On Twitter, regarding the Animalympics posts, Tobias Carroll writes

I am absurdly happy that you did this. Said cartoon had nearly passed into the realm of “things I thought I’d hallucinated.”

Everybody has things like this, don’t they? Even in the age of Google.

One of mine, for example, is an educational cartoon from the late 70s/early 80s, that if I had to characterize it in a single sentence I would say was basically “Civilization, the cartoon series” – it was a series of vignettes about human advancement, with a trippy proggy synth-based theme. I’m not sure if it actually existed and I watched it, or if it’s the remnants of dreams as a kid. Does this ring a bell to anybody else?

Post your own “did I hallucinate that or what?” in comments, or answers to other people’s hallucination-or-did-it-happen TV shows.movies.

Toby S.: What do you think the odds are that the shenanigans unfolding in Wisconsin will have any lasting effect on US internal politics?

About even, I think. It’s still too soon to tell whether the uprising that’s begun in the midwest over anti-union shenanigans is going to have staying power. If it does, you’ll see lasting effect. If it doesn’t, you’ve seen the last gasp of the labour movement until they need to start really rioting again, which should probably come when corporations reintroduce company towns or similar abusive practices – give it twenty or thirty years and it’ll happen.

Menamebephil: What do you think of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’? Do you see it as a workable scheme?

No, not really. I see it as a clever marketing attempt to sell social service cuts. Now, elements of the Big Society idea are workable in certain areas: youth centres, for example, could probably be run primarily on a volunteer basis (if they weren’t already, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that that was the case). You’d need some paid staff, but volunteers could pad out the ranks and make the centers more cost-efficient. But the fact that occasionally there are areas where volunteerism can make for more efficient operation of social services doesn’t make it a universal plan.

Moreover, the fact that a lot of this volunteerism will almost certainly be church- and religious charity-driven makes little economic sense if you think about it, because rather than giving churches a tax break and then asking them to organize social services, you could instead just tax them and pay for it yourself, which would almost certainly be more efficient, but I doubt the Tories are interested in that sort of efficiency.

anthony: a) what will it take to have the green party to elect a member
b) how do you think the regional loggerhead will solve itself
c) how do we prioritize cities in the current canadian political context
d) what will it take to get ignatieff into the pmo

A) The other parties spontaneously dissolving.
B) Massive malfeasance on the part of a given political party that inspires populist outrage nationwide.
C) I have no idea. If anybody else does, let me know.
D) This assumes we want Ignatieff as Prime Minister, you realize. Honestly, I’d almost rather see Gilles Duceppe in there.

Silent g: What are your thoughts on Mayor Flounder 100+ days in?

In a shocking twist, he has turned out to be a stupid joke of a man whose smarter brother is really running the show and everybody knows it. I know: you’re totally surprised!

Magic Love Hose: If you had to recommend one single book on how Canada first implemented its single-payer health care system, which would you recommend?

There isn’t really a definitive history book on the topic, to be honest, mostly because it’s pretty straightforward. The Wikipedia entry gives you most of the basics you need to know.

Mitchell Hundred: The above article was written a while ago about fantasy novels, but a similar trend could also be identified in many forms of contemporary art (increasing gritty realism, morally ambiguous narrative, graphic description of unpleasant events, etc.). What do you make of the accusation made in the above article (that these pieces demean the genre and art as a whole)?

It’s wank, pure and simple. (I know, wank at Big Hollywood? Goodness gracious me!) Just for the sake of argument, let’s rattle off the bestselling fantasy authors of the past decade: Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, Christopher Paolini, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin… are we seeing a trend here? The overwhelming trend in fantasy isn’t what the writer describes; it’s a push towards moral clarity to appeal to a young-adult audience. (And, in the case of Jordan, braid-tugging.) Even Martin, who’s probably the closest to what the author complains about, has very strongly moral characters in his books: Jon Snow, most of the Starks, many of the Night’s Watch, Davos, Daenerys… you can even make a case for Jaime Lannister.

What the author is complaining about is that the sort of sword-and-sorcery fantasy he likes (which he tokens to become all fantasy writing period) is getting gritty and unpleasant now, to which I respond “where were you when Stephen R. Donaldson started writing books in the late Seventies?” Hell, has he read any old Conan stories? Conan is not a nice person!

