While everyone marveled at PLANETARY 27 finally being published, a much less important book will also debut this week.

The often-delayed issue four of ODESSA STEPS MAGAZINE makes its first appearance at the Baltimore Comic Con this weekend (see earlier post for more details).

In this issue, you can find such diverse things as an interview with Jamie S. Rich talking comics and Criterion DVDs, sportswriter Dan LeBatard, an academic article about STARMAN and lots of wrestling wackiness both north and south of the border.

And only three bucks. Surely a bargain.

You can find it at the Odessa Steps Magazine booth (#138) in Artist’s Alley. There’s also a good chance you can find THE BEAT HERSELF at the booth, likely haranguing the helper monkey on why it took so long for this to be published.

This is THE BEAT breaking in here and congratulating Mark on getting out another issue of ODESSA STEPS! The last time it came out people read fanzines. Perhaps after seeing this, they will again. Please stop by and say hi and get a copy, and once again, THANK YOU MARK COALE.

It might not be new (since the Star Trek movie reboot has been out for a few months now) but there was no way after seeing these in the grocery store tonight that there was not going to be a post on THE BEAT about them.

I mean. Seriously. Star Trek Eggos.

As we head into the first weekend of the Third Age of Comics, much is still being written and pondered. Let’s check out the Google earth view, shall we?

* First, a succinct Tweet from Rob Liefeld:

Huge reason that DC got restructured is simple math, Marvel has had 10 years, 15 films, 11 hits, compared to 6 films and 2 hits @DC

* Diane Nelson is back with a new interview with Rick Marshall that covers some new territory, including the fact that she’s interested in Vertigo, and that people are already trying to “school” her — anonymously!

MTV: So, what’s the next step in getting acclimated for you? Are you taking boxes of comics out of the DC library? Reading through a few volumes of “Who’s Who in the DC Universe”?

NELSON: That’s funny, because right before I picked up the phone an anonymous package containing a book called “Comic Wars” arrived on my desk with no note. I believe it’s a nonfiction account of the history of Marvel—but yes, I’m reading everything I can get my hands on, and just trying to immerse myself and be respectful of how much I have to learn.

But the real work—not work, fun—will occur when I go to New York and get to know the people there and figure out where we go from here.

You can say THAT again!

* Today’s MOST popular parlor game: who will be DC’s next publisher? Names being mentioned: Jim Lee, Hank Kanalz, John Nee, Bill Jemas, Jimmy Palmiotti .

* Looking back, while most people chose the occasion of Paul Levitz’s departure to say nice things, a few took the other tack. (There were several ex-DC employees doing the happy dance on Wednesday, we can assure you.) Dirk Deppey delivered a classic Glasgow Kiss, although we’re not sure he should be THAT happy over the arrival of Nelson. It’s not like she’s going to put Ai Yazawa on TEEN TITANS and Charles Burns on JLA. Although that would be cool.

* Valerie D’Orazio did another kind of happy dance:

You can only place my reaction in context of the massive amount of misogyny I’ve witnessed or heard reported about in selected sectors of DC Comics during the time I’ve worked there. During those four years, I had seen strong women again and again be censured, criticized, grumbled about, and disparaged. I’ve watched my department be emptied out of females one-by-one. I was warned on literally the first day I worked there by two different people to watch my back because I was a woman and not to make any waves. I was told by one boss that females just didn’t have the natural aptitude to edit comic books.

I am absolutely thrilled that the buck now stops with a woman at DC Comics. I am overjoyed – nay, almost orgasmic – that certain men will now have to regard Diane Nelson as their boss. It is karma working on the most basic level. Let these men explain to Nelson, who has worked with one of the most famous female fantasy writers in the entire world, how women don’t have the natural aptitude to edit and create comic books. Let these men explain to her the employment and dismissal history of female editors in the DCU over the last ten years. Let these men explain to her the plot of Final Crisis – I dare them.

