Quotes of the Week: Mmm, corn!

Image by Mike Maihack.

...you know what they always say about kids? That kids can't distinguish between fantasy and reality. And that's actually bullshit. When a kid's watching The Little Mermaid, the kids knows that those crabs that are singing and talking aren't really like the crabs on the beach that don't talk. A kid really knows the difference. Then you've got an adult, and adults can not tell the difference between fantasy and reality. You bring them fantasy, and the first thing they say is 'How did he get that way? Why does he dress like that? How did that happen?'
--Grant Morrison, on how grown-ups ruin everything. (By the way, I agree with him and the rest of that post is well worth reading for additional thoughts by Carla Speed McNeil and Sean T Collins.)


My goodness! How shall we "entice Middle America without a lot of complicated explication"? Let's spread corn kernels on a path to the theater in the hopes that they will be confused into thinking it's harvest-related and they'll just come a-runnin'! Let's call it Hoedown instead of Inception; maybe that will help!
--Linda Holmes, taking The Hollywood Reporter to task for not giving my people enough credit to be interested in a Christopher Nolan film.

The Awesome List: Greet Your Creature with the Double Feature

Sharktopus trailer



I hope this is half the fun that the music makes it sound. [Undead Backbrain]

Shanna the She-Devil Blogger



Discovered this awesome blog this week. It's primary focus is jungle girls, but blogger Mike Destasio also loves Conan, Tarzan, Red Sonja, and Hercules.

Frankenstein costume



Oh, I'm sorry. I mean the "Freak-N-Monster Creature Reacher" costume. Whatever the name, it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. [Horror Sniped]

Battle of the Planets trailer



[Brother Cal]

Books as decor

Here's a new twist on a wall of books. It's at a hotel in Germany featured at the blog, Design Crisis. Most of the decor centers around books - lampshades, side tables, walls, you name it. I wouldn't want to have to dust the place, but it still looks pretty cool. Click the image to see more...
Thanks to Rasco From RIF for the link.

Art Show: A City of Web-Foot People Built in a Watery World

Squid Attack!



By Lawrence Sterne Stevens. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Up in the Sky!



By Al Feldstein. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

After the break: Wonder Woman, apes, lots of robots, and space girls on Venus.


Wonder Woman



By J Bone. [Lots of his other great WW designs in that link too.]

Gorilla-Man



By Evan "Doc" Shaner.

The Human Robot!



By Evan "Doc" Shaner. [He's done the rest of Atlas too!]

Robo Dawn!



By Francesco Francavilla.

Cyberman



By Ben Templesmith.

La Planete des Singes



By Jean Mascii. [Illustrateurs]

City on Venus



By Frank R Paul. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Wide-Open Planet



By Leo Morey. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Figs!

The figs are here!! I have a big fig plant next to my fireplace. Last time I checked for ripeness, all I saw were little green rocks. But look what I found this morning!!!! YUM!!! I LOVE figs! So does Bernie - he got the first one! :)

Elsewhere... CrossGen returned

Here's what else I've been up to online:

The Return of CrossGen?



Inspired by the Comic-Con news that Marvel's planning to do "some CrossGen stuff" now that they access to the properties Disney bought when CrossGen went belly-up, Tim O'Shea and I came up with a list of six CrossGen series we'd like to see make a comeback. I was a huge CrossGen fan back in the day, so knowing that it could be resurrected in some form is all the reason I need to appreciate Disney's buying Marvel.

What Are You Reading?



Short reviews of Super Maxi-Pad Girl #3 and a serial killer mystery called The Awakening.

The Royal Historian of Oz and Fanfic



In this week's Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs, we tackle the age-old problem of creator-owned work vs. corporate-owned (or public domain, as the case may be). Which should you read? Which should you create? And what does the concept of Official Canon have to do with it?

Elizabeth Bleumle on Book Covers

The owner of the Flying Pig in Vermont (and co-author of Shelf-Talker) gathered a pretty amazing post recently on trends in book covers: The Season of Windblown Hair - Or, the Zeitgeist of Book Covers. She broke them into categories such as "florals, branching out, wings," etc.
     I hate to think how much time it took to pull this post together, but it is truly fascinating to see how similar covers end up looking, and to see the overall design influences. And I have to admit, I find most of them absolutely beautiful and would be proud to be the author of any one of them. Click on the image above to go see lots more!

