4000 Islands in Laos is Getting Electricity

4000 Islands is the name of a series of islands in the Mekong in Southern Laos.  I sincerely doubt there are 4000 Islands.  There biggest island is Don Det and this is where 80 percent of the tourists go and probably the best island to stay in the area.  Don Khon is connected by a large bridge to Don Det and is within walking distance from Don Det.  There are several guesthouses in Don Khong as well.  You can probably bike the perimeter of the Don Det in two or three hours.  The pathway around the island is pretty good in the area where the boats land but gets a lot rougher the further you get from this area.  The scenic beauty is incredible and you are treated to a panoramic view of the river wherever you look.  I was there in the first week of November and the temperature was just perfect.  The best part was almost no mosquitoes.  I cannot vouch for the rest of the year.  I had arrived from a week of outdoor fun in Vang Vieng, also in Laos, and had been bitten by mosquitoes like crazy and was extremely pleased by the lack of mosquitoes.  I think the lack of stagnant water in 4000 Islands keeps the mosquitoes away. 

There are about a dozen family run guesthouses with bungalows and many double as restaurants that serve mediocre food. The tourist center can be described very briefly. There is a bakery shop run by an Australian, one good restaurant, called Josh, run by an Israeli that is about two weeks old, one upscale restaurant called East Eden and one good bar called the Pool Bar. As mentioned, there are lots of other restaurants but 90 percent of the people spend 90 percent of the time in those three places. There is one major footpath around the island but people generally walk back and forth between the places mentioned which are all within five minutes of each other. The Josh restaurant and the Pool Bar are actually next door. The East Eden place is two buildings down. The bakery is the only one that is not right next to everything else and its pretty close as well. Just past the bakery is the King Kong bar that is owned and managed by a former rock and roll celebrity from the nineties.  I am not going to mention who he is since he is trying to get away from the limelight and is very sensitive about his former celebrity.  If you are a big fan of rock and roll you will recognize him as soon as you walk into the King Kong Bar.  You do East Eden for breakfast to watch the sunrise. You do the bakery during the day. You do Joshes for dinner. Josh kicks you out at 10pm. You then do the Pool Bar and the owner of the pool bar kicks you out at 12pm and then you go to the beach after that or go to bed.

There is a Robison Crusoe air to Don Det largely created by the lack of electricity most of the day.  Between 6-10pm generators are turned on and there is electricity only for this period of the day.  The rest of the time there is no electricity.  The big news is that electricity is coming to Don Det in a couple of weeks.  Most of the villagers are pretty happy about this.  First of all, the gasoline to run the generators really adds up and the bill ends up being several times what the bill for 24/7 electricity via a power line would be.  Many of the villagers do have satellite TV and the children seem to really enjoy watching TV between 6-10 pm and would like to watch more.  The generators are not powerful enough for an air conditioner and bungalows have fans if that.  East of Eden has the most upscale bungalows and I guess the owner does a good business since they are always full.

There are some even nicer bungalows under construction that will include air conditioning and hot water.  There is a proper convenience store in the works and also a modern pizza joint that will open soon.  These new places are timed to open around the same time Don Dent goes electric.  While the villagers and the Western residents are generally behind electrification some of the guests I talked to had mixed feelings. 

Some of the guests enjoy roughing it.  The lack of electricity means very little television and people don’t stay in their bungalows and watch TV but actually go outside and socialize with villagers and other guests.  Vang Vieng has TV restaurants which play Friends or Family Guy endlessly and many of the guests, like myself, came from Vang Vieng.  Most Westerners have nothing but bad things to say about the TV restaurants in Vang Vieng even as they watch TV in these restaurants.  You have traveled around the world to watch Friends?

The lack of TV forces guests to “get to know the people” in Dondet.  This is an often touted goal of travel that is actually not so easy to do when traveling.  The line between village life and the tourists in Dondet almost does not exist.  As you sit having a meal in a guest house restaurant, you will find yourself playing with the local cats and dogs.  Ducks and chickens are all over the place and they love a piece of your baguet.  I fed one dog some meat from my plate and the dog started following me all over the place for about two days.  If you stay five nights, like I did then you will soon be known by at least a dozen villagers and you will be greeted by them left and right.  I wore a monster mask on Halloween and the kids loved the mask. We took turns wearing the mask and chasing each other.   The Pool Bar has two kittens and sooner or later everyone who visits the Pool Bar ends up playing with the kittens.  I felt transported to a simpler life I had never known before and have only seen on TV.  The villagers obviously do not have a lot of money but I would say are happier than a lot of the visitors who are probably 100 times richer when it comes to money.  The villagers literally raise their own food and know alot about wild greens you can pick from the countryside and generally have a salad of such greens as part of their meal.  If the global system of commerce ever comes to a screeching halt, the villagers of Don Det will be just fine. 

