Apple has long exerted total control over the IPhone. Now it is expanding this trend to its Mac line of computers.
First the is the app store for the Mac. Potentially, a few releases in the future, you will get all of your programs and much of your web content from apps with Apple getting a cut and selecting what is allowed through arbitrary standard.
The new Macbook Air shows several interesting developments. It does not have an optical drive. This is in keeping with Steve Jobs's belief that the only proper way of getting content into your computer is through his store. An optical drive lets you rip tunes from the CD you already bought or play the movie you just got in the mail from Netflix. Apple doesn't get a cut of either of those. Granted, you can use the USB port to add a separate optical drive but Apple has made it clear that they will never support Blu-ray.
Just to cover all bases, you can't change the hardware, either. They use proprietary screws to keep you out and proprietary memory to keep you from doing your own upgrades.
None of this is surprising. When the Mac was introduced in 1984, it violated your warranty to connect it to a peripheral made by anyone else. Apple did not offer a hard drive so for the first year, customers had to choose between violating the warranty or living with a single floppy drive.
It looks like those days are returning.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Phone Wars 2010
The Microsoft Windows Phone 7 was released this week with the first units actually being delivered early next month. Only a few phone companies will offer the WP7. Verizon and AT&T are not among the first adopters. There is also a report that Verizon will begin offering IPhones in 2011.
So what does this mean to me? Nothing. Ask me again in a couple of years when my current plan expires.
I suspect that the majority of the smart phone users are like me. I recently upgraded to a Droid Incredible. The WP7 would seem like a downgrade since there are so few apps for it. The IPhone might have been a bigger deal if Apple was offering it through Verizon last Summer but Steve Jobs is so heavy-handed about managing his phones that this was enough to make me prefer a Droid, regardless.
Apple has a good thing with its AT&T contract. They actually get a cut out of everyone's monthly phone bill. In exchange for this, only AT&T could sell IPhones. That gave the rest of the market an incentive to come up with an alternative and some breathing room for it to mature. The IPhone is supposed to have a slicker interface but a lot of the features of the most recent IOS were there to catch up to Android. Then there are the problems with the antenna and the glass back. When Verizon finally does start carrying IPhones they will be just one in an assortment of smart phones.
Microsoft may have missed the boat completely. By all accounts, their new phone is solid and has a unique interface. It is still missing several features like multi-tasking and cut and paste. I just used both of these to copy a phone number from an email to a contact.
There has been a lot of talk about how fractured the Android market is. There is no standard phone so developers must write for a variety of screen sizes and allow for touchscreen and hardware keyboard. By contrast, there is only one IPhone model per year and Microsoft has very strict requirements. This actually gives Android an advantage. Not everyone wants the same phone. The huge screen of the Droid X may appeal to some but I wanted a smaller phone. Android also allows the carriers to add branded content. Some of this is junk but it offsets the price of the phone.
The phone market has a very real chance of replaying the early 1980s PC market. Then, as now, Apple made their own computers with little variation. You could be certain that anything would run on any of their computers. Regardless, the PC was more open and quickly left Apple behind. Ironically, this time around Microsoft looks more like Apple.
So what does this mean to me? Nothing. Ask me again in a couple of years when my current plan expires.
I suspect that the majority of the smart phone users are like me. I recently upgraded to a Droid Incredible. The WP7 would seem like a downgrade since there are so few apps for it. The IPhone might have been a bigger deal if Apple was offering it through Verizon last Summer but Steve Jobs is so heavy-handed about managing his phones that this was enough to make me prefer a Droid, regardless.
Apple has a good thing with its AT&T contract. They actually get a cut out of everyone's monthly phone bill. In exchange for this, only AT&T could sell IPhones. That gave the rest of the market an incentive to come up with an alternative and some breathing room for it to mature. The IPhone is supposed to have a slicker interface but a lot of the features of the most recent IOS were there to catch up to Android. Then there are the problems with the antenna and the glass back. When Verizon finally does start carrying IPhones they will be just one in an assortment of smart phones.
Microsoft may have missed the boat completely. By all accounts, their new phone is solid and has a unique interface. It is still missing several features like multi-tasking and cut and paste. I just used both of these to copy a phone number from an email to a contact.
There has been a lot of talk about how fractured the Android market is. There is no standard phone so developers must write for a variety of screen sizes and allow for touchscreen and hardware keyboard. By contrast, there is only one IPhone model per year and Microsoft has very strict requirements. This actually gives Android an advantage. Not everyone wants the same phone. The huge screen of the Droid X may appeal to some but I wanted a smaller phone. Android also allows the carriers to add branded content. Some of this is junk but it offsets the price of the phone.
The phone market has a very real chance of replaying the early 1980s PC market. Then, as now, Apple made their own computers with little variation. You could be certain that anything would run on any of their computers. Regardless, the PC was more open and quickly left Apple behind. Ironically, this time around Microsoft looks more like Apple.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Monday, October 04, 2010
When Vampires Were Scary
Last Friday, TCM showed four Dracula films by Hammer Films. Three starred Christopher Lee s Dracula. Two had Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. This was from back when vampires were scary. They didn't sparkle and if they made you into a vampire you became a souless monster instead of a brooding teenager.
The first of the movies, the Horror of Dracula is loosely based on the novel. There were significant differences. Johnathan Harker was an undercover vampire hunter and became one himself. Dracula attacked Harker's fiance, Lucy, as revenge after Harker destroyed his companion. They never said where Lucy lived but it was not England since Dracula was able to return to Transylvania by hearse.
When they made the movie, Hammer made several artistic decisions. Their vampires were more realistic - they could not change form. The movies were shot in color which was still unusual for horror movies so they made the best of it. There was lots of bright red blood. There was also a generous amount of cleavage. They were sensitive to how easily a horror movie can turn into camp so they were careful to understate the wooden stakes. These were short and business-like with lots of blood spatters.
At the time, Peter Cushing was Hammer's star. Christopher Lee was cast in lesser roles, often as the monster. Hammer's Frankenstein also starred Cushing with Lee as the monster.
The movie was a big hit. Hammer made two sequels that did not have Dracula. One of them was terrible and barely had vampires. The other one, the Brides of Dracula, featured Van Helsing and a blond Baron Meinster as the vampire. Meinster wasn't nearly as scary as Lee's Dracula but the movie does have some memorable scenes. In one, a vampire's victim is lying in state in a locked coffin. One of the padlocks falls off. The caretaker is trying to figure this out when the other locks fall off.
After that, Hammer revived Dracula but left Van Helsing out for several movies. In Dracula Prince of Darkness, a quartet of tourists gets lost and are offered shelter in Dracula's castle. That night one of them is killed, hung upside down over Dracula's ashes, and his throat slashed. Dracula revived and feasted on the tourist's wife then pursued the other couple. He ended up drowning in a frozen lake.
While Dracula was in this movie, he did not have any lines beyond snarls. Either the director thought that he was more menacing without lines or Lee refused to say the dumb lines written for him, depending on which version you believe.
In the following movie, Lee did have some lines although they were kept to a minimum. The movie was "Dracula has Risen From the Grave or You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" - a typical title from the late 1960s. While exorcising Dracula's castle, a priest falls down the mountain and his blood revived Dracula. Angered because of the exorcism, Dracula attacks the Monsignor's daughter. He is eventually impaled on a giant cross.
According to IMDB, this last movie was Hammer's most profitable. Feeling that there was an inexhaustible demand for vampire movies, they pushed them out as fast as they could film them. By the early 1970s they had flooded the market and Hammer went bankrupt.
The first of the movies, the Horror of Dracula is loosely based on the novel. There were significant differences. Johnathan Harker was an undercover vampire hunter and became one himself. Dracula attacked Harker's fiance, Lucy, as revenge after Harker destroyed his companion. They never said where Lucy lived but it was not England since Dracula was able to return to Transylvania by hearse.
When they made the movie, Hammer made several artistic decisions. Their vampires were more realistic - they could not change form. The movies were shot in color which was still unusual for horror movies so they made the best of it. There was lots of bright red blood. There was also a generous amount of cleavage. They were sensitive to how easily a horror movie can turn into camp so they were careful to understate the wooden stakes. These were short and business-like with lots of blood spatters.
At the time, Peter Cushing was Hammer's star. Christopher Lee was cast in lesser roles, often as the monster. Hammer's Frankenstein also starred Cushing with Lee as the monster.
The movie was a big hit. Hammer made two sequels that did not have Dracula. One of them was terrible and barely had vampires. The other one, the Brides of Dracula, featured Van Helsing and a blond Baron Meinster as the vampire. Meinster wasn't nearly as scary as Lee's Dracula but the movie does have some memorable scenes. In one, a vampire's victim is lying in state in a locked coffin. One of the padlocks falls off. The caretaker is trying to figure this out when the other locks fall off.
After that, Hammer revived Dracula but left Van Helsing out for several movies. In Dracula Prince of Darkness, a quartet of tourists gets lost and are offered shelter in Dracula's castle. That night one of them is killed, hung upside down over Dracula's ashes, and his throat slashed. Dracula revived and feasted on the tourist's wife then pursued the other couple. He ended up drowning in a frozen lake.
While Dracula was in this movie, he did not have any lines beyond snarls. Either the director thought that he was more menacing without lines or Lee refused to say the dumb lines written for him, depending on which version you believe.
In the following movie, Lee did have some lines although they were kept to a minimum. The movie was "Dracula has Risen From the Grave or You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" - a typical title from the late 1960s. While exorcising Dracula's castle, a priest falls down the mountain and his blood revived Dracula. Angered because of the exorcism, Dracula attacks the Monsignor's daughter. He is eventually impaled on a giant cross.
According to IMDB, this last movie was Hammer's most profitable. Feeling that there was an inexhaustible demand for vampire movies, they pushed them out as fast as they could film them. By the early 1970s they had flooded the market and Hammer went bankrupt.
Friday, October 01, 2010
The Flintstones
The Flintstones turned 50 yesterday. It lasted six seasons with several follow-up spin-offs and sequels. It held the record for longest-running prime time animated show until the Simpsons blew them away (season 21 just premiered last week).
Basically the Flintstones were an animated version of the Honeymooners. There were a few differences besides the obvious. The Flintstones were more affluent. They lived in the suburbs and Fred had a fairly good job in the construction industry. During the 3rd season the Flintstones had a baby, Pebbles. Half-way into the next season their best friends adopted a boy, Bamm Bamm, the strongest baby in the world. In contrast, the Honeymooners lived in a run-down apartment building and were childless.
The show had a number of running gags around how prehistoric life was the same as modern life. The Flintstones had stone-age equivalents of all of the modern comforts. Dinosaurs provided power. Birds and small mammals acted as vacuum cleaners and garbige disposals. An instant camera had a wood-pecker who would carve a picture into a small piece of stone.
The show was an example of Hanna-Barbera's limited animation. The characters were designed so that entire episodes could be filmed with no or limited new drawings. Each character had a torso that never moved and covered the hips and shoulders. This only left the lower arms and legs and head to move. The heads were oversized so that the mouth could be animated on a stationary head.
Even though the animation was primitive, it did give the writers a lot more freedom. The Wikipedia entry dismisses the plots as standard 1960s sitcom plots but that understates the show. New locations were cheap - they only required a new background painting - so the show was freed from the fixed set. Because of budget constraints, most sitcoms took place in a few regular sets. Shows seldom ventured out into the sunlight.
By the show's sixth season it had jumped the shark. It introduced the Great Gazoo, an advanced alien with nearly magical abilities who could grant any wish. Gazoo was unreliable and the wishes always came out wrong. This is usually considered an example of a show that has lost its novelty.
The show moved from prime time to syndication and Saturday morning. Pebbles and Bamm Bamm became teenagers and received their own hour-long Saturday morning show.
The show inspired a pair of big-budget, live-action movies produced by Steven Spielberg. The movies were box office hits but won some Razzies.
Basically the Flintstones were an animated version of the Honeymooners. There were a few differences besides the obvious. The Flintstones were more affluent. They lived in the suburbs and Fred had a fairly good job in the construction industry. During the 3rd season the Flintstones had a baby, Pebbles. Half-way into the next season their best friends adopted a boy, Bamm Bamm, the strongest baby in the world. In contrast, the Honeymooners lived in a run-down apartment building and were childless.
The show had a number of running gags around how prehistoric life was the same as modern life. The Flintstones had stone-age equivalents of all of the modern comforts. Dinosaurs provided power. Birds and small mammals acted as vacuum cleaners and garbige disposals. An instant camera had a wood-pecker who would carve a picture into a small piece of stone.
The show was an example of Hanna-Barbera's limited animation. The characters were designed so that entire episodes could be filmed with no or limited new drawings. Each character had a torso that never moved and covered the hips and shoulders. This only left the lower arms and legs and head to move. The heads were oversized so that the mouth could be animated on a stationary head.
Even though the animation was primitive, it did give the writers a lot more freedom. The Wikipedia entry dismisses the plots as standard 1960s sitcom plots but that understates the show. New locations were cheap - they only required a new background painting - so the show was freed from the fixed set. Because of budget constraints, most sitcoms took place in a few regular sets. Shows seldom ventured out into the sunlight.
By the show's sixth season it had jumped the shark. It introduced the Great Gazoo, an advanced alien with nearly magical abilities who could grant any wish. Gazoo was unreliable and the wishes always came out wrong. This is usually considered an example of a show that has lost its novelty.
The show moved from prime time to syndication and Saturday morning. Pebbles and Bamm Bamm became teenagers and received their own hour-long Saturday morning show.
The show inspired a pair of big-budget, live-action movies produced by Steven Spielberg. The movies were box office hits but won some Razzies.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Great Race
Tony Curtis's obituaries include the first time he worked with Jack Lemon in Some Like it Hot but overlook their second movie, The Great Race. That is a shame. The Great Race is a marvelous piece of slapstick.
The movie centers on the rivalry between The Great Leslie and Professor Fate. Curtis played Leslie who was always perfect. He wore white outfits which never got dirty. His (white) car was always clean. His teeth sparkled. He was a noted escape artist (a nod Tony Curtis's role as Houdini) and held various speed records.
On the other hand, Professor Fate, played by Jack Lemon, always failed, often crashing into a barn and landing in a pig wallow.
The race itself was from New York to Paris, the long way. A race like this was actually held in 1908. The organizers expected that the cars could drive across the frozen Bering Strait. This didn't work out and the racers had to ship their cars across. In the movie the cars rode an iceberg.
While most of the movie was a straight-out comedy, it did have an adventurous side-plot near the end. This involved a Prisoner of Zenda plot around Professor Fate. The Professor's assistant, Max, and Leslie had to rescue the others climaxing in a duel between Leslie and an evil baron played by Ross Martin. This gave Curtis a chance to show off his fencing skills and his buff physique.
Jack Lemon and Peter Falk as Max got to chew the scenery. Curtis as the straight man managed to keep from being overshadowed.
The Great race also starred Natalie Wood at the peak of her career.
The movie centers on the rivalry between The Great Leslie and Professor Fate. Curtis played Leslie who was always perfect. He wore white outfits which never got dirty. His (white) car was always clean. His teeth sparkled. He was a noted escape artist (a nod Tony Curtis's role as Houdini) and held various speed records.
On the other hand, Professor Fate, played by Jack Lemon, always failed, often crashing into a barn and landing in a pig wallow.
The race itself was from New York to Paris, the long way. A race like this was actually held in 1908. The organizers expected that the cars could drive across the frozen Bering Strait. This didn't work out and the racers had to ship their cars across. In the movie the cars rode an iceberg.
While most of the movie was a straight-out comedy, it did have an adventurous side-plot near the end. This involved a Prisoner of Zenda plot around Professor Fate. The Professor's assistant, Max, and Leslie had to rescue the others climaxing in a duel between Leslie and an evil baron played by Ross Martin. This gave Curtis a chance to show off his fencing skills and his buff physique.
Jack Lemon and Peter Falk as Max got to chew the scenery. Curtis as the straight man managed to keep from being overshadowed.
The Great race also starred Natalie Wood at the peak of her career.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The Onslaught Crossover and Thor
Marvel recently digitized Thor #502. This was the last continuous issue of Thor dating back his first appearance in Journey into Mystery #83 (prior to that Journey into Mystery was a horror comic. It continued to be "Journey into Mystery Featuring the Mighty Thor" for years and kept the numbering when the name was finally changed).
The early 90s were not kind to the original set of Marvel heroes. Tony Stark was replaced by a teen-age version of himself. The Human Torch had married the Thing's girl friend who later turned out to be a skrull impersonating Alicia. The Thing had gone through various mutations and scars.
Thor was replaced with an architect for a while then went crazy. In the last few months leading to issue 502 he lost his powers and started speaking like a regular person. He regained his powers and got a new, rather silly, costume. He and Odin had one of their many arguments and Odin created a "new" Thor from a mortal named Red Norvell. The rest of the Asgardians, including Odin, had been transformed into humans to hide them from the god Seth.
As far as sales were concerned, Spider-Man and the mutant titles were doing great but the other comics sales were doing poorly.
The Solution was a total reboot. This came about through Onslaught - a company-wide event. Onslaught was a psionic being in almost indestructable armor. Once his armor was breached, he could be destroyed if enough humans entered his psionic body. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk did this, apparently dying.
