One More Day

No, no, not the travesty of the same name that caused me to stop reading Spider-Man comics...

No, it's simply one more day of work for yours truly... I think I've gotten my desk sorted out to the point where I have almost nothing left to bring home (just a bit more to throw out), and all former responsibilities have been successfully shifted to others (including the care and feeding of 14 direct reports). I said goodbye to a couple of good work-friends today (who have tomorrow off) but the real show will happen tomorrow afternoon, at a local restaurant. The more I steel myself to "not get emotional about it," the more sure I am that I'm going to end up a blubbering mess. And now we all understand why I didn't want (and managed to avoid having) a goodbye event when I left the bank in 2001 after 14.5 years there!

I told Vicki today that I like the sounds of "I'm taking an extended break from working in order to write a book" much better than "I'm out of work" or "I don't know if I'll ever find work again!" For one thing, the high-falutin' "book-writing" angle makes it sound like I'm an actual author, rather than someone who just self-publishes his own ramblings. For another, ixnay on the whole ot-nay aking-may oney-may talk, if you don't mind!

Funny highlight of the day was supplied by none other than Jimmy Hinckley, who doesn't even work with me anymore! He was IM'ing me, asking me how the exit interview went, and I happened to mention that the HR Director was kind enough to buy a copy of my book right at the end of the proceedings. Hinckley summarized that perfectly, in his usual manner, by saying, "So you actually managed to PROFIT from your exit interview!" That may be a first in the history of such things... :-)

Less than 24 hours from now, I'll actually be unemploy---, I mean, "taking an extended break from working in order to write a book!"

Dinner With The Master Coach

Tonight Vicki and I entertained Christian, the Master Coach consultant who's been working with my soon-to-be-ex-company for the last eight or nine months. Months ago, he very kindly offered to take a couple dozen copies of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) to Agile 2008 next week in Toronto, and we thought that the least we could do in the face of such generosity was to invite him over for a home-cooked meal before then.

It's always great to hear Christian's perspective on things at work, because he has the ability to observe lots of disparate pieces of our organization and discern patterns that others wouldn't pick up on. I like to think that I can do that, too, but certainly not at his level.

As we sent him - and all those copies of my book - on his way after an evening of dining and discussion, Vicki said, "Y'know, it'd really be too bad if he came back from the conference and said that he could've sold 150 copies if only he'd had them." But my response was, "No, that'd be great! Because there'll be lots of other Agile conferences in the future, and if that kind of demand exists, we'll sell lots of copies eventually!" Somehow I can't see that being the reality, but of course it's nice to dream. And with the conference still several days away, dreaming is still allowed!

Ode To AgileMan

This week is only 40% complete and I've already had several people offer up evaluations of various types on my two year run as Agile Manager at work. Some have been heart-warming testimonials, others critical analyses, but all are naturally making me even more reflective than I'm already inclined to be.

I'm getting the impression that I affected - for good or for ill - more people than I ever appreciated. And the fact that I feel a much greater affinity to the people "below" me than those "above" me (in Org Chart terms) probably has something to do with it, and no doubt means that I've broken some cardinal sin of management in the process. Somehow I think I can live with that faux pas, though...

Anyway, just three more days to go at the current job and then it's on to I really don't know what. Oh, and I've now sold 8 additional copies of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) since announcing my resignation. Drama sells?

How Hot Is The Original Comic Art Market?

I own somewhere between fifty and a hundred pieces of original comic artwork (like the Captain America page shown here, from just a few months before he was killed off) and yet have never really made any concerted effort to "collect" them. I think the first page I ever bought was a beautiful David Lloyd Hellblazer page that I just couldn't resist bidding on during a charity auction, and then many others have followed rather haphazardly.

Lately, however, it seems like the prices for some of these items may be on the rise. There's this story from last weekend's San Diego Comic Con, in which someone paid $115,000 US for 22 pages from Green Lantern # 84 (early 1970s) by the greatly-talented Neal Adams. In that article, there seem to be indications that original artwork is appreciating in value.

Also, Vicki watched a V For Vendetta page (once again by David Lloyd) sell on eBay last night for more than $1800 US, making me wonder just how much my own VFV page is worth (I paid around $300 US for it, about 10 years ago now). We've seen Watchmen pages go for more than $10,000 US and that was before the recent hype over the movie (I bought mine for $2000 US, albeit at a time when the exchange rate was much less favourable than it is right now).

So is this particular market really heating up? Should I consider selling some of my own ragtag collection, seeing as how I'll be out of work in less than 100 hours?

I don't have any answers at this point. But it's an interesting topic to ponder.

Cue The Final Week

Tomorrow marks the start of my last week working for my current employer. Over the next five days, I'll be saying goodbye to a whole lot of people, hoping that we'll stay in touch but knowing that, for the vast majority of them, we probably won't. I think Boneman and AgileBoy are safe bets for not losing contact, but everyone else is probably a crapshoot at this point. Some of them are currently so busy that the prospect of them finding time to meet me for lunch, come over to the house for a visit or even just respond to an e-mail... seems laughable. And that's one small part of the reason why I'm leaving, after all: when it's constantly Crisis Mode at the office, it's awfully hard to ever accomplish very much.

One of the things that I'm most looking forward to, once next week is behind me, is an end - however temporary it may prove to be - to the wearying five-day routine of getting up early each morning. I've known for most of my life that I sleep better if I use a very simple approach: if I'm tired, go to bed; if I'm not, stay up and do stuff. It sounds simple enough, but too often I'm not tired at 11:00 p.m. on a weekday, and yet the knowledge that I have to get up around 7:00 a.m. the next morning drives me to go to bed and hope for the best. Soon I should be able to set a more sensible sleep schedule that will hopefully mean less time wasted in bed, tossing and turning and cursing my inability to sleep on demand. (I think the perfect job for me would be one where I can work from home and set my own hours. Anyone got one of those handy for me?)

If you happen to be one of those aforementioned soon-to-be-ex-coworkers of mine, then please plan to keep frequenting this blog... it's perhaps the best option for us to maintain contact, after all!

California Dreaming

News from the San Diego Comic Con continues to roll out of the West Coast. For me personally, the most exciting announcement so far has been that Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Scriver will be doing a Barry Allen miniseries, Flash: Rebirth. Considering how good their Hal Jordan version (Green Lantern: Rebirth) was a few years ago, this could be amazing.

Potentially interesting is the news that Kevin Smith's returning to comics with a Batman miniseries featuring Smith's quirky villain, Onomatapoeia. (The bad guy only says words that imitate the sound of his actions, like "snap", "bang" or "buzz.")

There have also been reports out of panels involving TV shows Lost and Heroes, with the latter containing spoilers aplenty for the upcoming season premiere (so beware!)

If you've somehow managed to avoid hearing anything out of San Diego this weekend, then you most definitely travel in different (Internet) circles than I do...

Books!!

A week later than expected, and adorned with significantly more postage than I'd actually paid for, 26 copies of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) arrived this afternoon! Vicki signed for the package and then immediately tried to phone me with the good news... except that I was still out at lunch.

So these were the 26 that were supposed to go to Agile 2008, but since I have people patiently waiting for the book at the office, I'll be taking 6 copies with me on Monday to fulfill those orders. Hopefully the 2nd batch (20 more copies) will arrive early next week, but if not: it'll only be 20 copies heading to the conference with my friendly Agile Consultant buddy. I can always get some extra copies to him there if - gasp! - the ones that I'm sending actually sell out.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Lulu on why Express shipping seems to no longer be an option when I order. It took approximately twice as long for Standard shipping to get the books to me - with no Tracking # available - and seemed to cost about the same as Express has in the past (for similar sized orders). Incredibly, when I was in a Chat with a Lulu support person last night, she stated that Express hadn't been available for my recent orders because it would've been cheaper than Standard. I said, "Are you telling me that I couldn't get the faster shipping simply because it would've been cheaper? What kind of an assinine policy is that?" She then changed her story and claimed that it was because I was in a "remote part of Canada." After I clarified that a) no I wasn't, and b) I was at the exact same address as I'd been at for all of the earlier Express shipments, she said that she'd have to investigate with the "Tech department." So now I'm waiting to get an e-mail response from them.