I did go on a tour of some of the smaller islands in the Mekong by boat and we literally fished for our dinner.  The tour guide works for the Pool Bar and had gone ahead and brought some prime catfish as well and I think this might have been the best fish I have ever eaten.  The trip which lasted around four hours and included being sitting in an inner tube and being towed back, a couple of beers, and some wild boar meat, was 50,000 kip which is all of six bucks!  I ended up staying longer than I planned.  I would like to visit Don Det again in a couple of years and see how the electrification process worked out.  Will Don Det lose some of its rustic charm due to electrification?

In Don Det you can go tubing, kayaking, hiking, and biking.  You can also see the largest waterfall by breadth in SE Asia nearby. There is also a smaller waterfall on Don Det proper.  Finally, you can take a boat ride and explore the Mekong and see the Irrawady dolphins.  Most of all you can just sit back in your hammock next to the Mekong with a good book and relax far from the modern world.

Prices are low in Don Det even by Laotian standards and Lao prices are pretty low to begin with.  Laos is, for example cheaper than Thailand.  Vientiane is cheaper than Bangkok.  The Laotian countryside is cheaper than the Thai countryside.  The big exceptions are imported goods.  Laos is a landlocked country and just about anything imported will be cheaper in Bangkok than in Vientiane.  What is cheaper in Laos than in Thailand is food and accommodations.  You can get a bungalow for as low as 15,000 kip (1.7 USD ).  The upscale bungalows with air con and hot water will run 60,000 kip (7 USD).  A top of the line meal such as a large beef steak with plenty of fries will cost 30,000 kip (3.5 USD).  OK maybe this will not be the best steak you have ever had but at that price who cares?  You can get an excellent hamburger for the same price at Josh’s and the buns are made fresh at the Australian bakers.  You aren’t going to starve thats for sure.  A large bottle of Beer Lao is 10,000 kip a bottle or just about a buck. 

Most visitors come from Thailand to Laos and I would suggest stocking up on Western books, suntan lotion, shaving gel, whatever in Thailand before coming to Laos.  The selection of used books in Laos is downright dismal compared to Khaosang Road in Thailand and the prices are about the same.  Actually Khaosang Road may be the best place for used Western books in Asia period so stock up on Western books there no matter where you are going in Asia.  Sitting in your hammock and watching the Mekong flow is not a bad way to spend a relaxing afternoon.

One more hint!  Bring plenty of money before coming to 4,000 Islands!

The nearest ATM machine is in Pakse two hours away.  There is a bank on the about half and hour from Don Det but you will have to take a boat go to the village across the Mekong and then travel to the main road.  The road connecting the village to the main road is pretty bad.  You can also get an advance on you credit card from a couple of the local businesses for a 3% charge.

More Photos at:

http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/foxhugh/Laos%204K%20Islands/

Kyle XY vs. Clark of Smallville

Clark vs. Kyle

 

Kyle XY and Clark Kent of Smallville have a lot in common.  They are both teenagers.  They both have superpowers.  They are both on prime time television.  Clark fights Luthor Corp.  Kyle fights Madacorp.  Both have fatherhood issues.  Kyle is a clone of a super scientist  Adam Baylin and Kyle has to hunt his father down.  Clark’s dad is Jor El and is dead due to the destruction of Krypton and Clark deals with a holograph of his dad rather than a living dad.  Both have “normal” human parents that teach them lessons in humanity.  Both have female versions with their powers that are slightly more powerful.  Kyle’s clone companion, Jessi XX, was created later and is a more advanced clone model and has super strength unlike Kyle.  Supergirl, Clark’s cousin, can fly while Clark cannot. 

I would say there is a strong chance that the creators of Kyle XY saw the success of Smallville and decided to make their own teenage superhero.  Clark of Smallville is very different from   Superman of the comic books and movies.  Clark is young and much less experienced than Superman.  An episode of Smallville starring the Legion of Superheroes, from the 31^st century, lets us know that Clark will become Superman but the Legion in general finds Clark less than impressive compared to the legend of Superman. Clark is still discovering new superpowers during the first three or four episodes.  Heat vision turns out to be especially problematic in one episode.  As of episode eight Clark cannot fly with any regularity.  Clark isn’t even really Superboy.   The silver age comic book Superboy would demolish the Smallville Clark.  Clark will probably skip the Superboy phase in this version of the Superman story. Clark hasn’t even put on a costume but this may happen in the upcoming ninth season. 

I think one of the keys to the success of Smallville is that the creators have taken a lot of the plot line from the Marvel superhero Spiderman and interjected that plot line into the Superman mythos with great success.  The early Spiderman could be summarized as “insecure teenager becomes superhero” and this is what Clark is doing.  Superman is a DC character and Marvel is their competition.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 

One of the recurring plot line weaknesses of Superman is that Superman has been too powerful for interesting battles and/or adventures.  Kryptonite was created by the Superman radio show in the thirties precisely to address this problem.  In recent years Superman has been depowered and the current Superman is far less powerful than the silver age Superman. 