Nicodemus: Have you ever read the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher?

No. It’s one of my “get around to it” things. That list just keeps getting longer.

FistFullofFists: On a scale of sad to depressed, how sad are you to see stargate universe canceled?

Not at all. I mean, I’m sorry people who liked Stargate: Whatever lost out on a show, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like The Bachelor where the existence of the show is actively offensive. But I watched the movie and then I watched a few episodes of the first season of SG-1 and then I said, “well, that’s enough for me.”

Skemono: I think everyone would benefit from an essay on why Hawkman is a dick and everybody hates him.

Some people think Hawkman sucks because all he does is fly. This is erroneous. There are plenty of superheroes who “just fly,” and many of them are quite nifty, because flying is honestly pretty cool all by itself, and because it’s a natural progression for flying heroes who just fly to be more skillful fliers (Angel of the X-Men, for example, or Dawnstar in the LSH – yes, I know she has tracking powers too, but big deal) which gives them an additional niche. Hawkman, however, does not do this. What Hawkman does instead is be a dickhead: he’s the Token Conservative to Green Arrow’s Token Liberal (and Green Arrow is just as annoying as fucking Hawkman is) and it’s become his character thing to be a pompous, annoying douche.

On top of that, there are the melee weapons. In a setting where people can blow you up with eye lasers, melee weapons are stupid. More importantly, though, is that because they are stupid, writers have come up with justifications as to why they are not stupid which make them even stupider. I believe this reached its apex in Cry for Justice, wherein it was explained that Hawkman was “unpredictable” and a “berserker” and therefore Prometheus was worried about him for some reason, as if for some reason Prometheus could not just, like, shoot him.

And then there’s his origin story. Hawkman’s origin story has been so mangled that it is beyond belief, mostly because people wanted to “reconcile” Egyptian Hawkman and Space Hawkman into one character, which is stupid because it’s not like there’s some special ability you need to let you put on a flying belt and wings.

So basically everything about Hawkman sucks.

drasnianfrank: What are the best Dr. Strange issues to read (or issues that have Dr. Strange in them)?

Anything from the original Lee/Ditko run is good, but my soft spot is Roy Thomas’s run on the line; just gorgeous cosmic stuff, as you would expect from Thomas. “The Montesi Formula” story is truly excellent writing with mediocre art (and available in trade). Warren Ellis’ brief run on the character towards the end of Dr. Strange: Sorcerer Supreme is well worth reading, as is Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin’s The Oath.

Just go with the Essentials, really: the B&W art actually, I think, improves the comics, since the lack of “hey look we’re otherworldly” colouring makes the book far more readable.

scarecrowprophet: I realised the original text for the first 30 ISWTLegion posts isn’t up, just the pictures and later commentary. Could you post the original text?

The original text largely isn’t worth reproducing. Remember, ISWTL started out as a series of joke posts; only towards the end did I start doing what I did with them later, exploring plot hooks and the like.

Cookie McCool: But then, I had a huge crush on Aquaman back then, too, so what the fuck did I know?

Hey, Aquaman is pretty cool when he’s done right. Which isn’t often (WHERE IS HIS BEARD, DAMMIT? HE LOOKS TEN THOUSAND TIMES MORE AWESOME WITH A BEARD), but hey.

JL: What’s the status of that Novella? I really liked what I read and the hook was golden.

Novel, not novella; it’s on hold while I try to get a lot of other things done. I’m hoping to finish it by the end of the year, but then again I said that last year. (I have a lot of sympathy for George R.R. Martin.)

Thornae: How big are your comic and book collections?

Comics: I have about two large shelves of trades and some overflow. My longboxes are in storage and I’m gradually trading/selling them off (anybody interested in a Green Arrow Grell/Dixon run? The Denny O’Neil Question?) except for my Legion and Dr. Strange collections.

My books – another two large bookshelves’ worth. At least.

Stephen T. Stone: What would your alignment chart for King of the Hill look like?

The problem with King of the Hill, alignment-chart-wise, is that there isn’t anyone who really qualifies as evil. Even Dale is just kind of stupid as opposed to mean or selfish.

