When Ben, Dr. Cellus and I got up at 5:00am Friday morning driving to Phoenix for a comic convention sounded like a terrible idea.  Then again, at 5:00am everything sounds like a bad idea.  But we’ve all been to Phoenix before — it’s hot.  Very, very hot.  And sitting in a car for five hours never sounds fun, much less so when you have to deal with high 90s heat most of the way.  We did not have fun on the drive out so Phoenix Comicon had a lot to do for us to say it was worth it…

Phoenix Comicon is beyond just “worth it.”  It is the perfect comic convention and one I intend to attend for many years to come.

Friday, once we checked in to the hotel, the guys and I made our way over to the Phoenix Convention Center and you know what we found?  Cosplay.  A ton of it.  Here, check out some of the wears (apologies in advance — all we brought was an iPhone for photos/videos):

The diverse selection of cosplay at Phoenix Comicon was amazing — everything from manga, to film, to mainstream comics.  And most impressively, all of the cosplay seemed to be well thought out and impressively executed.  I tip my hat to everyone who dressed up.  You looked great.  Coincidentally, I am also convinced that Phoenix has some of the most beautiful women in the world and these women seem to love them some cosplay.  And we love them for it.

The floor at Phoenix Comicon was as impressive as the attendees.  Phoenix’s Convention Center seems to have been designed for a comicon.  With two large halls (one dedicated to booths and the other to food/tables), a large hall for special screenings and more popular speakers, several smaller rooms for most of the panels, and all of this in a nice compact area, the Convention Center is ideal and allows minimal effort to explore.

One of the most surprising things for me was the quality of the booths at the show.  I’ve been to a few comic conentions and there are always a few booths where I think, “why are you here?”  I know that sounds mean, and maybe it is, but generally speaking there is a split between the talented and not-so-talented folks, which often runs at about 80/20.  At Phoenix Comicon every single booth on the floor had a reason to be there.  Sure, some were more impressive than others, but at no time did I see someone and think they were wasting their money.  Phoenix has some talented folks and I took notice.

Some of the floor highlights for me are the following (click the pictures to go to the sites):

While the floor was great and ripe with potential conversation for fans of any genre — it isn’t enough to fill an entire day, much less the three that the convention lasts.  Enter the panels.

Comic Convention panels are typically 50/50 — half of them will be awesome and the other half will be anything but.  Unfortunately for Phoenix Comicon, not even their panels escaped this unnatural truth.  Three of us went to many panels and (I’m not kidding) we each liked half of the ones we went to.  I’m not going to discuss the lackluster panels because some of the people on those panels were very nice, despite their inability to speak publicly.  What I will mention are the highlight panels — those that seemed to know what they were doing, what the panel was about, and should most definitely be invited back next year.

The Importance of Social Networking was a panel led by Ryan Cody, Matt Bennett, Scott Godlweski, Jonnie Allan and Ben “SkullJammer” Glendenning.  Each of these guys knew their shit and seemed to want to help other aspiring creators succeed.  The biggest selling point for me: nobody tried to sell me their comics during the panel.  I thank them for that.  It’s very easy for some panelists to spend the entire hour talking about themselves, no matter what the program promises the topic will be.  These guys were friendly, professional and after the panel I checked out their stuff — they’re all talented cats as well.  Look ‘em up.

Comic Book Contract Law was an incredibly informative session led by attorney at law, Andrew B. Turk.  While the idea of legalese may scare away or seem just plain boring to many, it’s a sadly necessary fundamental in business and Mr. Turk was fantastic.  As a comic book fan he seemed to understand the business, the wants and needs of creators, and how to protect everybody involved.  It was about protecting just the publisher or just the talent — it was about making sure that everybody can work together in the most creatively free, legally open environment possible.  If you are thinking about signing anything, know what you should look for.

