I generated this photomosaic of the late, great Rory Root. It's made entirely out of graphic novels of every type, which were his passion in life. It's tough to make out the individual books in this small thumbnail image, but you can click through to see it in much higher detail.
There will be a memorial service for Rory on June 21st at 7pm at
Comic Relief in Berkely which is located at 2026 Shattuck Ave, 94704.
This is a great little clip about the single episode crossover between Batman and the Green Hornet. What I wouldn't give to see a real fight between Bruce Lee and Burt Ward.
In my mind, the only real battle is between which show had the best theme song. As great as the Batman theme is, The Hornet horns win hands down. It's like Flight of the Bumblebee with a Jazz hook and super-action that never dissapoints. Don't believe me? Tell me this doesn't thrill you:
This Minutemen picture looks just good enough to get your hopes up that the Watchmen movie won't be a horrific waste of film. So much better to crush your spirit when it turns out to be rotten!
I just found out that a good friend and comic retailing icon Rory Root of the world famous Comic Relief in Berkeley is in a coma after a a ruptured heria put him in the hospital this weekend.
Rory Root has passed away and the world of comic book retailing just got a lot sadder for me. This page will be black for a while in memory of Rory. I never saw him wear any other color but black so I want to copy him one last time.
I can categorically state that without the example set by Rory and his store, Hijinx would not be the store it is today. Ironically I just had a long conversation with Rory last week about setting up group health care here at the store. Luckily, Rory was smart enough and progressive enough to provide affordable health care to his employees and for himself, so I know he was well cared for when he passed.
In his honor, if you're anywhere near Berkeley, stop in Comic Relief and spend some money there. You won't have a problem finding something to buy, as it's the single finest comic bookstore I've ever seen. Easily eclipsing anything else the bay area has to offer in terms of breadth and depth of selection. Rory's passion for the medium of comics and for the trade of bookselling were unmatched by anyone I've ever known and it shows in ever square inch of his store. I was proud to call him my colleague and friend.
Most people know what a great crooner Nat King Cole was, but did you know he could swing like a gate on the piano? Here he takes what is usually a corny old tune and takes it to totally new heights.
This is just a "proof of concept" teaser for what looks to be one of the coolest high concept sci-fi movies in a long time. I just hope that there are brains in jars somewhere in the final film. The production design and special effects look fantastic, and I really can't wait to check out the finished product. Check out more on their website.
Some of you may know that I write Free software for use in the comic book retail industry. I give away my software to help make it better and to ensure that retailers have a choice beyond proprietary software that enforces the heartbreak of "vendor-lock". Granted, I don't make any money selling my software but it's already saved me so much money just by using it, and all of the constructive comments from comic shops across the country that use it have made my little labor of love even better.
Back when I worked in the software industry I could hit up my bosses to pay my way into conferences like Google I/O coming up later this month. It costs $400 to register as a developer for the two day event in San Francisco, and I really want to go. The new version 2.0 of my retailer software uses a bunch of cool tools that Google has released lately and I think the conference could really help me make the new stuff a real quantum leap ahead of my current system.
So, that brings me to shaking the virtual tin cup. If you care at all about helping me help the comics retail industry escape domination by one or two software vendors, please donate whatever you feel is appropriate. The little progress graph is a good example of one of the great tools Google offers to developers like me that will be integrated into Hijinx 2.0. Thanks!
Here's a really old Muppet clip featuring our old pal Kermit and Harry the Hipster, both performed by the late, great Jim Henson. Kermit tries some visual thinking excercises and is given a little lesson in jazz by Harry. I love the part where Kermit says he doesn't like jazz!
Once upon a time not so long ago, this cartoon was considered totally appropriate for viewing by kids on Saturday mornings. Not just appropriate, it was one of the funniest cartoons ever made, and it was assumed that kids knew the difference between cartoons and reality. Somewhere along the line since then it's been decided that this cartoon is too dangerous to show to young children as it trivializes gun violence and sends an bad message.
Thank goodness for the internet and YouTube that we can now see these incredibly funny and beautifully produced cartoons any time we want, we just can't see them on TV with the rest of the focus-group created toy commercials masquerading as cartoons that dominate Saturday mornings today.
Speaking of Johnny Quest, here's the original show opener. No cartoon opening credits have ever been as cool as this. You've got frogmen, mummies, several death rays, machine guns, dinosaurs, walking robot eyes, and of course Race kicking much ass. Plus, the swinging jazz theme music, with a driving action beat but still light enough for a little piccolo solo there at the end when they introduce the cartoon cast. I think the very ending notes get cut off here, but you've got to admit that you got excited just listening to it!
This is one part of a much longer documentary about one of the best adventure cartoons ever made for TV: Johnny Quest. It concentrates on Race Bannon, who is unquestionably the coolest character on the show, and one of the toughest guys in TV history.
However, as cool as Race may have been in a fight, he was far from perfect. Her's another clip from the documentary that goes into some of the more politically incorrect moments of the show, including the famous "racist Bannon" scene where Race dyes himself purple to impersonate a god and proceeds to insult the "heathen monkey" natives. Let's watch:
Just how close are we to actually building Iron Man suits? It's always seemed to me that the technology is pretty much there for at least a Mark I suit, and this article in New Scientist magazine points out that all of the various classes of tech involved are viable, but nobody has put them together yet.