But regardless, I'm very happy to have finally gotten some more books!

Sex Sells, But This Is Crazy!

Here's the first of three posters debuting at San Diego Comic Con this year.

It's for a vampire-related TV show, I guess.

You can see it's a pretty effective image.

So effective, in fact, that...

...

...


(wait for it)

...

...

That's right, it shows up again

This time, for a Megan Fox movie (I guess)

As far as I know, there's no connection to the first poster

This is simply a freaky coincidence

But then today...

I see this and I have to wonder...

A Red Sonja poster, somehow tapping into the same sudden, universal need (by us males) to see women's lips and tongues in contact with blood.

It's actually pretty creepy that this happened, if you ask me...

The Most Exciting Weekend Of The Year?

The big comic convention in San Diego is now underway (running through Sunday), and it's often the venue where the biggest genre announcements are made. So far nothing too dramatic has come out yet (at least that I've seen), but I expect Friday and Saturday will once again be full of interesting bits of "breaking news."

Vicki and I always used to say, "One of these years, we really need to take in the big San Diego Comic Con..." but I sort of think we missed our window of opportunity. It's now such a huge, overblown event that it typically sells out before the doors even open on Day 1, hotel rooms are next to impossible to get, restaurants have ridiculously long waits and everything you might do at the Con is packed full of sweaty people to the point of discomfort. Ever since Hollywood got into the act, it's become a media circus and nothing that I'd ever want to venture into. So unless it shrinks back down to its 1980s size at some point in the future, I think that boat may've already sailed on us.

But it still makes for a great weekend of Internet surfing for this comic fan!

Only 7 More Working Days Until Christmas

OK, maybe not, but you get the idea...

I've now completely run out of copies of my book - having sold the last one at lunch today - while I continue to wait for new shipments to arrive from tardy Lulu. (Today's sale was # 38, by the by.) I'm somewhat embarrassed that I can't supply copies to the five people at work who want to buy the book, after thinking that I'd have books in hand by this time last week, but I'm also quite relieved that I ordered the 26 copies for the Agile 2008 Conference as early as I did (thinking, at the time, that I had lots of buffer still in the schedule but playing it safe, as I tend to do).

Things haven't slowed down in the least for me at work as of yet, which I guess is good because it's making for days that just fly by. Some people are seeming skeptical about the idea that I've really quit one job without having lined up the next one already. That claim of mine has been exasperated, I guess, by the fact that some previous resignators have used that approach to cover up various instances of poaching by former employees. I keep insisting that I really, truly, have no new job waiting for me just yet, but that's apparently a very novel idea.

Wanna Know What I Thought Of The Dark Knight?

Just make with the clickety-click over to The Studio.

And don't worry... someday, people other than me will post reviews there, too!

Dude, Where Are My Books?

It's really starting to bug me that Lulu changed their shipping options such that their once-reliable system - order books, they arrive about a week later - is no longer so much on the dependability scale. The copies that I ordered a week and a half ago are nowhere to be seen, and I have no way of knowing how far away they even are right now (thanks to there being no tracking information anymore). Under the old system, I'd have received both orders of books (26, followed by 20); instead, I've got bupkiss.

Off To See The Dark Knight Tonight... If He'll Have Us

With Tammy on her way here for a week-long stay, tonight should see the three of us head to the theatre for a late showing of The Dark Knight. Based on the fact that it's been breaking box office records all weekend, and my own unwillingness to stand in long lines for movies (or pretty much anything else), it's quite possible that we won't get in to see it this evening. But we'll at least give it a try.

The Dark Knight currently holds a 9.7/10 IMDB rating (with almost 50,000 votes cast), which is probably the highest score ever for a comic book-based film. Neither Spider-Man 2 nor Batman Begins, my two favourite genre movies up to now, came even close to that lofty mark at IMDB. That sort of thing, along with some of the TDK reviews that I've carefully skimmed over the weekend, have me very, very ready to see this latest Bat-flick!

Death To Bridge!

Last night I finally called it quits on playing Bridge, after Vicki and I had had seven or eight sessions with AgileBoy & Wife. Unfortunately for the other three players, I'm just not that crazy about card games, and never have been. In high school, I'd drift in and out of the groups that would fill their lunch break with Hearts or Euchre, but mostly out of them. I could never really sustain any enthusiasm for the games, and not much has changed in that regard, thirty years later.

But we'll find some reason to continue our regular get-togethers with Mr and Mrs AgileBoy, especially with me quitting my job and all. After all, I'm fed up with the company and much of the politics, but not most of the people.

Who Is This Dark Knight Of Whom You Speak?

Last night's Watchmen movie trailer has me worried that maybe director Zack Snyder doesn't really get the material, after all.. but everything I'm hearing about The Dark Knight so far indicates that Christopher Nolan has repeated his amazing job from Batman Begins and possibly even improved on it! One movie critic crazily predicted that TDK might be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and he wasn't even a comic book fan!

We didn't get out to see Batman go up against the Joker today, and so we'll probably wait for Tammy now (she's coming to visit either Sunday night or Monday). I'm actually getting more excited about the prospect the more I read the reviews, in this the Year of Great Comic Book Movies!

Watchmen Trailer Debuts

You can see it here. It's interesting to get our first really good look at the... well, look of the film. Some of what I see, I like; some appears for all the world to be favouring style over substance, which is pretty much the antithesis of what Moore and Gibbons put on the printed page.

I'd call it a coin flip at this point...

Off For A Social Night With My Work Peers

AgileBoy will be there...

So will Boneman....

Sheesh, it's going to feel like a work meeting! ;-)

Apparently Nothing Sells Books Quite Like Quitting Your Job

Some very kind and generous souls at work, upon hearing of my resignation, have boosted sales of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) to a level not seen since the very first week of its publication. At last count, I'd gotten six (6) new purchase requests from co-workers over the past seven days, to the point where I've had to stall people while I await the latest shipment from Lulu (and wouldn't you just know that the package doesn't seem to have a tracking number provided, despite the fact that every previous order, including single copies, have had it...)

Vicki also started the process for a seventh (7th) new sale on the train ride home from visiting Tammy in Toronto yesterday - I just have to close the deal now, by actually delivering a copy and collecting my cash, which I hope to do over lunch next week. So I'd say this qualifies as a spectacular week for ol' AgileMan and his steamy memoirs...

10 Years Ago Today

It was exactly 10 years ago that Vicki, Tammy and I came over to our "brand new" house - with a pool! - just long enough to admire it once again before heading out to the Chicago comic convention. The house was pretty empty that day - we'd move in a week later - and we managed to turn the pool water green while we were out of town (apparently leaving the pool pump off for several days in a row wasn't all that good of an idea!) but it's still a very fond and vivid memory of mine. It seemed at the time like our lives were taking a turn for the better, and I think the ensuing span has proved that to be true.

Until today, I'd never lived 10 years in one place... ever. My family, when I was growing up, always seemed to move around as our financial situation improved or worsened, with an eight and a half year stay in a 3rd-floor apartment (no elevator!) being the longest stretch before this current streak.

Vicki's responsible for most of the good things in my life, and a decade of happiness at this address is just one of the proofs of that. I'm a very lucky man, and I don't often forget it!

The Return Of AgileBoy

AgileBoy and Wife were off in Scotland for the last week while I was busy quitting my job, so it made for an awkward moment when he dropped into the office today, on the last day of his vacation, and I had to ask him, "So.... have you read your e-mail yet?"

