The Marvel 52, Part Five: Marvel Heroes

Sorry for the silence the last couple of days. Busy busy. I'll have to do a project update sooner or later. Kill All Monsters is coming along nicely and I've been working on a short, prose story about an old, pulp character named The Purple Scar, but I could give you some more details about both of those.

Anyway, the last twelve titles in my Marvel 52 are the big guns.

12. The Liberators by Gail Simone and Colleen Coover



The Lady Liberators were introduced way back in Avengers #83 as a team of villains (of course) to fight those poor boys of the Avengers. They made sort of a comeback in recent years though as a heroic group when She-Hulk formed an informal team of superwomen to fight the chauvinistic Red Hulk in Jeph Loeb's Hulk. Then they got together a couple of other times after that in She-Hulk and The Mighty Avengers.

I'm all about the female superheroes, so it would be awesome to have a book where they could team up regularly. Maybe have a core team of She-Hulk, Valkyrie, Black Widow, and Hellcat with other women coming on for particular missions. Since that's sort of Marvel's version of Birds of Prey, it's unoriginal, but entirely appropriate to have Gail Simone writing it. And Colleen Coover draws Marvel women (and men, for that matter) like nobody else.

11. Valkyrie by Paul Cornell and Jill Thompson

I know there's a bona fide female version of Thor, but Valkyrie's been around a lot longer and has the benefit of not being exactly a female version of Thor. She has the whole, cool Viking thing going on without just copying him. I know Paul Cornell could do awesome things with that and Jill Thompson's got a great, fantasy style that would suit very well.

10. Runaways by Brian K Vaughan and Ben Caldwell

Vaughan has said that he always wanted Runaways to be a series that other creative teams could pick up and run with; that he wanted it to be sort of his legacy at Marvel. But though other creators have done pretty well with the concept, unfortunately no one's doing anything with it now. I'd correct that and bring back the writer who started it all. Ben Caldwell has a great, manga-esque style that's perfect for books about (and targeted to) younger kids.

9. Agents of Atlas by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk



Quite simply the most definitively awesome team book anyone's ever made in the history of comics. It was Jeff Parker's baby, so no one else can touch the writing, and though there have been a few excellent artists working with Parker on it over the years, Leonard Kirk was the first. I'd want that dream team back on it again.

8. Spider-Man by Phil Hester and Pia Guerra

Spidey is a character that I haven't been excited about since the '70s. Phil Hester could change that by bringing the same mix of high adventure and everyman troubles that he put into Firebreather. As for Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man)... Why, oh, why isn't she drawing a monthly comic book right now?

7. The Fantastic Four by Brian Clevinger and Darwyn Cooke



Brian Clevinger's proven that he's not about to run out of wacky science stories for Atomic Robo anytime soon, so why not share some of that with everyone's favorite family of super scientists? And you know you want to see Darwyn Cooke cut loose on a series like that.

6. Pet Avengers by Evan Dorkin and Katie Cook

Evan Dorkin can write a damn good animal story. Not just a cute, funny animal story (though they are that, too), but a real story about animals you care about. I sort of want his Beasts of Burden partner Jill Thompson on this one, but I'm trying not to be completely unoriginal and Katie Cook's not only awesome, she also has a thing for Marvel and pets.

5. Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung



Okay, maybe I am totally unoriginal. But in my dreamworld, Heinberg would have time to write a monthly series about these characters he and Cheung made up. I loved it when they were on the book, but in other hands the characters haven't been as exciting.

4. Iron Man by James Turner and Nicola Scott

If I can't have Robert Downey Jr play Tony Stark right there in my comic, something else that could get me to buy it would be to have James Turner (Rex Libris, Warlord of Io) write it. Like all my favorite writers, Turner has an insane imagination and unrestrained abandon about letting it spill out of his head and onto the page. And he's hilarious. I'm not saying that it hasn't been this way lately, because I haven't read Iron Man in years, but in general the character needs some craziness. It should be a scifi/superspy comic and I'd love to see Nicola Scott ground something like that in reality.

3. Thor by Neil Gaiman and George O'Connor



I went back and forth about whether I'd prefer to have George O'Connor (Olympians) write and draw this one by himself. He's certainly got the ability to tell fun stories about mythological characters.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how amazing it would be to see Gaiman make Asgard as huge and epic as the Dreaming.