The fans of comic books are largely male teenagers.  Stan Lee, of Marvel comic books, figured out in the sixties that male teenagers might relate more to a hero that shared their insecurities like Spiderman.  Marvel then really exploited the teenage superhero idea with the X-Men who are mostly teenagers and reside at the Xavier School for the Talented and Gifted rather than something like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude which is more a married with children man’s fantasy than a teenage guy fantasy.

Kyle XY premiered in 2006 and has a super brain.  Kyle can detect mathematical patterns intuitively.  In superpower speak this is some type of algorithmic pattern awareness.  Kyle has photographic memory.  Kyle excels at analyzing mathematical data but has high analytical skills in general and can excel in any scientific area.  Overall, Kyle has super intelligence but due to not being raised by a family, but grown in a pod, lacked basic knowledge of human society and how people interact.  The discrepancy between his analytical/mathematical intelligence and social knowledge was and is a major theme of the show. 

Kyle can control his body and senses at superhuman levels.  Kyle is like a super yogi.  Kyle does not have a super body like Clark but due to his superior control of his nervous system can push his existing normal body to supernormal limits.  This allows Kyle exceptional pain management.  In particular, Kyle can increase his hearing but at a cost.  Kyle becomes dizzy after pushing his body to superhuman levels and can even injure himself through over use of his super hearing. 

Clark’s super hearing, on the other hand, does not involve any such price.  Kyle also has photographic memory.  Kyle’s photographic memory can tie directly into muscle memory and he can learn any kinesic skill upon watching someone perform this skill.  If he watches a Bruce Lee movie then he will be able to perform any of the moves Bruce Lee demonstrated in that movie.  In comic book circles this power is also referred to as photographic reflexes. 

The Taskmaster is a major Marvel comic books super villain and only has this superpower and takes on the likes of Captain America.  Kyle’s photographic reflexes are downplayed in his TV series and he has not gone the next logical step and mastered every martial art around to become some sort of super fighter.  Instead Kyle tends to try to reason his way out of tough situations.

Kyle has something beyond photographic memory and this is called holographic memory.  Kyle can search through his memories as though he was having the experience again.  Kyle has super learning.  Kyle learned how to talk in one day.  Kyle has the mental equivalent of a firewall and can resist mind control.  Kyle has limited telepathy.  Kyle has limited telekinetic abilities that have two origins.   The basis of his telekinetic abilities lie in his ability to change the polarity of his cells and attract or repel water.  Kyle can also change the gravitational field around an object.

Kyle has an interesting way of drawing and basically draws like a dot matrix printer and makes a series of points, usually with crayons, that allow him to make pictures that resemble photographs in their clarity.  This photographic drawing ability and photographic memory ability means he can make pictures of events and things he does not fully understand at the time and then figure out what is going on by looking at the picture and/or sharing the picture with others, generally his family, who can help him figure out the picture. Kyle is kind of the ultimate eye witness! 

Kyle’s major weakness is his aforementioned lack of social experience and he can be easily manipulated by con artist types although his instincts about people are pretty good despite his lack of social experience and over time he is learning more and more about social interaction and norms.  Kyle has all the physical weakness of any human.  His super brain can overtax his all too human body.  Kyle does not have a belly button due to being raised in a pod rather than a womb and his CAT scans show way too much activity but all in all Kyle is human and can pass for human more easily than Clark.  Kyle can hide his superhuman nature via restraint.  Clark is an alien and must avoid a physical examination at all costs to keep his powers secret.

Clark’s superpowers are much more well known than those of Kyle XY and are basically Superman’s but on a lower power scale and minus flight.  Clark’s superpowers include invulnerability, super strength, super speed, heat ray vision, X-Ray vision, and super hearing, far beyond Kyle’s level and without the fatigue weakness.  Clark is bright but does not appear to have super intelligence unlike many versions of Superman.  Clark also cannot fly at this time. 

Clark also has a strong sense of ethics that comes from being raised on a Kansas farm and generally knows what the right thing to do is and acts as a natural born leader to those around him including other superheroes, the Justice League, Green Arrow, the Legion of Superheroes, due to this strong sense of right and wrong.  This is in contrast to Kyle who is still trying to figure out the subtleties of human morality and in particular the discrepancy between what humans say is moral and what they do.

Clark’s number one weakness is kryptonite.  Green kryptonite can kill him.  Red kryptonite turns him into a hedonistic psycho not necessarily a bad guy but more of a rebel without a cause on steroids.  Green kryptonite is all over Smallville!  The meteor showers that brought Clark to Smallville also apparently brought tons and tons of green kryptonite to Smallville.  In just about all other versions of Superman, green kryptonite is super rare and bad guys go to the trouble of spending millions to synthesize the stuff because it is so rare.  No need for a bad guy in the Smallville universe to spend a dime synthesizing kryptonite since the stuff apparently is just lying all over the place.  This makes Clark relatively vulnerable compared to other versions of Superman.  Still super speed and super senses mean that Clark can move faster than a speeding bullet including kryptonite bullets and hear the clicking of the chamber before the bullet is even fired.

