Polite Dissent

Well, here we go: one more blog. There’s a good mix here, involving comic books, medicine, and a heaping serving of politics as well. Special attention will be focused on the rare instances where these combine.

I’ve been a blog troller for quite a while, enjoying what I’ve read (even when I didn’t always agree — which was quite common). I’d been thinking about blogging for a while, but a couple things finally pushed me into action, but more about those later.

Make no mistake about it, Pat Tillman was a hero.

He was not a hero because of how he died — well no more so than any other American who has died for his (or her) country.
He was a hero because of how he lived. He chose to live his life by a following his principles. He chose these principles time and time again over money and materialism. Loyalty to team, loyalty to country. This is what makes him a hero.

There should be more like him.

Look at this…my first day of blogging, and already the comics and political worlds are colliding. Micah Ian Wright, writer of Stormwatch: Team Achilles, had published a book wherein he “re-worked” some old WWI and WWII propaganda posters into anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War screeds. Admittedly, some of them were fairly clever.

He claimed, quite loudly at times, to have been an U.S. Army Ranger who saw combat in the Panama invasion. As you’ve no doubt figured out, the key word is “claimed.” He never was an Army Ranger, never saw combat, and even dropped out of ROTC.

Whether you are a conservative or liberal, or Republican or Democrat, you should find his actions wrong. It’s wrong to lie about your credentials, period. It’s even worse to do so in an attempt to gain the moral high ground. And it’s entirely reprehensible to have claimed to be in the military, much less in combat, when it’s not true. People are risking their lives for their country, and even dying, and Mich Wright didn’t have the guts to even finish ROTC.

He deserves all the scorn heaped upon him. He deserves having his second book canceled. And he has no one to blame but himself and his lies. I love seeing liars, and resume padders, brought low, so I shall enjoy every minute of this.

I just wonder what his parents think. They had to have known he wrote a book claiming to have been in the Rangers, and they had to have known the truth. Are they proud that he wrote a book? Or ashamed by his lies? I assume the latter.

Michele at A Small Victory [ed. note: sadly, this site is now defunt] has the best information on this, better than I could ever aspire to. Also check out the report at Comic Book Resources, and the words of Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette.

As for his comics, I can’t say that I ever read Stormwatch: Team Achilles. I did pick up Coup d’Etat: Stormwatch (both covers actualy – damn those multiple covers) and all I can say is ehh. Not the worst part of the mini-series (that would be the pointless Coup d’Etat: Wildcats), and not the best (Coup d’Etat: Sleeper - which was still pretty mediocre), but in the middle. So it was the mediocre-est of a mediocre series. Not exactly a ringing endorsement…
I was looking forward to the new Vigilante series (but didn’t know he was involved)

The Micah Ian Wright fallout continues. No new information, per se, but their are some interesting comments in the blogosphere. Grim, at Fanboy Rampage, sums up the Mark Millar (shameless master of self-promotion that he is) reaction well. The comments make for some good reading too.

Kevin at Thought Balloons has another nice summation here. (I don’t know if he coined the term Rangergate, but I like it). His original posts on the subject are here and here.

Four years ago, CrossGen comics started out with a bang, but now they seem to be ending with a whimper. They generated their share of controversy, first by attempting to change the comic employment status quo for the better , and then (ironically enough) by failing to follow-through on payments to some of their artists. Along the way, they put out quite a few good comics, and some not as good. Their visual appeal was always excellent, with quality art (except maybe in The First) and high quality production. In the past several months, they’ve cancelled their trade paperback reprints, and cancelled many of their monthly comics outright. Although they still put out comic books, each week seems to add another nail in the coffin of CrossGen.

This entry is not an attempt to dissect what went wrong at CrossGen or surmise what their future may hold. Others elsewhere are doing that (see any given Newsarama, the Pulse, or Lying in the Gutters). Instead, this is going to be a brief look at each of the comics that they produced (in rough order of their publication) starting with their four launch titles: Scion, Mystic, Sigil, and Meridian.

All four of these books shared some common themes. None were super-hero books, but all dealt with heroes with incredible powers. In each title, the main character was granted special abilities and marked with a yin-yang appearing tattoo – the “sigil.” In some books (Meridian, Scion), the primary antagonist also had powers granted by a sigil. Each sigil bearer also had a guide, a “higher being” of some sort, who appeared in disguise and guided the character. While each book was independant and could be read on its own, the idea of a “shared sigil universe” clearly scared some early readers away. This “shared universe” was never really a problem however, as the books remained independant until the very end of their run, when some cross-overs did occur.

Read more…

Just a quick note to office staff and hospital personnel: If you need my signature, ask for my John Hancock, not my John Henry.

I am many things, but not a “steel-drivin’ man”…

I now continue looking at the books put out by the failing CrossGen comics. After the initial releases, CrossGen added more titles to their “shared sigil universe” including Brath, Crux, The First, Negation, Route 666, Ruse, and Sojourn. Most of these seemed more two-dimensional concepts than well-composed titles. Today, I’ll look at the first three “Second Generation” books:

(Yes, I know I missed the CrossGen Chronicles as one of the first releases, but frankly, it was hit or miss and almost always a miss. I can’t recall a single good story from the series…)

Read more…

As it is the fourth of the month, I went through Mile High Comic’s list of upcoming comics (July releases) and updated my pull list. Just looking at the new #1’s coming out, here are the ones that struck my fancy, or totally disinterested me. There are other #1’s, but they didn’t inspire the heights (or depths) of feelings these did.

Good:

• Kabuki and Powers. Two good books come to Marvel’s new Icon Line
• Starjammers. Somebody finally must have written a decent Starjammers book. No really. Please. (And I think it’s the height of hyperbole to call artist Ale Garza a superstar…OK he did Gen 13, Vol. 2 — but that wasn’t nearly superstar material.)
• Batman: Order of the Beasts. By Eddie Campbell. Sounds promising.
• Doom Patrol. Not long after the demise after the last title of the same name. Sigh, I’ll give Byrne a try…One. Last. Time.
• Books of Magick: Life During Wartime. A new Tim Hunter storyline (even if it is an alternate timeline). And co-written by Gaiman. Count me in.
• Noble Causes. A new Noble Causes mini-series. Always a fun read.

Bad:

• Catwoman: The Movie. A movie title, count me out.
• Guardian. Just does not intrigue me. The title and concept remind me of Guardians of the Galaxy, an overated title.
• Loki. The Asgard mythos needs a Stan Lee (or at least a Walt Simonson) to be interesting. This has the hit-or-miss Rodi instead. Pass.
• Man-Thing. Another movie title. This time a ‘prequel.’ Nope.

Guilty admission: I ordered the Cloak and Dagger busts. Damn. I’ve always been a sucker for those characters…

Make no mistake about it, there is medical malpractice crisis coming. Medical liability insurance companies (the companies that provide malpractice insurance to doctors) are either raising their rates dramatically (500% or more, annually) or pulling out of states entirely. Some states have been hit harder than others; for instance, when I was living in Las Vegas 2 years ago, the only level 1 trauma center was shut down for several weeks, and no obstretricians in town were accepting new patients — you had to drive to Lake Havasu (more than an hour away) if you wanted to have a baby.

Now why is there a crisis? It depends on who you ask: the doctors, lawyers, or insurance companies. One undeniable fact is that many Americans are sue happy, and seemingly will sue anyone at the drop of a hat. It was repeatedly told to us in Medical School that no matter how good a physician we were, we could expect to be sued at least twice. The doctors for the most part blame the trial lawyers for filing frivolous lawsuits. The lawyers blame the insurance companies, saying that they are raising their rates due to failed investments. The insurance companies blame the lawyers again.

This round table blame game serves little purpose. While everyone is arguing about who is to blame, doctors are quietly closing up shop and retiring early or moving to friendlier states. Sooner than we realize, it will be harder than ever to find a good doctor, an inexpensive doctor, one who can fit you in to be seen, because soon there won’t be many doctors left. I’m not crying wolf here, I personally know several doctors who have closed up shop, or severely restricted their practice in both Nevada and Illinois (where I live now). I know more who are starting to consider it.

Now you might expect me to espouse a malpractice damage awards cap, and I do — but I don’t like them. I don’t think malpractice caps solve the main problem. It’s true that malpractice caps will limit the damages awarded in the lawsuits that come to trial, but that’s not where the issue really is. The main problem is that many physicians who are sued have NOT committed malpractice. The plantiffs and their lawyers know this, the insurance and their lawyers know this, too. The physician certainly know this, and wants to go to trial to clear his or her name. However, the insurance company decides to settle prior to court, figuring it is cheaper to settle than defend a lawsuit (even one they will likely win). Malpractice caps do not solve this problem, as insurance companies will have no reason to act any differently.

I also have a concern that damage caps will fail the patient who was truly injured and will require lots of money to survive, period. Medical care for the chronically ill/injured is extremely expensive.

The only long term solution is Tort reform. Not just medical malpractice law, but all law. It will be difficult, but necessary. We need to block frivolous suits, but be careful not to favor big business or to prevent the “little guy” from suing when appropriate. Unfortunately, I don’t see tort reform happening anytime soon.

Sadly, that brings us back to malpractice caps. They may be a poor “band-aid”, but the only one quickly available. They do drop the insurance rates, and ease the malpractice crisis. I stand by my statement that I do not like them, but unfortunately I see them as a necessary evil if we want to fix our current mess.

A minor crisis (well, a distraction) in the Polite Dissent household tonight. I will resume the CrossGen blogging tomorrow.

My wife was kind enough to let me assist in two ways for our wedding: I could choose the cake topper, and I could pick the music for before the ceremony and the processional. She knew my interests and my sense of humor, so she knew what she’d be sacrificing.

For the music, I stayed with the normal Barouqe music common to weddings. I did add a few songs into the mix: the Princess Bride, the theme from Lost in Space (the movie, not the TV show…bad movie, but good music), and the theme from the Incredible Hulk TV show. It sounds weird, but all the pieces fit in perfectly with the traditional music. Unless you knew what my additions were, you’d just think it was regular wedding music. You could see people give a smile when they recognized what I added, but it wasn’t many. Last but not least, I had the Planet of Krypton (from Superman the Movie) as the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and groom were introduced. It’s the best short dramatic piece, ever.
I let my bride keep the traditional music for her grand entrance. I’m not stupid.
Read more…

You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Ruse
Ruse followed the adventures of a Sherlock Holmes-like character, Simon Archard, and his female Watson, Emma. It was set during a Victorian Age in an Earth very similar to ours. It was heavily promoted by CrossGen as it was the first title written by Mark Waid since they lured him from Marvel and DC. Ironically, it was also the last CrossGen title he wrote before returning to Marvel and DC. The series had great potential — especially due to the perfectly fitting artof Guice — but that potential was never realized. This was for several reasons. First, we learn that superpowers exist on this world, and that Emma possesses some, but wants to hide that fact from Archard. This simple idea — and deus ex machina — ruins much of the atmosphere so carefully created as it doesn’t match the setting, except as a tie into the “shared sigil universe.” Second, the comic is rife with pseudo-science. If there’s going to be magic, fine, call it magic and be done with it. Don’t try and explain it away in pseudo-scientific terms that evan a grade schooler can tell are utter nonsense. i.e. “Their minds were controlled by metal filings in their snuff which, when inhaled, were aligned in such a way…” More technobabble than Star Trek. Third, unlike the other CrossGen books, Ruse had no real guiding theme. Sure, a mystic diamond would occasionally pop up and Archard would hunt it, but it was more like a series of random adventures. As I said, potential, but that’s about it.

