New comics releases include an attention-seeking

The American government doesn’t trust the Justice League, so it’s making its own in Justice League Of America #1 (DC), the new ongoing by Geoff Johns and David Finch featuring a team of the world’s deadliest heroes. Johns assembles an attention-grabbing lineup for the group, mixing high-profile characters like Catwoman and Green Arrow with lesser-known heroes like Vibe and Stargirl, but this first issue fails to give a solid reason for them coming together. As lackluster as Johns’ first issue of Justice League was, at least it was active; Justice League Of America utilizes that time-honored team-building conceit of people sitting around a table with folders full of superhero headshots. This leads to lots of expository narration as Amanda Waller tells Steve Trevor about her candidates, with Johns checking in with the heroes to show scenes of them in action.

Back in December, Big Issues addressed how Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers provided a template for putting together a superhero team. That book introduced a threat that required the team’s expansion and spent time showing why the new members would be interested in joining, two things that Justice League Of America doesn’t accomplish. When Justice League Unlimited did a storyline about the American government plotting against the Justice League, the behavior of the superhero team justified the suspicion. Thus far, the New 52 Justice League is a hypothetical threat only, and it’s hard to get behind Waller’s rationale when it’s obvious that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman aren’t going to go bad anytime soon.

This new Justice League title is intended as the lead-in to the upcoming “Trinity War” event, but the team’s formation is a contrived way of setting up the future conflict, complete with a corkboard that explicitly outlines future matches. Readers learn why Waller wants these heroes, but not why they personally want to be there, making the lineup feel like a gathering of superpowers and skill sets without any character underneath. With an absurd cliffhanger featuring the maybe-death of a hero whose title was just completely re-hauled and a 50 states variant cover initiative that has the heroes lifting 1 of 50 different state flags, this book is starting right off with cheap tactics to generate sales.

David Finch is one of DC’s superstar artists, yet while his pencils are meticulously detailed and he knows how to create a striking splash page, his characters tend to look overly posed. This cuts into the pages’ sense of motion, and no matter how intricate the linework gets, it can’t compensate for that stiffness. Like the classic Image artists that influenced him, Finch struggles with faces, and he uses stock faces for males and females that are only slightly altered via skin tone, hair, and eye color. (The big exception is Amanda Waller, who has more masculine features than the rest of the women in the book.) That said, Finch is by no means a bad artist. His art has a darker edge that’s appropriate for a storyline titled “World’s Most Dangerous,” but it’s not enough to make up for the title’s shaky concep.

The Bard’s expansive stock of characters makes his library a perfect candidate for the Fables treatment. After producing a thrilling debut miniseries two years ago, the team behind Kill Shakespeare is back for more stories starring the ragtag group of Hamlet, Juliet, Romeo, and Othello. For Kill Shakespeare: Tide Of Blood #1 (IDW), writers Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery switch the setting to Prospero’s island, using this first issue to fill readers in on the events of the last series before heading off to a new locale. Hamlet was the central figure of the initial miniseries, but Romeo takes the lead in Tide Of Blood, struggling with abandonment issues as he watches the Prince of Denmark get cozy with his old Capulet lover. He dreams of Prospero’s daughter Miranda, and when she appears in reality, Romeo is given the opportunity to stop wallowing in drink and despair and start being a hero again.

Andy Belanger’s artwork has become tighter in his time away from this world, and his characters are now as expressive as his backgrounds are detailed. The downside to the visuals is that Shari Chankhamma’s colors are a bit too subdued and end up washing out the linework. However, that could be intentional to emphasize the dullness of the world outside of Prospero’s island; hopefully she’ll utilize a more vibrant color palette once the book moves into the fantastic location. Perfect for everyone from Shakespeare fans to readers who are just looking for a riveting fantasy adventure, Tide Of Blood is a strong continuation of a franchise that will ideally be around for a while.

Even the most talented men and women who became comic-book artists in the mid-20th century tended to think of themselves as commercial illustrators first and foremost, often dismissing claims by fans and critics that they were producing anything like capital-A “Art.” Bernard Krigstein, though, always thought like a fine artist, even when he was drawing stories about cowboys, soldiers, or gangsters. That’s why after almost 20 years in the business, Krigstein left comics to become a painter and a teacher, sharing some of the analytical approach that he brought to the pulps. Krigstein’s comics work has long been prized by collectors, and Krigstein biographer Greg Sadowski assembles a lot of it under one cover in Messages In A Bottle (Fantagraphics), an expansion of the Sadowski-edited 2004 anthology B. Krigstein: Comics.

