Bedtimes and Broomsticks


What’s even better than hearing that my niece can’t come to the phone because she’s engrossed in reading Magic Trixie?

Magic Trixie, a young girl in a black frock and traditional witch's hat, with frizzy pink hair

I was recently made aware that E and her sister M — that’s for privacy purposes, not because my family names its children after club drugs and Fritz Lang movies — lent their book to a friend and were eagerly awaiting the sequel, Magic Trixie Sleeps Over. Sharing is great! And they need wait no longer. I’d already bought it, and I mailed it out after hearing this rather than hold onto it for the girls’ upcoming visit. HarperCollins was smart to advertise the next installment in each book, price them low ($7.99 each), and of course snap up this series from the brilliant Jill Thompson to begin with.

Cover Albums


Muscular, bare-chested figure of Atlas, loose red cowl around head, lifting and fighting off horde of armed soldiers
Cover to 1st Issue Special #1 © 1975 DC Comics. Pencils:
Jack Kirby. Inks: D. Bruce Berry. Colors: Tatjana Wood.


This post is currently down for maintenance.

L Is for...


... Links — about The Late Late Show and Lily Allen.

As soon as The Late Show wraps up each night, Craig Ferguson pops in with a cold open of The Late Late Show. He might ramble a bit, address the “People… of… Earth!” via hand puppet, bring on a special non sequitur guest, or launch into a lip-synched musical number. It’s fun largely because of the shoestring budget, going to the heart of the host’s sense of “I have a TV show! Yeah, it’s on CBS at 12:30 a.m., but still!” glee, enticing viewers to stick around.

Well, Monday night had a little of almost all of that. Ferguson, a couple of costumed dancers, and a chorus of puppets performed Britney Spears’ “Oops… I Did It Again” [bad link].

The skit reminded me that if you find Spears’ “Womanizer” hella catchy yet kind-of annoyingly overproduced there’s a virtual cottage industry of cover versions to sample. Franz Ferdinand’s [bad link] has strangely off-key vocals but proves that the song can work unironically as rock. The All-American Rejects [bad link] slowed it down and set it to acoustic guitar, beer-bottle percussion, and concertina, yet despite some winkingly substituted lyrics and a smart segue into the Turtles’ “Happy Together” it doesn’t quite transcend the sum of its parts for me.

My favorite take on “Womanizer” is Lily Allen’s. Although her studio output is heavily electronic, here she’s backed mostly by piano, acoustic guitar, and timpani evocative of Brian Wilson or Phil Spector. Even if it’s not as boldly different as the renditions linked above, it changes things up and stands on its own, which is what I look for in a cover.


Related: Mad Mix 41 Favorites: #7-9 Sisters
Go Bangles
Double “You” Muppet Monday

What’s Future Is Prologue


Here at last, on the heels of the brief Star Trek review I put up the other day, are
some expanded thoughts on the franchise and the film...

Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Nero in different colored sections of Starfleet insignia

I suppose I’m a Trekkie.

Eau de Kirk


Pon Farr perfume bottle, with title rendered in classic 'Star Trek' logo typeface

I’m not making this up.

When I first saw these Star Trek fragrances advertised, in a comic-book distributor’s catalog a couple of months ago, I had to wonder if it was an April Fool’s joke. Nope... You too can smell like a Vulcan in heat.

Isle of Lost


The Lost season finale airs tomorrow night, leaving us bereft of new episodes for
eight months.


Cake with figures and items from 'Lost' on top

I like Nikki Stafford’s idea of watching the whole series to date again before the final season begins in early 2010 and discussing it episode by episode over at Nik at Nite. We’ll even have the 5th-season edition of Finding ‘Lost’, now available to pre-order, in hand by the time we revisit this past year. But I’m reminded of an exchange between young Daniel Faraday and his mother, Eloise, in a recent episode: When Daniel is told that there’s no time for such pursuits as the piano, he says that he’ll “make time” — a sentiment to which Eloise knowingly replies, “If only you could.” I recall my dad more than once musing that there should be an extra day of the week that by Constitutional (or perhaps cosmic) decree would be devoted to all those hobbies and projects that never seem to get the attention they deserve. Sign me up!

Scary Good




Panel from Scary Godmother: The Mystery Date ©
1999 and characters
TM creator Jill Thompson.


This post is currently down for maintenance.

Vulcan A


Or at least a solid B, if not B+.

'Star Trek' 2009 poster depicting the Enterprise heading into warp

I’m talking about the new Star Trek film, of course.

Ric Estrada 1928-2009


The original Flash, Jay Garrick, speeding towards an erupting volcano
The original Flash in All-Star Comics #58 © 1975 DC Comics. Script: Gerry Conway.
Pencils: Ric Estrada. Inks: Wally Wood. Letters: Ben Oda. Colors: Unknown.


Artist Ric Estrada passed away last Friday. He was 81.

While he didn’t rank among the best known comic-book pros, Estrada’s held a place
in my heart for decades thanks to his part in the revival of All-Star Comics in 1975.
I’ve been learning that he holds a place in the hearts of many others for very different work: illustrating passages from what’s popularly known as the New Testament, plus The Book of Mormon, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as sampled below. Or perhaps not so different, given the superhero genre’s modern spins on ancient myth and legend, but that’s not the purview of this post.

Friday Firsts



Cover to Detective Comics #27 © 1939 DC Comics.

This post is currently down for maintenance.