Tragical History

Friday Night Fights: Victory of the Disease!

2010-01-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

This blog o mine has been strangely silent -- especially has my entry for last week's Friday Night Fights took the round (in other words: Doom triumphed!).

And here we are on Friday night and round 4 appears with no entry from me.

Blame it all on the waves of pestilence currently going through the TH household. Daughter, wife, and I have all had successions of nausea, fever, colds and assorted yuck.

I shall return next week, however.

In the meantime, don't forget to vote in this week's round over at Space Booger.

Friday Night Fights: Enter… Doctor Doom!

2010-01-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

This Friday evening, Space Booger continues the terrifying march of Villainy Victorious – scenes of the black hats getting the better of our four-color heroes.

Take a look at all the entries on Space Booger and then cast your vote for the most vile victory.

Our entry this week stars perhaps the greatest of comic book villains, Victor Von Doom. The despot of Latveria has learned that the cosmically powered Silver Surfer (once herald of world-eating Galactus) is stranded on Earth.

Sending the shiny one an invite to Castle Doom, Victor proceeds to show him some hospitality, convincing the Surfer that he is a beloved and peace loving monarch. Knowing the Surfer longs for the space ways, he then shows our boy a satellite image of deep space. . . and enacts his dastardly plan!

Indeed the Surfer is so distracted that he doesn’t see this coming…

Said fate being what follows. . .

The Surfer drained of the Power Cosmic! Doctor Doom wielding he might of Galactus! Such a Villainous Victory sure deserves a Kirby-powered splash page!

Ah… Thanks Jack!

This victory comes to us by Stan Lee (script/plot), Jack Kirby (pencils/plot) and Joe Sinnot (inks) in the awesome “Enter… Doctor Doom!” from Fantastic Four #57 (Dec. 1966).

Weekly Spread for Jan 13 2010

2010-01-13T19:49:00.001-08:00

New comics!

Yearly Spread 2010

2010-01-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

This post is the complete 2010 spread and will be updated as we go:

Bad Girls: B is for Blackfire

2010-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

It’s Friday night once more here at the Tragical Historicon and that means some more good ol’ fighting, Space Booger style.

This week is Round 2 of Villainy Victorious, in which we get to see the evil people we love get the better of those damn hero types.

This week’s entry is the statuesque psychopath Kommand’r of Tamaran, fighting under the nom de guerre Blackfire.

In this, her first appearance, Komm-Komm has come to Earth with some Citadel-issue Gordanian thugs to recover the escaped Koriand’r (aka Starfire), Komm-Komm’s little sister. Like many a sister, our anti-heroine just wants to murder her younger, prettier sibling – after taking her back to Vega.

The foolish New Teen Titans take umbrage to this kidnapping. With stunning ease, they get a hold of two Citadel shuttles and make it aboard Blackfire’s flagship, ready to kick some Vegan buttocks. Blackfire, however, has other ideas.

In fact she sees them coming and releases some handy little security drones armed with a variety of anti-sidekick devices.

For the creepy empaths and green-skinned changelings, they use the old standard of zap-zap beams:

For the brawling Amazons and the acrobats in short-pants, they employ the old grappling tentacles (first popularized by Otto Octavius):

For the speedsters, some fun sticky goop:

And best of all – for the cybernetic heroes – the ol’ chop-chop-chop:

But incapacitating six teenagers by remote control isn’t actually that big a deal for our girl. I mean, B-fire isn’t even in the room, she hasn’t even really met her victims, and well “incapacitated” is hardly “with finality” (no matter what that panel said).

What would really be victorious, would be if she could kill them all in front of her damnable sister’s helpless eyes, while adding some knife-twisting commentary of her own. Something like:

Yeah, the real victory is in getting Kory to do this:

All this villainy comes to us courtesy of Marv Wolfman (script/plot), George Perez (pencils/plot) and Romeo Thangal (inks) over two awesomely evil pages from “Kidnapped” in New Teen Titans (vol 1) #23, cover-dated September 1982.

Weekly Spread for Jan 6 2010

2010-01-08T08:05:00.001-08:00

A bit late getting to the local comic shop this first week of 2010, but here is this week’s spread:

Oregonian

2010-01-03T10:46:00.001-08:00

Have been in Portland for the last couple days with the fam and having a good time. Charlotte, unfortunately, has come down with a cold, but doses of Children’s Motrin, plentiful activities, and a slew of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan episodes on daddy’s iPhone have soothed her.