The collection is anchored by Krigstein’s most famous story: the Al Feldstein-written “Master Race,” a post-Holocaust thriller that ran in EC Comics’ non-horror title Impact after sitting around the company’s offices for nearly half a year, stumping the editors. But “Master Race” is surrounded by almost-as-stunning stories that show how Krigstein’s style evolved quickly, from his more conventionally rendered pre-EC pieces to work that almost doesn’t resemble comics. Later in his stint as a comic-book artist, Krigstein filled pages with elaborate abstract-art exercises, with some panels containing gorgeously detailed line drawings, some containing large amounts of negative space, and some subdivided into three or four narrower panels. Krigstein treated each assignment as a chance to put theory into practice, and even among EC’s formidable roster of stylists, Krigstein stands out as one for whom the words around the pictures almost don’t matter, because the art’s so mesmerizing that it’s hard to pay attention to anything else… [NM]

Black businesses have contributed greatly to American life

Despite the struggles that African-Americans faced from the enslavement period to modern times, they have continued to make significant contributions in every aspect of American life. They took the little they had and went a very long way as successful men and women. Black entrepreneurs opened businesses all over the country prior to and after slavery.

In 1789, free blacks in Philadelphia ran shops throughout the city and by 1820 they owned about $250,000 worth of property. James Forten was a Philadelphia entrepreneur, and during the Revolutionary War he made his fortune as a sail maker.

In 1897, the Coleman Manufacturing Co. was established in Concord, N.C., by seven black men. The cotton mill had a work force of about 250 people. It shipped goods all over the United States and to parts of Africa and several cities in England.

Lewis Temple, who lived from 1800 to 1854, invented the whaling harpoon that became known as “Temple’s Toggle.” It became the standard harpoon of the whaling industry. Temple made a good living from his invention.

Black inventor Elijah J. McCoy invented a self-lubricating device that allowed small amounts of oil to drip continuously onto the moving parts of a machine while in operation. He started the McCoy Manufacturing Co. in Detroit, Mich., in the 1870s. In time, anyone who owned a self-lubricating machine bragged of having “the real McCoy.” This is a popular term that we still hear today.

The ingenuity of black entrepreneurship has made its mark in Western New York as well, with men such as the late John Young. An article that appeared in The Buffalo News on Feb. 7, 1996, recalled the story of Young and his claim to the chicken wing. Young died with one regret – he did not receive the credit he felt he deserved for making the chicken wing popular in Buffalo. The article said: “True, John Young has received precious little notice in the past 30-some years. In spite of some mentions in the famous Calvin Trillin New Yorker magazine piece in 1980, and despite a proclamation from the Common Council on April 12, 1982, crediting him as the originator, few official sources mention Young’s part in the wing epic that has seen the skinny chicken parts become a staple snack all over the United States.”

Young opened a number of restaurants in Buffalo. One of the most popular was called Wings ’n’ Things located at 1313 Jefferson Ave. It should be a historical site.

Most people in the black community during that time knew that the most delicious, mouth-watering wings were sold at this location. Young made them famous with the incredible “Mambo Sauce.” Lines of people stood around the corner of Jefferson Avenue to purchase them. Young knew a lot about wings, as did so many blacks from the South. His family raised chickens and other animals. When he came North, he worked for a restaurant chain and later decided to open his own business. Celebrities came to his restaurant to taste his famous wings.

Black business men and women continue to operate in the African-American community in Western New York in the same tradition as those who came before them. The surnames of these individuals include Bellamy, Warren, Saleh, Merriweather, Peoples, Luchey, Grant, Hobson, Parker, Banks, Holley, Tyler and Bell. The observance of African-American History continues in the lives of ordinary people in the black community making a positive difference every day of the year.

Several liquor stores in the area, including Carmine's Package Store in Niantic, also have stopped opening on Sundays, and others have cut or are considering scaling back hours.

"All it's doing is just shifting business," said Paul Agronovitch, owner of Universal Package Store in Norwich, who is contemplating cutting back his Sunday hours. "We're doing six days' business in seven days."

While package stores are scaling back on Sundays, supermarkets are seeing a major increase in Sunday beer shopping. Connecticut Food Association executive director Stan Sorkin said stores are reporting average month-over-month increases of 8 percent in beer sales since the state did away with its Sunday alcohol sales prohibition, and that doesn't include boosts in associated items, such as chips, dips and cold cuts.

