Cliffhangers. When they're done right, I love love love them.

Seriously - I have had so much fun, this past month, anticipating the release of Green Lantern Corps #43. It's been a dog's age since I was so pumped, so jazzed, for a single issue of a comic book. I've been haunting message boards and scan sites all week, hoping someone would spill details from an advance copy. The very first thing I did, this morning, was scout for online spoilers (as I won't be picking our comics up until this evening).

I wasn't disappointed.

Sappy? Sentimental? Twee? Owning far too much to The Matrix Reloaded? Absolutely. And I don't, for a single bloody second, care. If you can't get away with a "power of love" moment in a comic that chronicles the adventures of super heroes who turn their emotions into verdant plasma weaponry, then you can never have a "power of love" moment.

I think I'm going to have to change my icon. It's finally out of date.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

Monday night was odd. I went to bed feeling quite ill - and slightly delirious - and had trouble falling asleep. Once I was out, though, I had a single dream that lasted until six the next morning. That's really unusual for me. Fortunately, it was really cool as well. Of all the dreams to be stuck in, this was the one.

Because you were there. And you. And you and you and you. Yes, even you.

I had a dream in which stareyednight and I were transported into an alternate reality. There, we were part of a sci-fi/swords-n-sorcery rebellion against Earth's tyrannical ruling class. I'm talking lasers versus broadswords, and catapults against starships.

( And you, my LiveJournal friends, made up the rest of that insurgency. )

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

On a day such as this...

... when things at work didn't go as planned, and my old stomach complaint returned and tied me up in knots, and I felt too sick to work on a book whose deadline is slowly approaching...

Remembering that she has this, and wears it regularly, and is genuine in her wearing of it, makes everything worthwhile.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

It started on Friday night, with the new brace for my broken right ankle and the 45-minute wait for a taxi home. ( Fortunately, it only got better from there. )

It was precisely the weekend I needed - a tonic for what's ailed me. I feel like myself again.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

"I love you, Daddy. I'm your biggest supporter. I'd never change anything that you write or say... except for the bits I don't like."

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

LJ has a problem with Hollywood. More specifically, with its take on the Transformers.

"I really like the idea of The Fallen," she announced a few weeks back. "Except for one thing. I think it's terrible that the Fallen stays chained up in his ship unless Optimus Prime dies. I want to use the Fallen in my games, but I don't want to have to kill off Optimus and then bring him back because that gets done all the time.

"There's another thing," she continued. "The Fallen is super-powerful, more powerful than anyone else. So you can't use him in games, because he's unstoppable. The only one who can beat him is a Prime, and that gets boring if it's only Optimus fighting the Fallen all the time. Hmm... this is a real puzzle."

I encouraged her to think around those problems and to come up with her own solutions. The best thing about playing with toys, I explained, is that you can deviate from the cartoons or movies that tie into them and have your own concepts, stories and ideas.

As she is wont to do, LJ took my advice to heart and spent a month planning "the biggest Transformers game ever". This morning, she asked me to come into her room and play so we could act out her masterpiece. I'd had no input into it - had no idea what it was all going to be about - and so sat down on her floor, ready to do whatever she told me.

What followed was an hour-long, bona-fide box office epic merging the live-action movie with the Animated and G1 continuities. Of course, it wasn't as good as Michael Bay's blockbuster - it was better. Thus, without any further adieu, allow me to present...

( Transformers - Escape of the Fallen! )

Swear to God, I had nothing to do with the creation of that story. It's all LJ, conjured up by her and told to me a piece at a time this morning. Every twist and turn popped, fully formed, out of her freaky genius brain. Her only assist came from stareyednight, who offered Blitzwing's quip and had us both rolling on the floor with laughter.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when a five-year-old takes two TF cartoons, mixes them with selected scenes from Revenge of the Fallen and adds her own creativity. Like I said: epic.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

In furtherance of LJ's cartoon education, we watched the first three episodes of Justice League tonight. As part one's cliffhanger rolled, LJ asked me to pause the DVD.

"I think I've figured it out," she said. "The government asked Superman to destroy all of Earth's missiles to bring about peace, right? And the big three-legged monsters started wiping out all the cities just after he finished. Well, I remember that army general looked really upset at losing all of his missiles, so I think he and the army made the big monsters. But they're going to pretend they didn't make them, and use it as an excuse to get all their missiles back so they can save the day and make Superman look bad. Because that's the sort of thing armies do."

My little conspiracy theorist. I'm so proud!

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

Seriously, let me start by saying that since this interview comes out before "Green Lantern Corps" #43, and only a week after "Green Lantern Corps" #42 hit stores, there's a lot I could say but won't, since I don't want to spoil what's coming incredibly soon.

--> Peter Tomasi, writer of Green Lantern Corps, at Comic Book Resources


Methinks the signs point to this being a cliffhanger.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

I went stark-raving mad waiting for New Super Mario Bros.Wii to be released. Then, I went a little loonier waiting to get to a shop and buy it. Today I finally (finally!) grabbed a copy.

For $3.

Yeahhh. Three-dollar Wii games, baby! Turns out stareyednight and I had so many completed games ready for the trade-in, the store was willing to give us $67. And because the poor bastard behind the counter is required by store policy to match prices... and Toys R Us was charging $70... that meant I could pay for the delightful red disc with the change in my pocket.

It felt goooooooood.

The game, by the way, rocks. Love love love it. You can take your 3D graphic engines and shove 'em - when you're talking Mario games, 2D side-scrolling is the only way to go.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

Owing to the events of Green Lantern Corps #42, is the Modern Age of Comics now over?

