[Round 2]You wake up in Sherup. You are a...
| Dog | 148 (35%) |
| Hedgehog | 119 (28%) |
| Panda | 154 (36%) |
| Slug | 5 (1%) |
Also, we have a poll! Vampires! Because it's more than just a cool name. Vote for your favorite vampire. Or at least for the vampire you like most from among the choices offered. When I look at lists of vampires, two things pop out at me. Firstly, most of them are named Dracula. So he's on there. Is that a vote for the Dracula from Castlevania or the one from Young Dracula or the one that Abbot and Costello met? Whichever one you like most. Secondly, there are a whole lot of vampires who I haven't heard of. I'm sadly out of date when it comes to vampires.
So if your favorite vampire isn't on there, let me know. If I get enough suggestions, maybe we'll do another vampire poll.
[Round 1]You wake up in Sherup. You are a...
| Cat | 179 (40%) |
| Koala | 36 (8%) |
| Mouse | 41 (9%) |
| Fox | 194 (43%) |
I got a sketch from James Silvani, who drew the recent Darkwing Duck comic books. They were amazing and I kept meaning to write about them here. I didn't get a chance before the series ended. After 18 issues. I need to update this thing more often.
Anyhow, I got a sketch of Uncle Scrooge and Bowling Ball Scrooge.
Why Scrooge, if I liked the job he did on Darkwing so much?
Because he drew the Ducktales crossover.
Let me take that a step back. For a variety of historical reasons, Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics are HUGE in Europe. They're fairly popular in South America. In the US, you need to special order them.
Accordingly, most of the artists*, at least over the last 50 years, are overseas and there's not much call for them to do the American con circuit. So this looked like my only chance to get a sketch from someone who's drawn Scrooge in an official capacity.
Why Bowling Ball Scrooge?
Crisis on Infinite Darkwings. The Evil Plan was: go to alternate dimensions. Kidnap and brainwash that dimensions Darkwing. Turn all the kidnapped brainwashed Darkwings loose. Chaos ensues.
The script originally called for something like eight altenate Darkwings. James Silvani added more than 60. That kind of detail is one of the reasons why I liked the series. They got stranger and stranger until....
Bowling Ball Darkwing. Either you think it's hilarious or you don't. There is nothing further I can say on the matter. And since there's a whole dimension of them, Bowling Ball Scrooge.
*: One notable exception is Don Rosa. Last I heard, he retired from comics. Two days after WonderCon, I found out that he was appearing at Emerald City Comic-Con. I didn't drop everything and go to Seattle, but I did price it out. I'm not sure if he did sketches.
It's hard for me to get time off work, so we went for just a day. We saw the Adventure Time panel. If you haven't seen Adventure Time, it's a fifteen-minute cartoon about a boy and his dog who go around having adventures, saving princesses, and generally being awesome in a world that doesn't make much sense.
It was nice to see the faces behind the voices and the people who make it happen. They talked a bit about what was going to happen next, usually in terms vague enough not to violate a non-disclosure agreement, and about the process. The main thing we took away is that Fionna and Cake will show up in another episode, most likely teaming up with Finn and Jake. Fionna and Cake are fictional (within the series - they're double-fictional) female versions of Finn and Jake. It's the kind of series where being fictional isn't enough to stop them from having awesome adventures together.
Part 2 soon. In the meantime, poll results:
Do you read comic books (on paper)?
| Yes. | 172 (66%) |
| Only trades. | 22 (8%) |
| Only digitally. | 43 (16%) |
| No. | 25 (10%) |
2011 wasn't a horrible year, but we've had better. For the last few months, we've had intermittant power outages and a greater-than-usual amount of errands to do. It was boring. It, to paraphrase either Gian Vincenzo Gravina or Oscar Wilde, deprived us of free time without providing us with interesting anecdotes.
The comics are now larger at 850 pixels wide, and the sites got redesigned to reflect that. We added polls (which reminds me; I need to write more polls and post more poll results). NamirDeiter.net got a proper archive. NamirDeiter.net's commentary system also got proper archives for each comic and storyline navigation.
The code got improved, but should function identically. You can now search for multiple terms. NamirDeiter.net has an automatic account creator, for when you want at the bonus content NOW. And an automatic password reset system.
Favorite You Say it First story (Year 2, Division B)
| Guy Talk | 12 (14%) |
| Valentine's Day Plans | 28 (32%) |
| Me and my TV | 16 (18%) |
| Baked Goods | 21 (24%) |
| Back at work | 10 (11%) |
Votes so far: 87
Do you read comic books (on paper)?
| Yes. | 172 (66%) |
| Only trades. | 22 (8%) |
| Only digitally. | 43 (16%) |
| No. | 25 (10%) |
Votes so far: 262