Read more…

Fridays are always the slowest days in the clinic; I guess patients don’t want to come in the day before the weekend. Conversely, Monday is the busiest day, and we always end up being over-scheduled. This week has also had the nicest weather so far this year, so I think a lot of patients are outside playing (not that I blame them). I’ll just catch up on some Social Security and Disability paperwork for patients, and cruise the web.

I am a board certified Family Practice physician. That means that after medical school, I finished a residency in Family Practice and then passed the certification exam. I chose Family Practice because I like the variety of patients and ailments that we see, plus I like the concept of being able to treat the the whole family, not just individual patients. After residency, I served in the Air Force as a physician for the next four years. Most of my time was spent at Nellis Air Force Base, though I was deployed to both Haiti and the Middle East. I finished my time with the USAF last summer, and took a position as a second physician in a small practice in a central Illinois town. I’m from Southern Illinois originally, but this is close enough. I love being back in the midwest, but my Nevada-bred wife is taking some time to adjust.

I’ve collected comics since I was 10. The first I remember were the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four I read of my cousins one Thanksgiving. The X-Men issues were those at the waning end of the Claremont/Byrne run – #139, 140, 141, 142. The stories were the Nightcrawler/Wolverine/Alpha-Flight vs. Wendigo story, plus “Days of Future Past” — still some of my favorite comics ever.. I started collecting comics myself shortly thereafter, and haven’t looked back. While I am a sucker for super-hero comics (well, good ones) I don’t restict my reading; I read all varieties from any publisher, no matter how small or obscure.

I’ve been considering the medicine/comic theme for a while now. Most comics have appallingly bad medicine in them, or bad science, or both. I’ve been working on building a website that covers this ground for about a year now (I know, I’m slow), and I hope to actually put in online someday soon…

Politically, I tend to be moderate with leftward leanings. I also have strong pro-Defense and libertarian streaks. I preferto consider each issue individually, and not buy any party platform as a whole.

Hope that answers some questions (or raises more…)

In this final installment of my recap of CrossGen titles, I touch on two mini-series in the “sigil-verse”, and two non-sigil continuing stories. The remarks are very brief this time out.
Part 1 can be found here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.
Read more…

I hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day. My wife and I met my parents up at Starved Rock State Park in north-central Illinois, and had a nice day of hiking and climbing. There was an excellent dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Peru (Illinois, that is, not South America), then a night at a bed & breakfast in Utica, Landers House (we has the “Log Cabin” Room). Finally, a little more hiking, then a big Mother’s Day brunch at the Starved Rock Lodge (mmmm, Belgian Waffles…). A very nice relaxing weekend.
Normal blogging to resume tomorrow.

JSA #60 “Redemption Lost, Part 1″
Geoff Johns, writer
Tom Mandrake & Don Kramer, pencilers

The JSA is the only group that not only has a doctor, but actually has him practice medicine. This issue shows Dr. Mid-Nite (Pieter Cross) and one of his assistants operating on a bullet wound victim in the back of his clinic. Pieter is also recalling the first life he was unable to save: his mother’s.

The medicine is this issue is mostly well done, with a handful of nit-picks. Johns also earns extra-points for bringing up a rare tropical disease.

First, the operating room staff is definitely minimalist: just Pieter doing surgery and his assistant administering anesthesia and watching the monitors. While I doubt this would meet quality of care guidelines, it is an emergency situation. By OSHA rules, his assistant needs a mask and eye protection. The sterile technique also leaves a little to be desired, with Pieter wiping his brow with his bloody hand (a definite no-no; do that while scrubbed in and the surgeon will smack you. Plus, Pieter’s in his costume — so what good is wiping his brow going to do anyway?).

His assistant warns Pieter that some flutter is occurring. Ventricular flutter rapidly degenerates into venticular fibrillation, a dangerous and fatal rhythm. Pieter says the heart was injured, which can certainly lead to ventricular flutter and fibrillation. My nitpick is that the rhythm shown on the monitor, and the rhythm just before he flatlines, is not a flutter (nor a fibrillation rhythm), but looks instead like a normal heart rhythm.

Pieter reveals that his mother contracted Chagas disease while on a seminar with him in Brazil. Chagas disease is a parasitic infection transmitted by the bite of the Reduviid bug, also known as the assasin bug. If caught early, it is treatable, but in most cases a chronic infection develops that causes serious heart and gastrointestinal problems many years later. At this point, the infection is not curable, and the symptoms alone must be treated. It’s certainly possible that his mother caught Chagas on a trip to Brazil, it is common there, but that would have had to have been at least 10-20 years ago…so how long has Pieter been a doctor?

One last thought: In the Doctor Mid-Nite mini-series, we learn that Pieter has had his medical license revoked. When did he get it back? Or is he practicing medicine without a license?

Elektra #32, #33, and #34 “Fever, Parts 1-3″
Rob Rodi, writer
Steven Cummings, penciler

I was worried when I started reading the first issue and found a major mistake on the second page. Luckily the rest of the story arc was fine from a medical point of view. (The story was too thin for a three-parter, and all the chararacters — especially the male characters — looked a little too cartoony…but the medical facts were good).

Elektra, recently back from a mission to Southeast Asia has picked up an influenza virus. Will it interfere with her mission to kill a Russian mobster? (Spoiler: yes, but of course she succeeds.)

The first issue is mostly set up, while the second and third issue show Elektra under the effects of the virus: weakened, febrile, hallucinating.

The influenza virus is correctly shown to be a serious infection. Influenza is a particularly nasty virus, one that we in the US do not take as seriously as we should. Fever and chills are common with influenza. However, as influenza is a respiratory virus, I would have expected Elektra to show more respiratory symptoms (cough, for instance). She is shown gasping for breath in one scene, and shortness of breath is a common symptom of influenza.

The mistake on page 2? The radio in the background of Elektra’s room: “In international news, reports of a virulent new strain of flue virus that’s seemingly resistant to all existing varieties of penicillin…”

Influenza is a virus. Penicillin is an antibiotic – that means that it works on bacteria, not viruses. All strains of influenza, in fact all viruses, are immune to pencillin. This may be a common mistake (see recent Avengers issues, and many Batman issues dealing with the “Clench” virus), but still one that shows a misunderstanding of one of the basic principles of modern medicine.

I’m not sure whether I should be amused or concerned that the malpractice crisis in Illinois is the lead story in this week’s syndicated News of the Weird

As reported on CNN.com [editor's note: link now closed], a recent study looked at several “herbal viagras” available online or advertised in magazines. Some of these “natural medicines” contained actual Viagra (sildafenil), or its close cousin Cialis (tadalafil). These are drugs that are not safe for everyone to take, and drugs that are illegal to prescribe without a medical license. The other preparations contained some combination of yohimbine, ginseng, and/or gingko biloba. These herbs have some definite side effects themselves, and they have no positive effect on erectile tissues. In fact, we were specifically taught in medical school that yohimbine only works because people thinks it works; it has no physical effects on erection.

This study demonstates one of the main problems with herbal and natural medicines: purity. Study after study has shown that herbal preparations rarely contain what they clain too. Some contain too little herb, some too much. And some don’t contain the herb in question at all. Say what you will about conventional medicines, purity is something a patient does not need to woory about. 500 milligrams of amoxicillin, name-brand or generic, contains 500 milligrams of amoxicillin. This is clearly not a claim that can be made about natural/herbal medicines.

Just remember these studies next time you visit a doctor or decide a condition or illness requires treatment. Caveat emptor - buyer beware.

Two recent storylines in Marvel comics have looked at biological warfare. How accurate was the science and medicine? Surprisingly good.

In the “Red Zone” (Avengers #65-70), the Avengers face the devastation occuring after a cloud of bacteria is released from a secret government lab under Mount Rushmore. The disease is determined to be necrotizing fasciitis. The story by Geoff Johns and the haunting art by Olivier Copiel do an excellent job of showing the destruction even a small biological attack could cause.

The medicine is sound. The story correctly identifies Group A Streptococcus as being the main bacteria responsible for necrotizing fasciitis. Under normal circumstances, the disease spreads unbelievably quickly, so the speed of the genetically modified version is entirely possible. Airborne dissemination would be likely, as indicated in the story.

There were a couple small medical nit-picks: First, on at least one occasion, the bacterium is identified as a virus. Second, the characters and narration refer to necrotizing fasciitis as the name of the bacterium; it isn’t – it is the name of a disease that can be caused by several different bacteria (the most common, and the one ultimately identified in the comic, is Group A Streptococcus ). Finally, it surprises me that never once are antibiotics discussed. There’s a great deal of talk about using “enzymes.” While there’s no reason an enzyme wouldn’t work, why not stick with the tried and true treatment: an antibiotic effective against Group A Strep. Overall: A good well-written story with sound science. The art by Copiel fits the mood well.

In “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” (Mystique #7-10), Mystique is sent to retrieve a vial of a genetically-modified smallpox vaccine. While on her mission, she encounters the Host, a mutant who controls viruses. Not as deep or as scary a story as the Red Zone; more of a caper-flick really.

The medicine is well thought out. The writer (Brian Vaughan) has clearly done his research. Vaccinia is correctly identified as the virus used for smallpox vaccination (not variola, the smallpox virus itself). Ebola is noted to be a hemorrhagic fever. He is correct in stating who has had smallpox vaccinations: most people born before 1970, military members, and some healthcare personnel. Vaughan also earns extra points for bringing up Murray Valley Encephalitis, a rare mosquito-borne virus found only in certain parts of Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea. My only nit-pick is the symptoms of the virus itself: while described as being Ebola-like, it shared few symptoms with Ebola (or smallpox). Overall, another good story. Mystique has surprised by being more readable than I anticipated, with captivating stories and good art.

