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He is on my list. I put both of you there in the first thing I said today. The thing that puts you a little higher is that Rupert started the vote on Amy yesterday, which is a less 'middle' thing to do. There was a lot of suspicion about her floating around, so it would be a safe vote for scum to start... If I were scum, and I wanted to seem pro-active, starting a vote on Amy would be a safe way to take action. But, still, Tammo is the absolute middle of the pack.

Don't read too much into that vote of Irena. I voted for Irena after you, and before Amy. I think I was simply lacking confidence in myself and went with the crowd. On the other days, I didn't even vote at all! What was I thinking?! Of course, good scum would not miss voting three out of four days like I did. It's too suspicious. Scum likes to be right in the middle of the pack, that is the best game play. I'm leaning toward Tammo. He is the most 'middle' family member right now. Lord, I wonder if we have any specials left. Even if we manage to get this vote right, I'm not confident that we'll get the next one.

With my case, please consider who I was the days before this... I was acting cautious and paranoid beyond what was helpful to everyone. But, I am Loyal to this family. Always have, always will. I suppose it's possible that Richelle, knowing Amy was innocent, didn't throw a vote down on her to show her "towniness". I am at a loss of sorts, but I can say that if you vote me out, the family will be lost

Let me assure you, I am loyal. I simply haven't been applying myself as well as I could. Particularly, the bickering with Dragana was quite pointless. Unfortunately, so far, everyone's been so focused on the people out front, and for the most part, that's been a huge mistake. I really am thinking Rupert or Tammo is the best choice today. They haven't been helpful, and have consistently voted wrong.

Well, who is on your list? Admitting suspicions will give us more to work from.

Some townies are townier than others, and some townies are more gullible. I'll try not to fall for that business. I'm pretty positive either you or Tammo are scum, if not both of you.

I'll have to give FMA a chance then. I usually only check out pop manga when the critical consensus hits a certain point. As for Wildcat, I wouldn't worry about him. The DC rebooting is most likely a marketing scheme more than anything else. Anything popular will keep existing, and anything a DC writer likes will be brought back I have to side with Peppermint on this one. To say manga is terrible is about equal to saying movies or TV is terrible. You've just had poor experience with it. Manga isn't a genre, it's the comics of a country. It's a shame that the West has pigeon-holed it as a genre.

Oh. My. God. We are on the verge of losing things here, folks. There are five of us, and only one scum has been taken out. That puts us in a bad position. I suspect there are two scum left. The one thing we have going for us is that even a blind vote is statistically more likely to have good results. I'd like you to consider this to start the day: Rupert and Tammo have a 0/4 voting record, voting only for townies. Fuchsia voted for townies twice, and was a late voter for Irena. I'll have to exempt my own voting record, since I've been under due stress and have been erratic. I'm feeling much better now, and capable of properly helping the family

I know them, but mainly as anime. Since I'm not interested to read them, I'm better off not making fun of them. Full Metal Alchemist too. I'm sure the art is impeccable, I just don't trust the writing on a lot of manga. I thought you meant Wildcats at first. They were one of the crap titles that got me to quit reading superhero comics. Don't know Wildcat though. For Blackhawks, I just remember enjoying the Howard Chaykin stuff as a kid. I think there was about a ten year period where I felt really down with everything culturally, between 1990 and 2000. Even the comics I knew I hated, I knew what they were about. But a lot of comics just alienate me now. That's one reason I was so happy to read Ed Brubaker's stuff (Captain America and Daredevil) which felt like it had grown up with me.

It isn't, but I don't know what title to reference that the kids are reading these days. I know the good stuff (Naoki Urasawa is awesome) but the bad stuff rolls off me like raindrops. I don't have the time to remember the crap I don't like. With comics, I distinguish between 'good' and 'good, if you like that sort of thing' quite a lot. Urasawa is simply good, and not 'good for a manga artist', if you know what I mean.

Well, you've made up your mind, so I won't preach to you, but... For a young person trying to get into comics, it can be intimidating, but it should be the selection, not the continuity that intimidates. DC is a little more continuity heavy than Marvel. Marvel has an official policy; 'Treat every comic book as if it's someone's first.' But both companies try to have some books lighter on continuity than others (like the Batman books Landshark got turned on to, relatively continuity free). Comic nerds often demand heavy continuity; think of them like the die-hard Lost fans bitching about the polar bear from season one, only if Lost was in its 50th + season. Anyway, Marvel distinctly tries to make things easy for people. They number their trades in arcs. For example, the Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon X-Men trade series are numbered (1-7 and 1-4 respectively), so that someone jumping in can know the best place to start. For DC, I read a lot less, but the trades I've bought were friendly enough, like the All-Star Superman (loved it), or the Green Lantern Sinestro Wars (bored the Hell out of me). I just don't enjoy the DC style that much (consider me the anti-Peppermint ) Navigating through the book shelf is the biggest problem, and I find it's the same for manga, especially living in Japan. The manga section of any bookstore averages around 20% of the books in Japan, whereas in America comics are usually less than 5%. If the first manga I ever picked up was Sailor Moon, it might easily be the last as well. Knowing where to start is half the battle. For true AFOLs, I might suggest circumventing the superheroes and go deep to the good stuff. Superheroes are the summer blockbusters, the undergrounds the indies films. Books like Ghost World or Jimmy Corrigan carry so much mature life, but have the vibrancy that comics make us think of. It really is the difference between the Lego sets made for kids and the adult MOCs that blow our minds.

