Category: All Posts

The day comic books died?

This picture was taken at That’s Entertainment, Paul Howley’s award-winning comic book and collectibles store in Worcester, MA. The comic book is Captain America issue #108, on newsstands September, 1968. The pencil art was drawn by Jack Kirby, and it was inked by Syd Shores. Captain America #108 was the last issue of Cap I bought in Norwalk, CT, before my family moved to Massachusetts. The villain was the Trapster, a revamped version of Paste Pot Pete, who should have worked for 3M, but instead used his expertise in adhesives for evil.

What would I have done without comic books when I was a kid? The point is, I like comic books being physical things, but like music and movies, comics are becoming virtual products. The Boston Globe has an article at this link about comics publisher DC offering a digital alternative. Of this development, Paul says…

“Once one of my customers buys a comic online, then DC Comics has them forever,’’ Howley said. “They don’t need me. They have no interest in keeping people like us in the middle. This really is, in the long run, cutting our own throat.’’

My friend Morris doesn’t see digital comics as replacing the real thing, on paper. He has a point. How many casual comics readers are there? There used to be many, when comic books were sold in drug stores and read in barber shops, but these days almost all comic book readers are also collectors, and who wants to collect PDF’s?

What large servers you have!

Today at work I was watching a not very useful video about VMware virtual networking. When I looked to see what else YouTube had pulled up as related material, what I saw between NIC teaming and the Cisco Nexus was a surprise.

That little blue ghost in the upper right corner of the screen shot is Ghostery. I recommend giving it a try. So far, it seems to work best with Firefox 4.

The Wright frame of mind

On WBZ-Boston radio Monday night laconic, existential comedian Steven Wright chatted with his fellow Emerson College alum, Steve LeVeille. Wright was scheduled to be on for just the first hour, but he stayed for two. (I wasn’t going to sit at the computer any later than that, Samjay!) Here’s the first hour, and I think I got all of the commercials out, but I left in Mike Love singing about pretty trees.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Jun/leveille.mp3|titles=WBZ-Boston: Steve LeVeille with Steven Wright]

Colbert hams it up at Lincoln Center

Thursday night we were in an audience of 10-12, who saw a “special event” at the movies — Stephen Sondheim’s Company, featuring Stephen Colbert, Neil Patrick Harris, and Christina Hendricks. I would hope the showings at theaters closer to cities have been better attended.

Company is 40 years old, and although the show’s themes may be timeless I think its age shows, and I could tell it was written by members of my parents’ generation. Considering that Sondheim was probably working on Company while Woodstock was happening, it’s an interesting contrast to the musicals of the day that have a more obvious hippie influence, such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell.

Although I may not be taken with the show itself, the cast obviously had a great time and their enthusiastic performances are what make Company worth seeing. Harris seems to have taken over from Nathan Lane as Broadway’s standard bearer, and he carries his lead role with ease, but Colbert and Hendricks are also excellent. Chryssie Whitehead, who is adorable as Kathy and dynamic in a stand-out dance number, merits special recognition.

Colbert was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross this week to talk about Company, among other things. It’s always fun to hear Stephen conversing when he’s out of character.