2. Captain America by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

If there's something else Clevinger appears to like as much as superscience, it's WWII history. Not only could he tell some fantastic flashback stories to Cap's adventures in those days, he's also a guy who - like Brubaker - can let that time period continue informing the personality and choices of the modern Captain America. And why not let Clevinger's Atomic Robo cohort, Scott Wegener be in charge of bringing it to life?

1. The Avengers by Paul Tobin and Cliff Chiang



Paul Tobin's already been writing the best Avengers comic around for the Marvel Adventures line, so he should get his shot at the main book with one of the best superhero artists working today.

Diana Spencer

Diana, Princess of Wales died on my birthday, August 31, in 1997 in an automobile accident. She was born into the British Spencer family. My Grandmother Ogle was born Willie J. Spencer in Lois, Moore County, Tennessee, and she always claimed to be related to the British Spencers, though she had nothing to document it. My middle name is Spencer, after Grandmother, and I passed it on to Sarah, so I could invoke it the way Mom used to with me, "Sarah Spencer Ogle!

I visited Kensington Palace with Mom in 1993, but my British cousin did not emerge from her apartment to greet her Tennessee kinfolk, if that we were. I think it is more likely that I might find out if and how I am related to Thomas Sharp "Bigfoot" Spencer of Tennessee.

Audiobook Review: Ready Or Not: What Happens When We Treat Children As Small Adults

I just finished the audiobook version of Ready or Not: What Happens When We Treat Children As Small Adults, by Kay S. Hymowitz. The title caught my eye because it contains the premise that we should not treat our children as small adults, and I agree that our society seems to rush children toward maturity more than is warranted. Although I encourage Sarah to make some of her own decisions, like what to wear to school, I find myself to be a much more stringent disciplinarian than I expected myself to be. I learned from many years of practicing law in juvenile court that although children will resist boundaries, they need them. I want Sarah to understand the reasoning behind parental commands, but I expect them to be obeyed first. I don't want a debate when I tell a child not to go out into the road because she might get hit by a car. Once she's safely away from the danger I explain why it is important to stay out of the road. I want to raise a rational, independent human being, but it is the job of her parents to get her safely to adulthood and to teach her what will be expected of her once she gets there.



In her book, Hymowitz analyses the history of parenting in the United States, and argues that for many years after the founding of the country the goal of parenting was to raise citizens prepared to operate a free republic. Autonomy is important in American society, but Hymowitz believes that we have gone too far and that children today are so autonomous that they are not properly indoctrinated to the culture into which they were born. She calls this "anticulturalism."



The result of anticulturalism is that today's children are pushed at a rapid pace toward adulthood. For example, the copy of the audiobook I borrowed from the library, unlike the image from Amazon above, has a photograph of children passing through a metal detector to get into school. Our society has come to believe that children, given only the appropriate tools and stimulation from their parents, can find their own way to a happy and productive adulthood.

Because children are propelled toward adulthood in such a rapid pace, they fail to properly achieve it once they come of age, which is why people marry later in life and live in their parents' basements into their twenties and thirties.



As I got further and further into the book, I found it to be more and more negative, though it concluded on a positive note. As I've aged I sometimes find myself looking around at what society has become during my life, shaking my head and thinking, "It's all going to hell in a hand basket." The latter part of this book had the same flavor to it, which I found myself resisting. I usually favor history and biography, and this book was more like something that would be assigned reading in an undergraduate course, which was a nice change from my usual fare.

On Location at Hillsboro High School

According to the Tennessean, a film crew was out in front of Sherry's alma mater, Hillsboro High School, yesterday, and the name on the school was changed to Middle Bend High for the filming, which was for a new Nicole Kidman flick. Nashville encourages filmaking, and Kidman lives there at times with her husband, Keith Urban, so it sounds like a good fit.



I wonder if the Inukshuk statue will appear in the film.

