CGSociety.org posted an article on Beowulf Effects.

Interesting.

That... or I'm just finding an excuse to post Angelina Jolie pics.

Jolie, by the way, will also star in Wanted... an adaptation of Mark Millar's comic which Top Cow published.

To early to tell if this will be placed in the Comics-To-Movies Done Right list or the Hollywood-Butchers-Another-One bin.

I'm not sure about this but torrents and scanned comics were the reason I went back to buying comics after 17++ years.

Good luck, Marvel. You have to do what you think you have to do.

I buy comics for the art.

I read for the stories... but I can always DCP them somewhere or read them at wikipedia.org.

Or borrow from a friend.

(Read them I do before Hollywood butchers them.)

Nothing much has interested me art-wise except for this.

That's X-Force 1... digitally illustrated by Clayton Crain.

Clayton's style (3D-ish with digital airbrush) was impressive in both Ghost Rider limited series: The Road To Damnation and Trail of Tears.

He also illustrated this Spider-Man: Venom versus Carnage limited series prior to that Ghost Rider gig and some Sensational Spiderman covers and interiors.

(And Universe from Top Cow but his style was different then.)

Marvel also compiled some excellent Clayton Crain wallpapers. (There's a free registration process but it's worth it if you're into this kind of thing.)

X-Force would probably be released sometime January (or late December) but if you're looking for amazing artworks in comics this month... you'd definitely go for Ultimates 3.

Nice to see superstar JoeMad back... with Jeph Loeb nonetheless.

And Christian Lichtner!

That's Mr. Liquid to you.

Jeph Loeb is one of the most respected writers in comics who was also a part of the writing/production of Smallville... Lost and currently... Heroes.

Whether he's working for DC or Marvel, most of Loeb's arcs hit the number 1 spot in terms of sales (and quality).

Ultimates 1 and 2 under Mark Millar, although verymvery entertaining (and political) never hit slot.001 in their 3++ year run. (That is of course if my memory and sources are right... : )

Also of course there's that third and final issue of First Born from Top Cow which deserves a different post.

But here's the cover artwork for now. (And you can view more preview images in this link.)

To be fair to DC here's their February 2008 solicitations.

Just found out now that the current penciller for Spawn is a Filipino.

Some of my favorite artists including Whilce Portacio, Leinil Francis Yu, Jay Anacleto and Francis Manapul were also mentioned in that article.

Nice.

I was reading Joss Whedon's interview from a not so old issue of Wizard Magazine during a coding break.

Nice interview from this creator of Buffy.

Though I can't remember finishing an episode of Buffy on TV, his works on Astonishing X-Men caught my attention. Including the thousand others who consider it as one of the best X-Men runs since Claremont/Byrne and Morrison/Quietly.

It also made me go back to reading X-Men books after not reading them for... 12 or more years.

In one part of that interview he mentioned that comic books should not glorify killing and guns. Not killing makes Batman's work even harder. It what makes Batman... Batman.

In fact, not killing The Joker backfired on him and the people close to him so many times.

But I believe Batman's principles are not applicable to the programming world.

Well at least his no-kill policy isn't.

Programmers should be given licenses to kill their users.

Right there.

Bang.

Ah wait... did I say users?

No, I mean bugs.

Kill bugs right then and there. Kill bugs like there's no tomorrow.

Let them pass... ignore them... just jotting them in your bugtrack file is not enough.

You have to eliminate them on site.

No mercy.

Coders should instead take a page from the book of that character from that awe-inspiring manga Rurouni Kenshin named Saitou.

Had Saitou been living in this era of computers... he would've become a great coder.

He would be the coder where all other coders will be measured.

Drones included.

(Although Rurouni Kenshin is a best selling manga by artist/creator Nobuhiro Watsuki (later adopted as an anime show and commercially released in the US as Samurai X), Saitou by the way is based on a real person.)

Saito's law... for those who are anime-and-manga-impaired is...

'Kill. Evil. Instantly.'

Live by that code, coder.

...

Now I'm hearing some coders whispering that if we kill all those bugs and make things perfect, the software industry which relies so much on subscriptions/upgrades/versions would not grow.

Not true.

...

Batman � DC comics. Batman artwork above (and Poison Ivy artwork below) from Detective Comics 823.

Guest artist Joe Benitez pencils. Benitez came from Top Cow and is one of the co-creators of The Magdalena titles. He Illustrated Weapon Zero, some kick-arse Darkness Volume I issues and also the Wraithborn mini under the WildStorm imprint.)

The Joss Whedon interview can be read in Wizard Magazine's March 2006 issue. Issue number 173.

I remember discussing that with a classmate during high school days. Paging comic-guru Richie Santiago... paging.

Found that link when a certain spoof-related site posted a similar but semi-pornographic version of that article. (No I won't link to that site.)

...

Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Innovation.

