Superman: The Man of Steel #29 (Jan. 1994)

written by Louise Simonson

pencilled by Jon Bogdanove

inked by Dennis Janke

The greatest villian of all time was introduced in these here pages.  Bloodthirst's debut was mentioned and discussed several times in previous issues and it all led up to this.  A black leather tank top clad, green gas emitting Dr. Frank-N-Furter-esque alien thing.  Now, I'm sure everyone at Superman Central thought that Bloodthirst would be an amazing villain as he was apparently the cause of every war and assassination in history but his first--and only

--appearance was a complete failure.

The story is also riddled with a stupid battle with Hi-Tech who 

was fighting Superman in the issue of Action Comics preceding this issue.  As you can see, the art still isn't the best as this is an issue of The Man of Steel and the result of the issue is pretty slapped together because you get Jimmy Olsen and Ron Troupe being attacked by Hi-Tech, Superman swooping in, punching Hi-Tech, getting attacked by Bloodthirst and...well, that's pretty much it.

I think Bloodthirst had the potential but I learned that you never introduce a character or storyline in an issue of The Man of Steel.  What ironic is that two of the best Superman storylines (The Death of Superman and The Trial of Superman) started in The Man of Steel (Numbers 18 and 50, respectively).

And yes, you probably will see plenty of Man of Steel issues in here but next

 time I hope to do a Marvel issue so we'll just see.

Post No. 300

Well, made it to the 300th post. It seems like yesterday that I started this blog when in reality it's been almost a year. A year of Born Loser and other comics and writings and stories and whole lotta love. I'm taking the next two weeks off and focusing on my writing and getting a second blog started up plus introducing a couple other things for this blog. I'll still be around checking in from time to time but I'll be back on December 14th and I have a posting coming later this evening.

What a note to end on.

Can everybody see the seven dots of five o'clock shadow on Brutus' cheek? I was originally going to mock that Brutus is drawn as clean-shaven until I noticed those seven dots I originally thought was monitor burn.

168: Nanowrimo 2008 Comes To an End

As Nanowrimo comes to an end this year, I feel the need to clarify a few things about my novel.  I didn't get a whole novel written (Nanowrimo requires 50,000 to constitute a novel) I did get part one of my novel written which if I would've followed my original plan of splitting Wilbur and Kolak into four seperate novels, I would've gotten a novel finished.  I haven't started on part two yet but am about two chapters or so into it.  If I ever get them written I plan on posting them especially The Big Chapter.

I'm hoping next November I'm able to do more writing as I plan on being done with Wilbur and Kolak by the end of 2009 so maybe next year I can get my third and best novel written.

Peanuts 11/24/08-11/30/08

I've decided to bring this Peanuts thing to an end.  It had a decent run but I just can't compare these older strips to my life because these strips are all pretty Snoopy-centric.  I like Snoopy, I just like late eighties, nineties Snoopy.  Anyway, onto the final entry.

And so Snoopy attempts to listen for worms.  Snoopy has had quite a bit of identity crises over a span of 50 years.  Bird, vulture, WWI flying ace, just to name a few.  They all get pretty tiring and I find them annoying and not at all funny.  Moving on...

"Wait.  No.  It was just ash from the nitrogen plant just outside of town."

Fa la la la la, la la la laa.

Damn dog.

Born Loser for 11/30/08

While I hate to admit it, this is true. Comic strip creators seem stuck in the fifties and sixties and I don't know why none of them try to shake things up. Are they scared? Do they not know how to place themselves in modern times? Do they submit edgy comics but their editors say 'No!'? I want to believe that the creator figures that since the space allowed is so small and anymore, the comics page is so trivial that they just don't bother doing anything that will make headlines.

Or they are a bunch of golf-playing morons that really are stuck in the 1950s. I don't know...


However in Chip's defense, he seems to be trying in some cases and I do like Gladys' response to Brutus in the last panel. The chef's hat is a bit much though.

Homework On a Saturday

I wondered if that was something you could actually calculate on your own and truth be told I didn't think you could figure out your carbon footprint.  Well, once again the Internet has proved Brian wrong as there are a variety of websites that allow you to figure out your carbon footprint.  I calculated mine with this one.  I roughly emit 22.35 metric tons of CO2 per year.  I don't know if that's good or bad but I feel it's pretty low.

On a side note, it's snowing here right now.  After a 50 degree Thanksgiving, it's now snowing.

Happy Valentine's Day

Kevin must have a lot of Valentine's Day decorations.  Valentine's isn't really one of those holidays that you would have that many decorations to hang out on your house and/or lawn.  Maybe a window cling of cupid or even a small sign to stick in your yard.  There shouldn't be any lights or anything to hang.

