Author: Gareth

Transmedia developer — writer, consultant, game designer, graphic artist, and publisher. A sharp tongue, a sharp blade, and on a good day, a sharp mind.
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The DC Revolution (and my pitches)

The internet is abuzz with the announcement that DC Comics will be rebooting in September, relaunching 50+ titles with new #1 issues, including what they describe as a “major continuity reboot”, intended to modernize the iconic characters more in keeping with the times.

Personally, when I heard this, I hoped that it would address the problem of ‘whitewashing’ in comics. It would be nice to see DC’s superhero line actually reflect the US population a bit more accurately.

Looks like they’re kinda-sorta-halfway doing that, given the preview that appeared on the DC blog today. It looks like they’re tinkering with also-rans and “promoting” existing B-list heroes in an effort to increase diversity. Cyborg will be a full member of the Justice League, Firestorm will be an amalgam of two guys — one of whom is African-American, and Mister Terrific (who?) will get his own book.

I would’ve liked to see ballsier moves — especially given the biggest and ballsiest (and largely ignored, in favor of the nerdrage-inciting renumbering) part of the whole thing, which is that their entire line is going to digital day-and-date distribution. For those of you unaware of what that entails: it means that digital copies of the issues will be available for sale online (via services like Comixology and the comixology-powered official DC Comics iPad app) on the exact same day that they’re on sale in stores in print.

This is massive, because currently, digital comics are released months later — and often digital comics are just reprints of years-old issues. It’s a situation that Mark Waid described at NYCC in October as “the industry being held hostage by less than 2000 retailers.” Comics retailers (and there are estimated to be less than 2000 dedicated comics stores in the US) HATE day-and-date digital, and have all but threatened any publisher who does it with boycott, etc.

Well, the problem is that the industry is in such bad shape (see my entry about attending the ICV2 Conference at NYCC for more details) that pissing off those 2000 stores doesn’t seem as drastic any more — not when the opportunity to attract more customers than you’re potentially losing has become a very real possibility. That’s the potentially industry-changing (saving?) thing that’s happening here, but of course, all anyone can talk about is the fact that everything is being renumbered.

*Sigh*

Ah well, digital revolutions aside, I am a comics fan, and not above a bit of fanwankery. Judd over at The Githyanki Diaspora has posted his imaginary pitches for new DC #1s. I thought this was a fun idea (and his Detective Comics concept is particularly brilliant), so I figured I’d give it a shot — and not entirely for fun, either: If any of the folks I know who have connections at DC like anything they see here, please feel free to point The Right People ™ in the direction of this post….

My #1 Pitches:

Doctor Fate A complete reboot of the character, going for a more “Big Trouble in Little China”/”Woochi The Demonslayer” vibe. The new Doctor Fate is an immortal Taoist sorcerer, operating out of San Francisco, and tuned in to the hidden world of monsters, magicians and warriors that still exists to this day.

The Mighty Isis: Egyptian student studying in Metropolis is transformed by the Amulet of Isis into the newest incarnation of the superhero — less connection to the Shazam Family, more concentration on topicality: i.e. doing for women’s issues, the Middle East, the War on Terror, etc. what 70s Green Arrow/Green Lantern did for racism, street crime, poverty and drugs.

The Omega Men: The opportunity to explore the non-Lantern-Corps side of the DC science-fiction universe. Take Adam Strange, Vril Dox from L.E.G.I.O.N., the remnants of the Omega Men, and any other classic (or new) space heroes and throw them together into a rag-tag bunch who travel the space lanes, facing down cosmic threats. There’s more to universe than a rainbow-array of ring bearers.

Challengers of the Unknown: Take Rip Hunter and a collection of new non-superheroic characters and have them face off against the strange science, weird plots and other spooky-do’s. A character-driven, ensemble workplace drama, except the workplace is a super-science team which faces everything from temporal rifts to cross-dimensional invasions.

I could go on for days. I’d be thrilled to write any of them. What about you?

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Friday Music

A bit late in the day, but I figured I’d mark a week of regular blog updates with a Friday Music entry. Didn’t post earlier because I had a lunch appointment downtown (much discussion of creative endeavors — podcasts, webseries, etc. — but more on that as it develops), so the theme of today’s entry is the music that came up on my iPod as I walked there and back:

First up, the lead single from the Beastie Boys’ new album, Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2. I love this — they’re back after Adam Yauch’s successful fight against Cancer, and jump right back in with some serious booty-shakin’ old-school NYC hip-hop: The Beastie Boys – “Make Some Noise.”