Christian Beranek ran a panel titled “Hollywood and the Graphic Novel.”  I wasn’t sure about this panel since I firmly believe that any book written as a graphic novel in an effort to become a film is a steamy pile of shit, but Mr. Beranek earned my trust with a line early in the hour, “Let the comic be the comic and the movie be the movie.  You have to have a good comic first.”  Thank you, sir.  Mr. Beranek has expansive knowledge of both industries and you can find out why if you just search tah internets for him.  While your perusing, look up his fantastic books Super Frat and Japanese School Girls in Love.

The Hyatt sponsored the the event, offering not only rooms at a discount, but programming as well!  Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton stayed up with us geeks until 2:00am playing Rock Band, there was an Anime Rave and a Geek Prom!  The only thing I missed was the Zombie Walk (which I wasn’t particularly bummed about missing since I am a pansy that jumps at the site of a cockroach) and the Zombie Fashion Show!  Have you ever seen nerds rock out to Nirvana, Disturbed and System of a Down?  How about an Anime Rave?  No?  Then please, enjoy:

Everybody knows San Diego’s behemoth Comic Convention that stopped being about comics some years ago — it’s still fun as hell, but worthless for industry professionals.  San Francisco’s WonderCon and Alternative Press Expo are probably the top of the West Coast food chain when it comes to getting into the business for anyone in the Southwest.  Or at least they were.  In my opinion, Phoenix Comicon is here to give each of those a run for their money.  Phoenix Comicon is loud, proud, well-organized, informative, rich and above all: fun.

If you can go next year, do it.  The only thing that holds it back from being prefect is the heat which is to be expected anywhere in Arizona in May.  But then again, more heat typically leads to less clothing and skimpier cosplay outfits — if you’re into that sort of thing.  Which, of course, I’m not.  Because I’m married.  So… yeah.

I’d like to close with a shoutout to the entire Star Wars representatives in the corner of the con — you were some of the best I’ve ever seen.  From bounty hunters to droid-builders, Phoenix Comicon had some serious Star Wars representation — just check out Chris Kockler of the AstroMech.net and his amazing R2.

Keep up the good work, y’all.

James

This week I look into a new musical with a sense of nostalgia to the original form of stage musical. It’s a return for broadway leaving the more contemporary rock shows to the classics such as “West Side Story” or “A White Christmas”.

A BRIEF MUSICAL DESCRIPTION:

Come Fly Away combines the seductive vocals of Frank Sinatra with the sizzling sound of a live 19-piece big band and the visceral thrill of Twyla Tharp’s choreography. Fifteen of the world’s best dancers tell the story of four couples falling in and out of love at a swinging nightclub on a sultry summer night, set to a score of beloved Sinatra classics including “The Summer Wind,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “One for My Baby,” “My Way,” “Theme from New York, New York,” and “I’ve Got the World on a String.”

Theirs no doubt that this musical would be a hit since it was directed by Twyla Tharp who is known to create spectacles on stage. One of her most famouse works on broadway was the song titled show “Moving Out” which was a musical told only in dance using the stunning music created by Billy joel.

Other works by Twyla Tharp include “Singing in the Rain” and “Hair”. Here’s the big question, should you see it? Well to be honest, I have not seen it yet but I do plan on a trip to New York very soon and I will definitely be checking it out. Curious though, do you guys think Sinatra music would be a good  choice for live theater?

–Admiral Eo

I have spent the past couple of posts looking at the progression and evolution of man. Essentially, the point can be made that the next step in the evolution of humans is the melding of humanity with machines. But what about creatures that didn’t develop an IPhone? Are there some kinds of animals out there that have developed some incredible adaptations that may be harvestable by humans? Maybe at the moment these genetic adaptations seem a little far-fetched or even frightening, but humans have been imitating animals and animal behavior for years in attempting to adapt to special situations. So, in this post, I’ll be looking at several animals that have developed some really interesting genetic solutions to problems as well as several inventions that are based on natural animal adaptations.