When he admitted that he hadn't, I proceeded to take him out into the hall and tell him all that he'd missed. He actually took the news pretty well - isn't anyone going to beg me to stay?! - although I'm sure he thought that I was kidding at first.

At least we've got three weeks (minus a day) left to co-exist as Product Development Leaders together before I take my leave.

A Day Spent Talking About Project Management

Vicki and I sat by the pool today and threw around ideas for what she could cover in a university lecture session about Project Management, and then what I'd talk about. We both owed the professor who asked us to provide guest lectures for his Computer Science course on Project Management some sort of material, and I'd been feeling bad that we hadn't gotten him anything yet. So today we spitballed a couple of overviews and sent them his way. We'll see what comes of it.

I've also been thinking of other things to try, once I have the free time. Would I like tutoring students in Grade 9 Math? Would I be brave enough - not to mention qualified enough - to be able to instruct a course of some sort at our community college? Vicki and I have a friend who counsels students at the university, and she mentioned that she thought that I'd be good at that! Crazy idea, or something I should consider? And in all scenarios, it's very nice indeed that I'm not having to restrict myself to opportunities that pay well! A little bit of money would do the trick just fine, I think.

I suppose that I need to get my resume up to date, at the very least. It's turned out to be quite the potpourri of experiences that I've had over the past 22 years, so that should be an interesting challenge to capture in just 2 pages of a Word document. And then of course I have to figure out where and to whom to submit that collection of acronyms and buzzwords, if anything's ever to come of it. Ah, such fun!

Resignations & Revelations

Yorick Brown, of Y: The Last Man fame, wasn't the only one standing at a crossroads recently.

In what I hope will be one of those moves that, in the coming months and years, I'll look back on and ask, "Why did I ever wait so long?", yesterday I handed in my resignation at work.

I made the decision on Thursday night, although I'd been building toward it for weeks without knowing it. Quitting turned out to be a lot easier to do than I'd thought it would be, probably in part because I'd already warmed a lot of people up to the idea that I'd be "retiring" soon (and partly because no one seemed to want to talk me out of it; hmmmmm). A few people said they were "shocked, but not surprised" which I think means that they'd been expecting it, but just not right now. I choked up a couple of times while telling people how badly I feel about leaving some of them in the lurch this way, but other than that I got through it.

I have three weeks left, during which time I have to transition my 14 direct reports over to new managers, tie up any loose ends, say a lot of goodbyes, and then walk away from what is essentially only my 2nd job in just over 22 years of continuous employment. Not too many people in this day and age are faced with that kind of scenario, since it's much more common to move around and/or have periods of unemployment as you journey through your career. Come August 2nd, I will, for the very first time in my life - thanks to the seemingly endless education cycle of Kindergarten through University, and then a career - be faced with a blank slate labelled "the future."

I think that's going to be a very good feeling, but I won't know for sure until I'm facing it for real. I guess it's possible that I'll be scared shitless by the prospect, or even bored out of my mind... but I'm expecting to feel like there's nothing but boundless opportunities in front of me, with complete freedom to choose between them. One of the most frustrating aspects of work life of late has been the perception - in my mind, at least - that there's never any time available to do anything except deal with fires or respond to adhoc requests from others. So just imagine having the luxury to actually think about what to do next, how to do it to the level of quality that you think it deserves, and then to take whatever amount of time is required to complete it! For most of my co-workers, that seems to unfortunately be nothing but a pipe dream these days.

If you're inclined to do such things, feel free to wish me luck. As always, I'll take whatever good fortune I can find.

Final Crisis Scores Another Win

After his rather ignomonious death in Final Crisis # 1, the Martian Manhunter - a founding member of the Justice League of America, let's recall! - got a much more fitting sendoff in the Final Crisis: Requiem one-shot.

I really enjoyed the recap of highlights from J'onn J'onzz's career and the idea that his teammates were telepathically recording his history for posterity, but the final shot of Batman leaving a Choco (Oreo) cookie on his casket was the image that brought a tear to my eye.

So that makes two good FC issues (# 2, and this one-shot special) along with a slow one (# 1).

Standing At The Crossroads

Today, Vicki read the first collected volume of Y: The Last Man, at my suggestion. I told her not to start on the second volume if she finished the first - hey, I get first dibs! - but I also said that if she wasn't totally hooked by the end of the first one, she'd probably never be.

She's now firmly hooked.

Tonight we were discussing the contents of what we'd both read, and commenting on how just how smart the writing is. For example, the words on the page often take on multiple meanings based on what images they're combined with, what immediately precedes or follows them, or who's saying it. One example involves a shot of Yorick Brown, standing at a specifically-shaped intersection, torn between two choices. The intersection just happens to be configured like the letter "Y" (with him standing at the crossroads), although it's possible that you might not notice that if you're not paying attention. Since the next choice he has to make represents a significant turning point - one way or the other - in his life, it's only fitting that we're reminded that he's not only a "Y" himself ("Yorick") but also the last human "Y" chromosome left on the planet.

Stuff like that is there to be found on nearly every page. Really, really excellent comic fare, this Y: The Last Man.

Feel-Good Fix In Four Colours

I enjoyed the first Y: The Last Man trade paperback so much that I bought the second and third volumes today, while picking up the week's regular dose of escapism. I get just a little bit giddy thinking about how much I'm looking forward to reading more Y, considering how good the first installment was. The series that it reminds me of the most is Preacher, because of its irreverence, crisp writing style and clean artwork. If what I've read so far is representative of the whole series, then it's probably better than just about anything coming out right now. I love when I find something like that.

I also love that I can still get excited by a great bit of comic book storytelling.

Another Month, Another Watchmen Video Journal

We're now down to less than 8 months until the premiere of Zack Snyder's movie adaptation of Watchmen. You'll probably want to watch the latest video diary release here if you're even half as excited about the film as I am.

A Good Week For Book Sales

Softening, somewhat, the impact of coming back to work after being on vacation were two sales of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) early this week. This brings the total to 35 sales in just over 3 months of publication, 5 of which happened online (at Lulu) at no cost to yours truly.

I checked my accounting spreadsheet and I'm very close to the break even point now. If I were to sell the last 2 copies that I have on hand, and I was to get one more online sale, then I'd essentially have made back the cost of producing the book, including the many free copies that I gave away. In order to print more copies, though, (to have available when people ask to buy one), I'd then have to go back into the red until I'd sold slightly more than half of them.

Ain't self-publishing fun?

Work All Day And Then Come Home To...

... work all evening!

Yeah, that's how my first day back after a week of vacation went. No wonder I didn't want to go back to work!!!

And So Another Vacation Ends

It was a full-filled afternoon today as we had the boss and his family over for a swim and dinner, and his wife and kids are always terrific to spend time with! I love it when children "get" and appreciate my unique sense of humour, and this particular trio always have, over the many years that we've known them... or maybe they're just always being kind!

It's depressing to think about heading back into work tomorrow, but I've been trying to cheer myself up by focusing on the positives:

- it looks like a good week for cycling, and I definitely missed that during my week off

- our very own AgileBoy is moving into the leadership ranks, and watching that play out should be amusing, if nothing else (just kidding: I have every reason to believe that he's going to do great!)

- I'll be getting my own "apprentice" in the form of another new leader, and I'm looking forward to getting to know him better (hey, Jamie!) as well as being able to offload some of my work so that I can succeed a little more at the rest of it!

- I have a bunch of strategic initiatives that I want to get going with my teams and I'm somehow going to find the time to start making that happen

- I hope to start writing the AgileMan sequel soon, and that may have a buoyant effect on my spirit!

One way or another, though, it's back to work for me tomorrow. Sigh.