E-Bay has certainly changed the way I buy my back-issue comics. I used to prowl around the dimly lit back rooms of dusty, forsaken comic shops looking for my back issues. That works fine, assuming you live in a big enough city to support multiple comic shops. It also works well when looking for a broad range of issues, but is pretty much luck-of-the-draw when looking for elusive individual issues. On the plus side, the condition of the comic is easy to determine for yourself.

Now, I buy most of my back-issues on e-Bay. I can sit at home and search e-Bay for what I want. If it’s not there, I can always search again in a few days, or few weeks. I’ve never not found what I’m looking for; it may take awhile, but it’ll show up (admittedly, I’m not looking for super-rare Silver or Golden Age comics — that’s what auctions or dealers are for).

There are certainly some downsides to using e-Bay. First, money is sent before you get the merchandise, so there’s always the risk of not getting what you paid for. The best bet here is to buy from established sellers with good feedback — don’t just check the number, read the actual feedback to get a feel of how business is done. Always look back to last few negatives to see if the complaints seemed valid. I’m not worried about 1 or 2 negatives; sell to enough people, and somebody will be unhappy. I get concerned when I see a lot of negatives or neutrals, or a few with a low overall score. Along the same lines, I think twice before buying from someone using private feedback.

On e-Bay, condition cannot be verified before you buy. I find that almost everyone overgrades their comics, so I always assume a slightly lower grade than advertised. Again, buying from an established dealer or someone with a good feedback profile will help here. If grade is a big concern, you can always buy CGC graded comics; they’re easy to find on e-Bay. I don’t do this because the high grades always end up overpriced (I don’t care if it is a 10.0 book, U.S. 1 is still a worthless comic, and not worth 50 cents, let alone $100), and I actually like to read the comics I own, and that invalidates the CGC grade.

My biggest personal problem on e-Bay is doubles. Most e-Bay comics are sold in sets or lots. So I often end up buying 2 or 3 more comics more than the specific issue I want, and up with 2, 3, 0r even more copies of certain issues. Not a big deal, because I can sell the doubles myself on e-Bay, but just a hassle.

As I’ve both bought and sold comics regularly on e-Bay, here are some annoyances I’ve encountered, and pointers to both buyers and sellers:

• A lot implies many comics (alot of comics, duh), not just 2 or 3. “Witchblade lot” suggests you are offering more than just a handful of comics
• If you advertise a run of comics (i.e. Amazing Spider-Man #310-330), this should mean that you are offering all of that run. In the body of item, it should not say: issues 310, 312, 324-325, 330. If it’s not a complete run, indicate that in the title.
• Along the same line, if you are offering a run of comics in Trade Paperback format instead of individual comics, be specific about it. Don’t lead off with “100 Bullets, issues #1-15” and then hide the fact that the run consists of trade paperbacks at the bottom of the listing.
• Reserve prices are annoying. I hate winning a bid for an item, only to discover that it’s still below the reserve price. Be up front with the pricing. If you don’t want to sell it for under a certain amount, then make that the starting price.
• If it’s not CGC graded, don’t give it a number grade as if it were. Don’t call it “apparent 9.8″, or “certain 9.6″ or such nonsense. Call it “near mint” or “good” or whatever.
• Be up front about shipping & handling charges; don’t try to make up money on a cheap auction by charging for exorbitant S&H fees.
• However, remember that it is shipping and handling. I charge slightly more than shipping alone (usually by 25-50 cents, depending on the size of the item) because I package securely, and that costs money. If I ship at just postage alone, I lose money.
• Media mail is fine, but ship promptly. I pay quickly and expect the same courtesy. I expect to see the item on my doorstep within 2-3 weeks. Even Media Mail is faster than this (but according to Comic Buyer’s Guide, there are some questions as to whether or not comics are eligible for Media Mail as they contain advertisements).
• Leave feedback promptly. Sellers should leave feedback when the payment has been received (or cleared the bank, if a check). Don’t play “feedback extortion” by waiting until I give you feedback before you give me my feedback. As buyer, my job is to pay for items, and as soon as I’ve done this I deserve my feedback. That is my policy when I’m selling.
• Finally, remember that annoying smart-alecs like myself will be reading your listing, so make sure of your facts. For example, the infamous DC Implosion occurred in 1978, long after the demise of The Hawk and the Dove.

Recently, a certain CBG commentator has had some negative things to say about the comic blogosphere. Comic Treadmill sums it all up nicely.
Tired of the negativity (though I’ve contributed my share), I hearby present Ten Reasons that Comic Blogs are Superior:

1. Speed: Opinions and views can be expressed almost instaneously. No need to wait for weekly or monthly publications.
2. Discussion: The communication is not one-sided, like most periodicals. There are interactions between the bloggers and people leaving comments, and between the bloggers themselves. With blogs, you can have posts on various blogs build and expand on each other.
3. Variety: With hundreds (if not more) of comic-blogs to choose from, if you don’t like one person, you can easily find ten or fifteen you will like. Whether you like professional blogs, semi-professional blogs, or totally non-professional blogs: all are available. I’m not paying a subscription; I’m not limited to 3 or 4 columnists.
4. Dedication: Bloggers are posting because they enjoy and are dedicated to their interests. It’s not our job; we’re not paid to do this. The hours we spend, after work, after family, are our contribution to the comics community.
5. Specificity: If there’s a particular comic-book interest, chances are that a blog covers it. Graeme covers the highlights of the message boards in Fanboy Rampage, so I don’t have to read them all; Laura is the source for all things Aqua; this blog (generally) presents the medical aspect of comics. Other interests have their own blogs as well.
6. Peers: I don’t necessarily care what John Q. Professional cares about the latest comic. I’m more interested in what average readers like myself think about the comics. Did everyone think “Iron Fist” sucked as much as I did? Was everyone else enthusiastic about “Monolith”? I can get advice on books to try from people with similar opinions.
7. Community Support: Comic bloggers support the comic community, especially the smaller publishers, more than any professional publication. How many bloggers brought attention to the recent “Demo” contest? How many helped Fantagraphics with their recent concerns? How many push smaller, less well-know books?
8. Democracy: Anyone can blog. This is not a negative; it’s a positive. I can find information from anyone about anything. It’s not a secret club. Anyone can join for little, if any, cost (other than time). There are comics blogs from teachers, lawyers, students, doctors, housewives, secretaries. If I don’t like what I see, I don’t have to read it. What matters is not who you are, but what you say and how you write.
9. Cross-Overs: You’ll never see George Will write an article about comics, but more mainstream and political bloggers will frequently write about comics. Michele of A Small Victory makes no secret of her love of comics, and Meryl Yourish writes some hilarious Hulk dialogue (here’s a good one), and her Superhero Dating Ratings are hilarious.
10. Honesty: I’m not worried about conflicts of interest in comic blogs. There have been always been rumors of biases in the “professional” internet comic news sites (i.e. “The Pulse in is CrossGen’s pocket”, “Marvel gets preferential treatment from Newsarama”, etc.). To some extent these are tue because these sites have to worry about not offending publishers, writers, artists or they may not be given their next big story. These worries don’t exist in the comic blogosphere. If it’s below average, we’ll say so.

This one’s good for a chuckle. From Fox News, Japan Lawmakers Scolded for Reading Comics. The senior member of one of the political parties scolded the younger members of his party for reading comics in full view of the Prime Minister. Now, he was scolding them because they were being impolite, not just because they were reading comics.

One of the last sentences of the article was quite telling:

Comic books, often with adult themes, are common reading material for middle-aged men.

If only this statement held true in the West!

When a comic company publishes a series, is that a promise? Are they telling their readers that they will continue this series no matter what? No, of course not. A comic publisher is first and foremost a company. They need to make a profit. Unprofitable series are subject to cancellation.

For a standard episodic series, cancellation is regrettable, but understandable. There aren’t many, if any, loose threads to tie up.

What about a mini-series? Starting a series is a promise. It’s a promise to the reader that the mini-series will be finished. Certainly, sometimes bad finances rear their ugly head and a mini-series has to be shortened. Regrettable, but understandable. But what about when the company simply does not deliver? Is it the writer? The artist? The publisher? Certainly a comic company should not start a series unless it knows it can finish it. Yes, I’m talking to you Marvel Comics and Kevin Smith. This was a broken promise.

Then there are the series that have an underlying concept. These series have too many loose threads to simply end abruptly. Would it have been right to have ended Sandman in the middle of A Dolls House? Sojourn was one of these books with such a theme: Arywn was searching for the magic arrow with which to slay Mordath. It was not a perfect book, by any stretch of the imagination (as I stated earlier). It was a fun read, however. Those of us who started the series in the beginning have been following Arwyn’s adventures every step of the way. Now comes the news that Sojourn will be ending prematurely. Issue #34 will be the final issue (although it has been solicited through #37). This is a broken promise. There was an understanding from the beginning that Arwyn would finish her quest, one way or another. It may not have been put in writing, but it was a promise understood by both sides. If the series had to end early, they owed us a real conclusion, not some clich頦amp;#8220;to be continues?”. Hell, Arwyn doesn’t even appear in the final issue.

I’m tired of broken promises and I’m making a stand. I’m voting with my dollars. I will not support CrossGen anymore. Before I buy any new Marvel mini-series, I will be sure that the creative talent can actually complete it. I will not support Kevin Smith projects anymore.

Today, we’ll look at a classic: Strange Tales #115, “The Origin of Dr. Strange”, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

For those of you who don’t know the story behind the Master of the Mystic Arts: originally a brilliant and arrogant surgeon, Dr. Stephen Strange’s hands are severely injured in a car accident. Told that he will never operate again, he refuses offers of assistance and charity and turns to the bottle becoming an alcoholic bum. Eventually, he overhears someone talking about the mystic “Ancient One” and he journeys to the Himalayas to persuade this wizard to heal him. No spoilers here, you’ll have to finish the tale yourself. (Try Marvel Masterworks: Dr. Strange or The Essential Dr. Strange)

Let’s look in on the scene where the doctor is talking to Strange after his car wreck…

Doctor looking at X-Rays: I don’t know how to tell you this…
Strange: Speak up, man! I can take it! What do the X-Rays show?
Doctor: Although your hands seem to be all right. The nerves have been severely damaged!

There’s a major problem here. X-Rays are good for looking at bones, lungs, and certain other organs and masses. They do not show nerves.
You’d need an MRI for that.

