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I'm Cathy Leamy, an East Coast cartoonist. Check out my comics! They're mainly about autobiographical stories and health care.
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Friday, July 1, 2005
lovin' tha velvet
You know who's great and who's now sideblogged on Metrokitty? Dave's other identity: The Velvet Marauder, corporate marketing guy (by day) and slick vigilante (by night).
Seriously, I am so digging this blog. If anyone ever starts up a girly fan club like "V Girlz" or "The Velveteens" or something, I'll be first in line for the club badge and novelty velvet underwear.
Sunday, July 3, 2005
batman begins to rock my world
First off, I'm joining the ranks of Jay for a minute to just rave and jump up and down. OMGWTFBBQ MOVIE SO GOOD AHHH! NINJAS! CHRISTIAN BALE IS CUT OUT OF ROCK! SCARY SCARECROW! NINJAS!!!
I enjoyed this movie immensely. The slow build-up gave weight to all of the actions and decisions: the ninja training, the military gadgetry, the psychology of fear all created a setting where you see Bruce don the batsuit and you think, Yeah, that makes sense.
Several other scattershot thoughts about Batman Begins (contains spoilers):
Alfred - At first, I wasn't convinced. Michael Caine seemed too street, too Cockney. Then I read this interview, saw his ideas for Alfred's ex-SAS background, and was sold on it. What with the Wayne family being flush with cash and easy targets, I'd bank on Alfred being hired less to pass around the fingerbowls than to act as a bodyguard in case of emergency. And the background for this is a movie I'd like to see: The Adventures of Young Alfred. I can easily picture him like Brother Cadfael, living the big raucous ass-booting life and then settling down to a (supposedly) calmer position in later years.
I'm only just catching up on the actual comics now and have found out that comics!Alfred had some kind of combat medical training. Hopefully I'll find out more as I read on.
Fanfic
Minutes until the Velvet Goldmine fanficcers start writing crossover stories: 3
Minutes until Lucius/Alfred stories start popping up on the web: -2
Would you like to see a crossover where instead of Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler is Reginald Jeeves: Yes, please
Intertwining stories - I agree with the guys who are tired of plots involving the villain's story intertwining with the hero's origin. It wasn't nearly as bad as the original Batman, but it was still vaguely there. The loop of Ra's Al Ghul having trained Batman and his organization having semi-directly caused his parents' death was just too full-circle for me. I prefer the cause being "crime in general," which gives Batman a huge open-ended challenge of fighting "crime".
Adorable Kiddiewinks Must Be Destroyed - The cute kid scenes irritated me, to absolutely no one's surprise. If I have to see ordinary citizens in danger/disbelief, I'd rather see Joe or Jane Average than L'il Timmy.
And then at the end of the film I realized OH DAMN! They're setting him up as Robin for the next film, mark my words! Small child highlighted for not much apparent reason? An orphan, now that they showed us that he couldn't find his parents during the fear gas rampage? Aw man! Better pick up some Wayne Enterprise-embroidered footie pajamas for the sequel, Bruce. That kid is so moving in.
If this really does turn out to be the case, I'm not looking forward to it. I've never been a fan of the concept of Robin. Why on earth would Batman bring a minor out jackbooting around on criminals? It's just way too goofy. I like Batman as an inveterate loner, distant and unattached, somehow reminding me of Harry Haller in Steppenwolf, completely devoted to the work, just like me. I'm just not seeing "adopting a tyke and bringing him along to whup crime" here. If they go for it, they'd better make it convincing. Then again, after seeing this movie, I think they could do it. They made a lot of ridiculous ideas look slick in this one.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
ECB - it's on now!
Fear has a new name, and it's the East Coast Bloggaz! Best not step to us, or we'll dispatch you post-haste.
Monday, July 25, 2005
cat's eye
I now have a Flickr account. Fear it!
Sunday, July 31, 2005
comic reviews: the library haul
My local library has reopened. I'm back to scarfing down their graphic novels like Pez.
1602
Written by Neil Gaiman. Art by Andy Kubert
Fast summary: The Marvel Universe centered around London of 1602.