Although there are quite a few females in Editorial even in the DCU these days, we know exactly who delivered some of the putdowns D’Orazio mentions because we heard ‘em too, so, yes, that is gonna be fun

* Finally, here’s one interesting take on the whole thing from an anonymous blogger named Whiskey who is alarmed by the dangerous tidal wave of entertainment aimed at females and thinks DC may be our only hope for a world where men rule, or something:

DC Entertainment has the ability to develop such new talent, without much risk, and test drive new characters, storylines, situations, and plots that appeal to young men and boys. Currently, there seems to be very few writers and producers who know this audience, as Hollywood has become more oriented towards the female audience (in Television) and the adult art-film audience (as Oscar bait in movies). The few producers, directors, and writers who had the knack, seem to have lost it forever, as anyone who sat through “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” can attest. Michael Bay can reliably generate a large younger male audience (”plus” women, girls, and of course older audiences) but relies on big effects and/or built-in 80’s nostalgia (”Transformers.”) Comics because of their low risk allows DC Entertainment the ability to “try out” many new writers, and develop ones it finds compelling. Since this makes complete sense, however, I expect DC Entertainment to ignore the possibilities and focus on the same aging, shallow pool of comic book writers as Marvel does. With about the same results: a buying pool of comic book readers well shy of half a million, and creative stagnation.

In a post on the Disney/Marvel deal there’s even evidence of the dreamed feminist-homosexualist axis at play:

Disney’s Rich Ross is listed as one of the more powerful openly gay men in Hollywood by After Elton. It is questionable how well he and other execs operating in the very gay friendly and female-oriented Disney empire understand and relate to boys concerns, let alone straight male concerns and desires in entertainment. Disney has been successful in creating girl-friendly series and movies, featuring Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. But neither Lovato nor Gomez have been able to break out to the degree that Miley Cyrus has, hampered by a down economy and the miscues of Disney expecting a large Hispanic contingent of fans. A critical error given that Hispanics consume Spanish Language media, most of it from Mexico (Telemundo and Univision).

It’s hard not to roll one’s eyes at someone who seems to think that “any” equals “too much” where entertainment for girls is concerned, but if you can squint between the blinds on the compound windows, there is some cogent analysis here.

UPDATE: This interview with Nelson by Sharon Waxman at The Wrap addresses a few of those pressing issues and establishes that Nelson is not a comics fan “by nature.”

So: a girl running a comic book operation? Isn’t this a young, male-centric market?
I prefer to be known as an executive rather than a girl. It’s not gone without comment in the blogosphere. But I have to tell you, I’ve been really encouraged by the commentary in comic book world.

But I’m the first one to admit, I’m not by my nature a comic fan. It’s not what I’m bringing to the party. We have so many experts who will remain the cornerstone of DC Entertainment. What I bring to the party is a skill at moving properties and brands through Time Warner as a company.

There’s a new pitcher in this ballgame and DC Kremlinologists must learn all new signs and sigils.

New DC Entertainment Prexy Diane Nelson — or Jenette 2.0 as a few wags are calling her — did the newssite rounds yesterday, in tandem with outgoing Paul Levitz. We know all Kremlinologists will be combing these stories for details…let’s take a look!

Jonah Weiland and Andy Khouri chat things up at Comic Book Resources and get the overall look at the assets — content!

Jonah Weiland: Diane, what do you see as DC Comics’ greatest strengths and assets today?

Nelson: It’s a reflection, I believe, or at least it’s consistent with what Warner Bros. has cared about and stood for, that we are a talent-friendly company and are a place that values creators. I think the depth and breadth of the DC library and all of its imprints give us a real advantage over any competitor, however you define them. This isn’t just about the biggest or most well-known properties — those will clearly be a part of our initiative — but it can equally be about much lesser known properties that we incubate and build throughout the company, and it can be and should be about the acquisitions of new properties and characters. We are a content company and we’ll be even more focused on that in the future and that’s on a Warner Bros. and Time Warner level. I think recognizing the value of what our creators have created in this library and treating them carefully for the long term is the single greatest thing we have to work with here.

This next quote recalls many of the Bob Iger reassurances of the past few days:

Initially, over the first six months, it’s going to be about learning and listening and looking carefully at the DC Comics organization, which, again, remains a foundation of what DC Entertainment will be. So, DC Comics as a publishing company will remain intact.