Pig and Pie

Pig and Pie, a Nashville barbecue joint that inhabited the food court at Bellevue Center Mall prior to the mall's untimely death, has opened a restaurant at 336 White Bridge Road, which isn't far from Sherry's mom's house. I read a review on the place in the Nashville Scene, and the headline characterizes the quality as "uneven," though the review overall is fairly positive. The restaurant is in the little white house that used to be the home of a Persian restaurant, Hot Kebabs. We've eaten at Hot Kebabs before, and I'm sorry to learn that it has closed. I bet Pig and Pie does well there, though.

Coloring Page Tuesday - Reading Sheep?

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!
     How do you get into a good book? Hopefully not like this baaaad sheep - Eee Gads!
     Be sure to share your creations in my Coloring Page Tuesday GALLERY at dulemba.com! (Click the icon below.) It's not just for card-makers - it's for everybody!
     Click here to view the entire Coloring Page Tuesday collection.
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog!
     Click the covers to learn about my picture book, Soap, soap, soap and Soap, soap, soap ~ Jabón, jabón, jabón.

Wookie Steak

It's a little Chewy.

Cora Cooks Pancit App giveaway!

Remember when I interviewed Kristi Valient, illustrator of CORA COOKS PANCIT? Well, the adorable picture book is now available as an app - and there are lots of ways to win a free copy! Just go to Shen's Books (publisher of my first picture book, THE PRINCE'S DIARY) to learn how - by "liking" them on facebook, tweeting about the app every day, and signing up online. Easy peasy.

Mammatus Clouds Above North Carolina

This is a photograph of Mammatus clouds over North Carolina from Rich Bruner on Earth Science Picture of the Day. According to the accompanying article,

The orange color of the clouds is attributed to a low Sun. Sunlight has been attenuated by the greater path-length that occurs when the Sun lies near or below the horizon. Here, the Sun has already set (at the surface), but the lofty clouds are still exposed to the Sun's lingering rays.

Bill Enclosed

(Via Miss Cellania)

Rainbow Rose

I found this confused but pretty rose on Neatorama.

Homeward Bound

I talked to Leslie yesterday morning, and she said that she and Frazier will be heading home to South Knoxville after their week at Seagrove Beach. They plan to spend the night in Birmingham, Alabama, this evening and then drive the rest of the way home tomorrow.



Mom said that on their way down they visited the house in Birmingham where we lived when I was in first and second grade. I remember piling a bunch of pillows, couch cushions and blankets on the bushes underneath my second-story bedroom window and jumping out the window onto the padded bushes. We had a line of kids running through the house to jump out the window until Mom caught on to what we were doing. I was younger than Sarah is now. How we survived to adulthood is beyond me.

Busted Bear

The local media outlets have reported that a bear was menacing a lady who lives up in Townsend. According to the News Sentinel's Bob Wilson, authorities trapped the bear in Sevier County Friday afternoon. In addition to the M&M's that baited the trap, the bear is being treated to a nice trip to Cherokee National Forest where he can hopefully find better food to eat than household garbage.

SCBWI Illustrators' Day - coming soon!!

Our Southern Breeze (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi) chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) will host our annual Illustrators' Day this Friday, September 2nd at the Decatur Library in Decatur, Georgia, and there's still time to sign up if you'd like to join us!
     This year, we have some amazing speakers: Kristen Nobles, Art Director from Candlewick Press; Robert Agis, Editor from Sterling Children's Books; Mike Lowery, SCAD professor and illustrator of The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School - written by Laura Murray, who will also be joining us. Once again, we had a mentor assignment for the first 12 signees - hosted by illustrator Michael Austin. And we'll have our portfolio display with quick overviews by our guest speakers so those just starting out can get a real idea of how quickly decisions are made and how their work might fare in the children's book market.
     To sign up, go to our Southern Breeze Illustrators' Corner blog and click on "Illustrators Day."
     And many thanks to Mike Lowery for creating our fantastic poster!
Hope to see you there!
e
Elizabeth O. Dulemba
SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrator Coordinator
(Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi)
http://www.southern-breeze.org/
Illustrator Blog: http://sbillustrators.blogspot.com/

Hurricane Irene

This image from Hurricane Irene is from NASA.