Clark has fought Braniac, a super computer from his home planet Krypton.  Braniac has super intelligence on a level that dwarfs Kyle.  Clark’s number one enemy is Luthor, who in the Smallville version does not have super intelligence, unlike the Silver Age comic book version.  The Smallville Luthor does have extreme cunning and access to the most advanced research labs in the world via Luthor Corp.  Luthor does have access to the finest minds on Earth and knows how to manipulate people including scientists who may be smarter academically than Luthor but not as cunning as Luthor.  A team of the finest minds with the best research capabilities on Earth might have a combined IQ that is greater and more dangerous than Kyle’s IQ.  The contests between Luthor and Clark can be seen as contests between brain versus brawn to a great extent and Clark has always come out ahead. 

Besides Luthor, Clark has gone up against a army of superpowered foes that are far more powerful than anything Kyle has gone up against so Clark has the experience edge.  Green kryptonite can give humans superpowers and apparently every other teenager in Smallville has been exposed to green kryptonite and the green stuff also seems to make humans into psychos but this is debatable.  So in a boring head on contest Clark would probably beat Kyle but the purpose of these posts is to entertain not bore!

The scenario, Luthor manipulates Kyle into thinking Clark is the vanguard of an alien invasion.  This would be no problem for Luthor whatsoever since he has manipulated people far less naïve than Kyle.  This event happens after season six when Luthor knows all of Clark’s secrets including his weakness to kryptonite and Kyle comes up with about a hundred fantastic weapon delivery systems to “stun” Clark with kryptonite despite Clark’s super speed and super senses.  Luthor has lied to Kyle and told him that Kryptonite stuns rather than kills Kryptonians since Luthor realizes Kyle would never agree to kill anyone even an alien invader. 

Kyle belatedly does an internet search about Luthor and realizes he has been had and that Luthor is a very, very bad person based on his business practices that are a matter of public record.  Kyle then hacks into the files of Luthor Corp and realizes that Luthor is not just bad but evil!  Kyle warns Clark of Luthor’s impending attack and together they attack Luthor Corp.  Clark explains to Kyle that the best defense is a strong offense.  Kyle attacks the computers of Luthor Corp.  Clark attacks the muscle guarding the computers at Luthor Corp so Kyle can get to them.  Clark is constantly breaking into Luthor Corp secret centers so this should be familiar territory for him.  Even Madacorp has been firebombed by Kyle’s mentor.  As stated, Clark has broken into Luthor Corp secret centers before even with Justice League members but never with someone like Kyle!

Kyle uses a terminal at the secret Luthor Corp lair to erase all data and I mean all data from all Luthor Corp’s computers including all financial data and Luthor is left with a company minus money and research data and Luthor Corp is all about data.  Kyle doesn’t stop there and decides to leave Luthor Corp about a billion bucks in the red and exposes every crime, fraud and misplaced paper clip that Luthor corp was ever involved in to the Feds and the Daily Planet by emailing the pertinent records so Luthor ends up being chased by debt collectors and the law.  Who knows which is worse? 

Luthor Corp is destroyed but is Luthor?  Luthor is cunning but not much without the resources of Luthor Corp or at least in the short range.  Years later, Luthor is bankrupt and has served time in jail for fraud.   Luthor even had to use all of his hidden cash in the Caymans, not on the Luthor Corp books, on lawyers and assasins to kill those who could have expose more serious crimes.   His company, his money, his good name and his friends are all gone!  Luthor is pan handling for booze on the streets of some third world hell hole where he is not recognized when he sees a picture of Kyle and Clark on the front page of the Daily Planet that some expat has thrown on the ground.  It is of course raining!  Rain drops and mud cover the newspaper but Luthor can still read the front page. 

Apparently Clark and Kyle have started some sort of think tank charity to solve the problems of the world.  Kyle comes up with the science while Clark does hero for hire jobs to pay for the research and implementation.  Luthor raises his fists to the sky, throws the bottle of cheap local whisky he was drinking to the ground, breaking the bottle, and vows, “I will never be poor again”.  “That which does not kill you only makes you stronger”, thinks Luthor.  Of course the guy who originally wrote that died in an insane asylum.  I like to say, “There are many things that will not kill you but can maim you for life in such a way that death would seem like a good thing”. 

Luthor creates a new criminal organization that has a corporate structure but is more mafia than corporation and far deadlier and secretive than Luthor Corp ever was and the first thing on the agenda of this corporation is the destruction of Clark and Kyle. Luthor even manages to hire a lot of the more nefarious elements of Madacorp to work for his new organization.  Thus a new series begins that combines the fan bases of both Kyle XY and Smallville and makes untold millions while I suffer the slings and arrows of middle class existence.

On a more serious note, ABC is going to cancel Kyle XY.  Kyle XY is a great show and I hope ABC reconsiders.  I have gone ahead and signed the following online petition to “Save Kyle XY” at http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/kyle-xy-petetion-to-continue-the-cancelled-abc-family-tv-show/ and urge readers of this post to do the same.