Trip-tastic sub-Zeppelin cosmic rock from an almost-was of the 1980s: Zebra – “Who’s Behind The Door.”

As I listened to this one, I thought Dotta Numba Two would really like this — not just to listen, but maybe to perform, as it sits pretty well within both her vocal range and her post-punk style: The Primitives – “Crash.”

My all-time favorite track from the former lead singer of Roxy Music, often overlooked in favor of his sappier ballads like “Slave to Love.” Bryan Ferry – “Sensation.”

You know when you’re walking, and you start to unconsciously match your stride to the beat? This song is a bit difficult for someone my size to walk to — I found myself almost breaking into a jog. :) Prince – “Delirious.”

The ballad “single” from the fake 80s metal band that featured in Mark Wahlberg’s film “Rock Star” — Steel Dragon – “We All Die Young.”

Still remains the best thing that Latifah ever did — and features the absolutely amazing Monie Love, who I wanted to hear much, much more from. Queen Latifah – “Ladies’ First (feat. Monie Love).”

So there you go. Enjoy!

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This Week’s Cooking Triumphs

So yeah, bloggery-cliché time again — the dreaded recipe post.

Hit the ball out the park twice this week, culinarily speaking. A few people saw my various Twitter mentions and asked for recipes, so here goes.

First, earlier this week, I tried my hand at making a White Castle -style burger at home. The results were pretty friggin’ good:

Beige Fortress Burgers

The ingredients:

  • 1/2 or so of cup dried onion flakes
  • 2 pounds ground chuck- (80/20)
  • teaspoon-ish of seasoned salt
  • 6 slices cheddar cheese
  • 24 small party rolls – Sarah Lee or other
  • 24 dill pickle slices

Take a 9 x 13 baking dish, and coat the bottom with dried onion flakes. Carefully spread the ground chuck over top, and then sprinkle the top of the meat with season salt.
Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Take it out of the oven, and using paper towels, de-grease the top of the meat. Then, cover the meat with 6 slices of cheddar cheese. Put it back in the oven for 2 minutes.

Slice the party rolls into tops and bottoms. Cut the meat into 24 tiny squares (6 across, 4 down). Using a spatula, lift the squares (along with the onion layer at the bottom, which has been rehydrated by meat juice — and fat, to be honest –) and place onto each bun. Top with a single dill pickle slice, and the upper bun. Serve with condiments of your choice. The taste on these is spot-on (the onions do the job), yet richer and meatier than the usual WC slider. Good stuff.

Then yesterday, I tried my hand at Tacos Al Pastor — not the easiest thing in the world, since I have no vertical rotisserie. But it totally worked.

Tacos Al Pastor

The ingredients:

4lb Pork Butt

Marinade:

  • 3 ancho chiles
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3/4 cup fresh pineapple
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 Chipotle chile (in adobo sauce)
  • 1 1/2 Tbs adobo sauce
  • 1 Tbs vinegar
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 1 Tbs salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp paprika

Take the pork, fat side up, and cut it so that it’s like a book — 3/4″ thick slices as “pages” going to a “spine” along the left side, with the fat as the front cover.

Then, put a pot of water on the boil — add the anchos and bay leaf, boil for a few minutes and then take off the heat and let the chiles re-hydrate. Remove the stems and seeds, and put the chiles (not the bay leaf or water) in a food processor along with all of the other marinade ingredients and puree.

Note — you need fresh pineapple for this. Fresh pineapple has an enzyme which breaks down proteins. This enzyme is largely killed in the canning process.

Slather the marinade all over the pork, getting in between every “page” that you’ve cut, as well as all over the outsides. Place the pork in the fridge for no more than a hour (otherwise the pineapple will turn this into meat goo). If you have only canned pineapple, you can marinade overnight as an approximation.

Drop the pork into a roasting pan, with a bit of water at the bottom (to prevent the drippings from smoking too much). Crank your oven up to 450 and cook for 30 minutes.

Take the pork out of the oven (be sure to burn your hand, like I did, at this point) and lay fresh pineapple slices over the top of the meat (baked-ham style), here or there in the pages, etc. Lower the oven to 300 degrees, put the now-pineapple-y pork back in, and cook for at least 3 hours.

When done, rip that pork into chunks, along with chunks of the carmelized pineapple. Serve on CORN tortillas (not flour), with diced onion, cilantro, salsa verde and lime wedges for squeezing. (Laura and Maggie also busted out the sour cream, but I was a purist) NOM (as the kids say) NOM de friggin’ NOM.

Sorry — no pics this time around. I was too busy stuffing my face. I guess I lose foodie points for that.

What about you guys? What are some of your favorite recipes?

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