( Spoilers and discussion behind the cut... )

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF
(cross-posted at wednesdaycomics)

Super-speed. Always has been, always will be.

I don't want a power that removes the need to do things for myself. I don't want to teleport here and there, I want to run wherever I need to go... just faster than would normally be possible. I want to be able to type fast, run fast, think fast, ride the lightning... that would be my choice.

I guess you could say I want to remain myself, albeit faster.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

I know what you're thinking.

"He's angry," you're saying to yourself. "Really, really angry. Furious, in fact. If he's not, it's only because he doesn't know about it yet. Soon, he will - internet spoilers are everywhere. And, even if he avoids them, the moment he reads a copy of Green Lantern Corps #42, he's going to go nuclear."

I know what you're thinking. ( And you're wrong. )

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

We'd been sitting in silence for more than five minutes, just working on our computers. LJ was having a sleep-over with her grandparents and we were enjoying the quiet - no music, no television, just companionable peace.

"Crap," stareyednight suddenly exclaimed. "I've got a song stuck in my head."

"Me too," I admitted. "Which one?"

"Smooth Criminal," she replied.

I boggled. "Same here. Michael Jackson version or Alien Ant Farm version?"

"Alien Ant Farm."

"Same here! Man, that's freaky!"

I swear neither of us had heard the song during the day, talked about it or even mentioned either musical performer. And we're still not quite sure how it happened. Maestro, cue up the Twilight Zone theme...

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

Because she is a generous and kind child, who thinks of others as much as herself, more than 50 underprivileged children will have a merry Christmas this year.

LJ and her Nana, scraptracker, spent the afternoon sorting her masses of stuffed animals into "keep" and "give away" piles. The former was tiny, while the latter filled five garbage bags. Those once-loved toys, all in near-new condition, will be individually wrapped and placed under charity Christmas trees for needy families to collect.

Tomorrow, she's going to tackle her books and action figures.

LJ had a massive grin on her face when I tucked her in tonight. "Santa will have seen me do that, and he'll be really happy," she beamed. "But that's not as important as all the children who will be so happy to get lovely toys on Christmas Day. I feel really good about this, Daddy."

Needless to say, so do I.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

She's the sort of woman who yells "close your eyes, I have a surprise for you!" as you walk through a crowded mall. The sort of girl who rewards your near-tripping with the two-disc special edition of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (in the transforming Bumblebee case), which you'd pre-ordered weeks back and she'd picked up on the sly, just to put a smile on your face.

She's the sort of woman who wins a professional photoshoot for two, and says it'd be best to take along Wonder Woman and Green Lantern t-shirts for "super hero poses". The sort of girl whose enthusiasm for the idea is so infectious that the photographer, greeter and stylist all start running around to organise blue-sky backdrops, wind machines and lighting effects "to really make it look like a comic book".

She's the sort of woman who then switches gears, changes into a clinging black dress with a plunging neckline and poses for stylish glamour shots that take your breath away. The sort of girl who fixes her man with a smouldering, sexy look that sends pleasant chills down his spine.

And I know her work trip is just for two days, and I know she'll be back tomorrow night at 7pm, but that doesn't stop me from missing her crazily. Not one bit. Because she's the greatest.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

Happy birthday to the world's best wife, most fantastic step-mother, most incredible singer, most amazing actress, best-selling salesperson and the most trusted, wonderful, supportive friend I've ever had the honour to know.

Happy 26th birthday, stareyednight. I love you.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

There is a being... an ancient, powerful cosmic entity... that wanders the universe. He rides the solar winds on his Omni-Chair, letting fate carry him wherever it may. When he arrives upon a plane, he engages in his duty most terrible. For it is he - and he alone - who sits in judgment on all beings in existence. Upon him falls the horrifying task of weighing the sins of a race against its virtues and deciding - with neither right of appeal nor hope of clemency - whether the inhabitants of a world should live or die. To this end, he takes the form of a local deity and chooses a central location from which he will watch... and decide.

He is the universal manifestation of the scales of justice. He is, at this very moment, on Earth. Man, woman and child, prince and pauper, holy man and sinful fool alike shall call him...

( Zeptahr, the ever-living! )

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

Today's youth are troubled. Lost. Floundering against a world that has no time for them, that refuses to understand them, that sees them only as consumers. They are bombarded - assailed - from all sides by a media that sexualises them and their interests, simply to hook them for a quick buck. Are there heroes to stand against this onslaught - to stem this flow of smut? No, sadly, there are not. Thus comes the time to hatch a champion for all that is decent and good. A pure-hearted mascot like...

( Cissy, the Celibacy Sea Bass! )

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

She'd picked her outfit and laid it out on her bed before her bath. She had a lunch destination in mind and a movie selected. She greeted me in the lounge room in wearing a gorgeous green dress, bejeweled sandals and a megawatt smile.

LJ had declared it "Daddy Daughter Day", and I couldn't have been happier than to oblige.

We wandered the toy shops, talking about cartoons and looking at the latest releases. We ate pretzels for lunch, decided we were still hungry and so splurged on KFC. Her movie choice was Astro Boy; we both enjoyed it, though LJ found it slightly too bittersweet for her tastes. Then I escorted my beauteous date home.

One day, she's going to make a boyfriend deliriously happy. Until then, I'm blessed to be dead-centre of her adoration cross hairs.

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF

"Daddy? You can't see it, but there's an invisible string that connects you and me. It's there all the time and it never breaks, even when we're far apart - it just stretches. It gives me some of your brain and gives you some of my brain, so we're always together."

Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF