"Rain drops keep falling on my head...."

Today's going to be a quick one folks, or at least a quick one for me.
It's hot as hell today, and for most of the week as well! I shouldn't have to tell you that to those who are feeling the heat right along with me, especially those that live on the East Coast.

Here's some quick tidbits I learned while surfing the 'net:

• Sherwood Schwartz, famous creator of hit shows like Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, died yesterday at the age of 94.
• One of my increasingly favorite comic websites to go to, Bleedingcool.com, posted some comments John Byrne made concerning racism @ Marvel Comics during the 70's. Here's some of what he described concerning the black characters there:

"I have commented before, on more than one occasion, that some of the current “generation”, so eager to take offense at everything and anything, would suffer a severe case of exploding headitis, if they could time travel back to Marvel in the Seventies. Then the thinking was informed almost entirely by the eternally non-PC NATIONAL LAMPOON, and it seemed that no one could ever really be offended by things that were so totally off the wall — so utterly and deliberately extreme. Some example (and watch these get ME in trouble now!):
� It was the habit in the Office to refer to CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON as “Captain America and the Fowl Coon”.
� Black Goliath was frequently referred to as “The Big Nig”.
� One writer expressed his desire to do a Black Goliath story titled “The Jig is Up”.
� Another wanted to put the credit names on furniture on the opening splash of an issue he scripted, so the name of a Jewish member of the team could be lettered on a lampshade.
� And, of course, the various examples of “fuck”, “shit”, and other such words worked into backgrounds are infamous.
And if there was anyone who didn’t think these were “funny”, they sure didn’t say anything about it at the time!"

Crazy stuff huh? I guess I can see that sort of thing happening, especially in given the time period and social climate back then. Bear in mind, that I'm not excusing such behavior, rather trying to put something like this in the proper context.
Also, I don't know if this is 100% true, since this is based solely off of Byrne's personal recollection. I've posted a copy of this on Jim Shooter's blog in the hope that he'd respond if he himself has heard stuff like this why he was at Marvel.
I don't know why Byrne felt the need to bring this up, but if it is indeed true, why didn't he speak out about it before? The link to his message board where this topic all started can be seen here:
http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37691&PN=1&totPosts=24

• Spoiler Alert! If you didn't already know by now, it appears that Sinestro is once again a full-fledged GL after the events of Green Lantern#67. This issue finally finished the "War of the Light" story-arc, and wow were there some changes to be had after this one was over. Apparently Hal gets stripped of his ring because he kills Krona, which scares the shit out of the remaining Guardians. Oh and yes it's finally true. After months of speculation on various message boards, Sinestro is once again a GL. Fans are having a field day/bitch fest with this issue, and I have to agree with them to a point. Yes we get that Geoff Johns obviously loves Sinestro, so much that he devoted an entire comic event to him(SCW) and featured him heavily when bringing back Hal in GL:Rebirth and Secret Origin. And in that context he was right to feature Sinestro so much. But making him a GL again after all the deaths and suffering he's caused Hal and the rest of the GLC doesn't make much sense. Not to mention, he did kill Kyle Rayner's mom for no apparent reason during the SC one-shot. All of that surely hasn't been forgotten right?  Also, it's been retconned that Sinestro directly caused Hal to be possessed by Parallex, leading to his own downfall, much like Sinestro's. 

I will say this, yes it seems that Johns has been planning Sinestro's redemption for quite some time now, but then why the whole SCW event?  Also, the part where Sinestro says that he "can't do this without Hal" is another example of poor characterization. Come on, Sinestro is an evil genius. When and why would he ever say something like that(and mean it) to Hal, a guy he presumably still hates?
As a counterpoint to this though, I will make the excuse concerning Sinestro being a GL again, that Mogo was the voice of reason and heavily influenced who became GLs when he was alive. Now that he/it's dead, the ring will still choice those who are worthy, but it seems they don't always have to be "good guys." Nice thought huh? I think even if Johns' has written it to seem that way, he hasn't necessarily made that point as clear as it should be.

Also bear in mind people, just because the DCU reboots in September, it doesn't mean the GL universe gets rebooted too. According to the info DC provided on the matter, only the Batman and GL titles's community stays the same. Of course there will be little changes here and there, but nothing anywhere as big as what the rest of the line faces. So does that mean Sinestro will be on the GL in the new number one-issued Green Lantern series? Could be. I guess will just have to wait and see.





I've also been really enjoying the 3rd season of Tru Blood. This shows keeps getting better with every episode and every season. It's going to be hard to wait until the 4th season wraps up and the DVD collection comes out. I don't have cable, so I've been reading the synopsis of the three episodes from the 4th season, and they all look really good so far.