François Peneaud of The Gay Comics List and Brother to Dragons gave Frater Mine #6 and 7 a great review on his site. Click on the image to embiggenate:

My recent perseveration is getting the word about my comic out more, but I want to avoid the “user” (pushing myself at the expense of others) and “abuser” (flooding people with updates) models of self-promotion. There has to be a third option, but I have no idea what it is. I do know, however, it will involved a new website design.

Getting ready for the holiday took me away from reviewing comics for a few weeks, so to catch up, here are my encapsulated opinions. Feel free to email me for deatils.

X-Infernus #1: Strong start with diabolical subplots. I’m hoping this leads to a reincarnation of The New Mutants. A

Dark Reign #1: Oh noes! Another event!! In its favor, however, is its short run (three months according to the checklist). Working against it is that it’s another event.

Secret Six #4: Simone’s idiom of gelling disparate elements borders on vaudeville at times, but it continues to intrigue. A-

Action Comics #872: “New Krypton” continues by adding more useless characters to the board (“Creature Commandos”? Really?) while finally touching the main conflict. B-

Final Crisis Revelation #4: DC’s treatise on the Nature of God is one of the most disconcerting comic read of the year. Loves it. A+

Final Crisis #5: DC’s Millennium + 20 years = Final Crisis #5.

Supergirl #36: The penultimate chapter of “New Krypton” finds Alura being a horrible mother and a krytpo-centered, myopic slattern. I wish this had actually happened back in chapter 3. A

Manhunter #37: While I normally don’t like “X years later” jumps in plots (the atrocious A.I. still haunts me), Andreyko’s jump gives me a sense of continuity that will extend beyond the last (next) issue. A+

Hellblazer #250: Old-fashioned holiday fun the way they used to do it in Hell. A

Wonder Woman #27: Gail Simone loves these characters as demonstrated by the rich textures and motivations and interactions she gives them. Her Genocide scares me way more than her Junior. A

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #20: Cool idea, but after the pointless “Return of Fray” storyline, do we really need another break from the Big Bad’s arc? My magic eight ball says, “Definitely not.” C+

Runaways #5: I’m starting to find the “the best way to end a conflict is to just end it” idiom to be a fun one. It let’s the story move on to more interesting problems. Other than that, not much happens. B

Thor #12: Loki continues to rise as my favorite transsexual villain as he and Hela make plans to rule everything. A+

X-Men NOIR #1: Ugh. They did it better on Smallville‘s “Noir” episode (and that sucked eggs).

Ultimatum #2: It seems the Wasp can’t get a dignified death in any universe A-

So, it’s Christmas break and you’ve consumed all the ham you can usefully take in in one day and watched more football than is necessary for someone who isn’t on the coaching staff, so you need a new distraction. Well, distraction provided! This is a new Photoshop exercise that shows you the “good” and “evil” sides of your face.

Here’s what you do:

1.) Have a friend or other loved one take a picture of your face straight on. Transfer the picture to the computer with Photoshop. Open the picture.

2.) Use the select tool to select half of your face. Copy it (don’t cut it).

3.) Create a new canvas (it should be the same size as the image you just copied, so be sure to double the width).

4.) Paste the image into the canvas and nudge it to the right or left margin (depending on what side of your face it is).

5.) Paste the image into the canvas AGAIN.

6.) Go to EDIT then TRANSFORM then FLIP HORIZONTAL. The second image should now be the second half of your face. Line up the two images, then flatten them. Don;t forget to save!

7.) Repeat for the other side of your face.

Mine came out like this (regular face, right face, left face respectively):

When you’re done, look at yourself and write an evaluation of what you see – what each personality is. Ask your BFF/lover/husband/wife/FB/whomever what they think. Type it up. For example:

The right side of my face is definitely my Irish side. It has a nonplussed, “yeah whatever” expression and leprechaun-like ears. It has dark, stoned eyes. This is the “fiana sidhe” me.

