Monthly Archive: August 2015

Okay, we know that the official arrival of fall isn’t for another 3-4 weeks and that the days are still hot, but… 1) kids are back in school, 2) the days are getting noticeably shorter (it’s dark when we wake up), and 3) football is ready to burst into our living rooms and onto our home theater setups every weekend. So yes, a hint of fall is in the air even if the leaves are still green. And as we ease into the waning of the year, isn’t comforting to know that Blog Wyrm is back from it’s summer hiatus.

This week, Aristotle to Digital examines the very slippery idea of representations and representation theory and dives into the question ‘when is the image of a thing also the same as the thing itself?’

About Comics continues its epic exploration of the ideas, the philosophies, the theories and the tricks of the trade that go into making a good story. Focus for this column is Part One of Denny O’Neil’s book on writing comics the DC way.

Original research is at the heart of this week’s Common Cents. As the layers of the onion are peeled back from the old saw that the US uses more than it’s fair share of energy, Common Cents finds that a very different story of energy efficiency emerges.

Finally, Under the Hood returns with one last hurrah on the Lie Series front. In this week’s offering, the techniques for turning a non-autonomous system into an autonomous one are showcased in the clear example of a particle subjected to a time-varying driving force.

Enjoy.

As the summer hiatus comes to a close and Blog Wyrm gears up to resume its usual full publishing load, it is interesting to note that this volume is number 33. The number 33 is an interesting number. Numeralogically, it is the product of two very elegant prime numbers – 3 and 11. That alone raises it to special significance. Phonetically, saying ‘thirty-three’ as a nice ring to it. A perhaps the most interesting of all the occurrences of 33 is the mysterious placement of that number on the label of Rolling Rock beer. While we at Blog Wyrm are fairly certain that the inclusion of the number 33 on each and every bottle and can is due to the fact that prohibition was repealed in 1933 we applaud the brewmasters of Latrobe for keeping the air of mystery alive. Its a beautiful example of celebrating not only a product but the lifestyle into which it fits. The Rolling Rock folk know their customers.

And we at Blog Wyrm like to think we know our audience as well. So starting next week, Under the Hood, Aristotle to Digital, and Common Cents columns will resume publication. About Comics will also continue.

Speaking of About Comics, this week’s column looks at a short comic ‘how to’ published by Marvel in 2005 for Free Comic Book Day. Perhaps what is the most interesting aspect is not what this 8-page whirlwind introduction says but rather what it omits and the implications that follow. Maybe we are reading to much into it, but it seems that maybe Marvel has decided that story takes precedence over visuals and substance over style. Read and see if you agree.

Enjoy.

Our apologies this week for being late with the intro page here at Blog Wyrm. One of our staff members is college bound and several last minute things came up. The rest of the staff is excited for our new freshman but it isn’t clear if he is excited, overwhelmed, or just a bit on the ‘can we just get this over with’ side. Anyway, our light summer schedule continues with only a few columns inking an entry.

About Comics‘s closes out its study of Alan Moore with a survey of his work on Swamp Thing. Long regarded as a revolutionary change in how comics are done, Moore’s tenure on Swamp Thing changed standards, launched the famous Vertigo line, and directly lead to The Watchmen. Take a peek and see if all the hype is worth it.

Over the years, many different people have tried to explain what makes a good story, why one film succeeds where another with the same plot fails. The good news is Greenscreen has the answer. The “bad” news is it might not be the answer you’re expecting. What’s this about vegetables?

Enjoy.

Usually this time of the year is known as the dog days of summer but do you really know where that term came from. The Blog Wyrm staff had no idea why late July and early August were termed that so we delved into the furthest corners of the internet in search of answers. One Google search later we had more hits than we knew what to do with. Being particularly industrious, we choose the first item returned and read with fascination that the dog days of summer actually spans from July 3rd to August 11th. Its name is credited to Mediterranean origin and supposedly corresponds to the 20 days before and after the conjunction between the star Sirius and the sun. This is according to both Wikipedia and Fact Monster. History.com adds some additional detail when they noted that the ancient Greeks noticed that the most intense part of summer occurred during this span. The fact that all three sources used the unusual word ‘sultry’ to describe these days leads us at Blog Wyrm to really wonder about the independent sourcing of these pieces but what do we know, we’re in a daze.

This daze seems to have carried over into the majority of the staff this week. Our only column is the continuation of About Comics‘s study of the story construction process of Alan Moore, who claims that he just isn’t that interested in plotting his stories. Are we pulling your leg or is this outrageous claim true? Read and find out.

Enjoy.