In fairness to Lee and Ditko, MRIs did not become common until the mid-1980’s, long after Strange Tales #115 was published. Frankly, I’m not even sure today’s MRIs would be able to show the fine motor nerves that Strange injured; you’d probably need a nreve conduction study. Regardless, an X-Ray wouldn’t help. Now I’ll stop picking on Dr Strange before Neilalien sends the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth after me…

What exactly is Dr. Doom a doctor of?
As I recall, he got expelled from college, so when did he receive his bachelor’s degree, let alone an advanced degree? Of course, being ruler of your own country comes with perks, so he’s probably got more honorary degree from LIT (the Latverian Institute of Technology) and Lat State. But somehow Dr. (honorary) Doom doesn’t quite have the same ring to it…

UPDATE (16 May 2004, 0112): University links are up and working.

It’s a beautiful day in central Illinois. The sun is out, a nice breeze is blowing, and not a storm cloud in sight. I just returned from a nice bike ride, from Pekin to Groveland to Morton and back by some mostly deserted country roads. Passed a group on tandem bikes. I could never feel comfortable on a tandem, sure you go faster, but I never entirely trust the other person to steer. There were a few recumbent tandem bikes too. I’ve never seen those before — they just don’t look comfortable.

Today is day for housekeeping, both literal and figurative. I need to file and put away this month’s shipment of comics, plus do some yard work. I also want to play with some of the WordPress CSS files and spruce up this site a little.

In the meantime, here are some good weekend blog-o-bits:
Laura at Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog waxes rhapsodic about Aquaman #18, and particularly some very nice interior art. Makes we want to run out and read the issue now; unfortunately it won’t be in my shipment until next month (sigh…)

Johanna at Cognitive Dissonance continues her weekly “chick check” (Marvel here, Mature DC here ), with results that are slightly less dismal than usual…so far. As she cautions, regular DCU titles still have to be totaled.

Michele at A Small Victory reports that children’s book writer extraordinaire Syd Hoff is dead and writes an elegant eulogy. Rest in Peace, Mr. Hoff.

H at The Comic Treadmill takes a hard look back at the Outsiders Special #1 and issue #28. His closing dialogue between the JLA and Geo-Force is a must read. (H, you’ve got to get a longer name so that links to you are easier to see. Just one more letter, please. How about “Ha”, or “Hi”, or “He”?)

In Anime news, the series Full Metal Alchemist has secured a US release in October of this year. I understand the Cartoon Network will be showing it as well. I saw several episodes of this at Millennicon this year and it was excellent. (I watched a subbed version, so the dubbed voices in the trailers seem a little off to me…). This series bears no relation to Full Metal Panic, another highly recommended anime series.
UPDATE: Watch Trailer 2 (as it explains the story better), then Trailer 1.

UPDATE: I see I’m having some sort of problem with the archives and calendar. I’d like to point out that this was happening before I started changed the CSS. Oh well, I’ll see if I can find a fix tomorrow… UPDATED UPDATE: Fixed the archives, temporarily, by upping the number of posts per page.

In the June 2004 issue of Wizard (#152), there is a Question and Answer session with Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, Joe Quesada. After he’s done with comics, Quesada should move to politics. He would be a great politician; what he says is always interesting, and he usually manages to say something stupid at least once.

As I read the article, there were a couple of times where his responses to questions caught my attention. First, when asked who was more important to Marvel, Mark Millar of Brian Michael Bendis:

You’ re asking me to split the baby in half in a very Solomoesque way at which point I’d have to say, it is Mark Bendis.

Quesada has his biblical metaphors confused here. Solomon was presented with a dilemma in which two women both claimed to be the mother of an infant. Solomon had to give the baby to the right woman. In this situation, there was a definite right answer and a definite wrong answer – the trick was in figuring out which was which.

Quesada, on the other hand, is saying that he cannot choose between Millar and Bendis – that is there is no right answer. This is a very different situation than that of Solomon. His answer – though wishy-washy – is fine, stating that he really cannot pick one over the other. But I don’t think that “Solomonesque” is even a word.

After his biblical wisdom, Quesada goes on to discuss not only Millar and Bendis, but also Joe Straczynski, and Neil Gaiman:

These guys [Millar, Bendis, Straczynski] and Neil Gaiman with 1602, are creators that have brought in so much revenue or have created new franchises that never existed before, like 1602 and Supreme Power.

Later, in the same paragraph:

We value all our creators, but there are guys who are just full on revenue-makers. Also important to us are up-and-coming money-makers like Brian Vaughan.

I understand that a comic book publisher is a company and needs to make money. But it is disheartening to hear the Editor-in-Chief, a creator himself, talking about his headlining staff solely in terms of revenue production. Never once does he mention talent, creativity, or ability.

This is the kind of thinking that can only hurt the industry. At this point, anybody could write the X-Men and make money. But a bad writer will eventually drive the fans away, even from a well-known franchise. On the other hand, a talented creator will bring fans to a book. How many people read Gaiman’s Sandman in the beginning? How many by the end? Quesada needs to focus not only on revenue, but talent as well. He needs to let the creators know, and the fans know, that money is not the only issue.

As an aside, the Squadron Supreme is not a new franchise, and has existed for a long time. I first ran across them in an old issue of Defenders, and they were around before that.

When asked about Chuck Austen, “one of the most criticized writers in comics,” Quesada responds:

His books still sell…Look, if I ran my business through what the message boards and the Internet wanted, I would have been out of business. A perfect example is the ‘Net’s reaction to Ultimate Spider-Man. It was horrifically negative…If I would’ve followed the ‘Net, I’d be out of a job.

In defense of Chuck Austen, Quesada says that his books make money. As I said above, anyone could make money on the X-Men. The trick is bringing new readers to the book and keeping them. This is where “revenue-generation” isn’t enough.

In terms of not listening the buzz on the Internet, he brings up how the ‘Net was wrong about Ultimate Spider-Man. While this may be true (I honestly don’t know), it’s a bit disingenuous. Quesada is like a “psychic” here; remembering only the hits, conveniently forgetting the misses. The ‘Net may have been wrong about Ultimate Spider-Man, but it’s right more often then it’s wrong – Marville, and X-Men: Phoenix ring a bell?

In fairness, Quesada is the EIC, and he’s being paid well for his knowledge and expertise. The decisions are his to make, but he would be wise to listen to all his sources of information.

When questioned about recent continuity lapses, Quesada states that continuity was much easier in Stan Lee’s time, when Marvel wasn’t putting out so many titles. He goes on to state that he doesn’t believe that continuity is that important, and ends with:

For me, that’s the key; is a continuity glitch going to keep a writer from writing an incredible story? If it is, then to hell with the continuity – just go and write the great story; we’ll fix the rest later.

Quesada presents continuity as if it were an either-or situation: either tell a good story or follow continuity. But it’s not an either-or choice. It is possible to tell a great story within continuity. It may take a little more effort, but that’s all. Take a little more time and make sure the continuity is correct. It’s not like Marvel is known for putting comics out on time (the Ultimates, NYX…). Just utilize the Assistant Editors.

Continuity cannot be “fixed later”, just ask DC Comics, home of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour.

Overall, I do think that Quesada is doing a good job as Editor-in-Chief. He has certainly revitalized Marvel Comics. I just think that he needs to avoid developing “revenue” tunnel vision and push the creativity and talent.

Green Lantern #153
Judd Winick, writer
Dale Eaglesham, penciler
“You Can Never, Never, Never Go Home Again…”

While high school reunions have always been the perfect setting for tension and drama, they are also a perfect set-up for comedy. Why else would they be so common in movies, TV sitcoms, and reality shows?
In this issue Kyle and Jen go back to California for Kyle’s high school reunion. The cliche characters are all present and the issue is a run light read, before Winick’s change to a heavy-handed style for the remainder of his run.

I’ve never understood how Kyle could keep his identity secret…
Earl: Hey, there’s Kyle Rayner with his girlfriend, that ex-model Jennie-Lynn Hayden. Man’s she’s hot!
Howie: Earl, she’s green.
Earl: So? She’s a photographer now, think she’ll take my picture?
Howie: Isn’t she that super-hero Jade?
Earl: You sure?
Howie: Yeah…look, she’s green too and looks just like her. Jade lives in New York, just like Kyle and Jennie-Lynn.
Earl: Doesn’t Jade always hang out with that Green Lantern guy?
Howie: Yeah.
Earl and Howie: You don’t suppose…

Attention Laura:
Just to add my two cents worth. It’s simply not an Aquaman comic without Tusky.
–Scott
charter member, S.P.L.A.SH.
(Society for the Preservation of Large Aquatic Super-Heroes)

Kinetic #1 (“Superzero”), #2 (“Crash”)
Kelley Puckett, writer
Warren Pleece, artist

In Kinetic, we meet Tom Morrell, a high-school senior who suffers from “over a dozen major syndromes.” His mother reminds him that he has hemophilia, diabetes, and monmyelic amotrophy, before scolding him and injecting him with a large shot. Tom has difficulty in school, getting picked on by both teachers (indirectly), and students (directly). Because he walks a pretty girl home and misses his “shots”, he has some sort of spell and passes out, requiring his admission to the hospital. He then resolves to kill himself. Issue #2 continues where issue #1 left off, with Tom trying to kill himself. It also includes a great deal of back story and flashbacks, but not much new medically.

I can find no medical references to “Monomyelic Amyotrophy“. So either writer Puckett has made up a disease (which I have no problem with), or it is a typo for Monomelic Amyotrophy. I suspect the latter because Tom exhibits the symptoms of this condition: a weakness and wasting of the muscles of a single limb. It is most common in males between 15 and 25, so that fits as well.

Tom also suffers from Hemophilia, a genetic disorder where the body is missing one of the proteins that allows blood to clot. Therefore, people with hemophilia are prone to bleeding much more than a normal individual, and even a small cut can prove significant. Tom’s mother was right to worry when he was considering shaving. Hemophilia A is treated with an IV medicine called desmopressin (DDAVP), Hemophilia B is treated with an infusion of clotting factor (either genetically engineered or from human blood donors), and Hemophilia C requires infusion of plasma to stop bleeding.

Diabetes is the third condition that Tom suffers from. Summed up quickly, diabetes occurs when a person cannot utilize the sugar and other carbohydrates they ingest, and the sugars build up to high levels in their blood. There is Type I Diabetes (otherwise known as Juvenile Onset or Insulin Requiring Diabetes) that occurs when a person’s pancreas stops making insulin. It must be treated with insulin injections. Type II Diabetes (also known as Adult Onset or Non Insulin Requiring Diabetes) occurs when a person becomes resistant to the insulin that their body produces. It can generally be treated with oral medication, but may ultimately require insulin. Given Tom’s age and thin appearance, it is most likely that he suffers from Type I diabetes. This requires insulin injection to treat.