Friday was taken up by the trip down and a quickish stop at Target in Seattle.

Yesterday was poking around the downtown and the Pearl District – always lots of fun. My darling wife got me a belated Christmas gift is a swanky new pair of Kliptch Image S4i earphones for the above-mentioned iPhone.

We also stumbled upon a big sale at the Pearl Adidas store (which is closing up shop), and I scored some swanky new Adidas Country 2 kicks at a deep discount.

Altogether too much sugar courtesy of Voodoo Doughnuts ended the day for us. Yum yum.

Today’s plan: the Oregon Zoo.

(And my damn laptop is having issues with pictures for some reason, hence the text only entry. Grumble.)

Bad Boys: K is for Kalibak

2010-01-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Time for the first of 2010’s Friday Night Fights! The new theme is villains and their moments of hero-smacking glory.

Check out Space Booger for details on this whole shebang.

We join a battle in progress, so a quick recap: Kalibak – younger son of Darkseid – has been calling out his sibling Orion for like an issue and a half, doing a lot of yelling from the rooftops of Metropolis (amazingly not attracting the attention of any Kryptonian interlopers). Finally, Orion responds:

Looks like Orion’s gonna get the better of ol’ K-bak again, don’t it? But wait, our shaggy villain had an unfinished line there:

And not only does he finish that sentence in the next panel:

But he finishes it a second time in the panel after that:

These epic blows come to us (of course) courtesy of writer/penciler/editor Jack Kirby and inker Mike Royer, in the classic “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin” from New Gods (volume 1) #8, cover dated April-May 1972.

Recently Charlotte

2009-12-31T07:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a little slideshow of some iPhone snaps of the wee one taken over the recent holiday (and one from a touch earlier).

The holiday has been very nice, with visits to the Aquarium (on a rainy Christmas Day) and the Christmas Train (on Boxing Day -- no rain) and assorted hanging as a fam.

Boxing Day Nerd Shopping

2009-12-26T19:07:00.001-08:00

Local Comic store had a nice sale on a variety of recent back issues, of which I availed myself:

They also had some sweet deals on various toys they had in overstock, so I picked up a bunch of DC Mini-Mates and the Dodson Diana Prince action figure for a steal:

And finally, while getting a digital cam for my darling wife, I also grabbed Fable II for a low price:

Happy Boxing Day indeed!

Two More the Spread

2009-12-25T14:52:00.001-08:00

Picked up a couple of Marvel trades yesterday - ones I had missed on Wednesday:

And here’s what I thought of ’em:

Agents of Atlas – Dark Reign TPB : More excellent fun from Jeff Parker and crew. These characters continue to be very compelling and full of life. The extras (various Secret Invasion / Dark Reign bits, and a crossover with the Marvel Adventures Avengers) are also very nice.
Dark Reign Young Avengers : Don’t get me wrong, this is a fine mini-series and includes some very nice bits, but well it just doesn’t quite sing as much as I wanted it to. Paul Cornell is my current writer crush but this series felt like his writing was sort of stuck in 3rd. Both in Captain Britain and MI-13 and his Doctor Who episodes, Cornell has deftly put his protagonists through the emotional wringer, revealing new insights into the characters and leaving them changed. Here, the YA crew just doesn’t evolve. The “Dark Young Avengers” – more properly the protagonists of the series – do go through some harsh stuff, but there’s very little in the sense of growth or reason to want to see them all again. All felt too one-note – from a writer whom I expect to have a whole melody.

