My buddy Ray Wall has put together a new song entitled "Watchmen" inspired, not surprisingly, by the release of the movie. (Kudos, though, to Ray for plugging the graphic novel version.) It's certainly my favorite so far of all the comic book based songs he's written, in large part because it's the most sophisticated musically.

Check it out at Ray's MySpace.

Back in October, I reported on the first Met@Morph comic convention in Second Life. Next week, on March 18, they're returning with a mini-con which looks to have a fascinating schedule...

8:30 a.m. SL/PST: Front Range Island Opens

9:00 - 9:30 a.m. SL/PST: Make Like an Action Figure!
Not only can you dress like comics characters in SL, you can act like them too! Let us show you how, following opening remarks from Hervé St.-Louis, publisher and editor, The Comic Book Bin

9:30 - 10:00 a.m. SL/PST: The Importance of Watchmen and Its Place in the Comics Survey Course
A discussion of Alan Moore's importance by Andrew Edwards of Sequart.

10:00 - 11:30 a.m. SL/PST: Teaching the College Comics Course
Advice and experience from panelists Leonard Rifas of Seattle Central Community College and Gail de Vos of the University of Alberta. Moderated by Peter Coogan of the The Institute for Comics Studies

11:30 - 12:00 p.m. SL/PST: The Librarian's Role in the College Comics Course
An examination of how librarians support the college comics course, especially by adding resources such as web comics and Web 2.0 tools to the course toolbox. Mini-Morph librarian-in-residence: Derik Badman, Temple University

12:00 - 1:00 p.m. SL/PST: Open Gallery and Discussion from Comics Creators

Unfortunately, as before, I won't be able to attend the full day, but I'm certainly looking forward to being there as much as I can. In an period when many people can't afford to trek out to a comic convention in person, this is certainly an excellent alternative. Indeed, it's well worth attending even if you can afford to go to your favorite real world cons!

I highly encourage you to take some time this weekend to check out Second Life so you can get it set up on your computer and familiarize yourself a bit with the environment before the con. The software is free; there are no SL connection charges; the con is free... the only thing it will cost you is your time. (Admittedly, there are lots of ways you COULD spend money in SL, but you don't have to.) It really was a great experience for me, and I'm absolutely looking forward to next Wednesday.

For inquiries and clarifications about Mini-Morph, please contact organizer Beth Davies-Stofka.

Congrats to comic writer Steve Horton and his wife Lori on the birth of their daughter Kaylee this morning!

(And, yes, Matt, this is the same Steve Horton who used to hang out with us on alan's old Fantastic Four message board back in the day!)

Anybody have a copy of Radical Breeze's comic book reader/organizer RadicalCodex? Is it any good/useful?

I've been thinking about high school a bit lately. Mainly because a former classmate has recently been gathering many of us together for a sort of virtual reunion on Facebook. As I noted the other day, I didn't find high school particularly enjoyable so, aside from a few folks, most of my interest has essentially been seeing how far off I was in my predictions of their lives. (I haven't taken a complete survey of my accuracy, but I seem to floating around 50/50.)

With that introduction, I recently finished reading Alex Robinson's Too Cool to be Forgotten. It's about a 40-year-old who undergoes hypnosis therapy to try to quit smoking. While he's under, he winds up reliving his high school days shortly before he had his first cigarette. He comes to the conclusion that if he's able to avoid having that first cigarette, that will snap him back to reality and he'll have no further cravings for nicotine. He eventually comes to realize, though, that it wasn't just the first cigarette that has kept him smoking for so many years, and it's some other unresolved issues from that same period that are the real cause. It's not until he confronts those that he returns to the present.

At face value, the book is confronts a philosophical question: how much different would your current self be, if you were able to change one aspect of your past? The deeper underpinning, though, is more intriguing, I think, in that it asks what are the REAL causes for your contemporary problems and insecurities. In the case of protagonist Robert Wicks, smoking was an escape from parts of his teenage home life. Although we don't see it, we learn that his younger sister responded to the same situation with sexual promiscuity. Our motives in adulthood are not always as obvious as we might expect, but the rationale is there. It's just buried deep sometimes.

The story flow is very good. There was never an issue figuring out how one panel moved to the next, even though Robert's appearance would fluctuate from his gangly teenage self to his older, slightly saggier frame. Even though those appearances would change in detail to reflect the intensity of emotion of the scene. Robinson always seemed to know how to best handle change-ups like that to ensure the reader was never left confused.

The sole exception, though, is the intentional typo on page 84. (There's a note about it at the end of the book, making a point to absolve the editors from any blame for missing it.) I was able to figure out the Freudian slip Robinson was attempting there, but the placement of said typo within the word balloon made it look more like a word was omitted, not that an existing one was spelled wrong. It actually took me several readings of the page to figure out how that was supposed to be read. I think something as simple as moving the word to the previous line would have alleviated the problem entirely, and may have made the foreshadowing it portends more subtle.

