NoMeansNo - The River

"Inspired equally by jazz and fusion as trashy punk rock, NoMeansNo continues to bulldoze through genres. Describing the ardently amazing hybrid of styles is similar to tossing a delicious cacophony of jazz, fusion, blues, hardcore, rock, new wave and punk in a blender, setting to liquefy, and serving on the rocks. To label NoMeansNo a punk band would be a transgression of mammoth magnitude." link

"Mothers tell your children the truth
Don't hide the fate that's waiting
When you're born you start to drown
There's no help, no safety

First a gift of love is given
Then the winds rise, the sails are riven
IN THE RIVER"

NoMeansNo! The River:

© Estate of Vaughn Bodé. Click to enlarge.

Supercomputers To Transform Science

Poor Luornu! Disintegrated by a supercomputer designed to transform science! Don't worry too much; two of her three selves survived to fight on as 'Duo Damsel'! link

"New insights into the structure of space and time, climate modeling, and the design of novel drugs, are but a few of the many research areas that will be transformed by the installation of three supercomputers at the University of Bristol.

At peak performance the multi-million pound high performance computers (HPCs) will carry out over 13 trillion calculations per second. That is equivalent to the entire population of the world working simultaneously on hand-held calculators for about three hours." link

DANGER, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

The Blast Gets Married!

Art © Tom Bagley

A few weeks ago the Time Bubble produced the above wedding invitation from Mike Moynihan and his lovely Bride-To-Be, Kelly. Nicely illustrated by the wonderful Calgary artist, Tom Bagley, it depicts Mike as his alter-ego, The Blast.

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s Mike ran the ‘Words & Pictures’ comic shop on the University of Calgary campus. Mike was a big supporter of alternative comics and brought in a number of creators including, Mike Allred, Mark Schultz, Dan Brereton, and Mike Dringenberg, amongst others, to promote their work. Allred returned the favour by turning Moynihan into a super-villain in Madman #5 (below).

Madman & The Blast ™ & © Mike Allred

A few years later when Michael Ryan and Mark Schultz created SubHuman (below - illustrated by Roger Petersen and published by Dark Horse Comics), Moynihan (below - left) also tuned up as a member of ‘Storm Force 10’, Krill (SubHuman) Stromer’s band of action-adventurers.

Krill Stromer, Storm Force 10, & SubHuman ™ & © Michael Ryan & Mark Schultz

Mike must hold the singular distinction of being the only Albertan to be turned into a comic book character in two different mainstream comic books!

Life Survived Snowball Earth

Poster by the super-talented Chad Kerychuk and courtesy the Digital Dream Machine Blog. 'Superman' and 'The Fortress of Solitude' are ™ and © DC Comics.

It has been 2.3 billion years since Earth's atmosphere became infused with enough oxygen to support life as we know it. About the same time, the planet became encased in ice that some scientists speculate was more than a half-mile deep. That raises questions about whether complex life could have existed before "Snowball Earth" and survived, or if it first evolved when the snowball began to melt.

New research shows organisms called eukaryotes -- organisms of one or more complex cells that engage in sexual reproduction and are ancestors of the animal and plant species present today -- existed 50 million to 100 million years before that ice age and somehow did survive. The work also shows that the cyanobacteria, or blue-green bacteria, that put the oxygen in the atmosphere in the first place, apparently were pumping out oxygen for millions of years before that, and also survived Earth's glaciation. link

Captain America & The Avengers are ™ and © DC Comics

Ref: Biomarkers from Huronian oil-bearing fluid inclusions: An uncontaminated record of life before the Great Oxidation Event. 2006. A. Dutkiewicz et al. Geology 34: 437–440.

Flatland Spotted at Quantum Critical Point

Image Link

Scientists have discovered that at the abrupt lowest temperature transition at which barium copper silicate enters a new state-called the quantum critical point, the three-dimensional material "loses" a dimension to form a 'Flatland' (of sorts). Just as in the novella Flatland that posited a planar world, the spins strongly interact only in two dimensions. Effects from the third dimension are negligible.

Dimensional reduction at a quantum critical point. 2006. S. E. Sebastian et al. Nature 441: 617-620.

Mignola; Dali & Disney

MIGNOLA:

You can get this spiffy 30th anniversary poster for one buck (but act fast) from the Silver Snail Comic Shops in Toronto & Ottawa.

SILVER SNAIL COMICS

Dali + Disney = Destino

Devil Dinosaur: The Unseen Project

(CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

Atomic Surgery is proud to present this gem from the "Great Idea Vaults" of Mark Schultz and Roger Petersen. Mark tells the story:

"Two or so years ago, illustrator, cartoonist and SubHuman comic artist Roger Petersen approached me with a pet project: he was in the mind to resurrect Jack Kirby's Devil Dinosaur--a much-beloved though short-lived Marvel comic from the mid-70's--and he asked me to put together a plot proposal to pitch at Marvel.

Roger had already had at his vision of Devil and Moonboy with gusto, completing the art on a beautiful seven page comic continuity, as well as a gorgeous painted cover image (complete with layout mock-up). We agreed that our relaunch should be aimed at a young audience--ideally, kids 6, 7, 8 who were theoretically just waiting for something cool to hook them on comics."

"The proposal I came up with, to the best of my recollection, suggested retelling ancient iconic myths (the flood, Atlantis...) as adventures that Devil and Moonboy actually experience. We thought it was a lot of age-appropriate fun (although maybe unintentionally Creationist friendly--hey, it's just a story, kids...), but, although encouraged to submit by an upper-echelon editor, never received a reply from Marvel. "





Art and Story © Roger Petersen. Devil Dinosaur © Marvel Comics

"Since then, Marvel has featured a revamped Devil Dinosaur under the auspices of another creator, so that pretty much puts a period at the end of our proposed version. Roger's spec continuity and his cover are probably all we'll ever see of his elegantly-designed vision."