The Case of the Deadline Doom

Over the last couple of days there has been comic book industry news that has served to polarize a lot of fans. A questionable marketing tactic concerning two of the biggest characters from DC and industry professionals publicly feuding via instant messaging has created quite the spectacle within the funny book biz. The argument between two creators (with one burning bridges behind him with nuclear weapons is absurdly hilarious) has motivated me to finish up this bit of provenance I had been playing around with. The result was a mock-up of a crime novel featuring murder within a comic book industry setting called The Case of the Deadline Doom.

The art to the original book cover with art by Sam Peffer can be found here on a book by Earle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Lucky Legs. Those familiar with comic books over the last few decades might notice a few "Easter eggs" (or if you prefer, cliches) within the copy and art of the front and back faux covers. This mock up crime novel was fun to make and I'd write the hell out of this book given a few months off work.

I had already decided that if this book would ever see reality I want Sam Peffer or someone like him to do the cover art. When I started playing around with the concept I knew what it would be about. Terry Case was invented just for this, but has a complete back story. Burnt out, damaged and retired FBI agent who just wants to live out his years in peace but can't since there is too much wrong in the world. Agent Case exists soles as a means to use the cover teaser text 'A Closed Case Mystery'.

I knew initially what I was going for the faux crime novel idea but when I stumbled across the "Peff" cover I saw how perfect it was and instead went with an adaptation of that. The back cover, which at first was going to be the front, hearkens back to the old Seduction of the Innocent hardcover using the black, white and red color scheme. I even put in as a blurb a cliche of the comic book reporting scene that most people despise, the Zip! Pow! Biff! stuff. I figured if this book existed I wouldn't have much control over much of the teaser copy that appeared on the back and it would be at the mercy of a marketing wonk and their notes from a committee.

Take a few minutes and try to identify all the Easter eggs, even ones I already mentioned. Hey, whoever gives me the best answers might win a prize.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Deadly Strangers box art

Deadly Strangers (1974)

The entire budget for the VHS box art must have been a sandwich found in the office refrigerator after a three-day weekend and a partly drained coffee cup with a cigarette butt in it.

This box art was a poor copy of one of the original theater posters. Of the several available this was the worst possible one whoever produced this VHS tape could have chosen.

A lot and I mean a lot of 80s VHS box art was very inexpensively and amateurishly produced, often not much better than what could be found in a high school art class. Puzzling, since one would think reproductions of the varied original poster art would have been available. It would have looked far better and appealing even given an inexpensive printing process.

For the DVD issue of the film the art is still not all that attractive. It consists mostly of solid colors but a least this time it depicts a recognizable Hayley Mills. Taken from another original poster for the film it is simplistic but is marginally more appealing. Undoubtedly both covers were chosen for their color scheme in relation to a very inexpensive printing process, but even muted colors and details from some of the other posters would have looked a lot better.

Everything in moderation

It's not advertising spam and scams that has me moderating the blog, it's this loony crap and things like it in a barrage of replies to multiple posts. I could almost put up with the content if it was in reply to a relevant entry.

click to make a big deal of this

That looks heavy. Here, let me help you...

 

...into the tent so you can serve the men their snacks.

Wow, initially I thought he was going to carry the tray in for her. Can't decide if he is being a jerk by guiding the tray in and holding open the 'door' or being progressive by letting her do her job on her own. It's up to the viewer to decide, but I think that personal interpretation has evolved since this film was made and how it is seen today is different than the original, probably not conscious, intent of the filmmaker. In the 1950s  holding the door open for a lady is just what polite, well-meaning men did.

 From The War of the Worlds (1953).

Monday with Hayley Mills: Tiger Bay Lobby Card

It isn't nepotism if you were the best actor in the cast!

Monday with Hayley Mills: Flower Child

Monday with Hayley Mills: Stop right where you are!