As part of the continuity-wide event, the comics for the various heroes would would "die" had a final issue taking place the night before the final battle. This is where Thor #502 comes in.
Thor and Red Norvell are camped across the river from Manhattan, preparing for the battle ahead. At one point Thor tries to induce a berserk rage and fails. He reminisces about his early life and how be came to be transformed into the mortal doctor Don Blake. His old girl friend, Jane Foster, appears and asks for his help as a doctor. Near the end of the issue the death goddess Hella appears and offers Thor a spot at her side. He considered the offer but opted to fight beside his companions even if it meant certain death.
It was a quiet recap of Thor's run and a nice finale to his original run.
The follow month the comic book Thor again became Journey into Mystery with a rotating series of stars.
In the meantime, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were transported to a different world with a similar history to ours. In this world, Thor was trapped in ice instead of Captain America and the newly-formed Avengers freed him. That Thor turned out to be unstable and was killed and replaced with our Thor.
Eventually the heroes returned to the Marvell Universe.
Journey into Mystery continued until #521 when the heroes returned. It was replaced with a new Thor title and the numbering was started over at #1. With the "Heroes reborn", Marvel put new creative teams on all of the relaunched books. Most of the continuity from the last few years was conveniently forgotten and the new creative teams were given a blank slate to work from.
In Thor's case, he was merged with another mortal, this time an EMT named Jake Olsen, and sent to free the missing Asgardians.
The Thor comic book started using a dual numbering until it was canceled with issue #85/#587. It was brought back as volume three with a new #1 but picked up the original count at issue #600.
The early 90s were not kind to the original set of Marvel heroes. Tony Stark was replaced by a teen-age version of himself. The Human Torch had married the Thing's girl friend who later turned out to be a skrull impersonating Alicia. The Thing had gone through various mutations and scars.
Thor was replaced with an architect for a while then went crazy. In the last few months leading to issue 502 he lost his powers and started speaking like a regular person. He regained his powers and got a new, rather silly, costume. He and Odin had one of their many arguments and Odin created a "new" Thor from a mortal named Red Norvell. The rest of the Asgardians, including Odin, had been transformed into humans to hide them from the god Seth.
As far as sales were concerned, Spider-Man and the mutant titles were doing great but the other comics sales were doing poorly.
The Solution was a total reboot. This came about through Onslaught - a company-wide event. Onslaught was a psionic being in almost indestructable armor. Once his armor was breached, he could be destroyed if enough humans entered his psionic body. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk did this, apparently dying.
As part of the continuity-wide event, the comics for the various heroes would would "die" had a final issue taking place the night before the final battle. This is where Thor #502 comes in.
Thor and Red Norvell are camped across the river from Manhattan, preparing for the battle ahead. At one point Thor tries to induce a berserk rage and fails. He reminisces about his early life and how be came to be transformed into the mortal doctor Don Blake. His old girl friend, Jane Foster, appears and asks for his help as a doctor. Near the end of the issue the death goddess Hella appears and offers Thor a spot at her side. He considered the offer but opted to fight beside his companions even if it meant certain death.
It was a quiet recap of Thor's run and a nice finale to his original run.
The follow month the comic book Thor again became Journey into Mystery with a rotating series of stars.
In the meantime, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were transported to a different world with a similar history to ours. In this world, Thor was trapped in ice instead of Captain America and the newly-formed Avengers freed him. That Thor turned out to be unstable and was killed and replaced with our Thor.
Eventually the heroes returned to the Marvell Universe.
Journey into Mystery continued until #521 when the heroes returned. It was replaced with a new Thor title and the numbering was started over at #1. With the "Heroes reborn", Marvel put new creative teams on all of the relaunched books. Most of the continuity from the last few years was conveniently forgotten and the new creative teams were given a blank slate to work from.
In Thor's case, he was merged with another mortal, this time an EMT named Jake Olsen, and sent to free the missing Asgardians.
The Thor comic book started using a dual numbering until it was canceled with issue #85/#587. It was brought back as volume three with a new #1 but picked up the original count at issue #600.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Black Hole
Rumor is that Disney is going to remake 1979's The Black Hole.
Why?
The original was rushed into production after Star Wars became a cultural (and box office) phenomenon and came out months before The Empire Strikes Back. The Black Hole promised great special effects, cute robots, and a Star Wars style plot.
What it delivered was ok special effects (the effects got an Oscar nomination), most done through puppets on wires, annoying Disney-style robots, and a confusing plot with a mystifying ending. The black hole itself changed from an astronomical and physical oddity into a metaphor for hell.
The movie featured an all-star cast, all of whom were slumming. The critics hated it. At the time it was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced with a $20 million budget. It did manage to turn a profit but Disney swore off big-budget productions like this for a time.
This was also Disney's first PG-rated movie.
Word is that the remake might feature a little science.
Why?
The original was rushed into production after Star Wars became a cultural (and box office) phenomenon and came out months before The Empire Strikes Back. The Black Hole promised great special effects, cute robots, and a Star Wars style plot.
What it delivered was ok special effects (the effects got an Oscar nomination), most done through puppets on wires, annoying Disney-style robots, and a confusing plot with a mystifying ending. The black hole itself changed from an astronomical and physical oddity into a metaphor for hell.
The movie featured an all-star cast, all of whom were slumming. The critics hated it. At the time it was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced with a $20 million budget. It did manage to turn a profit but Disney swore off big-budget productions like this for a time.
This was also Disney's first PG-rated movie.
Word is that the remake might feature a little science.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Cross-comic Events
For decades the events in one comic book pretty much stayed in that comic. No matter how momentous, only one hero or team would be involved. Marvel changed this a bit. When city blocks in New York started sinking, the FF had to convince the Avengers to let them handle the situation. Regardless, this was confined to a few panels in a single comic book.
Heroes did meet each other but not often. Marvel had a lot more cameos and team-ups than DC but, again, these were limited. One of the most memorable was an Iron Man/Sub Mariner fight that was continued across both characters' strips.
During the 1970s, there was a little cross-over between comics. Newly-hired writer, Gerry Conway, introduced a common villain to all three comics he was writing - a mysterious and forgettable figure called Mr. Klein. Artist Jim Starlin came with a stable of characters that followed him from his first assignments on Iron Man to Captain Marvel and eventually Warlock.
Steve Englehart was a huge fan of Starlin's and wanted to be part of Starlin's plot. Accordingly, in Captain Marvel, the mad titan Thanos sent a fleet to attack the Earth. It was stopped by the Avengers, in their own comic book. The Avengers battled the Defenders in a multi-issue cross-over.
For Halloween one year, Conway, Englehart, and Len Wein did a crossover between Thor, Batman, and the Beast (this was the first Marvel/DC cross-over and was unauthorized). The cross-over was limited to the supporting cast and some events (i.e. a car being stolen).
In the early 1980s, Jim Shooter changed everything with the Secret Wars. This was a 12 issue limited series staring nearly everyone in the Marvel Universe. It was also the first company-wide cross-over. All of the affected heroes were called to Central Park where they vanished. When they returned things had changed. Some changes took place during the Secret Wars. Others took place in the heroes' absence. A few happened right after the heroes' return. Spider-Man returned with a new costume. Tony Stark, who had been drunk and living in a cardboard box finally sobered up. Storm lost her powers.
A follow-up changed the formula. Secret Wars 2 was a nine-issue limited series but each month additional chapters took place in different comic books.
That set the stage for DC's original Crisis event. Crisis took place in a limited series but spill-over events happened in nearly every comic.
For the next couple of decades, Marvel would have cross-comic events but they only had a lasting affect on a small core of comics featuring Warlock and Thanos. Marvel also had some cross-mutant events that mainly affected the various "X" teams. DC did some fine-tuning on their original Crisis reboot.
Things changed again in the last few years. Marvel launched their Civil War story arc which covered a total of something like 80 comics. It seems like they have had one major event after another since then. DC has done the same thing. In both cases the goal seems to be packaging a major story arc so that it can be sold as graphic novels.
I think that these big events have been overdone. They lose their impact after a while and they become self-limiting. It becomes too difficult for the casual reader to follow a few comics.
Heroes did meet each other but not often. Marvel had a lot more cameos and team-ups than DC but, again, these were limited. One of the most memorable was an Iron Man/Sub Mariner fight that was continued across both characters' strips.
During the 1970s, there was a little cross-over between comics. Newly-hired writer, Gerry Conway, introduced a common villain to all three comics he was writing - a mysterious and forgettable figure called Mr. Klein. Artist Jim Starlin came with a stable of characters that followed him from his first assignments on Iron Man to Captain Marvel and eventually Warlock.
Steve Englehart was a huge fan of Starlin's and wanted to be part of Starlin's plot. Accordingly, in Captain Marvel, the mad titan Thanos sent a fleet to attack the Earth. It was stopped by the Avengers, in their own comic book. The Avengers battled the Defenders in a multi-issue cross-over.
For Halloween one year, Conway, Englehart, and Len Wein did a crossover between Thor, Batman, and the Beast (this was the first Marvel/DC cross-over and was unauthorized). The cross-over was limited to the supporting cast and some events (i.e. a car being stolen).
In the early 1980s, Jim Shooter changed everything with the Secret Wars. This was a 12 issue limited series staring nearly everyone in the Marvel Universe. It was also the first company-wide cross-over. All of the affected heroes were called to Central Park where they vanished. When they returned things had changed. Some changes took place during the Secret Wars. Others took place in the heroes' absence. A few happened right after the heroes' return. Spider-Man returned with a new costume. Tony Stark, who had been drunk and living in a cardboard box finally sobered up. Storm lost her powers.
A follow-up changed the formula. Secret Wars 2 was a nine-issue limited series but each month additional chapters took place in different comic books.
That set the stage for DC's original Crisis event. Crisis took place in a limited series but spill-over events happened in nearly every comic.
For the next couple of decades, Marvel would have cross-comic events but they only had a lasting affect on a small core of comics featuring Warlock and Thanos. Marvel also had some cross-mutant events that mainly affected the various "X" teams. DC did some fine-tuning on their original Crisis reboot.
Things changed again in the last few years. Marvel launched their Civil War story arc which covered a total of something like 80 comics. It seems like they have had one major event after another since then. DC has done the same thing. In both cases the goal seems to be packaging a major story arc so that it can be sold as graphic novels.
I think that these big events have been overdone. They lose their impact after a while and they become self-limiting. It becomes too difficult for the casual reader to follow a few comics.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Predicting the Future
It's a tricky business showing the future. Novels and movies usually get it wrong.
The Back to the Future trilogy was on last weekend and the middle movie begins with a trip to 2015. The movie was made in 1989 so they were predicting how things would be around 25 years in the future. We are not quite to 2015 yet but we can make a pretty good guess at how accurate Back to the Future was. Lousy.
Things they got wrong:
Hovercars, hoverboards, portable fusion reactors, self-fitting/self-drying jackets, dust-free book covers, holographic movie ads, weather control, electronic sleep inducers, and artificial intelligence waiters. The legal system streamlined by the elimination of lawyers.
Things they got right:
Self-tightening shoe laces (just announced last month and inspired by the movie). Teleconferencing. Wide-screen/flat screen TV.
In addition, there are a few things that are close enough to get partial credit. It looks like USA Today will still be around. The teens in the movie walk around with their pockets pulled out or their pants worn inside-out. That's close enough to the continuing trend of guys wearing their pants pulled down to the crotch and showing their underwear.
This is one in a long line of failed predictions. 1984 was not like 1984. 2001 and 2010 have passed without manned flights to Jupiter or talking computers.
It is tough predicting the future. Often writers take current trends and project them. In the 1960s, everyone expected the space program to continue so lunar colonies and trips to other planets seemed likely.
It is also tempting to throw in major technological advances like flying cars. The physics breakthroughs needed to do this may never happen but nothing says future like some form of personal flight.
Some things are totally skipped. Hardly anyone predicted today's interconnected computers. The best example that I can think of was Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. This was written in 1975 and had a "data-net" that corresponds to the Internet. It even had computer worms (this is where the term came from, nerly a decade before the first actual worm was written). Even that version of the future was passed years ago. I am not aware of anyone who predicted that all of the world's knowledge would be available through my phone.
While writers missed the interconnected computers, artificial intelligence seemed so easy, usually with negative results. For every Robby the Robot, there is a HAL 9000.
In the end, the future is never as interesting as predictions make it out to be but it is safer and more comfortable.
The Back to the Future trilogy was on last weekend and the middle movie begins with a trip to 2015. The movie was made in 1989 so they were predicting how things would be around 25 years in the future. We are not quite to 2015 yet but we can make a pretty good guess at how accurate Back to the Future was. Lousy.
Things they got wrong:
Hovercars, hoverboards, portable fusion reactors, self-fitting/self-drying jackets, dust-free book covers, holographic movie ads, weather control, electronic sleep inducers, and artificial intelligence waiters. The legal system streamlined by the elimination of lawyers.
Things they got right:
Self-tightening shoe laces (just announced last month and inspired by the movie). Teleconferencing. Wide-screen/flat screen TV.
In addition, there are a few things that are close enough to get partial credit. It looks like USA Today will still be around. The teens in the movie walk around with their pockets pulled out or their pants worn inside-out. That's close enough to the continuing trend of guys wearing their pants pulled down to the crotch and showing their underwear.
This is one in a long line of failed predictions. 1984 was not like 1984. 2001 and 2010 have passed without manned flights to Jupiter or talking computers.
It is tough predicting the future. Often writers take current trends and project them. In the 1960s, everyone expected the space program to continue so lunar colonies and trips to other planets seemed likely.
It is also tempting to throw in major technological advances like flying cars. The physics breakthroughs needed to do this may never happen but nothing says future like some form of personal flight.
Some things are totally skipped. Hardly anyone predicted today's interconnected computers. The best example that I can think of was Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. This was written in 1975 and had a "data-net" that corresponds to the Internet. It even had computer worms (this is where the term came from, nerly a decade before the first actual worm was written). Even that version of the future was passed years ago. I am not aware of anyone who predicted that all of the world's knowledge would be available through my phone.
While writers missed the interconnected computers, artificial intelligence seemed so easy, usually with negative results. For every Robby the Robot, there is a HAL 9000.
In the end, the future is never as interesting as predictions make it out to be but it is safer and more comfortable.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Blogging from a Droid
Ok, it can be done. The touch screen isn't too bad. It will probably get ea sier with practice. The autocomplete could be a lot better. I'm not going to do any long posts this way.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8
Friday, September 03, 2010
Substitutes and Inferiors
One of the funniest superhero comic books ever published featured a team-up between Superman and the Legion of Substitute Heroes. A close second is on sale now, featuring the Legion of Substitute Heroes and the Inferior Five.
Some background. The Substitutes were people with superhuman powers who failed the try-outs for the Legion of Superheroes. Considering that the Legion accepted members who could bounce or eat anything or make things lighter, you had to be pretty lame to be in the Substitutes. Members included Night Girl who had super strength unless she was in sunlight and Stone Boy who could turn into immobile stone (a sub-plot in the Legion/Ambush Bug story involved figuring out how to dig Stone Boy out after he got embedded head first in pavement).
Both groups lived in the 30th century and started out as a backup feature to Superboy. The Legion eventually got its own book and the Substitutes made occasional appearances along with the Legion of Super-Pets.
The comic in question also featured Ambush Bug in his second appearance. At the time Ambush Bug was a slightly crazed guy in a head-to-toe green suit with gold trim and antennas. He could teleport almost instantly. In his first appearance, Superman realized that Ambush Bug had a swarm of bug-like drones that acted as receptors for his teleports. Eliminate the bugs and Ambush Bug was powerless.
In the Legion team-up, Ambush Bug hitched a ride on Superman's cape just as he started traveling to the future. They ended up in the 30th century. Ambush bug released a new swarm of bugs from his antenna tips and started having (destructive) fun. The Legion proper was away so the Substitutes tried to reign him in. None of them were up to the challenge and they finally had to resort to a Looney Tunes bit - putting a "do not touch" sign on a Phantom Zone projector. Ambush Bug just had to touch and ended up capturing himself.
The new comic builds on the Substitutes long-standing inferiority complex. After reading about the Legion saving the world with the help of the Doom Patrol and a time bubble, they decided to steal a bubble and save the world before the Legion did. After a few mistakes and alternate worlds, they ended up with the Inferior Five instead of the Doom Patrol.
The Inferior Five was created during the Silver Age as a parody comic. The team was a group of second-generation heroes who (sort of) inherited their powers. Their leader was Merry Man, a 98 pound weakling. Other members included Awkward Man who had super strength but tripped a lot, the Blimp who could float, White Arrow who was a skilled archer and afraid of nearly everything. The final member was a curvy blond with super strength named Dumb Bunny. There is a telling line in the Legion/Five team-up where she says, "You have to be pretty smart to act as dumb as I do."
I'm giving all of this background because the comic skips over it. The book is entirely plot-driven. The heroes are rather interchangeable and have little time to use their powers. Which doesn't keep it from being hilarious.