What an intriguing story! It was a fun read, and not bad for a not-quite-What-If-What-If story. I would've liked to have seen more actual historical figures, though.
The art did the trick, with some really outstanding spots (like Daredevil's sonar power). Overall, though, it came off as a bit too shiny and colorful for my taste. Also a bit too modern for the 17th century - Cyclops' glasses, the X-Men's fighting costumes, and Doom's outfit felt very out of place.
I liked the twists on played-out characters. Regular Nick Fury? Eh. 1602 Nick Fury? Oh, I like this guy. And I would happily read an ongoing series about 1602 Daredevil. Hell, I'm tempted to take a look at the upcoming sequel just to see if he has another starring role. I felt that the story suffered a bit from having too many characters featured, though. The multiple storylines were great, but did we really need Bruce Banner, or Toad?
By the end of the story, the whole thing wound up seeming a bit too one-to-one - plenty of story development, surprises, and red herrings, but nothing really unpredictable. I know it was meant to be "the Marvel Universe started too soon", and in that it was successful, but still. Really predictable. Of course Doom will end up scarred, and Banner will become the Hulk, and Peter will be bitten by the spider. But what did I expect? It's like reading an Arthurian story and complaining that things fall apart for the guy in the end. Still a very enjoyable read, though.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Batman: Detective 27
Written by Michael Uslan. Art by Peter Snejbjerg.
Fast summary: In 1939, Bruce Wayne does not become Batman; instead, he joins a secret government group of detectives and must thwart big-time catastrophe.
First off - damn, that's some lovely art. When Peter Snejbjerg is on, he's on!
The story, though ... ehhh. It was the opposite of 1602: plenty of historical cameos, but not much of a story to ground them. It was a mystery, but there just seemed to be too many roundabout red herrings and twists. This guy's a baddie, wait, he's not, this guy's a traitor, ah, no, he's not, we think it's this guy behind everything, but oh psych, it's this other guy, and so on.
I just didn't see the point. It's a fun Elseworld exercise to see how Bruce Wayne's life would change if he took Path A (be a detective for a secret government agency) instead of Path B (become Batman, boot criminal ass), but then it's not a Batman story any longer. It's a completely different story with the same names, and it's right up there with Alternate Universe fanfiction ("An AU where Obi-Wan Kenobi is a young midshipman in the service of Horatio Hornblower, if you know what I mean!").
... and then at a comic show I found a copy of Gotham by Gaslight, and I groaned at how similar it felt to Detective 27 (except for the fact that Bruce does become Batman in this one). Someone out there in the bloggysphere once complained that Batman was nothing but origin story, and the more Batman comics I explore, the more I'm inclined to agree. I really want to read more Batman stories, but constant remixes of the same single story get pretty old after a while.
And I'll tell you this: if I never see another historical character, especially Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyze Batman, I will be the happiest kitty on my block. It's such a clumsy way of adding historical gravitas and validating the writer's take on Batman. It reminded me of when I watched the first episode of The Sopranos and the first episode of Six Feet Under. It's good storytelling when you write characters with motivation and psychological depth and twists. It's poor storytelling when you then add characters skilled in psychoanalysis just so they can speechify about all that depth. Show, don't lecture!
That Mike Mignola did some damned good art for Gotham by Gaslight, though.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Design ramble: Menus
Spotted in the Sunday paper's magazine supplement: a short anecdote about a restaurant offering a menu on which the appetizers are printed in red and the entrees are printed in black, which posed a problem for the writer, who was colorblind. Happily, the restaurant had a special colorblind menu to offer as a replacement.
It's a solution that lets the restaurant keep its color-coded menu, but I would not be surprised if for this one person willing to speak up, there are several other people who weren't willing, whether they were embarrassed, frustrated, or just not up for the attention.
As usual, I don't have much of a point to make. It was just strange that I found myself surprisingly irritated by what was supposed to be a cute little story for the department page of cute stories from the city. Something struck a nerve. How accessible should menus be? They're essentially promotional collateral for restaurants, so natually they should be designed to fit the atmosphere and image. But what if those design choices lead to menus that can't be fully used by people with less than perfect vision?
