On Resuming Normal Service

And now, after Retro Weekend, we resume normal blogging service. Who knows? Maybe in a couple of months, I’ll feel the need for another Retro Weekend, I’ll put some Creedance in the old stereo, and we’ll rock out again like it’s 1999. 😆 In the meantime, though, I need coffee. And a good descruffyfication. InContinue reading “On Resuming Normal Service”

On Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen

On a mailing list I subscribe to, discussion turned recently to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. The series were published in 1985 and 1986. Watchmen is credited with beginning the era of “realistic” superheroes, Dark Knight is credited with turning Batman “serious.” It was noted that theContinue reading “On Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen”

On Tortured Similes

I frequently read Penny Arcade. The creators bring a snarky eye to pop culture and video games, and the web comic rarely fails to amuse me. Today’s strip concerns, of all things, literary criticism. Specifically, the tendency in science fiction to invent really complicated similes for really simple comparisons. Throwing in random, made-up words —Continue reading “On Tortured Similes”