November 2004 – LonelyMachines

The Episode III Trailer

The third and final Star Wars prequel comes out next may, but Lucasfilm has released the trailer. I managed to snag a copy, and it looks interesting so far. What’s odd is that the first half is comprised of footage from earlier movies, including a voiceover of Obi-Wan’s original description of Vader’s origin to Luke in A New Hope. I suppose it’s to bring audiences up to speed, and to make the connection.

If the horrible travesty of Phantom Menace hadn’t rattled my faith in Lucas, I might be looking forward to this movie with a bit more anticipation, but now I’m only mildly interested. I wasn’t too impressed with Attack of the Clones, either, but I went to watch it because, well, it was Star Wars, dammit, and I was supposed to at least give it a chance.

If nothing else, the first two prequels were visually astonishing, and this looks no different.

Continued...

Visual Media

Why Joss Whedon is a genius, and I am but a humble mortal

(Click to see entire page. Copyright Marvel, 2004)

Those words are “Fastball Special.” The following two pages are a single-panel spread of Peter launching Logan into the upper atmosphere in the time-honored Claremont fashion. It suddenly doesn’t really matter how exactly Peter’s back from the dead, or what Chuck Austen and the rest have done to the series since the early ’90s. In just a couple of pages and a few well-placed lines of dialogue. Whedon’s erased all concerns, and suddenly, you’re back in the halcyon days of 1986 like nothing’s changed at all.

Given what readers have endured in the hands of writers since Claremeont, it feels like coming home, and I got a lump in my throat reading this issue. It’s been a long time since the X-Men books have had an emotional stake for me, but Whedon’s found the heart of the title, and this is only halfway through Astonishing #6.

Continued...

Code

Election-day Propaganda

Well, it’s election time here in the States. In case you didn’t notice, it’s a ridiculously close race. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Libertarian, but for the first time in my adult life, I’m voting Republican. Just to be safe.

My finger hovered over the “Badnarik” button until it shook, but I took the plunge and made the moral compromise in the name of pragmatism. I still feel a bit odd about it, but hey, them’s the breaks, and the thought of John Kerry running this country gives me the night sweats. I suppose I can’t always be the fashionable outsider.

Hopefully, I’ll get to keep my guns for another four years.

On a lighter note, here’s another theme from the archives, dusted off and polished a bit. It’s based on a Propaganda background of the same name.

Magic Milk Dispenser

Code

Sleep

Another reworked artifact. This one was a loose port of Lindsay T’s “Sleep” theme for Enlightenment. The wonderful background is from Tommy Tubbiolo.

: Sleep