Black Comic Characters - Bishop

Bishop is an interesting character. He's one of the X-Men. And I was excited the first time I saw him show up in the comics in the early 90's. He also became amazingly popular with others. I think most of us liked him because he carried big guns, and he was from the future. The future he is from just about a generation ahead where most of the X-men are dead, betrayed by on of their own, and the future is so messed up that being a mutant means being hunted and killed. In the story, Bishop comes back in time to fix all of that by stopping the traitor. Unfortunately for those who were following the story, but dramatically Bishop named fan-favorite Gambit (more on him in a different post) as the traitor. Since that revelation writers have played with this idea, asking how far the X-men can trust Gambit and Bishop. It was fun to read and fun to watch in the animated series. The X-men refused to let Bishop execute Gambit for something he may or may not do. Bishop proved so popular that Marvel made him a regular member of the team and of yet this beginning storyline has yet to be resolved.
I like Bishop. He is written as if he really was born and raised in a future where he has no security. He is very powerful, driven, and hard. Interesting enough, someone has created a Mugen character of Bishop. Here is a fight between Bishop (controlled by computer) versus Gambit (controlled by the computer).


Here is a fight between Bishop (controlled by me) and Vega controlled by the computer.

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Things I wish I had said! (Part 1)

I heard this quote on GodTube the other day:

"'Ignorance' can be fixed, but 'stupid' is forever!"

I think it is very interesting and so very true.

Jesus said many great things. Wonderful things that we need to live by....everything we know that he said. The Bible does not record everything he said and did...but everything that it does record we must obey and adhere to. When I try to pick just one thing he said this one comes to mind first:

"That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Luke 12:47,48

I think it resounds within me because its the creed that Spider-man lives by, first stated in his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15:

"With great power comes great responsibility"

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The Truth about G Craige Lewis Part 1

No doubt that many people in the church today have heard about a minister named G Craige Lewis (his picture is at the right). He recently (past 2 or 3 years) have been teaching about the horrors and evils about Hip Hop Music and Culture. How its crept into the church and that we must take responsibility and do what Gods has called us to do. I agree I mean like the rest of society, mainstream Hip Hop is godless. But he goes as far as saying that all rap/hip hop music is from the devil and cannot be used to glorify God or bring people to Jesus our lord and savior. He has put out his teaching on DVDs available through his ministry: EX Ministries. He seems to be targeting my generation - Generation X, but many of us are now in our thirties and are not following Hip Hop like we were in our 20's and teens. He has said that he came up with "EX" because he wants to change generation X. He has 4 DVDs. The first one is available from Google video (I'm streaming it below). He has many good points. No doubt about it the devil is using hip hop to lie, steal, and destroy lives. But to label it all evil and bad mouth people is a too much.This guy's presentation had much sensation and shock value. He talked about the worse the industry offers and about casting out demons and conversing with them. Unfortunately there was very little documentation and proof of his claims. To be honest listening to him reminded me of Kenneth Copeland and other Word-of-Faith ministries. There was very little teaching of theology in the first recording. There was a lot of denunciation of hip hop artists even gospel artists - so many in fact that it makes me wonder if he really knows the walk of the people he slandered. His argument is basically So-and-so did a song or an album with _____ (insert famous secular hip hop artist here), therefore so-and-so backslid or was never saved in the first place.
His second presentation is also on the internet on GodTube. It is called "Truth Behind Hip Hop 2: Exodus Back to Egypt. I liked this one better than "The Truth Behind Hip Hop I" because you get hear more about what he believes about God and the Bible actually says. I hate to say it but it seems very Word-of-Faith like. He said that God stepped back and gave control over the earth to humanity and for God to intervene in the earth He "needs our bodies". Sound familiar? It should to anyone who has heard the heresies coming from hell today. This so biblically untrue. God needs nothing or no one. He chooses to use whatever he wants to use to fulfill his own purpose. God is sovereign and complete all by himself! I have not reviewed the whole of material readily available yet, but I intend to do so.

