Bob Green and I have been working on Magellan for what seems like ever now, so it floors me that he can still floor me. I’ve clearly imagined the ballroom for Chapter 2 (and like to think I have a pretty good imagination), but then Bob sends me a pic of the 3D set he’s made and it ends up being better than I could ever have dreamed.

Now how cool is that? Epic (like, Lawrence of Arabia epic) props to Bob and all his high cholesterol glory!

I met Holly Laing and Drew Dailey during last year’s Winnipeg ComicCon and I’ve been keeping an eye on their upcoming Terra Webcomic.  It’s interesting stuff with some heavy Fireflyesque influences.  If you’re a Browncoat, or a sci-fi fan, or like looking at comics during work hours, or… I dunno… breathing, then check it out.

I’m especially jealous of Holly’s crisp and sure pencils.

These DC direct to DVD features won me over with Justice League: the New Frontier to the point that I purchased the new Wonder Woman Animated DVD sight unseen. Anything Bruce Timm touches is usually gold and it’s got Fillion doing the voice of Steve Trevor. On top of that, I was a huge fan of George Perez’s post-Crisis revamp of the character back in the 80’s. In fact, I was expecting this movie to be a sleeker, stylized version of the first few issues of that run. It wasn’t, and while my wife suggested that is WAS quite good, I had a few problems with it.

1.  The Script.  I like that Wonder Woman is a character that embodies feminism. I especially like it when she can accomplish that role without being in-your-face or over-the-top (or any other hyphenated three word clichés). This movie script managed to both throw it in your face AND undermine the feminism at the same time (which was kinda weird).  You’ve got WW yelling curses at unjust gender inequalities one minute (after Trevor tries to get her drunk and naked), then taking the time during the final battle climax to pose and tell the God of War, “you hit like a girl.”  All the amazons wanna kill Trevor for commenting on Wonder Woman’s rack under forced confession, but gather around and cheer as the couple smooches at the base of the Washington Monument in the end.

2. Kid Show/Not Kid Show. I know it’s silly to overanalyze the finer script details of a kid’s cartoon, but the bloody thing was PG-13. And rightly so. There was a TON of violence and a handful of decapitations. What’s more, almost every line out of Trevor’s mouth was a little too lewd for the kiddies. I read a glowing review from someone who let their 10 and 2 year old children watch it, and I’ll say that was a bad call. DC should decide which side of the kid/adult line they wanna straddle rather than bouncing back and forth. I was left with the idea that the movie’s specific target audience was the Simpson’s Comic Book Guy.

Mind you, the special feature documentaries were plenty cool and interesting (and full of nifty trivia tid-bits like Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, being the inventor of the lie-detector), but I like that kind of stuff, so for all I know they were boring.

I ended up climbing under our stairs to dig out the first twelve issues of the Perez series (no small task I assure you) just to see if my memory was playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. Even now, a hundred years later, the story and tone and artwork are all better than anything that’s been done before or since (the image of DC’s cover for issue #1 displayed above in all its thoughtfully stolen off the net glory). What I remember most is how Perez portrayed the character.  She was as gorgeous as any of the gals Perez drew, but somehow (and this should be considered a Very Big Deal as it was a comic book and I was in my late teens) he managed to convey a combination of power and grace and soul that the character deserved. She was beautiful and wearing next to nothing, but you respected and revered her.

I’d give the DVD three 80s reaffirmations out of five.

3″ of snow in one hour!?  With a foot more to come!?

Okay, I hear you.  No more whining.

Here’s a few more crew backgrounds.

You know what I hate?   Winter.

Just a couple of weeks ago it was still as cold as -40 around here (celsius or fahrenheit, take yer pick). This has been the harshest winter I can remember, and it’s certainly had an effect. We basically forced ourselves to go tobogganing a couple of times, but didn’t venture out skating or fort building or anything else the whole bloody winter. I’ve permanently scarred my 4 year old son ’cause it’s been so ass-bitingly cold. 

Just as important is the effect it’s had emotionally. You hear about SAD or other seasonal influences, but you never expect them to hit you. This year it not only hit me, but proceeded to kick me in the junk while I was down. Just regular day to day stuff ends up being a chore, let alone movie or webcomic goodies. Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be the sob story it’s become. The point is, for those of you that winter has pushed around, I get it.  It sucks.

Get with it, Spring. I’ve got stuff to do.