Some background. The Substitutes were people with superhuman powers who failed the try-outs for the Legion of Superheroes. Considering that the Legion accepted members who could bounce or eat anything or make things lighter, you had to be pretty lame to be in the Substitutes. Members included Night Girl who had super strength unless she was in sunlight and Stone Boy who could turn into immobile stone (a sub-plot in the Legion/Ambush Bug story involved figuring out how to dig Stone Boy out after he got embedded head first in pavement).
Both groups lived in the 30th century and started out as a backup feature to Superboy. The Legion eventually got its own book and the Substitutes made occasional appearances along with the Legion of Super-Pets.
The comic in question also featured Ambush Bug in his second appearance. At the time Ambush Bug was a slightly crazed guy in a head-to-toe green suit with gold trim and antennas. He could teleport almost instantly. In his first appearance, Superman realized that Ambush Bug had a swarm of bug-like drones that acted as receptors for his teleports. Eliminate the bugs and Ambush Bug was powerless.
In the Legion team-up, Ambush Bug hitched a ride on Superman's cape just as he started traveling to the future. They ended up in the 30th century. Ambush bug released a new swarm of bugs from his antenna tips and started having (destructive) fun. The Legion proper was away so the Substitutes tried to reign him in. None of them were up to the challenge and they finally had to resort to a Looney Tunes bit - putting a "do not touch" sign on a Phantom Zone projector. Ambush Bug just had to touch and ended up capturing himself.
The new comic builds on the Substitutes long-standing inferiority complex. After reading about the Legion saving the world with the help of the Doom Patrol and a time bubble, they decided to steal a bubble and save the world before the Legion did. After a few mistakes and alternate worlds, they ended up with the Inferior Five instead of the Doom Patrol.
The Inferior Five was created during the Silver Age as a parody comic. The team was a group of second-generation heroes who (sort of) inherited their powers. Their leader was Merry Man, a 98 pound weakling. Other members included Awkward Man who had super strength but tripped a lot, the Blimp who could float, White Arrow who was a skilled archer and afraid of nearly everything. The final member was a curvy blond with super strength named Dumb Bunny. There is a telling line in the Legion/Five team-up where she says, "You have to be pretty smart to act as dumb as I do."
I'm giving all of this background because the comic skips over it. The book is entirely plot-driven. The heroes are rather interchangeable and have little time to use their powers. Which doesn't keep it from being hilarious.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Using the Droid Incredible
I've had my Droid Incredible for a few days - long enough to put it through its paces so I can put down my general impressions.
First, size. The screen is nice. It is almost exactly the same size as my Zune HD although the whole package is larger (after all, the incredible does everything the Zune does plus it is a phone and camera and it has speakers).
The phone is very responsive. Programs just come up. The only time there are waits is when an application is refreshing its data. The phone is fairly intuitive. I figured nearly everything out by myself although I still recommend reading the manual.
It works well as a phone. Calls are clear.
I've only taken a few pictures but they look good. There is an option to upload photos to a variety of common sites. It did have some trouble uploading the photos to Picasa. It would make it part-way through and fail then repeat a minute later. This runs in the background and I might not have noticed it if I wasn't paying attention to the process. The camera was set to its highest resolution (8MP). I reduced it to 5MP to see if it helps the upload time but I have not tried it yet.
I don't have any hand-on experience with the IPhone but my understanding is that you have to do some functions through your PC. Droid is not like that. You can connect it to a PC and it will function as a USB disk but everything else is stand-alone.
I've tried playing a little music and a few videos on it. They work fine - as good as on my Zune. It comes with a 2 gig MicroSD card and I want to replace this with a larger one before loading it up. I probably will not use it to replace my Zune since the Zune has much better battery life (that may be inaccurate - I keep my Zune turned off when I'm not using it and the phone is on all the time, so the Zune may only appear to have better battery life because it is used less and usually does not have WiFi on).
I got spoiled with my previous phone. I had a long-life battery on it and it could go for days without charging. The Incredible needs daily charging. I used it a fair amount of time yesterday. I checked emails, did a little web-browsing and a lot of poking around the Marketplace. That used up around half the battery.
I've check out the Android Marketplace. Supposedly the IPhone has several times more apps than Android. I suspect that a lot of these are duplicates of each other. There are a lot of duplicate Android apps. Many of them are add-supported but the ads are subtle.
I downloaded a couple of ebook reader apps and some free ebooks. I already had the Borders one for my PC and it downloaded the books to my Droid that I already had on my PC. My only complaint with this one is that it will only display in portrait.
The virtual keyboard isn't too hard to use in landscape mode but I have a lot of trouble with it in portrait. Good thing that most applications support either orientation.
I was able to compare web browsing between my Droid and my Zune. Both reformat according to orientation and both support pnching to resize the display. The Droid does a lot better job with this. On the Zune, zooming does not reformat the text, it just pushes it off to the side so you have to move the display back and forth. The Droid reformats the text which prevents this.
I can check my home email but in text only. It is not formatted for HTML.
Android is a full multi-tasking operating system. You can leave a program, return to it, and it is still open with all of its data. This is a strength but there is no explicit way of closing many programs. There is an app that will list running programs and allow you to close them. My battery would probably have lasted longer if I had installed that earlier. This is about my only complaint with the android implementation.
Android 2.2 (Froyo) has been released for the Incredible but was not installed yet on mine. Even without it, I was able to play some video but I didn't do enough to really test it out. I will update this when Froyo arrives.
First, size. The screen is nice. It is almost exactly the same size as my Zune HD although the whole package is larger (after all, the incredible does everything the Zune does plus it is a phone and camera and it has speakers).
The phone is very responsive. Programs just come up. The only time there are waits is when an application is refreshing its data. The phone is fairly intuitive. I figured nearly everything out by myself although I still recommend reading the manual.
It works well as a phone. Calls are clear.
I've only taken a few pictures but they look good. There is an option to upload photos to a variety of common sites. It did have some trouble uploading the photos to Picasa. It would make it part-way through and fail then repeat a minute later. This runs in the background and I might not have noticed it if I wasn't paying attention to the process. The camera was set to its highest resolution (8MP). I reduced it to 5MP to see if it helps the upload time but I have not tried it yet.
I don't have any hand-on experience with the IPhone but my understanding is that you have to do some functions through your PC. Droid is not like that. You can connect it to a PC and it will function as a USB disk but everything else is stand-alone.
I've tried playing a little music and a few videos on it. They work fine - as good as on my Zune. It comes with a 2 gig MicroSD card and I want to replace this with a larger one before loading it up. I probably will not use it to replace my Zune since the Zune has much better battery life (that may be inaccurate - I keep my Zune turned off when I'm not using it and the phone is on all the time, so the Zune may only appear to have better battery life because it is used less and usually does not have WiFi on).
I got spoiled with my previous phone. I had a long-life battery on it and it could go for days without charging. The Incredible needs daily charging. I used it a fair amount of time yesterday. I checked emails, did a little web-browsing and a lot of poking around the Marketplace. That used up around half the battery.
I've check out the Android Marketplace. Supposedly the IPhone has several times more apps than Android. I suspect that a lot of these are duplicates of each other. There are a lot of duplicate Android apps. Many of them are add-supported but the ads are subtle.
I downloaded a couple of ebook reader apps and some free ebooks. I already had the Borders one for my PC and it downloaded the books to my Droid that I already had on my PC. My only complaint with this one is that it will only display in portrait.
The virtual keyboard isn't too hard to use in landscape mode but I have a lot of trouble with it in portrait. Good thing that most applications support either orientation.
I was able to compare web browsing between my Droid and my Zune. Both reformat according to orientation and both support pnching to resize the display. The Droid does a lot better job with this. On the Zune, zooming does not reformat the text, it just pushes it off to the side so you have to move the display back and forth. The Droid reformats the text which prevents this.
I can check my home email but in text only. It is not formatted for HTML.
Android is a full multi-tasking operating system. You can leave a program, return to it, and it is still open with all of its data. This is a strength but there is no explicit way of closing many programs. There is an app that will list running programs and allow you to close them. My battery would probably have lasted longer if I had installed that earlier. This is about my only complaint with the android implementation.
Android 2.2 (Froyo) has been released for the Incredible but was not installed yet on mine. Even without it, I was able to play some video but I didn't do enough to really test it out. I will update this when Froyo arrives.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Choosing a Droid
I spent a while at a Verizon store comparing Droid models. There are currently three top-of-the-line Droid models - the Droid X and the Droid 2 from Motorola and the Droid Incredible from HTC. All have similar CPU and memory and all have or will have the newest version of Android.
I eliminated the Droid X right off the bat. This model is just too big. I know that some people want the biggest phone they can get but this is too big to carry in a pocket.
The Droid 2 and the Droid Incredible are similar size. The Incredible is slightly smaller and the corners are more rounded. The Droid 2 has a slide-out keyboard which makes it a bit thicker. The Incredible has a better camera, the Droid 2 comes with more memory.
Originally I thought that the keyboard would be the deciding factor but after trying the Incredible's virtual keyboard I decided that I could live with it.
Outside of the keyboard, the biggest difference between the two is the user interface. Both makers have made their own tweaks to Android. This ended up being the deciding factor. The Incredible was a bit more intuitive. Even after I figured out how to do the same thing on the Droid 2, it still seemed a bit more complicated. Also, I preferred the Incredible's smaller size and rounded edges. I use my phone for taking pictures so the higher-definition camera should come in handy.
The store had the Motorola models in stock but the Incredible had to be shipped. This was fairly painless. It arrived the next day.
More after I've had some hands-on.
I eliminated the Droid X right off the bat. This model is just too big. I know that some people want the biggest phone they can get but this is too big to carry in a pocket.
The Droid 2 and the Droid Incredible are similar size. The Incredible is slightly smaller and the corners are more rounded. The Droid 2 has a slide-out keyboard which makes it a bit thicker. The Incredible has a better camera, the Droid 2 comes with more memory.
Originally I thought that the keyboard would be the deciding factor but after trying the Incredible's virtual keyboard I decided that I could live with it.
Outside of the keyboard, the biggest difference between the two is the user interface. Both makers have made their own tweaks to Android. This ended up being the deciding factor. The Incredible was a bit more intuitive. Even after I figured out how to do the same thing on the Droid 2, it still seemed a bit more complicated. Also, I preferred the Incredible's smaller size and rounded edges. I use my phone for taking pictures so the higher-definition camera should come in handy.
The store had the Motorola models in stock but the Incredible had to be shipped. This was fairly painless. It arrived the next day.
More after I've had some hands-on.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Windows 95
I got an invitation to the live-via-satellite launch of Windows 95 which was held 15 years ago today.
Prior to that most people used a variation of Windows 3.1. Gaming was a nightmare. Most games ran from DOS and needed a custom boot disk in order to get the right configuration.
I was using IBM's OS2 which was a big improvement. It could run Windows programs from within OS2. You could also set what configuration DOS programs were to have so you could run most games without having to reboot with a special disk. In many ways, Windows 95 was a step back from OS2. Regardless, it overcame so many problems that OS2 became irrelevant overnight.
Windows 95 had four main advances. One was the new GUI featuring a Start Bar which Microsoft still uses. Another was that it allowed long file names. Prior to Windows 95, you were limited to eight characters plus a three character extension. It had a new memory manager which solved the problems with boot disks for games. Finally, it supported networking, out of the box.
It is hard to believe but prior to Windows 95 most PCs were stand-alone. If you wanted to connect to another local PC then you had to install a network card and special drivers. If you wanted to connect with the Internet then you normally needed a modem (which was usually built-in by then) and different drivers. Windows 95 came with network drivers. It also came with drivers for most CD-ROMS and some other common hardware.
Technically, Windows 95 was two products - Windows and DOS. Microsoft decided to package the two of them together to sink OS2 and DR-DOS - a strategy which worked perfectly.
The launch event didn't go perfectly. At one Bill Gates picked a couple of people from the crowd at Microsoft and sent them off to install Windows 95. This was supposed to show how easy it was. When they checked on the installers a while later they said that everything went perfectly but you could see that one of them had gotten the Blue Screen of Death.
With Windows 95, Microsoft squelched its competitors. I already mentioned DR-DOS and OS2. It also took over the office suit world. Prior to Windows 95, most people used Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3 for their word processor and spreadsheet. The Windows launch was delayed for more than a year. During that time, corporate purchases dropped. Businesses did not want to buy new software that would be obsolete as soon as the next operating system came out. Microsoft had deeper pockets than it competitors and could handle the lag in sales better.
When Windows 95 finally did come out, a new Office 95 suite was released at the same time. There was a long list of programs written for Windows 3.1 that did not run perfectly on Windows 95. Rather than waiting for new versions of the programs, many businesses switched to Microsoft. Consultants recommended that this was the only safe approach.
In 1994 Microsoft was the dominant desktop operating system vendor but was, at best, second place in office suites. By 1998 it was a near-monopoly in operating system and office software, all because of Windows 95.
Late in 1995 it became obvious that Microsoft had missed something important - the World Wide Web. Windows 95 came with a buggy web browser. Most people used Netscape instead. Somehow Bill Gates had become so focused on upcoming technology that he missed the importance of the existing Internet. In his book, The Road Ahead, he only mentioned the Internet a couple of times.
Back then, Microsoft was nimble. By 1998 they released a new version of Windows. This one had a perfectly good web browser pre-installed. In fact, Microsoft swore under oath that it was so deeply embedded in the operating system that it could not be removed. Netscape quickly lost market share after that and eventually ended up providing the basis for the free Firefox browser.
Te last few years have not been kind to Microsoft. It has lost desktop market share to Apple and Linux. Firefox is challenging its browser share. The "cloud" has made the operating system irrelevant. It's smart phone operating system, which was originally based on Windows 98, is dated and the replacement is not due out for weeks or months. It had a couple of operating system flops with Windows ME and Vista.
Still, on this anniversary, we can look back fifteen years to when it seemed like Microsoft was unstoppable.
Prior to that most people used a variation of Windows 3.1. Gaming was a nightmare. Most games ran from DOS and needed a custom boot disk in order to get the right configuration.
I was using IBM's OS2 which was a big improvement. It could run Windows programs from within OS2. You could also set what configuration DOS programs were to have so you could run most games without having to reboot with a special disk. In many ways, Windows 95 was a step back from OS2. Regardless, it overcame so many problems that OS2 became irrelevant overnight.
Windows 95 had four main advances. One was the new GUI featuring a Start Bar which Microsoft still uses. Another was that it allowed long file names. Prior to Windows 95, you were limited to eight characters plus a three character extension. It had a new memory manager which solved the problems with boot disks for games. Finally, it supported networking, out of the box.
It is hard to believe but prior to Windows 95 most PCs were stand-alone. If you wanted to connect to another local PC then you had to install a network card and special drivers. If you wanted to connect with the Internet then you normally needed a modem (which was usually built-in by then) and different drivers. Windows 95 came with network drivers. It also came with drivers for most CD-ROMS and some other common hardware.
Technically, Windows 95 was two products - Windows and DOS. Microsoft decided to package the two of them together to sink OS2 and DR-DOS - a strategy which worked perfectly.
The launch event didn't go perfectly. At one Bill Gates picked a couple of people from the crowd at Microsoft and sent them off to install Windows 95. This was supposed to show how easy it was. When they checked on the installers a while later they said that everything went perfectly but you could see that one of them had gotten the Blue Screen of Death.
With Windows 95, Microsoft squelched its competitors. I already mentioned DR-DOS and OS2. It also took over the office suit world. Prior to Windows 95, most people used Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3 for their word processor and spreadsheet. The Windows launch was delayed for more than a year. During that time, corporate purchases dropped. Businesses did not want to buy new software that would be obsolete as soon as the next operating system came out. Microsoft had deeper pockets than it competitors and could handle the lag in sales better.
When Windows 95 finally did come out, a new Office 95 suite was released at the same time. There was a long list of programs written for Windows 3.1 that did not run perfectly on Windows 95. Rather than waiting for new versions of the programs, many businesses switched to Microsoft. Consultants recommended that this was the only safe approach.
In 1994 Microsoft was the dominant desktop operating system vendor but was, at best, second place in office suites. By 1998 it was a near-monopoly in operating system and office software, all because of Windows 95.
Late in 1995 it became obvious that Microsoft had missed something important - the World Wide Web. Windows 95 came with a buggy web browser. Most people used Netscape instead. Somehow Bill Gates had become so focused on upcoming technology that he missed the importance of the existing Internet. In his book, The Road Ahead, he only mentioned the Internet a couple of times.
Back then, Microsoft was nimble. By 1998 they released a new version of Windows. This one had a perfectly good web browser pre-installed. In fact, Microsoft swore under oath that it was so deeply embedded in the operating system that it could not be removed. Netscape quickly lost market share after that and eventually ended up providing the basis for the free Firefox browser.
Te last few years have not been kind to Microsoft. It has lost desktop market share to Apple and Linux. Firefox is challenging its browser share. The "cloud" has made the operating system irrelevant. It's smart phone operating system, which was originally based on Windows 98, is dated and the replacement is not due out for weeks or months. It had a couple of operating system flops with Windows ME and Vista.
Still, on this anniversary, we can look back fifteen years to when it seemed like Microsoft was unstoppable.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Somewhat Surreal
Yesterday I was watching the movie International House on my Zune HD. This movie written as a vehicle for as many comedians and performers as possible. Ostensibly it stars W. C. Fields but he only has a cameo appearance until half-way through.