G Craige Lewis said:


The Bible says (Here and in many other passages):

34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

35 All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: "What have you done?"

Daniel 4:34,35

I'd say that it is a lie just as bad the sexually explicit, women defiling, violent lies that populate secular media today! Don't be deceived, God don't like it. Here is G. Craig Lewis saying exactly that God needs us. It needs to be pointed out that the majority of Hip Hop music and culture is destroying our very existence and future by drawing people away from Christ, but there are those in the industry who seek to do better and draw people to Christ. They have a real God-given, God glorifying ministry. Lumping them all together is wrong. Calling dirty what God has called clean is wrong. Here is a great article about how EX Ministries message affect the church: 7 Reasons Why Craig Lewis and Ex Ministries Has Duped the Church into Believing Him.

Many articulate Christians have stepped up to refute this guy. In part 2, I will take a good look at one of their responses. Hazakim.

Here is The Truth Behind Hip Hop.

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Heroes Webisode #3

Here is the 3rd part for the Heroes webisode. I like it.

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Black Comic Characters - Storm

Storm is one of the greatest characters – black, female, or otherwise. She is a member of the X-Men. She is a mutant – meaning she was born with her superpowers. Her powers happen to be rather incredible. She can control the weather. There is no scientific explanation that I can offer for how such a genetic mutation can give a human being the power to control the weather, but the idea is kind of interesting to me. She has a kind of personality that is quite interesting. She is very fleshed out in the comic books and in the cartoons. You get to see where she came from, why she joined the X-Men, and why she continues to fight. She was born in Africa and worshipped as a Goddess for a time. Some of what was most interesting stories explored how that had to shape her. Amazingly she doesn’t seem to be proud or haughty. She treats everyone the same and has become a great leader. Unfortunately she isn’t fleshed out the same in the live-action movies. She is important that is why she is in the movies but she doesn’t have a whole lot of lines or character development and I think that it is sad. I admit that in terms of theology, aside from the morality she represents, there is very little of God seen in the character. She is easily one of the most powerful members of the X-Men and is often called upon when they really need a "big gun". What I mean by Morality is that she has embrace the idea that all humans - mutant and normals can be a brothers and sisters and protecting others even if those she is protecting hate her. A very Christian attitude.

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Black Comics Characters - War Machine

War Machine is almost one of my favorite comic book characters of all time. Not just because he's black but although he started out as one of Iron Man's supporting characters he has become so vital to the legend of the character that you can't talk about Iron Man without talking about him in his war machine armor or sans armor. His real name is Jim Rhodes. Sometimes characters seem to take on a life of their own and seemingly grow beyond the intentions of the writer. The first writer and artist to bring Jim Rhodes into the Iron Man stories have said that Jim is that kind of character. He went from being one of the supporting characters to Iron Man's closest friend. So close that Rhodes actually filled in for Iron Man. As the years went by, Rhodes was given a suit by Iron man and began operating independently. He had his own solo series during the mid 1990's and now because of his soaring popularity, Marvel is giving his own series again. Put another way, when Iron Man was made into a movie for 2008, Jim Rhodes was put into the movie also. This post has pictures of Jim Rhodes inside and outside the armor. At one point, Rhodes wore alien armor (that is the armor that looks total different from Iron Man).

Rhodes has been depicted in almost every single media that are in use today

Television:



Comics



















Movies



Mugen

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Bush = Batman? Nah

I have read an article, Bat-Bush: A New Hope for Conservatives by Brandon Barker, from AOL News that is itself a comment on an article in the Wall Street Journal, What Bush and Batman Have in Common by Andrew Klavan. Klavan makes the argument that Batman in the movie Batman: The Dark Knight is allegorical for the Bush Administration and how it has dealt with the "War on Terror." Barker countered his argument with humor but not much else. All he succeeded in doing is offending me by making disparaging remarks about Batman (the ones about Bush might be valid). Let's take a few minutes and discuss some of points that they both bring up.

Klavan said

There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.

I don't think that Klavan is correct equating Bush to Batman because to do so equates the Joker to Bin Laden and his like-minded ilk. The Joker is bent on anarchy and murder of everyone around him regardless of who they are and what they believe. The problem for Batman was that the Joker was trying to push Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent to their breaking points so that they will compromise the rules and values that they hold dearest. That is why the Joker did not kill Dent after he became Two-Face. The Joker recognized Tw0-Face as a victory. Batman is willing to do whatever he has to do, sacrifice whatever he has to, except the life of another human being. He will not kill ever. He refuses. The Joker wanted to push Batman to the point that he would kill Joker. Like everyone knows the Joker is nuts. How many lives has Bush sacrificed in this war? It's not his own life on the line, it's the lives of our 18 to 30 year-olds. Batman consistently put his own life on the line.