Crockett Tavern, Morristown, Tennessee

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Eastern Division of the Tennessee Court Clerks Conference in Morristown, Tennessee, which is little over an hour's drive from Maryville. I arrived a bit early for the meeting, so I took a short drive to visit Crockett Tavern, which was operated by David Crockett's parents. The building that is shown in the picture is a replica of the tavern where Crockett spent part of his youth, but according to the Crockett Tavern Museum website, it was built on the site of the original. It is pretty cool to think that yesterday I walked ground that Crockett once walked.

Kid Likes Havarti

When we were up at La and Stew's Mountain Springs Chalet last weekend, I shared some Havarti cheese with Sarah. I'm pretty sure Laura bought it last time we went out to the Camp, and it ended up in our cooler. Sarah liked it so much she specifically asked me to buy some at the store. A small block of it was six dollars, so I bought her mozzarella sticks instead, but I'm impressed that she liked it enough to try to say "Havarti." Because I'm sure she'll ask me where it came from, I looked it up. According to Cheese.com, Havarti is named for the farm in Denmark where it was first produced by a Dane named Hanne Neilson.

My sisters, Leslie and Laura, are greatly fond of cheese, and they will be proud that their niece is carrying on in their cheese-loving footsteps.

Housework

It has been a while since we've had a weekend with no plans, and we are looking forward to hanging out together at the house this weekend. I woke Sarah up, and we're going to give Sherry an hour of extra sleep in a quiet house by going out to do our recycling and to have a bite of breakfast. Sherry will most likely be up by the time we get back and ready to take Sarah to the animal shelter, where they help out on the weekends.



I've been working on cleaning up our garage. Most of the fluorescent lights down there have been out for a while, but we've been getting new fixtures up so that the lighting problem should be solved once we're finished. After the hail storm, I shoved everything we have stored down there to one side so that we could pull both cars in if we were to have another fierce storm. With lighting restored I have been reorganizing things in storage and have set up and cleaned off (mostly) Sarah's art table so that we can use it again and can still pull the cars into the garage if we need to.

Fish Bowl Bookends

Who knew there was a whole "genre" of fish-bowl bookends out there? If you're into fish, they're kinda groovy from The Well Dressed Home and Chimpfeet!

The Marvel 52, Part Four: Marvel Knights

I've never been especially fond of the name "Marvel Knights," but I don't hate it either and since Marvel's used it a couple of times to identify its street-level, edgier characters, it's recognizable. So I'll use it too.

22. Dakota North by Ed Brubaker and Phil Noto



I don't know much about Dakota North. I don't think I've ever read one of her adventures, but she's a private eye working in the Marvel U and that could be a lot of fun. Maybe it's similar to Alias - I've never read it either - but with Brubaker writing it, it could be a fun, adventurous, Marvel version of something like Gotham Central. I picked Phil Noto for the art because he knows how to give female characters cool attitude without making them obnoxious.

21. Kraven the Hunter by Gail Simone and Marian Churchland

I admit that I picked Gail Simone for this because of the wonders she worked on Catman and because Kraven's a similar character. But visually, Kraven's much cooler and I'd love to see her do something comparable with him; give him some kind of moral center instead of just being whackadoo. Marian Churchland's soft, elegant work would give the series a pastoral look that would reinforce the idea that Kraven's seeking peace, even when he's involved in violence.

20. Hercules by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, LeUyen Pham, and Alex Puvilland



There are a few reasons I'm not reading the current Herc series; none of them having anything directly to do with the creators involved. Indirectly though, I wouldn't be able to pass up a Hercules series drawn by the wife-and-husband team (I think they're married; doesn't matter) of LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland (Prince of Persia, Solomon's Thieves). They've got a strong, mythic quality to their work that's totally unique and exciting.

As for why Hercules is in this category: it's a tonal thing. He was the original street-level hero. In Greek mythology - a world filled with iconic, superpowered beings - Hercules was the grounded one whom people could relate to. That feeling is important to who he is and last time I checked in, Pak and Lente were already doing a great job of presenting him that way.

19. Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu by Phil Hester and Mark Smylie

I love Phil Hester's writing because there's always a layer of something deeper going on underneath the action. That's crucial to Master of Kung Fu, a series that in the '70s was filled with as much thought and philosophy as martial arts and espionage. Mark Smylie (Artesia) would complement that balance beautifully. He can paint the most brutally violent battle scene in the most exquisitely lush and contemplative way.

