Thanksgiving: the most underrated holiday of the year

Thanksgiving has the unlucky spot of being between Halloween and Christmas. But Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays out there. It gets overlooked all the time because of everyone's insanity when it comes to Christmas.

In the old days no one even mentioned Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas music did not get played until then. Malls would decorate for Christmas the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and finish up on Black Friday. Santa would show up right after thanksgiving as well. Thanksgiving was it's own holiday and it had respect. Now Christmas stuff replaces Halloween on November 1st. Christmas movies that normally did not arrive until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving now were showing up the first friday after Halloween. Christmas music has started on local radio stations at least a week before Thanksgiving. Advertisements on TV are now all about Christmas. Christmas is the popular big brother, Halloween is the spoiled younger child, and Thanksgiving is the cliched Middle child. And that is wrong.

Yes Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Most countries have a version of Thanksgiving, but it rarely overlaps with America's version. But we are Americans and this is our TV we are watching, our music we are listening to, our movies we are seeing. We should treat it has an American holiday and get it's popularity back instead of jumping right into Christmas as most of the world does.

I love Thanksgiving. It's not flashy like the other holidays, but it is still a very nice time, and until recently it was the point where I really started to get excited for Christmas because I knew that starting on Black Friday the Christmas season officially started. We would start seeing Christmas ads, Christmas tv, Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music. Now when Thanksgiving arrives, the excitememt of Christmas is not as prevalent since we have been knocked over the head with it.

Nowadays I really like it because it is a 4 day weekend, and I get to spend time with family and just rest. I've also had a lot of good memories of Thanksgiving. When I was younger and my parents were still together Thanksgiving always meant going to my Grandparent's house down in Oxon Hill Maryland near Andrews Air Force Base right outside of DC and Virginia. Most of the time my cousins and Aunt and Uncle from New Jersey would come down and we would have a good time. My grandfather who loved making fires in the fireplace would have one roaring for us, we would watch Football, when not watching tv we would play football in my grandparents yard or hide and seek in their upstairs. I remember one year I ate so many Andes Candies that I threw up. Now I never eat Chocolate and mint anymore. I tried radishes for the first time their before also. But as we all were getting older and my folks soon split, we would go to New Jersey for the Thanksgiving weekend. I remember one year getting terribly sick during Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house. My stomach was so bad that on Black Friday when we decided we wanted to go to the mall and I wanted to go with them to get out of the house I could only walk hunched over. Now I know that sounds like a horrible Thanksgiving, and it was, but it was memorable. There was also the year of the snowstorm on Thanksgiving day (when we usually drove up) and the car in front of us spun out into a 360 and almost hit our car. But we got lucky.

When I was in College we stopped going up to NJ and stayed home. Sometimes we went to my Grandparents, but at this time they were in the twilight of their lives and not doing so well. In 1993 my sister got married on November 20th. She had a Thanksgiving style wedding dinner. So when Thanksgiving hit the next week, we ate Italian. Once I graduated and was still living at home, we stayed home and did a no fuss Thanksgiving dinner so I got to watch a lot of TV. At that time SYFY (which was the Sci-Fi channel at that time) aired Mystery Science Theater 3000 that was a classic show and set the stage for my involvement with the SnarkAlecs. It was a show about a guy and two puppets who watched really bad movies and made comments about it. Funny as hell comments. On Thanksgiving Sci-Fi always did a marathon Turkey movies for a Turkey day.  It was also around that time for the first time ever I saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2. Because other channels ran marathons also and I finally watched these and enjoyed them. Football was still around as well.

One constant throughout all the Thanksgiving's is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, an annual ritual that I always watched and still watch. Here in Maryland we also had the Turkey bowl, Loyola vs Calvert Hall high School football (huge rivalry) and before they stopped doing it on Thanksgiving (City vs. Poly) another huge local high school football game. 

And surprise Comics also had an impact on Thanksgiving. I remember reading Gotham by Gaslight on Thanksgiving at my aunt's house (the year I got sick it just came out with art by one of my fave artists Mike Mignola). Paul Dini and Alex Ross would produce a fully painted big size graphic novel every Thanksgiving week and they were all gorgeous.

Recently the day after Thanksgiving has been the time that my wife and I take our kids to the Festival of Trees, a great event that helps give money to Kennedy Krieger a group that helps sick children. Local companies commision artists to decorate Christmas Trees and make them as artistic as possible and then sells them with all proceeds going to Kennedy Krieger. They also have vendors selling things, Christmas choirs, Celebrity Christmas story readers, a huge train garden, Santa Claus, a kids area with Pony rides, bouncy houses, Carousel's, and crafts. A great event that gets you into the Christmas spirit, the day after Thanksgiving. it goes all weekend so you can hit it at any time.