Insulin syringes are small slender syringes, either ½ or 1 cc in size. His mother appears to be holding about a 5 cc syringe, but it could be one of the newer multiple-injection syringes which are larger than the traditional insulin syringes. Insulin injection is done subcutaneously — not deep like a flu shot, but just under the surface of the skin. Insulin can be injected in the outer arms, abdomen, thighs, or buttocks, but the injection site needs to be rotated regularly. If Tom were my patient, I’d expect him to be injecting his own insulin by this age, but clearly there are some messed up Mother-Son dynamics here.

I’m not quite sure what sort of spell Tom has while walking home. Most likely he is developing Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA). When Type I diabetics develop an extremely high blood sugar, they can become deathly ill and even die. It usually results from stress, infection, poor diet, and/or not taking their insulin. Vomiting is common sign of DKA. However, incontinence does not occur with DKA (just the opposite actually — dehydration). While he did apparently miss his afternoon insulin injection, it’s too soon for DKA to set in as it usually takes a couple of days for the sugar to build up to a high enough level. Of course, his spell could be because of one his nine other unnamed syndromes.

In the hospital, Tom is hooked up to several wires and tubes. There are two leads going to the heart monitor (there should be 4 leads), and a tube in his nose. This tube could be nasal canula (to supply oxygen) — but in that case, it should be in both nostrils — or is could be a nasogastric tube, used to drain the stomach contents or provide liquid to the stomach. He also has an IV line in place, so it makes no sense for the nurse to inject the medicine directly into his arm, the IV would have been much easier and faster.

Overall, it is clear that a great deal of research went into Kinetic. The only concerns I saw were minor, and took place almost exclusively in the hospital setting (we can probably blame those on the artist, not the writer). I am also interested whether Puckett meant Monomelic Amyotrophy, or made up his own disease Monomyelic Amyotrophy.

In reality (such as it is in comics), Tom’s biggest issues appear not so much to be medical, as maternal.

Everyone is familiar with the Golden Age and the Silver Age of comics. There are those who also speak of a pre-Golden Age “Platinum Age” and a post-Silver Age “Bronze Age“. I would like to propose an age of my own. I refer to the age of gimmick covers, multiple covers, and the rise of Image Comics. I speak of the boom and bust speculator days of the early to mid-90’s.

I suggest we call this age the Silicon Age.

Why?

• Silicon keeps with the mineral/element theme previously started (alright, I know bronze is an alloy, but close enough!)
• This is when computers really started playing a noticable role in comics (Batman: Digital Justice was published in 1990)
• This was the beginning of the good girl/bad girl art and pin-up pose era…and those busts just are not natural…hence the Silicon Age.

A couple of interesting medical articles across the newswire today. The first deals with dangerous new diseases, and the second with prevention — or more correctly, when to stop prevention.

CDC Watching for Next Worrisome Outbreak [editor's note: link now dead] discusses concerns about new and deadly diseases such as SARS, Avian Flu, and Monkeypox. It also talks about dangerous diseases like Rift Fever and Influenza. With the world becoming more and more connected by air travel, it’s easy for what once was a rare disease to spread quickly across the world. Watch for this to happen more and more frequently. This is a good article, and not too “science-y”. (This also ties in to my medical review of Elektra #32-34)

The second article, When To Quit Medical Tests Remains Murky [editor's note: link now dead], discusses a difficult question. When do we stop testing people for cancer and other diseases? There are definite rules for when to start mammograms, prostate checks, Pap smears, and other early detection tests. But there’s no clear rules for when to stop ordering them. There’s no arguing theat these tests have dramatically increased the detection of cancer, and its survivability. But ho important is that to a 90 year old? With people living longer and longer today, this is no longer an academic question. Cervical and prostate cancer are very slow diseases, we can detect a cancer decades before it’s a real risk — so how late in life should we test? This article addresses that. Interesting, if a little dry.

Strangers in Paradise #61, 62, 63 “David’s Story”
Terry Moore, writer/artist
Yousaka Takahashi picks a fight with David Qin, and beats him nearly to death. Actually, he did beat him to death. As Yousaka puts it himself later: “I beat a kid with asthma and acute arrhythmia and told him that the world hated him. After that he went home, laid [sic] down and died.”

After the fight, when David is lying bleeding in the street, his sister brings him an inhaler because of his asthma. Physical activity can certainly cause an asthma attack, as can extreme stress (such as being jumped by a gang of guys). Lying down is not the best way to use an inhaler, but David’s not exactly in good shape at the end of the fight, so I’ll let it pass.

An arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm. There are many kinds of arrhythmia, some are dangerous, but many are not. For instance, the way the heart speeds up and slows down with breathing is known as “sinus arrhythmia”, and is completely normal. Some arrhythmias can last for years; others just a few seconds or minutes.

Stating that David has an “acute arrhythmia” is somewhat confusing. If he has a constant irregular heart rate, then it is a “chronic arrhythmia”, not an acute one. A chronic arrhythmia wouldn’t cause death in this scenario.

On the other hand, David could have a rare condition known as Wolffe-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome. In this condition, the heart has an extra conduction pathway that can lead to an arrhythmia. These irregular rhythms almost always involve the atria (the top of the heart), not the ventricles (the bottom of the heart), and are more annoying than dangerous. Physical exertion is one trigger for arrhythmias in WPW, and in very rare cases they can degenerate into a fatal rhythm.

However, I suspect that what Yousaka means is that David died of an acute arrhythmia caused by the injuries he received in the fight itself, not because of a pre-existing rhythm problem. In a myocardial contusion, the heart itself is bruised, and this can lead to fatal arrhythmias. Usually, it takes a severe blow — such as a steering wheel impact in a motor vehicle accident — but there are recorded cases of it happening after a direct blow. This is the most likely cause of David Qin’s death, though WPW Syndrome is a possibility too.

In the sidebar, Newsarama reports that Jeffrey Moy’s Video Game Girls will finally see the light of the day in Shooting Star Comics Anthology #4, on stands this week. Jeff did great art for Legionnaires, though I haven’t seen anything recently. I was pleasantly suprised when I saw he was on Artists Alley at the Mid-Ohio Conn 2 years ago. We had a pleasant chat, and he was one of the nicest, most down-to-earth, least-ego driven creatosr that I have ever met. He was quite excited about his Video Game Girl characters, and showed me many intriguing sketches and drawings. He came up with a nice sketch of Ayla Ranzz for me, too (to my wife’s dismay). If you like his art at all, I’d advise you to check this book out. (I missed it unfortunately since I order my books in advance from an online retailer. Sigh. Now, I’ll have to venture into the frighteningly unsanitary local shop…ewww…it had better be there!)

This weekend, I’ll be taking an in-depth medical look at certain X-titles by Mssrs. Claremont and Austen. In terms of the X-Treme X-Men, I’ll look at the tunnel rescue scene in #24, and the ER scene (i.e. the entire issue) in #18. The point will be made that Claremont seems to have gained his emergency medicine knowledge from the overdose scene in Pulp Fiction.
For the Uncanny X-Men, a brief stop will be made in the sickbay scene in issue #413, and an long look will be made into Austen’s assertion that religion is worse than cancer (the issue number escapes me, but it’s the issue where some of the students are crucified on the front lawn).
Dig out your copies now…

There have been several excellent discussions going on around the comics blogs recently.

1. Over at the Howling Curmudgeons there has been an intriguing discussion of John Byrne’s run on the Fantastic Four, concentrating on the “Trial of Reed Richards”. I have read a handful of Byrne’s issues, had enjoyed them, and was planning on picking up more on e-Bay. Now I may need to reconsider. Marc brings up many excellent points, especially about Byrne tearing down the work of other creators.

I never read the “Trial of Reed Richards”, so I can’t comment on that. I did read “Terror in a Tiny Town”, but wasn’t very fond of it because the whole plot seemed rather telegraphed. Also the retelling of the first Dr. Doom story with Herbie the robot in it instead of the Human Torch pretty much ruined the entire isue for me. Byrne’s best issue was #240, when Attilan was relocated to the Blue Side of the Moon. The scene where the landing city buried forever the place where Phoenix died was poignant, or did I miss one of Byrne’s digs at Claremont? The fact that the first child born on the moon (to Crystal and Pietro) ended up being human was clever. Though now that I think about it, why was Reed Richards delivering the baby in the first place? He’s a physician now, too? Dammit, now I’ll have to take a look at that issue again.

2. John Jakala and his commenters have some great thoughts on the whole concept of reviews and reviewing. John raises some excellent points, and I agree with all the comments, even the ones that contradict each other. Each one I read makes perfect sense and I nod agreeing, then go on to the next comment, and start agreeing again. Every one raises good points; it’s just a tough subject.

To me, a review is a persuasive piece; it is an argument for or against buying the comic. Any good review needs two things:

• First, an opinion on the worth of the comic. Should I buy it? Burn it?
• Second, reasons why this decision was reached. Don’t just tell me it was great or it sucked; let me know why. Then I can determine whether or not I agree with your reasoning. To one person, the lettering could make or break an issue, while another person may not care as long as it’s legible.

The reviews of Brian Hibbs at the Savage Critic are good examples. In just a few lines, he tells you whether he thinks the books is worth reading, and why he feelsthat way. You may not agree with him, but you know how he reached his decision. On the other hand, H at the Comic Treadmill has recently gone over several JSA stories. These posts were more his thoughts about the comics, than an actual review.

3. Matt Rossi has an extremely insightful post on the Legion of Super Heroes. He makes excellent points made about Superboy and Supergirl’s importance to the Legion that had not occurred to me before. Certainly the various reboots of the Legion suffered from their absence. Using Valor as a 20th century super-hero never made much sense to me, and using the L.E.G.I.O.N. as an inspiration was an even more asinine attempt to make up for the lack of Superboy. John Byrne comes off as a villain here too, due to certain repercussions of his reboot of the Man of Steel. I’ll plead ignorance here, being mostly unfamiliar with the details of this.

Unlike most people, my favorite LOSH series by far was the infamous “Five Years Later” series. Many people seem to have a predilection for the bubble-gum happy Legion. I always preferred the darker incarnations. I’ve always liked stories with dystopian futures, and the Legion fit surprisingly well in this setting. Sometime next week, I see I’ll have to write a post explaining the brilliance of “Five Years Later” to all you heretics…

In X-Treme X-Men #24, Sam Guthrie (Cannonball) is assisting in the rescue effort after the terrorist attack in the Chunnel. The panels discussed are reproduced below, in the “more” section.

Things to remember: The role of the first responder is to stabilize the patient and transfer them to definitive medical care. The priorities are the ABCs (Airway, Breathing, and Circulation — in that order). In trauma care, time is crucial, and every second counts.

Sam comes out of the rubble carrying a victim in his arms. He really should be providing more neck support. Even if he couldn’t fit a cervical collar on the her, he should provide more support for her head (look at it just lolling there — ouch!)

In the next panel, the medic calls for a “line of ringers, line of plasma”. Ringer’s lactate is an IV fluid commonly used for fluid resuscitation, so that’s good. However, plasma is only used in patients who have clotting problems; it is never used for fluid resuscitation. Additionally, plasma is a blood product, and blood products are not carried into the field due to stringent storage requirements.

No pulse can be detected in the patient (but remember Sam has just said he was talking to her). The medic says to start an Ambu-bag, which is used for rescue breathing. He never checked her airway (remember A B C), but maybe someone else on the team did. An Ambu-bag makes good sense, but sooner or later, this patient is going to need to be intubated (i.e. have a breathing tube put down her throat).

Next he says to inject “Atropine, 1mg, direct to the heart!” Bad, bad idea. First, atropine is probably not the right medicine. It is used in some pulseless situations, but not most, and no one has stopped to check why the patient has no pulse. There are many reasons: her heart may have totally stopped beating or have a bad rhythm, her heart may be injured, or maybe she’s bleeding so much out that no pulse can be detected (remember, Sam says he’s covered in blood). Before injecting any medicine, her heart rhythm needs to be determined. They have a defibrillator, and those have heart leads attached, so it will take only a few seconds to check her rhythm. Second, atropine is not supposed to be injected into the heart. Only a few medicines, such as epinephrine, can be injected into the heart (a la Pulp Fiction), but not atropine. It’s never been approved for that, and a search of the medical showed no reports of atropine ever being used that way. Finally, and most importantly, injecting a medicine into the heart is dangerous, and only used as a very last resort. It can irritate the heart, tear the heart muscle, or sever a coronary artery – causing a heart attack. Two IV lines have already been started, just use those to deliver the medicine. So again, atropine into the heart: wrong, wrong, wrong.

200 Joules is the appropriate starting level for defibrillation. But whether or not defibrillation is the right thing to do depends on why there is no pulse. Certain rhythms require immediate defibrillation, while others warrant medication first, then defibrillation. No amount of shocking is going to help a severely injured heart, and she still needs plenty of fluids. Plus, if has no pulse, then someone needs to be doing chest compressions while waiting for medicines/paddles.

Overall, the emergency medical care shown here is very poor. It may look exciting, but it’s also borderline negligent. Sam is right to be worried about her care.

Read more…

Make sure your children get their vaccinations. We are spoiled here in the US with our good health care system. Most of us have never seen measles, diptheria, or whooping cough. Infants are rarely born deformed with congenital rubella. No one remembers iron lungs. We have become complacent about the importance immunizations.

I understand some people have philosophical difficulties with vaccines. I think these people are misinformed or misguided, and I will do my best to change their views. But if they are making a bad decision, at least they have a reason behind it.

What I absolutely cannot stand is when people are just too lazy to get their children immunized. Now it is a year and a half later, and he is paying the price. I think he’ll be fine. I’ll do what I can, we all will, but I wish you had been this concerned about his health then.
</soapbox>

The Polite-Wife and I just returned from a matinee of Shrek 2. Definitely a movie worth seeing. The main characters are back in the sequel, and new characters abound, such as Fiona’s parents, her Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, and Puss-in-Boots. The animation again is unbeatable. The voice talent is superb; the stand-out is Antonio Banderas as Puss-in-Boots, who steals almost every scene he is in. The overall theme of the movie is similar to the first one: be true to yourself, but no less charming for the re-telling. Like the original Shrek, there are many in-jokes and background gags (hint: look at all the store names) that will take repeated viewings to catch. Our favorite scene was the Cops parody: Knights. ROTFL. The only negative (and a slight one) was that the music didn’t seem to mesh as clearly this time. The cover of Bowie’s Changes struck me as particularly jarring (I think the original would have worked better), but the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” duet at the end was worth it.

No Spider-Man 2 preview (sigh), but The Incredibles preview looked great. I was less impressed by the Shark Tales preview.

Part 1 of this review deals with more statistical and philosphical arguments than usual. The standard medical review of Uncanny X-Men #423 can be found in part 2.

Uncanny X-Men #423 starts out with this bold assertion: More people have died in the name of religion than have ever died of cancer.

I’m not an overly religious person, but that struck me as a very inflammatory statement. Certainly, a great number of wars and deaths can be blamed on religion. But more deaths than cancer? That’s hard to believe.

I’d be very interested in knowing where Chuck Austen came up with his information. I’ve certainly found nothing to support it.

It’s not always easy to determine what qualifies as death due to religion. The Holocaust certainly counted. What about ethnic cleansing in Africa and the Baltic? What about war between the Ancient Greek city-states? The Inqusition? What about terrorists?

Satistics are better regarding cancer, but still incomplete. It is one of the top killers today, world over. Cancer has been around since before organized religion. Certainly cancer cases have increased over the past century, but that’s mostly due to improved detection and better health overall (people now routinely live long enough to develop cancer). Cancer has always been around.

Total cancer deaths in 2000, excluding skin cancer, were 6.9 million. There was no statistic for religious deaths, so I chose to use “Armed Conflict” deaths to represent religious deaths. I suspect that it overstates the number of religious deaths, since many wars are not caused by religion, but it will allow me to capture the non-armed conflict religious deaths. For the year 2000, there were 310,000 deaths due to armed conflict. Thus, for every one person who died in an armed conflict in 2000, over 20 died from cancer. Statistics were obtained from the CDC and WHO databases.

There were 191 million deaths due to armed conflict in the 20th century. I was unable to find a total for deaths due to cancer, but here’s an interesting fact: 300 million – 500 million people died from smallpox in the 20th century (and there were few, if any, cases 1980-2000).

The statistics are coarse, but they seem to support my assertion that cancer deaths are more numerous than religious deaths. As the saying goes: extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. Austen has made an extraordinary claim. I’d like to see his proof.

Uncanny X-Men #423, Holy War, part 1writer, Chuck Austen
artist, Ron Garney

The X-Men return home to find some of the other mutant residents of the Xavier Institute crucified (6 or 7, the number of injured seems to change during the issue). Utilizing Archangel’s healing powers, Nurse Annie tends to the wounded. Meanwhile, the other X-Men go off in search of the perpetrators, the Church of Humanity.

My main concern was with Austen’s statement about religion and cancer, but I covered that in part 1. Other than that, this issue contains only a few minor medical errors (and these seem to be more art errors, than writing errors):

1. Archangel’s blood is being transfused into the wounded mutants, but the art shows bubbles coming up into the blood bag. How is air getting in? This is not like getting a glass of water from the water cooler, there should be no bubbles. It’s a closed system.
2. A nasal canula is shown in Jubilee’s nose, but that’s not how nasal canulas look. The one pictured would keep falling out.
3. Finally, the patients are shown hooked up to breathing machines by face mask. Crucifixion kills by suffocation. They are going to need more help breathing than a simple mask can provide, they are going to need intubated (breathing tubes placed down the trachea).

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I never liked Sundays.

I had planned on doing a nice long 2-3 hour bike ride along the country roads in central Illinois today, even had a new toy to play with (at much, much less than MSRP) so I wouldn’t get lost. But guess what happened? Rain. Lots of rain. Pouring rain. Oh yeah, a tornado warning, too.

Bleah! Set me in kind of a funk all day; just sitting around, reading an occasional comic, playing a videogame, playing Knarly Mazes, or watching the History Channel. Sigh. I did some minor tweaking on the Polite Dissent template — I hope it works for everyone. Stupid rain. I’ll never get ready for the Ride Across Indiana this way…

I’ll post the remaining two X-Men medical reviews (X-Treme X-Men #18 and Uncanny X-Men #413) tomorrow.

Sunday Blog-o-Bits:
First Laura spoke up, and now Ilyka has some choice words regarding Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. I haven’t read it, and based on a reading of its prequel Angels & Demons on a recent plane trip, I doubt I will.

All this recent talk of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code brings us to today’s topic: books and book series you’re embarrased to admit that you read. These are books that are poorly written, poorly conceived, improbably plotted, and more. These are books that would cause you unending shame if your friends, or God forbid your English teacher, caught you reading them. Yet, you still keep reading these books.

Of course, many of these books end up on the best-seller list.

I actually keep a stack of books in my room that I call the “Guilty Pleasure Pile.” I’ll read these books on long airline trips or dreary rainy days. Currently, the pile contains books from the following series:

Tom Clancy’s Net Force series.. Of course it’s not written by Clancy, it’s his “idea.” It was even turned into a made-for-TV-movie (or started out as a movie, it’s unclear), so that should tell you something about the series’s quality. The characters are all two-dimensional, and the villains inconsistent: an evil genius one book, rampaging rednecks the next. Still, it’s an addictive read.

Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt books. The best poorly written books available. These adventures follow the heroic marine salvager/scientist Dirk Pitt and his motley band of friends as they face various evils throughout the world. The best are To Raise the Titanic, Cyclops, Treasure, and Sahara. All of Cussler’s books, somewhere in the story, contain some variant of this long cliched line: “If only he had known what was about to happen, he never would have…”. My dad and I both read these books, and will call each other chuckling as soon as we spot this line in his latest book.

Xanth books. Jumped the shark so long ago. Would you feel comfortable in an airport reading a book called The Color of her Panties?

Robert Adams’s Horseclans series. This started wonderfully with an intriguing future setting, exciting — if two-dimesnsional characters, and non-stop well-plotted action. The series quickly degenerated into cardboard characters, redundant action sequences, and an “all but the kitchen sink” approach. Oh yeah, and incest.

John Norman’s Gor series.. Started out as a decent pastiche of ERB’s Barsoom series, but quickly degenerated into a misogynistic mish-mash. Think no man can have more issues with women than Dave Sims? Read John Norman. Actually physically painful to read by the end.

Robert Parker’s Spenser books. These are actually more of a pleasure than a guilty pleasure, as Parker writes well in his pulp noir style. The character are believable, and the mysteries generally quite good. It’s in the “guilty pleasure pile” because I pick them up in airport bookstores, so they end up in the same pile. (In terms of the TV version, I prefer Joe Mantegna as Spenser over Robert Urich, but Avery Brooks made the best Hawk, hands down).