Bush compromises the civil rights of law-abiding citizens in order to protect them. Batman only goes outside the law to stop criminals from breaking it. One could argue that this is wrong and Batman struggles with it. He is constantly asking himself "have I gone too far?" "Have I become what I hate?" I question if Bush and those in his administration ever ask these questions. Batman makes no apologies for his methods. Will he torture a suspect? Yes. Will he ignore international laws to protect Gotham City? Without any hesitation. Is he right? He constantly hopes so. The film makes a point (the comics make it too) that Batman can do things that the authorities cannot do. The authorities cannot be just as bad as those they have authority over. Batman is constantly working for a time where the city will no longer need what he does. He constantly told Harvey Dent: "You are better than I am for this city." Batman believed that Dent was someone the Batman can never be because their functions are different.

Here is another point about how Batman and Bush are different: When Batman did bend the civil rights of the citizens to listen to every single phone call in the city to find the joker, he destroyed the technology as soon as it was over. How many of our civil liberties have been permanently abridged? You can be legally wiretapped at any time. This point came up in the film. Harvey reminded people that when Rome was a republic they would appoint one man to get them out of trouble and handed all political and social power to him and talked about Batman being like that man and when the crisis was over the man would give up his power and Rome would be a republic again...until Julius Caesar any way. The film explained that Batman is what Gotham needs in the wake of the Joker and the threats still over it. I'm not too sure if America still needs Bush's policies.

How does Barker argue against Klavan? And I quote:

But let's take a quick step back. How, in fact, is President George W. Bush--the helmsman of the most disparaged administration since, well, Clinton's--comparable to this tough, decisive and plastic-coated version of the winged hero? Kavlan claims:

A. They are both "vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand"
B. They sometimes have "to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency"
C. They both understand "that there is no moral equivalence between a free society and a criminal sect bent on destruction"

Would it be too easy to point out that they are also both the sullen, neglected, entitled sons of wealthy and powerful men who, when given the freedom of adulthood, create widespread, high-tech havoc?

Okay, I admit that Barker made a funny. But let's think seriously for a second. The real difference between Batman and Bush is not that they create havoc. Batman tries to control and protect the world from the havoc that nearly destroys his life when he saw his parents gunned down in front of him (I'm talking about Batman as if he's real because Barker went as far as making a personal insult against a fictional character). The movie makes the argument that the city of Gotham and that fictional world is better off because of Batman's actions. Can anyone make the same comment on your life as an American citizen because of George Bush's actions?

Both Batman Begins and Dark Knight are based on themes of choice. In Begins, Bruce Wayne chose to be defined by what he does, not by what people think of him. In Dark Knight, Harvey Dent said "you either live long enough to die a hero, or to see yourself become the villain." When Batman made the decision he made at the end of the film (I'm not going to say what it is in case you haven't seen it yet) he quoted the same line. He decided that it was better for Gotham to sacrifice himself than for the Joker to win. Commissioner Gordon agreed with him but hated it. Do you see Bush, or yourself for that matter, falling on your proverbial sword for anyone?

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Black Comic Book Creator - Dwayne McDuffie

There are three black comic creators I'd like to call attention to. The first one I will discuss is Dwayne McDuffie. I have been following his work for about half my life now. I had seen his name in the credits of some projects and titles that I have thoroughly enjoyed without ever realizing that he is black. He has not only written some of the best comics I have ever read but he has written or helped create many of the animated shows I have been enjoying since the early 1990's. He is highly talented. This post contains pictures of several characters he has worked on. Click on either on them and some will take you a web page about the character for more information.

When you look at the breadth of his work you realize that he has written some of the most iconic and well-known characters in the history of the medium: Spider-man, Superman, Batman, and Iron man to just name a few. He has done more than some writers ever has the opportunity to do namely write and publish his own characters. Most of the characters he created were part of the company called Milestone that he co-created. DC published the Milestone books as partners.
One of the books he did that I remember from the early 90's that I fondly remember was "Damage Control". The concept was that Damage Control was a company that was contracted to local governments that clean up and re-build after a superhero/supervillian battle. I mean who cleans up Manhatten after the Hulk laid waste to 10-20 blocks? It's a job for Damage Control. I liked this book because it did not take itself or the industry too seriously without becoming campy. I hate campy.

