Skip Day

Out with Oma, Opa and Tante Annelene. If you've ever hung out with people whos average age is 76, you understand my lack of posting today.

Ahem.

Uses for a "Faraday Suit"

OK, this guy is wearing a "Faraday Suit" so that he doesn't get fried by 20 kajillion volts, which are dancing to the tune of a giant Tesla Coil playing the Star Wars "Imperial March" music:



This awesome video of a high-tension powerline worker wearing a Faraday Suit in his work was sent to me by our own Triple-G a couple of years back:



Watch it, it's pretty amazing what jobs people have.

We survived Hailstorm '09!

Well, that was pretty interesting. A seething front passed through just now, and behind it came mothball-sized hail! It was pretty impressive. The creek next door to our house jumped it's banks and the field was full of muddy water with tiny ice cubes bobbing merrily along. I have videos up HERE and HERE on the Comix Connection YouTube Channel!

And if they had opposable thumbs, we'd all be dead

Never let your guard down around your pets:

Click HERE to see what I'm talking about.

Watch out! Fido might be trying to kill you!

Did you get the email we just sent out?

Did you get the email we sent out yesterday? If you didn't, you need to sign up for the Weekly/Monthly Comix Connection Emailing by going to the right side of this page at the bottom and filling in the "Email Aces" box. You will get a confirmation email that you need to respond to, and then you'll be all set. (I CANNOT SIGN YOU UP FOR THE EMAILS... you have to do it yourself. This prevents spamming to protect you from receiving junk emails.)

Sign up today to get our sporadic emailing which contains lots of information on specials, sales and events! Don't be left out of the loop!

Where The Wild Things Are!

Check out this trailer for the upcoming Where The Wild Things Are movie, based on the classic children's book by Maurice Sendak:



The movie, directed by Spike Jonze is set for release October 16th 2009.

Thanks for the heads-up everybody who sent a link!
(Strangely enough, I never read this book until I had my own kids, so it doesn't resonate with me as strong as it does with a LOT of you.)

Local comic creator Mike Hawthorne is EVERYWHERE these days!

Local artist Mike Hawthorne has two, count 'em TWO books on the stands this week:

STAR TREK ALIEN SPOTLIGHT TRIBBLES

Check out a preview HERE. (Scroll down a bit.)

and

GI JOE ORIGINS #2 (he also did work on #1)

Check out a preview HERE.

Check out Mike's blog HERE!

As always Mike these both look awesome! Come on in and get your copies today, folks!

Inexplicable

I don't know why someone did this, I don't know what it means, and I don't know where I found it, I just thought you might enjoy it:

MICHAEL JACKSON and E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Best Friends.

Done on a Travel Etch-A-Sketch

You're welcome.

The King!

'NUFF SAID!

Happy Birthday, Captain Kirk!

Today is William Shatner's 78th birthday and this guy wants to declare March 22 "International Talk Like William Shatner Day". I'm all for that. I mean, we're talking about the guy who brought us so much joy from things like THIS:



A true classic. Happy Birthday, Bill!


Oh and I had to post this video again because it's so awesome.



Shatner and Joe Jackson doing Pulp's "Common People" to the 1970s Star Trek cartoon. Perfect.

Pub Evacuated due to presence of suspicious Globus Cruciger

That's right, a Globus Cruciger, specifically The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch of Monty Python and the Holy Grail fame.


Read the article HERE, see the clip HERE.

You can never be too careful.

Alan Moore and Bill

Out for a stroll, back when they were still speaking to each other:




(I'm just kidding. Jared sent me this a while ago because he thought that the guy with Alan Moore of WATCHMEN fame looks like me. I don't know who that guy is.)

I got nothin, except a

CHEESEBURGER


CHEESEBURGER


CHEESEBURGER


CHEESEBURGER


CHEESEBURGER


CHEESEBURGER


NO CHEESEBURGER



Now I'm hungry.

What I'm reading now, and why.

I make no secret that my favorite comics are of the Marvel variety. Right now I find the Dark Reign theme really well thought out and backed by a lot of great writers. My favorite books right now are Fantastic Four and Wolverine "Old Man Logan" (Mark Millar), Dark Avengers (Bendis), Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk (Damon Lindelof of Lost fame!), Secret Warriors (Hickman & Bendis), and a little mentioned, hidden gem, The Immortal Iron Fist (Swierczynski).