Pass the Comics: Jetareeeno!

Jet Dream and her Stunt Girl Counterspies



'60s spy comics at their swingingest. [Gold Key Comics!]

The Monster Hunters in the Hour of the Werewolf



There's no monster hunter like an old, British colonel turned hunter-for-hire. Especially when he's drawn by Mike Zeck. [The Charlton Story]

OMG! Over 5,000 people visited my coloring page on my blog yesterday...and I thought we were in a summer slump!

Pannell Award-Winning Little Shop of Stories Turns Five

MY local children's book indie, Little Shop of Stories, has accomplished amazing things for a five-year-old!! They are the winners of this year's esteemed Pannell Award (kind of like the Oscars for bookstores), have been an integral part in the success of the Decatur Book Festival (the 4th largest in the nation), and they have become a vital part of our local community. I just call them my second home. And why not? The store is CHARMING and the staff is like extended family (the good side)!!!
     Anyhow, read more about their upcoming birthday celebrations (big party on July 29th) at the ABA (American Booksellers Association) website: Pannell Award-Winning Little Shop of Stories Turns Five!
     Photo courtesy of Toni Rhodes of Reading Rhino.

Reader Review - The Lightening Thief

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Reader: Thomas, age 11

Book: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief

Why is this your favorite book? The Lightening Thief is the best books I’ve read. It’s about a boy named Percy. He is a demigod - some who has one of their parents as Greek god, and the other as mortal. In the book, someone steals Zeus’ lightning bolt. The gods suspect it is Hades, so Percy must go on a quest to get the stolen bolt back.

Who would like this book? This book is really good for anyone who likes books about mythical creatures, or anyone with ADD or ADHD (Percy has both of these).


Thanks for the great review Thomas! Every month we will be featuring a different reader and their current favorite book. To be featured on our blog, send an email to tamara@shortgrass.ca with your name, title of the book you would like to review, and a photograph of yourself.

2 Things I Learned from Aquaman #11

By sheer coincidence, right after I read The Aquaman Shrine's recap of Brightest Day #6 (and its retcon of Aquaman and Mera's entire relationship), I got to Aquaman #11 (the first appearance of Mera) in Showcase Presents Aquaman, Volume 2.

Brightest Day #6 SPOILERS below.

In Brightest Day, Mera reveals that she was originally sent to Earth on a mission to assassinate the King of Atlantis, but that when she met Aquaman she fell in love with him and couldn't follow through.   




The first lesson I learned from Aquaman #11 is that significantly more has changed than just Mera's motives, because Aquaman wasn't King of Atlantis in the original story. In fact, he and Aqualad didn't even live there. They were still hanging out in the Aquacave, patrolling the seas on porpoiseback; only stopping by Atlantis when the city had a major threat that needed dealing with.

But continuity has been rebooted by a Crisis or four since 1963, so perhaps in the current timeline Aquaman was ruling Atlantis when Mera showed up. What that means though is that - while Brightest Day is still a valid story about the effect Mera's confession has on her husband - it's not exactly a major revelation or an Event for the audience. It's not Everything You Know is Wrong. It's You Really Didn't Know Anything About This, But Everything You Assumed You Knew Based on Pre-Crisis History is Wrong. In other words, Mera's confession may impact the current version of Aquaman in a big way, but should directly impact the readers a lot less, especially considering that we don't really know this Aquaman very well.

The second thing I learned from Aquaman #11 is that maybe we shouldn't be using Aquaman as a spokesperson for outrage against the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.



That's right. Aquaman stops the tyrant who usurped Mera's throne by creating an oil spill that covers the bad guys in crude. And it gets worse, because it's not actually the oil itself that defeats the villains. It's what's in the oil.



I'm detecting some uncertainty in his eyes there. It's like he knows what he did was wrong, but he did it anyway. And if that's not bad enough, he passed on this attitude to Batman.

