offensive or aggravating has broken through the wall of annoying and is travelling through the other side.

It has there joined "-gate" in the realm of annoying and somewhat lazy nomenclature.

Allow me to declare it Failfail.

So, it appears that Decipher is coming back from the dead with a new game designed to change the way we play CCGs forever.

What's interesting is the sheer depth of licenses they seem to have acquired.

It does appear to be a sort of CCG Hoo'd Win, which I can only endorse enthusiastically.

I do want to get a Tyler Durden deck. And an Achilles deck. And let them fight.

Over on Hardcorenerdity.com, Watchmen Scribe Hayter pleads with Watchmen fans who did not hate to movie to make second week's BO strong.

It reads strangely. He tries to come across as a man of the (geeky) peoples, as well as a hardcore creative dude.

He also uses a strange metaphor for how the movie should make you feel.

All this time, you’ve been waiting for a director who was going to hit you in the face with this story. To just crack you in the jaw, and then bend you over the pool table with this story.

Yeah, but when George Lucas did it he told me he loved me.

rentagurkha posted this interesting flowchart by the US Air Force.

It's a well put together document, and I'm glad to see they've omitted "Drop a 1000 lb bomb on them" from the list of approved responses.

Toronto Star asks "Reborn dolls: Creepy or cute"?

I don't think that's a hard question. The eyes, they bore into your soul!

Plus, I'm reading the new Shadowrun ebook and it's got info on getting spirits to posses enchanted objects, and it's suddenly even Creepier.

Ah, man.

Okay, I assume these are all well known people abroad, right? But I only recognize the robots. And possibly Lemmy.

Awesome, though. I will go buy candy to celebrate.

sassy_fae showed it to me.