Further on, Nelson talks about digital and motion comics. The general impression is that her mandate is to exploit more and more IP over more and more platforms — in other words, the search for the D.W. Griffith of motion comics may well be on.

Vaneta Rogers at Newsarama covers much the same ground but adds a name check for Minx:

Nelson said that among the things that will be focused upon will be how DC’s characters can be utilized in feature films, acknowledging that among them will be Superman and Wonder Woman.

“Of course they’re priorities,” she said. “But we’ll equally be looking at other properties and stories that can be incubated. It may start in digital, it may start in television, it could end up being video games. There could be casual games that come out of properties that come from Minx.

“That’s going to be the fun of it is making sure we look at all facets of the prism, and making sure we don’t just look at it as a linear… ‘here’s theatrical, now what do we spin off of that’ thing,” she said. “That’s not our goal. That’s a piece of the puzzle.

Initial impressions: the emphasis on creators and their importance is heartening. Surely the person who negotiated the interests of J.K. Rowling understands the importance of the sole creator and inspiration, without which big corporations just turn out things like Loonatics. At the same time, the lack of mentions of the phrase “comic books” in most of the answers is troubling. Given Disney’s lack of interest in periodicals and Nelson’s seeming interest in things other than comic books, many comic shop owners must have tossed and turned quite a bit last night.

It’s important to remember that although the announcement of some decisions were hastened by the Disney/Marvel deal, a lot of this was underway for years. For instance, we’re told the creation of DC Entertainment wasn’t going to roll out until next year — surely that was moved up to compete directly with the Marvel news. Disney and Warners have always been fiercely competitive, and the WB has long been attempting to build the same kind of dynamically synergized branding that Disney can do in its sleep. Warners’ hodgepodge of fiefdoms has long been a structural deterrent to this kind of concerted effort. From what we’re hearing, there is still a lot of work to do on that front.

The big immediate question mark: who will take over as DC’s new publisher? And what will happen to DC’s existing West Coast office, headed by Gregory Noveck? Tune in tomorrow for more shocks and surprises!

BTW, for a fairly exhaustive list of movie blogger reactions to the news, check out Christopher Campbell at Spout.

As this week’s DC bombshell sent ripples throughout the Multiverse, most people were taking time to talk about the contributions of Paul Levitz to the comics — as a medium and as an industry, Levitz’s handiwork has created or nurtured much of the infrastructure we live with daily. It’s a huge legacy. A few reactions.

ICV2 recalled his own words in a recent interview:

It’s an incredible gig. I’ve been there a very long time. It’s way past any statistical likelihood of anyone staying doing something. So one of these days I’m not going to be doing this, whether that’s the company changing its mind or moving in another direction, or me saying, ‘guys it’s been great, it’s been a wonderful time but I’m not getting on another airplane for awhile.’ But I’ll still have been one of the luckiest guys imaginable to have gotten to play with these great toys for so long. I hope I’ll still have one foot in the comic book industry for a long time thereafter. If nothing else I get to go to a comic convention and actually have some time to attend a panel and just listen or buy some comics.

Chris Butcher gets to the point that occupied many a hot stove league conversation:

I always wondered when Warner Brothers would figure out that they owned DC Comics. Turns out? September 9th, 2009.

Brian Hibbs expresses the worries many are feeling:

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Check out this list of the top 20 grossing films of the last decade.

Discuss. We’ll be back here tomorrow for a wrap-up of the 10 Days That Shook The Multiverse.

[Thanks to KW for the link.]

Before I get into this, let me state unequivocally that San Diego Comic-Con is a fantastic experience, and despite any kvetching that follows, it’s an incredible, inspiring event and I remain amazed by the organization and efficiency with which it is run. For better or worse, Comic-Con wouldn’t be the mega media event that it has become if the infrastructure to make it so weren’t there. I think in all our suggestions and observations we forget that there is only a small crew of fulltime people who put this on, and as a non-profit, they have a lot of goals to juggle. So let’s give Faye Desmond, David Glanzer, Eddie Ibrahim, and everyone else involved a big hand. They did a phenomenal job and I know I’ll be back.

Another caveat, what I’m going to talk about isn’t about comics and the quality thereof. Comics are swell, and we all know that. I’m more interested in examining the social construct and how it has evolved at the place men call Con.