Sorkin added that grocery-store beer sales near Connecticut's borders with New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are up closer to 20 percent.

"Consumers have responded well to our stores," Sorkin said. "We've kept a lot more money in the State of Connecticut."

After nine months of Sunday sales, collections from the state's alcoholic beverage tax are running nearly $2.2 million above last year's level, an increase of less than 5 percent, according to figures provided by the state Office of Policy and Management.

It's unclear how much of the increased revenues are related to higher prices and how much are tied to increased consumption, but the number of gallons of beer sold during the period is up only about 3 percent, while similar figures for wine show a bit more than a 2 percent bump.

But any extra consumption of alcohol is not translating into extra sales at package stores in the region, according to most owners.

Sue Kumro, owner of Mermaid Liquors in Niantic, said she has cut hours on Sunday because of a lack of business. She has maintained Sunday hours only as a convenience to customers.

A dangerous shooter in the mold of other Friars' scorers

Cotton has taken 127 shots from 2-point range this season. He’s attempted 186 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. He is, by all accounts, a dangerous perimeter sniper.

“He wasn’t a shot-maker when we got him,” Providence coach Ed Cooley said, “but he’s become a very good 3-point shooter.”

Cotton, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound junior from Tucson, Ariz., attempted just 54 3-pointers his freshman year and made 14 of them. Cooley said he wanted Cotton to become more aggressive with his 3-point shot. He wanted more production from his young guard.

Cooley characterizes Cotton as something of “a loner,” a guy who finds comfort in the solitary practice of shooting in an empty gym. He has improved his shooting and his scoring, Cooley said, because “he’s worked at it.”

“He has an incredible work ethic. He’s a gym rat,” Cooley said. “I don’t think you can shoot the ball that way if you’re not a gym rat.”

But Cooley said Cotton is more athletic than his slight frame suggests. He cites Cotton’s ability to soar in space and slam an alley-oop pass as evidence of that athleticism. His game, Cooley said, consists of more than just a single shooting dimension.

Ken Pomeroy ranks Cotton 30th nationally in offensive rating, which measures a player’s offensive efficiency. That stat essentially measures points produced per 100 possessions. Cotton’s offensive rating is 125.2.

“He’s been an incredible player for them,” said former Providence coach turned TV analyst Tim Welsh. “In terms of his development, he’s done all the right things. I did not think that he’d get to this point and I don’t know if they did, either.”

The likelihood that Cotton will win the Big East scoring title this season highlights an interesting trend with the Friars. In the past 10 seasons, including the 2012-13 campaign, Providence has or will produce four players who finished the season as the league’s top scorer.

Cooley joked that “it must be something in the water,” that allows Friars players to produce all those points. Welsh said Providence’s previous style of play ― the Friars were a team that leaned heavily on transition baskets ― contributed to the high scoring numbers.

None of those players – not MarShon Brooks, not Herbert Hill, not Ryan Gomes – have been named the Big East’s Player of the Year. And that honor will likely elude Cotton as well.

Big East coaches debate each season about the merits of several players under consideration for the player of the year. A couple years ago, a couple coaches mentioned Brooks as a candidate, but the high-scoring Friar and future Brooklyn Nets draft pick lost the title that year to Notre Dame’s Ben Hansborough.

Welsh coached the Friars when Gomes accumulated his scoring totals. He – and Cooley – understand the nature of the player-of-the-year award.

“When Ryan Gomes was a junior, he made nine first-team All-America teams and the next year, he made none, even though his stats were better,” Welsh said. “That year, we didn’t go to the NCAA Tournament. The year he made those All-America teams, we were a five seed in the NCAA Tournament. It’s all about winning.”

The original idea behind Android was an open mobile operating system that hardware makers could use for free and mold to their needs – and that’s exactly what they’ve done. Android smartphones and tablets often have some kind of shell atop the stock interface, along with a series of custom applications, that give the device its own personality.

In addition, manufacturers may tweak the very core of Android itself. Menus may have a different look and feel, for example, in an attempt to improve upon the user experience. In fact, about the only devices that don’t have some kind of changes are Google’s own Nexus products. Techies love them, but the masses are snapping up the big-brand Android phones, and are seeing less and less of Android as a result.

As Wildstrom points out in his piece, Android takes a back seat to the Galaxy S brand from Samsung as well. And Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire line of tablets run a reworked version of Android, something that’s not prominent in the online retailer’s marketing.

