Some links...mostly to posts discussing things I've posted about previously and to things I've been meaning to link to for so long I've forgotten why

Alan Kistler's recurring Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. feature at Blog@Newsarama has been a great deal of fun ever since it first debuted, and I become more and more impressed with it the longer it runs. Kistler's research is often so ridiculously thorough that he regularly unearths things I have never even heard of...and I'm not exactly unversed in things like, say, the history of Batman costumes.

Earlier in the week Troy Brownfield, another fellow Blog@ contributor, noted something hinky in a bit of Justice League: Generation Lost hyping, which indirectly lead to my posting a little bit about the history of Tora "Ice" Olfasdotter and a couple of different looks she and her fellow ice-powered Norwegian Sigrid "Icemaiden" Nansen have sported over the years (while in the process of trying to point out that when it comes to trivial matters like this in a genre of trivial matters, even the littlest things are kind of big deals). Well, Kistler was also on the Ice beat this past week, and he turned out another incredibly thorough article about the costume history of Ice and Icemaiden, complete with her appearances in other media, some pretty nice images and the unearthing of Wonder Woman and The Star Riders, some crazy early '90s reimagining of Wondy as the leader of a semi-She-Ra/semi-Strawberry Shortcake band of magical girl super-heroines. Or something.

I guess there was a member named Ice in there too.

It was neat to see that version of Wonder Woman after all the discussion of Wonder Woman's costume that has gone on this year (Quick Internet search turned up this, which seems to indicate that Jose Garcia-Lopez was responsible for the designs).

Star Riders Wondy seems to have the classic red Wonder-corset, the star-spangled blue field (on a skirt, instead of panties) and white leggings to make her look less naked without having to resort to pants. Boots, wristbands, tiara...all the "classic" Wonder Woman costume signifiers are there, with the addition of a cape, which I don't mind at all.

The flower belt and Queen Elizabeth collar on the other hand...

The rest of Wonder Woman's girl gang sorta hurts my eyes though.

I was curious enough about them to spend a few minutes Googling 'em though, and apparently there's one other Star Rider based on an existing DC heroine: Dolphin, who has the DC Dol's white hair, but nothing else in common. In fact, her power is apparently bubble-related. The others are the sun-powered Solara (a fiery Latina, like Fire) and Star-Lily.

I doubt this would have made for much of a cartoon or toy line, either in the early nineties or now, and it probably wouldn't have been much of a Western style, typical DC comic book in either era, but, in the right hands, that sure sounds like a decent enough basis for a Wonder Woman by way of Sailor Moon magical girl manga. The sub-title on the promotional comic is "Sparkling super heroines!"

Okay, question time. Anyone know who is responsible for the lovely Ice drawing I've re-posted above? I found it in Newsarama's archives, but there's no indiciation of who originally created it. It doesn't look like something from an issue of an actual DC comic, but rather a sketch or the work of an extremely talented fan. Anyway, I'd love to find out who did it so I can properly credit them here...and see more of their work.

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I always read Greg Burgas' reviews at Comics Should Be Good, but I rarely link to 'em. I wanted to do so with this particular column though, as he covers that Radical Publishing Mata Hari sample comic that I covered here previously, and he had a lot of different things to say.

Me, I couldn't really get past the art, which Burgas thought wasn't actually all that bad. He did note a whole bunch of pretty basic problems with the narration though, regarding anachronistic references. Anyway, for a completely different take on the comic, see Burgas' review.

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I've had the link to this Cat Rackham strip by Steve Wolfhard—"Cat Rackham Gets Depresssion."—on a sticky note on my desktop for about two years now, so I can't remember if I ever actually linked to it anywhere or not. Well, if I haven't before, I'm going to do it now, and if I have, I'm going to do it again. It is a very awesome, very true strip.

Actually, after reading everything I could find on WOlfhard's Catrackham.com site, I see that they're all pretty awesome strips, and all read as being pretty true. I have experienced many of these very things myself...metaphorically if not always literally...and Wolfhard seems to capture the emotion of the experiences perfectly. Wait, I have never experienced anything, metaphorically or not, like this one strip that features the craziest crazy cat lady ever.

Finally, from Wolfhard's Livejournal page blog thing, here's a strip that explains why you should never do drugs kids...and/or sleep outside overnight in the pouring rain.

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A million blog-years ago I wrote a post taking a close look at 1971's The Brave nd the Bold #91 by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy, in which Batman and Black Canary flirt a little bit but nothing ever comes of their mutual attraction. If you'd like to see some of those gorgeous Cardy drawings in color (and in context), a Joe Bloke at Grant Bridge Street & Other Misadventures scans what looks like the whole issue here. Don't read the whole thing there though! Buy the Showcase Presents collection it appears in; the Grant Bridge Street post is well worth a scan through to check out the Cardy art though.

