Black Widow Journal: How Acting Is Exactly Like Espionage, Maybe

Black Widow Journal: How Acting Is Exactly Like Espionage, Maybe

by B. Short

| Gutter and Splash, Hype Train, Mata Hari, Podcasts, Scarlett Johansson, Syndicated, Under the Skin
July 27, 2019

It's surprising, considering the introduction and style of character that Marvel's Black Widow is, how seldom she uses the typical tools of spycraft in the stories written about her.
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#hypetrain: Captain Marvel, The Comics Part 2

by B. Short

| captain marvel, Gutter and Splash, Hype Train, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Syndicated
February 8, 2019

Brian Reed’s run on Ms. Marvel, the second ongoing series starring the character of Carol Danvers for Marvel Comics, starts off great.
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#HypeTrain: Captain Marvel, the Comics Part 1

by B. Short

| captain marvel, Gerry conway, Gutter and Splash, Hey Photographers, Hype Train, Syndicated
February 6, 2019

Marvel comics reimagined Ms. as Woman Magazine, a subsidiary publication of the media corporation run by long-time Spider-Man nemesis J. Jonah Jameson. And the character that they chose to run Woman Magazine was a former love interest of a not super recognizable character, Captain Marvel, whose name was Carol Danvers.
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Captain Marvel: The Omnidirectional Hype Machine

by B. Short

| brie larson, captain marvel, carol danvers, Gutter and Splash, Syndicated
January 23, 2019

I was feeling sort of lost last year, I guess, and so, searching around for something to focus on, I, like millions of Americans, found my attention drifting (again) to superhero movies.
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Whistling in the Graveyard

by B. Short

| Caribbean, Danish colonialism, genealogy, nineteenth century, St. Thomas, Syndicated, Trace Your Steps
September 8, 2018

This is a post in an ongoing series exploring one family’s adventure through genealogical storytelling. The article below was written by Big Ned, and should clue you into the fact that more than a few meaningful moments in genealogical research occur in cemeteries and graveyards.
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Scott Lang: Year One

by B. Short

| Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Cassie Lang, Gutter and Splash, Scott Lang, Syndicated
July 8, 2018

Scott Lang didn't get a solo ongoing title until 2015, a tremendously funny series written by Nick Spencer and penciled by Ramon Rosanas, a tie-in to the Paul Rudd-starring Ant-Man movie from that same year. And that's a long time on the shelf, because the character of Scott Lang was created in 1979.
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Ant-Men and the Wasps in…QUANTUM FORCE

by B. Short

| Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Gutter and Splash, How about a job, Marvel, Quantum Force, Syndicated, The Wasp
July 8, 2018

So if I were going to pitch a comic to Marvel that somehow related to Ant-Man and the Wasp or one or the other, I'd give them something called Quantum Force. That name doesn't refer to anything in the Marvel universe yet--at least, I don't think it does--but it does have a super cheesy, late 1990s New Universe kind of vibe to it.
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Original Recipe Ant-Man and the Wasp

by B. Short

| Ant-Man and the Wasp, Gutter and Splash, Hank Pym, Janet van Dyne, Syndicated, Tales to Astonish
July 6, 2018

Further complicating the "Are these really Ant-Man's stories?" question is the fact that, in Tales to Astonish #49, Ant-Man changed his suit, broadened his power set to include size increase as well as size decrease, and became Giant-Man. And although he was always Giant-Man on the cover of the comic, Hank often shrank down to Ant-Man size in the pages of his adventures, meaning that effectively categorizing these stories is just slightly bothersome.
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A Giant-Sized List of Pint-Sized Ant-Man Stories

by B. Short

| Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, avengers, Avengers and X-Men: Axis, FF, Gutter and Splash, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Syndicated, Tales to Astonish, The Wasp
July 1, 2018

Every fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) prepares for a new movie in their own way. Some flip off their internet and hide under the covers, hoping to avoid spoilers. Others rewatch all of the other MCU movies to remind themselves of the stories that have come before. Me? I read comics.
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Alternate Origins of the Ant-Man and the Wasp

by B. Short

| Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man: Season One, Avengers Origins, David Finch, Gutter and Splash, Horacio Domingues, Mark Millar, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Stephanie Hans, Syndicated, Tom Defalco
July 1, 2018

The first real retelling of Hank's origin story doesn't in 2002, almost 40 years after the original, in the Mark Millar-written and David Finch-penciled The Ultimates, a classic of Marvel's Ultimate Universe line. In it, Hank is a petty, jealous, competitive, violent scientist obsessed with proving himself smarter than Bruce Banner.
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The Irredeemable Ant-Man by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester

by B. Short

| Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Gutter and Splash, irredeemable ant-man, phil hester, robert kirkman, Syndicated
June 27, 2018