Rapid-Fire Reviews (Dec 23rd Releases)

2009-12-24T09:54:00.001-08:00

Detective Comics 860 : Detective continues to be a real pleasure to read. Rucka is hitting them out of the park in both the main feature and the Question back-up. Kate’s origin manages to be compelling, straightforward and unique all at once and the noirish vibe of the walking wounded that permeates the story is awesome. The Question meanwhile has a different pace, but equally compelling.
Justice Society of America 34 : Some decent character bits here in the first post-split book – I liked Mr. Terrific (who is usually so on top of it) making a gaffe and back-pedaling. I’m not crazy about the team seeming so at a loss, though. I missed Jesus Merino too.
Fantastic Four 574 : Hickman’s FF continues to be a joy, most especially his treatment of the Richards’ kids. I definitely missed Dale Eaglesham this issue, though. A little surprised that Reed and Sue didn’t recognize their visitor, too.
Wonder Woman 39 : And so concludes Warkiller, nicely bringing Diana back into the Amazon fold. Ares was nice and creepy here, but I did find Zeus’ contrition a little hard to swallow. I like what Gail Simone has been doing with Donna Troy and Artemis – although the choice to put Artemis in her mid 90s “Requiem” green-and-white costume still baffles. At least it’s not adorned with skulls any more.
World’s Finest 3 : Arg. I’ve liked Sterling Gates work on Supergirl and have been enjoying Brian Q. Miller’s Batgirl, so I really hoped this issue would sing. And at least the vibe between Kara and Stefanie was right, and there was a nice bit about Batman’s “passing.” But Gates’ plotting was downright ham-fisted. Catwoman is present only to provide a single and extremely minor plot point and the terrible threat of Toyman and his composite robot just doesn’t live up. Plus, remember when Oracle was this mysterious uber-hacker / info broker to the super set and Barbara Gordon’s foibles where a nice contrast behind the mask? Yeah, now she’s sounding general super-hero alarms and having her comms surveilled without realizing it.
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade : Nice all-ages fun. For some reason, I just love the naming of the clone of Linda Lee as “Linda-B” or Belinda.

Weekly Spread for Dec. 23 2009

2009-12-23T15:02:00.001-08:00

And here’s the comicly goodness released on Dec 23 and acquired by moi:

And one older collection that I had been meaning to pick up for a while.

Rapid-Fire Reviews

2009-12-22T09:44:00.001-08:00

And here’s some quick thoughts on recent comics:

Batman Streets of Gotham 7 : Paul Dini’s new Batman stories have yet to rock my world and the Szasz stuff this issue felt like pretty generic “I am psycho” stuff. I continue to enjoy the Manhunter co-feature. (Too bad it’s getting the ax.)
Justice League of America 40 : The Robinson/Bagley JLA has been a pretty bleak place thus far, and this issue continued the trend. I’m looking forward to his new roster, although I will miss Vixen a great deal. Hopefully, we can look forward to some grander stories to come.
Power Girl 7 : A fun issue picked up on a lark. I enjoy Amanda Conner’s art and the breezy writing, although I’d like to see us get past PG’s tits and see her do some real ass kicking at some point.
Secret Warriors vol 1 TPB: I’m not wholly sold on the retcon of Hydra and SHIELD’s true relationship, but the comic itself is a solid read with some really nice Badass Nick Fury moments.
Batman False Faces TPB : A decent collection of Brian K Vaughn’s early DC work. I liked the Wonder Woman/Donna Troy/Clayface story best. Scott McDaniel’s cover features the ugliest Wonder Woman in recent memory, unfortunately.
World’s Finest 1 & 2 : No quite firing on all cylinders is this mini. The idea of new Bat/Sup family pairings is a good one, but the first two issues seem only to have highlighted the different worlds. The Chris Kent/Tim Drake issue should have soared, but instead fell flat as the two characters never got past their current somewhat one-note focuses.

Weekly Spread for Dec. 16 2009

2009-12-21T10:58:00.001-08:00

Here’s the spread of comics and collections released on Dec 16 that I picked up:

And here are some slightly older items I picked up at the same time:

Dusting Off...

2009-09-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

Been ages, hasn't it?

(And boy the blog looks ugly too.)

Anyway, here's some random stuff that has been on my mind:

- The modern Dr. Who is awesome. (Yes, I know, very late to the game.)
- Enjoying the iPhone very much -- especially impressed by it as a gaming platform (which I did not expect to get a lot of value out of)
- Batman: Arkham Asylum is lots of fun
- Looking forward to immanent vacation in Montreal
- Sleep remains an issue

Mustache Day

2009-07-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

Work's annual mustache day (and some sleep deprivation) led me to this awesome look last Friday.

The Greatest Movie Ever. . .

