WASTED POTHENTIAL in ALIVE! Week 3: "Hunter and Elvis"

Once again, you'll have to rush out and pick up this week's Columbus Alive! and read this week's Wasted Potential strip before reading this insightful and thought provoking commentary. Unfortuntately, I am unable to post the strips here at this time...However, the original version of this week's strip (I've since redrawn it) appeared in the mini comic collection Wasted Potential: Blue, so if you're one of the half dozen or so people who got a copy of that one, you'll know what I'm talking about.

I drew the original version of this strip in January of 2003. It was a Monday. No, I don't remember the exact date.

The inspiration for the strip was a woman I had met the day before. I won't disclose her name, since just as Norm's infatuation with this unnamed woman he "met" is destined to go nowhere, I totally failed to ask this woman out or in any even indicate to her that I was even thinking of asking her out or that I had any type of romantic inclinations toward her at all and eventually she drifted out of my life and I haven't seen her for about two years and I kick myself every time I think about her.

Anyway...If I ever were to have a male child ( a prospect that seems increasingly unlikely since most of my experiences with women mirror the above example), I would, in fact, want to name him Hunter. It's a cool name as well as being the name of one of my favorite writers and the author of the quote over there on your right underneath my picture.

Dummies to the Left of me; Complete Idiots to my Right

I've been reading a book called Monty Python and Philosophy, a book which applies philosophical principles to the work of Monty Python and Pythonesque principles to the work of philosophers, and one of the essays therein inspired me to do some further reading on Buddhism. No, I'm not looking to become a Buddhist, but I get the feeling that there are certain aspects of Buddhist philosophy that I might do well to incorporate in my own personal "philosophy," such as it is.

So, anyway, I was thinking that I should look for a simple introductory text, something like a "Buddhism For Dummies," so I did some poking around the library's catalog computer and guess what....

Yep, Buddhism For Dummies is a real book. I immediately reserved it, as well as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism.

While in a bookstore with Mild Mike Lucas, master cartoonist and creator of the unparalleled genius of The Idioms, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the book Screenwriting For Dummies. I'll bet you're thinking the same thing that I thought and said to Mike, "We really don't need this book. Too many screenplays are written by dummies as it is." The same could be said for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel, perhaps even more so.

I wonder if there's one called Writing A "For Dummies" Book For Dummies.

And by now you've probably guessed that I learned everything I know about writing this blog from.....

Where else?

Blogging For Dummies

Odd News: Son of a Beehive

While I cannot for the life of me, no matter how hard I try, come up with a comment on this story, it was just too strange not to pass along to what few readers I may have left after my recent extended absences from posting:

Police discover cocaine stashed in beehive hairdo
And for the youngsters who may not know what a "beehive" is:
Wikipedia entry for "Beehive (hairstyle)"

Legion of Super Heroes Debuts On "Kids WB!"

Well, so far, the new Legion of Super Heroes cartoon, which debuted Saturday as part of what is, interestingly enough, still known as the Kids WB! line-up despite the fact that the WB! network no longer exists, looks pretty good.

I had heard that the show would feature "Superboy" teaming up with his 31st century counterparts, but what we have is a very young Superman at a time in his life before Clark Kent moved to Metropolis and took that nom de guerre. The Wikipedia article about the show mentions speculation that legal hassles concerning the ownership of "Superboy" caused the change, but I think it might have had more to do with the fact that DC wrote out the "young Clark Kent" version of Superboy two decades ago and didn't want to bring him back in any form (though that doesn't explain the late 80's live action Superboy series--however at the time there was no Superboy of any kind in the comics...but I'm getting off topic, so.....).

One question I have: Why is young Clark shown wearing glasses? We all know that Clark only wears the glasses to disguise the fact that he's Superman, so if he hadn't become Superman yet when we first meet him, WHY is he wearing glasses? It's a small quibble, and didn't affect my enjoyment of the show, however. In fact, I only thought of it after the show was over.