The plot revolves around various people coming to a Chinese hotel to bid on a new invention - the television (also called the radiovision a few times). The cast includes Burns and Allen as the hotel's doctor and nurse, noted character actor Franklin Pangborn as the hotel manager, notorious gold-digger Peggy Hopkins Joyce as herself and Bella Lugosi as one of her ex-husbands.
The Chinese inventor tries to demonstrate his television by showing the six-day bicycle races but keeps tuning in on musical numbers instead - things like Cab Calloway's band doing a number about the "Reefer Man" (yes, this is just what it sounds like) and Rudy Valley singing a slow love song to his megaphone (before electronic effects, singers used things like a megaphone to change their voice).
the movie came out the year before the Hays Code was created so many of the jokes and situations are fairly adult for the time.
The movie is a great way to see some of the best talent of the 1930s, even if tastes have changed considerably since then.
The surrealism came when I thought about the difference in technology. Here was a movie about television, a product which was still in its infancy, and I was watching it on a device that makes a television look like a tinker toy. I doubt that anyone who watched the movie when it came out in 1933 ever dreamed of a pocket-sized device that could store hours of movies and music and play it back.
The plot revolves around various people coming to a Chinese hotel to bid on a new invention - the television (also called the radiovision a few times). The cast includes Burns and Allen as the hotel's doctor and nurse, noted character actor Franklin Pangborn as the hotel manager, notorious gold-digger Peggy Hopkins Joyce as herself and Bella Lugosi as one of her ex-husbands.
The Chinese inventor tries to demonstrate his television by showing the six-day bicycle races but keeps tuning in on musical numbers instead - things like Cab Calloway's band doing a number about the "Reefer Man" (yes, this is just what it sounds like) and Rudy Valley singing a slow love song to his megaphone (before electronic effects, singers used things like a megaphone to change their voice).
the movie came out the year before the Hays Code was created so many of the jokes and situations are fairly adult for the time.
The movie is a great way to see some of the best talent of the 1930s, even if tastes have changed considerably since then.
The surrealism came when I thought about the difference in technology. Here was a movie about television, a product which was still in its infancy, and I was watching it on a device that makes a television look like a tinker toy. I doubt that anyone who watched the movie when it came out in 1933 ever dreamed of a pocket-sized device that could store hours of movies and music and play it back.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
How Does ST:TNG Hold Up?
Star Trek, the Next Generation has been in syndication for several months. It is interesting to see how the show holds up around two decades after it was produced (it ran from 1987 to 1994 so some episodes are more than 20 years old and others are less).
My memory of the series was that the first season was awful but that it improved a great deal half-way through the second season and continued to be a good show after that. Re-watching it confirms that impression. Some of the first season episodes are painful to watch and the second season had some really strong episodes.
Not everything holds up. In retrospect, a lot of the techno-babel was just that, terms thrown at the viewer to justify a plot point. Data is more annoying than he was during first runs but Wesley is not (this may be a personal preference).
Many of the weakest episodes relied on the formula of strong A and B plots. Sometimes the B plot seems to be thrown in just to include more cast members. The best episodes either skipped the B plot or blended it into the A plot seamlessly.
The various members of Star Fleet seem a little too perfect with little room for personal quirks or failings. Any episode with Lt. Barclay is a relief since he is the closest to an regular person. His first appearance was a classic, involving holo-addiction. Let's be honest, if holodecks really existed then we would all be holo-addicts.
The holodecks have always been a complaint of mine. In one episode, Pickard, Barclay, and Data are unaware that they are in the holodeck. You would think that one of them would bounce off of an unseen wall at some point.
TNG managed a difficult balancing act. On one hand, the original show looked pretty dated by the 1980s. TNG is nowhere near the period piece that its predecessor was. On the other hand, the follow-up shows often went over-the-top with regulars dying during an episode only to be revived at the last minutes. In general, TNG holds up fairly well 20 years later, far better than most other shows from the late 1980s.
My memory of the series was that the first season was awful but that it improved a great deal half-way through the second season and continued to be a good show after that. Re-watching it confirms that impression. Some of the first season episodes are painful to watch and the second season had some really strong episodes.
Not everything holds up. In retrospect, a lot of the techno-babel was just that, terms thrown at the viewer to justify a plot point. Data is more annoying than he was during first runs but Wesley is not (this may be a personal preference).
Many of the weakest episodes relied on the formula of strong A and B plots. Sometimes the B plot seems to be thrown in just to include more cast members. The best episodes either skipped the B plot or blended it into the A plot seamlessly.
The various members of Star Fleet seem a little too perfect with little room for personal quirks or failings. Any episode with Lt. Barclay is a relief since he is the closest to an regular person. His first appearance was a classic, involving holo-addiction. Let's be honest, if holodecks really existed then we would all be holo-addicts.
The holodecks have always been a complaint of mine. In one episode, Pickard, Barclay, and Data are unaware that they are in the holodeck. You would think that one of them would bounce off of an unseen wall at some point.
TNG managed a difficult balancing act. On one hand, the original show looked pretty dated by the 1980s. TNG is nowhere near the period piece that its predecessor was. On the other hand, the follow-up shows often went over-the-top with regulars dying during an episode only to be revived at the last minutes. In general, TNG holds up fairly well 20 years later, far better than most other shows from the late 1980s.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Superman Saved Family for Real
Actually, it was a copy of Action Comics #1 that turned up just in time to save the family home. See here.
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Friday, July 30, 2010
EReader Wars
Amazon has announced two new Kindles. These are respectable units with better contrast, longer battery life, and lighter weight. In fact, they weigh around 8oz or 1.5 as much as a Droid X. The best part is the price which is $140 for the WiFi version and $190 for the version that includes a built-in phone connection.
There is speculation about the cost of producing these. Informed opinion is that the $140 model costs at least $100 to manufacture and possibly as much as the list price. That is bad news for anyone trying to sell these at a profit.
I don't think that this is a consideration for the three big book retailers - Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, and Borders. They could just about give the readers away. In fact, they are giving away software that runs on other platforms. The object is to sell EBooks. The readers are incidental.
I've written about this before but the latest round of prices seems like a good time to repeat myself.
With the Kindle, Amazon had a chance to do for publishing what Apple did for music with ITunes. Their rivals recognized the danger and reacted. Time will tell if they reacted in time but the important thing is that they are still in the game.
Amazon made one big mistake with the Kindle. The IPod can play MP3s as well as content from Apple. Right now the closest thing to MP3s is the open EPub standard. The Kindle will not read EPub books, only Kindle books.
This is important to my wife. She might consider an EReader but she gets most of her books from the library. Our library system has provisions for checking out books... in EPub format. So that means that any reader we get will have to support that format. That means a Nook or one of the readers that Borders sells. That, in turn, locks us out of Amazon.
Now, if Amazon supported EPub then I might be pre-ordering a Kindle now.
What about the IPad? There is no way I am going to buy one to read books. I can expect to save more than $140 over the next year or two and the EReaders are a lot lighter and easier to carry than an IPad. It would take forever to save enough to justify a $500+ device. If I was going to buy an IPad anyway then I would go ahead and download the apps for Kindle and B&N and Borders but that's a different rant.
The next move may be up to the publishers themselves. How strongly will they push the two competing standards? If they do nothing then Amazon may be able to win through its sheer size. If the publishers make at least as many books available through EPub as through Kindle then Amazon may be forced to capitulate.
There is speculation about the cost of producing these. Informed opinion is that the $140 model costs at least $100 to manufacture and possibly as much as the list price. That is bad news for anyone trying to sell these at a profit.
I don't think that this is a consideration for the three big book retailers - Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, and Borders. They could just about give the readers away. In fact, they are giving away software that runs on other platforms. The object is to sell EBooks. The readers are incidental.
I've written about this before but the latest round of prices seems like a good time to repeat myself.
With the Kindle, Amazon had a chance to do for publishing what Apple did for music with ITunes. Their rivals recognized the danger and reacted. Time will tell if they reacted in time but the important thing is that they are still in the game.
Amazon made one big mistake with the Kindle. The IPod can play MP3s as well as content from Apple. Right now the closest thing to MP3s is the open EPub standard. The Kindle will not read EPub books, only Kindle books.
This is important to my wife. She might consider an EReader but she gets most of her books from the library. Our library system has provisions for checking out books... in EPub format. So that means that any reader we get will have to support that format. That means a Nook or one of the readers that Borders sells. That, in turn, locks us out of Amazon.
Now, if Amazon supported EPub then I might be pre-ordering a Kindle now.
What about the IPad? There is no way I am going to buy one to read books. I can expect to save more than $140 over the next year or two and the EReaders are a lot lighter and easier to carry than an IPad. It would take forever to save enough to justify a $500+ device. If I was going to buy an IPad anyway then I would go ahead and download the apps for Kindle and B&N and Borders but that's a different rant.
The next move may be up to the publishers themselves. How strongly will they push the two competing standards? If they do nothing then Amazon may be able to win through its sheer size. If the publishers make at least as many books available through EPub as through Kindle then Amazon may be forced to capitulate.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Happy Birthday Bugs
Seventy years ago today, Bugs Bunny made his first appearance in "A Wild Hare". You would have trouble recognizing him if you only knew his later appearances. He looked much more rabbit-like. He was being hunted by a character known as "Egghead" although his real name, according to an earlier cartoon, was "Elmer Fudd".
Bugs was not the first Looney Toons rabbit. A white rabbit had appeared in a couple of shorts starting with a Porky Pig one, and Pinhead/Elmer Fudd had tried to photograph a gray rabbit. It was not until the July 27, 1940 cartoon that Bugs began sounding like himself. Mel Blanc who did the voice said that he wanted the rabbit to sound tough. The two toughest-sounding accents he knew were Bronx and Brooklyn so he used a combination for Bugs.
The two characters evolved quickly and were pretty much fully fleshed out within a year or so.
The only real changes to Bugs came after Chuck Jones took over. Bugs grew taller and thinner but kept his voice and character.
Just as Micky Mouse defined Disney for generations, Bugs Bunny became the symbol of Warner Brothers.
Bugs was not the first Looney Toons rabbit. A white rabbit had appeared in a couple of shorts starting with a Porky Pig one, and Pinhead/Elmer Fudd had tried to photograph a gray rabbit. It was not until the July 27, 1940 cartoon that Bugs began sounding like himself. Mel Blanc who did the voice said that he wanted the rabbit to sound tough. The two toughest-sounding accents he knew were Bronx and Brooklyn so he used a combination for Bugs.
The two characters evolved quickly and were pretty much fully fleshed out within a year or so.
The only real changes to Bugs came after Chuck Jones took over. Bugs grew taller and thinner but kept his voice and character.
Just as Micky Mouse defined Disney for generations, Bugs Bunny became the symbol of Warner Brothers.
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Disney Studios has a long history of mining older properties for live-actions moves. They have made them based on previous live-action movies, feature-length cartoons and rides. The newest installment in this is a live-action movie inspired by an animated short. Not just any animated short, though, but one of Disney's favorites - the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Given that the source is so short, that leaves a lot of padding. This was given to the team that created National Treasure.
The result is mixed. It is not as good as Pirates of the Caribbean and not as bad as the Haunted mansion.
The casting was a problem. Nicolas Cage is a talented actor but he doesn't come across as a 1,400-year-old-sorcerer. He is ok in the role but not as good as Alfred Molina as the villain.
The real problem is with the star, Jay Brauchel. Since he is in nearly every scene, he needs to carry the movie. The problem is that he is more of a sidekick. He has a whining, nasal voice that can be grating. He also looks and dresses too geeky. At one point we see him preparing for a date and pulling out a new, white shirt. Then he covers it in the same layered flannel and hoodie he has been wearing since the first reel.
The plot itself is familiar - a young man suddenly finds out that he is special. With the help of a mentor, he learns to use his gifts and beat the villain. This was old when Star Wars used it. Just this year we have seen it in Percy Jackson and in How to Train Dragons (also voiced by Jay Brauchel).
There is also the cliche that a young hero in training is told about an impossible-seeming feat that can only be performed by the chosen one. In Eregon, you knew when Bron was told that only the best dragon riders could stand on the dragon's tail that he would be doing it by the end of the movie. The same thing happens here.
Casting aside, there is nothing wrong with the movie. The plot is well-thought out without any obvious holes. Dave, the apprentice, may come by his powers too fast (he picks up more in a couple of days than Harry Potter does in years) but you do see him having to work for it.
The movie is at its best when the wizards battle. There are several battles and they are much more imaginative than anything in Harry Potter.
Given that the source is so short, that leaves a lot of padding. This was given to the team that created National Treasure.
The result is mixed. It is not as good as Pirates of the Caribbean and not as bad as the Haunted mansion.
The casting was a problem. Nicolas Cage is a talented actor but he doesn't come across as a 1,400-year-old-sorcerer. He is ok in the role but not as good as Alfred Molina as the villain.
The real problem is with the star, Jay Brauchel. Since he is in nearly every scene, he needs to carry the movie. The problem is that he is more of a sidekick. He has a whining, nasal voice that can be grating. He also looks and dresses too geeky. At one point we see him preparing for a date and pulling out a new, white shirt. Then he covers it in the same layered flannel and hoodie he has been wearing since the first reel.
The plot itself is familiar - a young man suddenly finds out that he is special. With the help of a mentor, he learns to use his gifts and beat the villain. This was old when Star Wars used it. Just this year we have seen it in Percy Jackson and in How to Train Dragons (also voiced by Jay Brauchel).
There is also the cliche that a young hero in training is told about an impossible-seeming feat that can only be performed by the chosen one. In Eregon, you knew when Bron was told that only the best dragon riders could stand on the dragon's tail that he would be doing it by the end of the movie. The same thing happens here.
Casting aside, there is nothing wrong with the movie. The plot is well-thought out without any obvious holes. Dave, the apprentice, may come by his powers too fast (he picks up more in a couple of days than Harry Potter does in years) but you do see him having to work for it.
The movie is at its best when the wizards battle. There are several battles and they are much more imaginative than anything in Harry Potter.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Did Futurama Get Edgier?
When Futurama moved to Comedy Central, did the show change it's tone, adding shock for its own sake? The question was raised after a couple of things in the first three episodes. In the second new episode, Leela and Zap Branigan spend some time naked except for leaves, conveniently held in place by sticky bark. Leela is showing more skin than usual but no more than a bikini would cover. In the third episode, Fry and Bender have a bet in which the loser has to dive into a pool filled by the PukemePoopyou, a creature with two goat heads. It spends much of the episode spewing from one end or the other.
So, given that Comedy Central is the home of South Park, where you can say anything except "There's Mohamed dressed as a bear!", is Futurama upping the shock level? I don't think so. The show was originally on Fox at a time when it was known for bad taste so the standards have not really changed. Consider a few classic episodes:
In Three Hundred Big Boys, Leela stuffs her swimming suit with rotten fish in order to retrieve a watch that Mushu the whale swallowed. It works and the whale spent some time vomiting. "It just keeps coming and coming," the robot cop observed. At the same time, the whale ate Leela's swimming suit and she had to wrap herself in a banner, showing about as much skin.
Slurm is excreted from the rear end of a giant slug.
Fry was once infested with intelligent worms. The Planet Express crew journeyed through his bowels. At one point Zoidburg appeared riding a sperm cell saying, "You'll never guess where I've been."
Nibbler once ate Amy's bikini top. She used a couple of hamburger buns for modesty until the Professor could spray on a replacement.
In the episode with Fry's petrified dog, Leela and Amy were dressed in sexy leotards, practicing disarming each other in sexy ways. Later Leela started to tear her already brief outfit off.
The professor appeared fully nude from the rear several times. Leela, disguised as a man, had to avoid Zap while showering. Zap was nude with his modesty preserved by Nixon's head.
There there was the episode with "human horn".
Clearly, Futurama was never a model of decorum. I think it only seems shocking now because we have seen the older episodes so many times (I lost count years ago).
So, given that Comedy Central is the home of South Park, where you can say anything except "There's Mohamed dressed as a bear!", is Futurama upping the shock level? I don't think so. The show was originally on Fox at a time when it was known for bad taste so the standards have not really changed. Consider a few classic episodes:
In Three Hundred Big Boys, Leela stuffs her swimming suit with rotten fish in order to retrieve a watch that Mushu the whale swallowed. It works and the whale spent some time vomiting. "It just keeps coming and coming," the robot cop observed. At the same time, the whale ate Leela's swimming suit and she had to wrap herself in a banner, showing about as much skin.
Slurm is excreted from the rear end of a giant slug.
Fry was once infested with intelligent worms. The Planet Express crew journeyed through his bowels. At one point Zoidburg appeared riding a sperm cell saying, "You'll never guess where I've been."
Nibbler once ate Amy's bikini top. She used a couple of hamburger buns for modesty until the Professor could spray on a replacement.
In the episode with Fry's petrified dog, Leela and Amy were dressed in sexy leotards, practicing disarming each other in sexy ways. Later Leela started to tear her already brief outfit off.
The professor appeared fully nude from the rear several times. Leela, disguised as a man, had to avoid Zap while showering. Zap was nude with his modesty preserved by Nixon's head.
There there was the episode with "human horn".