18. The Falcon by Greg Rucka and Steve Rude

The Falcon is one of those characters I wish I knew more about and would totally jump on if some exciting creators told a story about him. He's got a great look and I've loved him in Captain America and on Super Hero Squad, but I'd love even more to get him away from the other superheroes and see what makes him tick. I think Rucka and Rude are the guys to do that.

17. The Sub-Mariner by Ed Brubaker and David Petersen



Some of you have already pointed out that Namor would fit in well in other categories and you're right. He's a versatile character. I've put him in Marvel Knights in great part because of his attitude. I like Namor a lot, but he's a nasty dude with some serious problems he needs to get figured out. I'd certainly want this to have some great, undersea adventure to it, but I'd love for the tone to be similar to what Brubaker did with Captain America. It's exciting and fun, but it's grounded in real emotion as Cap continues to struggle - even after all these years - with being a man out of his own time. Namor's dealing with even more than that.

I picked David Petersen because he's got a realistic style and could draw the hell out of some undersea life.

16. The Panther by Mark Waid and Amy Reeder

One of the things I love most about Waid is that he knows how to dig into a character and find the approach that best suits that character's strengths without having to go off in a radical, new direction. Recently, Black Panther has changed gender, painted himself like the US flag, and borrowed Daredevil's tag line, so it's pretty clear that he's lost his way and needs someone to center him again. That's why Waid. Meanwhile, Amy Reeder (Madame Xanadu) has a sleek, romantic style that could be really cool for a series about a jungle king who dresses like a cat.

You've noticed that I dropped the "Black" from the title. I don't think it needs it, but I could be persuaded differently if it helps identify him as a black character. Unlike Falcon, when he's in costume you can't tell just by looking at him.

15. She-Hulk by Peter David and Cameron Stewart



Peter David's an underrated writer these days and his time on She-Hulk was done too soon. He inherited the character at a time when she was just coming off the tragic events of Civil War and World War Hulk and not only did he deal with that, he made her dealing with it an integral part of the story he was telling. He was also vocal though about wanting to eventually move past that to get back to the light-hearted She-Hulk he really wanted to write. The series was cancelled though and he never got the chance. I wanted to read those stories, so I'd bring him back. Artwise, I've been a big fan of Cameron Stewart since I discovered The Apocalipstix and would love to see him draw this.

14. Daredevil and Elektra by Mark Waid and Hub

Like Wolverine, Daredevil's another character I don't have a lot of affection for, but it wouldn't really be Marvel without a series that featured him. I haven't read Mark Waid and Marcos Martin's current run at Daredevil, but I'm not surprised to hear that it's very good. In order to make this interesting for me, I'd keep Waid on it, but turn it into another two-character team-up book by having Elektra co-star. Not that I'm a big Elektra fan either, but the two of them together may be more interesting than either of them separately.

The final push though would come from having Hub (Okko) on art. As great as Martin is, I can't not buy a book by Hub. He's also really excellent at depicting a fantastic version of Southeast Asia that could come in...er, Hand-y (sorry) when doing a book about a couple of ninjas.

13. The Champions by Kurt Busiek and Becky Cloonan



The founding line-up for this short-lived team was Black Widow, Hercules, Ghost Rider, Angel, and Iceman. The Russian superhero Darkstar joined later. I didn't read this as a kid, but discovered it later thanks to my fondness for Black Widow. It's pretty cool that she was leading this team in the '70s. That's not as unique an idea now as it was then, but the line-up of characters is still unexpected and weird, especially having Ghost Rider on board.

Angel and Iceman aren't quite as interesting now as they were when the team debuted either. They were fresh out of the X-Men after the All-New All-Different team sort of pushed them out and they had something to prove. They were looking for a new home and since they were going through it together, they were able to talk about it and compare their new team to their old one. I don't know if I'd use the same two characters today, but maybe someone comparable. Characters who are immediately identifiable as X-Men, but could reasonably feel pushed out of that group for some reason. It sort of needs to be former X-Men because while that's not the most familial group of superheroes Marvel has (that would be the Fantastic Four), it's a big enough family that there are by necessity fringe members. Gambit and Psylocke might be good choices. Maybe Jubilee? Someone who's been central to the team in the past, but isn't anymore. It could be interesting watching them to try to adapt to life outside an X-group.

