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Friday Runaround – Banned Books, Baltimore Pride, Thor Casting, Stupid British Children and Nobel Prizes

Published Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:34:49 -0500

Last updated Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:13:06 -0500

Dragon Ball is the latest graphic novel to be banned from a library, in this case all school libraries in Wicomico County, as the first volume Dragon Ball, Volume 1: The Monkey King contained scenes with naked children, something a parent pointed out when their nine year old child brought a copy home.

You know, is it me, or have naked children often seen naked children in real life – including themselves and siblings? Anyway. Twenty-five years after its first publication in Japan and almost ten years after its publication here on the back of the anime adaptation, it still seems to be able to shock some, and to be fair there are some mild sexual mentions, but less than you'd find in, say The Simpsons or Spider-Man.

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Everyone's gearing up for this weekend's Baltimore Comic Con. The Baltimore Sun which, basically, I only know from The Wire manages again not to expose the drug corruption in the city at the highest political echelons, but does take the chance to salure the fans.

it's time to celebrate comic-book fans and what they've wrought. By providing an audience for comic books that shared the concerns and upheld the standards of literary yarn-spinners as different as J.R.R. Tolkien and Jim Thompson, it expanded critical and popular recognition across the board for the richness and pertinence of escapism.

Isn't that nice? Local boy Steve Geppi is quited as saying that the fans "are finally getting the credit and respect they deserve."

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Want to be in the Thor movie? Fit either of these descriptions?

[WARRIORS]

A fearless warrior race, where size, strength and ferocity define a member's rank in both the social and military hierarchy. Warriors born in this society face the harshest ecological conditions imaginable and thrive in environments where lesser creatures, including humans, quickly perishes. Theirs is a world created to cull weakness from the universe to ensure their supreme sovereignty spreads across the stars. MUST BE 6′2 OR TALLER, NO BODYBUILDER TYPES. SAG ROLE BUT NO LINES. MUST BE COMFORTABLE WEARING PROSTHETICS.

[MARCY LEWIS]

(20) Is a college student. Aloof, jaded beyond her years, she thought her internship with scientist Kate Spelling would be an easy 6 college credits. However, she's been stuck for months in this small New Mexico town and relegated to a wide range of unglamorous activities. Kate has been particularly hard on Marcy, making it her personal project to see that Marcy lives up to her potential. Marcy deals with her situation both by using subtle irony and by being an overt wiseass.

Hell I know at least one young lady who could do both. Anyway, good luck, tell me how it goes.

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Apparently, British children now prefer to read comics and magazines rather that story books and poems. Go Team Comics! Another win for us!

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Is this the geekiest Nobel Prize lineup yet? Not only has Spider-Man and Conan fan Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts towards nuclear disarmament, and increased international diplomacy but Venkataraman Ramakrishnan has won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for determining the three-dimensional structure of the small ribosomal subunit and its complexes with substrates and antibiotics. So there you go. His friend Renjit Mathew recalls;

Both I and Venki brought comics to school, having hidden them between books in our schoolbag. And during free periods in class, we used read them in such a way that the teachers never come to know that we were reading comics.

With another friend, Lobo (yes really) remembering;

All of us loved to read comic books, which were banned in the school. Each of us would have at least one comic book in our bag and bring them out at Venki's place.

Next year, let's get one for Neil Gaiman. Not sure of the category yet, but that man is running out of awards to win.

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And as Electronic Arts launch EA Comics with IDW and Peter Milligan on point, I'm reminded of a comic I wrote for Electronic Arts when I worked there as a copywriter, to promote the game KKND. Hey guys, any chance of a reprint?

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