The Eye of Providence/Genesis

Eye of Providence Genesis

On the eighth day, the Eye of Providence swam with his children.

The time was good.

The future open.

 

The following are links to other works in the Eye of Providence series.

Broken Souls

http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/the-eye-of-providencebroken-souls/

In the Garden

http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/the-eye-of-providence-in-the-garden/

Measure

http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/the-eye-of-providencemeasure/

Land of Sleep

http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/the-eye-of-providence-in-the-land-of-sleep/

Souls

http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/eye-of-providence-and-souls/

Golden Eye

http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/the-golden-eye-of-providence/

 More of my art at:

http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/foxhugh/Hobbies%20Paintings/

 

Happy Mother’s Day Thailand!

Queen Sirikit

Today is a very special day, Mother’s Day in Thailand and also the birthday of Queen Sirikit.  Queen Sirikit is widely beloved in Thailand and respected and admired throughout the world.

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s has supported over 350 projects and to enumerate all of them today would be impossible.  Some of her Majesty’s most prominent projects are in the areas of the environment, handicrafts and public health.

Among her many environmental projects, the Queen has given patronage and her time to organizations such as the Association for the Conservation of Wildlife (ACW) and the Wildlife Fund of Thailand (WFT). But I think her most important insight was that she realized that deforestation threatened the livelihoods of needy people. 

I would like to share some of her Majesty’s words on the subject of deforestation.  On the eve of her 76th birthday she addressed the country from Dusit Palace.  Her Majesty addressed the pressing issue of dwindling forests. The Queen said that forests help to store the ground water that gives life to watercourses, big and small.
“A forest is a water source,” Her Majesty said. “Think about fresh water – we can’t do without it. Our industries, our lives, need water,” the Queen said.
She noted that many experts predict the world will suffer a serious shortage of water within the next 15 years.  As well as encouraging renewed forest protection, Her Majesty pleads for reforestation efforts.

Her environmental concerns extended to the Chao Phya River and mangroves, too. “The Chao Phya River used to be abundant,” Her Majesty recalls.
She hopes to see the river clean enough again to be a vibrant habitat for water life. Factories and farms must cease discharging effluent into the Chao Phya.
“Mangrove forests are important. Don’t destroy them,” she added.

The Queen has supported the traditional handicrafts of Thailand in many ways.  The Queen has personally provided seed money for many for support groups and cooperatives that have promoted traditional handicrafts.  Her projects in this area have improved the lives of rural females in Thailand tremendously.

The Queen has been active in the area of public health.  The Queen is the President of the Thai Red Cross.  She has held this a post since 1956.  Her role in this area gained new prominence when she was active in coordinating disaster relief after the tsunami disaster in Southern Thailand.

Perhaps the Queens greatest contribution has been in the area of diplomacy.  The Queen has worked tirelessly to promote tolerance and understanding for the Muslim minorities in Southern Thailand.  Her quiet diplomacy in this area demonstrates a far reaching understanding of soft power long before soft power became a major theme in global circles.

In conclusion, the Queen has shown herself to be an invaluable resource for the people of Thailand, a person of foresight, and a true mother of all the people of Thailand.

Japan’s New Superdroid

Hugh Fox and Superdroid

In theory, the superdroids will be used during times of national disaster such as earthquakes and typhoons but many say the superdroids are a response to the rise of Chinese military power.

More pictures at:

http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/foxhugh/Thailand%20Androids/

Smile and Be Happy!

More photos at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94283&id=521247529&l=8a4312d024

 

My Android Girlfriend’s Sister

Hugh Fox and Android

1939 is the “sister” of 1914 my android girlfriend in Nagoya last year (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/my-android-girlfriend/).  They are of course not really sisters but were born/manufactured around the same time and are the same model construction android.  Many humans think all androids look alike but it is quite obvious that 1939 and 1914 look very different and have very different personalities.

More photos at:

http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/foxhugh/Thailand%20Androids/

DC vs. Marvel Kids

 

Casper and Fox

This is the eighth post in this series. DC versus Marvel superhero posts have been done to death on the internet and I wanted to do something different. This series looks at what happens when you pit the non superheroes of these two companies. This series also gives me an excuse to revisit some of the obscure comic book characters of my past. The dominance of the superhero genre in American comic books has meant that characters of other comic book genres have been ignored for decades and this series to some extent is an attempt to rectify this unfortunate state of affairs.