Coincidentally, Digital Web's latest article is on color theory for color-blind web designers.
Sunday, August 7, 2005
comic reviews: another library haul
Spoiler alerts! I like talking about the specific details.
Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank
Written by Garth Ennis. Art by Steve Dillon.
Fast summary: The Punisher shoots a bunch of people. Also featured: his neighbors, mobsters, copycat killers, and the cops assigned to his case.
So, we've got a tough guy on a mission, a family matriarch who dispatches a nearly indestructable bully boy and who ends up dying in a house fire, an unlucky and disrespected cop, an enemy who loses limbs and suffers head scarring, a young guy whose face is severely mutilated and who creates an identity out of it, and a massively fat man who squashes someone to death.
This all seems strangely familiar.
Seriously, though, even if it is a bit of a Garth Ennis remix, it's a really funny read. I laughed the whole time, especially at the wannabe Punisher-inspired vigilantes. The supporting cast of neighbors in the Punisher's building were a nice touch; they made the story oddly accessible in a "yeah, I suppose that's what I'd do if my neighbor were a murdering vigilante" kind of way. I'd probably give him a nod and say "Keep on punishing!" too.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Batman: Black and White, Volume 2
Written by a whole ton of folks. Art by a second ton.
Fast summary: Anthology of Batman-centric stories. Laughs, tears, punching things, being the World's Greatest Detective.
A collection of black and white shorts about Batman, this book had its ups and downs. I'm in the "Batman is deadly serious, you there stop laughing" camp, so the comical shorts that poked fun at the guy or that put Bruce in silly situations mostly just irritated me. Not that I'm going to get all Byrne-style irate and demand worshipful respect, though. If you're into campy Batman, this collection has some stories you'd like. Happily for me, it also had stories in the vein of super-stern, super-stoic Batman. Not to mention a bunch of stars: Warren Ellis, Gene Ha, Kyle Baker, Tim Sale, Mike Mignola on cover art, and so on. Paul Pope knocked out a surprisingly cool short about Batman's early years, and Paul Din provided an adorable Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy tale set in Arkham Asylum. Definitely worth reading (though a bit uneven, but I feel that way about pretty much all anthologies).
Memorable quote - Paul Pope's Alfred, providing first aid: "Pardon me for saying so, sir ... but for someone in your profession ... isn't your first broken nose a little like losing your virginity?" I would so love to hear Michael Caine record this and have it mixed into a song a là "My Name is Michael Caine" by Madness. It would be the weirdest frigging thing ever but it'd be on constant loop in the Kitty house, I'll tell you that.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
swipe-tacular
So I was reading the local alternative paper, and I stumbled across an advertisement featuring an illustration that seemed strangely composed and vaguely familiar.
And I stared at it for a moment, thinking, That looks like a drawing I've seen before. Like that girl's fist is oddly posed, like she should be holding something in it. Like that's actually Natalia Kassle holding a big knife in Danger Girl.
Yup. And there's a tinge of further irony given that Natalia looks like she's wearing a swipe/homage copy of Honey Ryder's swimsuit-and-knife ensemble from Dr. No. But it's not like Danger Girl was ever passing itself off as much more than fun genre-based homage and pastiche, and at least all of its art was original (as far as I can tell, anyway).
I can't believe I spotted a Danger Girl swipe cold like that. I haven't looked at the series in months at least. Man. Sometimes I really wish I could harness my memory powers for good or for profit rather than for just comics and movie quotes.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
rahr! zombiefish!
Zombie pirarucu fish!
If the Harvard Museum of Natural History ever had its own version of the Hitman story "Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium", we'd be so screwed.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
the power cosmic which is my birthright
Magical Techie Dean's comic collection turns up the most mind-bending weirdness possible:
What If Ben Parker's Nephew Was Galactus?
I am absolutely speechless, except for the fact that I really want to irritate all my friends by talking like Galactus all day now. "Verily, which among you mortals wishes to partake in the cosmic fried cheesesticks which shall imminently be upon the plate of Kittylactus?"
