This is going to be so much fun! Dave Kellett and I will be Drawing Anything with our friend Jason Chatfield at 3 p.m. eastern time today. Join us!
https://open.substack.com/live-stream/139523?r=12wah&utm_medium=ios
In and Out of Trouble
When Lightning Lady says she’s thinking about “In and Out,” she’s definitely not talking about burgers. Unfortunately, Angus the Minotaur is still stuck on the food angle — and it’s making for one very awkward (and unintentionally revealing) conversation about what she really wants tonight.
Transcript
Panel 1:
Angus (off-panel, shouting): “Hamburgers?! You want to go out for HAMBURGERS?!?”
Panel 2:
Lightning Lady: “HEY! You just said I don’t have to hide my feelings from you!”
Angus: “Tell me what you wanna do tonight, and I promise not to judge.”
Lightning Lady: “Ok… ok…”
Panel 3:
(Emotion bubble above Lightning Lady shows a Big Boy mascot holding burgers.)
Angus looks concerned.
Panel 4:
(Emotion bubble changes to a Steak ’n Shake logo.)
Angus facepalms.
Panel 5:
Angus: “Gods. You are NOT making this easy.”
Angus: “I don’t like the food at any of those places.”
Panel 6:
Lightning Lady: “I, um… stopped thinking about food three clouds ago.”
(Emotion bubble shows an In-N-Out sign.)
Angus is taken aback.
Alt Text
A six-panel comic featuring Lightning Lady, a blonde superhero in a blue-and-yellow costume, and her boyfriend Angus, a muscular minotaur wearing a white apron. Angus reacts loudly when she suggests hamburgers. She reminds him he said she could be honest, and he encourages her to share what she wants without judgment. As she hesitates, thought bubbles show fast food options like Jack in the Box, Steak ’n Shake, and In-N-Out. Angus grows increasingly stressed, facepalming and admitting he dislikes those places. In the final panel, Lightning Lady claims she stopped thinking about food while still gesturing, with a thought bubble indicating otherwise, as Angus is taken aback.
DC is ending the
Plastic Man title, written and illustrated by Kyle Baker, with issue 20. I have mixed emotions about this. Plas is my
favorite super-hero. Numero Uno. I agree with Batman’s assertion that he is the one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe (if not
the most powerful).
And the most poorly handed character in modern comics. Bar none.
I was overjoyed to see Plas get his own title. I was even prepared to give the overly cartoony approach a fair shot. I devoured the first three issues. But each issue after that seemed more phoned-in than that. It’s not that I have a problem with digital art — far from it — but I can only stomache so many cloned images in a product like this.
And before you misinterpret that, let me make it clear, I’m not slamming digital artists, but the difference between Baker’s work in
Plastic Man and, say, Greg Dean’s work in
Real Life is tremendous. Dean uses his computer to push boundaries. Baker used his to push deadlines.
It was this kind of lack of effort that lead to the demise of the title. And that’s a real shame. It’s a shame because Ty Templeton, a writer who really
gets Plas, as evidenced in 1999’s
JLA Presents Plastic Man, could have made that title soar. Go to your comic shop’s quarter bins and check it out. Look at the gorgeous illustrations by Aaron Lopresti and Richard Pace. No copy-and-paste crap here, fanboys and fangirls… these guys made the
effort. These guys love Plastic Man the way
I love Plastic Man.
And it’s a crying freaking shame that they never got the chance to take the reigns of the title as it became evident that Baker had long since lost interest.