The first post looked at Westerns and Western heroes. http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/dc-vs-marvel-western-heroes/

The second post looked at war comics and war heroes. http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/

The third post looked at women’s comics and working women. http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women

The fourth post looked at space operas and spacemen http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/dc-vs-marvel-spacemen/

The fifth post analyzed funny animals.
http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/dc-vs-marvel-funny-animals/

The sixth post looked at the teenagers of teenage humor comic books. http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/dc-vs-marvel-teenagers/

The seventh post looked at horror comics and horror hosts. http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/dc-vs-marvel-horror-hosts/

I am inventing a comic book genre name for this series. Women’s comics are defined as comic books that appeal to women. I would like to propose there is a genre of comic books that appeals to very young children as opposed to children in general and I would like to name this genre kids comic’s. The ultimate example of this genre would be the children’s Harvey Comics line that included such characters as Baby Huey, Casper, Hot Stuff, Little Audrey, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Spooky, Richie Rich and Wendy the Good Little Witch. Harvey Comics also published comics with superheroes but is best remembered for its kid’s comics. I see similarities between Harvey Comics and Archie Comics.

Faced with hopeless competition with DC and Marvel in the superhero arena, these two comic book companies found success in non superhero genres, an example of niche marketing in the comic book marketplace. Archie Comics has dominated teenage humor for decades, right up until the present and squashed attempts by DC and Marvel to make titles that compete in this genre. Harvey Comics was also able to survive in a similar manner with kids comic books. Interestingly, both Archie Comics and Harvey Comics tried superheroes but eventually gave up these titles probably because of competition from DC and Marvel. Both Archie Comics and Harvey Comics had to learn hard lessons about their core business which turned out to be genres other than the superhero one.

There is tremendous overlap between the funny animal genre, dealt with in the post about funny animals (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/dc-vs-marvel-funny-animals/) and kid’s comics and many comics fit both genres. Still, characters such as Casper are obviously not funny animals. I would propose that funny animals are a subgenre of kid’s comics logically but the funny animal subgenre is so big it must be treated as a genre. In a similar manner, logically superheroes are a subgenre of science fiction but are such a dominant subgenre in terms of the comic book marketplace that superheroes are best dealt with as a separate genre. This post will only deal with kid comics that are not funny animals.

This genre is characterized by a simplified cartoon style, very G rated material, even by comic code approved standards, and very simple plots. The defining characteristic is that the comic book is aimed at a very young readership. I would say the comic books should be able to appeal to preschoolers and they should be able to handle the material without the aid of an adult. Older readers may like the simplicity of the comic books in the same way that even adults can appreciate a children’s book but the reverse is not true. A relatively G-rated comic book like Superman, especially a more recent Superman comic book, will not be appreciated by preschoolers unless their literacy is especially high.

DC kids include the Brat Finks, Stanley and his Monster, as well as, Sugar and Spike. Stanley and his Monster replaced the Fox and Crow in issue #109 but the retitled comic book only lasted until issue #112. Stanley is a six year old with a lisp that mistakes a monster for a dog and lets him secretly live with him. The monster is covered with pink hair, has enormous fangs and is gigantic, maybe nine feet? The parents never catch onto the existence of the monster. In the innocent comic book logic of that era, hiding a nine foot monster in a typical suburban house is considered totally possible. The comic book was printed in the sixties. In the nineties, DC decided to add some back story to the series and include Stanley and his Monster in some DC crossovers. I still prefer the more innocent less sophisticated Stanley and his Monster of the sixties.

Sugar and Spike was created by comic book legend Sheldon Mayer and is one of the best comic books lines ever! Somehow DC forgot to reprint this comic book in their current reprint Showcase series. This is extremely unfortunate and I urge DC to add Sugar and Spike to the Showcase reprint line. Sugar and Spike are two preschoolers that talk to each other in baby talk that adults can’t understand.

Sugar and Spike are constantly trying to figure out adult logic and the adult world and come up with outlandish explanations that nevertheless are totally logical. Mayer was able to capture kid’s logic in a way few cartoonists ever have. The closest any cartoonist has ever come is Calvin and Hobbes but I actually think Mayer does a better job and he is dealing with much younger children that are harder for adults to understand. Sugar is a blonde haired kid. Spike is a red haired kid. Other characters came and went in the strip such as Little Arthur, Uncle Charley and Bernie the Brain and even the secondary characters of this great strip were better than the primary characters of most cartoons. The strip lasted 98 issues, from the seventies into the nineties, and I am sure would have gone on even longer except for his death in 1992.

Marvel Kids include all the characters of their Star imprint that lasted from 1984-88. The characters of the Star imprint included Air Raiders, ALF, Animax, Bullwinkle and Rocky, Care Bears, Chuck Norris and his Karate Kommandos, Defenders of the Earth, The Flinstone Kids, Foofur, Fraggle Rock, The Get-Along Gang, Heathcliff, Heathcliffs Funhouse, Hugga Bunch, Inhumanoids, Madballs, Masters of the Universe, Masters of the Universe Motion Picture, Misty, Muppet Babies, The Muppets take Manhattan, Peter Porker The Spectacular Spider Ham, Planet Terry, Popples, Royal Roy, Silverhawks, Star Wars Digest, Star Wars Droids, Star Wars Ewoks, Strawberry Shortcake, ThunderCats, Top Dog, and Wally the Wizard. Marvel did publish a couple of Casper comic books in 1997.

