Tibet is Magical if Anything Is

Earth's crust is made up of two kinds of rock: Seafloor rock and land rock. The land rock floats around like Styrofoam on the mantle's magma, while the seafloor rock is dense and rigid.

Tibet is the name of a large plateau of land rock that's been shoved up into the air by the collision of two tectonic plates. One of the natural boundaries of the plateau are the Himalayas, the highest mountain range on earth, and created by the same action that's created Tibet.

Alastair Fothergill has produced some extraordinary natural world documentaries, a segment of which highlights a predator and prey animal pairing that looks too fantastical to actually exist.

This pairing is truthfully the Platonic ideal of hunter and prey. The ultra-cool, ultra-suave, I'm-better-than-you Tibetan fox:

Versus the created-by-Studio-Ghibli plateau pika:

What else can be said? Can a canine look like that? Do pikas have limbs? Does it even matter?

Baby Hats

We have a baby, and have been given plenty of books, clothes, and toys. Two books are from the Global Fund for Children organization: the board books "Global Babies" and "Global Baby Bedtimes."

One thing you learn having a tiny human around is that they are quite enamored with other tiny humans. So two books full of pictures of babies from around the world are hot items in any zone with its own baby.

"Global Baby Bedtimes" is pretty cool, showing babies from all over going to sleep, and we read it (or a different bedtimey book) right before bed as part of the nighttime routine.

But the other book, "Global Babies" showcases one specific thing to an American like myself: the embarrassing state of the American-baby hat industry.

I have compiled a thorough collection of the various hats that babies wear from around the world as evidenced in the photos, the last of which is the boring USA's example.

The cover reveals a little something of what's to come, with a tiny human from China:

Pretty rad headgear. But then check out this awesome Thai...headdress? I mean, is this the birthday party of the crown prince or, possibly even cooler, just some jungle kid chilling out?

And then, holy cow, I know that Afghanistan is kind like the moon and all, but they have some bitchin' hats for their babies:

The tiny Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan seems to weave beret-styled beanies that would be big sellers in hipster markets around Brooklyn, Portland and Austin:

In Greenland it makes sense to have such a cool parka:

In Guatemala the woven fabric features jaguars and tomatoes? How much American baby gear have you seen with both jaguars and tomatoes?

On the streets of Manhattan you can purchase one of these Peruvian ear-flap hats during the December-to-March months, but here it's authentically featured where it would have historically been for centuries:

And then we get to the American baby, wearing an acrylic beanie:

Maybe because I'm so close to the beanie-lifestyle (America and American living) it just seems so boring. Maybe kids in Thailand are like, "Whoa, check out that cap machine made from unnatural fabric!" Maybe the shape drives people from other places crazy...

I mean, even this Iraqi kid has cooler head jazz, and it isn't even a hat:

Check those books out is you have soon-to-be-arriving babies in your life. Part of the money spent funds charities designed to help vulnerable babies and children around the world.

From the Margins of the Big Two

Author's Note: I have a slew of theories and ideas and observations from in and around the comic book world that I have been trying to grapple with for a while. I don' really want this specific forum to turn into a comics-only place for stuff, but i need to write some of this stuff down, and this seems like the best place for right now. This will keep me satisfied for a while, and hopefully I can get back to typing up observations of life's minutiae like this site's original purpose (I'm guessing, since I can't remember the exact wording I had in my head back in 2012.

I have an entire blog devoted to the indie world of comics called Beyond the Big Two, where Marvel and DC are today's Big Two.

But because that's "Beyond...", I feel silly about putting ideas and WTF-moments from Marvel and DC on that website.

In any case, today I present two mostly WTF-characters, one each from DC and Marvel, and the two separate trajectories the characters have taken over the years.

The First:

How Did We Get Here?

I'm highlighting DC's Animal Man, a WTF-character is ever there were one. Despite his power---being able to harness and mimic the powers of nearby animals---he is somewhat beloved today.

That's a pretty silly power, and yet, in the right hands, you get something like this, Animal Man #5 from 1988, often put on the short-list for "Greatest Single Issue Ever:"

It is a phenomenal issue. But how did we get here?

Animal Man first appeared in the 1965 and bounced around five, non-consecutive issues of Strange Adventures:

I assume it was hard for house writers to find much to do with the character. He wasn't seen again until 1980, with consecutive issues of Wonder Woman, and two other consecutive pairs of books later in the '80s, bot starring Superman:

And that's it. Just ELEVEN APPEARANCES. An obscure DC character with which few writers felt compelled to do anything.

Enter Grant Morrison, young writer from Scotland trying to catch the attention of either the major publishers in America. His proposal for the obscure Animal Man was accepted, and Morrison became part of the 1980s "British Invasion" of the comic scene.

That's how we get here: mostly bizarre and obscure character is handed over to young visionary writer who's given free reign over said obscure character.

Animal Man launched Morrison's major US presence, and from there he was given Doom Patrol duties, and eventually the rest became history. Animal Man is a cult hero, almost exclusively because of Grant Morrison.

Look at how influential Morrison's first issue was, when compared to mini-series "Last Days of Animal Man" from 2009, 21 years later:

The beloved-ness extends to whom, possibly, the character is later given. Here's the most recent incarnation, the first and last issue from 2011-2014, part of the New 52 boondoggle. The writer? One of the few that today could be considered analogous to Morrison in the 1980s, Jeff Lemire:

The Second:

Record Executive: "...and make her look like Bo Derek."

Marvel Executive: "...okay, we make that change..."

Now we're getting somewhere with the WTF-ness.

Originally planned as a joint creation of Marvel and Casablanca Records, the idea was a mutant that was also a disco queen. It would be great! She'd be able to sell comics, records, and maybe even get a movie made.

At first the Marvel guys (John Romita Jr) were using Grace Jones as their template, but she turned out to be too black for Casablanca. They wanted a Bo Derek-type so they could cast Bo Derek in the movie.

Thus, the creation of the Dazzler:

Beyond making light shows---manipulating light using her mutant powers---I'm not quite sure what kind of crime-fighting she does.

By day she's a singer, originally a disco star, but she eventually moved on into other genres as time went on. I put that in italics because it seems very odd to me that this character, quickly abandoned by the record company, got her own title, and stuck around for a few years.

As you can see, she went through three separate title designs in the five years her books were coming out:

I'm all for girl comics and girl power, and this is exciting because in 1980, when the title first appeared, there weren't too many female lead characters.

I also find it odd that Dazzler shows up on multiple lists for "Worst Character Ever."

She doesn't seem to have a huge cult following, but she was liked well enough somewhere in the Marvel offices, since they brought her back in both 2015 and 2016 to be on the A-Force team, an Avengers-like group made up of only women.

Can you find her in the first book? She mostly looks the same. In the second book, she's behind She-Hulk on the left, in the turquoise dress with short dark hair, her image having been updated.