FarThing Magazine has a new business model.

Two outrageously funny and brilliant examples of re-dialoguing recent comics that I came across today:First, Cheryl Lynn puts her own dialogue on the blank preview pages for Black Panther #26. The scary thing is, even though I knew it was her own dialogue, but it fit so well I kept thinking some of it must be the “real” dialogue mixed in. Fuckin hilarious writing, especially the whole yam-scented spears thing. And “Blacks ‘R’ Us.” It sort of reminded me of Priest’s Black Panther at its absolute best, which made me all sad because I would pay $10 an issue for more Priest Panther. Maybe more if he would wrap up all the dangling plot threads. Which reminds me. Where the hell is Queen Divine Justice these days? Has she appeared at all?

Then Tetsubo Productions puts new dialogue to the entire issue of Teen Titans #44. I have absolutely no clue what the “real” dialogue was for this issue, but it couldn’t have been half this great. Actually, scratch that, I know, because this is the real dialogue. I love the part where the Joker and Riddler’s daughters explain libertarianism most of all. That, and the whole instant methodone clinic in the Bat utility belt. Yay!

Do we really need both John Malkovich and John Lithgow? They’re the same guy, right? Is one of them the spare back-up wacky self-mocking middle aged loon, in case the main John goes on the fritz? Or what?

More spoilers for the BSG season finale below:

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Minor spoiler for the Battlestar Galactica season ender…

So you know how the Cylons are always talking about the one God they worship, in opposition to the humans and their whole pantheon? Turns out it’s Bob Dylan! The blogosphere is bugging out about the weird Dylan techno-sitar cover version at the end of the episode. Luckily, it turns out there’s a simple explanation, according to music composer Bear McCreary:

I learned that the idea was not that Bob Dylan necessarily exists in the characters’ universe, but that an artist on one of the colonies may have recorded a song with the exact same melody and lyrics. Perhaps this unknown performer and Dylan pulled inspiration from a common, ethereal source. Therefore, I was told to make no musical references to any “Earthly” versions, Hendrix, Dylan or any others. The arrangement needed to sound like a pop song that belonged in the Galactica universe, not our own.

Ohh kay then… so that “classic rock” is actually even more classic than we’d suspected. Or something. Meanwhile, more proof that Ron Moore is doing a certain amount of pulling things out of his butt in this interview.

I do hope the fourth season is the last, and it forces Moore, Eick and the others to focus on some tighter storytelling. A lot of the third season felt like padding or just drift. It reminded me, in particular, of what used to bug me about Deep Space Nine: long, long stretches where nothing much happens, followed by one or two episodes where “everything changes” — and then back to inertia again.

Spoilers for the new season of Doctor Who… (more…)

Some bastard left Ruby Ordenana naked and strangled at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Indiana Streets, near I-280 in Potrero Hill. She was an immigrant transgender sex worker and the third transwoman of color to be killed here in the past six months. There’s a vigil for her tonight at 6 PM at the corner of Mission and 24th. streets. Please show up!

I can’t help it, it cracks me up that the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments about whether a kid can wave a banner that says “BONG HITS 4 JESUS” at a high school event. Even more so, that Kenneth Starr, of blow-job inquisition fame, is the main Bong Prosecutor. Somewhere Jesus is getting stoned off his ass and laughing hysterically.

I picked up the latest issue of X-Factor, and enjoyed it, as always… but something bugged me. The same thing that’s bugged me for ages about Peter David’s writing, both in comics and in some of his recent novels. The dialogue tics.

Back in the day, Peter David was prone to silly puns. All his characters spouted them, and occasionally they’d be funny. At worst, they didn’t detract much from the story.

Now, though, all of his characters nitpick each other’s statements. This happens all the time. It felt like a dozen instances in the last Star Trek: New Frontier novel. It has the effect of making every one of his characters sound like a cranky guy at a keyboard, reading the last line he just wrote and then deconstructing it. It does not sound like humans (or even mutants) having a conversation. Examples from the latest X-Factor:

P. 13: “You can be honest with me. We have history…”
“History, by definition, is in the past. All right?”

Plus, the smart-ass dialogue gets repetitive. From the latest X-Factor:

P. 5: “I, my friend, am the world’s greatest detective.”
P. 6: “Which word was unclear? World’s? Greatest? Or Detective?”

P. 17: “Which was unclear? The shut? Or the up?”

In general, David’s clever dialogue often rings a bit…  false for me. I can get that it’s sort of stylized and elegant. Nobody wants his people to all start talking like… like Bendis characters? Okay. We don’t. We just don’t. No Bendis talking. None. Okay? But like I said, this was another good issue of an awesome comic you should be reading. It just, as usual, felt like David could have written another draft.

I’m thinking of making the July or September Writers With Drinks event into a “tribute to dead magazines.” I feel as though the Bay area magazine publishing scene was way, way more diverse in many ways, back in the 1990s. I’d like to celebrate some of the cool magazines that came out here and no longer exist.

I’d be interested in hearing your suggestions for magazines to feature, and writers who might be able to represent those magazines. I want to keep the usual format of having as many different genres as possible, including erotica, humor, literary, poetry, zine, and speculative fiction. Also, I’d prefer not to feature someone who’s already read at WWD.

Any suggestions?