PS Bernard: Now that Gates is part of the new “Levitz Legion”, would you re-introduce Kent Shakespeare to the Legion?

Confession: I have absolutely no emotional connection to the current remix edition of the Legion. The book’s readable now (it had a horrible start), and I quite liked the recent Legion of Super-Villains special, but it’s still kind of feels ersatz; I “know” what happened to these characters in v4 and it all seems like alternate history or something to me.

That having been said, Kent Shakespeare was always intended as Yet Another Superman Proxy; if you don’t need someone to play up the Legion’s Superman connection then he’s kind of redundant.

given that Doctor Strange would be your first choice to write that’s not your own original stuff, who or what would be your second?

The Legion, obviously. After that: Runaways, Justice League International, Anarky, and Fantastic Four. (Anybody who wants to write comics and doesn’t want to write Fantastic Four has something wrong with them.)

Steve Timberman: Which handles serialization better – Television or Comics?

TV, because TV by virtue of cost has to have endings.

Desumaytah: Does the idea of a MGK-written “Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu” hold any interest for you?

Not really: anything I would want to do with it has already been done – and probably better – in Immortal Iron Fist.

rbx5: Two questions: if one wanted to get into the Legion, where would one start? And also, after seeing your Akira post (which summed up my thoughts on the movie perfectly, and almost in passing at that), I was wondering what other manga you like?

The recent Great Darkness Saga deluxe hardcover seems to be in remaindered bookstores now all over the place – good job there, DC – and it’s a great starting point because it goes about ten issues on either side of the actual Great Darkness Saga itself and has Legion of Super-Heroes v2 Annual #1, which is a great intro story all in itself. The other good alternative is starting with the reboot Legion post Zero Hour, which is genuinely great superhero comics for about six years before sharply spiraling into mediocrity for a year or so and then rebounding just as dramatically into Big Space Opera when Abnett and Lanning sign on.

Other manga I like: Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Oishinbo (despite occasionally being really irritating), Monster and anything by Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Arthur Robinson: I loved what you did on your “How to start reading comics.” post. Is it possible to make a similar post for television? (“How to start watching TV, perhaps?)

It seems kind of redundant, because unlike comics, TV is a field that is widely criticized and discussed in mainstream media. The point of the “how to start reading comics” post was that comics which are widely critically praised are not necessarily good starting points for someone who has never really read comics (e.g. Watchmen), but honestly, you don’t need any help from anybody to start watching The Wire or find a list of shows telling you how good Larry Sanders is.

If you’re looking for introductions to older television, the AV Club recently did a couple of primers for 70s sitcoms and 80s sitcoms which are a good start.

Disco: What’s your number one board game of 2010?

I finally played Railroad Tycoon/Railways of the World in 2010 and absolutely loved it and bought all the expansions. So let’s go with that. I also played Mr. President, a political campaign game from 1967, for the first time in 2010 and was amazed by how damn good it was as a game; it’s gone seriously under-recognized. (Possibly because 3M made two games called Mr. President and the 1965 version is a crappy roll-and-move.)

chibikonatsu what’s your opinion on Astro City?

The Dark Age killed a lot of the series’ momentum, which is a shame because before that it was one of the best ongoing superhero series period.

rbx5: Is DS9 your favorite Trek, and if so, why?

Yes, and it’s simple: the most engaging ongoing plot, the strongest cast of characters with the most diverse moral spectrum and most character development, and the best overall writing of any Trek. TNG and classic Trek probably have higher peaks than DS9, but DS9 has the most consistency.

Zach: What, in your opinion, are the greatest comic storylines? And conversely, what are the worst?

That’s a post for another time.

Andrew Jeanes: Any thoughts on Chris “Dr.” Hastings getting hired to write Deadpool?

Good for him? And it’s a good match for the character.

KDBryan: Are you reading Secret Six from DC? If so, what would you say to get people to start reading it?

Yes, and I would say that it’s like Suicide Squad except more engaging and generally better than Suicide Squad was. If you don’t know what Suicide Squad is, then how about “it’s what Thunderbolts could have been if Marvel editorial had been brave enough to really do a proper book about villains without turning them into caricatures or ersatz heroes.”

Packerchu: Which alignment is Rex?

Neutral Good. Duh.