Something else that make McDuffie stands out is that he has branched out to animated television from comic books. He wrote lots of great episodes of Justice League, Teen Titans, Static Shock, and Ben 10. He even wrote the story for the video game called "Justice League Heroes". I like the game. A lot of games have lame plots, but this one is interesting and fun to play through.

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Mugen Spider-man

Here is another mugen demo. It's me cim aontrolling The Spider-man character created by Eradicator. I love this version of the character because he is fun to fight with and really powerful. I like it better than the version of the character in Capcom's Marvel Superheroes. It's great. I found him at Eradicator's website.

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Black People and Comic Books

I have been a fan of science fiction for about as long as I had tastes and could choose to like this and dislike that. Fans and creators of science fiction in general comic books and animation in particular are assumed to white, male, and geeky. Being a black man I don't fully fit that description (okay I'll cop to the last two). The perception that comic book fans are by definition "white and nerdy" is changing. Nowadays you can be any race or nationality or male or female and be a comic book/science fiction fan. Okay so we are still trying to live down the "geeky" label (or embrace it in some cases). As I have grown older I have met many more and more diverse people crossing color and gender lines at conventions, stores, and theaters. Part of the problem why I think that superheroes in particular have not been hugely popular among black people is because of the lack of serious black characters and black creators. While the main publishing housing for comic books have always had black characters since the 1970's, it is only now that some of these characters are becoming mainstream, especially among folks who know nothing about comic books. As of now everyone knows about Storm and Blade from marvel (they've been in movies) and people know that there is a black Green Lantern because of the Justice League television series.

I want to do a series of blog articles spotlighting various comic book creators and comic book characters that happen to be black. I intend to talk about how their work has impacted me and the characters. And combine my interest in the Mugen fighting games because many characters are available to play in mugen. Please see my articles on mugen for more information. I have also come across a great index of black fictional characters covering all of my favorite mediums. The site can be found here at the Museum of Black Superheroes.

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Heroes Webisode #2

Here is the second Heroes Webisode. The Webisode series is called "Going Postal".

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I Saw "The Dark Knight"

You know how every year movie studios try to use hype to convince us to go see their movies? And when you go see the movies the experience almost never lives up to the hype? Yeah we have all been there. So what about the latest Batman movie? Does live up to the hype Warner Bros. and other media outlets or does it disappoint?

Personally, I think it by far does not disappoint. It exceeded my expectations. I have been a comic book fan my whole life in general and Batman in particular. The highest praise for a movie of this type that I can offer is this: I think I have finally seen the definitive Batman movies - the one movie by which all comic book/cartoon adaptations will be judged from now on. It was done from the standpoint of if these over-the-top fictional characters really existed as real people, they would have to look, feel, and act like the characters in this movie. All the actors were awesome and I can see why Heath Ledger got such great reviews as the Joker. He made Jack Nicholson's Joker (1989) look sane. No wonder people are meaning the words "Leger", "deserves", "an Oscar" in the same sentence.

The character seemed to personify evil, psychosis, and chaos. He was not interested in money or power as most villains and criminals are interested. Those kinds of people just are willing to do whatever they have to get what they want. This Joker was different. All he was concerned with was proving that every human being is capable of killing and maiming someone else if it meant saving themselves.

The Joker reminded me of Satan telling God in the book of Job, that the only reason why Job loved and obeyed God was because God protected him and if God allowed Job to loose everything he held dear, Job would curse God. This was interesting to see this kind of intricste and complex themes in a comic book movie. Without giving away the movie, many characters in the movie were faced with loosing what meant the most to them through the Joker's plans and actions. In short, Job was way more successful in his trials than many of the character in the movie. Hopefully in a few weeks I can better compare and contrast each character from "the Dark Knight" with Job and discuss what is being said about humanity and suffering. Perhaps a video.

It was interesting watching how they wrestled with just how much of their souls they were willing to give up. Just where was the line they refused to cross. Joker was the only character that did not wrestle with those questions. He was a sociopathic catalyst that changed the lives of everyone in the city and forced the main characters to make difficult choices. Turned out Batman did some heavy soul searching and narrowly managed to win (if you can call the end of the movie winning).