It is just a pleasant all around time of the year with the only stress being self imposed if you have issues with your family. Otherwise it is just a pleasant meal, good company, and fun. And hopefully relaxiation for those who don't go Black Friday shopping. The food is always good, the drink is always good. And you have leftovers that last awhile. It is purely and simply FUN. No huge anticipation that brings you down after it is done like Halloween and Christmas, there is no real build up to Thanksgiving it is just there. And it is wonderful. The day after Thanksgiving you can go all the Christmas crazy you want, but til then please give Thanksgiving some props.

The Thanksgiving Song from Adam Sandler.

3pm on a Friday. It's time for It's Dylan A. Lange's radio Show

Alot of you may not know this but in my senior year of college I was a DJ on our College radio station. WXAC 91.3 FM READING PA.  I had 2 two hour shows in the Fall and Spring semester, and one massive 3 hour show during January Interium. I hadn't thought about it in awhile but for some reason today it popped into my head. You see my shows were on from 3pm-5pm on Fridays and 10pm-12am on Saturday nights.  My January show I think was 9pm-12am on Saturdays.

When I first went to Albright College we had the radio station but it was not very powerful so they only did a few shows so the guys and girls who were really into it got the shows, so I never went out for a show. At the end of my Junior year, a bunch of my best friends from College were picked to run the station. AND we were getting a new state of the Art, more powerful Antenna that will allow us to expand, which we did our Senior year. So many slots opened up and since my buddies were in charge, why not? So I went to the meeting and we signed up for slots. I was lucky enough to be allowed to slots. I would do two different shows to keep things interesting.

The main show I wanted to do became the 10pm-12am Saturday night show It's Dylan A. Lange's radio show. A radio show that would play nothing but music from Movie soundtracks and scores. I had accrued a large amount of them since I loved movie music, so I had more than enough to do a different show every week. Plus I would buy new soundtracks anytime I wanted to, or got some for the holidays. We also had a movie soundtrack section in our record collection. (it was 1994-95 we still had vinyl and tape recorders and CDS). It was a blast. You could also tape record your show from the station, so I did that a number of times. I was told one time that my show was the only show that a local jail would play, because they always played the radio from 10-12am and our station was the clearest??? HUH? It was not a joke because I actually got a phone call from them a few times requesting songs. So go me!

I have an ecclectic taste in music so my Friday 3pm-5pm show And now for something completely different (yes I used two Monty Python jokes for the names of my radio shows. Sue me.) showcased that. I would start off with say an 80s song, then jump to a 90s grunge song, to a new age song, to an Indy rock band song, to opera, to a disco song, etc. and so forth. My radio show was like a box of chocolates, you never knew what you were gonna get. I had a 2pm class on Friday so I would pack up my backpack with a ton of CDS and tapes and my books were in there also. Then when I was done at 5pm go right to the cafeteria for dinner since dinner started at 5pm and then would be free for the weekend.

We did everything. We had PSA's. Community calendar's. Station ID breaks and my voice was actually going out over the airwaves. We were located in the basement of the Library, but it was still great fun. We hosted concerts on campus, it was a great time to be a senior in college. oh by the way. I also wrote a colimn for the school newspaper my Senior. But that's a story for another time.

The End of an Institution

I grew up in an area called Rodgers Forge/Anneslie/Stoneleigh in Baltimore County, the same area great olympian Michael Phelps grew up. It is a group of three neighborhoods between Baltimore City and Towson, MD. We have the main road York road that runs through the neighborhoods. We have rowhomes, stand alone houses, a mansion, swimming pools, churches, shopping areas, schools, we have everything. And we had Harry Little's.