With that in mind…

There are two things that everyone in our line of work talks about after Comic-Con. “Is it too big?” and “Is there any room for comics at Comic-Con any more?” Let’s start with the crowd issue.

1: Take me out of this Hell Hall   

First, it must be admitted that getting around, getting into panels and, at times, even standing still were all problematic in the Convention Center this year. 2008 saw a big spike in moaning about security, and this year was even worse. Red shirts — Elite Security forces — and orange and green shirts — other security companies contracted by the show — were everywhere and necessary.

With so many people attending, safety is paramount and preventing small children from being trampled should be the main goal for everyone involved in the show. That’s understood. (One rumor going around was that a child had been injured on Thursday, leading to the increased security.) As long as 125,000+ people are trying to get a free bag, this is the way it’s going to be. Indeed, the present structure of the show has evolved around crowd control. The reason the programming is so incredible and jam-packed is to keep people off the floor and moving around. (Former 15 minute breaks between panels have also been eliminated to increase the number of panels and keep people in panel rooms.)

Likewise, security’s evolution means zero tolerance for straying outside the lines, both to keep people moving safely and to create the mood of obedience that keeps a crowd docile.

Bearing in mind that my expertise is in being part of a crowd, not crowd control, some of the new practices (or newly noticed by me practices) seem to be more for psychological than logistical reasons. There’s no winner in the war between freedom and safety. The plan to keep people in a subdued, law-abiding state certainly succeeded. My own personal reaction to this was a state of demoralization and surrender, which did not enhance my enjoyment of the show, and I’m sure others felt as I did.

To give a little context, on Saturday at the PopCult party, I was standing outside with a G&T in my hand for about 20 minutes before a bouncer told me to go inside. Standing outside with an open alcoholic drink is illegal and not allowed in a single club in the land. It was also 15 minutes longer than I went at the convention center without being told I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing.
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Will THIS be what kills San Diego?

Nah. We wouldn’t give ‘em the satisfaction.

Swing on by and meet David “Bud Bundy” Faustino and Corin Nemec (TV’s “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose”), stars of the hit raunchy online “reality” series from Sony’s Crackle.com.  Got any spare change? These actors are starving for a network deal. 

“Star-ving” is coming soon to DVD. 
 
THURSDAY, 7/23 
Signing at the Sony Pictures Entertainment Booth 
11:00 am to 12:00 pm

  
 Please stop by – no RSVP needed.

As us nerds remember all too well from high school, the “jock clique” and the “geek clique” don’t often mix well. So, imagine what it was like the other day when the Mets (the favored team in Stately Beat Manor) arrived at their hotel in Pittsburgh to see a furry convention going on.

That led to a discussion about on the air last night between Mets broadcasters Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez. Uniwatch has the transcipt, including this gem:

Hernandez: I saw a guy with, with his pet beaver. He had his hand, he was stroking it, he was petting it. [Long pause.] I’m serious! It was a, like a stuffed animal, and he was comforting it. Very bizarre.

No word about whether Mr. Met got any action from anyone dressed like a cat.

[posted by mark coale]

See the whole thing at Every Day Is Like Wednesday:

…get that spam offering to sell email addresses of Freemasons?

Weird. Paging Rex Mundi.

Nasa has discovered a giant hand crushing the stars out in space:

Red represents low-energy X-rays, the medium range is green, and the most energetic ones are colored blue. The blue hand-like structure was created by energy emanating from the nebula around they dying star PSR B1509-58. The red areas are from a neighboring gas cloud called RCW 89.

Subliterate Cinephile does the math, and finds the corresponding panel from, I believe, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Although the post blames Grant Morrison — just because it’s funnier — he actually didn’t come up with this one…it was Wolfman/Perez.

(Thanks to DWF and Franklin for emailing the link.)

Flickr and Twitter are pretty much the Infinite Monkey Theory in actual practice–ultimate ephemeral randomness, projected from the brains of a representative sampling that approaches the average. And now you can prove it by turning these two movable zeitgeists into comics via a randomizer!

