Thursday, September 28, 2017

Baltimore Comic-Con

The world's newest superhero - The Midnight Cat!
This past weekend our family took a trip down to Baltimore Comic-Con, which was a really good time. Believe or not, this convention actually focused on COMICS! There were some great creators there, including Jerry Ordway, Walt & Louise Simonson, Mark Waid, Joe Staton, Paris Cullins, and Karl Story. There was also enough room to actually move around, which I've found to be a rarity at bigger conventions.

What was really nice, though, was there was specific programming for kids. Kira was able to take part in a few of the workshops, including Superhero University (as you can see above). She had a great time and got to discover a lot of new kid-focused books.

I think the highlight of the weekend, though, was meeting people. I knew that Tom Panarese was going to be there, as he has gone for the past several years and he took his son last year. We met up at Thom Zahler's table, and had fun chatting. We met up again later at the kid's area and who should show up but Darrin & Ruth Southerland along with Chris Calloway! The next day we say Darrin & Ruth again, but this time they had Michael Lane with them.

It was a really fun weekend, with great friends and a good amount of comics fun. We might just go back next year.

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Thursday, September 21, 2017

Odd Mental Processes

Armus, killer of Security Chiefs
My brain works in weird ways. I was recently listening to a podcast where the character of Armus, the black tar monster from Star Trek: The Next Generation, was mentioned. As big a Trekkie as I am, that was not my first thought when I heard that name. No, my brain went right to Superman: The Movie.
Detective Armus, aka Officer 1
In the movie, Ned Beatty's Otis is tracked by Officers 1 & 2 (according to the credits), but we know them to be Armus and Harry. They follow Otis into Grand Central Terminal* and as Harry continues down to the tracks, Armus goes out to call for back-up. Harry, as you remember, was killed by Luthor by being thrown in front of a train. Armus finds his hat not much after that.

I couldn't find anything on naming conventions for either character, but since "Skin of Evil" came out 10 years after Superman: The Movie, I'm going to guess that there might be a connection between the two. We geeks tend to like putting references in where very few other people will catch them.

* The name is, actually, Grand Central Terminal, not Station. That is because all trains stop, that is terminate their runs, at Grand Central. If they passed through it would be a Station, but it is, in fact, a Terminal. (And anal-retentive is hyphenated.)

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Thursday, September 14, 2017

Yet Another Filler

I fully intended to have a post ready for today, but life got real hectic real quick, so I have to beg off another week. In the mean time, enjoy Disney's "The Song of the South" courtesy of Archive.org.




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Thursday, September 7, 2017

Pain



Pain is what I've experienced recently, as my friends on Facebook already know. I managed to sprain my left ankle on Friday and, as such, I haven't been able to sit at a computer. So, no (real) post this week. Sorry about that. Hopefully I'll have something for you next week.

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