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
fan art: yay for luther
Fan art of Luther from Sordid City Blues. Hooray for web graphic novels!
Saturday, August 20, 2005
breakfast with the JLA: issue 140
JLA #140, March 1977: "No Man Escapes the Manhunter"
Breakfast: Buttered toast and blueberries. Mmm.
Sadly, another jump in my collection, so I'm unlikely to find out what happened to Bates and Maggin. I'll just assume they made it home safely.
The plot for this issue was long ("A new double-length thriller"), and I pretty much stopped caring about four pages in. Scary foe Manhunter shows up, unleashes whup-ass. He kidnaps Green Lantern, who, instead of resisting, folds like a travel brochure. Blah, blah, fighting, capture, Manhunter turns out to be new at the job and actually working for some other guys, escaping, and so on.
Green Lantern confesses his immense guilt: he accidentally blew up a planet. His bad! A group heads out to the closest surviving planet to investigate, and they find the residents hassling a Green Lantern Guardian and a governor who is drawn like a bad ethnic caricature. Checking things out, Superman, Batman, and company visit the dead planet's remaining moon and end up in a Nonsense Fight with a one-eyed dragon thingy called a "Magnosaurus".
In the most weird-ass logical leap possible, Batman adds 1 + 1 and gets Toronto, apparently. He sees that the space monster has a neck and therefore must have arteries leading to a brain, and so he tries strangling the monster. Swinging around on the batwhip makes him notice that the moon they're on is still in its orbit, even though its parent planet was supposedly destroyed. And then - seriously - disbelieving the monster makes it vanish, and they realize that the planet is still out there but invisible. And, uh, the whole thing was a plot by the Manhunter society to discredit the Green Lantern Guardians, mumble mumble. And then it ends. That's it.
Ah, I wish I cared more, but it mainly came off as a flimsy plot to act as coat hanger to a few fight scenes.
The sci-fi aspects of this story - the alien planet, the battle with the Magnosaurus - remind me of a conversation I had recently. Buddy of mine had just seen Revenge of the Sith and was immensely frustrated by the underachieving science fiction in the Star Wars universe. Why did so many beings in it have first and last names, just like we do? And why were so many of the beings humanoid or bipedal? Where was the truly alien stuff? These creatures evolved on completely different planets - shouldn't they show a bit more physiological and cultural variety?
I felt the same way reading this story. The aliens speak the same language as the members of the Justice League and look just like a green version of Fred Christ's followers in Transmetropolitan - human with a tiny tweak. The Magnosaurus looks like a dragon with one eye. Batman's great detectively thoughts make all kinds of Earth-based assumptions about arteries and brains, though the monster comes from freaking outer space. I guess you don't come to JLA looking for really imaginative sci-fi. These issues are really more about the punching things.
Oh snap, Superman!
I'd happily read a comic about the Mighty Meat Snack.
Best Quote: "Now just lay my friends down, and we'll get out of Bruce Wayne's shrubbery!"
Monday, September 5, 2005
hurricane katrina - food not bombs mobilization
Food Not Bombs Hartford is mobilizing to send a group of volunteers along with food, medical supplies, and other goods down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they will work with other chapters of Food Not Bombs in setting up a mobile soup kitchen to feed the hungry and distribute supplies.
Please help by sending donations. You can find donation information and background details here:
Food Not Bombs Hartford | Mobilization for Katrina Victims
Please forward this link to anyone who might be interested and could donate - any amount is helpful and greatly appreciated.
The website will also be updated with news and photos from the volunteers - stay tuned.
Friday, September 9, 2005
what if? my hometown underwater
Found via Metafilter - what would Boston look like under the same flooding area as New Orleans?
Godalmighty.
New Orleans Flood: Compare the Flood Area of New Orleans to your city
And a reminder: Food Not Bombs Hartford is still accepting donations toward their mobile kitchen and supplies distribution in Baton Rouge. Please visit this website to read more info and to donate. Please donate if you can - any amount is helpful and will go directly towards food and supplies.