Harry Little's wasn't anything special to look at. A corner sub shop at the intersection of York and Register. It was family owned by a family who lived in my neighborhood of Anneslie. It had been there for as long as I remember. It served greasy pizza, crisp fries, onion rings, and Mozzarella sticks. It has your typical sub menu, cold subs, hot subs. you get get whatever you wanted to on it. It had an ice cream freezer and a cooler that had soda's and snapple in it. You could eat on the inside if you want, except there were no tables, a few years ago it appeared that they had put some inside and also outside if you wanted to eat outside. The scent of fried onions wafted through the area whenever you drove by or walked by. The workers were very nice never really bitter or mean. You could call ahead and pickup if you wanted to or just drop in and order something. Prices were reasonable, food was good sized and delicious. They came wrapped in an unimpressive white paper, though I will always remember it as sub paper. If you had a warm sub, they would wrap it in aluminum foil then the sub paper. They had gumball machines, and it was within walking distance of my house. It was an institution, always had been there for as long as I remember. When I moved away I occassionally got a hankering for a Turkey Club sub, or a fried shrimp sub, or even a BLT with extra meat. I would call up and drive up to get it. Or when I went to get my haircut, (I still go to my old haircut place even though it is far away from where I live) I may pop in for a sub. It was always there whenever I drove by on my way to my mom's house. Now it's history.

I found out about this through what else Facebook. One of my old friends who lived behind my house Angela Lacey nee Armstrong posted a picture of a sub she was eating. Captioning it the last Harry Little's sub ever. I was surprised and wrote a comment on it. She responded by stating that someone else bought the store and closed it down and will be putting something else in it's place. Sadness, an institution gone. I suppose you could blame progress, but still an unexciting local sub shop closing gives me pause and a deep sense of nostalgia. Sure there are tons of locally owned sub shops. There is one near where I live, which I go to every once in awhile. it's good food, but not quite like Harry Little's. Nothing ever will be. An institution that has been around since I was born almost 40 years ago, is now...History.

Smoke Signals 3: Movies, Wine, and Death

Hello and welcome to another installment of Smoke Signals my micro Blogging in my blog. Huh? Just little thoughts I have had that do not warrant full blogs. Not too many today but some good stuff.

-The Avengers came out on Blu-ray and DVD this past Tuesday. And as a huge comic geek I will state here and now this is the best comicbook movie I have ever seen. It is a real life comic come to life. Funny, dracmatic, action packed, hits all the comic book beats. It's a winner and a movie I will probably watch multiple times a year.

-Speaking of movies I was thinking of these two movies the other day and came to the realization it would be an amazing mind blowing double feature. LA Story and Joe Vs. The Volcano. Both are bizarre magical films that use LA as a magical place, but the artistic vision of the directors is what makes them a great pair. Two films that are unlike any films you have ever seen. With actors Steve Martin and a host of cameo apperances in LA Story and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (playing 3 roles!) in their first film together. Both are romantic comedies, but instead of your typical Rom-Com's they are more like Fairy Tales. Though both are funny. 2 original movies in an era when original movies are no longer around too much. Case in point:

-Looper and Dredd. Everyone complains about the fact that their are no original movies, or strong R-Rated action and or horror films for older people. PG-13 is the cashcow with the teenagers going to these action and horror films that are mostly retreads of things you have seen before but can't go to the next level due to the rating. If some PG-13 movies were rated R, and were able to get away with more maybe things wouldn't be so bad. But here we are with Dredd which is a great grown up movie. A hard R-rated action film much like Die Hard or Robocop or Total Recall (the original with Arnold) with lots of violence but strong visuals and story. It maybe comic book burnout or the fact that not a lot of people in America know who the hell Judge Dredd is since he is a hugely popular character in Great Britain but the film is tanking here. Looper comes out on Friday and I have heard from people who have seen it and I know that it is an amazingly original film one that needs to make a lot of money so Hollywood will not be content with cookie cutter films. People always scream about how there are no original movies in Hollywood anymore. This one is so you better go see it. If not Hollywood will see the box office and say no one wants to see orignal films and we go back to getting films about boardgames.

-Browsing through Wal-Mart the other day I discovered from Hallmark their Halloween treat of the year. My Pet Ghost. A plastic bottle with a oval window in it and a button you press at the top. When you do a ghost appears in the bottle in a painted background and makes noises at you. There are three different phrases/noises. There are 3 different kinds and they are awesomely fun. Bought one for myself and have it on my desk at work. Worth a look see for under 10 dollars.

-Heard the sad news of crooner Andy Williams passing. He will always be remembered by me for his Christmas songs including the most wonderful time of the year. But his claim to fame is Moon River which is a great song. RIP Andy. My dad really liked you and so did I.

-Finally I just wanted to let everyone know one of my all time favorite wines is the Coppola wines. Francis Ford Coppola director of the Godfather Movies, Apocalypse Now and more is a fantastic winery manager and has turned his small winery into an award winning behemouth taking over other vineyards and releasing them under his imprint as well. But I like it not only because it's Coppola, but he really knows what he is doing with the wine. Available at all wine and liquor stores, I reccommend you pick some up.  Cheers.

