Gilbert Hernandez rides again!

If you like Gilbert Hernandez of "Love and Rockets" fame, you might be interested in this preview of his latest work, called "Troublemakers."

Is someone trying to tell me something?

I just read a book about Gary Burbank, and another about baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker.
Both books dwelled on how they were aggressively hard working about the jobs; single-mindedly pursuing excellence in their chosen fields.
It made me feel like a slacker.

Interesting online comic

I found this through Scott McCloud's blog, but since I you may not have seen it, i thought I'd link to it here.
It's an adaptation by Rebecca Dart of an old murder ballad into a comic book form. (For the record: I have a CD on which Pete Seeger sings the song, called "Banks of the Ohio.")

Beck-oning Glenn Beck

Is anyone else as sick of Glenn Beck's inflammatory alarmist rhetoric as I am?
If you are, you'll probably enjoy this.
It's supposed to be a parody, but I can hardly tell the difference between this eight minute clip and the real show.
In fact, the parody probably had more thought put into it than Beck's show does.

NFL Head-to-Head (Weak Five)

Dave (last week 1-3)
Browns over Lions (Final Score: 6 to 3 - Browns break the film covering the opponent's 45 yard line)
Broncos over Chargers
Jets over Patriots
Iggles over Bears
Bonus Pick:
Buckeyes beat Wolverines
Bonus Pick 2:
Twilight: New Moon is most over-hyped movie of the year

Me (last week 3-1):
San Diego beats Denver (The Broncos still suck, even without John Elway.)
New England over the New York Jets (Belichick still sucks even if he wins.)
Indianapolis beats Baltimore (Art Modell will always suck.)
Detroit over Cleveland (The Browns just suck.)
Bonus pick: Eric Mangini will be fired if the Browns lose to the Lions. How long after that loss, say the day after or the season after, is another question.

Applies in Stereo

A video from a perennial favorite of mine .. the Apples in Stereo.

Serial cereal blogging

In case you haven't noticed, there is a decided shortage of Eggo Waffles in your grocery freezer. Here's why!

For those of you who don't want to click ...
Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.

But, for those of you who are food conspiracy theorists, here's another thing to consider.

The short version:
But ConsumerAffairs.com has confirmed the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) in September found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Eggo Buttermilk Waffles made at the Atlanta plant. Health officials took the sample during a routine inspection of the facility.

Fantastic Four: Fantastic again? (We'll see ...)

Here's an article about the new creative team on Fantastic Four.
It seems like every new team is heralded as the greatest since maybe John Byrne, and they all kind of talk like they are going to try to bring to the book what Byrne did, normally without mentioning him by name.
They talk about focusing on the characters a family, and packing in lots of adventure -- exactly what made Byrne's run on FF so special.
Some creative teams succeed to varying degrees, but none fully. No one ever seems to capture whatever that feeling was that Byrne had that made me keep coming back and back and back for more.
Walter Simonson was really good, but he focused too much on adventure and not enough on character.
Mark Waid generally seemed pretty good, but sometimes his FF acted a little out of character.
Byrne once said when he was writing and drawing FF, the characters pretty much wrote themselves. His is the modern version of the FF that I compare all other to since, they are all lacking something.
He left the book in the late 1980s, and probably will never come back. If he did, who knows if would have the same magic as before?
Only Lee and Kirby did FF better than Byrne, and they created the doggone team. Theirs will always been the original and greatest. They did all their titles better than anyone.
I just keep hoping the new guys can capture some of the fun and excitement I remember from Byrne's run on FF.
Sometimes I sit around and wonder: If I sat around and re-read every Lee-Kirby and/or John Byrne issue of FF, and really worked at it, could I write a passable Fantastic Four?
It would probably come down to doing what other writers and artists say they are going to do: focus on the characters and a sense of adventure.
Easier said than done.

I just realized ...

... that cup cake is a term that refers to a small piece of cake in a cup.
I have only been eating cupcakes all my life, and I never broke the word down like that before.
It's what I have heard people call a "BFO:" a Blinding Flash of the Obvious.

NFL Head-To-Head (Weak Four)

OK, sorry, but I skipped weak three because I wasn't home. Here's this week's picks:

Dave:
Browns over Ravens
Colts over Patriots
Broncos over Redskins
Falcons beat Panthers

Bonus Pick:
Dayton Flyers beat Drake

Jeff:
Pittsburgh over Cincinnati (even though I have Cedric Benson on my fantasy team.)
Dallas over Green Bay
Kansas City over Oakland (This week's "Who cares?" Bowl.)
Indianapolis over New England (Peyton for MVP. Oops. Peyton for second, 'cause Drew Brees is better.)

9 from 2005

For those of you who may have seen and enjoyed the movie "9," here is the You Tube version of the original short film by Shane Acker released in 2005 as a student project. Tim Burton saw the film and was so impressed by its artistic vision that he went on to produce the recent film of the same name.
I don't know that I want to do a full-on movie review of the feature-length version, but I will say this: It's a movie that fits in well with "The Matrix," "The 13th Floor," "Dark City," and "Terminator."
The difference is, this one's computer animated. Beautifully computer animated. It's so good, it's just fun to look at, even if you don't like the story.
Anyway, here's the original.