Friday, September 16, 2005
housekeeping
Minicomic reviews
Minicomic reviews of I Survived Gwar and Geraniums and Bacon over at Shawn Hoke's minicomic review blog Size Matters. Thanks, Shawn!
I've also added I Survived Gwar to Metrokitty.com's minicomics list - go on, get yourself a copy!
Sideblog updates
Say hi to the new entries on the sideblog:
- Delenda est Carthago - king of linkblogging
- Jumbotron 3000 - because Jim is awesome
- Alien Loves Predator - never fails to make me laugh
- 43 Folders - organization and productivity a go-go
Question for you all: Feed preference?
The Metrokitty RSS feed currently shows a summary of blog contents rather than the full text. Is anyone out there following the site via syndication, and if you are, do you have a preference for the feed contents - summary or full text?
Have some photos!
This man loves you all. Except you.
This was spraypainted on the floor of the Red Line. Okay!
This thing should not exist. It was put out on the sidewalk with a bunch of other junk under a "Free" sign. Wonder if it was ever used?
Sunday, October 2, 2005
essential iron man!
I don't usually tend to pick up the Marvel "Essential" series, but I've already chomped my way through many of the graphic novels at the library, and now I'm going through the remainders. Plus, I just like to know things. Everyone in Blogistan goes on about genius drunkie Tony Stark and his fighting robot suit, and I feel like a kid at the grown-ups' table. "What? What? I wanna know!"
Essential Iron Man Volume 1 samples stories from early in Iron Man lore, back when he was still a highlight in comic Tales of Suspense. Right off, the old-school Marvel break-the-internet-in-half promo copy sucks me in: "Watch his awesome approach! Listen to his ponderous footsteps as he lumbers closer ... closer ... for today you are destined to encounter - - the invincible IRON MAN!" Cripes! That's solid gold hyperbole with a chaser of SAT vocab. AWESOME.
The premise of Iron Man is also primo old-school material. Science genius millionaire playboy Tony Stark (played by Errol Flynn) develops revolutionary transistor-based military weapons, which will be used in Vietnam. On location on the jungle outskirts, he stumbles across a booby trap, takes life-threatening shrapnel in the chest, and is kidnapped by guerrillas. Forced to create weaponry for the enemy, he secretly creates a robot suit to artificially keep him alive and to enable him to go all jackbooty on his captors. Which he does. Cue return to America, return to military R&D, and a new Marvel-brand tragic and secret nature ("No one can ever know that I wear this hidden iron chest plate to keep me alive!") and matching secret identity as Iron Man, Fighter of Baddies and/or Commies! Take that, gangsters and Reds!
Eventually, the story acquires more of a supporting cast in the form of a cute girl and hapless buddy, and that's when it turns into a Stan Lee mad lib:
Hero: "How could $female ever love a man with $ailment? She'd be better off loving $schlubby_guy_buddy."
Female: "Why doesn't $hero love me? Sob!"
::insert a few scenes of beatin' on peeps, saving lives::
Caption: "He's the most tragic hero EVAR!!!11!"
Seriously, I liked the original premise behind Iron Man, but didn't anyone back then notice that it was turning out exactly like the other Stan Lee comics of that era: Daredevil, Thor, and so on? Hero has fights, maintains unrequited love with girly girl, ends issues with the obligatory "I'm so tragic" panel? Then again, years from now, people will probably look back and say that about our pop culture. "Didn't those fools notice that all their movies were pretty much all the same movie? Volcano and Dante's Peak, Deep Impact and Armageddon?"
Iron Man also gets his own cheesy Yellow Peril techno-villain in this volume. Enter ... the Mandarin!
