CBR News Friday: Vampires & Virgins

I just posted two stories for CBR News a little while ago, both part of the site’s coverage of Comic-Con International in relentlessly beautiful San Diego.

More to come throughout the weekend.

Sauron is real and he lives 25 light years away

OK, maybe not the Eye of Sauron, because that was shot with a special filter that blocks out most of the light from the star Fomalhaut at the heart of its solar system. What’s really significant about this — beyond it looking cool — is that it’s pretty definite confirmation of a planet nearby, sweeping through stellar dust as it orbits.

From the New Scientist:

The most likely explanation is that the gravity of one or more unseen planets is dragging the ring askew. The fact that the inner edge of the ring is relatively well-defined adds further weight to the argument because it suggests the unseen planets are sweeping up stray dust within the radius of the ring.

The image was captured by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, US, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center using Hubble’s coronagraph. This device blocks the glare of a star while gathering the faint reflected light from any surrounding ring.

Odds that the planet will be called Mordor are pretty high, I’m guessing.

Giffen talks “Drax,” JLI and erections

(Originally spotted over on Rob Worley’s site. And you thought my URL was obscure.)

If, somewhere along the way in your journalism career, you get a chance to interview Keith Giffen, do it. There’s no better quote machine in the comics industry, and I throw Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Jim Steranko and anyone else you can think of into the ring to slug it out with him.

Comixfan: While we’re on the subject, after Drax and Defenders, what else do you have planned at Marvel?

Giffen: A series with a classic name, that I am not at liberty to discuss right now. Simply because, Marvel and DC now like to announce, and the minute they announce, I’ll talk about it. Like Drax, I’ve been done with Drax for four months. Well, Andy keeps calling me and going ‘Can you fix this?’, but the actual bulk work has been done for a while, but then they announce it in Philadelphia, and I can talk about it. It’s business. The guy who created Viagra wasn’t going around going ‘We can give you an erection!’ before Pfizer announced it. Which is kind of interesting, because everyone knows Pfizer makes Viagra, but what’s the name of the guy who created it?

Comixfan: I have no idea… [laughs]

Giffen: Ah ha, so its not just comics doing that. At least comics will say ‘created by Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer’ on Lobo. Work for hire lives…

Interviewing Giffen is sort of like riding a bucking bronco — you grip that phone and your keyboard and hold on, because you’re going at light speed all over the map, and if you can’t keep up, well, you should look into Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, bud.

And you know I’m telling the truth, because I didn’t write this interview and, frankly, I don’t think that I’d ever heard of Comixfan before today. But Giffen interviews are goodness, although it looks like they cut most of the profanity and the slams of the comic industry as a whole. Or maybe it’ll be in Part Two.

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

In a transparent attempt to get me to come to Brooklyn later this year and babysit my as-yet-unborn niece, my brother just sent me the following images:


I know that’s what he’s after, because it worked. I’m tempted to order tickets right now.

Apparently, the supply company is all for a good cause. Well, better than merely saving New York from supervillains, anyway. So, superhero schwag and a good cause. Sounds like a plan to me.

Equally intriguing, there’s a pirate store in the Bay Area, for a related organization. My family has always been disappointed that I didn’t share their intense love of the Bay Area, but if they keep the good stuff from me, how am I ever going to learn to appreciate it?

Anyway, I’ve got my next two visits to my family planned out now.

A bargain at 1/30 the price!

OK, I’m clearly missing something in this story from Wired:

GamePal customers pay a $300 deposit, $150 for the first month and $130 for each subsequent month for access to their choice of 50 accounts (available initially) for 14 popular MMOs, including EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes and Ultima Online.

Newcomers to these games who aren’t sure where they want to devote their time are in luck: GamePal allows them to try out what they want.

“For all 14 games, they can choose any (available) account they want,” said GamePal co-founder Eric Smith. “It’s up to them what game they want to play.”

Say what? Pay $450 for the rights to play MMORPGs? That sounds OK — assuming you have more money than sense — until you realize that no way in hell can you even play a fraction of those 14 MMORPGs to any degree, and certainly not enough to get a taste of each. (Heck, most of your month will likely be spent downloading patches for them anyway.) And remember that it only costs $15/month to actually play one of these, after initial purchase of the game. If you really want to try out World of Warcraft or City of Heroes or EverQuest for free, finding someone who’s no longer using their account and will let you fool around on theirs for a weekend isn’t terribly hard.

I and the Wired reporter are either missing what the real business model is here, or GamePal is run by lunatics who are soon to be living in their car. Or maybe both.