Infinite Monkey Comics takes a similar approach, however with less deliberation (and even fewer humans), and presents you with a random image from Flickr superimposed with some random text off of Twitter based on keywords of your choosing.

We typed in “toast ” and “spree” and got the masterpiece seen above. (Click for a larger image.)

You know how when you are painting a watercolor and you rinse your brush in the water and eventually all the colors blend in and you get a greyish/brownish/reddish muck? The no-color that is all colors? It is possible we have achieved that, but with much more effort.

Today is a bad day at Stately Beat Manor, as I managed to badly sprain my ankle in a humiliating home accident that involved no savings of kittens, bear wrestling or heroic feats. Just clumsiness. In addition, instead of chugging two Tylenol right after the accident, I seem to have chugged several multi-vitamins, and I don’t think that had the effect it should have.

Anyway, I’m resting and recuperating, and also doing something I should never do — posting both the Marvel and DC sales figures on the same day. Apologies to Paul and Marc-Oliver, but obviously I never got around to posting everything yesterday I should have, and didn’t want to hold them any longer. So…enjoy!

You’ll all be glad to hear that our NYCC-induced state of optimism has been washed away by life back in the real world, and we’re back to collecting recipes for turnips and learning how to sew animal skins together. It’s not even just our imaginations…a DJ pal told us about going to work at a club where the heating bill hadn’t been paid, so he had to work in a parka. Thunderdome!

We’ve also heard lots of seemingly plausible doomsday scenarios about the comics industry. Not that any seem likely to happen tomorrow, or that comics won’t survive in some shape, but sometimes it seems like one fragile little ecosystem we have here.

Luckily, comics didn’t go hog wild, like the folks in Dubai did. You’ll recall the the tiny Persian Gulf country was all set to become a surreal wonderland of fantastic architecture and endless theme parks — including a large Marvel-themed one. Well the economic downturn hadn’t been kind, like the case of this foreign woman who moved there to take a job and now can’t pay her mortgage:

“I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.”

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

The fantasy land has all-too-real problems:

But Dubai, unlike Abu Dhabi or nearby Qatar and Saudi Arabia, does not have its own oil, and had built its reputation on real estate, finance and tourism. Now, many expatriates here talk about Dubai as though it were a con game all along. Lurid rumors spread quickly: the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island that is one of this city’s trademark developments, is said to be sinking, and when you turn the faucets in the hotels built atop it, only cockroaches come out.

Since in Dubai it’s illegal to report bad news, figuring out what’s happening to all the theme parks is not easy.

Via BeaucoupKevin.

(Above: The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer)
Well, people, in case you haven’t noticed, it is a grim time in the empire. When people ask how we’re doing, we keep thinking of the haunting story of the Essex, an 1819 whaleship sunk by an angry whale (one of the few such incidents on record) whose survivors endured a grisly two-month journey in some leaky rowboats. The ordeal included madness, cannibalism, and (ironically) several survivors keeping detailed diaries, since it was before the Internet and they couldn’t Twitter about it.

To sum up, we feel like we’re in a leaky little boat and we just ate Roger the cabin boy, but there is no land in sight.

…and there may not be for a while. Still, idylls of cannibalism and exposure are a bit extreme. After all, the free market will inevitably pull out a sextant and make for dry land, right?

Like John Carter of Mars always said when he was being pursued by some flesh-eating plants and headless Kaldanes…”I still live!” Even if there won’t be any postal delivery on Saturdays any more.

So yeah, in answer to many emails and IMs and PMs and so on, it has been a shaky week here at Stately Beat Manor, not because of anything that happened to me personally, but just the general gloom and doom. But this too shall pass.

In the spirit of survival, struggle, Barsoom references and giant apes, here’s a painting of John Carter of Mars by Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. Because nothing says hope like half-naked people fighting.

Stan Lee ‘to create worlds first gay superhero’.

Apparently the story first appeared in the UK Sun, which explains much.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog reviews perhaps the worst comic of all time, and a new catch phrase — at least for this morning’s Twitter, is born.

It snowed in Vegas yesterday.

We’ve often thought about what the most absurd sight possible on earth might be, and this was one of them. The Vegas where, on at least two separate occasions, a walk to the next casino became a scene out of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

The freakish storm caused highway closures and power outages, but Wayne Newton’s hair level remained unaffected.