Why Autumn/Fall is the best season EVER!!!

I was taking my son into Daycare the other day and we ride through horse country out here in Baltimore County. Gorgeous farms, nice sceneary. Noah was talking about seeing a tractor and I was pointing out horses to him when I noticed a flock of Canadian Geese flying overhead. I immediately pointed it out to him and he was excited to see them. As was I, because that is the first real sign of Fall coming. During the Fall we get flocks of them flying overhead and it made me think this morning that despite the hot humid air now, FALL IS COMING. And I could not be more excited. Autumn/Fall is my favorite season of all time and I cannot believe that we are finally on the cusp of this gorgeous season. Why do i love thee Fall? That's what this blog is about.

1. THE WEATHER IS COOLER

It's no secret that I hate warm weather. I can't focus, I can't sleep when I am to hot. I feel draggy, worn out, grumpy. I don't like to sweat to much, I just can't stand the heat. Summer in Baltimore is notorious for having at least a few 100+ degree days, sometimes more sometimes less. And yes we have air conditioning but in my house the air barely reaches the upstairs. Plus I work in a hot environment in a warehouse so that makes things uncomfortable. Fall though, when it starts we get 70 degree days which are perfect for me. Then the cooler air rolls in and you start feeling renewed and refreshed. I don't mind wearing jackets, or hats. And for the first half of Fall you really do not need jackets and hats. Everything just feels crisper. And it is perfect sleeping weather. You get to cold you wrap up in a blanket which will not suffocate you with heat like the summer does. That is a good warmth.

2. THE LEAVES CHANGE COLOR

I love seeing the trees shift from green to bright vibrant Oranges and Reds and Yellows. It makes the whole area come to life in vibrant color. Riding on highways become more interesting as the trees are no longer the dull green and grey colors of summer, they are gorgeous bright colors that, as Julie Delpy states in Before Sunrise, To feel happier look at bright colors. Bright colors make you feel good and happy.

3. FOOTBALL

Baltimore has always been a Football town. I hate to say it but it's true. When we lost the Colts in the 80s we made sure that our Baseball team would not leave us and we became a Baseball town. Then in 1996 we got the Ravens and at the same time the Orioles were playing good ball. The Ravens not so much going 4-12 in their first season. The peak of the Orioles was in 1997 and then for 15 long years the Orioles started to decline while the Ravens started to rise including a Super Bowl victory in 2000. (On a sidenote the Orioles are doing awesome this year and though I still believe Baltimore is a Football town, our town still rallies around the Orioles when they are playing great ball.) Football is fall. The season goes throughout the fall and winter. It's played in cold weather, it's 16 weeks of pure adrenaline in a league that has parity where any team could be a Playoff caliber team. So all NFL cities look forward to Football because this year may be their year.

4. HALLOWEEN AND THANKSGIVING

Anyone who knows me knows that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I really don't know why that is, but it is. The build up to Halloween with all the creepy decorations, the rows and rows of pumpkins, the candy, the creepy shows on tv, like Walking Dead, The Simpsons Halloween special, or any of the Ghost Hunter/Ghost Adventures shows, the crisp air getting crisper, the sky getting darker. The colors of the leaves are starting to descend as more appear on the ground but the colors are still there. Everyone who wears costumes and what they wear. And there is also a very personal reason why I like Halloween that I will not share here, but all of that together creates a great holiday for me. I used to watch a scary movie a day the month of October, I used to take Halloween off from work and decorate the house and even make my wife dinner. I don't do that now because my work as an awesome Halloween BBQ and costume contest on Halloween, which adds to the excitement of the holiday for me.

To me also Thanksgiving is an underrated holiday, granted nothing really crazy happens, but it's a day off and I am lucky enough to have a four day weekend that weekend so that is a great time when we spend time with family and eat very well and watch cool stuff on TV like the Macy's Thanksgiving day Parade, marathons of movies and shows, (I saw Godfather 1 and 2, and Willy Wonka on these Thanksgiving marathons), Football is on (see above) and it was always the official for me anyway beginning of the Christmas season. Just a nice time all together. I will be getting into Halloween and Thanksgiving a bit more down the line when I do some special Smoke Signal blogs about them.

5. FALL FOOD

Fall brings us Apples, Pumpkin (which is actually good in soup or ravioli), Turkey, Chili, Candy or Caramel Apples, Apple Cider,Candy Corn, Frankenberry and Boo berry cereal,  Pumpkin spice lattes, Pies of all kinds, and more. Good heavy foods to bulk up for the coming winter are amazing. Bigger meals pop up and it is delightful. The Renaissance Fair also is in the fall and it usually has all kinds of amazing food and beer as well.



6. FALL MOVIES ARE DEEPER BUT YOU ALSO GET THE SUMMER MOVIES

Fall has always been the traditional time to release your Oscar Bait movies, the film industry believes that more adult films should be in the fall because more adults go to the movies then, whereas in the Summer it is kids who are off for Summer who make up the majority of film viewing audience, So you get more of the big bang brainless films. The fall is also a time where many of the franchises get to shine such as Harry Potter, and Twilight, you also get great family cartoons from Disney, and of course the deeper oscar bait films. You get Christmas movies, horror movies around Halloween, it's a great time. But you also get the best of the Summer films because they finally start to make their way out onto DVD/Blu-Ray just in time for Christmas, so the Summer movies you loved earlier in the year you can watch over and over now. So you get the best of both worlds.

7. NEW TELEVISION SEASON STARTS

This has been watered down a little as of late with networks spreading the new seasons of shows throughout the year now instead of jamming them all in September. But there are still many shows that do this. New seasons of your favorite shows appear, so you no longer have to watch the reruns of the previous season that you have all ready seen. You get new never before seen episodes of your favorite shows.  You also get a chance to find new shows that you may like or may be the next big thing.

8. PERSONAL STUFF

I first started dating my wife in the fall, we got married in the fall, went on our honeymoon in the fall, and had our first child in the fall. My sister got married in the fall and had her first child in the fall. So personally that was some good stuff.

FALL OR AUTUMN is a wonderful time for me, my absolute perfect season for the reasons stated above. I am so happy that Fall is almost here. Every person has their personal favorite season and I know there are probably people who hate the Fall, but not me, the Fall is perfect for me and a few other people I know as well.  Now it's time for me to stop writing and get to enjoying the upcoming fall season before the cold vicious snowy winter rolls in. Cheers.

It was just another gorgeous Tuesday Morning...

I know everyone has done one of these rememberances, but I just was thinking about it this year especially since for the first time in a while September 11th this year falls on the same day as September 11th 2001. It got me thinking about it and I decided just to write down what was going on with me during that terrible day.

I was working at Rainforest Cafe at this time. Tuesday was when we got our weekly delivery of inventory. I was for all intents and purposes the assistant manager of the Rainforest Cafe Retail Village. My good friend Ellyn was the manager,who had just gotten the official title, though E and I did our prespective jobs for awhile before they even decided to give Ellyn the Manager job. Since she had just gotten the promotion she had to spend a week in Houston where the Headquarters was to train on how to be a manager. So I was for the most part the manager. Though she was getting ready to come back on Wednesday. I was in charge of setting the schedule, and doing the managerial work we she had trained me on all ready. So I was opening that morning. I was also in charge of our stock room so my day was going to be doubly busy. I was living with my at the time girlfriend Dawn (now wife) in our apartment out in Cockeysville, MD with our two cats Bonnie and Clyde. She was ping-ponging back in forth between University of Maryland and her job at McCormick during this time. That morning she was down at the University of Maryland and would make her way back before noon to go to work full time. My sister was (and still is) married to an FBI analyst who was working at FBI HQ in Washington DC. My aunt (and Godmother) was an FBI agent out of the DC office as well.

It was an absolutly beautiful morning. Cool temps, blue sky, sun, when I rolled into work about 830 I guess. Now I had a CD player in my Honda and was playing a CD so I had no knowledge of what was going on. I strolled into the Cafe and one of the cleaners was on a ladder cleaning the fish tank talking to someone on the phone frantically about such and so being down there and not knowing what happened to them. I didn't even think about that since it was a personal call and none of my business. I get into the back office to pick up the till for the day and there on the news was the story about the plane hitting the WTC. I don't remember if both had been hit at that time, or only one. Everyone in the office was watching the tv and let me in on what was going on. After a while I had to go out and get things prepped for the day. Rainforest was in the Towson Town Center Mall so down the hall was a Radio Shack where a number of Rainforest employees were watching the news. I would occassionally saunter down to see what was going on and saw some of the other craziness going on. But we were still open and i was the only one working the Retail village. So i was getting updates from various people about what was happening.