Most of the Star comic books are not Marvel properties and will not be looked at given the topic of this post. Spider Ham, Planet Terry, Royal Roy, Top Dog and Wally the Wizard are the only true Marvel properties of the Star comic’s line. Spider Ham was already dealt with in the funny animals post so we are down to Planet Terry, Royal Roy, Top Dog and Wally the Wizard.

Planet Terry, Royal Roy and Top Dog were all written by Lennie Herman. Planet Terry was a space saga. Planet Terry was looking for his parents in space with his sidekicks a robot named Robota and a green-scaled muscular alien named Omnus. I swear that Planet Terry’s facial features are very similar to those of Casper. He flew around in a jet pack and many of his flying poses seem directly lifted from Casper comic books. Top Dog is a talking dog and therefore a funny animal and the subject of another post. Royal Roy is Marvels version of Richie Rich of Harvey Comics. Prince Roy lives in Cashelot (Camelot plus Cash) and only
lasted six issues. Wally the Wizard was an apprentice wizard to Marlin the Wizard, Merlin the Wizards older brother.  Wally the Wizard was created by Bob Bolling who had also created Little Archie.

Sugar and Spike team up with Stanley and his monster for a day at the sandbox and run into these two weird kids in weird costumes. One is dressed like a prince, one is dressed like a spaceman and one is dressed like a wizard. Sugar and Spike know all about Halloween and love that day and know darn well this day isn’t that day. They start laughing at the costumed kids and soon a fight ensues. Stanley’s Monster sits on the Marvel kids until they agree to behave. DC wins this round.

My Android Girlfriend

Hugh Fox & Android Girlfriend

1914 was my girlfriend in Japan last year. 1914 is an android. She was born/created in Nagoya, Japan by the Toyota Android Corporation or TAC for short. She mostly does construction work in Nagoya. She can lift approximately three tons. She is approximately twice my height and I feel rather small when standing next to her. TAC felt a female android would be less threatening to construction crews that are largely male. Despite her formidable appearance, she is very nice and quite feminine. Some people question if a relationship between a human and an android, much less a construction android, is a good idea. Many pubs and restaurants in Nagoya refuse to serve androids and I would say Nagoya is more liberal in this area, because of the robotics industry, than other parts of Japan.  Androids are of course still illegal in the US so dating an android in the US openly is impossible. 

DC vs. Marvel Horror Hosts

This is the seventh post in this series. The series pits non superhero genre characters from DC and Marvel against each other. The first post looked at Westerns and Western heroes (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/dc-vs-marvel-western-heroes/), the second post looked at war comics and war heroes (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/), the third post looked at women’s comics and working women (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women) and the fourth post looked at space operas and spacemen (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/dc-vs-marvel-spacemen/). The fifth post analyzed funny animals (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/dc-vs-marvel-funny-animals/). The sixth post looked at the teenagers of teenage humor comic books (http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/dc-vs-marvel-teenagers/). The eighth and next post will look at kid’s comic books.

This post looks at the horror genre. I had problems separating the horror genre from the superhero genre. This would not have been a problem when I was reading comic books in the sixties and seventies when I was younger. However, since at least the eighties, DC and Marvel heroes that belong to the horror genre have been incorporated into their mainstream comic book universes to the point that they are often just another type of superhero.

For example, Blade, who fights vampires, has done so many crossovers with mainstream Marvel characters that he is no longer a hero of the horror genre but a hero with horror roots who inhabits the Marvel superhero universe. The mystery that is essential in horror is lost when the characters of horror are overused in a flashy superhero universe that in many ways is the antithesis of horror. Superheroes wear bright colors and fly off into the sunset versus inhabiting a world beneath the moon, moss and worms. When you juxtapose a creature of horror with a superhero the creature of horror is lessened. The suspension of disbelief is just too much. I can temporarily believe in a world of horror. I can temporarily believe in a world of superheroes. I can only believe in a world with both superheroes and horror with difficulty.
The entire Vertigo line, a DC imprint, can be seen as an excellent attempt to bring the sense of horror back to DC by creating boundaries between creatures of horror and superheroes for the purposes of better story telling. So who represents pure horror in the DC and Marvel universes? I would argue the horror hosts do! Most horror comic books are anthologies with one-shot characters that often die a horrible death at the end and are never seen again. You have the same problem with romance comics. Both genre focus on single shot stories and finding ongoing characters in both genres is hard do. So what sort of character survives in a horror comic book? The host of the stories is who!
A horror host is the host of a horror comic book anthology. The most famous horror host does not belong to either the DC or Marvel line but to EC Comics. The host for the EC comic book Tales of the Crypt was the Crypt Keeper and perhaps the only horror host to make the transition to TV where the same character hosted the very popular and long running TV show of the same name and also two movies and even a Saturday morning cartoon named Secrets of the Cryptkeepers Haunted House. The Crypt Keeper was one of the GhouLunatics and that included fellow EC horror hosts the Vault Keeper and the Old Witch.