Knowing of my incredibly well-adjusted and healthy fascination with celebrity actress-supreme Hayley Mills, Steve Thompson of Booksteve's Library was awesome enough to send this promo clipping featuring Hayley Mills, her mom and dad and co-actor Ian McShane. Thanks, Steve!

This promo item from an unknown magazine from the mid-1960s references the Hayley Mills feature written by her mother Mary Hayley Bell, variously known as Sky West and Crooked, Gypsy Girl and oddly, Bats With Baby Faces. Given the cut and paste look of the upcoming movie and erroneous title this clipping was probably published early during post-production as part of an advance marketing push. At this point in production it appears the actual title for the film had yet to be decided upon. Bats With Baby Faces would be a great title for a horror film and I'm glad it wasn't chosen for this feature film.

"Sky West and Crooked" is a term for someone who is a little bit off of normal or headed to ruination. It is used in the film as a derogatory reference to Brydie White, a young woman played by Hayley who is fascinated by dead animals and burial who retains the stunted emotional maturity of a much younger teen. The term could also easily apply to all the various people in the English village who are not so understanding of Brydie's behavior and situation. In later releases the film was retitled Gypsy Girl,  which more aptly describes the romantic subplot between Brydie and a more mature and shady itinerant gypsy.

Blogiversary

Started this blog on this day in 2005. Bed now.

Discrimination in the workplace

"The Sky Fairy is angered! Hide!"

In between lulls at work the clerks and cashiers, instead of doing prep work or cleaning, often stand around and chat. Eventually, one conversation veered into one of the taboos of workplace interaction: Talking about religion or politics.

Last year a clerk and cashier, who here I will call Cindy and Julie, began trading stories of their brushes with the unseen world. I was kind of half-paying attention while I audited the money of a cash drawer ensuring money coming in and going out balanced.

"I saw a ghost, once, too! It was so weird and scary. Yet somehow, I felt that I was being reassured." Cindy said.

Julie's voice became excited. "I know! See, I always forget to clock out for lunch until about a quarter after. Guess when my Grandma died? 15 minutes past two! It's like she is here telling me something."

Listening to their exchange caused me to roll my eyes so much I had to recount the cash. Without realizing it I was laughing. It took a few moments but Cindy and Julie realized I was amused by their conversation. They stopped their chat and directed their attentions towards me.

"What's so funny?" Cindy was sounding defensive. Julie stared angrily.

"You didn't see any ghosts. There are no such things." I said, going straight into JREF-mode, still chuckling. Usually when I am exposed to an adult talking about the supernatural as if it were real I'm just kind of sad and disappointed. But today for some reason I found the idea hilarious. I tried to come off as rational and not condescending. I wasn't very successful at the attempt. When the two repeated that they did see and experience a supernatural event I replied. "No, you didn't."

"Are you calling us liars?" Julie demanded. They were both becoming upset. I always have some prepared  statements in the mental file. The argument I put forth was perhaps lacking in tact itself. My mistake was in assuming the pair were open for a debate.

"You are either making it up, making connections where none exist or you are deluded." I said. "Magic and the supernatural absolutely does not exist. If it did the evidence would be overwhelming. It would be everywhere. No one could dispute it. Without exception it's all someone's personal opinion. If it was factual, if it was real it could be recorded and measured in a form other than anecdotal."

Julie leaned forwards toward me as if to emphasize he words even though we were several work stations apart. "Oh." She said. Her voice was ripe with scorn. "What are you...an Atheist?"

That's exactly how she said it. I could actually hear the italics. Total emphasis on the disgust. Yet what I took from it is she just wanted an uncomfortable conversation to end. It did, not because of the attempted put down or because she had an epiphany but because customers started walking up with their groceries to check out. For the rest of the day they both acted chilly and would not talk to me unless they had to.

