{"@attributes":{"version":"2.0"},"channel":{"title":"Idle Chatter","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/","description":"Idle Chatter - LiveJournal.com","lastBuildDate":"Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:18:34 GMT","generator":"LiveJournal \/ LiveJournal.com","image":{"url":"https:\/\/l-userpic.livejournal.com\/89680399\/1371588","title":"Idle Chatter","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/","width":"99","height":"91"},"item":[{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/121664.html","pubDate":"Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:18:34 GMT","title":"Just like in a sports movie","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/121664.html","description":"Half-time in a surprisingly exciting Seahawks-Saints game.

Though they're up at the half, it seems the odds are still on the Seahawks going down here. But wouldn't it be awesomely hilarious if they not only win this game, but went on to win the Super Bowl, after a losing season?

ETA: We...we won? Awesome :D","category":"things i don't ever write about"},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/120293.html","pubDate":"Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:40:55 GMT","title":"Dread Being Replaced by Cautious Optimism","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/120293.html","description":"Well, maybe things won't be quite so bleak after all.<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/120293.html?view=comments#comments","category":["batwoman","comics"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119842.html","pubDate":"Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:40:34 GMT","title":"Somedays I Really Love Living in Seattle","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119842.html","description":"Because while walking over to the huge new art supply store yesterday, I came across a Glee flash mob in Cal Anderson Park. So amusing, that made my day right there.

Turns out the by no means small crowd there was rehearsing for this:
","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119842.html?view=comments#comments","category":["things that are awesome","silliness"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119654.html","pubDate":"Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:43:42 GMT","title":"Oh, Cats","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119654.html","description":"Now I'm torn. This<\/a> may be more awesome than Nils Olav<\/a>. I especially love that \"she is 'the only female in a managerial position' in the company,\" and \"the first cat to become an executive of a railroad corporation.\"

It's only a matter of time before the rest of our feline overlords rise up to demand their rightful ranks.","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119654.html?view=comments#comments","category":"things that are awesome"},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119482.html","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:27:42 GMT","title":"Hmm, guess I need to mention major crossover events more often","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119482.html","description":"Wow. For the first time ever, my LJ got spammed, and within minutes of me putting up that last post. Awesome :P","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119482.html?view=comments#comments"},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119282.html","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:10:08 GMT","title":"The Only Really Good Thing to Come Out of Blackest Night","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119282.html","description":"Well, if no one else will say it, I'm calling it here:
The Question<\/i> #37 -- hands-down best Blackest Night tie-in.
Now, while I realize my perspective is somewhat skewed by my not actually reading BN or hardly any of its tie-ins (acquiring my knowledge of them piecemeal and second-hand via inernet), but just taking the book for what it is, it was damn good and pretty satisfying.

One factor that definitely helped was the distance from BN proper, which is a major obstacle for those tie-ins not \"important\" enough to be handled by Johns and actually do meaningful things with the plot, but still sharing major characters with the main story. BN: Wonder Woman<\/i>, for instance, I'm given to understand was a lackluster dud with little of consequence happening in the book and all the story points dictated by the larger BN setting\/writers. Which is a goddamn shame given that the creative team (Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott) are people who's other work I've enjoyed greatly and I'd love to see them collaborate on a decent project.

I'll give partial credit to the Suicide Squad\/Secret Six crossover, which hasn't yet finished and may yet still be mind-breakingly awesome, but which I suspect will stay in the \"good but not great\" category in my mind. Some great Bane & Scandal theater in the first part, some other fun jokes and character moments (par for the course with the Six--it's nice being spoiled like that), but overall it's a confusion of too many ensembles and too many things happening in too many different places all at the same time. This is another problem that The Question<\/i> neatly sidesteps. (I do take comfort in noticing that, unless something really weird happens in the end of the arc, Knockout will not<\/i> be making a zombified return, as I had feared. I liked Knockout, but Scandal dealing with her grief and moving on with her life has been a joy to read (OMG! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!), and it would be a shame to ruin that.)

Instead, as the book opens, we find Renee and Tot chilling at home. They're not out dicking around with superpowered, unkillable zombies because that would be fucking stupid and a good way to get killed. So, safely away from major action, \"important\" super characters, and all the attendant Green Lantern\/Rainbow Rangers silliness, this sad little horror story can unfold.


So, we open with a nicely done, three page recap of relevant points for those who may not have read the twenty-year-old Question<\/i> series or 52<\/i>. I am amused to note that Rucka has Tot baldly state here why Charlie chose Renee--it was made pretty evident in 52<\/i>, but apparently not having someone declaim itemized reasons in stilted dialog was too subtle for the drooling fanboy troll crowd, from some of the bitching I've read online. Anyway, point succinctly made and we move on.