Anyway, Busiek is a writer who loves to try new things and would be perfect for this. Becky Cloonan has a gorgeous, gritty style that would work well for this street-level team as well.

On Monday, we'll wrap up with the last 12 titles: Marvel Heroes.

1943 Parking Lot

This photograph was taken in 1943 in Chicago. I found it on the Hemmings Motor News blog, where they invite readers to try to name the make and model of the vehicles in the parking lot of the U.S. Army Consolidation Station. One of the comments points out how drab the automobiles are in comparison to the brightly colored trucks.

Fire on the Mountain

There's been a fire burning in the mountains for the past several days, and the smoke from it has been visible via the webcam at Look Rock Tower off of Foothills Parkway. I read somewhere that a wildfire is burning in the area that was hit by a tornado this spring, and the authorities are letting the fire burn up some of the debris.

Fuzzies Back At the Beach

Les and Fuzzy are back down at Seagrove Beach, Florida, for the week, which they deserve. Poor Fraz spent most of our family vacation there earlier this summer in the hospital, and Leslie spent most of her time on the telephone keeping kinfolk back home apprised of the situation. I talked to Les yesterday, and they were enjoying the beautiful weather down there. Hurricane Irene is menacing the Bahamas and the Eastern seaboard, but when a hurricane forms down there it sucks up all of the clouds, energy and moisture, leaving the weather nice elsewhere.

Earthquake Damage Closes Washington Monument

The above photo from the National Park Service shows a crack at the top of the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC, that was caused by this week's earthquake in Virginia. The below photo shows the Washington Monument as it existed during the War Between the States, its construction being halted by the exigencies of war. My Aunt Joan felt the earthquake, and told Mom that it was a frightening experience. Here in Maryville, Sherry felt her chair rocking back and forth at the hospital. I was here in town, too, and didn't feel a thing.

Steampunk Girls Hate Cephalopods

By Shannon Finch. [GirlsDrawinGirls]

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

By Leonard da Vinci, c. 1490

Restaurant Review: Becky's Grocery & Grill, Maryville, Tennessee

A year ago I said I wanted to have a meal at Becky's Grocery and Grill, 3856 Laws Chapel Road, Maryville, Tennessee, and last week I finally got around to it. I found it using MapQuest, but it took me a couple of tries, because it is way out in the country in the eastern part of Blount County. One of the roads you travel on to get there is unmarked, so look for the signs to Laws Chapel. Parking is also pretty tight, but it is worth the drive, which is part of the experience. To be honest, I'd never been in that particular part of the county before, and it is quite beautiful, consisting of rolling farmland at the very foot of the mountains.



Upon the recommendation of many, my first meal at Becky's was a hamburger, which I had with milk. The milk was poured from a gallon jug, and the hamburger was quickly cooked to order on a grill that was in plain sight. I noticed a sign on the wall boasting of a 100% health department score, and everyone was friendly and welcoming. I overheard the proprietor, Becky, tell another first-timer who commented on the long, winding drive, "The road gets straighter and shorter every time you drive it." There was also a friendly patron in the place showing a photograph of a raccoon he caught in a coyote trap on his property nearby. It doesn't get much more country than that. He said he eats there about every day, and highly recommended the macaroni and cheese, which Sarah will like.



I thought Becky's place was wonderful, and the prices were about what you'd expect to pay for lunch. The drive from the justice center was about twenty minutes, not counting the time I spent wandering around lost. They are open 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 11:a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The business is yet another Blount County treasure.

Design Your Monster

I have a thing for cute monsters. Y'know, the kind who would only nibble on you on a Tuesday if they were in a really bad mood. In fact, I have an entire section in my portfolio on monsters. So, when I came across CurlyQ Cuties, I flipped. You can go design your very own monster! What little kid wouldn't want to do that? (Or adult.)

Western Wednesday: The Hill

Western Wednesday is a weekly celebration of six-guns, steampunk, and sasquatch.



Photoshop image by Tim Babb.

This is stretching the Western Wednesday premise by even my loose standards, but I like Yetis almost as much as Bigfoot, so I'm going with it. Disney's making a Yeti movie called (at least for now) The Hill.