Coloring Page Tuesday - Summer Reading

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     We're in the thick of summer and people are heading for beaches, pools or backyard sprinklers. Of course, I hope summer also means you have more time to read. I heard of one young reader who actually prefers books over ice-cream! (Okay, so her Mom owns a book store and she may be a little biased!)
     I drew this Summer Reader ages ago for the SCBWI Bulletin, but only just now have turned it into a coloring page. When you click through, you'll just get the line-art, but I thought I'd share the shading on this smaller version.
     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 here to find more coloring pages.

     Learn more about my fun picture book Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese - click the cover.


Please follow my copyright policy when you use my images! And share your creation on the Coloring Page Tuesday facebook page!




Look what Julie did!

Author's Guild's opinion on Wylie/Amazon: http://tiny.cc/f9et5 with a P.S. http://tiny.cc/d5uhn - wow.

Art Show: The Fantastic Night of Terror that Menaced the Fate of the World!

Onward through the Mangroves



By Chris Turnham.

The Abominable Charles Christopher



By Katie Cook.

Monsters and Heroes



By Larry Ivie. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

After the break: a giant insect, Avengers, Batgirl, Black Widow, Wonder Woman, and some space girls.


Giant Mantis Attack!



By Erle Bergey. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Avengers Assemble!



By Art Adams. [Giant-Size Marvel]

Batgirl



By Melody Moore. [Pink of the Ink]

Black Widow



Artist Unknown. [Pink of the Ink]

The All-New Wonder Woman



By Mike Maihack.

Samus



By Ron Conley.

Devil Girl from Mars



Artist Unknown. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Luv Monster #2

Remember my promise to be more creative? And how that led to my Luv Monster? Well, I've done it again. Here is Luv Monster #2. (That's a pink beak sticking out.) What say you?

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 Teaser Trailer

I was going to do another item from Calvin's list today, but the next one up was My Favorite Outfit and I don't have one. Unless we get to count someone else's outfit and then I like Jack Sparrow's...

Hermes or Seuss Sneakers

For your fave Rick Riordan fan (or for me), Adidas sneakers with wings!!! Perfect to wear to your local Camp Half-Blood!
     (Thanks to Fuse #8 for the link to 4YA.)

     Not your thing? Maybe you'd prefer the Dr. Seuss Cons (at the Huffington Post). (Must admit I find these much more tasteful.)
     (Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the heads up.)

Twitter Update

I tested out copy/pasting my Twitter feed to a weekly post, but it's not going to work very well. I'll keep looking for an automated widget that can do it effectively (recommendations are welcome!), but in the meantime, if you're interested in news about adventuresome movies, TV, and comics, here's your one-stop shop.

If you use an RSS reader, you can even subscribe that way without having to sign up for Twitter yourself. The only problem with that is that you won't be able to comment, so that's another reason for me to figure out how to integrate tweets with the blog.

The Awesome List: Can You Say, "BURRRRRM!?" Very Good!

One Piece pirate flag



[OverWorld]

Dora the Explorer in Incepción

A Walk on the Beach

Have you had the chance to visit a beach yet this summer? If not, how about this? Enjoy these sand images by artist Jim Deneven. (Click the image to go see more - they're truly stunning.)
Thanks to Design Crisis for the link.

Art Show: He's Worth a Lot More to Me Played With

Monkey Island



By Otis Frampton.

Under the Sea



By Nino Carbe. [The Comics Reporter]

Oil Spill Aquaman



By Kate Beaton. You should hit that link and read the cartoon about the jester too. That one makes me LOL every time I read it.

After the break: Jack Torrance arrives at the Overlook Hotel and meets Wonder Woman, Isis, Cleo, Bender, Mysta of the Moon, and Buzz Fettyear.


The Shining



By Carlos Ramos. [/Film]

Wonder Woman



By JH Williams III [Robot 6]

Oh Mighty Isis!



By Gene Gonzales.

Cleopatra in Space



By Mike Maihack.

If Miyazaki Directed Futurama



By Boulet. [/Film]

Mysta of the Moon



By Joe Doolin. [Sleestak has a ton of these covers at his Flickr account.]

Buzz Fettyear



By Sillof, who's created mash-ups of lots of other Pixar and Star Wars characters too.