dimland radio 5-14-16 show notes

This Skeptic Poops His Own Party

Being a skeptic sometimes means you poop the occasional party. You tell how that excellent, hilarious story that happened to a friend of a friend is just an urban legend. You let people know that green tea isn't a miracle weight loss product and/or it doesn't cure cancer. And that emergency room visits are no higher during a full moon than they are during any of the other phases of the moon.

But, sometimes, a skeptic can poop his own party. Last week I raved about The Who, the greatest band in the world. I talked about the concert I'd just seen and I pointed out how Roger Daltrey nailed the "YEEEAAAAHHH!" at the end of 'Won't Get Fooled Again'.

I was impressed, but it was also quite jarring that he nailed it so well. I even made an aside during the show wondering if they had somehow "sweetened" the scream.

Well, that wondering got this skeptic doing the skeptical thing: Trying to find an answer to this probably better left unanswered question.

I think I found an answer. There is a video of the entire concert I attended in Minneapolis. It's not the best audio and video quality, but it did confirm that that scream sounded damn good. Maybe too damn good.

I then found another video clip of the band performing the same song nearly a year earlier. There were a couple clues that made it clear to me. The scream was EXACTLY the same as when saw them two weeks ago. Also, that second video clearly shows Roger not quite getting the lip sync right.

Well, Roger is 72 and he sang everything else, so I'll cut him some slack and overlook being fooled this one time.

Alex Jones Is On Z Talk Radio Now...

..and I let station owner, Scotty Rorek, know that I intend to keep talking shit about the king of the conspiracy nuts. Mr. Jones hasn't met a conspiracy theory he doesn't at least think has some merit. Chemtrails, New World Order, mass shootings, etc. all fall under his paranoid gaze. And I will call him out whenever I can.

Scotty said, "No worries at all. Keep going."

All right. I will.

Dimland Radio ARGH!

I had an ARGH! this week dealing with what I call "I'm the only person in the world" syndrome. I had a few example, but the main ARGH! was aimed at people who park on a side street and throw their door open without checking for traffic.

That's a good way to lose a door.

Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Tigra The Were-Woman

 

Marvel Comics Group

An old comic book character caught my eye while cataloging comic books the other day. This female superhero was introduced to Marvel Comics fan as The Cat in 1972 and a couple years later she was transformed into part woman, part cat; thus came Tigra.

The pedantic moment comes from her subtitle "the Were-Woman", which is a play on the word werewolf. Well, the prefix "were" is Old English for man, so she's Tigra the Man-Woman.

Hmmm.

 

Movie Recommendation: Argo (2012) & Bridge Of Spies (2015)

 

Warner Bros.

I did a quick comparison of these two films depicting historical events. Both are good, but Argo does a much better job at building tension even though most viewers should already know the outcome.

 

DreamWorks Pictures

Both are well made and enjoyable, but I think Argo edges out Bridge of Spies.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Houses In Motion' by Talking Heads & 'Go' by The Replacements

Second ad break bumpers: 'Move Me' by The Woodentops & 'Running Up The Hill (A Deal With God)' by Kate Bush

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

you know who is great?

I’ll tell you. Alan Davis. Who is Alan Davis? Alan Davis is one of my favorite comic book illustrators, that’s who! Back when I was still buying new comic books (I stopped years ago), I discovered Alan Davis when he was penciling Detective Comics for DC. His Batman was terrific. Davis’ style is fluid and graceful. It’s every bit as powerful as comicdom’s other greats: John Buscema, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Will Eisner, John Byrne, Jim Lee, Alex Ross and the like.

When he finished up on Detective Comics on the middle of a story run (he was replaced by the extremely overrated Todd MacFarlane, I’ll talk about him in a moment), he moved over to Marvel Comics. He went to work penciling Excalibur. And I went to work buying them.

I think Alan Davis was, unfortunately, overshadowed by the Todd MacFarlane craze. I freely admit I was impressed with MacFarlane’s work for about five minutes, but, as a nearly life-long student of comic book art, I quickly saw MacFarlane’s deficiencies as an artist. His work was dramatic and eye-catching, but his anatomy drawing was poor. His proportions were off and his women all looked wrong. His characters all looked like they were in danger of falling over (always leaning and their bodies tapering toward their feet). MacFarlane’s line work was way too busy and lacked weight and definition.

MacFarlane's art: Just how big is Spider-Man's butt?

Alan Davis’ work, on the other hand, was lush and disciplined. His line work was simple, flowing, elegant and expressive. His eye for page layout and design was outstanding. A mark of a really good comic book artist is being able to follow the story without having to read the narrative and dialogue. Davis’ pages never left you confused as to what was going on, while MacFarlane’s often did.

And the way Alan Davis drew women… AHEM.

Let's see MacFarlane draw a woman this well!