The first critter in this week’s post is the pistol shrimp. Those of you who know me, know that I have a particular fondness for this tiny guy. He’s not the biggest of animals, but what he has developed is an oversized claw that is capable of snapping shut with tremendous speed and power. The force of this oversized-claw suddenly snapping shut underwater creates a shock wave that stuns its prey. Amazingly, the heat created by the sudden friction of the claw generates a heat that is equal to that of the sun. As you can see by the video, the result of this strike is undeniably effective. The question that I would ask you to consider is why did this little shrimp develop this particular strategy? I know it’s like asking why did people get legs instead of tank treads, but  I still think that it’s a decent question to consider. Another interesting line of questioning deals with the kinds of genetic adaptations that one could possibly assimilate from this little critter. Super scuba soldiers with oversized “pistol” claws that could blow holes into submarines? Even if it never becomes a reality, it would make a decent science fiction bad-guy at the least.

Another creature that has created a great deal of controversy also comes from the ocean. The giant squid is something of an enigma. It is incredibly large, and it is practically unknown to humans. It was not until 2008 that a large female was pulled up out of an arctic fishing boat’s lines. The length of the creature was around thirty feet, but scientists believe that a full grown male could grow as large as fifty feet. The tentacles not only had suction cups but also had hooks. It is thought that these squids are probably highly aggressive, but that is just a guess as they typically operate at below 1500 ft. depth and no one has really been able to get any footage on the habits of these creatures, but I think that they are incredibly interesting from an evolutionary standpoint. If one arm is good, then eight can’t be that bad. And as if eight arms aren’t enough, nature just had to go and develop suction cups and hooks to ensure that once the squid catches its prey, it won’t let go. The same can be said for some man-made inventions. Velcro functions on a series of hooks and loops that ensure a firm grip. Extra appendages are always a plus; for the squid, they help to ensure a higher chance of gripping prey; but what would you do with an extra four or six arms? What kind of multi-tasking could you accomplish?

The last animal that I want to look at for this post is perhaps the greatest argument for evolutionary adaptation. It is the climbing fish. This fish is pretty hard to find, the researchers that were able to actually deduce that such a thing existed had to spend twenty years just trying to find the creature. Very little footage actually exists regarding this fish, but I’ll paint you a little picture: the fish looks like any other little feeder fish, long body and the characteristic gills and classic fish eyes that you would expect, but it has a slight adaptation near its gills. Instead of having ordinary flaps of skin where the sea water passes through, the gills are adapted with a hand-like protrusion that can be used to grip different surfaces. The interior of the fish is amphibian, allowing it to breath both under and above water. It turns out that the little fish is good enough to use his gill-hand “things” to scale rocks and difficult terrain in looking for food or shelter from his predators. I think that this offers an interesting insight into the possibilities of evolution as a progressive force that continues to work in sudden bursts and subtle transformations. At the bottom of this post, you can watch a short video of a fish that is related to the rock-climbing fish, and is still able to crawl out of its watery world for a drier one. Next week, we’ll continue looking at animals, and I’ll show you a couple of designs that have been inspired by animals when I look at the wild world of biomimetic engineering.

This been a week full of mystery in the Semantink blogs. What will we watch now that LOST is over? What was the real identity of William Shakespeare? When will the weekend finally get here? With all these mysteries being thrown around, I thought that I should scour the world of comics for the best of the best when it comes to solving tough to answer questions. So, without further ado, lets look at the best detectives in comic books!

1) Batman  (DC)- The creme de la creme of comic detectives. The Batman has mad crime solving skills and mind boggling array of gadgets to augment his keen wit. Batman is meticulous, calculated and methodical, and his utility belt always has ample plastic baggies for evidence. If you need to solve a crime, from “Who burglarized the jewelry store?” to “What killed this New God?” Batman is the man to turn to.

2) Elijah Snow (WILDSTORM)- Elijah Snow has been solving mysteries for over one hundred years, so you have to imagine that he is pretty good at it by now. Specializing in the most obscure and whispered of mysteries, Snow has found hidden jungle cities, Hong kKong soul engines, and alternate universes, just out of curiosity. And if that isn’t enough for you, he was trained by none other than Sherlock Holmes.

3) Vic Sage (DC)- While the excellent Mr. Sage is now deceased, this detective didn’t just look to solve crimes, he sought answers to philosophical questions as well. Who else could figure out who shot JR and what is the meaning of life in the same afternoon?