A Thought Or Two On Writing (And Reading)

Something amazes me, that probably shouldn't. But first a bit of background: I wrote a book in the past year that you may have read about here, on occasion - I called it The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile). You may, in fact, have even read the book itself... and if you have, then you have the thanks of a grateful author.

So the thing that amazes me (but probably shouldn't) is this: some people who have a copy of my book (for free or paid for) have never read it! I'm here today to tell you why that amazes me (but probably shouldn't).

You see, if someone who I knew wrote a book, I'd be desperate to read it! I'd be so intrigued by the novelty of the idea that I almost wouldn't be able to stop myself. Now, if the book in question was terrible, then I might start it and then never be able to slog all the way through on account of it being... well, unreadable. And for all I know, some might consider my own book unreadable... but wouldn't that imply that they at least tried to read it?!

I suppose that I must love the act of reading more than some people, and maybe that's all there is to this thing that amazes me (but probably shouldn't). After all, if someone I knew recorded a music CD - and that's happened, more than once - then I certainly wouldn't be as likely to get into it as I would a book. Music isn't as big a part of my life as reading is, so maybe that's why book-writing - producing literature, if you want to get all high-faluting about it - seems so impressive to me. But clearly not everyone feels that way.

In other news, today I re-read The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan for the first time since publishing it. Despite encountering entirely too many typos for my liking, I found it a very entertaining and humourous read. I wish that more people I knew wrote books like it...

Worth The Hype

I'm now about 3 or 4 issues into the Y: The Last Man comic series that wrapped up recently (although I'm reading it in collected form). Y is Brian K. Vaughan's award-winning series, published by DC Comics, which I'd missed out on when it was coming out in monthly, serialized form. I'd heard enough good stuff about it over the years that I decided to try out the first volume in trade paperback format, and what I've read so far has lived up to the billing!

In brief, it's the story of Yorick Brown, the (apparently) sole surviving male human after every other man on Earth is simultaneously wiped out by some mysterious ailment. It's very intelligently-written, and so far has already dealt with many of the "But what about....?" questions that such a concept raised in my mind.

Ex Machina has made me a big Vaughan fan, as well as a few shorter story arcs here and there, so I came to Y late in the game, but full of high expectations. I can hardly wait to see where it all leads...

Manhattan Revolving Door Just Spins And Spins

If you're an NHL fan, and especially if you're a New York Rangers fan - like your Humble Blogger - then this is the time of the year when you realize: you probably aren't even going to recognize your team, come October!

In the case of the Rangers:

Jagr is out (gone to play in Russia for a ton of rubles)

Wade Redden is in (6-year contract, $39 million... are they crazy?)

Avery is out (off to Dallas and the Western Conference; good riddance, I say)

Markus Naslund is in (2-year, $8 million contract)

Fritsche and Zherdev come over from Columbus in exchange for Tyutin and Backman (at least the four players won't have to get used to drastically different jerseys!)

Defenseman Dmitri Kalinin is in (most recently with Buffalo)

Straka and Shanahan are unrestricted free agents and thus probably headed elsewhere (unless I've already missed them signing with other teams)

I just have to hope that the new additions, along with Drury, Gomez, Lundqvist and the others who still remain from last year's Conference Semi-Final run, can come together to form a team to be reckoned with. Or maybe Slats has more wheeling and dealing yet to do before the start of the 2008/09 season...

Mental Note: One Week Of Vacation Is Just Too Short!

I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of my current vacation, which just seemed to have started! Perhaps it's the five week break that I took last summer, but one week off just doesn't seem to amount to much anymore. I'll take another week later in the summer, I think, but now I'm wondering if I would've been better off combining them?

What this really makes me think is that I need to start getting serious about the whole retirement thing. Even if I just decided on the when now, then I could at least have that to look forward to as I head back to work for another stretch. Next Spring or Summer is starting to look good to me right now...

Final Secret Crisis Invasion Part 2

Not too long ago, I wrote down my thoughts on the two big comic events of the summer: Secret Invasion, from Marvel Comics, and DC Comics' Final Crisis. At that time, Secret Invasion # 1 had just come out, and we were all still awaiting the launch of Final Crisis.

Now, a few months later, I've had the chance to read the first three issues of the 8-part Secret Invasion, and the initial two parts of the 7-issue Final Crisis. In other words, I'm roughly a third of the way through, and have a clearer notion of what each has to offer.

Secret Invasion has turned out to be a real snoozer for this longtime fan. It's essentially a one-trick pony, that being the excrutiatingly-drawn out reveals of who's been a Skrull, and for how long. I guess if you're really into this storyline, then the snail's pace at which the information's being doled out might be enjoyable; for me, it's all comics decompression at its worst! Yawwwwn.

Final Crisis, on the other hand, jumped into overdrive with its second issue. I re-read it this morning and was every bit as impressed as I'd been on the first pass. Every page has something significant happening on it, putting it miles ahead of Secret Invasion in terms of plot and unpredictability. About the biggest gripe I have with the goings-on within this series now is that they're going to be limited to the main title itself along with a few spin-offs, when in reality something as dramatic as what appears to be coming ought to be reflected in every DC Comics title of the day. If evil really is going to win - at least for awhile - then it seems natural that the effects should be felt everywhere. Also, the incredible artwork by JG Jones, as compared to the glorified chicken scratchings in Secret Invasion, leaves it no contest on the art front.

There's still a long way to go, and my enthusiasm could still wax and wane in either case, but so far Final Crisis is the clear winner between these two big events. Sadly, the sales figures on the issues to date have broken the opposite way, showing once again that my tastes don't match the popular opinion.

Time For A Sequel?

One of the things that I did yesterday was to sit by the pool and jot down potential topics for a 2nd AgileMan book. I figured, as I'd done prior to starting the first book, that if I couldn't come up with 30+ good topics off the top of my head, then chances were that I didn't really have enough material to fill a book. Yesterday, as was the case back in August of last year, I came up with a big enough list, fairly easily.

So, uh.... Game on?

Also, I floated a potential title past Vicki to see how she'd react. With The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile), I knew exactly what I wanted the book to be called right from the start, and never doubted that it was the right title for it, even as others questioned it. (Those who've since read it may - or may not - now agree with me on that choice.) I don't yet have that kind of conviction toward the new title that I'm batting around for the sequel, but it's starting to grow on me. Here it is, for your consideration:

More Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Year Two: Easier Said Than Done)

I suspect that, given the way the 2nd year has gone, the sequel may in fact be an even less welcome reflection than the first book was, among those who don't really believe in open and honest communication. Or maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. Only time will tell, I guess.

Swamp Thing Vs The Demon Etrigan

As promised, here's the latest addition to the comic art collection, purchased this past weekend in Chicago.

We're not sure who the "Gloria" was who commissioned this amazing work of art from Swamp Thing artist Steve Bissette in March of 1987, but she clearly had good taste!

Once we get it framed, this should make a fine companion piece for the page of original artwork that I have from Saga of the Swamp Thing # 26, the story in which the muck monster meets the rhyming demon for the first time.

Back From Chicago

I had intended to post a little note to the effect of "I'll be gone for a few days" before actually leaving for the Chicago comic convention on Friday, but it just never happened.

The drive there and back went OK, although I'm really, really sick of road construction! I think about half of the trip was through construction zones, with the usual "lane closing ahead, so please be sure that you drive in it right up until it ends, as otherwise we'd never be able to get all these cars in the other lanes to slow right down to a crawl to let you in" shenanigans. It's stuff like that that reminds me there's nothing divine about humanity; we're just a bunch of evolved apes, looking out for ourselves at the expense of everyone else around us.

