The (online) state of comics

screenshot of ffviewI used to love comic books.

When I was in middle school, one of the only two disciplinary reports I received was from reading a comic book. The headmaster ripped up a issue of Groo right in front of me. I remember receiving a tap on my shoulder, him yanking it out of my hands, and me yelling, “No! Don’t…” *riiiiiiippppp*,“…It’s somebody else’s.” The fact that I finished all my homework did not matter to me; knowing that a replacement issue was going to cost me a pretty penny did.

If you couldn’t guess already, most of my comic-book-reading friends didn’t survive prep school.1 Neither did I for I stopped reading them.

Then I went to college.
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Posted on by tychay 2

Holiday Cards

The company I work for started offering printed holiday cards. I really like the holiday list maker we built, but I’m not using them. The selection is poor. (Luckily, that is offset by allowing you to upload your own photo, which I recommend you do.) I’m uncertain they got the color calibration correct on their dye-sublimated printers. (That is a problem I’ve found with even photo printing services, so it is unfair to blame our partner.)

But really, it’s just not me.

three holiday cardsEven though I almost never send holiday cards, I am always on the lookout for great Christmas cards and buy them when I find just the right one. Potion Brand is a wonderful example of cards done right, in a way you just can’t get through a service: square cards, vellum envelopes, sparkle! I bought a couple boxes and I’m sending them to the people at work this year just to remind everyone at work what a real holiday card looks like. Perhaps I’ll get a few boxes for next year for everyone else.

Update: The cards didn’t arrive in time. I guess it goes out next year.

Posted on by tychay 1

The Rambaldi^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HDa Vinci Code

book coverI picked up an illustrated version of Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code.

The publishers have come out with this edition to exploit the holiday season. Like Harry Potter before, I’m curious what all the hype is about. Knowing my ability to absorb “genre fiction,” I guess I might as well write this day off.

When it came out last year, it was sitting on my room mate’s coffee table, and I probably should have read it then. From the back cover, the book is about someone who finds a hidden code inside Leonardo Da Vinci’s works. A secret society called the Priory of Sion exists to protect the secret revealed by the code and the Indiana Jones-alike and a love interest go off to unveil the astonishing truth.

I know this is genre fiction, but… C’mon! Where have I heard this one before?

Wasn’t it just the other day, waiting for my $1 double cheeseburger, I noticed a huge advert for National Treasure? I can picture Eisner’s yes-men at Disney saying, “Okay, we’ll do The Da Vinci Code, but instead of that a lame Italian, we’ll have the founding fathers to make it more American; instead of the Priory of Sion which nobody has ever heard of, we’ll use the Illuminati. Heck, we have every dollar bill in the United States advertising for us! And what’s more brilliant is no royalties to Dan Brown.” The last part probably sat well with ol’ Mike: Disney is still trying to convince the world they own Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. Yeah, and the Lion King and Atlantis weren’t ripped off either. Disney, you sure know how to tell them…I have newfound respect for your originality: I await Toy Story 3 with bated breath—that’ll show Pixar who wears the pants in the family.

No, that wasn’t where I heard it before…
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Posted on by tychay 3

I can’t help myself

People are right to be rattled. But at the same time, they want to pick the person who will go after the bad guys. I think in a way that’s the Bush campaign slogan:“Maybe we’re a little crazy, maybe we went to war with the wrong country, but you know we’re going to get some bad guys.”

—Maureen Dowd (Rolling Stone, October 28, 2004)

When I read that even Maureen Dowd had bought into the “Freedom Fries” trap, I was a little shocked. Even though I was for the war I thought most of us were above the whole don’t-buy-French thing. But Ms. Dowd is a left-of-center columnist for the New York Times—part of that “liberal media conspiracy” the right-wing keeps complaining about.

I heard during a dinner discussion that the French economy suffered a hit because of the anti-French thing. Not in french fries, mind you, but in wine and cheese and other french-related products that someone like Ms. Dowd buys. After reading Dowd’s confession that really hit home about both the economic size of the American market and the power of a slight shift in purchasing attitudes of the many.

I wonder if ketchups marketed by right-wingers actually affected the bottom line of Heinz? It would be a tad ironic if it did, if highly unlikely—ask any Pittsburgher: you can’t beat Heinz Ketchup.
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Posted on by tychay 2