Published in 2005 and 2006, The Irredeemable Ant-Man lasted 12 issues, introducing Eric O'Grady, the third Ant-Man after Pym and Lang whose defining characteristics moral turpitude and terrible social skills. O'Grady claimed his friend was cheating on his girlfriend so that he could make a pass at the girlfriend. Then, when that friend died, he tried to seduce the girlfriend multiple times, including once on top of his friend's grave.
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The Lives and Deaths of Scott and Cassie Lang

by B. Short

| Ant-Man and the Wasp, Cassie Lang, Gutter and Splash, Scott Lang, Syndicated
June 23, 2018

Throughout the years, as marketing and editorial needs needs dictated it, the characters of Scott and Cassie Lang, as the superheroes Ant-Man and Stature and two of the main characters in this summer's Ant-Man and the Wasp, have been occasionally had their lives altered or ended to give a story having not that much to do with them some higher stakes. Which feels cold, but that's the soap opera part of comic books.
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Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas’s Astonishing Ant-Man

by B. Short

| Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Cassie Lang, Gutter and Splash, Nick Spencer, Ramon Rosanas, Scott Lang, Syndicated
June 19, 2018

On the surface, there’s a lot in common between the Scott Lang we meet on the comic book’s pages and the one we see on the screen. They’re both ex-cons. They’re both having trouble getting over their pasts. They both have a cute kid named Cassie. The points of Scott Lang's life that are getting highlighted on the screen are very present on the pages of the book. If you went into a comic shop looking for more of the feeling that you found in the film, you probably weren't disappointed.
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The Wrong Side of the Road, the Wrong Side of Town

by B. Short

| Charlotte Amalie, genealogy, Pissarro, St. Thomas, Syndicated, Trace Your Steps, Travel, USVI
March 30, 2018

This is a post in an ongoing series exploring one family’s adventure through genealogical storytelling. The article below was written by Big Ned, and features an abrupt intersection between personal and political histories.
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The Next Grave Over

by B. Short

| genealogy, Michael Jordan, St. Thomas, Syndicated, Trace Your Steps, USVI
March 27, 2018

This is part of an ongoing series exploring one family’s adventure through genealogical storytelling. This post was written by Big Ned, and features a detailed account of research done ahead of the family's research trip to St. Thomas, USVI
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600 Years Ago There Were No Surnames

by B. Short

| father and son, genealogy, John of Crete, Syndicated, Trace Your Steps
March 26, 2018

This is a post in an ongoing series exploring one family’s adventure through genealogical storytelling. The article below was written by Bri-Bri, and features lists and statements of gratitude. The plan at the beginning of this year was to post an article by my dad and an article by myself every week this year. That should put us at about 24 or so if we had kept up with it, but we’re only up to about 10. But I’m still really excited! I’m really happy doing this project. I’ve been re-reading some of the earlier posts in the series—in addition to being a contributor to this site, I also manage a lot of its web content, and I’ve been working...
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Castles, Glasites, and the Widow of Annat

by B. Short

| Charity, glasites, Hey Genealogists, lodges, perth, scotland, Syndicated
February 28, 2018

Okay. When we last left off, we had determined that Robert Milner Morrison was a cousin living in the house of an Alexander Moody and Jessie Stuart along with their children. But we didn’t really know how exactly Robert was related to these people or to whom specifically. We researched Alexander Moody and Jessie Stuart’s […]
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A Son Elaborates and Clarifies

by B. Short

| East India Company, genealogy, gumshoeing, Hey Genealogists, Syndicated, the great disruption
February 20, 2018

Dad’s last post encapsulates a lot of what I loved listening to while he was doing all of that research. First, it included a lot of the crazy, insane-seeming, ultra-detail-oriented fine-tooth-comb gumshoeing that dad always seemed so good at. Sorting through handwritten census records to find a name that had been misspelled (sort of!) a […]
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A Dad Defends His Position

by B. Short

| Begum Samru, genealogy, go back and trace your steps, Hey Genealogists, Lord Cornwallis, Presbyterian Free Church, Syndicated
February 4, 2018

In a previous post we had discovered that my wife’s ancestor Robert Milner Morrison did not have a bust in the lobby of the University of Edinburgh, but we also found out that he had graduated from there and taught at the university for a time in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In addition, […]
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A Son Digresses into Outer Space

by B. Short

| genealogy, Hey Genealogists, History of Earth, National Geographic, Syndicated, Theia planet
January 28, 2018

Here’s a digression, riffing off of what dad put into his last post. For me, when I’m thinking about questions like “How did we get here?”, the ones that dad was pondering about in that last blog update, my brain shoots all the way back to the beginning. Not necessarily to the Big Bang, which […]
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A Dad Reflects on the Research Process

by B. Short

| Awkward moments pistoning us towards clarity, genealogy, Hey Genealogists, Metaphysics, Missions statements, Syndicated, Why I Write
January 28, 2018

