|
|
One of the more fun web comics I follow is “Eerie Cuties” about a trio of sexy supernatural teenaged girlfriends and their equally supernatural friends. (Ace, below, is actually a werewolf.) All the tropes of typical cartoon teenagers combined with all the tropes of typical cartoon supernatural events. I this case, its dating.
But what do you do when you’re dressing for a date and one of the other ‘cuties’ is making moves on your guy? Especially since apparently this is not the first time (or the second, or the third … ) that this has happened?
 Why, you get spellcasting Mother to do something about it.
Apparently this is not the first time this has happened, given the almost casual way she casts her spell, and most likely with the same person.
I have not been reading most of the new DC 52 universe, especially the Superman titles, but I at least try to keep up in case something shows up that I should be aware of.
Well, that paid off this week.
Action Comics #16: “The Second Death of Superman”
I’m not exactly sure what is happening here: chaotic is hardly a description for what is going on, but at some level it appears someone has broken time so that things are happening out of time and across time, culminating with the return the creature who killed Superman in a famous storyline several years ago and the return of the Crisis of Infinite Worlds. Oh, and the founding three adult members of the Legion of Super-Heroes just showed up, traveling from a future where they were outlawed.
If that last part sounds familiar, it should: the Legion had been outlawed in the past, through the machinations of the super-hypnotist Universo. In fact, even the future time has broken, and the Legion themselves unknowingly help Universo attain power before they are outlawed and they have to return to the present to prevent the changes in the future.
Universo: After all, a hypnotic disguise is child’s play, no more than a mere modicum of skill, even in front of a mass audience. However, hypnotically inducing a powerful telepath to think she scanned your mind … now that requires subtlety.
As this sequence is not in the regular Legion title, I must assume that these events are part of the chaotic timeline and not set in the current continuity.
Mars Attacks Popeye
IDW is publishing a number of comics based on “Mars Attacks”, the early trading card set and the later interest and movie surrounding it. Among the one-shot comics include crossovers with Judge Dredd, Ghostbusters and Popeye.
In “Mars Attacks Popeye”, the invading horde of Martians are met by the Sea Hag, who hypnotizes them all to do her bidding, which, being the destruction of the town of Sweethaven and Popeye, is quite to their liking. However, even the scientific might of the Martian invaders is no match for the spinach-powered fists of Popeye and his father Poopdeck Pappy.
After his defeat at the hands of the Legion, Universo was (apparently) imprisoned but he (also apparently escaped) and commenced one of his campaigns to control the Earth. Being the master plotter that he is, he waited for or manufactured reasons for the Legion to be away from the Earth before beginning his plan for world domination. When the Legionnaires returned, they found that they were not only disbanded, they were hunted and outlawed!
⇒ Continue reading “Universo — “The Legion of Super-Heroes” Part 2”
A mysterious telephone dial-like device that is capable of transforming whomever dials the letters H‑E-R‑O on in into a superhero, or, rather, a series of different superheroes. (Of course, its a little hard to so describe the H‑Dial now, as telephones don’t have dials, they have keypads.) Boy scientist Robby Reed first discovered the H‑dial in a cave in Colorado and used it to protect the town of Littleville. Several years later, teenagers Chris King and Vicki Grant would discover a different pair of dials marked similarly, which they used to become superheroes. Later, others, too, possessed one of the H‑Dials. Currently, the power of the H‑Dial is passing among ordinary people in the New 52 DC era.
As might be expected, a few of the heroes these people transformed into had hypnotic powers.
⇒ Continue reading ““Dial H for Hero!””
Yes, it has been more than a couple months since I posted last, and there’s a reason for it.
Well, several reasons.
My last post was way back at the end of August, at a time when I was preparing to work on a series of PSA-related videos for a producer friend of mine. The whole story is told in the post in my professional blog here, but the short version was that soon after I volunteered, I went from editing to actively shooting the material, with the assistance of a good friend and his video equipment. The edit process took up just about the entire month of August, interspersed with some research, leaving very little time left over to carry me through into the following months.
Then, instead of writing more blog posts, I was writing other stuff. Among my writing projects:
- First and foremost was the release of my first official WordPress plugin, Unicode Character Keyboard. It was a long process, as the last several weeks of development contained a constant stream of innovations and additions until I finally decided I needed to stop dickering with the code and just release it. That was a couple of weeks ago and I’m already deep into the first revisions. This process included:
- Upgrading my web development platform to NetBeans (I had been using HomeSite which was bought up by DreamWeaver which eventually got bought up by Adobe) and wishing I had done so much, much earlier. Also installing TortoiseSVN in order to interface with the WordPress Subversion content management system and discovering it also plugged into NetBeans.
- Setting up and transferring my company website (here) because the WordPress plugin submission process requires someplace to find the plugin to review it before accepting and releasing it.
- Blogging about some of the various issues related to writing the Unicode Character Keyboard plugin and blogging about my video business and other video related subjects that caught my attention, all of which can be found here.
- Several chapters of and a host of supplemental material for a possible YA SF novel, in a future civilization that make heavy use of psychic abilities for many common functions, including interstellar travel (teleportation) and telepathy. One of the central characters is a powerful telepath who has particular experience in bypassing telepathic shields and using a specific telepathic ability to put her targets to sleep.
- The starting chapters and some additional material of what might turn out to be a trilogy set in the Paizo Publishing Pathfinder RPG campaign world. Once I get more information about the campaign world and fill out a lot of the details I just might submit it; otherwise, its a background study of the central character, a kitsune enchantress. I got the idea from seeing the race described in the campaign source books and if I can’t play the character (I’m still trying to locate Pathfinder campaigns locally) then I’d like to write about her.
- Notes about a potential manga / web comic based on the concept of a maid cafe where the waitresses are all supernatural beings. Three of them are of note: a succubus, a kitsune and a vampire, all of which have hypnotic abilities. (It someone wants to pursue publication, I would be glad to discuss it with them.)
- A possible short story (inspired by a piece of art here) about what was described as a “Sci-Fi Succubus” which sparked several scenes and a possible plot but no real story as yet.
(And is anyone else seeing a pattern with the main characters in my fiction writing?)
Plus, I am, as always, job hunting. I have at least started my regular (but part-time, alas) jobs with the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants so I’ve had little concentrated time in which to do the necessary research and writing to publish each week. Whether I will be able do so in the future remains to be seen, but I am hopeful to getting back to my regular schedule.
|
|