Maybe I suffer a little from the sour grapes when I look at MacFarlane’s work. I spent years trying to get into the comic book biz, but no go. Sometimes I’d get some praise, “You’re good, but you need work.” Sometimes I’d get slapped, “Have you had any drawing lessons?” This was asked of me by an editor after I had spent three years in art school. Often I would hear that my work was a little too cartoony. I’d work on improving my work and then I saw MacFarlane’s drawings. Cartoony?! Talk about cartoony! Are you looking at his stuff?!

MacFarlane's Wolverine (This cover did catch my eye at first.)

Davis' Wolverine

(To be fair, I have to say that although I don’t care much for MacFarlane’s drawing, his line of toys he later produced were fantastic!)

However, when I see great work, I marvel at the artist’s ability. I revel in it. I feel as though I’m witnessing something transcendent. It’s a beautiful thing.

MacFarlane's Hulk

Davis' Hulk (Drawings like this make me want to put down my pencil and let the pros handle it.)

And I think Alan Davis produced many beautiful things.

comic books that have changed my life #6

Returning to the long left idle series on some of my favorite comic books, I will focus on The Avengers #164. This is the second issue of The Avengers' title that I will examine. (The previous one was #171 which I reviewed way back in February 2006.) Issue #164 features guest penciler John Byrne. John Byrne is one of my all time favorite comic book artists. This issue was one of his early efforts for Marvel Comics, but he would soon make a huge splash in the comic world when he became the regular penciler for the X-Men (starting with issue #108 of that series).

I love Byrne's work. For quite some time he was the top artist at Marvel. George Perez was a close second, but Byrne's work just had something that impressed the hell out of me. He continued to produce great work for many years until he began writing titles as well as drawing them. Then he seemed to hurry his drawing.

Anyway, The Avengers #164 was early in his career at Marvel, but he was already showing those signs of greatness. His inker was Pablo Marcos for this three issue story that John would being drawing, giving George Perez, Avengers' regular artist, a break. And I am focusing on the first part of the three issue story, because as I've said previously, the set up issue seems to be more interesting then the conclusion issue of a storyline.

The synopsis of this issue tells of an old Avengers' villain, Count Nefaria, recruiting three other villains: Power Man, Whirlwind, and the Living Laser, to help him defeat the Avengers once and for all. Through the efforts of the team of scientists he employed, Count Nefaria enhances the powers of the three recruited bad guys. But only temporarily. This reunited and boosted Lethal Legion rob a bank, the Avengers try to stop them, but they get away and regroup and counterattack. In their counterattack, the Legion appear to have the upper hand and are about to become victorious when their powers begin to mysteriously disappear. Enter Count Nefaria, crackling with the super powers he'd just stolen from the Lethal Legion. That dastardly double crosser!

Ok, it ain't Tolstoy, but it's good comic book fun.

Now to look at the art...

The cover (see above) was draw by George Perez and it depicts the Lethal Legion putting the beat down on the Avengers. Power Man states that the Avengers are finished, but someone is shouting, "Not all of them!" But who is it? We do see a pair of gloved hands, but the story doesn't let us know who it is. Is it Yellow Jacket? The Wasp? The Scarlet Witch? I guess we aren't supposed to know. It was a common practice in comic books to have cover art that didn't exactly fit the story inside.

The first frame I'm including is the beginning of the second battle between the Avengers and the Lethal Legion. The three bad guys decide to use the old attention getter of throwing a car through the window of the second story conference room of the Avengers' mansion. How the Legion knew our heroes were gathered there I don't know. Still it is a dramatic shot with the great sound effect "KA-SMA-A-ASH!" Marvel always did pride themselves with their uncannily descriptive sound effect words.

Next is a two frame sequence in which we get to see just how much more powerful Power Man has become. At the expense of the Beast, unfortunately. Poor Beast, that looks like it hurt.

Then I have the last page of the issue. Here is where Count Nefaria makes his dramatic entrance. He tears up the street under the Avengers' feet, sending them all down to the ground, stunned. A shocked Capt. America recognizes the villain and can't believe Nefaria is capable of such a display of power.

And doesn't the Scarlet Witch have quite the nice behind?

I'm also including another two frame segment that always bugged me. It shows the Whizzer (yep, that's his name) speeding through his apartment. He's heading off to get into the action, but he really shouldn't because he's an older fellow and he's got heart trouble. Anyway, he's using his power of traveling at super speed when his daughter, the Scarlet Witch, (she wasn't really his daughter. It's complicated, so just take my word for it.) gets in his way.

He grabs a trellis rod and spins himself backward into the wall to keep from colliding with his daughter. I always thought the drawings were confusing. Why would he go backward? Looking at it now, I think I understand what happened. The Whizzer (Yes! That is his name!) must have reached to the left side of the frame to the "off camera" trellis rod and that's why he's flung backward into the wall. I guess Byrne had difficulty fitting the trellis into the frame.

Yes! He was called The Whizzer!

I'll do more writing on the comic books soon. I hope.