Clearly, Futurama was never a model of decorum. I think it only seems shocking now because we have seen the older episodes so many times (I lost count years ago).
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Steve Job's Mixed Year
It's been an amazingly mixed year for Apple and Steve Jobs. On the plus side, the iPad got rave reviews. It and the new iPhone 4 have sold millions. But there has been a lot of bad press mixed in.
Many reviewers felt that the new iPhone and the upgraded operating system were mainly about catching up with Android.
When Gizmodo acquired a prototype iPhone 4, Apple managed to overstep the law. Even after they got the phone back they still arranged for Gizmodo's offices to be raided and equipment confiscated in clear violation of laws shielding the press.
Steve Job's insistence that Flash cannot be allowed on the iPhone or iPad seems to be more about control than technical considerations. With a version of Flash about to be released for Android, it appears that Apple wants to keep people from using services like Hulu and force them to but from iTunes instead.
The iTunes app store has gotten a lot of bad press. No one knows what the standards are for accepting an app. They seem to change over time. At one point Jobs admitted that he banned an entire class of app because one developer had leaked information about the iPad.
Apple's censorship also earned them bad press. A Pultzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist was rejected because of the nature of editorial cartoons. Other adult material has been rejected or had cuts in order to pass Apple's standards.
Apple's policies about stopping leaks also came out. At any time, any section believed to have a leaker can be placed under what amounts to house arrest while workstations and phones are searched for incriminating material. Anyone found to have leaked information to the press is fired on the spot.
All of this was more background noise than anything else but the antenna issue has really hurt Apple's image. First, it means that they can release a flawed product. Apple hates to admit it when this happens. In fact, at Steve Job's press conference last week he didn't really admit anything. He claimed that this happens with all phones and Apple put up video showing problems with other phones. Had Jobs been more contrite they story would have gone away. Instead, the new story is Job's arrogance.
How bad is this? My dentist was talking about it. He is around fifty and is not likely to ever buy an iPhone. He does not text nor does he send emails through his phone. But he knew all about the antenna issue and the other phone companies' objections to Jobs' press conference.
When people talk about you the same way they talk about Lindsay Lohan, you have a public relations disaster on your hands.
Apple will survive, of course, but this will give a big boost to Android and the upcoming Windows 7 phone (which got great reviews). In two or three years people might look back and see this as the turning point where Apple lost their dominance of the phone world.
I've seen a couple of telling columns about Steve Jobs. One pointed out that he is in his fifties and already had a major health issue. He can't live forever. At some point Apple will have to replace him. The other pointed out that, these days, Bill Gates makes the news because of his charitable work. Steve Jobs makes the news because he is selling defective phones. Which coverage would you prefer?
Many reviewers felt that the new iPhone and the upgraded operating system were mainly about catching up with Android.
When Gizmodo acquired a prototype iPhone 4, Apple managed to overstep the law. Even after they got the phone back they still arranged for Gizmodo's offices to be raided and equipment confiscated in clear violation of laws shielding the press.
Steve Job's insistence that Flash cannot be allowed on the iPhone or iPad seems to be more about control than technical considerations. With a version of Flash about to be released for Android, it appears that Apple wants to keep people from using services like Hulu and force them to but from iTunes instead.
The iTunes app store has gotten a lot of bad press. No one knows what the standards are for accepting an app. They seem to change over time. At one point Jobs admitted that he banned an entire class of app because one developer had leaked information about the iPad.
Apple's censorship also earned them bad press. A Pultzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist was rejected because of the nature of editorial cartoons. Other adult material has been rejected or had cuts in order to pass Apple's standards.
Apple's policies about stopping leaks also came out. At any time, any section believed to have a leaker can be placed under what amounts to house arrest while workstations and phones are searched for incriminating material. Anyone found to have leaked information to the press is fired on the spot.
All of this was more background noise than anything else but the antenna issue has really hurt Apple's image. First, it means that they can release a flawed product. Apple hates to admit it when this happens. In fact, at Steve Job's press conference last week he didn't really admit anything. He claimed that this happens with all phones and Apple put up video showing problems with other phones. Had Jobs been more contrite they story would have gone away. Instead, the new story is Job's arrogance.
How bad is this? My dentist was talking about it. He is around fifty and is not likely to ever buy an iPhone. He does not text nor does he send emails through his phone. But he knew all about the antenna issue and the other phone companies' objections to Jobs' press conference.
When people talk about you the same way they talk about Lindsay Lohan, you have a public relations disaster on your hands.
Apple will survive, of course, but this will give a big boost to Android and the upcoming Windows 7 phone (which got great reviews). In two or three years people might look back and see this as the turning point where Apple lost their dominance of the phone world.
I've seen a couple of telling columns about Steve Jobs. One pointed out that he is in his fifties and already had a major health issue. He can't live forever. At some point Apple will have to replace him. The other pointed out that, these days, Bill Gates makes the news because of his charitable work. Steve Jobs makes the news because he is selling defective phones. Which coverage would you prefer?
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 3 has been out for weeks but we've been busy and we just got around to seeing it.
Anyway, by the third installment, series usually feel a little tired. There are exceptions but those usually had a week second installment (Pirates of The Caribbean, Back to the Future). Series with a strong second installment usually fare particularly poorly (Spider-Man, Shrek). Then there is the problem of a sequel years after the original. By that time, the excitement of the original is long gone.
It is a tribute to the Pixar development process that Toy Story 3 still feels fresh. It helps that it was constructed as a totally stand-alone movie. There are only a few of explicit references to the previous movies and can be picked up from context.
Of course the premise is the same - toys are sentient creatures and come to life when no one is around to see them. There are a few plot elements that are in all three movies - one or more toys are separated from Andy and have to return. Near the end each movie has an exciting action sequence involving danger to the toys. Also, it wouldn't be a Toy Story movie if Buzz didn't get confused about reality somehow.
The big difference in this movie is that Andy has grown up and is going to college. The toy's big hope is that they will go to the attic to a peaceful retirement instead of being thrown away and destroyed. They are accidentally donated to a day care which seems like the perfect retirement until they end up in the pre-schooler's room. It turns out that the many of the daycare toys aren't all that nice.
It all works out and comes to a satisfying conclusion.
One problem that the movie had to overcome was the lack of sophistication in the original. The toys looked fine but the humans looked like big versions of the toys. When we first see Andy, he still resembles his original version but the college-age version and the other people look much more human.
When Pixar announced a couple of sequels (Toy Story 3 and Monsters 2) it seemed like they were running low on creativity or had been corrupted by the Disney merger. This proves that they can still make good movies.
Anyway, by the third installment, series usually feel a little tired. There are exceptions but those usually had a week second installment (Pirates of The Caribbean, Back to the Future). Series with a strong second installment usually fare particularly poorly (Spider-Man, Shrek). Then there is the problem of a sequel years after the original. By that time, the excitement of the original is long gone.
It is a tribute to the Pixar development process that Toy Story 3 still feels fresh. It helps that it was constructed as a totally stand-alone movie. There are only a few of explicit references to the previous movies and can be picked up from context.
Of course the premise is the same - toys are sentient creatures and come to life when no one is around to see them. There are a few plot elements that are in all three movies - one or more toys are separated from Andy and have to return. Near the end each movie has an exciting action sequence involving danger to the toys. Also, it wouldn't be a Toy Story movie if Buzz didn't get confused about reality somehow.
The big difference in this movie is that Andy has grown up and is going to college. The toy's big hope is that they will go to the attic to a peaceful retirement instead of being thrown away and destroyed. They are accidentally donated to a day care which seems like the perfect retirement until they end up in the pre-schooler's room. It turns out that the many of the daycare toys aren't all that nice.
It all works out and comes to a satisfying conclusion.
One problem that the movie had to overcome was the lack of sophistication in the original. The toys looked fine but the humans looked like big versions of the toys. When we first see Andy, he still resembles his original version but the college-age version and the other people look much more human.
When Pixar announced a couple of sequels (Toy Story 3 and Monsters 2) it seemed like they were running low on creativity or had been corrupted by the Disney merger. This proves that they can still make good movies.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Attack of the EReader
When the iPad came out speculation started about which would win the eBook wars - the iPad or the Kindle? What people didn't seem to understand is that Amazon doesn't really care. As long as they do not lose money selling the Kindle, market control does not matter. That is because they are after dominance of the eBook market, not the reader. In fact, they give away Kindle applications for the iPad, the iPhone, android phones, and PCs.
Things in the eBook market got really interesting a few weeks ago.
First Barns and Noble cut the price of their eBook reader, the Nook. Amazon followed by cutting prices on the Kindle. Now Borders has entered the eBook market. Rather than subsidize their own reader, Borders is selling four readers made by others. These readers lack the wireless and cell phone features of the Kindle and the Nook which makes them less expensive. The lowest price one, the Libre eBook Reader Pro is only $119. Unlike the others, it uses a black and white LCD instead of the E Ink that nearly every other reader uses. This gives it a shorter battery life but makes the display refresh faster and gives better contrast. Like Amazon, Borders also has eBook reader software for a variety of platforms. Borders also supports the open EPub standard rather than using their own proprietary standard.
With an entry price around $120-$150, eBook readers start looking attractive. If you only buy a dozen books you are ahead financially and there is a lot to be said for the small, lightweight form factor. Also, there are a lot of books that are otherwise out of print.
Music players show that connecting to a PC to control content is not a burden. My Zune HD can sync wirelessly but I seldom use that feature. As long as I am syncing content, I might as well charge the battery. The Kindle's original Whispernet was meant to encourage people to make impulse purchases or to pay premium rates for newspapers and magazines. I do not have a long commute on a train so I have no need for these.
Over a decade ago technologists told the recording industry that it had to change or die. It refused to listen until Steve Jobs convinced them to sign on with iTunes. Now that is their biggest source of income.
Hopefully publishers will not make the same mistakes. There may always be a place for paper and cardboard but electronics will play an increasing role in future publishing.
Things in the eBook market got really interesting a few weeks ago.
First Barns and Noble cut the price of their eBook reader, the Nook. Amazon followed by cutting prices on the Kindle. Now Borders has entered the eBook market. Rather than subsidize their own reader, Borders is selling four readers made by others. These readers lack the wireless and cell phone features of the Kindle and the Nook which makes them less expensive. The lowest price one, the Libre eBook Reader Pro is only $119. Unlike the others, it uses a black and white LCD instead of the E Ink that nearly every other reader uses. This gives it a shorter battery life but makes the display refresh faster and gives better contrast. Like Amazon, Borders also has eBook reader software for a variety of platforms. Borders also supports the open EPub standard rather than using their own proprietary standard.
With an entry price around $120-$150, eBook readers start looking attractive. If you only buy a dozen books you are ahead financially and there is a lot to be said for the small, lightweight form factor. Also, there are a lot of books that are otherwise out of print.
Music players show that connecting to a PC to control content is not a burden. My Zune HD can sync wirelessly but I seldom use that feature. As long as I am syncing content, I might as well charge the battery. The Kindle's original Whispernet was meant to encourage people to make impulse purchases or to pay premium rates for newspapers and magazines. I do not have a long commute on a train so I have no need for these.
Over a decade ago technologists told the recording industry that it had to change or die. It refused to listen until Steve Jobs convinced them to sign on with iTunes. Now that is their biggest source of income.
Hopefully publishers will not make the same mistakes. There may always be a place for paper and cardboard but electronics will play an increasing role in future publishing.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Costume Changes
According to news reports, Wonder Woman is getting a completely new costume and origin.
I can't say that I care for the new costume. It would be fine for an entirely new character but it isn't Wonder Woman. In fact, it is barely a costume, more like distinctive street-wear like some of the X-Men sport. I am also slightly offended by the need to "globalize" her by getting her out of the American Flag.
Realistically, the new costume will just be a phase. In a couple of years she will be back to her blue and red tights. DC has way too much invested in her iconic look to permanently switch her.
Still, this gives me an excuse to go over other costume changes.
Wonder Woman's own costume has changed over the years. In her first few appearances she had a skirt instead of satin shorts. In the early 1980s, DC's lawyers were concerned that they could not trademark the eagle on her chest so it was quietly swapped out for twin "W"s. During the late 1960s, Wonder Woman changed completely. She lost her powers and learned martial arts. She started sporting a series of cat suits inspired by Emma Peel from the TV show The Avengers. Obviously, she switched back after a few years.
In general, once a hero becomes established, his costume changes very little. the really big heroes may change their outfits for a while but they always seem to go back to the original. Spider-Man has changed his costume twice (not counting the clone's costume). Both times have been part of a long-term plot arch which ended with him back in his original red and blue costume. Superman never changed costumes for more than an issue or so. Batman added a yellow circle to his chest and experimented with an all-black outfit but keeps going back to the blue and gray original.
Heroes who have not become established can get away with a costume change. Daredevil's original yellow and black outfit looked like it was designed by a blind man and was swapped for his red outfit pretty fast. I've already written about Iron Man's changes.
Captain Marvel started out in a white uniform with green helmet and accents. He got a new red and black uniform just in time to be canceled for a while but kept it when his strip returned.
Team heroes are more likely to change their look. The Fantastic Four started without costumes (prompting Marvel's first fan mail). By the third issue they were given uniforms. they kept these until the mid-1970s when the Torch switched to a red uniform. They switched back to the original blue uniforms in the 1980s followed by a darker version with white accents.
There was a general move away from team uniforms around 1970. The X-Men started with identical uniforms but were given individual costumes later.
Several members of the Legion of Superheroes got new costumes during the 1970s and again in the 1980s. Long-standing solo DC characters sometimes changed their costume after joining the JLA. Black Canary and the Elongated Man are a couple of examples.
Sometimes a character's costume changes slowly over time. Spider-Man started out with webbing between his arms and his torso. Later artists abandoned this but it has been brought back a few times. Daredevil's red tights started out black with red highlights (artist Wally Wood was thinking of velvet when he designed the look). Later artists switched to straight red.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch's costumes stayed recognizable over the years but Quicksilver's went from green to blue. The Scarlet Witch started out in a modest body stocking with loose bodice, long boots and gloves, and a headpiece that only left her face and the top of her head exposed. As time went on, her bodice became much tighter, shwing a lot of cleavage. Her body stocking became sheer and her headpiece became a hair band.
Like her male counterpart, Ms Marvel changed her costume. He original one was based on Captain Marvel's second costume but with bare legs and stomach. The artists quickly grew tired of drawing the stomach cut-out. After resolving a split-identity issue, she changed to a tight black number with a belt/sash.
Marvel often tried to boost sales with a costume change. Besides Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel, they tried this with Doctor Strange in the late 1960s. Strange was given a skin-tight costume with a full-head mask. It didn't work. Fans hated the new look. The book was canceled a few issues later. When it was brought back, Strange reverted to his original costume.
The Wasp probably holds the record for the most number of costume changes. During the 1970s she seldom appeared twice in the same outfit. Her ex-husband did her one better, changing identities as well as costumes. At various times he was Ant Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellow Jacket, and simply Doctor Pymm. He had at least eight distinct costumes to go with these various identifies.
Muscle-men like the Hulk, the Thing, and Conan the Barbarian have changed outfits several times without altering their over-all look.
In her first strip, She-Hulk didn't dress for her change and usually wore something ragged. After joining the Avengers she settled on a swim-suit-style outfit. She temporarily joined the FF and used an abbreviated version of the FF's dark blue uniform.
Luke Cage and Iron Fist had very 1970s costumes when they were introduced. When the characters were revived they got different looks.
Super Girl changed costumes numerous times. She started out with a mini-dress version of Superman's costume. After graduating from back-up strip to having her own comic book, she got a series of more stylish costumes. This was back to something like the original except with a red skirt when the character was killed.
Supergirl was revived as a new character but with the previous costume. Eventually she vanished leaving an empowered human alter-ego who improved a costume based on a cut-off tee-shirt and a mini-skirt. The bare mid-rift looks continued into the next incarnation.
Wonder Man started out as a one-shot in a garish costume in the 1960s. He was brought back from the dead in the 1970s and swapped his costume for a red safari jacket. In the 1990s he got his own book and a new costume featuring a big "W".
For the most part, Thor followed the rule that costume changes were part of a long-term plot arc and reverted back to his original when the arc ended. At one point in the 1980s his face was injured and he grew a beard to cover the scars. Injuries mounted and he ended up in full-body armor. In the 1900s he lost his powers and spent a short time running around shirtless. In the last few years his costume has been reworked but still suggests the original.
I can't say that I care for the new costume. It would be fine for an entirely new character but it isn't Wonder Woman. In fact, it is barely a costume, more like distinctive street-wear like some of the X-Men sport. I am also slightly offended by the need to "globalize" her by getting her out of the American Flag.
Realistically, the new costume will just be a phase. In a couple of years she will be back to her blue and red tights. DC has way too much invested in her iconic look to permanently switch her.
Still, this gives me an excuse to go over other costume changes.
Wonder Woman's own costume has changed over the years. In her first few appearances she had a skirt instead of satin shorts. In the early 1980s, DC's lawyers were concerned that they could not trademark the eagle on her chest so it was quietly swapped out for twin "W"s. During the late 1960s, Wonder Woman changed completely. She lost her powers and learned martial arts. She started sporting a series of cat suits inspired by Emma Peel from the TV show The Avengers. Obviously, she switched back after a few years.