I enjoyed the cameos by other Marvel greats: Angel, Hawkeye and the Black Widow, the Avengers. Shared universes like that play havoc with tragic heroes' woes, though. Actual Iron Man quote: "Nobody can help me! Nobody can repair my damaged heart! Nobody can guarantee how much longer it will keep beating! Nobody can ever know the torment felt by Iron Man!" Meanwhile, he's a member of the Avengers, where his teammates are a Whitman's Sampler of gods and science genius types, and he lives in the same world as the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and god knows who else. You're telling me he can't find someone to teleport/magic/science-ify that piece of shrapnel out of him? Mm-hmm. I'd buy it if it were written more as "Tony Stark is a stubborn SOB with an ego the size of Maryland and wants to prove that he can fix himself." That kind of pride-failing is more convincing than "rich bastard with robot suit surrounded by super-super types has woeful pity party every night."
Monday, October 3, 2005
spoiler-free thoughts on Serenity
Back in the day, I read Warren Ellis' run on StormWatch and loved the strange stories, the nuanced characters, the optimism, and all the little quirks. Then, when that book ended and a group of the characters went on to star in its widescreen-style spinoff The Authority, I kept reading, but it wasn't quite the same experience. The stories were a lot tighter, the action was massive and incredibly choreographed, and the stakes were ratcheted up - instead of battling this baddie and saving that village, the heroes were saving entire worlds and taking on whole armies from alternate universes. The characters still carried out the plot, but they weren't exactly the same as they'd been in StormWatch. To me they came off as boiled down, simplified. The individual motivations that they'd had originally were all glossed into "wanting a better world", weaknesses were written out or ignored, and all of the characters became rock-hard badasses in service of the story. A lot of readers loved the book and its crazy mindblowing adventures, but I missed the character-driven aspects.
I'm bringing this up because it's the first thing that came to my mind after catching Serenity, the movie offshoot of the sci-fi series Firefly. I enjoyed the movie immensely - it's one of the better sci-fi films I've seen in ages. Aaah, Reavers and killing-dance-fu and big government experiments and Mal and Jayne and space dogfights and Jayne again! Yeah! Great story! But it did not feel as character-driven to me as the series did, which was a bummer for me since that's the kind of story I prefer. Somehow the characters felt more in service of the plot rather than driving it. Or maybe it felt more like River was driving the plot and everyone else was along for the ride and the shooting things. Could be that too.
I think I need to give it another round and see how I feel after a second viewing. At least this time around I won't scream like a four-year-old during the Reavers scenes. No, really. I was so embarrassed.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
reading: bite-sized books
I have a new job, which is why I've been under a bit of blog silence recently. I have a new commuting route as a result, and it involves only two stops on the subway. That's just enough time to read but not to read anything in-depth, so I'm focusing on the "bite-sized" books from my bookshelf.
That Takes Ovaries!
The first bite-sized book was a collection of real women's stories: anecdotes about daring adventures, everyday acts of
rebellion, and confrontations big and small. A very inspiring read - it was very easy to relate to the storytellers and to
picture them as your own mother, sister, or friend. It has also spawned a series of open mike events that can be found on the
website.
The
True
Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
I'd picked this up at a book sale - I knew it was an acclaimed children's book from when I used to shelve at the
library, but it came out after my own childhood, so I'd never read it. Charlotte is a thirteen-year-old American girl
sailing from London back to New England. She is meant to travel with several other families, but through bad luck she winds up
traveling alone - just herself on the ship with a surly crew and an infamously cruel captain. Cue: Floggings! Mutiny! Guns!
Cross-dressing! Murder! Oh my god AWESOME. I couldn't believe how enaging this book turned out to be. Hooray children's books!
Listening for the Crack of Dawn
I'd picked this one up ages ago when I was volunteering at a local storytelling bookshop, but I'd never gotten around to
reading it. My loss! Storyteller Donald Davis writes short tales about his childhood in Appalachia of the 50's and 60's,
amusing and bittersweet. It's a world I've never experienced: life on a farm, drive-in theaters, all of the neighborhood kids
chipping in to buy themselves a single bicycle, typhoid shots, and Americana. Most of the stories will make you laugh, though
there are a few chillers and serious tales that will stick with you. The final story, especially - that one made my jaw drop.
Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas
Yah, pirates! This collection of short profiles is cutely illustrated and loads of fun to read. Educational, as well - I'd
heard of most of the high-profile women pirates (Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Grace O'Malley), but the book also included plenty of
others who were completely new to me.