If you have not seen this movie I think you should see it. I think that it is the highest grossing movie of 2008 and finally have been Spider-man from 2002 as the highest grossing movie opening ever. By the was if you had want to see this movie opening weekend you had 2 options. One, you bought your tickets early in advanced perhaps days or even weeks. Or two, you did what I did and say it at an insane hour of day. I saw it at the San Francisco Metreon at 12:30 am on opening Sunday morning. The theater was packed and I had waited in line 2 hours and saw the lines for the two shows that has sold out as the showing I attended had sold out. Block some time out...it's 2 and half hours long, but it goes by fast. I got home at 4:30 am. I do not reccommend pulling this on a Sunday morning because we all ought to be in Church and Sunday School. If you can still make church the next day go for it. If you can't, pick option 1 - Fandango. By the way, I made if for church including Sunday School and an evening service without falling a sleep all day. How? God did it. He alowed me to get some caffine.

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Watchman

I love comic book movies. A famous graphic novel will be released as a movie March 2009. It is the british Graphic novel called "Watchmen". It was considered a watershed event and no comic book, or book in that genre has not been affected by this story. The trailer looks great. The director is the same director who directed "the 300" last year.

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New Movies

I'll keep this short!
Two Words: Terminator 4
It'll be out next summer 2009.


And Tyler Perry is coming out with a new movie. It will be out September 2008. It is the called "The Family that Preys". It looks good too. I can't wait to see both of them!

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Are somethings Inappropriate to laugh at?

The New York Times published an interesting article called "Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, Find a Joke". It discussed the fact that late-night talk show hosts do not make a frontal attack on Obama in their jokes. It's like he is off-limits. The make fun of people around him but nothing personal about him. "Political Correctness" is given as the reason for this. All of the late-night talk shows are white with predominantly white audiences. The article include the following:

“The thing is, he’s [Obama] not buffoonish in any way,” said Mike Barry, who started writing political jokes for Johnny Carson’s monologues in the waning days of the Johnson administration and has lambasted every presidential candidate since, most recently for Mr. Letterman. “He’s not a comical figure,” Mr. Barry said.

It appears that they are either too afraid of offending people or can't find anything funny about him. Another viewpoint is that making fun of Obama too soon would ruin his chances like Gore and Kerry but I disagree. I don't think Kerry and Gore lost because David Letterman skewered them mercilously on his show.

There is this spirit around today where some people are so afraid of offending others they walk on egg shells. White people cannot criticize black people for fear as being seen as racist. The article did shortly interview David Alan Grier who is a black comedian (don't look blank, I know you remember "In Living Color") who pointed out that he can say some things the white comedians can't say.

I admit that FOX NEWS did not seem to get the memo to lay off of Obama and his family. The difference is that they are telling lies and saying mean spirited things like he and Bin Ladin should be assassinated and that Michelle Obama is a terrorist. If I saw conspiracy everywhere I would suggest that they are doing it to make Obama look more sympathetic. Who are the "they"? You know the "they" that run everything. Something strange is going on there and I don't know what the whole thing is and we may never know.

The article also has the following quote: "Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the ABC late-night talk show 'Jimmy Kimmel Live,' said of Mr. Obama, 'There’s a weird reverse racism going on. You can’t joke about him because he’s half-white. It’s silly. I think it’s more a problem because he’s so polished, he doesn’t seem to have any flaws.' I have 2 comments. One, I'm still trying to figure out what Kimmel did to get that show...I mean why is he famous? Two, its sad that if a person does not seem to have obvious flaws there is a problem.

The article sums up the thought of many of the writers of the late-night television shows as follows: " Mr. Burnett of the Letterman show said, 'We can’t manufacture a perception. If the perception isn’t true, no one will laugh at it.'
Mr. Sweeney said, 'We’re hoping he [Obama] picks an idiot as vice president.'"

I think that this is the problem with FOX they have been trying to manufacture stories about Obama trying to dredge up all they can and it end up making them look bad and racist. And the hope that Obama picks an idiot as Vice President will make the comedians' jobs easier by giving them someone to make fun of in his administration.

I think the fact that the secular world can't find much leverage against Obama is interesting. The issues that they can attack him on are issues they don't want to touch. Issues such as abortion and the essentials of Christianity. These are issues that the world does not want to touch because it will mean discussing what the Bible says and confronting sin. Can't have that can we? There was a show on Iron Sharpens Iron that interviewed PASTOR CLENARD HOWARD CHILDRESS, JR who laid out beautifully and scathingly why Obama is not a good choice for president and why we can't just overlook his view of abortion. Read the introduction and listen to the program here.

