But the kryptonite in the woodpile is this quote from Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov:

Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.

Oh, for…

This is so obvious I am amazed it needs to be said. “The Dark Knight” did not succeed because it was dark. It succeeded because of several things, all of which can be boiled down to “make a movie that is true to the character.” And Batman, done properly, is dark. Superman is not.

The superhero movies that work are the ones that speak to the fans’ love of what makes the character great. The massively successful Spider-Man movies were true to his character. Except, of course, for the third one, when he went… um, dark.  The massively successful Iron Man movie did not try to make him gritty, it made him Iron Man.

WB, pay attention to someone who knows (i.e. the moviegoer). Get a director who loves the character and will fight to protect the core of him or her. Make sure that director has no driving urge to “say something” with the character unless that something makes sense (Singer’s outcast neuroses worked great with X-Men, not so well wth Supes). Then back that director to the hilt.

Or just hire Jon Peters to do it and write off superhero movies entirely. Maybe something with a giant spider.

And, like the others. this one fails to adequately capture my thinning, graying hair, although unlike the others it did offer my usual shirt of choice. Face Your Manga does have a nicer selection of options than most of these things, although to be truly manga I really should have the option to give myself giant grinning teeth, a helmet of some sort, cybernetic implants, and an impressive set of Asian girl-grabbing tentacles. Maybe in version two.

I will not be using this everywhere, as so many are right now, mainly because I like my Save Hiatus avatar better.

Maybe I can get Adam to add some tentacles…

Here’s what I’ve become so far:

Namely, in this article by Mike Hale, wherein he analyzes the aesthetic and commercial appeal of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and finds it somewhat wanting. Not compared to other Web content, of course, it’s fine there, a diamond in the muck. But when compared to television, it needs “beefing up.”

If the comparison is with television, the answer is murkier. On that scale “Dr. Horrible” falls somewhere between an amusing trifle and a dramedy that won’t make it to the 13th episode.

[...]

…you may prefer the slacker aesthetic of “Dr. Horrible” to the formulas of network television, but even in the summer doldrums, 45 minutes (after commercials) of “The Closer” or “Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods” is a superior piece of craftsmanship. (And even on its own anti-mainstream terms, “Dr. Horrible” has a ways to go to catch up with “The Sarah Silverman Program.”)

Really? “The Sarah Silverman Show” is the anti-mainstream bar all shows must strive towards? Maybe if “Dr. Horrible” had more poop jokes it would have passed muster.

I have no problem with people criticizing the show on its own merits and faults - there are plenty of both. But condemning it because it’s not as good as “The Sarah Silverman Show” or “The Closer” - two more different shows you’ll be hard-pressed to find - is ridiculous. Although actual criticism may be tricky and require more than 15 minutes, I’ll have to ask.

“Prominent gay subtext”? Really?

The book doesn’t go in much about graphic tablets per se - I’m just going to have to get the first few thousand crappy drawings out of the way so I can start to learn how to use this thing right - but it does give you some excellent tips on coloring lineart in Photoshop. Tips on organizing your work, using layers and channels to best effect, painting with light, all sorts of cool tricks. And it comes with a CD full of scripts and brushes and sample artwork (Terry Moore art to play with! Woo hoo!) that will have me occupied for weeks. Except…

In the beginning of the book it stresses the importance of calibrating your monitor to get the best duplication of what you’ll see when you print. And I tried that, using their suggestions. And I hosed my monitor royally. I suspect it’s because I have the monitor settings as well as NVIDIA’s color management going, and changing one around screwed up the other. Only I couldn’t get back to where I was, even with multiple Resets, and everything I tried made it worse… Also tried Adobe’s Gamma calibrator, which added a third layer to the mess.

After an hour or so of tweaking back and forth, my computer doesn’t look quite so much like it’s on Ecstasy any more, and I can make out subdued colors, so I’m going to stop there.

All of which means: if my artwork has a glaring, garish color quality from now on, it’s, it’s… a new school of art! Yeah! The F-ed-Up-Gamma school. Very popular with the college students, and people who just close their eyes and poke at the Contrast button.

Hey, one of my con pics was chosen to illustrate Schmap’s page on the Orange County Convention Center.

Which means that people from around the world, hungry for travel information, will gaze upon my skilled photographic handiwork as they devise their itinerary and think: “Huh. A comic convention.”

Which means I can also embed it here, and I think I shall. Enjoy.

Thanks to maru1221, I (and everyone else) can now see my wife Teresa at the Bon Jovi concert at the TD BankNorth Garden arena, July 10. She keeps a camera in front of her face during her screentime, but if you look closely, starting around 1:46,  you can see her trying to focus past Richie Sambora (12 feet away from her) to get a better picture of Jon (way the hell across the stage). She does have her preferences, my Teresa. Also, that piercing fangirl scream? That’s her.

- An extra Dr. Horrible story, filmed for the DVD

- Promos from the characters; Captain Hammer talking to schools, Penny talking about the homeless shelter, Dr. Horrible doing something court-appointed (”Kids! Don’t do evil!”)

- A karaoke version

- A fan commentary, with notable fans giving their reactions (your assistant has my e-mail, Mr. Whedon)

- Features on the people involved, fan reaction, media reaction

- Video of the Comic-Con panel

- A RiffTrax commentary, already bundled in

- A feature showing the making of the Making Of feature

- A small comic book (a la the Serenity comic that came bundled with the Best Buy version of the Serenity Special Edition DVD) of “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me”

- The original storyboards, possibly in napkin form

- A feature on the already-existing mad science apartment that was used

- The entire run of “Apartment 4B” by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, including the 1st episode

- A feature on the special effects, done with all the gravitas and detail as anything about Gollum on the LoTR DVDs. “Here we had to sync up Nathan leaping off a chair into frame just as the van careened by, so it really looked like he was jumping off the van. Timing was critical for it to really feel right, so we were there, oh god, almost 7 minutes before we were finally happy with it, but that’s the kind of dedication we put into it. Then we had a Snickers.”

And most importantly:

- Previews of the sequel

What do you want to see?

“I’m deeply psyched to be able to offer ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ on iTunes,” Mr. Whedon said. “It’s a way to reach way more potential viewers than I can personally call and harass into watching it. The idea that people can carry our little opus around on their iPods and iPhones is thrilling.”