“Come back with m..Mr. Stark’s ice cream!”
Iron Man vol 3 #1
Marvel Comics (February, 1998)
“Looking Forward”
WRITER: Kurt Busiek
PENCILER: Sean Chen
INKER: Eric Cannon
COLORING: Liquid!
LETTERING: Comicraft
EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
It’s that time again, as the North American Aerospace Defense Command (shouldn’t that be NAADC then?) continues the annual mission of ensuring Santa Claus is safe during his holiday run. After years of getting calls from kids wanting to make sure Santa is okay, NORAD took time out to do something fun for the kids while not taking time away from the important job of keeping the US and Canadian airspace safe from attack. NORAD Tracks Santa is a website full of Christmas music and games, and on Christmas Eve both the website and the app (which will hopefully work better this year than last year) to follow Santa’s trek across the globe. It’s a little Yuletide fun for your kids.
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Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
So far the padding has been a mixed bag. On the one hand there’s been some good character development, but it’s been at the cost of the sense of urgency the movie had. Benes is dying and he’s the most important person in the world right now but it feels like everyone is dragging their feet. Yes, they need to plan their actions but the planning was pretty much done before Grant got there and there’s more evidence that they’ve practiced with at least the fundamentals of what they’re planning and they’re still going to be in over their heads.
And then there’s Peterson. No, I’m not going to call her by her first name. She wants to be treated as well as the males yet she’s the only character who is referred to by their first name. The rest are Grant, Michaels, Owens, Duval, etc. I’m also worried we’re getting the “warm a cold heart and start a romance” thing the movie avoided. I mean, she was played by Rachel Welch, one of Hollywood’s biggest sex symbols at the time, but at no point is she anything other than a competent assistant and the tension with Grant was not there. I’m really hoping I’m wrong about the path we’re taking.
The previous chapter was all about preparing the ship for miniaturization and what I’m hoping is final character development even though the movie waited for a necessary quiet time to do so. My big worry is that the miniaturizing process in the movie took time and it made sense to do so since there was a multi-step process to shrink the Proteus and get everyone safely into the saline solution for injection. I’m hoping this chapter doesn’t feel like it’s dragging and that it ends with the injection. Let’s find out.
Chapter 6: Miniaturization
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This is post is mostly for the subscribers on WordPress, RSS and e-mail. I’ve re-stickied the BW Yule Log posting to the front page. It’s my YouTube playlist full of Christmas songs, skits, and trivia and I’m hoping to build that up. There’s an awful lot of Pentatonix on there and I need some balance. You may hear songs or covers you love, never heard before, or you haven’t heard in years. Have a little Christmas background noise as you prepare for the Holidays. I think I snuck in a Hanukkah video or two as well. Since none of them are mine I can’t promise it’s ad-free but hopefully you’ll still enjoy it.
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“The Batarang is good.”
Nightwing: Alfred’s Return
DC Comics (July, 1995)
“Britannia Coup”
WRITER: Alan Grant
ARTIST: Dick Giordano
COLORIST: Adrienne Roy
LETTERER: Albert DeGuzman
CO-EDITORS: Jordan B. Gorfinkel & Dennis O’Neil
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This won’t end well.
How is Fizzbin going to explain this I wonder? After it’s explained to her I guess. So this year’s Christmas story is searching for Santa Claus. Will they find him? Will Fizzbin be able to ask her questions? Will Beth get an autograph? We’ll find out this month.
I didn’t get to do my Christmas decorating partly because my friends and I wanted to catch Star Wars: The Force Awakens before we see The Last Jedi, but it came out the year two of us had some major problems. Mine was the multiple hospital trips. So one of my friends borrowed the DVD from the library. I’ll do a Finally Watched review on Tuesday. The other is that the space I usually put my tree had stuff to be moved so I had to do some rearranging, which is in this week’s Clutter Report. I’ll post the usual Transformer tree display over there as soon as I can get it up.
And of course I’ll be working on this year’s Christmas Video Review, which is the one I planned to have last year. I’ll also be working on this year’s Captain Yuletide, which will post early to Patreon…and they may be the last post to Patreon unless I get some supporters over there. There isn’t any sense in taking time to fix the formats or come up with Patreon-exclusive stuff when I’ve only had two supporters who are long gone, and one of them was during the medical problems that left me posting nothing, which may be why he left. I don’t know about the other one. I’ll still keep it up in case I do get good enough or popular enough that I get supporters but I need to find a job fast and if I’m going to still create and find work (and then do the job afterwards) I’m going to need all the time I can so I can still have a life…what little I’m allowed these days. I don’t know why I have trouble with audience interactivity but I still plan to make BW if only because of the benefits to me beyond the financial. I’ve gotten to do a lot of interesting things and learned things in part because of doing this site. While I would love to make it my sole focus I need income because my Dad can’t and shouldn’t have to pay my way through life when I’m in my forties and he’s retired. He’s done a lot for me and I have to give back somehow. What this will do to BW I can’t say right now but I’ll keep doing this as long as I’m able, and hopefully someone is entertained or informed by what I post.
Frankly I’ll be happy for a 2018 without distractions, or at least without doctors.
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(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s Christmas time again, and that means the festive spirit must once again take over the Spotlight! And what better way to start than with some Christmas music?
Pentatonix, the A Capella band that started by winning a TV talent show but still needed the internet to become famous, puts out a lot of Christmas music every year, and for the second year in a row teamed with NBC to produce a Christmas special. This also introduces new member Matt Sallee, replacing bass Avi Kaplan who left due to not feeling he could not live up to the touring schedule and opting to work on his own projects. The other founding member–vocalists Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, and Kirstin Maldonado along with boombox Kevin Olusola–still bring some good music and special guests. Admittedly I haven’t watched this yet but it’s on my DVR to be watched while Christmas decorating the studio. But you get to enjoy it now.