The left side is my Russian/sleestack side – buggy eyes and an almost pointed head. It looks judgmental to me, like it’s about to say “You’re SO wrong, and let me tell you why…” then laugh in your face for being so obtuse. My brother called the look “jaundiced”.

OK, your turn. Send me your pics and your evaluations and I’ll post them on my site in the next few days.

UPDATE I: My brother’s faces.





The left face is that of a person who seems to be thinking something like “What? Really? Really? You don’t fucking think that, do you? You know where you’re wrong about that? (supplies reasons for other person’s argument being bullshit)” This face is that of a person with absolutely no time for foolishness or stupidity. Oddly, this face looks like that of a fairly capable athlete, too.

The right face is that of a sensitive, thoughtful, rather worried person. Neurotic. Hesitant. About to speak but wondering whether it’s the right thing to say. An entirely tentative individual. This is the face of…I’m not sure. What kind of job could you see this person doing? Janitorial work on a cruise ship?

Of late, whenever I’m approached at a red light by someone from a church organization looking for a donation to keep drugs off kids or trout-mouth slatterns out of the Senate offices or whatever, I tell them I’m an atheist. I’m not (per se), but it ends the discussion and makes me feel like I’ve ruined someone’s good time. I know. It’s horrible of me, and it’s also becoming something of a compulsion. One that I’m going to have to get control of, especially after what I did a few minutes ago.

Last night, we had snow in Austin, and my friend Ann changed her status on Facebook to something about how we should all pray for more snow, and then this happened:

It gets worse, the respondent is a kid, maybe 19. It’s like firing cannonballs at a dinghy, I know, but… eek. This is not good, and certainly not in the Christmas Spirit. I’m not moved to apologize or delete the comment, mind you. I’m more concerned about my becoming someone I wouldn’t want to hang out with.

This was something I was not expecting tonight, but it was most welcome.

Of course, this may mean the city will shut down for a few days until the weather “works itself out.” Oh, what fools these Texans be!

It’s not quite cake, but it’s surely a tasty doughnut. So to speak. PhotoFunia places visitors’ photos into any one of a few dozen scenes using facial recognition software. I don’t think the program recognizes faces like a police program does, but more along the lines of “Hey, this is a face over here! Get it in a picture!” Having very little else to do today (except grading, the bane of my teaching existence), I finally settled on these pictures with these faces:

Like the photomeme, if you create a picture you’d like to share, send it to me and I’ll post it!

UPDATE I: Jeni is money.





UPDATE II: Scott is famous.





UPDATE III: Scully gives us new ideas for Harry Potter slash:

From my brother, “Dude, Do We Have a Magic User Back There?” is a confection whom several guys (and some women) I know wouldn’t mind meeting in a dark alleyway against the better advice of their party members, flaming sword and feet that don’t touch the ground or no.

Prints are available in time for Christmas!

…because memes are the bane of everyone’s existence. They’re somewhat worse than spam because a.) they’re just as prolific as anonymous spam, but b.) they’re sent by friends. So, the question becomes, “Do I fill out another survey of my ‘fave’ things and then recruit five to ten more hapless friends into this miniature disruption of our day OR do I ignore it and risk looking like I can’t be bothered to communicate with my friends?” (Of course, the third choice is to ask the sender, “Why can’t you send me a personally typed email to show me you actually care enough to bother?”) However, my friend OMGLawDork caught me being a bad blog buddy last night after Body Flow class. She mentioned the photomeme on her blog and how fun it was to create, and I know I was staring stupidly at her because she asked, “You don’t read my blog as often as I read yours, do you?”

Guilt is such an effective weapon with me.