In general, once a hero becomes established, his costume changes very little. the really big heroes may change their outfits for a while but they always seem to go back to the original. Spider-Man has changed his costume twice (not counting the clone's costume). Both times have been part of a long-term plot arch which ended with him back in his original red and blue costume. Superman never changed costumes for more than an issue or so. Batman added a yellow circle to his chest and experimented with an all-black outfit but keeps going back to the blue and gray original.
Heroes who have not become established can get away with a costume change. Daredevil's original yellow and black outfit looked like it was designed by a blind man and was swapped for his red outfit pretty fast. I've already written about Iron Man's changes.
Captain Marvel started out in a white uniform with green helmet and accents. He got a new red and black uniform just in time to be canceled for a while but kept it when his strip returned.
Team heroes are more likely to change their look. The Fantastic Four started without costumes (prompting Marvel's first fan mail). By the third issue they were given uniforms. they kept these until the mid-1970s when the Torch switched to a red uniform. They switched back to the original blue uniforms in the 1980s followed by a darker version with white accents.
There was a general move away from team uniforms around 1970. The X-Men started with identical uniforms but were given individual costumes later.
Several members of the Legion of Superheroes got new costumes during the 1970s and again in the 1980s. Long-standing solo DC characters sometimes changed their costume after joining the JLA. Black Canary and the Elongated Man are a couple of examples.
Sometimes a character's costume changes slowly over time. Spider-Man started out with webbing between his arms and his torso. Later artists abandoned this but it has been brought back a few times. Daredevil's red tights started out black with red highlights (artist Wally Wood was thinking of velvet when he designed the look). Later artists switched to straight red.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch's costumes stayed recognizable over the years but Quicksilver's went from green to blue. The Scarlet Witch started out in a modest body stocking with loose bodice, long boots and gloves, and a headpiece that only left her face and the top of her head exposed. As time went on, her bodice became much tighter, shwing a lot of cleavage. Her body stocking became sheer and her headpiece became a hair band.
Like her male counterpart, Ms Marvel changed her costume. He original one was based on Captain Marvel's second costume but with bare legs and stomach. The artists quickly grew tired of drawing the stomach cut-out. After resolving a split-identity issue, she changed to a tight black number with a belt/sash.
Marvel often tried to boost sales with a costume change. Besides Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel, they tried this with Doctor Strange in the late 1960s. Strange was given a skin-tight costume with a full-head mask. It didn't work. Fans hated the new look. The book was canceled a few issues later. When it was brought back, Strange reverted to his original costume.
The Wasp probably holds the record for the most number of costume changes. During the 1970s she seldom appeared twice in the same outfit. Her ex-husband did her one better, changing identities as well as costumes. At various times he was Ant Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellow Jacket, and simply Doctor Pymm. He had at least eight distinct costumes to go with these various identifies.
Muscle-men like the Hulk, the Thing, and Conan the Barbarian have changed outfits several times without altering their over-all look.
In her first strip, She-Hulk didn't dress for her change and usually wore something ragged. After joining the Avengers she settled on a swim-suit-style outfit. She temporarily joined the FF and used an abbreviated version of the FF's dark blue uniform.
Luke Cage and Iron Fist had very 1970s costumes when they were introduced. When the characters were revived they got different looks.
Super Girl changed costumes numerous times. She started out with a mini-dress version of Superman's costume. After graduating from back-up strip to having her own comic book, she got a series of more stylish costumes. This was back to something like the original except with a red skirt when the character was killed.
Supergirl was revived as a new character but with the previous costume. Eventually she vanished leaving an empowered human alter-ego who improved a costume based on a cut-off tee-shirt and a mini-skirt. The bare mid-rift looks continued into the next incarnation.
Wonder Man started out as a one-shot in a garish costume in the 1960s. He was brought back from the dead in the 1970s and swapped his costume for a red safari jacket. In the 1990s he got his own book and a new costume featuring a big "W".
For the most part, Thor followed the rule that costume changes were part of a long-term plot arc and reverted back to his original when the arc ended. At one point in the 1980s his face was injured and he grew a beard to cover the scars. Injuries mounted and he ended up in full-body armor. In the 1900s he lost his powers and spent a short time running around shirtless. In the last few years his costume has been reworked but still suggests the original.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Microsoft's Phone Failures
Microsoft lost its edge years ago. Now it seems to have lost its way.
Last year they introduced the Zune HD. I have one and it is a nice music and video player with the added attraction of touch-screen, a web browser, and a limited selection of apps. Many people felt that this would be the basis of a new Microsoft phone. Microsoft confirmed this earlier this year. They will be launching a new phone under the Windows 7 banner this Fall.
Then they came out with the Kin phones. These amounted to feature phones. They did have a browser built in but otherwise their capabilities were locked-in. They were considered rather deficient and they had nothing to do with the new phones coming out this Fall.
The Kin didn't sell. You can tell that by the advertising blitz that Microsoft launched (although I don't believe the rumor that they only sold 500 units).
Microsoft is supposed to have sunk around $500 million into the Kin effort. Some of it may be salvaged. The phone backs itself up regularly and everything on the phone is available through a web interface. Microsoft promised that the new phone will probably have that capability sometime in the future, just not at launch.
This seems typical of what Microsoft has begun. During the 1980s and 1990s, they evaluated a market then entered it. Their initial offering was seldom very good, the joke was that you should never buy a Microsoft product before it's 3.0 release. By then it was usually on par with the industry leader. From that point, Microsoft would use its leverage to shut out the competition.
For most of the 2000s, they have tried this formula in different markets and failed. Bing is the newest in a string of search engines that failed to attract Google's business. Hotmail has been losing market share for years. Internet Explorer is still the dominant web browser but their market share keeps dropping. At one point they had better than a 90% share. Now they are around 60%.
They also failed at establishing themselves in the music market. They have gone through several services including the ironically named "Plays for sure".
Microsoft has deep resources. It is possible that they can regain their momentum. By all accounts, Bing is a credible search engine and there is some excitement about the new phone. At the same time, the Kin flop has hurt them. It may have soured their relationship with Verizon which will limit their potential market a great deal.
Maybe the real problem is that Steve Balmer need to go.
Last year they introduced the Zune HD. I have one and it is a nice music and video player with the added attraction of touch-screen, a web browser, and a limited selection of apps. Many people felt that this would be the basis of a new Microsoft phone. Microsoft confirmed this earlier this year. They will be launching a new phone under the Windows 7 banner this Fall.
Then they came out with the Kin phones. These amounted to feature phones. They did have a browser built in but otherwise their capabilities were locked-in. They were considered rather deficient and they had nothing to do with the new phones coming out this Fall.
The Kin didn't sell. You can tell that by the advertising blitz that Microsoft launched (although I don't believe the rumor that they only sold 500 units).
Microsoft is supposed to have sunk around $500 million into the Kin effort. Some of it may be salvaged. The phone backs itself up regularly and everything on the phone is available through a web interface. Microsoft promised that the new phone will probably have that capability sometime in the future, just not at launch.
This seems typical of what Microsoft has begun. During the 1980s and 1990s, they evaluated a market then entered it. Their initial offering was seldom very good, the joke was that you should never buy a Microsoft product before it's 3.0 release. By then it was usually on par with the industry leader. From that point, Microsoft would use its leverage to shut out the competition.
For most of the 2000s, they have tried this formula in different markets and failed. Bing is the newest in a string of search engines that failed to attract Google's business. Hotmail has been losing market share for years. Internet Explorer is still the dominant web browser but their market share keeps dropping. At one point they had better than a 90% share. Now they are around 60%.
They also failed at establishing themselves in the music market. They have gone through several services including the ironically named "Plays for sure".
Microsoft has deep resources. It is possible that they can regain their momentum. By all accounts, Bing is a credible search engine and there is some excitement about the new phone. At the same time, the Kin flop has hurt them. It may have soured their relationship with Verizon which will limit their potential market a great deal.
Maybe the real problem is that Steve Balmer need to go.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Inhumans and the Munsters
Someone left an anonymous comment that got me thinking:
Looking back at it, I don't think it was a coincidence at all. This sort of melding of popular culture with the Marvel Universe was something that Lee and Kirby (especially Jack Kirby) excelled at a few years later. The Inhumans began appearing in late 1965 (not counting Medusa who was introduced without an origin more than a year earlier). By 1968 and 1969, Stan was openly promoting the take-offs of pop culture in the FF. Two of the most memorable were the 1930s gangster plot (an entire planet of Skrulls were so taken with gangster movies that they redid their planet like one) and the Prisoner plot (Doom imprisoned the FF in a village much like the one in the classic TV series).
With this in mind, you can almost see the story conference. One of them (I'm going to guess Kirby) suggested that they do a take-off of a Munster standard where Marilyn, the normal-looking Munster, brings home a boyfriend who meets an array of monsters. In this case, the normal-looking one is Crystal, the only member of the Inhuman royal family who does not wear a mask or costume. She meets the Human Torch, mistakes him for an Inhuman, and takes him home to meet the family. Being the Marvel Universe, the family has hidden powers and wears masked costumes instead of being monsters. Things go as well as can be expected until Crystal introduces the Torch to her sister - Medusa.
This tied nicely into prior stories. They never explained where Medusa came from and there was some speculation that Medusa had escaped the Torch a few issues earlier because he was attracted to her. She was a bit old for the Torch but her younger sister...
I haven't looked it up yet but I think that there was even a reference to the Munsters in one of these issues.
The Torch was involved in a few 1960s situations. Back when he had his own strip, his girl friend, Dorris Evans, hated his powers. While dating a superhero might seem glamorous, their dates were constantly interrupted. Dorris wanted a regular boyfriend instead of one who burst into flame. This echoed TV shows of the time like Bewitched where mortal Darrin wanted his wife Samantha to stop using her supernatural powers and live like an ordinary housewife.
By the end of the story arch that introduced the Inhumans, Johnny and Crystal were deeply in love but were separated. The separated, anguished lovers was another 1960s staple (it happened constantly on Dark Shadows). While Reed and Sue managed to get married, most other superhero had some reason for not being able to tell his true love about his feelings.
Doomed Superhero Romances of the 1960s (off topic but a fun exercise)
Spider-Man/Betty Brant - hated violence after her brother's death
Iron Man/Pepper Potts - not fair to date with a heart condition
Daredevil/Karen White - not fair to ask someone to date a blind man
Cyclopes/Marvel Girl - not fair to ask someone to date a man whose eyes can destroy buildings
Hulk/Betty Ross - do I have to elaborate?
Thor/Jane Foster - romance forbidden by Odin
Human Torch/Crystal - Crystal imprisoned in a sphere of negative energy
Silver Surfer/Shala-Bal - separated by Galactus
And a few DC late-entries:
Metamorpho/Sapphire Stagg - not fair to ask her to date a freak
Dead Man/Lorna Hill - he was dead
The Addams Family TV show: 1964-66
The Munsters TV show: 1964-66
First appearence of the Inhumans: 1965.
Coincidence?
Looking back at it, I don't think it was a coincidence at all. This sort of melding of popular culture with the Marvel Universe was something that Lee and Kirby (especially Jack Kirby) excelled at a few years later. The Inhumans began appearing in late 1965 (not counting Medusa who was introduced without an origin more than a year earlier). By 1968 and 1969, Stan was openly promoting the take-offs of pop culture in the FF. Two of the most memorable were the 1930s gangster plot (an entire planet of Skrulls were so taken with gangster movies that they redid their planet like one) and the Prisoner plot (Doom imprisoned the FF in a village much like the one in the classic TV series).
With this in mind, you can almost see the story conference. One of them (I'm going to guess Kirby) suggested that they do a take-off of a Munster standard where Marilyn, the normal-looking Munster, brings home a boyfriend who meets an array of monsters. In this case, the normal-looking one is Crystal, the only member of the Inhuman royal family who does not wear a mask or costume. She meets the Human Torch, mistakes him for an Inhuman, and takes him home to meet the family. Being the Marvel Universe, the family has hidden powers and wears masked costumes instead of being monsters. Things go as well as can be expected until Crystal introduces the Torch to her sister - Medusa.
This tied nicely into prior stories. They never explained where Medusa came from and there was some speculation that Medusa had escaped the Torch a few issues earlier because he was attracted to her. She was a bit old for the Torch but her younger sister...
I haven't looked it up yet but I think that there was even a reference to the Munsters in one of these issues.
The Torch was involved in a few 1960s situations. Back when he had his own strip, his girl friend, Dorris Evans, hated his powers. While dating a superhero might seem glamorous, their dates were constantly interrupted. Dorris wanted a regular boyfriend instead of one who burst into flame. This echoed TV shows of the time like Bewitched where mortal Darrin wanted his wife Samantha to stop using her supernatural powers and live like an ordinary housewife.
By the end of the story arch that introduced the Inhumans, Johnny and Crystal were deeply in love but were separated. The separated, anguished lovers was another 1960s staple (it happened constantly on Dark Shadows). While Reed and Sue managed to get married, most other superhero had some reason for not being able to tell his true love about his feelings.
Doomed Superhero Romances of the 1960s (off topic but a fun exercise)
Spider-Man/Betty Brant - hated violence after her brother's death
Iron Man/Pepper Potts - not fair to date with a heart condition
Daredevil/Karen White - not fair to ask someone to date a blind man
Cyclopes/Marvel Girl - not fair to ask someone to date a man whose eyes can destroy buildings
Hulk/Betty Ross - do I have to elaborate?
Thor/Jane Foster - romance forbidden by Odin
Human Torch/Crystal - Crystal imprisoned in a sphere of negative energy
Silver Surfer/Shala-Bal - separated by Galactus
And a few DC late-entries:
Metamorpho/Sapphire Stagg - not fair to ask her to date a freak
Dead Man/Lorna Hill - he was dead
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Return of Futurama
In the late 1990s, Fox approached Simpsons creator, Matt Groening about doing a follow-up series to be shown following the Simpsons. Taking his cue from the approaching year 2000, Groening set the show a thousand years in the future and gave it a retro-feel. Even the name, Futurama, somes from the "rama" suffix that was popular in the 1960s (my high school's marching band contest was a Band-o-rama).
Almost as soon as the show started, Fox began playing with the schedule. The show was moved multiple times. Even dedicated fans had to pay close attention to find it. This was made worse when Fox moved it to 7:00 Sunday. This spot was frequently preempted by football games. In fact, the show was preempted so often that Fox used unaired episodes from the third season to create a fourth season. Even though the show's ratings were fairly good and it often won its time slot, Fox canceled it.
But things didn't end there. The Cartoon Network picked it up as part of their Adult Swim, showing it at 11:00 or 11:30 (or sometimes, both). It also came out on DVD. Given a consistent time slot, the show did quite well. Comedy Central picked it up and commissioned a set of four straight-to-DVD movies. These were designed so that they could be cut into four half-hour episodes, each, essentially giving the show a fifth, 16-episode season. The response to these justified new episodes.
I admit that I was only luke-warm to the show when it started but it grew on me. After seeing all of the episodes multiple times in syndication, I think that the first season was the weakest and it grew stronger with each season. Most of the best episodes were in the final season and the last episode, where Fry writes an opera after exchanging his hands with the Robot Devil's, is especially strong.
The DVDs varied in quality. The first one, Bender's Big Score, was the best, but also had the most complicated plotline. The third one, Bender's Game, was also enjoyable. The second one, The Beast With a Billion Backs and the final one, Into the Green, didn't really merit two-hour status.
The new season has 26 episodes. The first two showed last night and showed that you can go home again. The style and tone of the show is unchanged from its years on Fox and the quality matches the fourth season.
Almost as soon as the show started, Fox began playing with the schedule. The show was moved multiple times. Even dedicated fans had to pay close attention to find it. This was made worse when Fox moved it to 7:00 Sunday. This spot was frequently preempted by football games. In fact, the show was preempted so often that Fox used unaired episodes from the third season to create a fourth season. Even though the show's ratings were fairly good and it often won its time slot, Fox canceled it.
But things didn't end there. The Cartoon Network picked it up as part of their Adult Swim, showing it at 11:00 or 11:30 (or sometimes, both). It also came out on DVD. Given a consistent time slot, the show did quite well. Comedy Central picked it up and commissioned a set of four straight-to-DVD movies. These were designed so that they could be cut into four half-hour episodes, each, essentially giving the show a fifth, 16-episode season. The response to these justified new episodes.
I admit that I was only luke-warm to the show when it started but it grew on me. After seeing all of the episodes multiple times in syndication, I think that the first season was the weakest and it grew stronger with each season. Most of the best episodes were in the final season and the last episode, where Fry writes an opera after exchanging his hands with the Robot Devil's, is especially strong.
The DVDs varied in quality. The first one, Bender's Big Score, was the best, but also had the most complicated plotline. The third one, Bender's Game, was also enjoyable. The second one, The Beast With a Billion Backs and the final one, Into the Green, didn't really merit two-hour status.
The new season has 26 episodes. The first two showed last night and showed that you can go home again. The style and tone of the show is unchanged from its years on Fox and the quality matches the fourth season.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Cartoons to Live-Action
Someone commented on cartoons being made into live-action. That got me to thinking about this genre. This is a mushy group. I'm going to include characters from syndicated comic strips, non-realistic comic book characters, and animated characters. The main criteria is that they are not presented in a realistic manner in their original form but were done as live-action, anyway.