4) Jamie Madrox (MARVEL)- What the multiple man lacks in deductive reasoning, he more than makes up for in personnel. Madrox’s ability to make an unlimited number of duplicates that he shares knowledge with means that he can comb a whole city for clues faster than anyone else could.

5) Sam Noir (IMAGE)- A detective and a ronin samurai, Sam is the complete package. His crime solving abilities are second only to his sword handling skills. And he has cool hair.

6) Simon Archard (CROSSGEN)- This Sherlock Holmes look-alike is a master sleuth with an eidetic (photographic) memory that serves him quite well in his detecting. If that isn’t enough for you, he is constantly able to evade attempts on his life by The Consortium of Aggrieved Man Servants without losing his cool.

7) Tony Chu (IMAGE)- Mr. Chu is cibopathic, which means he picks up mental images from whatever he eats (except for beets). Tony has used this ability to great effect when it comes to hunting down wrongdoers or finding the whereabouts of missing people.

Bigby Wolf (VERTIGO)- This wolfman knows his stuff. He actually tasted each fable in Fabletown to see if they were a spy, and has a keen ability to smell liars. Add to that several thousand years of life experience and you have the makings of a great detective.

9) Michael “Desolation” Jones (WILDSTORM)- Anyone who is able to solve the case of Adolf Hitler’s missing sex tapes deserves a spot on this list. It doesn’t hurt that Jones is ex-MI6 and even government operatives come to him when they need something found.

10) Detective Chimp (DC)- How smart is Bobo the detective chimp? So smart that Batman will hit him up for ideas when he’s stuck. Seriously, they do it in an internet chat room. I swear I couldn’t make this stuff up.

That;s it for this week folks. I will be out in Phoenix this weekend with Semantink for the Phoenix Comic Con. If you are going to be in the area, drop me a line! Thanks for stopping in folks, see you next week.

Howdy folks! Welcome back to The Book Report.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about two books featuring previously unpublished work by Mark Twain, and Sgt. Angle pointed out that Mark Twain wrote a book titled Is Shakespeare Dead? You see, Twain was an avid Baconist — that is, Mark Twain was one member of a group who believed Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare’s plays.

Actually, there are five popular theories about who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays. I thought it would make for an interesting author’s spotlight to examine the five theories in closer detail.

1. Baconian Theory
The first goal any Baconist needs to have is to discredit Shakespeare’s learning. Shakespeare’s father was a glove-maker in the relatively poor town of Stratford. How could he have been able to afford to provide the education concerning law, politics, religion, and mythology that so inundates all of Shakespeare’s work? Additionally, any hard copies of his plays (such as the First Folio) were published posthumously, so there isn’t any tangible evidence that Shakespeare actually wrote them. In fact, so little about Shakespeare’s life in known, most biographies about his life ends up being mostly conjecture.
Once enough doubt concerning Shakespeare as a credible author has been raised, it then falls on the Baconist to offer his substitute: Francis Bacon. Bacon has become known as the father of inductive reasoning (the scientific method). He was a philosopher and statesman, poet, and avid follower of theater. In 1576, Bacon entered Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court by which a person may be able to practice law in England, and it is at Gray’s Inn that the first bit of evidence for Bacon arises.

On December 28th, 1594, during Innocent’s Day revels “a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was performed by the Players…” Bacon was at Gray’s Inn during this time and several accounts show him to be involved with the Gray’s Inn Players. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors was written by this time, but there is evidence that Shakespeare and his troop of actors were performing at Whitehall that evening. The plot of The Comedy of Errors takes plot points from two of Plautus’s plays, most notably his Menaechmi, where a pair of identical twins who were separated at birth show up at the same town and are confused for each other by the townsfolk.