The convention itself was fine, although I couldn't get into it this year. Vicki probably enjoyed the show more than I did, which is strange when you consider that it's a comic book convention! I brought about 1/3 of my spending money back home with me - an unprecedented turn of events! - but did pick up a nice piece of Swamp Thing artwork (picture to be posted here sometime this week) and a mid-grade copy of The Incredible Hulk # 2, leaving me only the kick-off of that 1962/63 six-issue series to get for completion!

As for the Silver Age Trivia Panel, we once again - for the second year in a row - were pitted against members of the audience. This year's challengers were more competition than their predecessors, and by the time we got to the Lightning Round at the end, they were only about 130 points back (early on, they had actually lead by 10 points!) We kicked ass in the Lightning Round, though, as I think I personally accounted for about 4 of the 10 answers, and we pulled away. It was more fun than last year for me, however, as I was better prepared for the format. I came up with enough answers to satisfy my own feeble sense of pride on the subject matter, including:

• In what issue did the Fantastic Four first wear costumes? (3)
• In what issue did the Justice League of America have their origin revealed? (9)
• Who were the two boyfriends of Wonder Girl? (Mer-boy and Bird-boy)
• Which superhero debuted in a fight against the Living Eraser? (Giant-Man)
• What is the significance of the issue number 123? (Flash, intro of Earth-2)
• What is the significance of the issue number 327? (Detective Comics, intro of "New Look Batman")
• and a few more that I can't remember
  

I also won one of a bunch of variant cover editions of Hulk # 2 (2008 version, that is, not to be confused with the Silver Age one mentioned above) by attending the Marvel "Prize or No-Prize" panel and staying in competition long enough for a few people to drop out.

[Update: I almost forgot to mention that I also visited comic book artist and all-around nice guy Gene Ha, at his table, and he was kind enough to sign my hardcover copy of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile), on the page where I credit him for providing the inspirational sketch of me... how cool is that?!]

With the rest of the week off, hopefully I'll get some good blogging in to start July off on the right foot. Or I'll sit by the pool the whole time...

Now That's More Like It!

Everything that was good about Final Crisis # 1 - the artwork, the complexity of the story - showed up again in the 2nd issue, along with a ton of improvements that made it a much, much more entertaining read than its predecessor!

I found the first issue quite slow, but Morrison makes up for that here as he delivers punishing blows to Batman, Superman, Green Lantern (two of them), and then closes out with one of the great full-page shots of the year: Barry "Flash" Allen is racing out of a vortex, straight toward the other two Flashes (and the reader), with Death - in the form of the Black Racer - on his heels, and Barry's screaming, "Run!" Goosebumps, baby!

We get a much better idea of what the story's about - which means, we can see about 10% of the picture now instead of the 1% that we got from the first issue - but more importantly, stuff happens that makes you go, "Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" I could've done without the Japanese superhero scenes that open the book, but once we got past that, it was pure gold for me.

I'm definitely going to have to read this sucker a few more times, but my first impression was, "Wow!" All of a sudden I'm kind of bummed that this is only a 7-part mini-series, as I think there's going to be too much going on to cram into just five more issues.

Survived Another Pool Party!

Thanks to the efforts and support of my lovely wife, today's BBQ and pool party with 14 co-workers managed to go off fairly well... and didn't end up killing me!

Most people didn't want to go in the pool, but the four or five who did made up for the rest by being in there a long time and keeping the "hit your buddy with a ball or toy" strategy going at a high level!

So now it's one more full day of work, followed by a morning (Friday), and then I'm off for a week! Yay!

Big BBQ And Pool Party Day Tomorrow

It's been almost impossible to find a day this month that had the kind of forecast that would fill you with confidence about having people over for an afternoon BBQ and pool party, and yet that's what Vicki and I are trying to pull off tomorrow.

With 14 people who report to me at work coming over around noon tomorrow, I'll be well wiped by the time the day is done. (Just shopping for groceries for that big of a group tonight drained me pretty good!) So who knows if I'll have anything to blog about tomorrow, or the energy to even try...

George Carlin: R.I.P.

I found out about the recent death of comedian George Carlin in one of the most unlikely of ways: I was watching the sports show, Pardon The Interruption (PTI, to its fans), after dinner tonight, and they mentioned it during the wrap-up. A sports show, and yet they took the time to mention the passing of one of the masters of comedy.

Carlin, of course, had some ties to sports. The one I always think of, because I enjoyed it so much, was his hilarious contrasting of baseball and football. It's impossible to do it justice without George's unique delivery style, but nevertheless you can read the whole thing here. I have to quote at least part of it, though, just to get it out of my system, and to remember George the way I think he would've wanted to be remembered:

"Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play."

At least Mr Carlin won't have to put up with any shit ever again...

Comic Cutting

Over the couple of months, I've been getting more and more ruthless about trimming the comics that I buy each week. I'm using a technique that seems to be working: since I stack my to-be-read comics in order of best-to-worst (in terms of how much interest I have in reading each), anytime I notice a title consistently falling toward the bottom of the pile I figure it's time to cut it loose. It used to be that mini-series were almost always exempt from such a policy, because I generally finished any one that I started. Not anymore! I got the first 2 issues of a 4-part Iron Man mini-series, wasn't really grabbed by the 2nd one, and said, "See ya!" to the series!

I expect that this approach will soon have me down to about 15 - 25 titles per month, as compared to the 40 - 60 that I've been routinely buying for decades now. And then we'll see where it goes from there.

Strange Thoughts That Occur To You

While we were out for dinner at another couples' house last night - where the husband of Vicki's work buddy, it turned out, was quite the comic book / video game / movie / environmentalist enthusiast, such that he and I spent the last couple of hours deep in geeky discussion while the wives talked about pretty dresses and bonnets (or whatever subjects women actually talk about when left to their own devices) - there came a point where the four of us were talking about retirement. I put forth my concern that maybe that period won't be as grand as I like to imagine that it'll be, using the argument that removing the one thing that I'm always struggling against - all of the crap at work - might mean that an important motivation might also be gone, leaving one rather directionless.

All of which is a long lead-in to the point of my story, which came right after Vicki said, as she has many times before, "Oh, when you're retired, you won't be sitting around doing nothing. You'll keep busy writing."

What was different about hearing it this time, though, was that I was able to think, "Well, maybe that's true. After all, I have written a book already, and I'm not even retired yet!"

That was a good feeling, however self-delusional it might turn out to be.

Shake-Ups At DC Comics?

Are the powers that be at DC finally coming to their senses?

As reported here and elsewhere, the only thing confirmed so far is that Senior VP John Dee has quit. What's more encouraging, though, is that lots of rumours are swirling that Executive Editor Dan DiDio may be ousted before long. I'll be at WizardWorld in Chicago next weekend so it'd be just swell if DC pulled the trigger on that particular train wreck between now and then, so that I could thank them personally at the show!

When things are so bad that I'm contemplating giving up the weekly comic buying habit for the first time in several decades, you know it's time for a change. Are you listening, DC Comics?

This Game Only Took Me Two Tries To Win

And I didn't even know how it worked the first time..

Still, it's a fun time-killer for a few minutes.

Stuff Like This Fills Me With Hope

Where the Watchmen movie is concerned, at least!

If the "little people" working on the film believe that it was a labour of love and very faithful to the source material, then maybe the rest of us will enjoy it, too? (Except for this guy, of course!)

Busy Week, But Not Entirely Fruitless

Monday night = had to work late (until 9:00 p.m.)

Wednesday night = stayed downtown for a late dinner with Vicki, university professor and others

Thursday night = had Financial Planner over for 3-hour Annual Review

Friday night = heading out shortly for dinner at friends of Vicki's

That's a nightmarishly busy week for this introvert shut-in-wannabe!

On the brighter side, though, I just saw that a 5th copy of The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) has sold online, bringing the overall sales total up to 32! (Hinckley will approve of that figure! That's right: I've sold 2 to the power of 5 copies of my book!!)