The DC horror hosts include Abel, Cain, Charity, Destiny, Eve, Mad Mod Witch, Madame Xanadu, and Macbeth’s witches (Mordred, Mildred and Cynthia). Abel was the host of the House of Secrets. Cain was the host of the House of Mystery. They are the Cain and Abel of Biblical fame and an ongoing gag is that Cain kills Abel over and over again whenever there is a crossover between the two brothers. The two houses sit next to each other so a little neighborly interaction is only to be expected. Charity was the host of Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion and probably wins the title of most obscure and forgotten DC horror host. Destiny hosted Weird Mystery Tales. Eve hosted Secrets of Sinister House from issues # 6-16. Eve later generally replaced Destiny as the host of Weird Mystery Tales. Abel and Cain are officially cousins of Eve. The Mad Mod Witch was the, on again of again, host of Unexpected from issue #108 onwards and with the alias Fashion Thing was rebooted by Neil Gaiman in the Sandman. Madame Xanadu was the host of Doorway to Mystery. Madame Xanadu returned in the first direct sales only comic book in Madame Xanadu. The series is a one-shot. The witches Mordred, Mildred and Cynthia hosted the Witching Hour. Lucian was the host of the short lived Tales of Ghost Castle.  Neil Gaiman made use of all the DC horror hosts, except Charity, in his Sandman series. Heck, even Lucian, perhaps the most obscure of the horror hosts became a librarian of the Sandman.  All the horror hosts have gone onto new fame and prominence in the Vertigo line that probably exceeds the fame and prominence they had during their original title runs in the sixties and seventies.

In the Sandman title, Destiny and is one of the Endless who in turn are mightier than gods. Destiny has been able to resist the influence of Zeus. Zeus is in turn much mightier than for example Superman. Zeus can create a female version of Superman, Wonder Woman. Destiny is one of the most powerful characters in the DC universe but is also considered the most boring story teller by Abel, Cain and Eve.

Despite a slew of horror tiles by Marvel/Atlas including Beware, Chamber of Chills, Chamber of Darkness. Creatures on the Loose, Crypt of Shadows, Dead of Night, Fear, Giant Size Chillers, Journey into Mystery (2nd series), Tomb of Darkness, Tower of Shadows, Uncanny Tales (2nd series), Vault of Evil, Weird Wonder Tales, Where Creatures Roam and Where Monsters Dwell only one of these titles had a horror host! Digger and Headstone P. Gravely hosted Tower of Shadows that was designed to go head on against DCs House of Mystery and House of Secrets. I do remember Tower of Shadows and I even remember the story of the first issue and I was like 14 years old at the time! I don’t remember the horror hosts at all. Two unknown hosts versus an interconnected family of DC hosts that are major part of the current DC/Vertigo universe? This contest doesn’t seem fair at all and I am going to change the rules! I am going to bring in a Marvels number one comic book host! The Watcher!

The Watcher acted as a host to futuristic stories in Tales of Suspense starting in issue #39 in the sixties. The Watcher acted as second story to the main Iron Man story. The stories were titled Tales of the Watcher. I actually often preferred the Watcher stories to the Iron Man stories and am totally aghast that Marvel has not made an Essential version of Tales of the Watcher. I mean Werewolf by Night and Spiderwoman get an Essential volume but not those great stories by the Watcher? The tradition was carried on in the first volume of the Silver Surfer. Later still the Watcher became the host of What If stories that were 100% superhero stories but the original Tales of the Watcher were mainstream science fiction complete with a Twilight Zone sort of lesson about the universe and/or humanity told by the Watcher at the end.

Despite their genre difference the Watcher and Destiny actually have an awful lot in common. The Watcher is a cosmic entity. Destiny is a cosmic entity. Destiny is a lot more powerful but like the Watcher mostly tells stories, and despite being blind, “observes” and doesn’t really do much. The Watcher is bald and for all we know Destiny might be bald as well. Destiny always wears a cowl and this is probably to hide his baldness. I would see Destiny as being somewhere in the power class of the Living Tribunal over at Marvel. Destiny and the Living Tribunal both wear cowls by the way. The Watcher is at least two hierarchical levels below the Living Tribunal.

The Living Tribunal is even more powerful than Eternity or Death that only represent the totality of one universe. Both Destiny and the Living Tribunal are multiverse type beings that more or less bring balance to the multiverse. There isn’t a different Destiny or Living Tribunal in each universe but one for the whole dang multiverse. A being that performs a balancing multiverse function has to be more powerful than any being limited to one universe no matter how powerful they are in that one universe. Destiny could squash the Watcher but this won’t happen.
Destiny and the Watcher are hyper rational, Mr. Spock is emotional compared to those two, and I do mean the old Mr. Spock, not that new guy French kissing Uhura, and would never engage in aggressive behavior except in self defense and neither would attack the other first since that would be illogical, uncivilized and just bad manners. Destiny and the Watcher both exchange the very best stories from their mutual universes and agree I am not a very good story teller and perhaps should find another hobby. This “DC versus Marvel” story ends in a draw.