The second bit of evidence is that many scholars believe Shakespeare’s The Tempest was inspired by a letter from William Strachey titled True Reportory sent to the Virgina Company from the Virgina colony in 1610, about a year before The Tempest’s first performance. Baconists argue that True Reportory’s viewing was restricted to the Virgina Council, of whom Bacon was a member. The Council released True Declaration in November of 1610 as a piece of propaganda, relying heavily on information in True Reportory, in order to counteract any harsh criticism from returning colonists. It is generally agreed that Bacon was the author of True Declaration, and since Shakespeare couldn’t have seen a copy of Strachey’s letter, Baconists argue only someone on the Virginia Council must have written The Tempest, with Bacon as the likely choice.

Because of Bacon’s work in government, he had access to many government ciphers, and indeed, created one of his own. Many Baconists believe that Francis Bacon included ciphers in Shakespeare’s plays proving he was the true author. Additionally, in Love’s Labours Lost, once character mentions the word “Honorificabilitudinitatibus”, which is the Latin plural of the word, meaning “the state of being able to achieve honors.” Baconists believe the word is used as an anagram for the Latin phrase “hi ludi, F. Baconis nati, tuiti orbi”, which translates to “these plays, F. Bacon’s offspring, are preserved for the world.“

Ultimately, the problem with Baconian Theory is that it relies too heavily on conspiracy theory.
While it is possible that Bacon wrote The Comedy of Errors, a comedy of errors is also a well known genre of comedy, and there is no indication that the play performed at Gray’s Inn is the same play with Shakespeare listed as the author. And although Shakespeare may have never seen Strachey’s letter to the Virginia Company, he certainly would have read their propaganda piece True Declaration. And in 1970, satirist John Sladek showed that “honorificabilitudinitatibus” could also be an anagram showing that Ben Johnson wrote Shakespeare’s plays.
Bacon’s writings already show a keen intellect, vast education, and a willingness to write it all down. If he wrote the plays, why hide behind the name of someone else? And if it were to be shown that Shakespeare and Lord Bacon had a close working relationship, it can just as easily be supposed that Shakespeare was looking for scientific or legal clarification for his own writing as suppose Bacon is handing off sheets of his own plays to Shakespeare.
Baconists have come up with a reason for Bacon using Shakespeare as a front, but it involves a huge conspiracy with nothing in the way of proof. As a result, most Elizabethan and Shakespearean scholars reject Baconian theory as, more or less, a 19th century superstition.

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Whew. When I set out to write about the different Shakespearean theories, I knew it’d be a fairly long post, but not the epic one it’s turning out to be. Thanks for getting through this much with me. What I thought I’d do is break this post up into three parts, so part two will cover the Marlowian, Elizabethan, and Oxfordian theories and part three will finish it off with the Stratfordian theory.

In the meantime, pick up a preorder of Mythoi: Birth, and I’ll see you next week.

Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

Today should’ve been the air-date for the series finale of LOST, but for reasons understood by anyone who ever followed the show, it aired on Sunday night, May 23. I won’t go into plot details or a discussion of what happened, what I wish would’ve happened, or how I would’ve wrapped things up. Instead, I’ll tell you what you should be watching this summer, and then next season, in place of this glorious show.

This summer: Catch up on Breaking Bad’s domino effect of unfolding events and consequences, Mad Men’s hypnotic period drama, and the archived episodes of Futurama, Family Guy and Robot Chicken on Adult Swim. Take a trip down Starz’ original programming and Party Down with the hilarity of Party Down, perhaps one of the funniest shows NOT seen on television. You can stream it or rent it on Netflix.com NOW! Do so! That is an order.

Next season, you won’t be able to get caught up in the episodic crime and punishment of the original, 21-season-long Law & Order — NBC has FINALLY canceled the original — but you can still simmer over the cases in L & O SVU, Criminal Intent, and Los Angeles. Yikes! So much crime!

On Fox, please get yourself deeply involved in Fringe, a great show that faltered a bit in season two but hit the finale with such an impactful story and cliffhanger, it’s as good as anything the Bad Robot team as made since Locke blew the door from the hatch on that fateful island, way back when. Plus, Fringe has the added advantage of Lt. Daniels himself, Lance Reddick.

Friday Night Lights will end next season, though you can currently catch season four on NBC. I have raved about this show, and others, many times before — but that’s only because these shows are good. I wouldn’t lie to you, my soldiers.