2009-03-13T21:36:00.001-07:00

So the local movie megaplex has a downright retro scrolling moveable type sign (of the red-dot-letters-on-black variety) that lists the current selection of celluloid masterpieces.

I pass by to and from work and usually read the crawl, chuckling at any coincidental typos and so forth.

This afternoon, the crawl started like this (click for legibility):

Now that is a movie I want to see!

One Panel of Pain: Face Meets Street

2009-03-06T09:15:00.001-08:00

It’s Friday and Space Booger says it’s time to rumble once more.

Ladies and gents, I give you the Avengers vs. the Scarlet Centurion:

The Avengers recruit UN Plaza in their battle against Kang’s whiny kid in “The High Ground” (Avengers vol 3 #41, June 2001), courtesy of Kurt Busiek (words), Alan Davis (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Tom Smith (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters).

Arroooo From Me . . . and the Magic of Jeff Sloane

2009-03-01T12:59:00.001-08:00

Today, Tragical History answers the call from the bovine bastion of blogging bounty, Bully the Little Stuffed Bull! Among the many, many excellent features of Bully’s blog, our plush hero has recently added the following ambition:

In this little stuffed bull's quest to be the internet's prime destination for seekers of knowledge...or, at least, seekers of comic book panels featuring the word arroooo or variations thereof...I'm now opening the floodgates, and the Bully mailbox, to your own suggestions and submissions of arroooo!

Well, I’m happy to answer the call (as it were) with the following Almost Arroooo:

All panels this post from the Zatanna Special (1987), words by Gerry Conway, illustrations by Gray Morrow. (Kcilc ot Egralne)

Yes, “H-Heee-Haa-Yaa-A-Whoooo!” indeed. The behatted man giving this awesome cry as his steed gallops into the sky to follow the lovely Ms. Zatarra?

Why that’s Jeff Sloane, Zatanna’s manager-cum-love-interest in this fine story. And he, my friends is quite a man:

Besides his equestrian skills and his years of selling Chaz Cologne, ol’ Jeff also knows the manly arts of seduction. His is a foolproof process:

Step 1: When your lady is confused and doubting herself, gently comfort her as if to get her to confide in you, but instead just tell her what she’s thinking:

Step 2: Next, hit her with an ultimatum, threatening her with abandonment (y’know, just like her parents abandoned her) for the crime of not letting you help:

Step 3: If that doesn’t immediately pay off, then go ahead an walk out:

Step 4: Wait a beat to let the pain sink in, and then come on back with your best puppy dog face, and get ready for some lovin’.

Oh, yeah, that’s the magic that is Jeff Sloane. . .

One Panel of Pain

2009-02-27T11:19:00.001-08:00

It’s Friday, and Space Booger says it’s time to fight! No build up, no preliminaries, just one panel to say it all.

Ladies and gents, I give you “Fighting Princesses of Titans Tower” – with Koriand’r (Starfire) of Tamaran facing Donna (Wonder Girl) Troy of ~~Paradise Island~~ . . . or ~~New Chronus~~ . . . or Themiscyra:

This sisterly fight takes place in the modern classic “The Eyes of Tara Markov” (from Tales of the Teen Titans #42, May 1984), the first part of The Judas Contract. Brought to you courtesy of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, with inks from Dick Giordano.

Check out other panels of pain on Space Booger.

Family Fun (with Photographic Evidence)

2009-02-26T19:13:00.001-08:00

Sara suggested a family lunch at Baby Eats today, and it was great. The place is a really nice and airy restaurant with a huge play area that is the central feature. Char played and explored to her heart’s content, and we met a friend of Sara’s and her son there.

In an uncharacteristic bout of quick thinking, I even got her to snap a pic of Sara, Charlotte and me together.

Weekly Spread – 2/25/09

2009-02-26T16:53:00.001-08:00

A few floppies to add to the pile this week:

Plus one new collection, and another I had neglected earlier this year:

All added to the Yearly Spread as usual.

Weekly Spread: Catch-Up Edition

2009-02-22T20:04:00.001-08:00

Yup, it’s been a while hasn’t it?

So, without further ado, three weeks of goodness:

And the collections. . .

All of it added to the Yearly Spread as well.