So tonight I caught up OMGLD’s blog (which, using her own word, is LOLarius), where I saw her work:

• name: OMG
• favorite food: pasta
• hometown: Dallas
• favorite color: red
• celebrity crush: David Hewlett
• favorite drink: red wine
• dream vacation: Canada
• favorite dessert: chocolate mousse
• what I most want to be when I grow up: at peace
• what I love most in the world: my family (blood kin and otherwise)
• one word that describes me: happy
• my username/email handle/gamerID/whateves: OMGLawDork

And seeing that I was convinced this was a worthwhile exercise, mostly because it takes some time and talent to put together. Here’s what I came up with:

• name: Sean
• favorite food: pizza, wings and beer
• hometown: Erie, PA
• favorite color: red
• celebrity crush: Neil Patrick Harris
• favorite drink: strawberry margarita
• dream vacation: Ireland
• favorite dessert: chocolate cake (because i couldn’t say “pizza” again)
• what I most want to be when I grow up: Dark Phoenix, so WATCH OUT!!!
• what I love most in the world: knowledge
• one word that describes me: bookish
• my username/email handle/gamerID/whateves: stseanoftheknife

If you read this blog and want to create one and send it back to me, please do and i’ll post it here.

UPDATE I: Joveth sent me this today:

• name: Joveth (Japheth)
• favorite food: italian meats and provolone on hard bread (not shown)
• hometown: San Jose, CA
• favorite color: currently, I enjoy the color combination of light blue and brown
• celebrity crush: Kyle Chandler
• favorite drink: dirty martini
• dream vacation: Italy
• favorite dessert: smores…mmm
• what I most want to be when I grow up: travel writer
• what I love most in the world: discovery and exploration
• one word that describes me: fluid, flux, etc etc
• my username/email handle/gamerID/whateves: tazzgonzo

UPDATE II: My brother Scott sent in his photomeme:

• Name: Scott
• Favorite food: Kimchi chigae
• Hometown: Erie, PA
• Favorite color: Green & Purple
• Celebrity crush: Alyson Hanniagn
• Favorite drink: Coffee
• Dream vacation: Vienna
• Favorite dessert: Cheesecake
• What I most want to be when I grow up: Someplace Else
• What I love most in the world: Knowledge
• One word that describes me: Monkish
• My username/email handle/gamerID/whateves: daedalusrose

UPDATE III: From friend Michael, the latest and most choiceful of the photomemes:

• name: Michael
• favorite food: Gram’s chicken soup
• hometown: Baldwin, NY
• favorite color: I’m particularly fond of jewel tones (deep burgundy, blue, green, etc).
• celebrity crush: tie between Alex O’Loughlin and Jensen Ackles
• favorite drink: Captain and Coke
• dream vacation: my upcoming first trip to Europe in April!
• favorite dessert: Chocolate Moose Tracks ice cream
• what I most want to be when I grow up: a rock star, of course…
• what I love most in the world: my family
• one word that describes me: Scorpio
• my username/email handle/gamerID/whateves: gemmin

UPDATE IV: From the Fraternity of the Undead, Nick sent me his revelatory collage:

• Name: Nicholas
• Food: Pizza
• Hometown: Austin
• Color: Maroon
• Celebrity Crush: Hugh Laurie
• Drink: Wine
• Desert: Pecan Pie
• What I Want To Be: Filmmaker
• One Word: Humorous
• Username: MuteAnt

Orthocomics is pleased to announce that Frater Mine #7, “Through the Wave That Runs Forever”, by the team of Sean McGrath, Juan Romera, Ed Brisson and Scott McGrath is now available at IndyPlanet.

Mark, Matt and Colleen are on the run and looking for their missing kids. but where do they start and who’s on their side? New players jump into the fray, but if they’re friends, they certainly don’t act like it! Check out this story of magic realism that Rachel Pollack said she “really enjoyed”.

Order your copy now while the price is still $2.50 (the real price of $2.95 should be posted soon)!

Please feel free to send feedback, fan mail or requests for divination. Sean specifically requests that fans send used (not soiled) underwear (with pictures).

Fred Guerra‘s December calendar will warm the cockles of anyone’s heart. Or loins. Or whatever. It’s below the wrinkle. Click and save!

click for the calendar