I learned about the Pentagon, and that there was one other one that was heading for DC as well. I started to panic a little. Now remember this was before Cell Phones were everywhere, I did not have one nor did my wife who was driving home away from DC but I was a little panicked not knowing if the traffic would be bad or if planes would fall out of the sky on her. I called her work phone and left a message telling her to call me at rainforest to let me know if she was ok. Then we got the word. We were shutting down the mall because we did not know where else an attack would take place. However i needed to stay a little longer to make sure we get the delivery on time. Luckily they came soon after the announcement of the closing of the mall and it was a small delivery. So I got it into the stock room and left it. Then called the others scheduled to work that day and tell them the mall was closed. Then I had to take the till back to the back.  Then I left.

When I got home there was a message from Dawn saying she was fine and at McCormick. I don't think they closed it so she was going to stay and work. I also had a message from my mom so i called her and she was freaking out because she had heard there was a car bomb that exploded by the FBI Building. Turned out that was a false statement. But still the panic was there. I turned on the news and just watched as I learned about the plane crashing in PA, the twin towers falling down, and more. Dawn got home earlier then usual which was fine with me and we just watched the news and the horror.

Later on we learned that her aunt was supposed to be on one of the planes that crashed into the WTC I think but the meeting she was going to go to was cancelled and she stayed at her home in Jersey. Ellyn was stuck in Texas for three extra days since they shut down the airlines. Her fiancee (now Husband) Kevin drove to Texas non stop to get her and bring her home. My Aunt was one of the agents put in charge of the Pentagon investigation.

Not very interesting but still something that I will never forget though may not remember all the facts. So here we are 11 years later hopefully a little safer.

The New 52 one year later

On August 31, 2011 DC Comics unvealed the beginning of their new universe which they called the New 52. They cancelled all their previous comics, some of which had been in the 600s and 700s to have 52 new series starting over with #1 and changing the status quo of the DC Universe forever. It reeked of despair from a comic company who was getting thrashed by rivals Marvel. And it worked (for the most part). Their sales numbers went up and eventually levelled off. They are still better than they were, but despite that there have been a number of situations come up in the last year which puts them at a disadvantage.

To celebrate the one year anniversary DC is releasing all #0 issues this month that will delve into the past of the characters. It will also introduce a few new comics as well. The reason, the original 52 do not exist as they did a year ago. A number of titles have been cancelled due to low sales. New comics have been introduced to keep the comics titles at 52, some of those are on the verge of getting cancelled and some comics that survived the first cut are not making it through this time. And more titles are being introduced to keep the 52 number alive.

The strife has been more on the creative side this time around. Creative teams leaving books after only doing 4-5 issues? Unheard of. Their biggest complaint was that the Editors were too hands on and were having the creative teams make changes that they deemed neccassary to fit the comics into the new continuity.  Another complaint was Superman. He had two series one was Action Comics which focused on Superman in his early years, the second was Superman which focused on his contemporary adventures. However there appeared to be no correlation between the two series. Big things that happened in the past in Action were not referenced in the present day. The two different writers appeared to be working in their own worlds where never the twain shall meet.

Not to pick on Rob Liefeld, though he deserves it, but he was the artist on Hawk and Dove one of the first titles to get cancelled. DC then decided to have him take over 3 books. Knocking a great writer in Kyle Higgins off of Deathstroke so Liefeld could write and draw it. had him co write Grifter, and write Hawkman and draw covers. Not 3 issues in Liefeld started calling out DC on their editorial control and left the company burning bridges with him in a twitter war with not only DC but a few other well respected writers still on the DC books. So now DC has to scramble to find replacements. It just seems a little out of control.

DC is still fighting with women about their lack of female characters, or the way the characters are hyper-sexualized. Also the fact that they do not have a lot of Female creators working on the books. But attendence figures are showing that more Women are going to Comic Cons and not just to dress up, but to buy things, to talk to creators about their favorite books, and more.

There are still some good books out there. Batman by Scott Snyder is still outstanding. The Green Lantern corps of books are doing well. The DC Dark books are doing well. Such as Justice League Dark, Animal Man, and Swamp Thing. There has been praise on Aquaman, All Star Western, and GI Combat, Earth 2,  50/50 on the new Wonder Woman, but disappointment on the flagship title Justice League. Some of it could be equated to just great writers working on the books, while mediocre writers are toiling on other books. Or it's just that the new versions of the characters are just not doing it for the regular reader. Whatever it is the New 52 seems to be in a state of disarray though there are some solid foundations in place and maybe in the second year they can start to stabalize a little and see what comes. We'll see.