This Can't Be Good

I mean, really, it can't be, can it?

More University Lecturing In My Future?

As happened earlier in the year, I've once again been asked by a university professor to do some Agile lecturing for the poor, unsuspecting students at our local U. In this case, it's for a Project Management course within the Computer Science program. It's still too early to say much more about what form it might take, as it could come to naught, be a single lecture (like last time), or something more. I also don't know if this will be something I do in conjunction with work, or on my own.

Better yet, wife Vicki was asked if she'd be willing to do something for the same course, as well, after she impressed the professor with her breadth and depth within the Project Management field. So it could end up being a family affair!

Celtics Win!

I'm not an NBA fan these days by any stretch of the imagination, but once upon a time I was... and way back then, I was a huge Boston fan (at a time when names like "Bird", "McHale" and "Parrish" were synonymous with "Celtics").

It's nice to see them win again, especially at the cost of the Lakers! Tonight's game was one of the most lop-sided I've ever seen, with Boston flirting with a 40-point lead late in the fourth quarter, and ultimately achieving it!

An impressive stat mentioned during the game was that this is the 62nd NBA Championship series, and the two teams playing hold half of the titles between them!

The Intersection Of Comics And Gaming

Vicki and I really enjoyed the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game, as it could be played in Co-op mode, we could pick from a healthy variety of Marvel heroes, and could change who we were each playing as, at whim.

Now comes news that the sequel to the game will have a Civil War angle. On the one hand, that's good news: it means a sequel is coming! On the other hand, do I really want Civil War, which was bothersome enough as a comic event, coming to my favourite gaming console? Undecided at this point...

Long Day At Work

Just getting home now (barely ahead of the darkness, on my bike) and am utterly beat.

This should serve to remind me why we should never, ever agree to work on a "last-minute feature"... those never work out!

The End Of Twenty-Two Years Of Employment

No, no, I'm not planning on quitting tomorrow (nor have I been weekend-fired!)

Instead, tomorrow is the 22nd anniversary of the day I started full-time employment, way back on June 16, 1986. That makes today the completion of my 22nd year, and tomorrow the start of my 23rd year. And we're talking about continuous employment here, for those among you who might have taken some "down time" between jobs in your career (by choice or otherwise). Not Kimota94, though, who didn't skip a beat between the bank gig and the current one (there may've even been an overlap in there, but who can remember such details now?)

That's a lot of days spent thinking about quitting without actually doing anything about it. Almost seems a shame, in a way...

14 Years Later And Every Bit As Sweet

Celebrating Blog Post # 1600 by indulging in a little bit of nostalgia...

Some of the anniversaries of June 14th, 1994, have been rather bittersweet events. After all, during that 1998 - 2004 period when the Rangers could seem to do nothing right, the amazing accomplishment of the 1994 version - President's Trophy and Stanley Cup winners - seemed a long, long way away. Recently, though, as the Broadway Blueshirts have fared better and provided some playoff thrills of a more current variety, it's a lot easier for me to celebrate once again what I referred to last year as The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Vicki celebrated the anniversary along with me today, as she does every year, and presented me with a couple of new (biking-themed) T-shirts, some cologne, a candy treat, and a Justice League of America Archive collection!

We jokingly refer to this date as "Accountant's Day" in this household, but it's really all about the magical date of June 14th, 1994. I wouldn't even be Kimota94 without it!

Things I Never Expected To See

Watching a commercial for the Incredible Hulk movie today, I actually saw a critic's quote that said, essentially, "Incredible Hulk is every bit as good as Iron Man!" Who would ever have believed, even just a few years ago, that any Marvel movie would be compared to a feature film about ol' Shellhead, with the comparison being used as a major selling point to the general public?!

Iron Man has a lot of cache right now, and if Greenskin's "requel" is anywhere nearly as good, it's going to be a big year for comic movies! After all, we still have Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel, The Dark Knight, to look forward to next month!

A Puzzle Of A Puzzle

I've been doing AgileBoy's online Zengaku puzzle every day (as has Vicki), and I've also been trying to figure out how you'd algorithmically determine which ones are harder and which are easier (because as you do them, it becomes apparent how much variance there is). Since I tend to use the 2-cell blocks to get started, I figured the number of them might be a factor. Vicki mentioned tonight that the connector circles are another factor, as the more of the 2-cell blocks that have connectors (meaning that you know the 2 numbers making up that total are consecutive), the easier it is to get started. But I'm definitely not seeing the whole solution.

Anyone else have any ideas?

A Biking Update

Not much of note is happening right now, but I have managed to build up a good streak of days in which I've biked to work. I've pulled it off for each of the last nine working days (including today), which doesn't sound like much except when you consider that more than half of those days have included rain in the forecast!

We seem to be in one of those ruts where almost every day has a "60 to 100% chance" of rain. Those days used to kill my biking efforts, especially when thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon (as has also been the case lately). Who wants to face the prospect of biking home in a thunderstorm? (No sane person!) So I used to not ride my bike on days like that, often to bitter disappointment when the storm would not materialize, arrive around dinner time, or come early in the afternoon. Now I just ride in in the morning and hope for the best. That sort of thinking is why I'm currently in my 30th consecutive month of biking (at least once) to work.

Tomorrow's Friday the 13th, and thunderstorms are being predicted, so I may really be pushing it if I ride my bike. But if there's a window of opportunity in the morning, with no significant rain coming down at that time, off I'll go! And if this turns out to be my last ever blog post (headline: Local Man Struck By Lightning While Riding Bicycle) then so be it!

This Month's Watchmen Treat

I got so flamboozled by the fact that both of my favourite comic book news websites got redesigned over the past week that I completely missed last week's Watchmen movie video journal entry. As I've mentioned many times before, director Zack Snyder is releasing an entry on the 6th of each month as we count down to next March's premiere of what could be the comic film.

You can see the video for yourself at the official movie website if you're interested. I didn't have much luck getting the video to stream smoothly, but I suspect that has more to do with my laptop than anything else.

Final Crisis # 1 Explained

Want to know why so much of Final Crisis # 1 didn't make any sense in relation to what had preceded it in Death of the New Gods, Countdown and elsewhere?

Grant Morrison, writer and architect of Final Crisis, has all of your answers right here. It's a fascinating read for anyone who cares about the current state of the DC Universe, especially as an indictment for how messed up Dan DiDio's editorial approach has been.

Basically: Morrison starts working on Final Crisis in 2006, intended as the big "event" series for 2008, and provides scripts and script outlines for where it's going to DC editorial. DC, under DiDio, then proceeds to create introductory (i.e. filler) material for the big series - in the form of Death of the New Gods, Countdown, Countdown spin-offs like Countdown: Arena - and in the process manages to undercut (in terms of overusing the New Gods) and outright contradict what Final Crisis is going to cover. So then the first issue of Final Crisis comes out last month, and Morrison catches flak for not adhering to current continuity, despite the fact that he actually wrote his first!

What a comedy of errors, as only the current DC editorial staff could mastermind! If you want to understand why things are as screwed up as they are, just read that one interview.

You Know You Check The Radar Too Much When...

OK, so here's the scene:

I'm at work, on a day when I biked, despite heavy rain in the early hours and a very overcast sky as I headed into work. A close-by teammate, who's taken up biking to work recently, had opted not to bike to work today. Late in the afternoon, I felt the need to jab said teammate just a little, so I said, "Hey, look, the sun's shining!" to him. Another teammate situated close to us both, who thinks that I check the radar site too often, responded, without looking my way, with, "Did you realize the sun was shining by looking out the window, or are you checking the radar site for that?"

and I realized that I was checking the radar site!!!

Yes, I'd looked out the window initially, but had then habitually brought up the radar website just as I let fly my little verbal jab... This goes right along with Tammy laughing at me recently because I checked the radar before the three of us walked to the mall!