Weekly Spread (1/28)

2009-01-28T21:14:00.001-08:00

Darkseid is made of people!

And an update to the Yearly Spread, of course.

Tragical Hair Story: Starbreaker

2009-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, this week saw the return of once and future JLA villain Starbreaker, sporting his retro look.

This seems like the perfect opportunity to launch a new feature here at Tragical History, namely the Tragical Hair Story, in which we take a quick look at some of the truly unfortunate hair of the super-hero and super-villain set.

So, without further ado. . .

Who’s Your Stylist?

Crisscross – from Dillin & Giella

About This Look:

Mine is the very face of interstellar terror! I am the mighty cosmic vampire! The consumer of worlds!

Also, I really like how my devil-horn locks work with my collar.

Three Likes:

Instilling terror in the lowly masses

Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels marathons on A&E

The feel of a fine velvet cape

Three Dislikes:

The thrice-damned Justice League

The loathsome aftertaste of the planet Rann

The cursed unavailability of Plan 9 From Outer Space on Bluray.

Our Readers Probably Don’t Know That. . .

I have my own Wikipedia page. Who’s the obscure villain now, Gray Man?

The Trendsetters Say. . .

“Hair-horns work best in red, but I suppose given the poor man’s skin-tone, black will have to do.”
-– Daimon Hellstrom, Devilish Man About Town

Weekly Spread (1/21)

2009-01-21T18:47:00.001-08:00

Small spread this week.

As always, the Yearly Spread is updated.

Charlotte, Vladimir Ilyich, and Me

2009-01-18T12:32:00.001-08:00

Sara has already posted this, but here’s a nice shot of the wee one and I posing with the kick ass bronze Lenin in Freemont in Seattle.

We stopped in Fremont on Monday on the way out of Seattle and had a good time looking around. I really liked the Fremont Book Company and Destee Nation, where I picked up this Tee:

Did we actually get to Top Pot Doughnuts? Of course not. . .

The day (a week ago! bad blogger!) before we went downtown Seattle and hit a few shops. I found a very nice Pentagram Typography Calendar at Peter Miller Books:

We also found our new fondue pot on sale at City Kitchen:

All in all a great trip.

Weekly Spread (1/7 – 1/14)

2009-01-14T21:29:00.001-08:00

Two more weeks of goodness:

Also added some actual back issues (since DC seems to have decided not to include Greg Rucka’s last arc in the next Checkmate trade):

Seattle Spread

2009-01-12T18:42:00.001-08:00

A stop at Seattle’s Golden Age Collectibles led to the following purchases this weekend:

See the Yearly Spread here.

Yummy Yummy in Seattle

2009-01-11T09:24:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, we caught up to our friends A & M and had various yummy local fare -- including Greek food at the (very) kid friendly Vios Cafe and Salted Caramel ice cream at Molly Moon’s.

That ice cream was delicious, but I’m still miffed that they didn’t have the fixin’s for their apple pie sundae. I mean apple pie as a sundae? Yum!

We also picked up a cute hoodie for Char Char at Molly Moon’s, and checked out the Seattle Art Museum.

Today: shopping!

On the Road and Feelin’ Fine

2009-01-10T08:34:00.001-08:00

Sara, Charlotte and I are in Seattle this weekend visiting friends and indulging in easy access to Target, Nordstrom's, and other sign-posts of civilization (or the doom thereof).

Char Char did very well on the drive down, sleeping for about 45 minutes and then entertaining herself for most of the rest of the ride.

We are staying in hipster-land (Capitol Hill) in the guest suite at a friend’s condo complex. Very nice.

Last night saw us sample a pie from Zaw – a yummy bake-your-own pizza place. Today we catch up with said friends and do some shopping, strolling and all the rest.

Measly Spread (1/7)

2009-01-10T08:30:00.001-08:00

My friendly neighborhood comic shop didn’t get this week’s books until Friday, so I have to wait for our return to Vancouver on Monday to pick up and post the weekly spread. On my misguided trip there on Wednesday, I did manage to pick up a comic from last week, and a trade I had been looking for:

Haven’t read Teen Titans: Year One yet, but Incognito was a nice character study of the protagonist and launching point for this new series. Brubaker and Phillips have yet to disappoint.