I rarely hear any mention of the The Immortal Iron Fist, and maybe that's because the character himself is not very popular. The thing I do know, is that if you pick up the current issue and read the re-cap on the first page, it will be worth it! Trust me. The art is phenomenal, not to mention, innovative and the story is epic, but approachable for new readers.


Over at DC comics, it's absolutely no competition, Green Lantern takes the cake! Geoff Johns epic sweeping story picked up with Green Lantern Rebirth a few years back and hasn't stopped running full speed since. The good reason to get into the Green Lantern books now are that coming up on Free Comic Day, the world will be getting the prologue to the big DC event, Blackest Night! This book is not only a great jump on point for people looking to read Green Lantern but also to get on board with the entire DCU current.

Also to look forward to at DC is the upcoming Batman and Robin title, brought to us by the All-Star Superman team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly!

As always, the alternative books become a side note. Starting with a well established book that I'm just now getting the chance to dive into. Love an Rockets is available in seven convenient collected volumes. They are not appropriate for young lings, but if you're an adult and want to have a romping good time, try this book today. Its filled with beautifully drawn women in a sci-fi, reality twisted existence. The new format is a small square bound book, titled, Love & Rockets New Stories, continuing the mythos.
I'm catching up on Invincible as well, just completing volume nine, and boy can I say the hype was not unjustified! What an amazing comic. Its a self contained world where a college age man comes to grips with the overwhelming duty of being a real superhero. Let me clarify that it is not done in a corny way either, I, at times really feel for the character in his personal life and his larger than life, superhero dilemmas.


And last, but not least, Incognito! Which I know Bill, if not all of my coworkers, will back me in saying that Brubaker has struck again. After such hits as his mainstream Captain America and Daredevil books and his creator owned Criminal, he now brings us Incognito. Its the story of an ex super-villain who is put into protective custody after a life of crime, and how he fights the urges to go out and wreak havoc again! All beautifully illustrated by Sean Phillips!

So that's what I'm reading and loving, what are you reading and loving?

After WATCHMEN... What's Next?

DC Comics has a program to answer that very question... a selection of some of the best thought-provoking comics that DC has ever published, available in special editions for the low price of ONE DOLLAR EACH!


This is the list of titles DC has selected for this program, all classics in their own right:

Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, March 11
Transmetropolitan #1, March 18
Planetary #1, March 25
Preacher #1, April 1
Identity Crisis #1, April 8

HERE'S more info from the DC website, which also lists more recommended titles for your perusal!

Available in stores right now is Alan Moore's classic SWAMP THING story "The Anatomy Lesson", followed this week by TRANSMETROPOLITAN #1, so come on in and get your copies today!

I got your state-of-the-art recording technology right here

Behold:

A crackly analogue recording made in 1951 is the earliest known example of a digital computer making music, say UK historians.

The recording captures one of the earliest computers to use short term random access memory playing God Save the King, Baa Baa Black Sheep and a short piece of Glenn Miller's In The Mood.

The Ferranti Mark 1 computer was built by UK electrical engineering firm Ferranti in collaboration with Manchester University, UK. It was the world's first commercial computer, and nine were sold between 1951 and 1957

.
Listen to an mp3 file of the recording

And CLICK HERE to read the entire article.

More on the Ferranti Mark 1 computer HERE

I guess your 1951 iPod would have been the size of Delaware.

Verminology

I thought this artwork was pretty neat:


So I clicked on the Verminology website and discovered that these are ALL DRAWN BY FINGERTIP ON AN iPhone!!!

Pretty amazing.

Just blown away!

The art of Robert Hack is beautiful. It's one more example of an artist I find through "internetting", that I just yearn for to see in the monthly superhero publications. I see he's done some work for Doctor Who comics, but the real treat for me, is to see his superheroes and creature renderings! Fantastic stuff!

Check out more here!

M.O.D.O.K. Madness!

M.O.D.O.K. as a character really lends himself to different artist renderings, find the evidence here. The above is titled Moflok, appropriately.

Spoof: Frank Miller's CHARLIE BROWN

Check it out:


Find the entire two-page spoof HERE!

Of course, I always liked Jason Youngbluth's WEAPON BROWN which appeared in DEEP FRIED. Great stuff.