Nothing To Say Tonight, Except...

... that I just wrote a review of the movie, Away From Her, and posted it over at The Studio. That's about all I've had time for tonight, other than watching the film in the first place!

Time To Brush Up On Comic Trivia

With the annual Silver Age Comic Trivia contest set to unfold in Chicago near the end of this month (early this year), now's as good a time as any for me to prime my brain by posting some comic book trivia for Blog Points. Each correct answer posted by 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday, June 9/08 will receive a Blog Point. I'll add the official answers as a Comment to this post tomorrow night, after 9:00.

1) Who is the Iron Man villain who wears a different type of ring on each of his 10 fingers?

2) Which superhero was also a professor at Ivy Town University?

3) In the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie, a character named Leonard Samson will apparently appear. In the comics, by what more famous name is Leonard known?

4) In which comic series did Doctor Stephen Strange first appear?

5) Who did the Justice League of America fight in their debut (in Brave and the Bold # 28)?

6) Which two DC series featured the first inter-title crossover (in which the story began in one title and ended in another)?

7) Name any four members of the Inhumans.

8) Which Batman comic regular was revealed to actually be the villain, The Outsider?

Superheroes: Not Just For Comics (And Movies) Anymore?

A friend at work sent along links to this , this and this. I have to admit the jetpack one is somewhat tempting, especially for anyone who's ever sat very long in rush hour traffic!

How long before we see real-life superheroes? Well, probably forever, if you mean the kind that we've traditionally read about in comics: altruistic, self-sacrificing and noble. But people using technology to enhance their abilities for their own benefit or gratification? Probably just around the corner...

The End Of An Astonishing Run That Changed Our Lives

After 24 regular issues and a Giant Sized finale (cover shown here), Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's extremely entertaining run on Astonishing X-Men is now complete. How significant of an impact did this series have on me, personally? Well, there's a bit of a story there.

To begin with, I only bought the first issue, back in 2004, because the great John Cassaday - of Planetary fame - was providing the artwork, and I'd buy almost anything he drew. I'd largely avoided anything X-Men-related up to that point, going back to the Speculative 90s when the core Uncanny X-Men title exploded into a franchise (and became virtually unreadable in the process). I'd dropped back into the X-Men Universe briefly for Grant Morrison's Uncanny run, which I enjoyed, but that was about the extent of my interest over the past 15 years or so. Because of that, I didn't really care about the characters or the writer of Astonishing X-men, but just wanted to see the gorgeous artwork.

So there I was, reading issue # 1, and finding myself pleasantly surprised by how streamlined the continuity was - you didn't need to know much of anything about recent events to follow what was going on - and how clever the writing was. This Whedon guy really "got" the characters who I'd once cared about, those being Cyclops, the Beast, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. And his plotting actually surprised me once or twice, in a good way. Bad surprises occur when something happens that's completely out-of-character or improbable... good surprises are the ones where you didn't see it coming but then you kick yourself immediately because you really should have! And that was the experience I kept having with Astonishing X-Men, alongside the beautiful artwork of John Cassaday.

So how is that significant? Well, the comic series made me want to read more by this Whedon fellow, and of course I quickly realized/remembered that he wasn't normally a comic book writer. On the contrary, he usually wrote (and masterminded) TV shows! Tammy was already a die-hard Buffy fan by this point, but I'd avoided that franchise and had even missed out on the short-run Firefly series. However, Serenity was about to come out, and it was getting a lot of positive buzz, and so I took a leap of faith and borrowed PeterJ's DVD collection of Firefly. To say that Vicki and I were quickly hooked would be an understatement! And when we went to the theatre to see Serenity, a few months later, we were blown away!

Eventually, we followed this path on to seven seasons of Buffy on DVD (thanks to Tammy) as well as the current Season Eight comic series, and have at least tried to follow suit with Angel (though we're kind of stalled in Season Three at the moment). Not only that, but I'm looking forward to Dollhouse, Whedon's latest TV project, which is set to debut in January. That's a lot Whedonverse entertainment that's come our way, in large part because of me picking up Astonishing X-Men for the John Cassaday pictures! How's that for a life-changing (in a good way) comic book experience?

As for Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men itself, it was an appropriately large and grand conclusion to a terrific series. Whedon brought Peter Rasputin back from the dead (he died after I'd quit X-Men comics), re-united him with his one true love, Kitty Pryde, and then stuck the dagger right back into our hearts by consigning Kitty to a quasi-death of her own. Whedon also introduced a very improbable love interest for the blue, furry Beast in the form of a green-haired femme fatale, despite the fact that Henry "Beast" McCoy had recently indicated that he thought he might be gay (kind of the opposite of what Joss pulled with Buffy in the March issue of her Season Eight comic series... in Whedon's mind, perhaps the closet comes with a revolving door?)

I think these 25 issues will be considered one of the great X-Men runs of all-time, for several reasons:

• both the writer and artist were at the top of their game, every issue
• the same creative team did the entire run (no fill-ins)
• the series managed to operate outside the happenings of the rest of the Marvel Universe (Civil War, Secret Invasion, etc) and therefore there's a certain timeless feel to it that should still hold up decades from now
• when other characters were brought in, such as Spidey, the Avengers, the FF and others in the finale, they were written and drawn so well that you can't help but wish these guys were doing their series!
• everything you need to know is right there on the page, with no tie-ins or spin-offs to worry about

I don't normally buy hardcovers of series that I already own, but just as I plan to do with Planetary - if DC ever publishes an Absolute version of it - and have already done with Watchmen, Sandman, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kingdom Come and a few select others, I think I'd fork over the cash to own this run in that format. It was just that good!

Turn Those Consoles Off When Not Playing

I thought this article about gaming console power usage was interesting, particularly because I always worry that my PS/3 and XBox 360 are still using a lot of electricity while powered off. However, at the equivalent of about $0.04/week and $0.06/week, respectively, I now feel pretty good about the fact that my Sony and Microsoft Fun Machines are always turned off when I'm not using them.

Of course, for every person like me, there are probably ten others who just couldn't care less how much they waste the planet's resources. So it likely won't even matter in the long run...

Summer Finally Arrives

Today was relatively hot, and very muggy... officially launching us into the South Western Ontario phenomenon known as "summer." The pool was only about 76 F (25 C) and yet Vicki, after being outside all afternoon taking part in Volunteer Day, came home and went for a swim (her first of the season)! That's when you know it's summer...

As for me, I've been finding that I can't do my customary 5 laps when I jump in the pool after biking home from work because I've hurt something in my left shoulder (again). I had this same thing 4 or 5 years ago when I had my target of swimming 1000 laps over the course of the summer, and now it's back. I'm guessing that age has something to do with it, as I never had these kinds of problems in my 20s or 30s...

Wings Finally Win It!

It came 48 hours later than I thought, but tonight the Pens couldn't complete the comeback (though they came really, really close!)

Congrats to the Red Wings, although the 4th Cup in 12 years probably doesn't even quicken most Detroit fans' pulses. It's like when the Habs used to win all the time and their "fans" just expected it. This is the first time in 4 Finals that the Cup winner's not a first-timer, I believe.

Two Months Of Authordom Later...

I happened to realize last night that today marks two months since Book Launch Day. To say that the time has flown would be a bit of an exaggeration, because it doesn't feel like it just happened by any means. But on the other hand, I haven't entirely adjusted to the notion of "having written a book" just yet, so I guess it doesn't feel like all that long ago.