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ITUNES

I have found out that while Itunes is a great service for downloading music and videos, apple keeps people from renting content and then just keeping it by encoding the videos so that the file is only as good as long as the rental. The file format is known as *.m4v. If the files from Itunes or other sources are generated as mp4 files the protection is not there and the file can be copied and stored easily.

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Mugen Demo - Superman

Mugen is a customizable video game engine. It allows you to create your own fighting games. You choose the characters you include, the stages, the music, and all the things that come to mind. It plays just like all 2-D fighting games I have grown up with. The difference is that the player has more control. It is completely international and user driven. The content can be developed personally. All the characters I have (over 1000) came from various creators on the internet from around the world. Some of the characters I have are very fun to play and to watch because they have been created and program so well just like professional games. People trade characters and mugen content like Baseball cards. I have much to say on this. I have been working with mugen since September 2007 when I stumbled across recorded fight in mugen games posted on YouTube. I plan to do a series of fights with different characters and post them here and in YouTube from time to time. Here is a demo of me as Superman fighting a few different characters. First I fought Jubilee and had an easy time. Then I got owned by Ryo, but eventually won. Then I fought a sword character, and then computer controlled Superman.



Here is another one me (as Superman) vs M. Bison from the Street Fighter video game series. This one has no sound.

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DC vs Mortal Kombat

Never thought that this would be made...but here you go!

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More Heroes!!!!

Fall came early!!! Ok, because of the television writers' strike last spring, the Heroes series was on hiatus. The good news is that the writer's strike is over. The bad news is that the show won't have any new episodes until September 2008...on Television that is. NBC has produced small Heroes webisodes. Here is the first one. I like it.

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Now this is just wrong

I came across the following article: "New Yorker's Obama Cover Touches Nerve". The problem is that it also sits on my nerve. Here is the image that has caused the uproar (right). The article talks about how some people are offended by the picture but the author of the article does not think it is offensive but funny. The New Yorker defends itself by saying that they were showing the stupidity of the rhetoric and lies that people are saying about the Obamas. You know what I am referring to: 1. Barak is unpatriotic; 2. Michelle is an angry violent black woman who wants to bring back the Black Panthers; 3. Barak is really Muslim; 4. Barak supports Bin Ladin. Given that none of these things can be substanciated or proven true, does not mean that there are not real people who really believe those things. I don't think pointing out these things and starting a dialog using an image that feeds these misconceptions and fears is the best solution. I think that there are people who really think that this image accurately represents reality. I got the sense that the editors at the New Yorker think that most people will see the cover as a joke commenting on those who think that it is true, not thinking that the magazine is condoning those thoughts. Truth is I don't have that high an expectation.

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Electronic Publishing

I have been researching some technologies for doing electronic publishing. It is possible to generate content that has the convenience of being distributed over the Internet, yet possessing the look and feel of paper. The best tool I have found so far is found at Desktop Author. I love the technology because you can make books or magazine or brochures. They can contain text, music, pictures, or even videos. And what the reader sees on the screen is book that opens and closes and the pages turn just like a real 3-D, real-world book! Unfortunately the software to create it is not free, but they do allow one to play around with it. Check out the website here.

I have included an example e-book in this post. It's really cool. Just download the plug-in when your computer prompts you. The E-Book is "Apology" by Plato. Thanks!

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Best Animated Fight Scene Ever

I had to post this one. I found this one on YouTube. It is from a Japanese animated Series called Jubei-Chan 2. All thirteen episodes are on YouTube. I liked the series and I can't find all of the first series yet but its about a female, teenaged sword master. Here is the fight scene.

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Gotham Knight

I have seen the new anthology movie based on Batman. It is called "Batman: Gotham Knight". I really like it. Same actor doing Batman's voice from television for the last 15 years, Kevin Conroy. The stories are great - 6 interlocking stories exploring Batman as a character - a man, myth, and legend. I think my favorite was the one where a Russian mafia group puts a hit on Batman by hiring a hitman that never misses named "Dead Shot". All six stories are all well done. I would suggest that if you like Batman you really need to see it. Here is the trailer from YouTube.

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