As Scott McCloud explains in Understanding Comics, his definitive work on the art of comic book storytelling, comics belong to a medium all their own. They are not merely pictures with word captions, or written stories with illustrations. Comics are a blending of words and pictures to tell a story. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Few artists demonstrate this interplay better than Frank Miller.

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Second Date Ideas In The Ask Smiles Forum

Well really I am asking for help, because it is a subject where I am completely clueless. Because it is the first time I am having a second date without dating the girl, and really only like the second second date I will have had.

I think I would punch G4TV in the script.

Man, watching anything on that channel is so damn annoying. MAN!

Campaign to get Rodney Bingenheimer a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

It's about time someone decided to do this.

Not a lot of you know who he is, this KROQ DJ helped shape the music scene in LA and the US for several years. See Mayor of the Sunset Strip to learn more.

My music experience in high school and college was molded by this guy. I really hope he gets the recognition he deserves. The above picture always cracks me up, which is why I used it. He's actually a pretty meek guy.

And Of Course The Rest Of My Weekend

Yep, that is right, me going on a date, maybe. We went to a baseball game, it was a lot of fun. At the end of the game she said something about how the last few innings were so exciting that she wished the game kept going. Is that a good thing?

Anyways, we also got food afterwards, and had a nice talk. That was fun.

Sunday was good, went to two, yes that is right, two churches. I really want to get involved in the one church that I went to at night, which would allow me to also be involed at the church I have gone to my whole life, in the morning. I would really like to do both.

I also realized that I cannot go to church and do nothing. I have to help out somehow, church for me is not fulfilling unless I am helping out, or teaching in some way.

I need to finish my job application for the YMCA. They are offering an administrative position that is very similar to what I have been trained to do. It is an office job, and I think that it would give me weekends off to pursue other things. I should finish the application.

Anyways, I have not a whole lot more to say, but I am getting ideas about my characters for my book. I think I will have three "main" characters who do everything together in the world in which I will create. One will be what I call Me++. That is a programming joke in all seriousness. Anyways that is all I have to say for now.

Spanglish

There's finally a full-length Wallace and Gromit movie. Click here for a trailer. If it's successful, maybe they'll release all of the shorter films on DVD.

Oddly enough, it was a relaxing weekend despite the fact that we seemed to do a lot.

Friday was my first short Friday of the summer (wohoo!). I got to run some errands in uptown Whittier, which is really starting to look more and more dumpy. I always wanted to live in one of the historic homes up there, but I think my thoughts are shifting towards somewhere more like Fullerton.

After a good nap taking up the rest of my afternoon, we headed out to Brea to meet with Brendan for food and conversation. We tried out a Japanese place on the promenade. Pretty cool decor, and good food too. I finally got myself to try out the raw fish aspect of sushi, which was a lot more harmless than I had anticipated. I have also now mastered the art of poking out the avocado bits in my sushi rolls with chopsticks (I'm allergic). Anyway, we hung out there for a while and then decided to check out a movie. Too bad for us, we got to the theater in that stupid gap between the 7 o'clock hour showings and the 10 o'clock hour showings. There wasn't anything in between. So we opted for Starbucks, where the chalk artist got a little crazy and did a great little version of Yoda saying something like, "Enjoy the mint-mocha frappucino, you will." I took a picture and will post as soon as I can find the stinking cord to connect to the camera. From Starbucks we just walked around a lot and talked. I think we talked for at least four hours! Anyway, fun to see Brendan and have him in the area.

Saturday we went to get the car smog checked. Boooo! They wouldn't even do the check because we would fail the visual with the new header Ric installed, which he was told was street-safe, but did not have the proper numbers on them to be legal in CA. It's all a scam, I tell you! So we're actually considering this as a possible sign that we should go ahead and get the Mini and trade in the Miata. That is, unless you're reading this and would like a "free" car that would need about $1000 worth of work to be street legal!

That afternoon I did laundry at the parents (watched The Great Escape), then went out to eat with our visiting family - my sister, bro-in-law, and two youngest nephews. It was great to just hang out and catch up, and to see how quickly my nephews are growing up. With the eldest just having reached 21, I'm starting to feel old. They're smart boys, though, and I'm proud of them.

Sunday I went out to see Mysterious Skin, which the critics were saying a lot of great stuff about. I'll review it later... very "unflinching" film... And after some more relaxation, Ric and I couldn't decide what to do and ended up just going to see Cinderella Man, review coming later as well. That was another bad theater experience - a man and his three kids got up and went to get popcorn only half an hour into the movie, then decided to sit behind us when they returned. Boooooo! Stupid kids were kicking my chair, farting, laughing at the farting, and whispering because their dumb dad took them to a movie that was way too mature for them to follow. After the movie was over, I turned around and said loudly, "Next time, get a sitter!" Seriously--for the cost of paying for the kids to see the movie and all of the snacks he bought them, a sitter could have been very well compensated for watching the kids at home. Grrrrr!

That's the weekend in a nutshell. Good times with friends and family. Somehow with all the going out I still feel well-rested. I'm not sure how that happened. We also worked on organizing the apartment more and cleaning up. Slowly but surely!

http://www.themonsterengine.com/art.html

Even though I've been on break from teaching for a couple of weeks now, and have had plenty of time for writing here, I've been hard pressed for ideas. I think I've been out of writing here regularly for so long that I'm out of practice. I need to force myself to start writing more often.

With that in mind, I have decided to write a short series of posts I've been wanting to do for a long time, on the three great comic book writers of our time. While I'll be writing about my own impressions, opinions, and interpretations of them, I believe this list is more than just my personal favorites. If you ask any well-read comic book fan for the greatest writers in mainstream comics, I wager these three will be at the top of the list nearly every time. They stand alone in terms of their talent, artistry, and influence over the comic book medium. In the coming days, I will explain the unique contributions of each.

Three Comic Book Greats, part 1

Three Comic Book Greats, part 2

Three Comic Book Greats, part 3