Rapid-Fire Reviews

2009-01-05T10:25:00.001-08:00

Here are some very quick reviews of the most recent weekly spread.

Trinity 30 & 31: I continue to enjoy the series and quite like Busiek’s alternate world sans Big Three. Less crazy about the purple tribe-people the sidekick brigade has uncovered, but we’ll see.
Wonder Woman 27: Nice to see Donna and Cassie on stage and I enjoyed the insight into Amazon ways of mourning. Genocide could be interesting. Somebody please get Zeus and the rest of the Gods out of those damn space suits.
Final Crisis: Secret Files: The most uninteresting and unrevealing secret origin ever for Libra – so much missed potential.
JLA 28: As a Milestone fan from back in the day, I’m thrilled with those characters coming back, but this issue and the last seem to be firing on only a few cylinders. The de rigueur crossover fight in the satellite was pretty stale.
JSA 22: A fairly satisfying conclusion to Thy Kingdom Come after last issue’s somewhat hurried climax. I hope the splits in the JSA over Gog get explored further – and we don’t end up with one big happy family again immediately.
Superman 683: New Krypton continues to be about 70% as good as it should be. Alura’s one-note character is getting very boring.
Teen Titans 66: Picked up on a whim and it is certainly better than McKeever’s previous issues. Some nice character bits in the issue – although it does end up being “Here are all the teen heroes who won’t be in this comic.”
Marvels: Eye of the Camera 2: This Marvels sequel has been enjoyable thus far, but it does feel somewhat unnecessary.

Weekly Spread (12/24 and 12/31)

2009-01-03T10:50:00.001-08:00

Two week's worth of goodness

Yummy. . .

2009-01-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Better-half made some very very yummy apple pancakes for breakfast this new year's morn.
2009 is off to a good start.

Humorous, Most Humorous

2008-12-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

Some brilliance from The Onion:

President To Face Down Monster Attack, Own Demons In Action-Packed Schedule

(via Nathaniel Croce and the IGDA writers mailing list)

And three more. . .

2008-12-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

And another three titles added to the weekly spread after a trip to Comic Book Store #2:

Random Consumerism

2008-12-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Another object for the list of things I want but don't need:

Han Solo Mighty Mugg from Hasbro

My Blood Ravens, part 2

2008-12-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

Got some time to do some more painting.

Things done:

painted shoulder pads, knee pad, and purity seal parchment Bleached Bone

dry-brushed the chest eagles Bleached Bone

painted backpacks and hands Mechrite Red

dry brushed armor Bloody Red

painted accessory packs and bolter strap Catchacan Brown

painted base sides Khemri Brown

Click images to enlarge and see my messy work.

The Weekly Spread

2008-12-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

This week's spread of comics.

And three more I missed in weeks past:

Comics Mega Spectacular!

2008-12-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Finaling the game meant no time to get over to the comics store until today. That means seven weeks of goodness all at once.

First, the comics:

And the collections:

I am happy. Poor, but happy.

More for the addiction meter. . .

2008-12-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

As I always do, I hit a dead end in Castlevania and so have swapped out the cartridge in my DS for this little gem of addiction:

Let's see. . . progression + bejeweled = gaming crack

My Blood Ravens - Photos

2008-11-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick photos of the Tac Marines I painted on Sunday.

First, the drybrushed pair, then the flatcoated pair.


The Flat-Coated Pair	The Dry-Brushed Pair

Click to enlarge n stuff.

Players Playing

2008-11-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

You'd think working 12 hour days to final a video game would make me want to stay the hell away from games for the other 12 or so hours. That would be sensible.

Instead, I seem to revert to obsessive game playing in the midst of this time. Currently in heavy rotation are Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead and Half-Life 2 -- with some Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on the DS.

It's like I hate sleep or something.

My Blood Ravens, Part 1

2008-11-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

Finally got my paints 'n brushes and stuff and got to work on my Blood Ravens army.

I had already put together 4 Tactical Marines and 4 Terminators from Assault on Black Reach and had base-coated the Tac Marines (and drybrushed their bolters and backpack parts with gunmetal).

Today was sunny, so I took the opportunity to basecoat the Terminators -- spray painting outside of course -- and then did some painting on the Tacs.