Monday, October 17, 2005
a farewell to rampage
Fanboy Rampage is closing up shop after two years of hilarious blogging. Hats off to Graeme for a great time and many awful, awful memories. I never thought I'd be sad to see a day when I couldn't read snarking about FMK and buying three copies of something. Rampage has broken my head. You see a crazy lady huddled in the corner of the train station yelling "Kurt wins!", that's me. Pat me on the head and throw me a spare Street Angel, willya?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
it's milk ... to the EXTREME!
Brought to my attention by Veg Blog, it's just what the world needs: Marvel branded Slammers Ultimate Milk Shakes.
Apparently, each drink is "specially fortified to match the Super Hero's super powers." Not clear on exactly what that means ... according to the nutritional information, you'll get your Spidey powers by downing a combo of low fat milk, no fat milk, cellulose gel, cocoa processed with alkali, and acesulfame polyunsaturated fatty acid. My Spidey gag reflex is tingling!
I don't know what's my favorite aspect of this - the names (Wolverine Fierce Caramel!), the art (Spidey crotch cam!), or this glowing testimonial from the website:
"Your brand guys have really captured the essence of our property in your packaging and product."
- Former Marvel Executive
You tell 'em, Former!
If these drinks really want to be true to the Marvel brand, though, they should repackage the drinks under new titles every year or so and put the Wolverine fortification in all of the drinks. That should do it.
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Reykjavik street art
Back in May, I visited Reykjavik, Iceland. I walked all over that crazy place and found a lot of great street art.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
chats gone wild
I was chatting online today with Magical Rocker D, and together we were working through a tricky database query. We managed to get to the bottom of the problem.
And then everything turned into an old-fashioned crazy happyfest.
Kitty: hooray!
MagicalRockerD: lots of cheering here at mission control, I assure
you
Kitty: wooooooo!
MagicalRockerD: I just saw some high-fiving!
MagicalRockerD: wow!
Kitty: hahahaha!
Kitty: dust off that sedan chair!
MagicalRockerD: and that Johnson guy from the Stats department just
tried to kiss the new secretary gal! I knew he had a thing for her!!
Kitty: now's your chance to get one of the ladies from the
typing pool!
Kitty: go for Bernice - she's a real humdinger!
MagicalRockerD: break out the Armor-All and shine up the dashboard!
We're taking the Edsel for a Sunday drive!
MagicalRockerD: she had me at her beehive and rocket-cone bra!
Kitty: :: puts on goggles, jumps into the sidecar with a
picnic basket ::
MagicalRockerD: *toy poodle tags alongside*
Kitty: malteds for everyone!
MagicalRockerD: *inserts pipe in mouth, start humming cheerful,
whimsical ditty*
MagicalRockerD: "To the A&W, Nelly! Pop's treat!!"
* Kitty waves hello to small boy pushing a hoop down the
street with a stick, tosses him a licorice whip
MagicalRockerD: <--puts hay-penny in alms basket...and all is
suddenly right with the world...
Kitty: :: hollers up to Mr. Scrooge in the window, "It's
Christmas Day, sir!"
MagicalRockerD: you could twist what you wrote into a suddenly
not-so-happy day - watch:
Kitty: uh-oh
MagicalRockerD: "waves goodbye to small boy whose legs are being
pushed apart by a large, unforgiving hoop, then whips him with licorice"
MagicalRockerD: he's biting on the stick, naturally
Kitty: I think I saw a movie like that once.
Kitty: in a theater with very sticky seats.
MagicalRockerD: *enter soot-covered mandrills, who shriek their
unholy shriek and begin terrorizing the small town*
MagicalRockerD: I know I have!
MagicalRockerD: I was 3 rows behind you, in the banana outfit
Kitty: o.O
Kitty: I swear that wasn't me in the hat. NO REALLY.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
rant fiesta
Spotted in Young Avengers issue 8, a full page of art devoted to a Daily Bugle article on the regrouping of the title team.
