"Explosion"

While doing a bit of late-night blogsurfing last night (if you have a blogger account, check your dashboard for the new BlogPlay feature, which scrolls through the newest photos uploaded to peoples' blogs! It's brilliant!!!), I discovered this breath-taking image by Tuan Hoang, who describes himself as an environmental and concept artist.

There wasn't much context, leaving me free to imagine that Tuan is another brilliant painter who's painting visions of the future, just as Isaac Mendez was last season on "HEROES". And then I remembered that Sylar killed Mr. Is-aac last year, which makes me a little sad.

Still, I wanted to share Tuan's image here, so you will hopefully find it and surf over for a look at some of his other work, which is equally stunning, including a recently-added photo of something that looks like one of those Martian invasion vehicles in action.

New Earth Now

Oh, it's fun what you can find in the news! For example, this story in which scientists claim to have discovered the formation of a "new Earth". It so closely follows the theme of Real Life (so-called) becoming more like Comics (see my post of April 24th) that I have to believe that these astronomers and such are fans of DC.

What they mean, of course, is that they believe they have found the formation of a possible earth-like planet. But what if it did turn out to be a parallel of ours, just out of whack in the timeline. How bizarre the world is.

To be fair, though, I'm glad people are spending some time looking for other planets that might be like Earth out there. The way things are going, we may need to find a new one sometime soon. What if the "Great Disaster" is global warming?

More likely, I'm inclined to believe its got something to do with the recent revival of the Anti-Monitor, of all people. As always, I'm following the progress in my favorite titles via la Internet, lying in wait for the eventual release of the trades. And you know, Countdown is really starting to pick up the pace as far as the story goes...though it does seem to have spawned an almost unseemly amount of crossover/spin-offs.

I'm choosing to have some faith that eventually as this continues to unfold and mesh with other supposedly stand-alone stories like The Sinestro Corps War and such (for the record, I'm terribly sorry the Amazons Attacked. That does seem like a big gaffe. But sadly, not to be expected in the history of our Amazon's treatment at the hands of the comic creators of Man's World.)as it all builds toward the (oh, dare we hope...) Final Crisis in 2008.

Admittedly, this is a little on the gratuitous side...but I just love this Countdown cover art. (And I'm surprised Sally hasn't addressed it in more detail over at Green Lantern Butts, but then again, it might've been amongst the scans lost in the Great Housekeeping Disaster, too, so we shan't mention it again.)

Not only does it ensure that Kyle seems to have come out on the far side of Parallax okay, but its one of the great images of him. Of course, I'm also amused (as others online are, too) that everyone else seems to be checking out Kyle's goods in this particular shot.

Of the three onlookers, only Donna probably knows what she's really looking at...but doesn't Jason Todd seem kind of surprisingly interested? I'm just saying, it adds another layer of subtext/plot to this whole business of his crushing on Donna. I'm not sure it will do us any good to act surprised when one of the Dark Knight's former teen sidekicks turns out to be at least bisexual.

Of course, Bob's a monitor, so there's no telling what he's seen.

What I Wouldn't Give For A Sorting Hat...

With recent news of a possible move coming down the road for us, I was able to spend some time this weekend down in the basement, sorting through the collection, dividing things down into individual categories.

This time out, as you can see, various versions of The Flash were sorted into their own box. You can see above some of the collection highlights, Flash #350, featuring the conclusion (almost) of the Barry Allen story...and also Flash #1, when Wally West picked up the crimson mantle.

They are joined in a box with assorted issues of Firestorm, Hawkman(and Hawkworld!), and most naturally, Impulse (we bow our heads and remember Bart). Yes, it's sort of a random grouping, but Firestorm was featured in a back-up of Barry's title back in the 80s.

Most other titles have now been sorted into individual (if not yet chronological) stacks, with the big exception being about four cartons of assorted titles all related to either Batman or Superman. I know...odd that I didn't sort them out first...but their titles are so numerous, it seemed wise to work into their stuff.

Will need to make another longbox run to Newbury Comics soon, as I've filled the nine boxes so far, and will likely need another five or so for the rest. Good lord, what a collection. But at least stored this way, it will be easier to tote when the time comes to re-settle somewhere.