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You guys know how I love Joe Kubert and his Enemy Ace, right? Well check out Thomas Haller Buchanan's gallery of Kubert Enemy Ace art here. Buchanan also has a Kubert Batman storyand a Kubert Superman/Etrigan, The Demon story, plus a boatload of other great Kubert art. (These links were seen at and swiped form The Comics Reporter, by the way).

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I was kind of going back and forth about whether I should recommend Kenjiro Hata's Hayate the Combat Butler to Tawky Tawny fans, since it features a talking tiger, and the only comic book on the market currently featuring Tawky is going to ship its final issue next month. I'm still not sure. While Hayate does have a tiger who talks as a member of its cast, Tama usually pretends that he can't talk, and never, ever wears fancy human duds, which seems to be almost as much a part of Tawky's appeal as the fact that he can talk. By the way, there area apparently a lot of volumes of Hayate Combat Butler. I've only just finished the second volume, but I liked it almost much as the first.

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I was pretty pumped to check out the eventual trade paperback collection of DC's First Wave series, partially out of curiosity regarding the construction of a pulp-infused, relatively superpower-less superhero sub-universe featuring characters like Batman, The Spirit, Doc Savage and Rima The Jungle Girl, but mostly because I couldn't wait to read a big huge chunk of Rags Morales art. The images posted in this review of an issue by Todd Klein, however, is seriously dampening my enthusiasm. The way the art's colored just looks kinda...gross. Maybe this will be more of a borrow-from-the-library-trade then a buy-for-the-bookshelf kinda trade....

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These are all many millions of times better than the actual covers of the actual comic books featuring these characters. For example, this Rogan Josh fellow has provided what may just be the very first cool-looking image of the X-person Gambit. Be sure to check out his tumblr thingee too, for plenty of more images, like this wonderful one featuring Aquaman:

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Tom "Comics Reporter" Spurgeon wants to know, "Where's My TV Comic, Publishers?" and he then goes on to note that he's available to write any of them (I'm only semi-ashamed to note that I've never seen or even heard of any of the shows Spurgeon lists...with the exception of Q.E.D., which I had previously heard about on...Tom Spurgeon's blog).

On the off-chance that Spurgeon's gambit works, and Dynamite Entertainment or someone decides to hire Spurgeon to write a Q.E.D. comic, I should note that I would totally write a 90210 comic (based on either generation of the show) for free. Wait, they say you're never supposed to offer to do something for free that other people get paid to do, don't they? Okay, in that case, I'd write a 90210 comic book series for...two comp issues and, um...what's minimum wage now? $7.50? Let's say $7.50 an hour.

The second episode of the third season airs tomorrow, by the way, and if you missed the first episode, it's online at cwtv.com, so it's not too late to catch up on the new season!

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Speaking of 90210, I gave some serious thought to starting up a Twitter account again over the course of the last few weeks, until I realized it would probably amount to little more than me talking about 90210 and Dancing With Stars in addition to comic books.

Those of you interested in my thoughts on my comics but not so much about whether I think Bristol Palin qualifies as a star or if Lacey Schwimmer looks better as a brunette or a blond should count yourselves lucky.

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Huh. I have this saved on a sticky too, although now I have no idea why. Did I have something to say about it at some point? Hmmm... Looks like a bunch of crazy shit from the movies is in there, mixed with scenes and images more familiar with the original series, and maybe some crazy shit from movies I haven't seen or did see but don't remember seeing, but ummm...now I have no idea why I had this saved here. I really liked the anime series...the first movie or two offering a fuller or alternate ending sort of lost me though...and I think they kept making more...Anyway, watch it if you're so inclined. Then explain it to me. And explain to me why I saved it for something to blog at at some point. Thanks!

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I have this saved for some reason too. Was there a comics connection to this band that I was going to mention at some point...? Or did I just like the video...? (I do) Or the song...?(I do) Or the image of that lady playing the theremin? (I do?) Maybe I ought make better notes when I'm saving links in my To Blog About Some Day stickies...

Well, having listened to/watched a bunch of The Octopus Project on YouTube while typing up this post and readying its images, I can at least say they are an EDILW-approved band. Check 'em out if they come to your town (October 14 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, my fellow Northeast Ohioans!)

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Speaking of the Grog Shop, Blood Red Shoes are also playing there in October...on the 28. Their comic book connection is more straightforward. Their song "It's Getting Boring By The Sea" was on the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World soundtrack, playing in the background when Knives confronts Ramona at the club before the Clash at Demonhead show (I think; I know it was at a club-set scene) and playing over the "You may have to defeat my seven evil exes" line in the trailers.