Cindy let it go by the end of the shift, displaying a cool shoulder towards me probably in a show of solidarity with Julie. Cindy is young and has presumably has access to the internet so there is hope for her. I was over it immediately. But from then on Julie remained stand-offish and treated me like I had the plague. In her job as a manager, the same as I but with her possessing slightly less seniority, she would not address me unless she had no choice. Julie would call an adjacent work station and have them relay requests or instructions. She would not directly interact in person and would move people around to make sure she was a far from me in the row of check stands as possible. Sometimes she would swap 4 or 5 people and their duties around so she would not have to herself personally relieve me for breaks or for shift changes. If she was the designated person in charge of the shift that day I was passed over for opportunities or tasks that traditionally would be mine or excluded from the process of decision-making.

For my part I certainly didn't hold it against Julie that she was a believer in the Unreal. She was competent at her job and that's where my concerns ended. Julie was one of the few I worked with who did not adhere to the Culture of Half-Assedness that exists in so many work places. But Julie made it clear she had washed her hands of me. Julie employed a somewhat subtle form of marginalization and discrimination but it was there. It was particularly noticeable when comparing our work relationship as it existed prior to my taking on the role of Ghostbuster.

Julie used to ask my advice on how to perform certain tasks and duties. I was glad to help. She was one of those managers who because of tighter economic times was given minimal training and dropped into the job. It wasn't her personal failing if she hadn't been exposed to or given the opportunities others in her position had. Whenever she expressed frustration and not knowing as much about the job as other managers I let her know there is nothing wrong with that, just keep asking questions until you know everything. Something she accepted and I would presume appreciated at least as far as the job went.

In hardly any time at all I went from being a co-worker to The Enemy. If Julie had been in a higher position of authority or had more influence with the upper echelons of management it could have presented me with a problem that could have easily affected my employment. Not from our original conversation about ghosts but due to her trying to force me out of a job solely because I was, in her view, not fit to be around her sort of good people. This discriminatory practice against the non-devout and those with religions not in the mainstream is not rare and in some cases can be quite overt and extreme. Employment can and has been negatively affected. When Julie was transferred to a new work site it was a relief only because her behavior was getting hilariously absurd.  

To this day I don't know what her personal religious beliefs are. I could hazard a guess based upon her actions and the way I was treated by her but I don't want to speculate. I require evidence.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Blue and Pearls

My, Internet, Pet, Peeve

After the demoralizing wasteland that is the comments section the inability of users to enter correctly tags in YouTube (and other sites like flickr) is the most distressing. Tags, for the uninitiated, are a method to help someone find content on a site that may be of interest to them. Some sites require the tags to be separated by quotes, some a space and others by a comma. Some services require a combination of all depending on if the search is for "Rowan Atkinson" or some other phrase longer than one word. Obviously, a user wants to let other people see and share their stuff or they wouldn't post it (the exception being those knobs who watermark things they didn't create or own) so I don't get why they make it so difficult to find. Take a second after posting or in the preview to look at your tags and see if they make any damn sense. I've seen YouTube posts where an essay's length description of the video or entirety of the song's lyrics are entered in the tags section. Three paragraphs of words separated by commas is a hot mess and just tells the world what an idiot the user is.

Nonsensically, some services require different tag formats within the same company. One would think it would make sense to use  the same formats over all their services between the divisions. But then corporate thinking and execution has never been that linear. People rarely think forwards and take steps to solve the obvious, inevitable and foreseeable problems before they occur. These same thought processes caused, most famously, the disparity between systems that caused additional problems for the Apollo 13 astronauts when  the environmental systems between the lander and capsule were incompatible with each other. But where the Culture of Half-Assedness nearly doomed a crew of intrepid space explorers improper and lazy tags on YouTube aren't going to cause anyone to die though unless some guy with OCD gets the big headache and decides to go on a rampage. In that event, all those people posting "my, cute, kittens lol Happy" better watch out.

Monday with Hayley Mills: I WISH

I can dream, can't I?

