Tyson says ...

_Superman: Earth One_ by J. Michael Straczynski

Superman: Earth One by J. Michael Straczynski, 2010.

This is good. I didn't even realize it was a Straczynski when I grabbed it ... I just figured it was yet-another-retelling-of-Superman's-origin-from-scratch, and ever since Superman: Red Son, I've been really liking those.

I complain about people restarting the superhero story from the origin all the time when it happens in movies -- it seems egregious that we have another Spider Man movie coming out that is a restart. But I'll take these retellings of Superman, as many as you want. Perhaps it's because the story is so well known that the retellings always seem to have nice new spins on them.

Also, they provide a single storyline in one volume -- I don't even want to get started trying to collect the main DC Superman continuity.

I liked:

• Scenes of Clark Kent trying out for pro football (every position)
• Scenes of Clark Kent wowing a tech company with his brain
• Flashbacks to Ma and Pa Kent that were not at all sappy
• Changes to why Krypton went bang
• Some of the same edge we saw in Supreme Power

_Friends with Boys_, graphic novel by Faith Erin Hicks

I was really impressed with this one -- fun art and an engaging storyline. I'm always on the lookout for good non-superhero graphic novels and this one's homeschooled-kid-thrown-into-regular-high-school storyline grabbed me fast.

Here's a link to the Amazon page for the book.

Make Your Thing

An inspirational piece "Make Your Thing" by Jesse Thorn, about making independent media stuff ... and eventually making money at it.  I like the format: one example/anecdote/person for each of the 12 points.

It's just too much science fiction

A wowser of a quote ends this Paris Review interview of William Gibson ....

If you’d gone to a publisher in 1981 with a proposal for a science-fiction novel that consisted of a really clear and simple description of the world today, they’d have read your proposal and said, Well, it’s impossible. This is ridiculous. This doesn’t even make any sense. Granted, you have half a dozen powerful and really excellent plot drivers for that many science-fiction n­ovels, but you can’t have them all in one novel.

INTERVIEWER

What are those major plot drivers?

GIBSON

Fossil fuels have been discovered to be destabilizing the planet’s climate, with possibly drastic consequences. There’s an epidemic, highly contagious, lethal sexual disease that destroys the human immune system, raging virtually uncontrolled throughout much of Africa. New York has been attacked by Islamist fundamentalists, who have destroyed the two tallest buildings in the city, and the United States in response has invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

INTERVIEWER

And you haven’t even gotten to the technology.

GIBSON

You haven’t even gotten to the Internet. By the time you were telling about the Internet, they’d be showing you the door. It’s just too much science fiction.

Gotham City Sirens: Strange Fruit

On the face of it, the purpose of Gotham City Sirens seems to draw a book full of hot women. Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy band together: what's not to like? But I found this volume to have some pretty good stories in it. Not a lot of criminality actually happens, really. It's more like these characters get in trouble a lot, because of their history. 

The stories mostly stood on their own okay, but the Poison Ivy story, the first story, made me feel a bit like I was missing some history.

Science Dog #2

I didn't know anything about this comic before picking it up. I actually got it off a clearance pile. It was the only one I got out of that pile that was worthy of note.

I liked this one because it was a complete story in one issue, and because it was kind of reflective, and it seemed to counterpoint what I assume is the usual Science Dog story, where he handily defeats his nemesis Walter. It had wacky aliens and time travel and pathos and I liked it.

But I picked it up because it was called Science Dog and it had a picture of a humanoid dog with a jetpack and gadgets on the cover.

Bonus: his teammates call him Science like it's his first name.

The New Yorker has a great little epistolary fiction story, relevant to Halloween, here on their site: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/10/24/111024sh_shouts_semple?currentPage=all

What I like about this is a) how things slowly go awry and b) how e-mail has created a world in which most of us have had experiences somewhat like the ones described in this story.

Keeping your D&D game fantastical

Since one of my favorite pasttimes is daydreaming about playing D&D, I'm frequently reading about how to run a good game. Here's a neat post from the guy who does the 'Playing D&D with Porn Stars' blog/video/whatever stuff. Yes, his blog has a NSFW warning, but I looked and looked and couldn't find anything at all salacious on it. And I love his attitude.

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/fantasticalisms.html