So at this point in our adventure we know that my wife’s ancestor Robert Morrison got a degree and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh (so now we can refer to him as Dr. Robert Morrison). We also know that he was born in St. Thomas, USVI, which stands for United States Virgin Islands. […]
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A Son Remembers Scotland

by B. Short

| braveheart, genealogy, go back and trace your steps, Hey Genealogists, irvine welsh, macbeth, scotland, Syndicated, trainspotting, william wallace
January 21, 2018

I didn’t really know much about Scotland before we went there. Or I knew what everybody knew. I knew Braveheart and I knew Trainspotting and I knew, what, Macbeth, I guess. I had read Irvine Welsh’s breakout novel in college when it was recommended to me by a friend as “the greatest novel ever written.” After […]
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A Dad Solves One Mystery and Discovers Another

by B. Short

| Edinburgh Castle, genealogy, helpful librarians, Hey Genealogists, Holyroodhouse, not so helpful librarians, scotland, Syndicated, University of Edinburgh
January 21, 2018

This post is continuing the story from Ed’s last post. Our family headed to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a two-week vacation partly to find out if my wife’s ancestor Robert Morrison had a bust in the lobby of the University of Edinburgh. The bust’s existence was according to family lore. The 1891 Winnipeg Canada census showed […]
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A Son Suggests, Hey, Let’s Get This All Down on Paper

by B. Short

| antiques roadshow, finding your roots, genealogy, Hey Genealogists, Syndicated, who do you think you are?
January 9, 2018

So I want to talk all about that Scotland trip—about what it was like and what it meant for me and what I thought it meant for the family—but I think there’s just a little bit more table setting that should be done in terms of how we got to this point. Because this project […]
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A Dad Explains How He Got Into Genealogy

by B. Short

| genealogy, go back and trace your steps, Hey Genealogists, scotland, Syndicated
January 2, 2018

It all started as a family story from my mother-in-law. Many times she had recounted a family story regarding her former husband’s family. The story went that there was a bust of one of my wife’s ancestors situated in the lobby of the University of Edinburgh. The story remained nothing more than a curiosity until […]
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A Son Asks, Why Do Genealogy?

by B. Short

| genealogy, go back and trace your steps, Hey Genealogists, Syndicated
January 2, 2018

Going down into my parents’ basement, the stairs go down, then a brief landing, then they go down the other way. Along the walls are displayed a series of maps, photographs, letters, articles, and advertisements that my father has collected over a decade of genealogical research, the images and words and posters following you down […]
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Wider Horizons: The Comic Book Medium Evolves (Comics Studies 003)

by B. Short

| Barbara Yellin, blutch, eleanor davis, Hey Cartoonists, Jamie Hernandez, jason shiga, Kate Beaton, lisa hanawalt, Lucas Varela, nick drnaso, noah van sciver, rokudenashiko, Sara Glidden, Syndicated, Tom Hart
November 28, 2017

Random Thoughts on the Syllabus For me, it was tough figuring out where to start reading the best comics of 2016, where to even start looking for them. I had heard of the Eisner Awards, but I didn’t think to look there because what I knew of the Eisners mostly featured mainstream action and superhero comics. […]
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Prehistory of Comics Part 5: A Harlot’s Progress and A Rake’s Progress

by B. Short

| a harlot's progress, a rake's progress, eleanor davis, Hey Cartoonists, how to be happy, Syndicated, william hogarth
October 18, 2017

The Splash Page Two series of paintings by British painter William Hogarth done in the 1730s are exemplary of the ways that sequential visual storytelling would eventually function in comics and graphic novels in the 20th century (and beyond!!!). Past the Page Turn So the 18th century seems like it was very much. There’s the religious […]
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Prehistory of Comics Part 4: The Bayeux Tapestry

by B. Short

| battle of hastings, bayeux tapestry, edward the confessor, harold godwinson, Hey Cartoonists, Syndicated
October 18, 2017

The Splash Page A 230-foot-long (over that, really) wool-on-linen artifact commemorating the 11th-century Battle of Hastings brings our tour of proto-comics into the second millennium. Past the Page Turn When Edward the Confessor died in 1066, the English crown was claimed by his brother, Harold Godwinson, the most powerful of the English lords at the […]
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Prehistory of Comics Part 3: Trajan’s Column

by B. Short

| ancient rome, dacia, emperor trajan, Hey Cartoonists, Syndicated, trajan's column
October 18, 2017

The Splash Page One of the major monuments to survive the fall of the Roman empire, Trajan’s Column commemorates two wars fought by Emperor Trajan and the Roman armies against the Dacians in what is modern-day Romania. The column features a massive, single frieze including scenes of construction, diplomacy, warfare, and enslavement. Past the Page […]
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