This seems like a stupid idea but it can work. The Addams family began as single-panel cartoons. They worked because of the magnificent job that the creators of the TV show did in fleshing out the characters.
There was a popular series of movies based on Blondie in the 1930s and 40s. IMDB lists 26 of these.
Lil Abner was made as a life-action movie twice in 1940 and 1959. I've only seen the 1959 version but it was true to the comic strip and a critical success. It also holds up well. Much of the political commentary seems as relevant now as it did 51 years ago.
Dick Tracy also made the jump to live action and made a lot of money. It played up its comic strip roots with stylized sets and costumes.
I'm going to skip Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and the Phantom as too realistic for this genre.
The live-action Popeye suffered from several bad choices. One was to adapt the comic strip which no one remembered rather than the cartoons. The pacing was uneven. Most of the movie was very slow with half the plot taking place in the last fifteen minutes (I discovered that this is a much better movie if you skip the rest).
Some movies don't totally make the leap to live-action. Scooby Doo work pretty well because most of the elements of the cartoon were realistic. The main non-realistic part, the dog, continued to be animated. This approach has been used with kids movies like Alvin, Garfield, and Marmaduke. Adults should avoid these.
Jay Ward cartoons translate poorly to live action. Rocky and Bullwinkle was a mistake. George of the Jungle was better than it should have been, mainly because of Brendan Frasier's ability to play goofy roles.
The live action Flintstones was successful enough to warrant a sequel, but not successful enough to pay the original stars to come back. I skipped the movies so I can't comment on them.
Then there are the star vehicles. Richie Rich and Mr. Mcgoo are the two worst offenders. Mcgoo, was an especially puzzling choice since the title character is supposed to be short, bald, and half blind. None of those made the transition to the movie.
All of this reflects Hollywood's laziness in creating new characters and its belief that a familiar name is better than a good movie.
This seems like a stupid idea but it can work. The Addams family began as single-panel cartoons. They worked because of the magnificent job that the creators of the TV show did in fleshing out the characters.
There was a popular series of movies based on Blondie in the 1930s and 40s. IMDB lists 26 of these.
Lil Abner was made as a life-action movie twice in 1940 and 1959. I've only seen the 1959 version but it was true to the comic strip and a critical success. It also holds up well. Much of the political commentary seems as relevant now as it did 51 years ago.
Dick Tracy also made the jump to live action and made a lot of money. It played up its comic strip roots with stylized sets and costumes.
I'm going to skip Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and the Phantom as too realistic for this genre.
The live-action Popeye suffered from several bad choices. One was to adapt the comic strip which no one remembered rather than the cartoons. The pacing was uneven. Most of the movie was very slow with half the plot taking place in the last fifteen minutes (I discovered that this is a much better movie if you skip the rest).
Some movies don't totally make the leap to live-action. Scooby Doo work pretty well because most of the elements of the cartoon were realistic. The main non-realistic part, the dog, continued to be animated. This approach has been used with kids movies like Alvin, Garfield, and Marmaduke. Adults should avoid these.
Jay Ward cartoons translate poorly to live action. Rocky and Bullwinkle was a mistake. George of the Jungle was better than it should have been, mainly because of Brendan Frasier's ability to play goofy roles.
The live action Flintstones was successful enough to warrant a sequel, but not successful enough to pay the original stars to come back. I skipped the movies so I can't comment on them.
Then there are the star vehicles. Richie Rich and Mr. Mcgoo are the two worst offenders. Mcgoo, was an especially puzzling choice since the title character is supposed to be short, bald, and half blind. None of those made the transition to the movie.
All of this reflects Hollywood's laziness in creating new characters and its belief that a familiar name is better than a good movie.
Friday, June 11, 2010
TV to Movie
When I was growing up a surprising number of TV shows were based on movies. Many of them were successful and ran for several years but, with the exception of M.A.S.H., none of them were memorable. Things did not go the other way - TV shows did not become movies.
There were minor exceptions to this. Some TV shows would make a theatrical version - basically an extended episode shot during production of the TV show with the regular cast. These were shot in color and had a slightly higher budget than a regular episode but otherwise were indistinguishable. Examples include the 1960s Batman movie and ones featuring the Munsters and McHale's Navy.
As far as I know, Star Trek was the first TV show to make the jump to the big screen after it had been canceled. It is also a special case for reasons I will get into later.
I'm going to sub-divide the TV-to-movies genre a few different ways. First, there are the movies made with the original cast. These have generally been successful, either artistically or financially. This includes Star Trek, The Simpsons, Firefly/Serenity, Sex in the City, and the X-Files.
The other divide is movies with entirely new casts. These can be further divided into dramas and comedies. I said that Star Trek is a special case - with the recent reboot, it now qualifies as both original cast and new cast.
The dramas have been fairly successful. I am including lighter shows like Maverick and the Wild Wild West in this (WWW made a lot of money, even if I don't want to see it ever again). Mission Impossible is probably the top money-maker in this class. Some of the early efforts like the Fugitive show that it is possible to get critical acclaim in a TV-to-movie.
There have also been a lot of bombs. Comedies usually translate poorly. The Brady Bunch is the only one I can think of off-hand that made enough money to get a sequel. Others like McHale's Navy, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Car 54 Where Are You sank fast, leaving a stink behind. Even a first-rate cast like Bewitched had couldn't save it from being a bad movie.
There is one exception to this - the Addams Family. Both movies were very good and quite profitable. The question is, do they count? I am not counting other media that was adapted to TV before being made into a movie (Spider-Man). The Addams Family was a series of cartoons first and some of the humor in the movies came directly from these. On the other hand, the cartoon characters were undefined. They didn't even have names. This came from the TV show.
I think that the lesson here is that characters and situations that can fill an hour-long TV show can be expanded to fill a feature-length movie but half-hour situation comedies rely of short doses and established characters. These are much harder to flesh out.
A further lesson is that SNL sketches usually strain to fill ten minutes. Trying to expand most of these to feature-length is an exercise in futility.
There were minor exceptions to this. Some TV shows would make a theatrical version - basically an extended episode shot during production of the TV show with the regular cast. These were shot in color and had a slightly higher budget than a regular episode but otherwise were indistinguishable. Examples include the 1960s Batman movie and ones featuring the Munsters and McHale's Navy.
As far as I know, Star Trek was the first TV show to make the jump to the big screen after it had been canceled. It is also a special case for reasons I will get into later.
I'm going to sub-divide the TV-to-movies genre a few different ways. First, there are the movies made with the original cast. These have generally been successful, either artistically or financially. This includes Star Trek, The Simpsons, Firefly/Serenity, Sex in the City, and the X-Files.
The other divide is movies with entirely new casts. These can be further divided into dramas and comedies. I said that Star Trek is a special case - with the recent reboot, it now qualifies as both original cast and new cast.
The dramas have been fairly successful. I am including lighter shows like Maverick and the Wild Wild West in this (WWW made a lot of money, even if I don't want to see it ever again). Mission Impossible is probably the top money-maker in this class. Some of the early efforts like the Fugitive show that it is possible to get critical acclaim in a TV-to-movie.
There have also been a lot of bombs. Comedies usually translate poorly. The Brady Bunch is the only one I can think of off-hand that made enough money to get a sequel. Others like McHale's Navy, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Car 54 Where Are You sank fast, leaving a stink behind. Even a first-rate cast like Bewitched had couldn't save it from being a bad movie.
There is one exception to this - the Addams Family. Both movies were very good and quite profitable. The question is, do they count? I am not counting other media that was adapted to TV before being made into a movie (Spider-Man). The Addams Family was a series of cartoons first and some of the humor in the movies came directly from these. On the other hand, the cartoon characters were undefined. They didn't even have names. This came from the TV show.
I think that the lesson here is that characters and situations that can fill an hour-long TV show can be expanded to fill a feature-length movie but half-hour situation comedies rely of short doses and established characters. These are much harder to flesh out.
A further lesson is that SNL sketches usually strain to fill ten minutes. Trying to expand most of these to feature-length is an exercise in futility.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Looking back at Lost
We've had a couple of weeks for things to settle after the Lost finale episode. Looking back at it, we can see that each season had a general theme:
Season One - Where are we?
Season Two - Pushing Buttons
Season Three - Meet the Others
Season Four - The Freighter
Season Five - Return to the island
Season Six - Everyone dies
When you consider the show by season instead of by episode then season six represents a clear break with the rest of the show. Up until then they held out the possibility of a scientific explanation for everything. Granted their science didn't meet high school levels, but at least they pretended that there was some science behind the show. Magnetism was given a lot of the credit, especially for healing people and time travel. Even the smoke monster could be repealed through science (sonic towers).
The final season abandoned almost all pretense to science. Jacob and his mother explained the island in mystical terms which all turned out to be true. They didn't even try to explain how a stone plug in a pool of water caused the glow or how manipulating the light and water could cause the island to shift in time and space.
Exposure to extreme electro-magnetic radiation caused Desmond to become aware of the sideways time but this turned out to be some version of an afterlife.
The sideways time was the biggest cheat of the show. The implication was that it was a parallel world created by detonating an explosive in the pool of magnetism that the hatch was built over. At the very end we found out that it was really some sort of consensual afterlife. The producers had promised that the island was not an afterlife. Having non-island time turn out to be an afterlife was a cheap trick.
The show ended in a fit of symmetry. It began with Jack waking up in the bamboo grove then seeing the dog and the shoe suspended from a tree. As he died, Jack passed the shoe and the dog lay beside him as he died.
Possibly the biggest disappointment in the show is the idea that a stone plug in a glowing pool is so important. This raises too many questions about who built the pool and the plug in the first place.
The producers say that the show was never about the plot. It was about the people. They were all "lost" when they arrived and it is true, the whole cast had been nothing but losers in the outside world. Locke tried to point this out at the end of the third season - they had nothing to return to. Jack didn't listen, but then Jack was always wrong.
Season One - Where are we?
Season Two - Pushing Buttons
Season Three - Meet the Others
Season Four - The Freighter
Season Five - Return to the island
Season Six - Everyone dies
When you consider the show by season instead of by episode then season six represents a clear break with the rest of the show. Up until then they held out the possibility of a scientific explanation for everything. Granted their science didn't meet high school levels, but at least they pretended that there was some science behind the show. Magnetism was given a lot of the credit, especially for healing people and time travel. Even the smoke monster could be repealed through science (sonic towers).
The final season abandoned almost all pretense to science. Jacob and his mother explained the island in mystical terms which all turned out to be true. They didn't even try to explain how a stone plug in a pool of water caused the glow or how manipulating the light and water could cause the island to shift in time and space.
Exposure to extreme electro-magnetic radiation caused Desmond to become aware of the sideways time but this turned out to be some version of an afterlife.
The sideways time was the biggest cheat of the show. The implication was that it was a parallel world created by detonating an explosive in the pool of magnetism that the hatch was built over. At the very end we found out that it was really some sort of consensual afterlife. The producers had promised that the island was not an afterlife. Having non-island time turn out to be an afterlife was a cheap trick.
The show ended in a fit of symmetry. It began with Jack waking up in the bamboo grove then seeing the dog and the shoe suspended from a tree. As he died, Jack passed the shoe and the dog lay beside him as he died.
Possibly the biggest disappointment in the show is the idea that a stone plug in a glowing pool is so important. This raises too many questions about who built the pool and the plug in the first place.
The producers say that the show was never about the plot. It was about the people. They were all "lost" when they arrived and it is true, the whole cast had been nothing but losers in the outside world. Locke tried to point this out at the end of the third season - they had nothing to return to. Jack didn't listen, but then Jack was always wrong.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
A few lessons from Heroes
NBC made it official - Heroes has been canceled. What happened?
The first season was far and away the best. We spent most of it meeting the various heroes and learning about their powers and lives. At the same time, the show had an urgency. First, there was the mass-killer Sylar who kept becoming more powerful. At first, Sylar was a shadowy man in a ball cap who killed heroes in a gruesome fashion. There was also HRG and the group that employed him. Finally, there was a future event that would wipe out New York City and the need to stop it.
There were problems in the first season, especially with pacing, but it was worth watching through the end.
The second season had some real problems. The biggest was the writer's strike which caused things to be tied up in a couple of quick, messy episodes. This caused major pacing problems. The addition of some romantic subplots slowed things down even worse. Still, you could give it some slack because of the strike.
Things went very wrong in the third season. They tried too hard to recreate the first season and failed totally. Plot elements like an eclipse removing everyone's powers made no sense. The first half of the third season was called "Book 3 - Heroes and Villains". This meant constantly shuffling who was on which side. By the end of Book 3, the writing staff had been fired.
Book 4 was more promising. The government found out about the heroes and moved to imprison them. Several escaped and spent time on the run. While an improvement, it was not up to the original season.
Season four, aka Book 5 made some improvements. The regular cast was cut way back with the rest appearing just a few times. New characters were added. It was not enough to attract the viewers back.
So what went wrong? Sylar was the biggest problem. He started as a memorable villain. He killed people so that he could steal their powers. He was powerful and scary. Over the rest of the show he alternated between reforming and going back to merciless killer. Between inconsistent characterization and overexposure, he lost his edge. He was no longer scary. Other villains were introduced but none could match Sylar.
There was also too much Claire. A teenage girl who could heal from anything, she kept getting in over her head. Her powers made her a natural victim. And, her relationship with her father, HRG, took the edge off of him.
In fact, most of the cast should have been discarded after the first season. Part of the magic about the first season was meeting these people and seeing what they could do. We got to know them too well. The constant shuffling in Book 3 hurt the characters a lot, too. It might seem like an interesting literary device to make people heroes one week and villains the next but it ruins long-term characterization.
The biggest problem was the need to keep the show fresh. Lost did this by having a plot arc that contained all six seasons but also allowed for seasons that were totally different from each other. Characters were added or killed. Only about half of the cast from the first season made it to the sixth season but new characters have been added along the way.
Lost started dragging when the producers decided where the show was going but were not sure how long they had to stretch it out. Heroes never looked forward any further than the end of the season so it could not build on itself to a conclusion.
That's probably the big lesson here. Continuity dramas need a goal. It is not enough to remember where you have been, you have to have a destination. Characters should grow, not simply change and be discarded when they start to drag down the series.
The first season was far and away the best. We spent most of it meeting the various heroes and learning about their powers and lives. At the same time, the show had an urgency. First, there was the mass-killer Sylar who kept becoming more powerful. At first, Sylar was a shadowy man in a ball cap who killed heroes in a gruesome fashion. There was also HRG and the group that employed him. Finally, there was a future event that would wipe out New York City and the need to stop it.
There were problems in the first season, especially with pacing, but it was worth watching through the end.
The second season had some real problems. The biggest was the writer's strike which caused things to be tied up in a couple of quick, messy episodes. This caused major pacing problems. The addition of some romantic subplots slowed things down even worse. Still, you could give it some slack because of the strike.
Things went very wrong in the third season. They tried too hard to recreate the first season and failed totally. Plot elements like an eclipse removing everyone's powers made no sense. The first half of the third season was called "Book 3 - Heroes and Villains". This meant constantly shuffling who was on which side. By the end of Book 3, the writing staff had been fired.
Book 4 was more promising. The government found out about the heroes and moved to imprison them. Several escaped and spent time on the run. While an improvement, it was not up to the original season.
Season four, aka Book 5 made some improvements. The regular cast was cut way back with the rest appearing just a few times. New characters were added. It was not enough to attract the viewers back.
So what went wrong? Sylar was the biggest problem. He started as a memorable villain. He killed people so that he could steal their powers. He was powerful and scary. Over the rest of the show he alternated between reforming and going back to merciless killer. Between inconsistent characterization and overexposure, he lost his edge. He was no longer scary. Other villains were introduced but none could match Sylar.
There was also too much Claire. A teenage girl who could heal from anything, she kept getting in over her head. Her powers made her a natural victim. And, her relationship with her father, HRG, took the edge off of him.
In fact, most of the cast should have been discarded after the first season. Part of the magic about the first season was meeting these people and seeing what they could do. We got to know them too well. The constant shuffling in Book 3 hurt the characters a lot, too. It might seem like an interesting literary device to make people heroes one week and villains the next but it ruins long-term characterization.
The biggest problem was the need to keep the show fresh. Lost did this by having a plot arc that contained all six seasons but also allowed for seasons that were totally different from each other. Characters were added or killed. Only about half of the cast from the first season made it to the sixth season but new characters have been added along the way.
Lost started dragging when the producers decided where the show was going but were not sure how long they had to stretch it out. Heroes never looked forward any further than the end of the season so it could not build on itself to a conclusion.
That's probably the big lesson here. Continuity dramas need a goal. It is not enough to remember where you have been, you have to have a destination. Characters should grow, not simply change and be discarded when they start to drag down the series.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Early Iron Man
I've read over the early Iron Man comics from his origin to his red and gold armor. Most of these were plotted by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby.
There's no polite way to say this - the Lee/Kirby issues suck. They are formulaic and generic. Each started with Tony Stark introducing some new, impossible weapon - an automatic weapon that could demolish buildings or powered roller skates that can transport troops at 60 MPH. After that, Stark would move on to the real adventure. The stories ran around 14 pages so there wasn't much room for characterization or anything else.