But if you look down at the text to read the article, and why wouldn't you, when they've printed it at a fully readable size and they've made this page the first page of story content in the issue, you find that it's just filler, greeked text to simulate an article.
So sloppy, especially when you look back at page 1 of issue 1 and see that a similar newspaper article page sported genuine written text and not just greeked filler.
Come on, creative teams. It'd take you ten minutes to come up with phony article text, and readers wouldn't focus on it that much. The greeked stuff stands out more for its lack of effort. And listing the byline as "Lorem Ipsum" is not a clever inside joke, it's just irritating.
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Spotted before the absolutely loveable and crazy Wallace and Gromit movie, a trailer for Disney's latest feature, Chicken Little. Apparently (and I say this not having seen the film, so there's your caveat), the title character's father is a widower. Another dead/missing Disney mother? Seriously, should there be an Animated Women in Refrigerators website for these ladies?
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Dear enlightened modern parents: Please stop bringing your under-12 children to the live show of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Really. Love, Kitty
Sunday, November 27, 2005
velvety goodness
Nuts, and typical: just when I get back into reading the adventures of The Velvet Marauder and add the feed to my feedreader, the blog goes on hiatus. Damn! Many big fuzzy kudos to Dave Campbell for all of the excellent and hilarious writing so far - hopefully the blog will resurface at some point. If you haven't already read it, head on over and start back at the beginning of the archives. Great way to completely blow a day's work!
Velvet Marauder fan art by Kitty
Monday, December 12, 2005
new! Geraniums and Bacon issue 3!
It's here! The latest issue of my minicomic Geraniums and Bacon is now available! Pick up a copy and gawk at Kitty's true confessions: adult ed addiction, inappropriate thoughts, ethical grooving, and more! Plus fun stories, quirky cartoons, and new adventures with Milo Mercury and Ginger - 20 pages of rock-out fun!
Here's a sample short from this issue - Miss Manners' Guide to Ethical Grooving!
Get your copy today with the power of Paypal!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
help save the Brattle Theater!
An announcement for anyone in the greater Boston area, anyone who loves Harvard Square, and any fans of indy cinema:
The Brattle Theatre is in rough financial situation. The Brattle Film Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates the theatre, is currently running a fundraising campaign. If they don't reach their financial goals, they will be forced to close the Brattle Theatre, a Harvard Square landmark with 52 years of history under its belt.
Please, if you can, help these guys out and contribute toward their fundraising campaign. The Brattle is an important part of Cambridge culture and a unique spot in Harvard Square. This theatre puts on film festivals, shows indy movies that wouldn't have a home otherwise, and hosts book readings and other live events.
The Brattle sits in a dear spot in my heart - so many great memories involve that crazy place. The time I dragged my friends to see Audition and we all walked out traumatized! That trippy movie that Magical Scrabbleman B and I saw about teenagers getting the vote and running the nation into anarchy (Wild in the Streets)! Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with my mom, Repo Man with my college friends, Vera Drake and countless others by myself.
At the Brattle, I saw Bruce Campbell demonstrate stunts from Evil Dead, Chuck Palahniuk tell creepy stories about his childhood, and Chris Ware drone deadpan narration while his comics were shown as slides on the movie screen. And speaking of comics, the Brattle makes an unnamed appearance in Geraniums and Bacon #3 - it's the arthouse theater in "Kitty Goes to the Movies".
Harvard Square is in a rough spot in general these days. Every week, it seems like another shop has moved out and left a sad window in its place, empty except for the "Space for Lease" sign. Please help keep the indy spirit of Harvard Square alive and prevent the Brattle Theatre from becoming another empty space for rent.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
east anglia is a cold, cold place
No!
Sleep!
Till North Norfolk! dah-dahhhhh!
It is so freaking cold over here in England. There's actual snow on the ground for more than a day - a first for me! - and my toes are about to fall off and I'm going to float away for all this tea.
Here's one for you - if you go to London, you should visit the Design Museum, because it's great. Website's kind of lame, though. They make a big show out of it having won awards. I demand to see the award criteria! Flash-based sites that spawn titchy browser windows and hide the navigation win no awards in Kittyland.