Today I casually mentioned to a former co-worker of mine, with whom I was chatting over Instant Messenger, that I'd published a book since we last spoke. If nothing else, I guess I'm discovering that it makes a nice conversation piece... ;-)

Exciting Comics Coming Out Tomorrow (Jun 3rd Edition)

As I continue to pare my monthly buying list down, it means that whatever I do buy generally qualifies as pretty exciting. For example, this week's purchases-to-be:

Avengers/Invaders # 2 - Have I ever mentioned how much I love super-team mix-em-ups? Going all the way back to the Avengers/Defenders War. # 10 on my Favourite (non-Alan Moore) Comic Stories of All-Time? Well, I do! And this one's no exception!

Buffy the Vampire Humper # 15 - The current storyline has Dracula (from one very entertaining episode of the TV show) helping the legion of slayers take on a group of old-school vamps with powers more like Drac's

Justice Society of America # 16 - JSA continues to be the best team book out there, month in and month out; right now we're in the middle of a big saga involving Gog, Magog, the Kingdom Come Superman and more heroes than can fit around a meeting table (as we saw in a recent issue)

Manhunter # 31 - Having fought off cancellation twice now, this title returns from its most recent hiatus with a small but vocal fan base who hope that it can continue to defy the odds (including me)

Omega the Unknown # 9 - The second last issue of this incredibly-entertaining re-imagining by Jonathan Lethem is nigh; I can honestly say that I've loved almost every page of this series so far, and that's more than I can say about the original Omega series by Steve Gerber!

Secret Invasion # 3 - Will anything actually be revealed within these pages? Or will characters just stand around in heroic poses and exchange barbs with each other, not knowing if they're arguing with teammates or evil Skrulls posing as same? Who knows! This title's only staying on the buy-list because it's a mini-series and won't overstay its welcome...

Trinity # 1 - Third time's the charm? Will this latest attempt by DC at mastering the weekly comic format be an unqualified success (even beyond what 52 accomplished) or another miserable failure (like Countdown tended to be)? I'll have a better idea by this time tomorrow!

Ultimate Origins # 1 - I guess, in a way, this 5-issue mini-series lives up to its name: after all, it's the origin of the entire Ultimate universe! That's got to qualify as an ultimate origin, if anything would! I'm mostly buying it for the Jackson Guice artwork, but hopefully there'll be a story worth reading in there somewhere, too.

Aren't Sequels All The Rage?

Today, on the bike ride home, I gave some serious thought to the idea of writing a sequel to The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) for the very first time.

Oh, sure, I've joked about it in the past - even in the book itself - but I'd never really allowed myself to truly consider the possibility in any depth. One reason for that is simple: I now know how much work is involved, not just in writing the material but also in getting it into printed form! Another argument against writing a sequel is that I'd never intended for it to be a series, so why turn it into one?

But here's where my mind wandered, as I pedaled the nearly-10 kilometres home this afternoon:

• wouldn't a second book logically chronicle our second year of Agile, which will end in about two months' time, and thus help shape the content of any such mythical work?
  
• as someone had suggested to me awhile back, I could have a couple different editions: one that's just the sequel, and one that includes the contents of both AgileMan 'years' in one big package called The Adventures of AgileMan (Volumes I & II) (with different prices)
• I could recap the first book, at the start of the second, by providing a brief paragraph for each of the 32 Issues in the original
• since significant changes are happening within our Agile world at work right now, wouldn't that make for compelling material to anyone who enjoyed the first book?
• mightn't it be fun deciding what cover to use for the sequel to convey the right balance of "related to the first book" and "something new"?
  
• ditto for the Vol I & II offering?
• AgileBoy had wanted to provide some artwork to the first book once he saw it (too late!), so maybe this would be his chance?
  
• would I limit the comp copies this time to just the editors/reviewers, and require that everyone else buy their own (meaning that I might actually make money off this sucker)?

Those are just some of the thoughts rattling around in my noggin right now. Who knows what, if anything, will ever come of them!

35 Seconds Away

I was in the process of typing up the following:

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings on winning Game 5 tonight - coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the process - and taking yet another Stanley Cup in the modern era.

since, after all, there was only a little over a minute to go in the game, Detroit was up 3-2 and had completely dominated the third period (at one point, the shots were 12-0 Detroit). It seemed like a pretty safe bet to prepare a blog entry on how the Wings won the Cup.

And then the Penguins somehow managed to tie it up with 35 seconds to go, sending Game 5 into overtime! I especially liked how Talbot made the second effort to jam that puck in after Osgood stopped the first attempt. What a plugger that guy is!

As I type this now, it's between the third and fourth periods, so I don't know if Motown will still crown their champ tonight (or early tomorrow morning), or if the series will head back to Steel-town. If the NHL does shut down after this game, at least it'll have finished strongly!

[Update: Following a greatly entertaining 1st overtime period that solved nothing, I'm heading to bed. If I cared just a little more about the outcome, I'd stay up longer. But tomorrow's a work day...]

[Update # 2: Pittsburgh amazingly won the game midway through the third overtime period - I was already asleep by then - and so the series continues for at least one more game. Did I jinx the Wings by handing them the Cup before the final buzzer? Only if you believe in such things!]

One For The BSG Fans

A pretty entertaining Wired interview with Battlestar Galactica show-runner Ron Moore can be found here. I imagine if you're all over the various blogs and podcasts for BSG then there not be anything all that new for you in the interview, but for people like me: it provided a lot of insight into where the show's visionary is coming from. It's great to see such a fan-friendly approach to genre television, too. That probably has something to do with why the program is so popular...

Thoughts On Final Crisis # 1

Final Crisis # 1 came out this past Wednesday, and just like that: we're into DC's big 2008 event.

The artwork, by JG Jones, lived up to my expectations. Almost every page is gorgeously rendered, providing a beautiful backdrop for Grant Morrison to tell his operatic superhero tale against. I hope Jones is far enough ahead on the artwork that we won't have delays or fill-ins later in the series, but it'll be a while before we know, as he's been very reticent about it, when asked. I guess it's likely that the 2nd and 3rd issues will be safe in that regard, and then there's already a skip month planned between # 3 and 4 (for story purposes), which probably means the series will stay on track until at least the 5th issue. Oh, the things comics fans have to worry about these days!

Morrison's story is harder to evaluate. As is often the case with his writing style, I had to read the issue a second time to really understand it. He packs a lot of weirdness into everything that he does, and so the first pass of one of his tales usually tends to focus my attention on the details - as I try to decipher them - with nothing in the way of brain power left over to take in the bigger picture. In this case, for example, that meant that I picked up on the death of a founding Justice League of America member, in perhaps the most ignominious of forms (for a character who's been around for over 50 years) but didn't really understand the why. As it turns out, an almost-new villain (past appearances totaling: one!) is proving to a bunch of bigger-name bad guys that he can provide their heart's desire if only they'll place their trust in a reborn dark lord. Kind of interesting, I guess, but I'll wait to see where it goes.

Other aspects of the story made no sense to me, even after a second helping. Like why Anthro (the first boy?) would appear again at the end in the dystopian future of Kamandi (the last boy), other than to provide the tag line of "from the first boy to the last boy!" Or why New God Orion's death here caused such a furor of activity by the Guardians of the Universe when dozens of Orion's fellow neo-deities had spent the 8-issue Death of the New Gods mini-series biting the bullet with no reaction whatsoever from the blueskins on Oa. Not to mention why Superman had to explain to his fellow JLAers who Orion was, when various New Gods - including Orion himself, if my memory serves - had previously been members of the League! Things like that kept taking me out the reading zone and making me wonder if anyone had edited this book. Of course, it may be that everything will be explained away, and that would be a good thing.

Overall, I enjoyed Final Crisis # 1, but wasn't wild about it. It didn't feel like the start of a major Crisis (unlike previous ones) but DC is asking us to "trust them." If this really is "the day evil won," then I'd expect the DC Universe to be a dramatically changed place by the time this series wraps up around about the end of 2008. Colour me skeptical on the true impact of Final Crisis until that happens.