In look and style, the series is more like the earlier Superman and Justice League series than the Teen Titans (also about teen heroes), which is good because I found some of TT's "manga-isms" (a word that I think I just made up) annoying.

When doing any show based on a super hero team that's been around a while (50 years) and had literally dozens of members, every one of whom will be some die hard fanboy's favorite, in that time, the producers have quite a challenge coming up a line-up for the show.

Braniac 5 was a no-brainer. I wouldn't attempt to do a Legion show without him. (Though what's up with him being some kind of robot or something? Is this to make him more like the Brainiac of the Superman series?) The same goes for Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl (and I hope we'll see the third founding member, Cosmic Boy, who was mentioned but not shown in the pilot). Triplicate Girl and Shadow Lass are also good choices and I especially liked the inclusion of Bouncing Boy. (How can you not like a guy calling himself Bouncing Boy?) Timber Wolf is slated to join the team in the next episode, and we should get to see the other mentioned but not seen Legionnaires, Colossal Lad and Shrinking Violet.

I would guess that Chameleon Boy (or simply Chameleon, as I believe he is known in the comics these days) was excluded due to the similarity of his powers to those of Teen Titans' Beast Boy, but the one Legionnaire whose presence I miss is Wildfire, as he's always been my favorite member of the team. Maybe we'll get to see him as a guest star in a future episode.

There are also hints in the Wikipedia article that we'll get to see the Legion of Substitute Heroes and maybe even Matter Eater Lad this season. (Matter Eater Lad was, at one point, leading the Subs, so they may be in the same episode.)

Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of The Legion of Super Heroes!!

Bring On Matter Eater Lad!!

Premiere Week

Tonight is the official kick off of the broadcast networks' "Premiere Week," with many new series debuting and many more starting new seasons.

As far as I'm concerned the whole week is downhill from tonight, when the one show I've been looking forward to the entire summer premieres. (No, it's not Deal or No Deal. ) I'm referring to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Why am I so excited about this show? Two words: Aaron Sorkin--creator of two of the finest TV series of the last decade, Sports Night and The West Wing. Sorkin has kicked whatever habits kept him out of TV for the past few seasons and returns to NBC with a drama that takes viewers behind the scenes of a TV sketch comedy show. To sweeten the deal even more, Sorkin is bringing with him Wing star Bradley Whitford and Friends star (and occassional Wing guest star) Matthew Perry.

Hopefully, the presence on NBC's schedule of a similar, but probably not as good, sitcom called 30 Rock, won't confuse people or draw viewers away from Studio 60.

WASTED POTENTIAL in ALIVE! Week One

If you haven't already read the strip, rush out and pick up a copy of Columbus Alive! now and do so and read Wasted Potential....then come back and read the following comments on this week's strip.

I chose this particular strip to begin the Alive! run because, while it's not actually an "introductory" strip (those ran in The Atomic Tomorrow last year), it does serve to introduce many of the main characters and tropes of the series. Most importantly, it features the three main characters, Norm, Amy and Bill, and establishes the relationship between Norm and Amy. (For those who don't know, Bill is Norm's room-mate. Norm's sister Amy does not officially live with him, even though she's there all the time, which Bill is none too happy about.) It also establishes that Norm is a cartoonist with a tendency to run up against deadlines and a penchant for being distracted by such important things as Gilligan's Island marathons. This is a recurring theme in the strip, and a later strip in this run will visit the topic again. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz is also mentioned, and Norm's great admiration for this great cartoonist is another recurring theme.

One thing I want to mention: The episode of Gilligan's Island "...where Mary Ann hits her head and thinks she's Ginger" is an actual Gilligan episode. All such citations in Wasted Potential refer to actual TV episodes or movies. I hate it when TV or movie writers cite a totally made up episode of a real TV show because it shows a lack of knowledge of what the hell they're writing about.

Wasted Potential,

the greatest thing to happen to comic strips since the invention of the word balloon, begins its six week run in Columbus Alive!