These four guys are where I hope to get the kinks out and make mistakes before doing the bulk of the army. So I started two in one way and two in another to see what works best.

With the first two, I did some heavy drybrushing with Mechrite Red right on top of the black undercoat. One one of the two I did a second drybrush pass with some Mechrite Red mixed with a bit of white. Result was too pink, but we'll see.

With the other two, I painted the armor in flat Mechrite Red. More time consuming and exacting (lots of mistakes) but the basic result seems okay.

I then put a coat of Khemri Brown on the shoulder pads, chest eagles, belt packs and purity seals of all four models.

Next: Bleached bone on those shoulder pads. . . and maybe some pictures.

Sleepless

2007-07-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

Sleep and I are just not getting along recently. I'm tired as all get out in the morning and when I get home from the ol' Labor Mines, but when it comes time to actually sleep I either end up staying up (as tonight) or sleep a bit and wake up for a 3 to 5 am perusal across the interwebs.

Part of me doesn't mind the time to myself, but I'd sure like to feel well rested instead of ragged. I have an action plan for getting well rested, but can't seem to implement it all the way. For the most part , I've cut out caffeine after 4, but other elements are more elusive.

I will say that the last few hours of Not Sleeping did allow me to read through Maddy Gaiman's (tween daughter of Neil) highly entertaining account of her and her father's visit to the Budapest set of Hellboy 2. Very fun stuff (and not only because I didn't even know there was a Hellboy 2 in the works).

Her reference to traipsing about with Doug Jones (aka Abe Sapien) sent me on a little imdb search only to uncover that Thespian Jones also played both the Faun (aka Pan) and the truly terrifying Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, as well as the Lead Gentleman in the oh-so-great Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Hush.

He does seem top have cornered the market on creepy body language with lots of makeup, no? Oh, and he's also the Silver Surfer.

I think he may be my favorite person ever, now that I think about it.

Today in Tragical History (July 14th)

2007-07-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

1789: The storming of the Bastille. Neither the actual beginning nor end of the French Revolution, it still becomes the symbolic date used to celebrate the Revolution.
1933: Germany bans all political parties save the National Socialist Party -- you know, the Nazis.

Weekly Spread

2007-06-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

New Comics:
Countdown #44 (w: Paul Dini with Adam Beechen; a: Carlos Magno, Jay Leisten & Rod Reis)
Fantastic Four #547 (w: Dwayne McDuffie; a: Paul Pelletier, Rick Magyar & Paul Mounts)

New Collections:
The Trials of Shazam! vol. 1 (w: Judd Winick, a: Howard Porter)

Not-so-New Collections:
Marvel Adentures Fantastic Four vol. 3: World's Greatest (w: Jeff Parker; a: Carlo Pagulayan, Manuel Garcia, Juan Santacruz, et al.)
Superman & Batman: Generations (w; John Byrne; a: John Byrne & Trish Mulvihill)

Days Off

2007-06-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

First day of an extra-special, extra-long weekend today. Love the days off. Old friend Ivy is in town and staying with us for a couple weeks, so it was nice to spend the morning out and about with her.

We hit Granville Island, which although wonderful, is usually a madhouse -- with more shoppers and tourists per square inch than this particular medieval morality star can stand. Today, however, was a joy. No big lines; no crowds; no snappish merchants. Joyous.

Oh, and we had pie. Everything is better with pie.

Today in Tragical History (June 29)

2007-06-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

1914 - Rasputin, he of the dashing beard, survives yet another assassination attempt.

Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News

2007-06-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

So the journey to the sex clinic was productive. The doctor there, after talking to Helen and me together and then to me in private, pretty much cut to the chase. He thinks I have been suppressing lots of emotions, including anger, for a long time and that has got me blocked in all kinds of ways -- sexually, yes, but also creatively and more. To quote him, I haven't "grown up" (a little harsh, that...).

Anyway, I actually take this as pretty good news. It was refreshing to have a doc who basically got down to business. He says I need long term therapy to break out of this lockdown of mine, and although sharing with yet another specialist isn't something I'm relishing, the hope of knocking all this crap in my head loose is exciting. He passed on a list of therapists and now I just have to find one who will take me (and see if my insurance covers it).

Childhood anxieties, here I come...