The stories themselves were standard super-hero stories. There was nothing that made them Iron Man stories. It would take less than five minutes to rewrite any of the scripts for any other hero who was stronger than Daredevil. They would even work as Green Lantern or Flash stories.
Things got a lot better when Kirby left and Don Heck took over the art. While Kirby is remembered for his ground-breaking art from the late 1960s, in the early 1960s he could be boring. Heck's artwork was much more dynamic.
Not long after Heck took over the art, several elements were added to the character. Happy Hogan, an out-of-work boxer saved Stark from a race car crash (which was suggested in Iron Man 2) and Stark hired him as a driver and bodyguard. Stark showed Hogan around his plant in Flushing New York next to the site of the 1964 World's Fair (the inspiration for the 1974 Stark Expo in Iron Man 2) and introduced his secretary, Pepper Potts. From that point on, Happy, Pepper, and the plant figured prominently in most stories.
Once the plant was introduced, it became the target for saboteurs - some Communist, some rival munitions makers, and some scientists trying to steel Stark's inventions. Iron Man stopped being a friend of Stark's who happened to be hanging around and became the unofficial protector of the plant.
An unusual story element was Congress. Whenever someone disrupted Stark's plants, Congressmen and other government officials started talking about pulling contracts. This came to a head years later when a senator ordered Stark's plant closed until he testified before Congress (another element in Iron Man 2).
The final element was Iron Man's armor. In his first appearance it was gray. In his second appearance, he heard people react to the armor in fear. Stark's girlfriend at the time (in her only appearance) suggested that he color his armor gold which he immediately did. While this outfit did look like an "iron man", it was also bulky for a super hero. In a one-shot drawn by Steve Ditko, Iron Man decided that he needed a lighter suit.
The Iron Man story finally came into its own. No longer could you use an Iron Man plot for another character. By the time you subtracted all of the Iron Man-specific details you had lost at least half the story.
All of this was in the early 1960s. As the Viet Nam war progressed, readers became uncomfortable with Stark making munitions. Eventually he divested his company of weapons and started making unspecified civilian products.
Note - In an earlier post I mentioned Stark keeping his new armor in a briefcase. I forgot that he also kept his original armor in a briefcase. Somehow he was able to fold the bulky suit up like tinfoil.
There's no polite way to say this - the Lee/Kirby issues suck. They are formulaic and generic. Each started with Tony Stark introducing some new, impossible weapon - an automatic weapon that could demolish buildings or powered roller skates that can transport troops at 60 MPH. After that, Stark would move on to the real adventure. The stories ran around 14 pages so there wasn't much room for characterization or anything else.
The stories themselves were standard super-hero stories. There was nothing that made them Iron Man stories. It would take less than five minutes to rewrite any of the scripts for any other hero who was stronger than Daredevil. They would even work as Green Lantern or Flash stories.
Things got a lot better when Kirby left and Don Heck took over the art. While Kirby is remembered for his ground-breaking art from the late 1960s, in the early 1960s he could be boring. Heck's artwork was much more dynamic.
Not long after Heck took over the art, several elements were added to the character. Happy Hogan, an out-of-work boxer saved Stark from a race car crash (which was suggested in Iron Man 2) and Stark hired him as a driver and bodyguard. Stark showed Hogan around his plant in Flushing New York next to the site of the 1964 World's Fair (the inspiration for the 1974 Stark Expo in Iron Man 2) and introduced his secretary, Pepper Potts. From that point on, Happy, Pepper, and the plant figured prominently in most stories.
Once the plant was introduced, it became the target for saboteurs - some Communist, some rival munitions makers, and some scientists trying to steel Stark's inventions. Iron Man stopped being a friend of Stark's who happened to be hanging around and became the unofficial protector of the plant.
An unusual story element was Congress. Whenever someone disrupted Stark's plants, Congressmen and other government officials started talking about pulling contracts. This came to a head years later when a senator ordered Stark's plant closed until he testified before Congress (another element in Iron Man 2).
The final element was Iron Man's armor. In his first appearance it was gray. In his second appearance, he heard people react to the armor in fear. Stark's girlfriend at the time (in her only appearance) suggested that he color his armor gold which he immediately did. While this outfit did look like an "iron man", it was also bulky for a super hero. In a one-shot drawn by Steve Ditko, Iron Man decided that he needed a lighter suit.
The Iron Man story finally came into its own. No longer could you use an Iron Man plot for another character. By the time you subtracted all of the Iron Man-specific details you had lost at least half the story.
All of this was in the early 1960s. As the Viet Nam war progressed, readers became uncomfortable with Stark making munitions. Eventually he divested his company of weapons and started making unspecified civilian products.
Note - In an earlier post I mentioned Stark keeping his new armor in a briefcase. I forgot that he also kept his original armor in a briefcase. Somehow he was able to fold the bulky suit up like tinfoil.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Lost - Jacob and Nameless
We finally know more about where Jacob and the man in black came from. Their mother, a Roman named Claudia, washed up on the island shortly before having a set of twins. Claudia was assisted in her delivery by another woman whose name was not given. Claudia only had one name chosen - Jacob. When a second child was born, she didn't know what to name him. Before she could think of anything, the midwife killed her and raised the boys as her own.
Jacob was loyal, incapable of lying, and wore light colors. His brother was clever and wore black. Sometimes the brother knew things without being told like when he found a game. He also kept secrets and could lie. For some reason he assumed that his (adopted) mother would not let him keep the game.
Claudia appeared to Nameless. I assume that this was a real haunting like Hurley's instead of the Smoke Monster appearing as Claudia. She led nameless to a camp of her people. While Claudia was dressed like a Roman, had a Roman name, and spoke Latin, these people looked like Celts. That puts the episode 2000 years in the past, plus or minus a hundred years or so.
Nameless confronted his mother about their real past and their real mother. Mom admitted the truth and Nameless went off to live with the other people. He didn't like them but they knew things. Mom had shown the boys a glowing cavern. Nameless and the Celts kept digging dry wells until they found it. Then they built the wheel - the one that moves the island through time and space.
Mom didn't like this so she knocked out Nameless, filled in the hole, and killed the rest of the people. We have no idea how she did this but it implied that she had supernatural powers.
She made Jacob her successor guardian of the island, apparently using the same bottle that Jacob gave to Richard centuries later.
Nameless killed Mom. Jacob killed Nameless and sent his body into the glowing cavern. The pillar of smoke erupted from it but Nameless's dead body came out the other side. Does this mean that Smokey was only using Nameless's form the same way that he used Locke's form?
Jacob placed the bodies of his nameless mother and brother in the cavern where they were discovered by Jack and Kate in the third episode.
So, now we know where the wells came from and how Jacob became guardian of the island. We might know where Smoky came from (if Nameless's soul was transforemd into the Smoke Monster). At the very least, we know how he came to look like the man in black. We also know where the in-joke of the white and black pieces representing a giant game came from.
There is probably a lot of symbolism in Mom's loom. She spent a lot of time at it and Jacob took over from her, although his work did not look as good. Before Nameless killed her, he ruined her weaving.
I figured that "Adam and Eve" would be one of those mysteries that was never answered. With only three and a half hours of episodes left, I'm not sure that this was worth the time spent on it.
Jacob was loyal, incapable of lying, and wore light colors. His brother was clever and wore black. Sometimes the brother knew things without being told like when he found a game. He also kept secrets and could lie. For some reason he assumed that his (adopted) mother would not let him keep the game.
Claudia appeared to Nameless. I assume that this was a real haunting like Hurley's instead of the Smoke Monster appearing as Claudia. She led nameless to a camp of her people. While Claudia was dressed like a Roman, had a Roman name, and spoke Latin, these people looked like Celts. That puts the episode 2000 years in the past, plus or minus a hundred years or so.
Nameless confronted his mother about their real past and their real mother. Mom admitted the truth and Nameless went off to live with the other people. He didn't like them but they knew things. Mom had shown the boys a glowing cavern. Nameless and the Celts kept digging dry wells until they found it. Then they built the wheel - the one that moves the island through time and space.
Mom didn't like this so she knocked out Nameless, filled in the hole, and killed the rest of the people. We have no idea how she did this but it implied that she had supernatural powers.
She made Jacob her successor guardian of the island, apparently using the same bottle that Jacob gave to Richard centuries later.
Nameless killed Mom. Jacob killed Nameless and sent his body into the glowing cavern. The pillar of smoke erupted from it but Nameless's dead body came out the other side. Does this mean that Smokey was only using Nameless's form the same way that he used Locke's form?
Jacob placed the bodies of his nameless mother and brother in the cavern where they were discovered by Jack and Kate in the third episode.
So, now we know where the wells came from and how Jacob became guardian of the island. We might know where Smoky came from (if Nameless's soul was transforemd into the Smoke Monster). At the very least, we know how he came to look like the man in black. We also know where the in-joke of the white and black pieces representing a giant game came from.
There is probably a lot of symbolism in Mom's loom. She spent a lot of time at it and Jacob took over from her, although his work did not look as good. Before Nameless killed her, he ruined her weaving.
I figured that "Adam and Eve" would be one of those mysteries that was never answered. With only three and a half hours of episodes left, I'm not sure that this was worth the time spent on it.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Iron Man 2
It is tough for a sequel to live up to an original like the first Iron Man movie. When they expended the best picture category for the Oscars, Iron Man was given as an example of a picture that should have been nominated but was not.
So, given that baggage, I don't think that the sequel is quite as good as the original. That said it is still a lot of fun.Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark continues to be as much fun out of the armor as in it.
The first movie had two sets of villians - a Taliban-like group of terrorists living in caves in Afghanistan and Stark's partner. The new movie has a Russian genius who hates the Stark family and a munitions manufacturer name Justin Hammer.
While the names come from the comic books, the characters are very different. Hammer, in the comics, was a businessman who would enhance supervillians' powers in exchange for a take of their future earnings.
The Russian becomes Whiplash although his name, Anton Vanko, comes from the original Crimson Dynamo. The character is much more dangerous than the comic book version of Whiplash.
In the original book, Stark seems driven to create his Iron Man armor. In this one, he is haunted by his coming demise. The arc reactor that keeps his heart pumping is slowly killing him.
The action has been ramped up. There are more and bigger fights. There is also more laugh-out-loud humor which keeps things going during the slow parts of the plot.
So, given that baggage, I don't think that the sequel is quite as good as the original. That said it is still a lot of fun.Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark continues to be as much fun out of the armor as in it.
The first movie had two sets of villians - a Taliban-like group of terrorists living in caves in Afghanistan and Stark's partner. The new movie has a Russian genius who hates the Stark family and a munitions manufacturer name Justin Hammer.
While the names come from the comic books, the characters are very different. Hammer, in the comics, was a businessman who would enhance supervillians' powers in exchange for a take of their future earnings.
The Russian becomes Whiplash although his name, Anton Vanko, comes from the original Crimson Dynamo. The character is much more dangerous than the comic book version of Whiplash.
In the original book, Stark seems driven to create his Iron Man armor. In this one, he is haunted by his coming demise. The arc reactor that keeps his heart pumping is slowly killing him.
The action has been ramped up. There are more and bigger fights. There is also more laugh-out-loud humor which keeps things going during the slow parts of the plot.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Chuck - Season 3.5
In its first season, Chuck was good but it always seemed like it should have been better. During the second season it started firing on all cylinders, especially near the end of the season.
At the end of season 2 they shook things up a lot. The original premise was that a slacker computer nerd had a confidential database in his head. He had a pair of agents guarding him and running missions based on the information in his head. There was always some plot contrivance so that he had to come along, even though he was untrained. There was also a long-running almost-romance between Chuck and Sarah, one of the agents.
Season three shook things up. Chuck got a new set of information including abilities and the season was devoted to him becoming a real spy.
Originally NBC ordered a short season of 13 episodes. Part-way through production they expanded the order by six episodes. Apparently the scripts were already in place when the expanded order came through. This resulted in a season 3.5.
At the end of the original season 3, Chuck was finally a real spy and finally got together with Sarah. There was a break of a couple of weeks and things picked up from there.
Often when a series is based on will they/won't they, the series declines when they finally do. Moonlighting and Remmington Steel are prime examples. This is not a hard and fast rule. Cheers had its best days after Sam and Dianne got together.
Chuck seems to have improved again. Instead of concentrating on Chuck's ineptness, it is exploring his relationship with Sarah.
The show has always had a strong supporting cast between Chuck's sister and her husband and his co-workers. This is also continuing as Casey, the other agent tries to train Chuck's best friend, Morgan. While Chuck was a slacker with potential, Morgan is a genuine idiot. This relationship promises to continue any comic relief that was lost when Chuck became competent.
In the meantime, loyal fans formed flash mobs yesterday to try to get the show renewed. With the Leno disaster leaving NBC with a gaping hole in its schedule, the bar may be lowered. At the same time, Chuck's ratings are up a bit so it may make season four, yet.
At the end of season 2 they shook things up a lot. The original premise was that a slacker computer nerd had a confidential database in his head. He had a pair of agents guarding him and running missions based on the information in his head. There was always some plot contrivance so that he had to come along, even though he was untrained. There was also a long-running almost-romance between Chuck and Sarah, one of the agents.
Season three shook things up. Chuck got a new set of information including abilities and the season was devoted to him becoming a real spy.
Originally NBC ordered a short season of 13 episodes. Part-way through production they expanded the order by six episodes. Apparently the scripts were already in place when the expanded order came through. This resulted in a season 3.5.
At the end of the original season 3, Chuck was finally a real spy and finally got together with Sarah. There was a break of a couple of weeks and things picked up from there.
Often when a series is based on will they/won't they, the series declines when they finally do. Moonlighting and Remmington Steel are prime examples. This is not a hard and fast rule. Cheers had its best days after Sam and Dianne got together.
Chuck seems to have improved again. Instead of concentrating on Chuck's ineptness, it is exploring his relationship with Sarah.
The show has always had a strong supporting cast between Chuck's sister and her husband and his co-workers. This is also continuing as Casey, the other agent tries to train Chuck's best friend, Morgan. While Chuck was a slacker with potential, Morgan is a genuine idiot. This relationship promises to continue any comic relief that was lost when Chuck became competent.
In the meantime, loyal fans formed flash mobs yesterday to try to get the show renewed. With the Leno disaster leaving NBC with a gaping hole in its schedule, the bar may be lowered. At the same time, Chuck's ratings are up a bit so it may make season four, yet.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Armor in a Briefcase
"As a little tip of the hat to the fans, I wanted to pull off the suitcase suit," he says. "In the comic book, they have this ridiculous thing where Tony Stark would open up an attache case, throw a glove on, and on the next page, he'd have the whole suit on. How do you make the suitcase suit real? That was another challenge we presented to ourselves." - Jon Favreau
The original version of Iron Man was big and bulky. It had a lot of cast iron pieces and it limited the artist. Stan started improving it immediately. In the first issue, Iron Man was iron gray. In the second issue he noticed that people were nervous around him and, at someone's suggestion, he painted the armor gold (earning the nick-name the "Golden Avenger"). That wasn't good enough and a few months later they redesigned the armor completely. Don Heck had been doing the art with Jack Kirby providing some of the breakdowns. For the redesign, Steve Ditko took over the strip for an issue or two.
The new armor was light and flexible. It had the red chest piece (it actually covered his entire torso) which Stark could wear over the unit keeping his heart beating. To put on the rest of the armor, Stark would pull on a red glove or put a foot through a thick red ring. Golden armor would emerge from this, pulled up his arm or leg by magnets and lock into place in the chest plate. The boots worked the same way. He just stepped on the sole and the boot covered his foot. The mask slid over his head like a hood. The faceplate was hinged and could be raised. It also has larger eyeholes so his expression could be seen through it. The whole assembly was so small and light that he could put it in his attache case and carry it with him. The lock could be set to release tear gas if someone unauthorized opened it. This had to be set separately, allowing someone to steal his armor once.
This remained the basic armor well into the 1980s. There were a few modifications. The face plate became part of the helmet. The pods on his hips grew. The position and size of the unibeam and two smaller plugs moved around.
In the late 1970s, the helmet was redesigned to allow for Stark's nose. It looked ridiculous and Stark quickly returned to the original helmet.
He also went through a phase with red and white armor instead of red and gold. Eventually the armor was redesigned to look more armor-like and began looking like the suit(s) in the movie.
There was a long-running debate in the letter column about the armor. It was flexible when it went on and it had no visible joints so how could it give Stark added strength or even protect him from crushing force?
Eventually a writer threw in the word "polarized" and the debate stopped. Apparently the armor stiffened when a current was applied to it. What is more, it would take different shapes depending on the current, allowing movement.
Something that no one ever commented on is the weight. A thin sheet of high-carbon steel can be pierced by bullets and would weigh something in excess of 100 pounds - not something you could lightly carry with you. Stark's armor is significantly stronger than steel and significantly lighter.
Then there are the batteries. Most of his power was supposed to come from the pods at his hips plus (indestructable?) solar cells in his armor. Batteries that size are more suitable for powering a laptop than a battle suit.
But that's comics. A large portion of disbelief is required.
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