167: Weird Dreams

I've been having some weird dreams lately.  Last night, and I'm blaming all the Thanksgiving food I had, I had the weirdest dreams where I was in the audience of Oprah.  Oprah was doing a question and answer segment on her show and everytime she went to someone else, she ended up hitting them.  Not lightly or by accident either.  One woman complained and Oprah just admitted it but blamed the woman she hit.  I don't know if Oprah really acts like this but I wouldn't be surprised if she did.  I don't know what happened to the dream because then I was climbing up onto this cement stage-type thing high up above the audience.  It was very dangerous because the thing had no railing and seemed to getting higher with every second.  Then someone threw open a door and knocked me over the edge and so there I was hanging onto the edge of the cement stage thing for dear life.  Finally I was just able to wake myself up and then drift back off to sleep.

After I fell back to sleep, the next dream was just weird.  My son and I worked in the same place (and he could drive) and this girl I used to work with on second shift was in it and some gas station that I always seem to dream about was there.  The gas station was huge but run by women who had tattoos all around their bodies and white tanktops and braided hair.  It was kind of scary.  Anyway, I'm not sure what that dream was about either but at least I wasn't clinging for my life as in the previous dream.

I also had another dream which I can't remember.  When I was sick this past summer, I kept having the same recurring dream.  I can't remember what it was now but it kept waking me up.  Then when I would finally get to back to sleep I would immediately go back into that dream waking me up again in about fifteen minutes.  It was a very long night.

Coach Gladys

No Thanksgiving reference at all in today's strip?  I'm a little disappointed Chip.  What we get is a stupid men-like-sports reference.  As an added bonus at least we do get spaced-out full frontal of Wilberforce so I guess it's not all bad.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and I hope you all have a great day and weekend.

166: Dreaming Dead Girl

She had her whole life ahead of her.  Full scholarship to college, almost done with high school, beloved throughout the whole town.  The bus she rode in elementary school now passes by the cemetery where she now rests.  I didn't know how she died but I was intrigued by the story of this young woman cut down in what was literally the prime of her life.  She had one of the newer headstones in the old cemetery, making her plot stand out.  I saw the bus turn off the highway and down the gravel around the cemetery.  I stared at it as it drove out of sight...

...Then I woke up.  I love dreams like this although I don't really like that they never get finished.  I don't know what brought on this dream but it lasted longer than most of my other dreams even though I didn't get a definite conclusion.  I vaguely remember a name on the headstone--all I recall is all three names started with 'B'.  The town I was in was reminescent of Baldwin City, a city I lived in for six years but I know it wasn't Baldwin.

I don't know what the dream meant or if it's supposed to tell me something but I like dreams like that because they fuel my writing and that's really what I need at the moment.

Thanksgiving At Arby's?

Can you picture another meat that could be used for Thanksgiving?  Maybe ham but that would just be spitting into the face of every Thanksgiving-celebrating Jew out there.

Is it me or is the way Gladys holding open the turkey drawn really funny?

165: End Road

Click above link to access story

I am not happy about how End Road came out.  I do not like half the story because no matter what I wrote or rewrote, nothing seemed to quite work out.  The chose this story out of the six I came up with first because I felt it was going to be the easiest.  After spending the better part of a month trying to write something good, I ended up writing this.  It's okay, it does what I had intended it to do but I know I could've done it better.

The next stories I'm gonna try to get out--all in the month of December--are Landsman, where we learn that the world is flat and what people will go through to keep the conspiracy quiet; Abandoned, Texas, a young man returns to his hometown five years after a hurricane wiped it off the map to retrieve his sister's body; The Kings of Framingham, a high school reunion brings friends back together and all the high school drama that goes with it; Seven which is a story that I wish someone would explain to me--it's getting complicated; and I have an untitled 9/11 story planned but I don't know if I will publish that one.  I may, but it doesn't really focus on 9/11 that much.

Here's hoping December is a writing-filling month.  November kind of wasn't...

Contradictions Abound

Yesterday we saw Veeblefester complaining that the economy is so bad his Thanksgiving is going to be a shadow of it's former self but here we have him and Brutus at a really fancy restaurant (you can tell because of the candle) which Brutus shouldn't be spending money on because he more than likely has a mortgage and car payment to deal with plus the fact that we know he's not that great at his job and could be laid off.

Maybe Veeblefester's buying...

Streetlight Wins Contest, Awarded Guest Spot In Today's Strip

Here we go!  We begin the tirade of rich people complaining that their billions has turned into millions.  Although since we've determined that Veeblefester is either a bank CEO or tobacco lobbyist then he probably is getting hit pretty hard by the financial crisis.

Also, in response to the last panel:  That's what she said!

Introducing...A Football Tag

Is Chip experimenting with a different ink pen thickness in the second panel?  Over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed that Chip has been doing more with the illustrations.  While the jokes and characters are still rather lame, I'm glad Chip is shaking up the strip.

Yes, you actually can lose them all.  I've seen it happen.  What's the point in playing?  Losing because of a low score is a lot more nobler than losing because you didn't want to show up.  I don't have a football tag?  That seems odd.