TOMORROW!!!!

Get your copies early, as they're sure to disappear quickly once word gets out that WP is in the paper!!!

BB All Stars Wrap Up

About the only thing surprising in last night's Big Brother All-Stars finale was the color of Nakomis' hair. It was BROWN! Now, usually there's nothing all that shocking about brown hair. Lots of people have brown hair. I have brown hair. But this isn't me we're talking about here, it's Nakomis. During her two sojourns in the Big Brother house, her hair has been pink, purple, orange and green; but this is the first time we've seen it a color actually found in nature.

There was nothing shocking, however, about Mike "Boogie" walking out of the house with the half million dollar prize. I saw it coming weeks ago, and his victory was pretty much assured from the moment of Will's eviction. Plus of the final four, I felt he was the one who most deserved to win.

Wasted Potential is Almost Here!!!

I've been taking a break from blogging (Again! I know, I am such a lazy bastard!), but I'm taking a break from my break to let you all know that Wasted Potential begins its groundbreaking, monumental six-week run in Columbus Alive! with next week's issue!!

Alive! hits the mean streets of Columbus, Ohio every Thursday, so be sure and scoop up a copy while you can as they're sure to go fast and become instant collector's items!

Coutdown Update

This week marks the third Columbus Alive! appearance of John Mallett's Sonic Sea Monkeys, which means that in just FOUR(4) SHORT WEEKS, Wasted Potential, the greatest comic strip ever, takes the sleepy town of Columbus, Ohio by storm!!!! (trust me, if I knew how to make those words blink, I'd do it!!)

Meanwhile, I have moved up to number 530 on the waiting list for the DVD of V For Vendetta. At this rate, it'll be about six weeks before I can give you a review. (If you don't feel like waiting, there's always "Learned" Larned Justin's comments on my August 14th post.)

Stayin' Home

Probably not going out to the movies this weekend. None of the films opening this week appeal to me at all. The least appealing is Snakes On A Plane. As much as I like Samuel L. Jackson, who was just about the only thing worth watching in the lameass Star Wars prequels, I hate snakes even more...always have, always will.

Then there's Accepted. It's about a kid who gets rejected by every college he applies to, so to convince his dad that he's not a total loser, he invents an imaginary college which then becomes a real school. The name the kid comes up with for the school is South Harmon Institute of Technology. Yes, that's South Harmon Institute of Technology...and if that's an indication of the level of alleged humor in this film, I think I'll skip it. From what I can see, the only thing this so-called comedy has to recommend it is that Lewis Black is in it.

Yep. looks like another weekend of watching my DVDs of the first season of Gilmore Girls....

Fall TV Preview: Shark

In my last entry about fall TV shows I was looking forward to seeing on CBS, I failed to mention the upcoming legal drama Shark. The show stars James Woods as Sebastian Stark, a high powered successful defense attorney in Los Angeles (that's in California) who goes to work for the District Attorney, birnging with him the same tactics that he previously used to get his clients off only now focused on locking up the bad guys. The show offers a bit of a twist on the usual lawyer show formula and Woods is a great actor who's worth watching no matter what he's in (even if, as in Hercules, only his voice is heard), so this one seems worth giving a chance.

Fall TV Preview: Fox and CBS

Geez, where the hell has the bloody time gone? Seems like summer's almost over already...The brats'll be heading back to school in a few days and the Fall TV season is almost upon us. In the case of Fox, it begins in just six days with the premiere of Vanished.

As I have in the past, I'm going to pick out one or two shows from each network's line-up that look like they actually might be worth watching, and I will start with Fox and CBS.

Fox's Til Death is not one of those shows. The new Brad Garrett vehicle strikes me as yet another lame sitcom about a married that you can not believe would ever be a couple. To tell you the truth, no sitcom on any network really strikes me as being anything especially special. It seems that networks and producers are concentrating more on dramas, especially serialized dramas in the Lost mode or CSI/Law & Order style procedural dramas.