This is the part of the programming when I tell you about NEW shows premiering next season. Let me know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments below. I can put up the results next week.

ABC — The Whole Truth: Jerry Bruckheimer produced series that shows criminal cases from all perspectives. My Generation: Mockumentary following a group of former high-school classmates. How much you wanna bet that one of the lead females will have a Pixie haircut? Mr. Sunshine: Matthew Perry as a sports stadium manager. And it’s a comedy. AND it co-stars Allison Janney and the pilot is directed by fellow West Wing veteran Thomas Schlamme. Finally, for ABC, we’ll have the adorable Happy Endings starring Elisha Cuthbert as one of a “group of friends navigating romance.” SOOOOOO original. ABC can do better (see: Modern Family).

NBC (NO MORE HEROES!!!!!) — Nothing much exciting on NBC, other than the cancellation of Law & Order, the shifting of some time slots, and, of course, J.J. Abrams directs his first TV Pilot with Undercovers, about a pair of spies who retired after falling in love, and are drawn back into espionage, which rekindles their marriage. Right. But you should come back to NBC anyhow, if only for 30 Rock and the glorious Community.

CW — We don’t care. You shouldn’t, either, unless you’re under 18 and female. However, in honor of the Superman himself coming to an end with a final season of Smallville next year, here’s a tribute video:

FOX – Thanks to American Idol pulling back it’s results show to a half-hour next season, the network of ups (Fringe) and downs (ahem, American Idol) has more room for half-hour comedies. No word yet on what those shows might be. No word, either, on what date we’ll get to meet Steven Spielberg’s television contribution, Terra Nova, “a dino-drama about a family from 100 years in the future that travels back in time 150 million years.”

In the meantime, you’re stuck with Glee running the entire season, with a small hiatus mid-season followed by the post-Superbowl slot. However, you should probably check out The Good Guys, starring Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford a.k.a. Josh Lyman of The West Wing fame. Here, Lyman plays a veteran cop with a rugged, old-fashioned way of solving crimes — much to the disdain of his by-the-book young partner in the petty crimes division.

Keep all of the above when choosing your next “relationship with a show.” Also note that the director of many great LOST episodes, as well as the divisive finale, Jack Bender, will direct the pilot to SyFy’s Alphas, about a group of people with unique mental abilities. Syfy’s original programming is getting pretty great, silly TV movies aside. In a few weeks, I’ll give you a debriefing on why you should look forward to SyFy for all of your future viewing pleasure.

For now, I will leave you with a clip from the pretty good pilot from The Good Guys (moustache!).

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Welcome once again, dear readers, to the latest installment of Writer’s Block. I am here to share with you another piece of writing from the talented mind of Joe Pezzula. You all probably know Joe from his stellar work on THE UNDERGROUNDS, but as you saw right here in Writer’s Block a few weeks ago, Joe doesn’t just write comedy. Today, I wanted to share a great science fiction story of Joe’s with all of you. Enjoy!

Starport

This week I thought I would go over some classics, the movies that changed cinema forever. Yes, their are musicals that have changed cinema. These are the films that inspired a generation and have stood the test of time. Please know that this is my list and is very opinionated. These are the films I personally thought belonged at the top.

Let’s begin…

3) “West Side Story” — Never has dance/fighting been so cool. This film was and is one of the best adaptations of Romeo and juliet to be told ever.

2) “Singing in the Rain” - If you’re not a fan of Gene Kelly, I don’t know how you could or will ever truly appreciate the art of dance. HE IS THE MAN. If you ever want to study dance, look him up, he’ll change your world.

Gene Kelly + Roller Skates = INCREDIBLE

This is also very neat…

and 1) “The Wizard of Oz” - Perhaps THE film that changed cinema. It has been called the #1 fantasy film of all time and it’s easy to see why. It has everything you want in a movie and more!

I would love to know what you guys consider to be the greats. Any others you believe to be up here in the three? Do you agree with my picks?

–Admiral Eo