As they continue finding theme park rides to make films from (The Jungle Cruise, The Magic Kingdom, and a new Haunted Mansion are also in the works), the studio has hired a screenwriter named Jason Dean Hall to create a script based on Disneyland's Matterhorn. I'm a Disney World kid, so I've never ridden the Matterhorn, but I understand that Harold the Abominable Snowman has been a feature of it since the '70s. The ride was originally created in 1959.

According to /Film, the story is about "five young adventure-seekers who, for mysterious reasons, are called to the top of the mountain and encounter a Yetis [sic] on the journey down." Because of the grammatical error, I can't tell if that's one Yeti or a bunch of them, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Either way, I'm in.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Today would have been the 74th birthday of my father, Phil Ogle, had he lived to see it. He died at the age of 55 in 1993, just a few weeks after I began the practice of law in Maryville, and his was the first probate estate I ever handled. Happy birthday, Dad.

Metorite Hits Sagamore Hill

T.R.

On August 24, 1908, a meteorite hit the Earth at Sagamore Hill, home of President Theodore Roosevelt. According to author Jim Rasenberger (via A Natural Curiosity),

Just past midnight, August 24, as Roosevelt slumbered in his bed, a small meteorite bored into Earth’s atmosphere and blazed across a clear starlit sky toward Oyster Bay. Secret Service agents who were posted outside heard a hiss, then saw a flash that bathed Sagamore Hill and its lawn and tennis court in intense light. The meteorite landed less than a hundred yards from the house, just missing the President of the United States. It exploded into a hundred fiery pieces and disintegrated into dust.

We have a winner of PRAIRIE STORMS!

The winner is.... April! I've emailed her and a signed copy of PRAIRIE STORMS by Darcy Pattison and Kathleen Rietz will be off to her soon!
     Didn't win? I still encourage you to check out this awesome book!

The Marvel 52, Part Three: The X-Men

One of the frustrating things about the X-Men titles has always been the over-abundance of them. This is a problem with superhero comics in general. If people really like one series, they'll certainly buy three more series with the same character. And while that's apparently true economically, it's something I'd stay away from in my who-cares-if-they-make-money Marvel 52. There will be no Spider-Man line, no multiple titles for Thor or Captain America just because they have movies coming out this year. That's one of the advantages of not having to worry about things like actual sales.

The X-Men are a little different though.There's certainly enough going on in their corner of the Marvel Universe to warrant ten titles, but even so I tried to be sparing about the number of team books, giving the bulk of my spots to solo titles and a couple of two-character team-ups.

32. X-Statix by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred



I'm ashamed to say that I missed this the first time around, but I can blame that completely on the number of other X-Men series I was buying at the time. This weird, highly critically acclaimed series got lost in the madness for me, but it's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for now and I'd like another shot at it.

31. Namora and Marrina by Jeff Parker and Aaron Renier

I always loved team-up books as a kid. Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One; Brave and the Bold. What I don't think I've ever seen though was an ongoing series featuring the same two characters teamed up every month. I'm not counting two-person teams that were created to go together like Hawk and Dove or Cloak and Dagger. I'm talking about characters who were created independently of each other, but could share a title for thematic reasons. There've been plenty of mini-series like The Vision and the Scarlet Witch or Hawkeye and Mockingbird, but no ongoings and I'm not sure why. I'd love to give it a try.

Namora and Marrina seem like a really cool pairing. Both are underwater characters and outsiders to the Marvel Universe. Namora was missing for 50 or 60 years and is still reacquainting herself with current events. Marrina's been out of action for not quite that long, but her alien nature and tragic history makes her even more remote from other Marvel characters. I'd love to see a series in which these two women rely on each other, with Namora perhaps acting as a mentor for younger Marrina. And since they've both been romantically involved with Sub-Mariner at some point, there's some built-in drama already waiting to be exploited.

Jeff Parker knows Namora better than anyone else and I can think of no one else outside of Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak whom I'd rather see write the modern version of Marrina. If you've read The Unsinkable Walker Bean, you know that Aaron Renier's the perfect guy for an ocean adventure series.