The two on Fox that look promising fit into the later mold. Justice, in fact, is produced by CSI's Jerry Bruckheimer and appears to apply the CSI formula to defense attorneys, specifically a high powered, high priced lawyer played by Victor Garber.

Standoff, meanwhile, follows the CSI model by spotlighting an area of police work that has not really been explored in a TV series before. The show follows two hostage negotiators who also happen to be romantically involved.

Meanwhile, CBS has Jericho, the story of residents of a small Kansas town who survive a nuclear war. The previews that I've seen remind me of one of my favorite novels, Pat Frank's Alas! Bablyon, another tale of survivors of a nuclear war, and that similarity of premise has me interested and intrigued enough to tune in and give the show a shot.

When I return to this topic, I'll look at what's worth watching, if anything on NBC, ABC, and the CW.

V For Vendetta: Who Was V, Really?

I just finished reading Alan Moore and David Lloyd's graphic novel V For Vendetta, upon which the movie of this past spring was based, and I have a question....

Since this concerns the ending of the book, if you have not read V For Vendetta or seen the film (though, not having seen the film myself, I have no idea how closely it follows the book), you might want to skip this entry and go to the Big Brother update.

Throughout the book, we never see V's true face, and then at the end Evey Hammond assumes the mantle of V following V's death. As I was thinking about the ending this morning, the following thought hit me: Is it possible that V was, in fact, Evey Hammond all along and the conversations between her and V took place entirely within her mind? Therefore, the new "apprentice" that Evey/V takes in at the end of the book would be yet another manifestation of Evey/V's psyche. After all, Finch says that V is not a normal human mentally and actually goes so far as to take LSD in order to think the way that V does. Plus, this is written by Alan Moore, so it makes sense to assume that there's more going on in the story than meets the eye.

If you've read the book, I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on this subject.

BB All Stars: A Whole New Game

A lot happened in the Big Brother All Stars house between Thursday and Sunday.

Erika's reign as Head of Household was short lived, as complaints of technical difficulties during the competition caused it to be re-played and this time Janelle won, making her HoH for the third. I'm not sure any other houseguest has ever had three terms as HoH, especially only six weeks into the competition.

Meanwhile, the power of coup d'etat, which will give the houseguest who wins it the power to overthrow the HoH and change the nominations on eviction night, is up for grabs. So far, Danielle, James, George and Erika have taken stabs at guessing the Big Brother related phrase which holds the key to the power.

The BB game enters a new phase this week, as, with only nine houseguests remaining, the next seven evictees will form the jury which will decide the winner from the final two.

So, are these All Star houseguests really great liars or just very gullible or a little of both? Last week, everyone seemed to buy into the ruse of Danielle's nomination of James, which was designed to hide their alliance, while Will told a series of whoppers, which, again, everyone seemed to swallow, designed to turn the house against Marcellas. This week, following Kaysar's eviction, Janelle began telling some tall tales of her own concerning Chicken George. Now, we viewers know that George did not "swear on his kids," as Janelle claims, that he would vote to keep Kaysar in the house, and Kaysar did not tell her that he did, yet Will and James appear to be buying that line of crap. My interpretatiion is that not only did George not make any promise to help Kaysar, he pretty much told Kaysar that he was going to vote him out without coming right out and saying it, since, in my experience at least, "I'll see what I can do" usually means "Sorry, Charlie."

The real question here is what Janelle believes. Her diary room testimony seems to indicate that she doesn't even realize that she's not telling the truth, but instead actually believes her own laod of BS.

I really hope that Danielle's guess was correct and she wins the coup d'etat power. Especially as she is one of Janelle's nominees this week, she will surely use it and Janelle will become the first member of the jury.

Meanwhile, it seems that Will is taking the competition a little more seriously than he wants people to think. Contrary to what he said in his "I Hate You All' screed a couple of weeks ago, the Evil Doctor really seemed to be trying to win the HoH competitions and looked genuinely pissed off both times he got knocked out.