Today in Tragical History (June 24th)

2007-06-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

1916 - A week-long artillery barrage begins as a prelude to the Battle of the Somme.
more tragical history

Perchance to Dream

2007-06-20T06:07:00.001-07:00

Insomnia has become SOP for me this past little while. Last night I managed to sleep all the way until 5 this morning, but the night before I was up for a couple hours between 1 and 3. Not fun.

Our old friend anxiety is the culprit of course, manifesting as restlessness, nightmares and lots of other fun symptoms. Despite having gotten a (relatively) solid night’s sleep, I can feel the devil on my shoulder quite clearly this morning.

Helen and I have an appointment with a doctor this morning to look into my low sex drive. I definitely want to deal with this problem, but I can’t say I look forward to discussing my private life with yet another doctor. (Posting to the Internet seems fine, though…).

We shall see.

Today in Tragical History (June 20th)

2007-06-20T05:54:00.000-07:00

1893 - Lizzie Borden, she of the forty whacks, is acquitted of murdering stepmother and father.

Getting Started

2007-06-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

More messing around with blogger and some widgets on the side. Fun, but annoying that there isn't anything like a central widget registry. Ah, well.

Better-half Helen and I took a day trip down to Seattle yesterday to see our friend (and her old roommate) Dr. Dee and her man. They were in town for a medical conference, but seemed more interested in slacking off with us. Good choice I say.

Very nice to see Dee, but lots of driving and walking left us beat. Insomnia struck again and so I'm a bit of a walking zombie today -- but then, what else is new?

Today in Tragical History (June 17th)

2007-06-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

1462 - Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula) undertakes the Night Attack.

1775 - The poorly named Battle of Bunker Hill happens on Breed's Hill near Boston.

Those Who Cannot Do...

2007-06-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Having spent hour upon hour messing with every blog system I could find -- Blogger, TypePad, Sampa -- I figure, I should at least get a quick post in. We'll see what this little blog will become, but here goes for now.

2009 Games

2000-01-01T22:55:00.000-08:00

Games Played in '09

2009 Reading

2000-01-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a spread of the books I am reading in 2009. This spread will be updated as more join the list.

Yearly Spread 2009

2000-01-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

Here we go, a spread of all comics acquired in 2009.

Tragical History

Friday Night Fights: Victory of the Disease!

Friday Night Fights: Enter… Doctor Doom!

Weekly Spread for Jan 13 2010

Yearly Spread 2010

Bad Girls: B is for Blackfire

Weekly Spread for Jan 6 2010

Oregonian

Bad Boys: K is for Kalibak

Recently Charlotte

Boxing Day Nerd Shopping

Two More the Spread

Rapid-Fire Reviews (Dec 23rd Releases)

Weekly Spread for Dec. 23 2009

Rapid-Fire Reviews

Weekly Spread for Dec. 16 2009

Dusting Off...

Mustache Day

The Greatest Movie Ever. . .

One Panel of Pain: Face Meets Street

Arroooo From Me . . . and the Magic of Jeff Sloane

One Panel of Pain

Family Fun (with Photographic Evidence)

Weekly Spread – 2/25/09

Weekly Spread: Catch-Up Edition

More Recent Reads

Weekly Spread (1/28)

Tragical Hair Story: Starbreaker

Weekly Spread (1/21)

Charlotte, Vladimir Ilyich, and Me

Weekly Spread (1/7 – 1/14)

Seattle Spread

Yummy Yummy in Seattle

On the Road and Feelin’ Fine

Measly Spread (1/7)

Rapid-Fire Reviews

Weekly Spread (12/24 and 12/31)

Yummy. . .

Humorous, Most Humorous

And three more. . .

Random Consumerism

My Blood Ravens, part 2

The Weekly Spread

Comics Mega Spectacular!

More for the addiction meter. . .

My Blood Ravens - Photos

Players Playing

My Blood Ravens, Part 1

Sleepless

Today in Tragical History (July 14th)

Weekly Spread

Days Off

Today in Tragical History (June 29)

Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News

Today in Tragical History (June 24th)

Perchance to Dream

Today in Tragical History (June 20th)

Getting Started

Today in Tragical History (June 17th)

Those Who Cannot Do...

2009 Games

2009 Reading

Yearly Spread 2009