Uncanny X-Men #413 Annie’s Moving Story
writer, Chuck Austen
penciler, Sean Phillips

In Uncanny X-Men #413, the X-Men return to the mansion after a battle with Black Tom. Iceman refuses to let anyone but Professor X sew up his wound. Which is a shame, because Professor X makes several mistakes:

1. No gloves. This is a big infection control no-no. For the sake of both Prof X and Iceman, gloves should be worn. Sure, mutants cannot get AIDS (and was that ever stated before this issue), but there’s still Hepatitis C and other bloodborne diseases. (And did he wash his hands and clean the wound?)
2. Straight needle and thread. Straight needles that require threading have not been used in surgery for years. Tissue is hard enough to sew through without worrying about the thread falling off. Straight needles are also very hard to sew tight sutures with. Nowdays, sutures come pre-packaged attached to a curved needle.

These errors should probably be attributed to the artist and not the writer.

For those unfamiliar with what suture looks like, click on more for pictures.

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X-Treme X-Men #18 Day of the Dead
Chris Claremont, writer
Salvador Larocca, penciler

This is the book that made me realize what a horrible job comics do of portraying medical care. I threw it across the room several times in disgust before finishing it. It is especially sad because Claremont thanks an actual nurse for helping him with the medical part. I hope he didn’t pay her too much.

Play by play is in black, my comments are in red. This is a long one, so buckle your seatbelts and let’s get started.

The issue begins in an Army MASH unit (Claremont calls it a M*A*S*H. Hollywood added the asterixes; the real Army just calls it a MASH — and does the Army even use that term anymore? I was an Air Force doc, not an Army one). In typical Claremontian fashion, the doctor then proceeds to explain to his experienced triage team exactly what triage is. There are a lot of bearded doctors in this Army hospital, which makes no sense. Military men do not wear beards and civilians would not be in a battlefield MASH (see endnote).

As the Avengers bring the wounded X-Men in, medical babble is going on in the background:
A “type and cross match” is called for. Type and cross is too slow for trauma work; if blood is needed Type O is given.
Plasma is called for. Plasma is not used for trauma, just for clotting disorders.
Ringers and Normal Saline IVs are started. Good.

Everything goes to hell when Storm is brought inside in cardiac arrest. Her vitals are crashing, so they start CPR (though Claremont, in his usual wordy fashion, calls it “CPR – chest compressions”). First, they need to remember the ABCs – Airway, Breathing, and then Circulation. Second, CPR is reserved for patients without a pulse, and Storm has one, albeit a weak one.
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The Polite-Wife is back in Las Vegas this week visiting her family, while I’m stuck here in Illinois with a manic kitten, a pissed older cat, and the tornado warning sirens at midnight.

Since she was in Vegas, she agreed to stop by Alternate Reality, my favorite comic shop. Like H at The Comic Treadmill, I’ve been intrigued by all the buzz about Demo, and she was able to pick up issues #1-4, plus the new X-Men Academy: New Mutants #1, which I had failed to preorder. Ralph, the proprietor, recognized her as soon as she walked in, and helped her get what she (well, I) wanted.

I haven’t been able to find a good shop out here, so I’m currently using an online “subscription club”. It’s not bad, but I miss the ambiance of a well run comic store.

So thanks to Ralph at Alternate Reality for running such a great shop, and thanks to the Polite Wife for stopping by and picking up my goodies.

As a child, comic books held a sense of wonder for me. They were 22 pages of action, art, and escape. As an adult reader, I notice that I haven’t felt that wonder and awe in quite a while. I’ve matured and lost some of my childhood innocence, that’s true. But comic have changed, too. I enjoy the variety of titles available, but I look at today’s video-game playing youth and contemplate how we can get them to experience the wonders that are comics.

When I was younger, comics were easily available. I would run down the block to the corner drugstore once every couple of weeks to buy some comics to read. I would scan the racks, and pick-up the comics with the most exciting and enticing covers first. The stories were easily accessible. I could tell what was going on even if I had never read the title before. The stories also had action; not necessarily fights, but there was a definite sense of story progression from the start to the end of the issue. An occasional cliff-hanger was fine, but most stories were self contained. I would read and re-read them until the books were on the verge of falling apart. The price was right; with a couple of crumpled dollar bills, I could buy at least four comics.

A definite effort needs to be made to attract new readers. Today’s new readers are tomorrow’s collectors that will keep the industry going. With the plethora of comic book movies today, attracting new readers should be easy, but experience has shown otherwise. What is needed is not a complex plan, but simply more attention to the basics so that this sense wonder we felt as children can be passed on to the next generation.

1. Availability: Thanks to large national chains, many small local retailers are gone. Most that remain do not carry comics due to poor profit margins. While there are excellent comic book shops out there, but they tend to cater to those established collectors, not to the new or occasional reader.
   There needs to be a way of getting comics out to the general public. Spinner racks at bookstores are a good start. Trade paperback collections make a nice start to reading comics, but there’s something special about the classic comic style. Publishers are starting to sell their comics at some of the large chain stores. This is a good idea, and should be expanded. The publishers and distributors also need to look at getting comics back to the smaller retailers. Once comics are readily available, then advertising becomes a more tenable concept.
2. Covers: Covers need to return to the eye-catching wonders they once were. They should portray an idea of what’s going on in the story, and in as dramatic a way as possible. Recognizable characters should be on the cover, and the title, issue number, and price should be readily evident. Looking over the past month’s comics, the only cover that really attracted my attention wasFlash #209, with Flash racing Superman.
3. Stories: The story lines need to be tightened. I’m not saying there’s not a place for slower paced or less action filled comics. There are, but these are not the best titles for new readers. There are too many comics today that contain issue after issue of “middle”, with a two- or three-part story stretched out into 5 or 6 parts. Long arcs can still be told with individual stories. Look at the “Dark Phoenix Saga”. There was definitely an overarching theme to those issues, but each story stood on its own (with the occasional cliff-hanger).
   Collecting issues for trades is a fine idea, but who says trades have to consist of just one long storyline? I would be just as happy with a trade of 5 or 6 individual stories.
4. Affordability: Price is a major issue. In the twenty (and more) years I’ve been collecting, comics have gone from 40 cents to $2.99, an increase of over 7 times. However, I doubt that kids’ allowances have increased this same amount. Sure, the paper is better quality today, and the art better reproduced, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t afford the comic. Trades are cheaper, some say, because it brings the individual price-per-issue down. True, but they still cost at least $9, and a kid who can’t afford $2.99 can’t afford $9. Sure, you can try to explain savings to kids, but it won’t work, they want a quicker gratification. Marvel tried some cheaper “unplugged” comics a few years ago, but they didn’t work out. They were perfect for the new reader, yet marketed to the established reader. If these books could be released again, but targeted for a wider audience they would have a better chance of success.

While the collector in me may cringe at the sight of my old comics, dog-eared and torn from repeated readings, this is just what the industry needs. We need comics that grab new readers’ attentions and don’t let go. Comics that turn a new reader into an occasional reader, and an occasional reader into a regular reader. The publishers need to look at it as an investment: an investment in the future of the industry.

There’s a healthy discussion of my Sense of Wonder post over at Thought Balloons, and I look forward to Shane’s thoughts when he promises to join the discussion this weekend.

I think there are some people who are missing the point of my post, however. While to some extent I am bemoaning the loss of the wonder I once felt, the post is more about the future. What can we do to get today’s kids to feel that same sense of wonder? What changes need to be made?

I’m not suggesting ways to “save” the comic book industry as a whole, but instead speculating on the best way to bring young new readers to the hobby.

Yes, I’d love to feel that sense of wonder again. A very few books (both super-hero and non-super-hero) bring back some of that feeling. I accept that times have changed; I’m not the kid I was 20 (or more, ahem ahem) years ago. I would just like my nephews and nieces and their friends to grow up loving comics like I did.

Med School and Residency are certainly trying times. Not as bad as they were during the time of House of God, but real life never adequately prepares you for the challenging and bizarre years that make up medical school, internship, and residency.

The Underwear Drawer is fun and insightful blog by a New York pediatric resident. Make it a point to check out her Scutmonkey Comics.

Has there ever been a good mind-control story?

It has always been one of my least favorite story clich鳮 I’ve never seen it carried off very well. Either the explanation for the power control is poor (Ruse), or it seems like little thought has gone into the story itself. Often it seems to be done because the writer needs a quick explanation for a plot hook or needs to explain someone acting out of character (“I was mind controlled! No, really!”).

It still occurs up regularly (in the last year alone: Scion, JLA, X-Treme X-Men, and Alias, just to name a few off the top of my head).

Brian Michael Bendis pulled it off better than most in the the last story arc in Alias. He certainly put some thought into the villain’s motivations. It showed a seamier side to mind-control powers that I’m sure most of them would indulge in (because, well, they’re evil). While it showed some nice back-story of Jessica, and explained some of her psyche, I still thought it was one of the weaker Alias stories. Especially the ending, which was far too deus ex machina for my taste.

The worst recent story was the first story arc in Ruse: mind-controlling magnetic snuff. The less said about this the better.

How about it? Can anyone name a good mind-control story, or have a particularly favorite bad one?

Doctor Mid-Nite (Pieter Cross) is a fascinating character, mainly because he is one of the few superhero “doctors” who actually practices medicine. He is an accomplished surgeon, but also is proficient in primary care medicine. Generally, Matt Wagner and Geoff Johns/David Goyer have done a good job writing the medical aspects of the character. There are a few medical-legal issues that have gone unresolved, however.

1. In the Doctor Mid-Nite #1, Pieter Cross is injected with a dangerous and experimental steroid. As a result, he crashes his car, killing an innocent woman. After the crash, his medical license is revoked by the AMA (American Medical Association). However, the AMA does not have the power to issue or revoke licenses; it is strictly a professional organization. Each state has a medical board that issues (and revokes) medical licenses for that state.
   Did he ever get his license reinstated, or is he practicing medicine without a license? Does he have a license for every state, or how does he get by practicing medicine wherever the JSA takes him?

2. In JSA #17, Pieter is on a dinner date with Black Canary when they are attacked by Count Vertigo. Pieter injects Canary with diazepam (Valium), and meclizine (Antivert) to stop the dizziness. Both of these medicines are excellent choices for vertigo, however diazepam is a class IV controlled substance. Superhero or not, it looks mighty suspicious that he injected his dinner date with this addictive medicine, and without a prescription, too.
3. Again, in JSA: All Stars #6, Dr. Mid-Nite runs afoul of controlled substance laws. Happening across a pregnant woman in a crashed subway train, he offers her both meperidine (Demerol) and butorphanol (Stadol). Both of these are narcotics and controlled substances. Once again, Pieter is handing out addictive medications to people he barely knows. This is especially true of meperidine, which is a class II controlled substance and highly regulated. (As a medical note, narcotics are avoided whenever possible in labor because they sedate the infant as well as the mother.)
   How does he legally get away with carrying all these controlled drugs — does he have special permission? Exactly how many drugs does he carry with him? (Does he have Mid-Nite-utility belt?)

