Recent Posts

[Birthright]

Any other current comics that you're reading?

I've really been enjoying the new Supergirl title; along with the Krypto miniseries; both are a lot of fun and my current favorites.

I'm also following Mark Waid's recent storyline in Action Comics which is basically now in effect "The adventures of Superboy."   I suspect, but I'm not sure (my knowledge is way out of date), this could be the first post-Crisis full-on "Superboy" storyline, with Clark in high school while also having adventures (and troubles) as Superboy, in an actual Superboy costume and using the actual Superboy name.

In style the issues read to me a lot like Birthright (which now seems to be canonical?  Again, not sure) and Waid's earlier story, Young Luthor in Smallville.  I think that he clearly loves these characters.  The current storyline involves a "mysterious visitor" who knows Clark's secret identity, but doesn't reveal it.  The way this plot thread is told, and the hints that are dropped, remind me a lot of Strange Visitor - I'm curious to see if the visitor will be the same person when his identity is revealed.

I walked by it in a comic shop and did not buy it, like a big dummy. Loving the new series so far, though.

I've been doing a read-through of all Superman family comics in the last 3 years, everything before Crisis except for a few newspaper strips and promos (if anybody knows where to find the Superman-Tim catalog, let me know!) I really enjoyed Supergirl and am glad that the new series is making references to the Bronze Age.

Still have my first edition, and just pointed some newly-minted Maggin fans here to read the online version.  Big year for Krypto!

[Satan Girl]

Oh, and if you want to read up on Satan Girl (who makes her first appearance in the above's issue #3) here is an excellent run-down ("Satan Girl, A Full History") at "The Daring New Blog of Supergirl"

[here is the link]

Supergirl #3 goes on sale this Wednesday.

I'm not going to post a preview here because here is the link to Bleeding Cool's 4 page preview:

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/supergirl-3-preview-kara-punches-her-own-face/

Keen-eyed readers may recognize the costume that Supergirl is wearing in this issue (in the current storyline, her new costume was damaged so she is trying out her old ones while Lena works on repairing the damaged one.)

I will say that this is the first title in a long time that I have been enjoying. In fact, it's an absolute blast.

I'm going to post a few samples from issues #1 and #2 when I get a chance.

[added it to the site here]

I came across two of my old copies of Starwinds Howl, so I snapped a photo and added it to the site here.



The copy on the left is an original 1999 first edition - these were printed at a local copy shop, then offered for sale through ebay.

The copy on the right is one of the Cafe Press print-on-demand versions. These were discontinued when Cafe Press stopped offering books as a product.

Starwinds Howl is still available to read online for free at our official website; and the story is also included in Elliot's Luthor's Gift anthology.

[E. Nelson Bridwell's 1970s pre-Crisis "Kryptonese" characters]

I want to give some long-overdue credit where credit is due.

The following information blurb ran in an (apparently new) Superman-family news section that is now contained in all of DC's Superman-related titles.  This particular scan is from Supergirl #1, which came out a couple of months ago:



In this panel, and elsewhere in recent DC books, E. Nelson Bridwell's 1970s pre-Crisis "Kryptonese" characters have returned to DC's continuity, as part of their latest mega-continuity-revamp which appears to be a mash-up of all previous continuities, both pre- and post- Crisis. In effect, everything you ever read did, in fact, happen; regardless of which "age" it is from (but that's a separate post...)

When Professor Waid writes that "Kryptonian is a cipher", he is referring to the 2000-era Kryptonian transliteration font, that was originally created for DC merchandise (such as the Bottle City); then became the basis of the Kryptonian languages that appeared in various TV shows, from Smallville onward, and in Superman comics beginning in 2001.

When he refers to "Kryptonese is a different dialect with 118 characters and its own grammar," he is referring to the undiscovered E. Nelson Bridwell and Al Turniansky project, used in comics in the 70s and early 80s and then erased from continuity for all time, until "all-in" when it came back.

What is not said:



This beautiful, pre-Crisis in appearance Kryptonese font that DC is now using in its comic books was painstakingly created by Darren Doyle and made available on his website here: Silver Age Kryptonian Font: Reborn. Just to clarify: DC is not using their own font, nor manually lettering Kryptonese - they are using Darren's actual font.

"That font was a bear to create. I hand wrote each letter until I got a version I liked, scanned it, vectorized it in Illustrator, then imported each character 1x1 into the font program."

Darren Doyle is a professional linguist. In 2003, he began what was then called "The Kryptonese Lanuage Project". In short, he constructed a full-on "Kryptonese" language based on E. Nelson Bridwell and Al Turniansky's notes, and incorporating all information that had appeared in the published comic books.

This is a complete constructed language with its own vocabulary and grammar based on canon works and its own new alphabet, based on the transliteration cipher, but improved and expanded.

DC hasn't just used his Silver-Age font --



His constructed language was used on the screen for the spoken form of Kryptonian in the CW Supergirl television series (episodes 302, 306, 307, and 313 - maybe more);



and his improved "Doyle Kryptonian" font as well as his constructed language have been used in DC comics' Supergirl Special #1 -- DC appears to have been working directly from his online dictionary:


As far as I know, he has received no attribution from CW nor from DC.

A growing community has arisen around his language, people are learning it; working on original compositions and translations; artwork, and more.

Thank you, Darren.



See kryptonian.info for more info!

[The Fear Generator]

"The Fear Generator"

(Starting to loosen up from the traditional page layout, and explore some more features of the Gimp. Panels from the original New Gods by Kirby.)

(click for full size)



Comic book panels by Jack Kirby; collage by Daughter of Krypton

More collages here.

["The CHOICE is NOW! - LIFE or ANTI-LIFE?"]

"The CHOICE is NOW! - LIFE or ANTI-LIFE?"

(Panels from a couple of different pages of New Gods #1 by JACK KIRBY, background by me, dusting off my ancient knowledge of the Gimp, undiscovered until these days.)

Do you choose LIFE?

Or do you choose ANTI-LIFE?

The time is now.  The happening is now.  The CHOICE is NOW



Life flowers in freedom

The right of CHOICE is OURS - that is the LIFE EQUATION

The OUTSIDE CONTROL of ALL LIVING THOUGHT -  the ANTI-LIFE EQUATION