Bully Eats Food: Red Robin Burgers

I am at Red Robin!


As their commercials go: yummmmmm!

365 Days of Defiance, Day 287: We Are Legion, Day Two: Here Comes the Sun

As we continue our Legion of Super-Heroes battle against the dread dreary delectable (?) Darkseid, Legionnaire Dirk Morgna, better known as Sun Boy, steps up to the plate to take a swing against a dark demon! As Superman himself might have said..."Burn."
Panels from Legion of Super-Heroes (1980 series) #294 (December 1982), co-plot and script by Paul Levitz, co-plot and pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by Larry Mahlstedt, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by John Costanza

365 Days of Defiance, Day 286: We Are Legion, Day One: The simple things you see are all complicated / I look pretty young, but I'm just back-dated

Perhaps the finest single issue ever of Legion of Super-Heroes begins with a somber portent of only nine words, one of which is is honkin' great big-ass set of letters hewn out of the very earth:


Panels from Legion of Super-Heroes (1980 series) #294 (December 1982), co-plot and script by Paul Levitz, co-plot and pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by Larry Mahlstedt, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by John Costanza
LSH #294 is "the epic conclusion to The Great Darkness Saga" (and if you haven't never read it, then boy howdy, it's a good time and price to get it now), wraps up the multi-issue adventure in which the Legionnaires of one thousand years from now are pitted against dark, twisted versions of heroes from the past (coincidentally, from a thousand years past). Who's behind all this villainy? Aw, just look at the panel (above).


The remainder of this action-packed double-sized issue is a comics masterwork of raging against the machine: everybody, and I pretty much mean everybody, rushes selflessly into the battle against Darkseid. It's got battles, philosophy, nods to classical art, jokes, Polar Boy, a couple super-gueststars, and if you aren't careful, you just might learn something. Why, there's pretty much everything in here except the Legionnaire's kitchen sink, and sadly, Matter-Eater Lad. Since practically every other page is a salute to defiance, rebellion, and just plain standing up against the approaching darkness, I'm gonna devote the better part of the next week (and maybe beyond) to show you the full Legion and worlds of the United Planets versus the guy who shoulda been in the Justice League movie. Why, look who's fighting against Darkseid's mind-controlled hordes of unstoppable Daxamite soldiers: the Science Police (of Science!) and...the Hawkmen of Thanagar? Geez, fellas, we thought your origins were too messed up to make a guest appearance, but welcome aboard!


Look, even the Little Heroes Who Can (they thought they could, they thought they could), the Legion of Substitute Heroes, is joining the battle! Go go go, Infectious Lass!


Tomorrow: The Legion! More Legion! And yet even still more Legion! Gosh, I sure hope you all like the Legion.

365 Days of Defiance, Day 285: Slash Fiction

Panels from Slash Maraud #6 (DC, April 1988), script by Doug Moench, pencils and inks by Paul Gulacy, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by John Costanza

365 Days of Defiance, Day 284: And that's a promise from the good panther people at Wakanda

Panels from Secret Empire #9 (October 2017); script by Nick Spencer; pencils by Leinil Francis Yu, Joe Bennett, and Rod Reis; inks by Gerry Alanguilan, Leinil Francis Yu, Joe Pimentel, and Rod Reis; colors by Sunny Gho and Dono Sánchez-Almara; letters by Travis Lanham

365 Days of Defiance, Day 283: I don't have to put up with you giving me the third degree

Today, something a little different. It's the birthday of perhaps my favorite female vocalist of all time: (and yes, even Jane Wiedlin and Björk have to take a back seat to her) Kirsty MacColl. Kirsty would have been 58 today, and I mourn for her as well as celebrate her: she died in 2000 in a tragic, criminal boating accident, and I miss the many miraculous songs she would have recorded had she not died, and her spirit, humor, and joy in the world of music. She has always been very special to me.



One of my favorite Kirsty songs is from her 1991 LP Electric Landlady and is an early example of "Mambo MacColl": her songs inspired by her love of Cuban and Caribbean rhythm. I especially recommend her final 2000 album Tropical Brainstorm for many examples of Kirsty embracing the constructs of world music. "My Affair" is a protest song, a song of defiance, but not political: it's personal, as Kirsty always was, an intimate expression of individual spirit and inner fire. It may not be comics, and it may not be political, but for today, at least, please remember Kirsty and her music. Here's "My Affair."


"My Affair" by Kirsty MacColl (1991), composed by Kirsty MacColl/Mark E. Nevin
When I was just a child
My folks would drive me wild
They'd spy upon my every move
Until it drove me to despair
They told me what to wear
They told me not to cut my hair
But that's all over now
I had to tell them anyhow

It's my affair
Where I go and what I do
It's my affair oh yeah
It's my affair
It's up to me and not to you
It's my affair

That's the way I want to keep it
I kissed the boy in secret
Thrilled me to the very core
I couldn't stop I wanted more and
I didn't hear the door and
They caught me on the floor
With my affair

And when we first got wed
We used to stay in bed
All day and night all night and day
We bedded half our lives away
But that's all over now
We move in higher circles
Chomping through the upper crust
I couldn't see you for the dust
And then you met that girl
Who left you with your money spent
And now it's no concern of yours
If I sleep with the President

It's my affair
And if I don't come home tonight
It's my affair alright
It's my affair
Who I see is up to me
It's my affair

That's how I want to keep it
I kiss the boys in secret
Hiding in the parking lot
Is just as far as I have got but
If the phone should ring and
There's no one there
Then it's my affair

Eso es asunto de ella
Donde va why lo que hare

Well it's all over now
You've seen the last of me
And I don't have to put up with you
Giving me the third degree
So you go on your way
And don't come sneaking round the back door
Trying to get yourself

It's my affair
And if I don't come home tonight
It's my affair alright
It's my affair
Who I see is up to me
It's my affair



I miss you very much, Kirsty.

365 Days of Defiance, Day 282: To overthrow the men who pervert it

This one's a little over the top, sure, but if you can't have a time-travelling Abe Lincoln punching post-apocalypse Immortan Don in 2017...




Panels from Trump vs. Time Lincoln one-shot (Summer 2017), script by David Perez, pencils and inks by David Hutchison, colors by Lee Duhig
"The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts — not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it. — Abraham Lincoln, Notes for Speeches at Columbus and Cincinnati, 1959

365 Days of Defiance, Day 281: Home Under the Sea

Just like how yesterday Captain Marvel fought for Mr. Tawky Tawny's rights to live where he wants, so too does Aquaman!




Panels from Aquaman (2016 series) #25 (August 2017), script by Dan Abnett, art by Stjepan Sejic, letters by Steve Wands