What does one trillion look like?

You hear the number like "billion" and "trillion" bandied about all over the place, but can you really grasp the enormity of the numbers?

CLICK HERE for a brief tutorial of a visualization of what a TRILLION looks like.

Staggering, isn't it?

You're welcome.

My First Comics!

So it all started when my dad told me not to go into the attic and root through his things, so I did. Finding Richie Rich, Kamandi, and Tor comics. Then my older brother handed me some Savage Dragon, Ninja Turtles, and Spawn books. After the exposure to these eye openers, I discovered the Comix Connection 2 for 99'ers. My hands riddled with red marker, I began to leave the store with Adventures of Superman, Spider-man, and Tick comics. I've remembered all of those comics for years now, because each comic was a step closer to the day I signed up for a subscription and an addiction. These are some of those that I remember.

This issue was one of the first that I found in my Dad's trash bags from the attic. Jack Kirby! Nuff' said!


I actually enjoyed reading these the most! Richie Rich and all the Harvey cast are so fun, so it was a major treat when the Harvey Classics reprints came out, speaking of which, they are still available here at Comix Connection!


Can't forget the first time I saw a Kubert comic!


This Turtles comic helped me realize there were more than just cave men and funny books out there, and then I met the Super-heroes!


This is the first of that breed I ever had, and the cover is stained into my brain. The stark red background is something I'll never forget.


One of my first 2 for 99'ers!


Last but not least the first time I picked up my sub and brought home uncanny X-men #369 in 1999.

I'd later pick up Ultimate Spider-man #1, discovering Bendis. A few years later I'd read Walking Dead #1, and the hits never stopped coming after that. I thought I'd write this post about the first comics I remembered having as a kid, because they are the reason I read today, a lot of it was the art on the covers' appeal.

So, what were some of the first comics you read?

Nelson

CLICK HERE

That is all.

Smiley face on Mars

As seen in the WATCHMEN graphic novel:



And as seen on MARS:



Check out GOOGLE MARS and then type in "Galle Crater" to see for yourself.

Pretty neat, eh?

So, what did you think of the WATCHMEN movie?

Please vote:

Online Surveys & Market Research

Oh, and CLICK HERE to get some cool WATCHMEN desktop wallpapers!

Saturday Morning WATCHMEN!

OK, this was plain hilarious. CLICK HERE and then click on WATCH THIS MOVIE for a send-up of Saturday Morning cartoons... WATCHMEN style!

A tip of the hat to MegoSteve for the link!

Turn your nerd room into the bridge of the USS Enterprise!

With this awesome "wall mural":


read more about these HERE and check out the RoomMates website for tons more awesome wall decorations, including Batman, Incredible Hulk, Spider-man, Superman, Iron Man, Transformers and much more! (LINK FIXED! GO AHEAD AND CLICK ON IT NOW.)

(I really liked that suggestion in the comments section of that first article: Make one of the GUARDIAN OF FOREVER! Yes, please.)

Thanks for the tip, P-J Delaye!

An odd logo

As I was sipping coffee in my kitchen this morning, my eyes fell upon the tin of LYLE'S BLACK TREACLE that I picked up on my trip to Ireland back in the '90s:


I brought that home from my trip not because I liked treacle, but because of the bizarre logo on the tin:


Here's the explanation, from LYLE'S website:

The "lion and the bees" trademark

Abram Lyle had strong religious beliefs, which is why the Lyle's Golden Syrup trademark depicts a quotation from the Bible. In the Old Testament (Book of Judges 14:14) Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and on his return past the same spot he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness".

The "lion and bees" were quickly becoming identified with Lyle's Golden Syrup, and it was registered as Lyle's trademark in 1904. Plaistow employees did not forget to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2004.

However, no-one knows why Abram chose the wording 'Out of the strong came forth sweetness'. Was he referring to the tin holding the syrup - or the company producing it?

Weird, isn't it?

(My house is full of this kind of useless stuff that caught my eye. It's like the nest of a magpie... shiny objects with no obvious connection.)

Patrick McGoohan and Jack Kirby...

I was just watching a movie titled: The Hard Way, starring Patrick McGoohan and Lee Van Cleef, when i remembered bumping into some Jack Kirby, Prisoner comic art in my online searches. What a treat! I thought these images were great.