That said, it was really the only issue I took with the story. One problem with one word's placement in 128 pages? It's an absolute nitpick, but the rest of the work runs so smoothly that it does stand out. The book is excellent and well worth your time, and I suspect most people won't even notice the one word.

And hopefully, some of you aging Gen X-ers might learn something to boot. Robert's cigarette smoking is a form of regret over not having done what he wanted to do when he was 15. Me? I don't have regrets. I've always been happy with who I am as a person, and that person is the sum total of everything I've experienced in my life, good and bad. I am who I am because of who I was and, if anything about who I was changed, I would be a different person today. Maybe better, maybe worse, but definitely different. But since I like who I am right here and right now, there's no reason in the world I'd want to change that.

I don't begrudge the bitches and bullies who gave me whatever emotional scars I received because those people no longer exist. They're 20 years older now, just like I am, and have 20 years of life piled on. And at the same time, the people I might have called friends aren't around either -- they've been replaced by responsible, respectable adults. I can't change that, and I don't want to. I live in the present (and, when I can, the future) -- the past is over and done with, and there's nothing I can do to change that. You can either wallow in the what ifs and coulda beens, or you can take what you have right here and right now and work towards the future, because that's the direction of the time line you can change.

My goal has always been being/doing better than the day before. I'm not always successful, admittedly, but regret is just a way of looking in the rear view mirror; I'd rather see what's coming up ahead.

We had the brief discussion at work on Friday, but I totally forgot this was daylight savings weekend until I read today's Frazz...
Seeing as I don't get a newspaper any longer, I unplugged my TV over a month ago, and my main source of news is listening to NPR on the car ride to work, this will likely be the ONLY reminder I'll get today. So a special thanks go out to Jef Mallett, who just kept me from being late to work tomorrow!

I got a chance to read the collected edition of Caliber: First Canon of Justice this afternoon. It's from Radical Publishing and reprints the five issues of last year's comic by the same name.

The first thing I noticed was the high production values. The cover felt surprisingly solid, given its light weight and the paper stock used inside was excellent. I don't normally notice those types of things unless they're problematic or decidedly inferior, so I was pleasantly surprised to notice the quality here.

The story is essentially a take on the King Arthur legends, but set in the American West. I didn't see anything to date the story specifically, but it appears to be late in the 1800s. A Shaman named Whitefeather is in possession of a powerful handgun that can only be fired by one man who is the living embodiment of the law. The book opens with Whitefeather searching for whoever this might be. Whitefeather finds his man when an illegal gunfight draws the attention of one Arthur Pendergon, who's rage of the injustice prompts him to grab the weapon and blast a bolt of blue lightning through the criminal. The corrupt town officials are soon after Arthur and Whitefeather. On the run, the two accumulate a decent circle of friends and are able to return to the town to bring law, order and justice to it.

Some of the Arthurian allusions are pretty obvious. Arthur's buddy is named Lance; his girlfriend is named Gwen. There's a tarot card reader named Morgan. The aformentioned gun is clearly a substitute for Excaliber. I started reading it with no knowledge of what it was about, and it didn't take long at all to realize it was a Western version of King Arthur. (Naming the main character Arthur Pendergon is a bit of a giveaway if there were ANY doubts by the time you got to the second chapter.) But, fortunately, the book is NOT just a straight re-telling of the original myths. The basic structure is there, and there's plenty of direct and conscious nods to the source, but the story takes some different turns. Having the climactic battle hinge on the rage and almost ninja-like skills of an indentured mistress named Sheng Yi was a bit of a surprise, for example.

By and large, it was a good story. Well plotted and decent dialogue throughout. I did find a couple of instances of the gun being fired somewhat discongruous with its stated abilities; while there's some in-story dialogue to acknowledge those instances, they still seem to slide over the explanations a bit.

The art was excellent throughout. It actually read surprisingly well given the darker and muted colors used everywhere. I was never at a loss for following the action. There were a couple instances where I felt the word balloons could've been placed better, but those couple of times were the exceptions and not the rule.

One thing about the art bothered me, though. All of the figures were drawn very well, and maintained a solid consistency throughout the story. Even characters who bore similar facial features were pretty easily distinguishable from one another. However, the character of Lance was clearly modeled after actor Colin Farrell. It's actually a very good likeness in every depiction of him, but that he's the only character that's directly based on a famous actor, it was slightly distracting. The images of Gwen, too, had a quality that suggested she's based more directly on a specific individual, but I couldn't place who that might be.

Despite those nitpicks, I actually enjoyed the book quite a bit. It's very well done overall, and was a pleasure to read. I don't think I've liked the Arthurian legends that much since Mage.