Monday with Hayley Mills: That Green Dress

Anna of Anna Allen: Clothing has recreated the green dress Hayley Mills wore in The Moon-Spinners, the 1964 Disney film based on the book by Mary Stewart.

Go to Wildflowers Are Pretty to see the talented Ms. McClurg and a bit about her process.

Riverdaletheus

Archie vs. Aliens? I'd pay for that twice.

Won't someone think of the stupid, lazy parents?

Do your homework, parents and guardians!

The Deathstroke #10 Addendum Mini-Comic

So without further ado, here you are, free of charge! As always, click the images to make them as big as Captain America's chest (Okay, maybe not that big)!

They like it but don't want to be like it

I couldn't figure out why the Michigan legislature was so keen on silencing Rep. Lisa Brown the other day but as usual a Venn Diagram explains it all.

Many of the members of the Michigan GOP may like vagina in concept but are terrified they may someday be put in the position to be treated like the traditionally second class semi-citizens that have one of their own.

Superman vs. The Elite: PP as LL

I really enjoyed the new animated feature from DC, Superman vs. The Elite. I agree with Chris Sims of the Comics Alliance site that it is better than the [comic book] source material. This movie was a lot of fun and I liked the art style more than many reported to from early viewings. The Fortress of Solitude, Superman Robots and the pre-Ad Nauseum Crisis relationship between Clark Kent/Superman and Reporter Lois Lane made me miss the old DC Universe so darn much.

Actress Pauley Perrette as a new voice for Lois Lane was the thing that stood out most for me. Voice actors can really make or break a show. I still wince when I hear the boyish pitch of Tony Stark in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Perrette has a great-sounding voice and delivery cadence that suited the character without sounding too similar to the manic, hyper-caffeinated Abby of NCIS. The Lois personality really comes through with Perrette ably voicing the character. In fact, Perrette was considered so effective as Lois that that as a mark of respect the animators created their own "cross-over event" by copying Perrette's real spider web neck tattoo onto Lois, thereby making it a part of the DC Universe continuity. That's just great.

Hero's Journey for the new Green Lantern?

I'm going to weigh in on the argle-bargle surrounding the image of a new Green Lantern character DC is introducing.

The fans are screaming that based on the image this character is a street thug, a gangsta and what does a Green Lantern need a gun for anyways? Predictably, the big deal appears to be that he is black, has a tattoo (it's glowing with green power, get a clue, that means something), is wielding a gun and wearing a stylized uniform based on what appears to be a ski mask, possibly a reference to his occupation of a bodega stick up artist.

Forgetting everything else for a moment (even that the new GL may wear a mask in his civilian life as a neighborhood vigilante good-guy) let's understand that one of the under lying themes of being a Green Lantern is redemption. It was for Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and is certainly an on-going process for John Stewart. All of these characters are on the hero's journey paying for their past sins of arrogance.

It appears from the cover solicit the new Green Lantern, if not John Stewart himself undercover for something, may be on a similar path. Assuming the new guy is a predatory street thug it makes sense that he would have the basic requirement to be a space cop, the ability to overcome great fear.  He actually could be the perfect representative at this time for the GL Corps. Guy Gardner is the past was appreciated by both fans and the GL cast as a Corps member who got things done, regardless of the fall out. He has recently been the morals of the Corps and is probably the most honorable Lantern there is, doing what he feels is right even if the Guardians disagree.

Gardner continually defies the Guardians and is currently on a campaign to stop their shenanigans. So the Guardians may search for someone they think may be easier to point at things and zap stuff without questioning their directives. The new Lantern member, chosen for toughness, poor-impulse control and lack of morality for whatever purpose the Guardians need him for, this character could learn to be the hero the Corp needs to set them back on the path of Order (if not Good). The stylized mask and the gun would be the transitional props from his old life, surely to be discarded as he grows beyond his origins.

So relax. See what happens. Don't jump to conclusions.