7. Think digital, act analog. Thinking digital means that companies should use all the digital tools at its disposal--computers, web sites, instruments, whatever--to create great products. But companies should act analog--that is, they must remember that the purpose of innovation is not cool products and cool technologies but happy people. Happy people is a decidedly analog goal. (Source)

I remember adding GK's blog when he started blogging in my RSS feeder/reader. I stopped using a feeder a couple of months ago though.

Found the link to his site when Andrew posted a link to the Trademark Tips for Your Web App post.

Really informative and inspiring blog.

Also via Akselsoft, Bill Coupe posted these issues and factors developers outside the 'droneMatrix' are facing.

What's a 'droneMatrix' you ask..?

'It is a world pulled into your eyes to blind you from the truth.'

In other words, in your peaceful corporate world powered cubicles, up a notch by ten positions, located in sublevel 47 below, there exists an alien manipulating your companies, assets, and everything beyond and in between towards an alien invasion.

Ah... here we go again.

'Think book not diary', WildFire. Think books.

Let's do that sentence again.

I may be occupied with TheLair V7 creation these days in between client visits but that doesn't mean that I'm not aware of the news about YAG's departure from the VSData team.

And this comes at a time where FoxPro is soaring high in the TIOBE rankings (which leaves even some humans wondering), the proliferation of insightful FoxPro-related blogs and all those positive fox-vibes which we've seldom seen in the past fox years.

I'm looking at the FoxPro team picture which was featured inside that VFP9 CodeFocus issue and MIGHTYAG will be the Nth person leaving from that crew.

Mike... John Koziol... Randy Brown... Ken Levy and now YAG.

Honestly a part of me wants to be as optimistic as Andrew. Really it's a cool job and I'm pretty sure one way or another FoxPro will benefit strategically from it.

Craig Berntson's prophecies, though, haunt the northern hemisphere of my brain.

Plus I'm starting to hear darklings chanting 'Denial! Denial! Denial.' in the background.

Seven of Yoda's fleas armed with green light sabers are guarding my back so I'm safe from these creatures for now.

Cover Darkness Volume I Issue 07 � Top Cow / Pencils: Marc Silvestri / Inks: Batt / Colors: Steve Firchow The Angelus � Top Cow / Pencils: Marc Silvestri / Inks: Batt / Colors: Steve Firchow

[off.topic.initialize] For those who are wondering, these are how darklings look like. Currently I don't have a picture of Yoda's fleas but somehow they look a little similar to Top Cow's Angelus character. (Yes... envy my back.) [off.topic.deconstruct] But despite of these negative forces, I still believe in FoxPro. I believe in its future. I have faith in FoxPro's future. Now I was in the process of balancing these thoughts when my pet tiger Bruno butted in. 'Now who's working on Visual Foxpro?', he asked. I rushmored my brain, but still, it took me around 17 seconds before I could find a reply. 'The community, Bruno. The community.'

With that I dismissed him, since qs and I still had to prepare for yesterday's client demonstration.

cSTR01 = 'I believe in the community that supports Visual FoxPro, as well.'
cSTR02 = 'I have faith in FoxPro`s future.'
cEnter = InsertSTText(at(cSTR02, ThisBLOG), IRchar(13) + IRchar(13) + SetTF(cSTR01, 'B'))

... and I believe in a future with FoxPro and it's legacy in it.

The covers for Top Cow's Darkness Volume II. Most are illustrated by artist extraordinaire, Dale Keown of Full Bleed Studios. (Some issues and crossover covers are illustrated by Eric Basaldua, Keu Cha and Tyler Kirkham)

DC and Marvel, though also producing some fully painted covers these days, still have some catching up to do in terms of firing up kick-arse covers, eh?

Yes... programmers don't read boring manuals, PDFs and CHMs all the time.

Click for full view.

That's Top Cow's Witchblade 71. What I'm really after is Keu Cha's painted cover. Keu Cha produces some of the best Witchblade covers along with the original artist, Michael Turner.

Top Cow years ago deviated from the 'regular' superhero comics to delve into the supernatural world, which makes things more interesting. (But don't get me wrong, DC currently is doing well with its Infinite Crisis event and has been 'humanizing' their superheroes (producing even one of the best comic-to-screen-humanize-the-superhero-movie... Batman Begins)).

But back to Top Cow... their take on the supernatural, sci-fi and conspiracy theories is what interests me most (and as of late qs is also reading them). PLUS of course their dedication to quality artwork on every panel.

If you haven't checked out Witchblade yet, or have left it when Michael Turner wasn't the regular penciller anymore or if you've feeling it has become a T&A book years ago, do return and pickup a copy... Ron Marz and Mike Choi are doing a great job, delving into the police/detective/job side of Sara while still continuing its supernatural direction.

Since Ron Marz handled things, it is receiving great reviews and even awards from various comic-related sites (which probably explains the reason why I'm having a hard time grabbing a copy of Witchblade 92).

Ron Marz gives 'real' stories... not just stories that serves as an excuse or a reason for Sara's clothes to be shredded or to fall off.

Ah yes... T&A stands for 'ti-- and asses', a term commonly used in the comics community.