Ordinarily, there wouldn’t be anything odd about this sign. But look at the placement.
Why do they need a No Parking sign in the middle of the lawn? It’s a new sign, too—they just redid the entire lawn last year.
Seriously, I don’t think they’re going to have much of a problem with people parking on the lawn in front of an office building in Irvine.
Come to think of it, though, this is only 50 feet or so from the crosswalk warning device.
I just found out that Empire of Ivory, the fourth book in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, came out today!
The series takes place in an alternate version of the Napoleonic Wars in which dragons exist, and are used in warfare. This results in an odd mix of naval battles and aerial dogfighting, with full human crews carrying bombs, guns, etc. Dragons bond with the first human they see (not telepathically, like in the Pern books, just emotionally), so captains in the Aerial Corps are given quite a bit of leeway—though the entire Corps is considered rather unsavory by the general public.
It focuses on naval Captain Will Laurence, who captures a French vessel just as an egg is ready to hatch. The dragonlet Temeraire imprints on him, and he is whisked away from the sea and into the world of air warfare. (Think of it as Master and Commander with dragons instead of ships.) During the first 3 books they go through training together, travel to China to discover Temeraire’s heritage, and find themselves called back to Europe in the thick of the war.
Our friend andrea-wot lent us the first three books last year, and we both really enjoyed them. In fact, Naomi Novik has joined the short list of authors whose new books I’ll pick up sight unseen (currently sharing that spot with Neil Gaiman and Greg Keyes), though for some reason I thought this one was coming out in October. I’m definitely going to be stopping by Borders or Barnes & Noble tomorrow to pick this up. If you’re at all interested, I highly recommend picking up the first book, His Majesty’s Dragon (in the US; in the UK it’s just called Temeraire) and giving it a test flight.
Arr! Barry Allen may not know how to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, but he do celebrate Jog Like a Pirate Day!
From Showcase #13, it’s “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” a tale of the Flash. (Mostly he runs around the world, helps people out, and gets kissed by women. Aye, it be good to be a superhero.)
(Cover via GCD. This story appears in Showcase Presents: The Flash vol.1 and The Flash Archives vol.1.)
If ye be wonderin’ why this site be lookin’ strange this day, wonder no further. It be Talk Like a Pirate Day.
This day o’ pirate speak is brought to ye by the Text Filter Suite of Dougal Campbell.
I might be recommendin’ ye set course for the sea shanty, Voyage of the Fyrefawkes, or embark upon the Tall Ships of San Diego. Or if ye wish, ye might search yerself fer more pirate tales.
Newsarama reports that during the Q&A part of the DC Nation panel at this weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con, a fan asked:
Are there more Legion, Flash or Justice League Archives coming? [VP of Sales Bob] Wayne said that when you get up to the issues that can be affordably bought by collectors the demand for the Archive Editions goes down.
Okay, this might apply to the Silver-Age material. The four Flash Archives books so far are up to Flash #132 (1962). When I was tracking down back-issues in the #133–140 range (the likely contents of a hypothetical book 5) about 6 or 7 years ago, I seem to remember finding reasonably good copies in the $5-15 range. (Better copies, of course, run into triple digits.)
But there’s still 8 years of Golden-Age material to cover, from 1942–1949: more than 75% of Jay Garrick’s solo run. And those books are much harder to find, with battered readers’ copies often selling for $40–150.
Moreover, those 8 years include the first appearances of every major Golden-Age Flash villain. Continue reading
I just discovered that cartoonist Kerry Callen is working on a new volume of Halo and Sprocket to be released next year!
The book ran for just 4 issues about 5 years ago, plus a few more short stories that appeared elsewhere. It’s about a trio of unlikely roommates: the human Katie, the angel Halo, and the robot Sprocket. More precisely, it’s about the different ways they each look at the world. Sprocket is intensely logical, Halo brings a spiritual perspective, and Katie’s humanity manages to perplex both of them no end. Each story is stand-alone, suitable for kids or adults, and a wonderful mix of insightful and drop-down funny.
The website has several stories online. [Update: It’s gone, but Callen posted a preview on his blog.] Comics Worth Reading has a review of the first collection, Halo and Sprocket: Welcome to Humanity, which I highly recommend.
I was really disappointed when the series just stopped a few years ago, and I’m very glad to see that there’s going to be more.