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I was down in the operating suite helping the anesthesiologist prep a patient for surgery. It was the middle of my third year in medical school, and I was halfway through my general surgery rotation in the downtown VA Hospital. Just as we got the patient sedated, intubated, and hooked up the ventilator, two older nurses walked in.

VA nurses are a distinct breed; they are capable nurses who have chosen not to pursue the higher pay and higher acuity at better hospitals, but instead to reign in comfort in the federal system. Almost uniformly, they are old, big, and tough. You learn quickly not to cross a VA nurse.

I’m almost out the door as they walk up to the patient. They look at me, look at each other, then share a wicked smile. The anesthesiologist quickly leaves.

“Hold it there,” the older nurse says. “This patient needs a Foley catheter.” She hands me a Foley catheter kit. Foley catheters are soft rubber tubes that are placed up into the bladder to drain the urine during surgery. To place a Foley in women, it takes a little lube and a deft twist of the wrist. In men on the other hand, it takes a lot more lube, a firm grip, and some honest effort.

“I’ve never put one in before,” I said.

“We’ll tell you how,” she said as she handed me a pair of gloves. As I put them on, some other nurses came in the room to watch. The first nurse handed me the catheter, the tip dripping with lube.

“Hold the Foley in one hand,” she said. “Now, take that other hand and just choke that chicken, son. Just choke that chicken!” All the other nurses joined in, laughing, “Choke that chicken! Choke that chicken!”

I placed the catheter, made sure it was working, and left the OR as quickly as I could, the nurses still cackling behind me. I hoped nobody else been watching; I also prayed that for his sake, the patient was deeply asleep.

From that day on, I made sure I was out of the OR long before the nurses came in.

Sorry for the light blogging this weekend. My redneck roots are showing, and I’m settling in for a long weekend of watching auto racing — plus grilling some memorable ribs.

The Polite-wife is back from visiting her family in Las Vegas, and she comes bearing Demo #1-4, plus some other comics to read.

I’ve got some interesting medical/comic stuff in the works, and should have time during the race(s) tomorrow to compose my thoughts. In the meantime, I’ve posted some blink-and-you’ll-miss-them mini-medical reviews.

Also, if you blinked and missed them in the past, enjoy these Saturday Funnies:
Latverian State University
Latverian Institute of Technology
S.P.L.A.SH. (Society for the Preservation of Large Aquatic Super-Heroes)

Here are a few quick recent medical nit-picks in comic books:

Flash #199 Blitz, part 2
Geoff Johns, writer
Scott Kolins, penciler

In the midst of a memorable battle, Zoom informs Flash that his wife, Linda Park-West, has miscarried.
If Linda has miscarried, then why are the fetal monitors still showing a heartrate?

NYX #2 Wannabe, part 2
Joe Quesada, writer
Joshua Middleton, penciler

Empty pill bottles reading “Vicodin 100mg” are scattered across the apartment of Kiden’s teacher. Vicodin does not come in a strength of 100mg. It is a combination drug consisting of acetaminophen (i.e. Tylenol) and hydrocodone, a narcotic. The doses of both drugs are listed on the prescription (for instance 5/500 or 7.5/500). 100mg is a uselessly low dose of acetaminophen, and a lethal dose of hydrocodone

JSA #54 Virtue, Vice and Pumpkin Pie
Geoff Johns, writer
Don Kramer, penciler

In an awkward converation with Black Canary, Dr. Midnight states, “Anthroscopy, triple bypass. I can heal the human body with my eyes closed — but relationships…I’m not very good at fixing those.”
There is no such thing as “Anthroscopy“. It appears to be a typo for “arthroscopy” – a form of joint surgery utilizing a small camera. There are some scattered anthroscopy references around, but on closer exam they all are typos too (OCR — can’t live with it, can’t live without a proofreader).

Well, the Indianapolis 500 is currently on rain delay, and from the looks of things it will have to be postponed until tomorrow. The last time the Indy 500 was postponed was in 1997, and I hapened to be finishing up my internship at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, doing my ER rotation at the time. I lived about 1 mile from the Speedway, and about 7 miles from the hospital. I left my apartment about 1:30, figuring that would give me plenty of time to get gas for the car and fast food for me prior to my ER shift at 3pm. Guess again! That race traffic was incredible, and the crowd was only worse at the hospital. We had a computerized “waiting list” for the ER that normally held 20-30 patients. That evening it held at least 200 patients, and most complaints were alcohol related one way or another (”nausea”, “alcohol posioning”, or “cut with beer bottle” the most common). I must have sutured up 7 or 8 people that night, and didn’t have to use much anesthetic at all.

The grilled ribs were good, a little fatty, but quite tasty. Tonight, we’re having some friends over to watch the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 and have swiss and then chocolate fondue. I may be a redneck, but I do it in style.

I read Astonishing X-Men last night, and thought it was quite good overall. It seems that Kitty is going to be the reference character. Whedon showed her reminiscing back about her time at the X-Mansion, particularly when leaving for Emma Frost’s Academy (UXM #151), when she was angry at Professor X for demoting her to New Mutant status (UXM #168), and when she was kissing Piotr one Christmas (issue ??, Paul Smith run, I think). I thought that it was interesting that she did not have a flashback towhen she joined the X-Men (circa UXM #139), just later memories.

The scripting was good, and Kitty, Hank and Emma had the best lines. Kitty’s verbal sparring with Emma was good, “I’m sorry, I was busy remembering to put on all my clothes.” She also had the trademark Whedon pop culture bon mots: “Did I miss the sorting hat?” Emma got her digs in too, though.

The characterizations were well done, including the fight between Scott and Logan (and from a psychological/medical point of view, I liked Logan’s reference to Kubler-Ross’s 5 stages of loss: “…Which stage of grieving is this? Denial?”) I’m hoping Whedon will write Scott to be an interesting character because I haven’t found him to be interesting since…well, ever.

Cassaday’s art was fitting, but those are some ugly costumes. Wolverine’s and Emma’s are fine, but Kitty’s is generic X-Men. Cyclops looks like he’s channeling Steve Rude’s Nexus, and Beast’s just looks plain silly. Add two suspenders and he’s an Osh Kosh B’gosh. Also, why is Scott always wearing his visor, even in bed? What happened to those ruby red glasses of his?

On a side note, I think Whedon’s name has the potential to bring some readers to the series, particularly female ones. Both the Polite-wife and my sister have asked about reading The Astonishing X-Men.

Sunday Blog-o-bits (and thank you’s):
1. Thanks to Mag at The Comic Treadmill for confirming that the Army does not use MASH units any more, instead they use Forward Surgical Teams (FST). This is in reference to my medical review of X-Treme X-Men #18.
2. Thanks to Matthew Rossi for pointing out “The Houseplants of Gor”, a hilarious (and spot-on) parody of John Norman’s Gor series, one of my guilty pleasure book series.
3. Michelle at The Underwear Drawer blog, has some good advice for medical interns

I first caught this show when my nephews were watching it at my in-law’s house. It caught my interest, and I’ve been watching it ever since. It’s shown daily on the Disney Channel, and Saturday mornings on ABC.

Kim Possible is a high schooler who is also what is best described as a freelance secret agent. With her best friend Ron Stoppable (and his pet naked mole-rat Rufus), they travel the world fighting crime. Her arch foe is mad scientist Dr. Drakken and his sidekick Shego. Other memorable villains include Señor Senior Sr. (voiced by Ricardo Montalban), his goofy son Señor Senior Jr, and Lord Monkey Fist.

The art is stylistic but well done. The voice work is also good, and includes such notable voices as Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld, The Tick), Jean Smart (Designing Women), Gary Cole (Brady Bunch the Movie, Office Space), and Will Friedle (Boy Meets World, Batman Beyond). The humor can be childish as times, but rarely immature. There are frequent bits of adult humor thrown in as well.

There are several connections to comic books. Will Friedle, who voices sidekick Ron Stoppable, was the voice of Terry McGinnis on Batman Beyond.

In the second season, the episode “The Fearless Ferret” is a clever homage to both Batman Beyond and the old 1960’s Batman TV show. There is also a parody of the infamous upside down kiss from Spiderman. Adam West supplies the voice of the Fearless Ferret.

The episode “Go Team Go“, also in the second season, is a deft parody of super-hero teams, super-villians, and secret origins (“A multi-colored meteorite fell from the sky…”).

A fun show that’s well worth the time to watch.

Detective Comics #793 Surrogate, part 3: Deliverance
Andersen Gabrych, writer
Pete Woods, penciler

Batman and Dr. Leslie Thompkins are trapped in a collapsed building along with superstar L’Shea and her pregnant daughter Neisha. Neisha has been severely injured and Batman and Dr. Thompkins perform an emergency Caesarean section to deliver her baby and hopefully save Neisha’s life as well.

The intricacies and history of the c-section are well explained, as are the two different surgical approaches. Dr. Thompkins chooses to perform an LTCS (Lower Transverse C-Section, a horizontal incision at the bikini line) instead of the classic c-section (a vertical incision from the bottom of the breastbone to the top of the pubic bone) as it “less traumatic for the mother.” This is true. Almost all modern c-sections are done by LTCS, not because of trauma, but because it provides a smaller scar and allows for the chance of a standard delivery at the next pregnancy. The classical incision leaves a very prominent scar and any further deliveries mandate repeat c-sections. On the other hand, the vertical incision in much faster and is the best choice for emergency situations, and should probably have been used in this case.

The umbilical cord is cut with poor technique. If performed the way illustrated, blood would spray everywhere, and the infant would lose blood as well. Proper technique is to clamp the cord in two places, and cut the cord between the clamps. Less blood spraying, no blood loss.

The CPR scene was well done, with good hand position and technique by Batman.

Despite my nit-picks, the medical content of this issue were well done, particularly in regards to the c-section scene.

I hope everyone had a good holiday and took a moment to reflect on the concept behind Memorial Day. I was graced with a rare week day off (well, I was on call, but it was quiet), so spent the day catching up on important reading (comic books, not medical journals) and watching American Hot Rod and American Chopper on the Discovery Channel. I am amazed by the workmanship and skill of those guys. There are times I think I would be perfectly happy being able to do hands-on work like that for a living (but definitely not under Paul, Sr.).

The Indy was a bit disappointing as it was rain shortened, but still a good race. The Coca-Cola 600 was an excellent race, and I was happy to see Jimmy Johnson win. Unfortunately, Bobby Labonte crashed on the last lap. At least, he still managed to pull off a 13th place finish, and moved up to 6th overall in points.

This week shouldn’t be too bad. Only four days and no call! Now, if only the weather will stay nice so I can get some bike rides in.