Finally, I want to say that it was great to see Season 5's Marvin again during last nights food competition (if I were picking the All Star line-up, he would have at least made the Top 20 that people got to vote on), but I'm wondering what exactly qualifies a mortician to judge a cooking competition. (I don't remember what Season 4 winner Jun does for a living, and, as I didn't follow Season 2, this was the first time I'd ever seen that Nichole person.)

Yes, it's been quite a week in the BB house so far, and we haven't even seen the Veto competition yet. Things may get even stranger....Stay tuned.

Still Countin' Down

Updating my two ongoing countdowns:

Only 5 more weeks until Columbus is treated to the splendorifousness that is my comic strip Wasted Potential in Columbus Alive!

....and:

I have moved up to #609 on the waiting list for V For Vendetta.

BB All Stars Update: It's Time To Take Down Chilltown!!

While the plan to boot Janelle from the Big Brother All Stars house may have failed, outgoing Head of Household Danielle's larger objective of breaking up the Season 6 alliance was accomplished. With Jame's defection and Kaysar's eviction, the Season 6 alliance has been effectively neutered as a force in the game. (Note to Janelle: When your closest remaining ally in the house is Howie, you are...What's the word I'm searching for? Oh, yeah! ....SCREWED!)

With Season 6 broken up, the time has finally come, the Walrus said, to take out the "Chilltown" alliance, and I hope that Erika, the new HoH, sees this and acts on it.

As Kaysar awaited the vote last night he addressed his housemates and the TV viewers, giving the usual spiel about how he played the game with "integrity and honesty" and on and on and blah, blah, blah....BULL.

In truth, in all the summers that I have watched Big Brother, only one player has truly conducted himself with real honor, integrity and respect for his fellow players. I think that if you've been reading these BB updates of mine you know who I'm talking about: the man who has quickly become my favorite BB housguest ever--Chicken George.

Mike Douglas: 1925-2006

"(Mike) Douglas said in his book that people often confused him with (Merv) Griffin, another singer of Irish heritage." (from Columbus Dispatch obituary of former TV talk show host Mike Douglas)

I never confused them. Griffin's show bored me, but I always enjoyed watching The Mike Douglas Show. Douglas had music and comedy and interesting guests on his show, while Griffin's show was all about sitting on the couch in his Vegas studio schmoozing with fellow celebs, most of whose careers had long since faded.

Here's something you might not know about Mike Douglas...before he was a talk show host, he was a singer and provided the singing voice of Prince Charming in the Walt Disney version of Cinderella.

V Update

I just checked, and I have moved up to number 617 on the waiting list to check out V For Vendetta. It's practically in my DVD player as I write this.

Hating Bill O'Reilly For Fun and Profit

Just last night, I started reading a book called Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly by Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer, creators of the web-site of the same name. The book is devoted to debunking the lies, distortions and general BS of Rupert Murdoch's Golden Boy, but as much as I loathe O'Reilly and his fellow Fox News blowhards, I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I was going to. After all, is there anyone besides O'Reilly's fellow lunatics who takes this loser seriously anymore. By now, making O'Reilly look like an idiot is just too easy, as he does it himself almost every time he opens his big fat lying mouth. It's liking shooting fish in a bucket with a Howitzer, which could be fun at first but would probably get a little boring after a while.

As far as I'm concerned, the fatal wound to O'Reilly's already crippled credibility was when his and Fox News' bogus lawsuit against Al Franken in an attempt to block publication of Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by claiming that Franken infringed on Fox's incredibly weak and indefensible trademark on the generic phrase "Fair and Balanced" was literally laughed out of court. I think the judge may still be chuckling.

Bill O'Reilly is a loudmouthed lying jerk. That is all ye know and all ye need to know (at least about O'Reilly). Skip the show, skip this book, let the healing begin and get on with your lives.