Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Today (the 23rd,) was actually Festivus, so I hope you all aired your grievances and competed in Feats of Strength.

Now that you've pinned your relatives and won glory by climbing the Festivus Pole, it's time to usher in Christmastime.  Justice League Style.

Here's a nice little bit of Christmas cheer courtesy of the Justice League and featuring CMMH! favorite, the Martian Manhunter.  Sit back and grab a cup of hot chocolate and relax.

Anyone else slightly amused that no one cares that Batman spends Christmas alone?

Custom Green Lantern iPad by Jim Lee

Despite being a diehard Apple fan since before the days of Macintosh, I really can't see the point in owning an iPad.

But this particular iPad would be awesome to own!

How'd you like Hal Jordan on the back of your iPad?  Wow, that sounded somehow not right.  Jim Lee did a series of iPads (including some Batman ones) which were given away to lucky fans at New York Comic-Con.

Just a few reviews

Okay, so I'm a little behind in my comics-reading.  There doesn't seem to be anything really exiting me lately in the comics world.

I did have a chance to read Booster Gold #39 on the weekend.  When Giffen and DeMatteis took over from Dan Jurgens, I was a little thrown off by the change in tone.  Jurgens did a nice job continuing the groundwork laid down by Geoff Johns, and G&D took a few steps back.  The stories got ridiculously silly and even violated a few of the intricate time travel "rules."  Being a fan of the JLI years, it hurts to not like something written by Giffen and DeMatteis 100%.  But this month's issue jettisoned the silliness for the serious side of the Booster Gold/Blue Beetle dynamic.  I'm hoping they continue along the lines.  The downside is, that this month's story seemed like an effort to hammer the final nail in Ted Kord's possibly-but-never-to-be-resurrected coffin.

That, and I read the Batman Annual.  I must have subscribed to it a year ago, and forgot to drop my subscription, so finding it in the mail was a bit of a surprise.  And what, may I ask, is going on in the Bat-universe?  I finally dropped my last tie to the Bat-world, Streets of Gotham, a few months ago, and now I have no idea what's going on.  I had a vague notion about Batman Incorporated, but apparently the government of France has signed a deal with them.  And not only that, but Bruce Wayne himself approaches the French prime minister and acts like...well, Batman.  What happened to playing the foppish playboy to derail any theories identifying him at the Batman?  If Bruce Wayne swoops into your country, finances Batman, Inc., and throws all sorts of technical jargon around and acts and speaks like the World's Greatest Detective, isn't that all a little too obvious?  *sigh*

Ah, well, I'm hoping some good comics will come my way soon.

1989 Mayfair Games DC Heroes Fire Character Card front

Eep!

That week went by fast!  I've been preoccupied with non-comicsy things lately, and kind of got out of my little comic blogging routine, and before I knew it, the week was over.

Anyway, I know Chanukah and Mayfairstivus are over, but the menorah is still lit in the town center (last time I drove past anyway), so I'm using that as my excuse to post what cards I have left.  (Or maybe I should save them for next year?)

Here's Beatriz DaCosta's card:

Bea looks like she's feeling a combination of boredom and annoyance, so I can only guess she's on monitor duty and Guy Gardner said something idiotic to her at the same time.  It looks like G'nort grabbed a bottle of blonde dye at the A&P instead of green by mistake, so that's why we're not seeing Bea in her usual acid green tresses.  She also decided to mix things up with an orange cami under her jacket.  I guess even superheroines get tired of wearing the same thing every day.  (Just ask Wonder Woman!)

Let's look at Bea's stats:

Being a second- (or maybe even third) stringer, Bea's stats are expectedly on the lower side.  What will be fun to do is compare her stats to her friend Ice, becuase I always assumed their powers were more or less equal in intensity.  I don't know if that's how it really is in "real" life, but I'd like to think that best friends have an equal chance to save each other in battle.  It just seems right to me.

Let it also be noted that Bea is one of the chosen few heroes (along with Booster Gold and John Constantine) to be listed as attractive.  Mayfair is pretty selective with who they consider attractive.

Well, sorry to fall off the face of the Earth for a week.  It was a nice trip in orbit, though.

Harley Quinn Pencils by Loston Wallace

I love how word gets around so quickly on the internet!  Over the weekend, Loston Wallace, who drew the sketch I featured the other day, sent me a note of thanks along with some hi-res scans of his Harley Quinn art.

I love seeing art before it's been finished, either inked or pencilled, becuase I feel as though it's a window to the artist's process.  Stare as I might at pencilled or inked comic art, though, and I think maybe I'll learn through osmosis how to draw like that.

Loston says he used a B pencil on Bristol board (a thicker, smoother kind of paper) to draw this sketch, which was later finished and colored in Photoshop.  I love how clean the lines are.  I'm a sucker for some nice line weights, what can I say?  If you'd like to see more of Loston's art, you can check out his website or his DeviantArt page.

Characters!

Since this blog isn't character-centric, I thought I'd list the characters you'll see appearing on this blog.  Just so you have a little heads up.  Also, I needed another tab up there besides my Pull List, and I'm having fun with Blogger's tab feature.

So here's my favorite characters, in no particular order:

• Martian Manhunter
• Two-Face
• Booster Gold
• Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
• Adam Strange
• Hal Jordan and other Green Lanterns (yes, even Guy Gardner)
• Batman
• Harley Quinn
• The Phantom Stranger
• Fire and Ice
• Just about any other Justice League International character
• The Atom
• Just about any Bat-villain
• Rip Hunter
• The Flash (Barry Allen)
• Huntress
• The Metal Men and Dr. Magnus
• The Rocketeer (okay, I know, not DC, but still)
• Vril Dox
• Magnus, Robot Fighter (also not DC)
• The Spirit

Okay, I lied.  They're definitely in some kind of order.