To Renee and Tot having a disagreement. And for once Renee is the one in the right. Even wise old mentors can have their blind spots. Then next page...Yay! Lady Shiva shows up for no particular reason and challenges Renee to a fight. Renee is snarky but eventually humors her. I've been looking forward to this scene, and it more or less plays out exactly the way I'd imagined. Renee ultimately loses--she's good, but certainly not at Shiva's level--but puts in a good showing. Then the bad shit starts happening.

Evil-zombie-Charlie appears! (Though, to be accurate, it's not an actual proper zombie, but rather an evil, magical simulacrum.) I find it hilarious that the most hurtful things it could possibly say to Shiva was, in essence, \"You suck.\" Now, here the story gives our characters some credit, as neither Renee nor Shiva is taken in by the creature's appearance, while Tot seems to do so only out of willful self-delusion and unprocessed grief. This makes a nice change from what I gather (perhaps incorrectly) some of the other books went with, with tearful, angsty \"OH NOES!YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND!HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH THINGS!!!\" or worse \"I know you're all evil and dead and zombified, but mind if I mack on you<\/a>?\" (What can I say, not a Titans fan.)

So, after some tense action and dramatic bits, Shiva figures out a way to cock-block the zombies, they all manage to pull it off, despite the emotional toll, and the creature leaves in a huff. The end is somewhat unresolved, in that \"OK, so this will be continued in the...next...issue...of which there won't be one...\" kind of way, but I think I'm OK with it, as it's not necessarily an exciting story that needs telling. Renee still wouldn't be able to kill the damn thing even if she caught up to it--that will just have to wait until Hal Jordan's apotheosis in last issue of the main book when all the zombies will be banished away. (C'mon, we all know it's coming.)
<\/a>

So what we have here is a nicely self-contained story, only loosely connected to the massive crossover and its frequent and frenetic silliness; a chamber piece (there's only four players) that conforms to the classical unities of time, place, and action. (Hey, the Greeks got it right sometimes.) While it's not without its flaws, it managed to avoid the pitfalls I had feared it would fall into, and I was certainly entertained, which is probably the only measure that really matters in the end.","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/119282.html?view=comments#comments","category":["question","secret six","comics"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118619.html","pubDate":"Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:43:03 GMT","title":"Squee!","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118619.html","description":"You know what's awesome news? This is awesome<\/a> news<\/a>.

Couple aside note, though. Not wild about Ed Benes on art, but guess you can't have everything. No mention of her leaving her other books, which is good--I'd be sad if she left either of them. Also no mention of cast beyond the core four characters and Catman, so interesting to see who else shows up in the book.","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118619.html?view=comments#comments","category":["secret six","comics","birds of prey"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118449.html","pubDate":"Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:21:13 GMT","title":"Y'know What's Crazy?","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118449.html","description":"<\/a>

So last week I set up a webcomic site<\/a> because, hey, why not? It'll be fun, give me something actual to work on, and motivation to get it done. Let's not kid ourselves on quality, here, but ideally that will improve over time.

But, thanks to a coincidence of timing, and me throwing a \"hey, look at my entry\" link on a vastly more popular site's contest, about a thousand random strangers have seen my Birds of Prey<\/i> comic (that's my favorite panel above). According to the site stats, almost none of them stuck around for anything else, but still. Having only had stuff I've drawn seen by, at most, twenty or thirty people, and then all acquaintances, it's kind of mind blowing.","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118449.html?view=comments#comments","category":["webcomic","art","comics"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118156.html","pubDate":"Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:11:05 GMT","title":"Personally, I Like the Idea of Doing Subtitles in Wingdings","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118156.html","description":"This one's<\/a> all for \"[info]\"<\/a>ensuing<\/b><\/a><\/span>.","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/118156.html?view=comments#comments","category":"silliness"},{"guid":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/116467.html","pubDate":"Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:38:29 GMT","title":"XKCD Once Again the Truest Reflection of Our Lives","author":"scaper84","link":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/116467.html","description":"Viz.<\/a>

Last night TV Tropes straight-up ate an hour of my life. Even casual links to that site should come with massive warning labels. Consider this a massive warning label.

Because this picture really had to be shared.<\/a>

Y'know, I'd be interested in seeing that<\/i> episode of Super Friends<\/i>.","comments":"https:\/\/scaper84.livejournal.com\/116467.html?view=comments#comments","category":["death by internet","comics","tv","silliness"]}]}}