I may need to defend why I'm calling this an X-Men book. Namora's related (genetically and thematically) to Namor, who's Marvel's "first mutant" and whose most recent series was nominally an X-title; Marrina is a member of Alpha Flight, an X-Men spin-off. Which brings me to...

30. Sasquatch and Puck by John Rozum and Jason Copland




These two characters have worked well together since Alpha Flight #1. They're bickering opposites (Sasquatch is the educated strongman; Puck is the rough-edged acrobat) so this would be a fantastic buddy-series. John Rozum (Midnight Mass, Xombi) knows a thing or eighteen about writing banter while keeping the action moving and I need to see Jason Copland (Kill All Monsters) draw some Alpha Flight characters on a regular basis.

29. Alpha Flight by Fred Van Lente, Greg Pak, and John Byrne

Absolutely no offense intended to Dale Eaglesham, who's doing a fine job on the current Alpha Flight, but it was John Byrne and Alpha Flight that pushed me from casual comics reader to bona fide comics nerd. His representations of those characters are definitive and I'd love to see him draw them again.

28. Kitty Pryde by Jen Wang and Kate Beaton

This replaces all the New Mutants and Young X-Men Academy Whatnot books for me. It's a YA series about a young Kitty Pryde in her early days at Xavier's. Because it's for younger readers, damn the continuity and fill Xavier's with other classmates for her to interact with. But it doesn't have to be just high school drama. She could also go on adventures with various X-Men (preferably one-on-one) to keep things interesting.

Jen Wang (Koko Be Good) and Kate Beaton would keep this light and fun.

27. Jean Grey by G Willow Wilson and Ryan Kelly



I'm not a huge fan of Jean Grey, but I could be. She's got a rich history and interesting powers; she just gets killed off and sidelined so much that I've never had a chance to grow as fond of her as I think she probably deserves. So I'd love to bring her back from the dead again (she's still dead, right?), get her away from Scott, and see what makes her tick. Since it's a character study, I'd just turn Wilson (Air, Mystic) loose and see where she went. And Ryan Kelly's incredibly grounded, yet exciting art would be perfect for it.

26. Nightcrawler by Paul Tobin and Ted Naifeh

Total, genre-crossing swashbuckler. Let Paul Tobin go nuts. Why this hasn't happened already, I don't know. And Ted Naifeh's perfect for putting a demonic-looking hero into all sorts of thrilling settings.

25. Rogue by Vera Brosgol and Chris Bachalo



Though I'm not at all current on what she's been up to the last couple of years, Rogue's been my favorite X-Man for a long, long time. She's pretty angsty and melancholy, and Brosgol's (Anya's Ghost) good at balancing that with humor so that it doesn't become depressing. And no one draws Rogue like Chris Bachalo.

24. Wolverine by Peter Milligan and Kody Chamberlain

Honestly, there are a few series that made my 52 just because it wouldn't be Marvel Comics without them. I'm so over-exposed on Wolverine that it's hard to think of an approach that would make me excited about him. I bet Milligan could though, if he was turned loose. He's got a strange approach to comics and Wolverine can use something different. Kody's (Shang Chi, Sweets) got a great, loose style that'll keep the comic interesting and exciting to look at.

23. The X-Men by Rich Koslowski and Art Adams



I always like the X-Men best when there's a thick slather of serious melodrama over the trips into space and evil mutant fights. I'm not being sarcastic; that dark tone is right there in their charter: Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them. But it also needs to know when to have some fun and that's where Rich Koslowski (Three Fingers, The King, BB Wolf and Three LPs) comes in. All of his work takes fun, goofy concepts (Mickey Mouse's tell-all story about his early career at Disney, an Elvis impersonator who may not be impersonating, a jazz-age retelling of The Three Little Pigs) and throws a dark veil over them that makes you think without weighting the whole thing down. As for Art Adams...well, he's Art Freaking Adams.

If I were really doing this, I'd have some long discussions with Rich about which characters we wanted to include, but since this is fantasy, my dream line-up would be Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Beast, and Emma Frost. With frequent appearances by Kitty, because she's totally in love with Colossus.

I'm taking a break from this tomorrow and Thursday to focus on Westerns and cephalopods, but I'll be back to in on Friday with Marvel Knights.