So, just how shitty are things? Really, quite shitty.

Wednesday was a black letter day for the book publishing industry, as it seemed to be Armageddon all over the place. Jay Franco rounds up most of the news:

It’s all over the blogosphere. Publishers are making major changes. One publishing news site already referring to today as Black Wednesday. That’s awfully disheartening. But reality, it might be.

Random House, Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Thomas A. Nelson — major players every one, and all publishers of graphic novels — all announced layoffs, restructuring, executive shuffles, or all three. Sam Theilman at Variety laid it all out:

In the past few days, publishers including Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Random House have all seen layoffs, painful reorganizations or both. The contraction culminated Wednesday in layoffs eliminating positions at Simon & Schuster and Thomas Nelson and in a massive consolidation at Random House that left, among others, “The Da Vinci Code” publisher Steve Rubin without a job.

Of course, book publishing is just one aspect of the decimation now taking place. ICv2 has been reporting on the layoffs at Wizards of the Coast:

The fallout from Wizards of the Coast’s consolidation of its digital initiatives (see “WotC Pulls the Plug on Gleemax”) has become apparent in a new round of layoffs that reportedly includes VP of Digital Gaming Randy Buehler, Director of Digital Games Andrew Finch, Creative Manager of Digital Design William Meyers, and Online Community Manager Jennifer Paige.

And then Hollywood, lavish, entourage-emulating Hollywood, fell yesterday:

The Hollywood Reporter was gutted and Variety closed its DC bureau.

NBC/Universal: 70 from Universal, 500 overall.

Viacom: 850 people, 7 percent of its workforce.

More to come, of course, yet somehow, Miles O’Brien , we’ll miss you most of all.

O’Brien, who has been CNN’s chief technology and environment correspondent since ending his stint as anchor of “American Morning” in April 2007, is departing as the network dismantles its science and technology unit. Six producers also will be leaving.

Enthusiastic, forward looking Miles. You were always there for us through the falling shrapnel, sonic booms and vengeful astronauts wearing diapers. “Dismantles” science and technology is not a sunny face upon the future.

Thus far — THUS FAR — comics have been weathering the storm relatively well, with the biggest cuts coming, sadly, in the newsaper biz, where editorial cartoonists are dropping like flies, as at the Des Moines Register:

Among the positions cut was the newsroom’s editorial cartoonist, Brian Duffy, who has been in that position since 1983. The Register had claimed to be the only newspaper in the United States with an editorial cartoon on the front page. The tradition extended back to at least the early 20th century, according to Register archives. Ted Rall, the president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, estimated that about 20 editorial cartoonists have been laid off or retired in the last three years.

In comics, immediate news of layoffs has been limited to Devil’s Due and Tokyopop, with some publishing contraction, as with Broccoli Books.

All in all, as we surely don’t need to tell anyone reading this, it’s hard times around the world. As more than one pundit has noted, we’re in the grip of a course-altering economic crisis that will leave little unchanged.

So how bad will it hit comics?
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Was Fukuyama right?

[Via James Urbaniak.]

Technorati Tags: puppy

This weekend, we caught a Halloween evening screening of MY NAME IS BRUCE. For those not following the saga, this Dark Horse-produced film tells the Galaxy Quest-like story of a town — beset by an ancient Chinese demon — that decides to kidnap B-movie icon Bruce Campbell to fight said demon.

Now, as many of you know, I am one of the biggest Bruce Campbell groupies on the planet and the prospect of spending Halloween with Bruce filled me with the rapture. The One True Bruce was at the screening and answered questions before and after the movie in his inimitable quick and sarcastic manner, to delightful effect. It was, to be honest, a hoot.

As for the the movie? Written by Mark (Battlestar Galactica) Verheiden and directed by Bruce himself, it was…well. It was a vanity project to give you more Bruce than you could ever possibly want. And that kind of made me sad. To be sure, there were moments of genuine drollery, and Bruce gave the expected physical, scenery-stomping performance and looked handsome and bad-ass in a quite satisfying manner.

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Much more at the Pumpkin Gutter site.

[Link via my mom.]