If you honestly have 1765 sets, it's time to cool down and enjoy the sets you have. A person can't be expected to enjoy 2-3 sets a day. Take some time out, see what you like, then try buying more selectively.

That's a joke, right?

90's Brit-pop Pulp doesn't jump out at me as much as they used to, especially the lyrics. They're great, but now that I'm beyond high school relationship drama, they're harder to relate to... You're going to let him bore your pants off again... I don't care what your doin', I don't care if you screw him, just as long as you save a piece for me... I could ironically laugh at that sort of stuff then, but I'd never relate to it now. Great songs though.

I think you're talking about it as a creative/craft medium as opposed to an artistic one. Art is about technical skill, but it's also about the ideas behind it. That said, Lego can definitely be an artistic medium, since everything is an artistic medium in context. It just takes a person with vision to utilize it as such. Unfortunately I'm not that person You're really getting into the difference between art and design. There is a general umbrella of 'art' that gets used where, for example, cereal boxes are art. But a lot of artists take issue with that definition, since the world of graphic design is generally considered hollow by them. It depends on you, I guess. For example, if you see a great car or bridge, do you consider it art? Compared to something by, say, Picasso, do you see them as different categories, or variations of the same kind, like apples and oranges? Personally, I think MOC designers have a lot of skill, and a lot to respect, but if there's no idea behind it, I'd call it a sort of craft. But once that MOC triggers something more than, "How did they do that?!" I would call that art. Something like this says something to me, beyond ha-ha or that's cool: Unfortunately it doesn't say any more than the original pic would have. There is something innately artistic about Lego to me though... The notion that the whole world can be filtered into this tiny plastic parallel. That artist who someone posted at the top of this thread with the yellow bricks, he's incredibly gifted, but I don't see why he couldn't have done that with a different medium and captured the same message. I prefer the use of Lego at minifig scale and the concepts that triggers in a person.

Those are definitely three of the best Batman books ever made, and in my opinion, three of the best genre books ever made. Unfortunately, other 'great' Batman books are few and far between. They tend to be decent, but not mind blowing. You could try The Long Halloween, it's got a good rep, but I found it a little dull. The recent Batman & Robin book is pretty fantastic (Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn). It's not a very coherent story arc, but it's well written and the art is unbelievably good. I'd advise you to stick to the writers you like though. Alan Moore wrote the Killing Joke. For more serious stuff than that, I'd suggest his books Watchmen or the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book (both far better than their movies; Moore disowned the movies before they even got made, but they got made to tap into his genius). For lighter work, his book Tom Strong is awesome; pulpy action that keeps you turning the page. The writer of the other two books, Frank Miller, was a great writer/artist, but I think he's lost his mind now. Before Batman, he wrote some great Daredevil books, and after, the early Sin City books which are all good. But then he returned to Batman, for the money it seems, and the books are pretty laughable. Twenty years makes a big difference. The artist of Year One, David Mazzuchelli still does work, and it is absolutely beautiful, but it is "art comics" of sorts, so if you're looking for Batman, it'll disappoint you. The reason I suggest keeping an eye on writers/artists is this: Books don't really get popular based on characters. They get 'hot' based on the creative teams. The companies that own the characters pimp them out to make as much money as possible, and the quality really suffers. But a good creative team on a good book is pretty sublime. General high quality books of the last decade: -Grant Morrison's New X-Men -Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men -Ed Brubaker's Captain America -Grant Morrison's All Star Superman -Mark Millar's Ultimates -Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin You'll see Morrison's name all over the A+ titles of comics these days. He's become the magic man in comics. Not everything he writes is great, but those books above are, and both Marvel and DC let him do pretty much whatever he wants because he can be so damn good. For more on (super hero) comics, a site like this is pretty mature, http://www.comicbookresources.com/

I'm free if you need someone

I missed this question, but no, the Kabaya sets were sold at supermarkets. Japanese supermarkets usually have half an aisle of collectible toys. The one near my house even has a display case for them. Unbelievable!

Covered in Banana Welts by Hinckley or Rufus... I got beaten with bananas by a mob of angry townies. They left welts.

As a life long comic reader, I'm pretty underwhelmed by these. The Wonder Woman and Poison Ivy look pretty good, but all the Marvel ones look a little sketchy, particularly Wolverine. No mask Then Captain America has no wings on his head. Thor lacks detail. No comment on Iron Man. I'm guessing they are working from whatever the most recent cartoons are, which means I'm not their market. They are a long way from production, so hopefully there are lots of tweaks yet to come. I really would like to see great creations of these characters.

The 7616 Red Bucket is meant to be the step up from Duplo to regular bricks. It doesn't contain any very small parts, and no mini figs, just blocky ones. It's like a bike with training wheels... Not quite grownup, but closer than a tricycle. My daughter is two and a half, and as much as she likes her Duplo, she's mesmerized by my bricks. So, for her third birthday, this will be her present. One of the nice things about Duplo is that it fits in with regular bricks. If they made a set in between, it wouldn't work, size wise.

Thanks. Do you get what the problem was?

I know you felt confident, it was just a matter of exploring all available options. I think players from this game will be a little more paranoid and overcareful in the future... And that's a good thing!

Said the town hustler