To a certain extent, this mirrors what happened in the earliest days of the PC, when hardware vendors like Compaq and Packard Bell tried to make up for the deficiencies of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 with shells. Eventually, Windows matured to the point that its interface didn’t require a facelift, and there was more to gain from experience consistency than differentiation. But the reworked PCs always emphasized in their marketing that these were Windows devices, a fact that had to do with licensing. Windows was not free and had more restrictions and requirements than Android does.

Ailing Chavez returns to Venezuela from Cuba

President Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela early Monday after more than two months of treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery, his government said, triggering street celebrations by supporters who welcomed him home while he remained out of sight at Caracas' military hospital.

Chavez's return was announced in a series of three messages on his Twitter account, the first of them reading: "We've arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!! Thank you, beloved nation!! We will continue our treatment here."

They were the first messages to appear on Chavez's Twitter account since Nov. 1.

"I'm clinging to Christ and trusting in my doctors and nurses," another tweet on Chavez's account said. "Onward toward victory always!! We will live and we will triumph!!"

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television that Chavez arrived at 2:30 a.m. and was taken to the Dr. Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital in Caracas, where he will continue his treatment.

Chavez's announced return to Caracas came less than three days after the government released the first photos of the president in more than two months, showing him looking bloated and smiling alongside his daughters. The government didn't release any additional images of Chavez upon his arrival in Caracas, and unanswered questions remain about where he stands in a difficult and prolonged struggle with an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer.

Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October, and his inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 10, was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers in a decision that the Supreme Court upheld despite complaints by the opposition. Some speculated that with Chavez back, he could finally be sworn in.

Designed by Le Corbusier in 1951, the villa featured a slide, or “tropical toboggan run”, connecting the roof garden to the pool. In the evening, bats would swoop down and drink the water. Peacocks would wander nearby.

Walled off from everyday India, it was a setting that would inspire Rauschenberg to create the Jammers series: mostly large rectangles of silk, muslin, and cotton in stunning, burnt colours, supported by rattan poles.

The works exist only in relation to the gallery wall; they droop, hang, and stretch. There is little tension in these brilliantly coloured banners, but rather lightness and looseness. They are named after the sails of the Windjammer merchant ships.

Hibiscus (Jammer) (1976) is comprised of coral-coloured silk, hanging between two poles. A pouch is sewn onto the centre. It is open, but the contents are hidden from the viewer. The sag of silk creates shadows. The colour is both gentle and hot. The surface of the material is opalescent, as though covered in a sheen of water.

These works are a departure from the muscular Combines for which Rauschenberg is best known. They combined everyday objects with splatters of Abstract Expressionism, rejecting the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and anticipating Pop Art.

Hibiscus, however, recalls Bed (1955), one of Rauschenberg’s earliest Combines, which consists of a blanket, stolen from the laundry basket of a friend when he was too poor to buy canvases, mounted on the wall and attacked by oil paint. Like Hibiscus, Bed includes a pillow that bulges out of the work but remains closed to the viewer.

Earlier still, Rauschenberg experimented with monochrome paintings in red, white, and black. While many of the Jammers are likewise monochrome, the fabric’s subtlety of colour is permitted to speak for itself.

Snowpool (Jammer) (1976) is divided in half by a pole. The top half is a greyish white, the colour of a very pale stone. It is muted but not bleak. The lower half is comprised of vertical stripes, ranging from blue to brown to yellow. A layer of gauze covers the latter, concealing and softening the contrast, floating free of the work.

Ailing Chavez returns to Venezuela from Cuba

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela early Monday after more than two months of treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery, his government said, triggering street celebrations by supporters who welcomed him home while he remained out of sight at Caracas' military hospital.

Chavez's return was announced in a series of three messages on his Twitter account, the first of them reading: "We've arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!! Thank you, beloved nation!! We will continue our treatment here."

They were the first messages to appear on Chavez's Twitter account since Nov. 1.

"I'm clinging to Christ and trusting in my doctors and nurses," another tweet on Chavez's account said. "Onward toward victory always!! We will live and we will triumph!!"

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television that Chavez arrived at 2:30 a.m. and was taken to the Dr. Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital in Caracas, where he will continue his treatment.

Chavez's announced return to Caracas came less than three days after the government released the first photos of the president in more than two months, showing him looking bloated and smiling alongside his daughters. The government didn't release any additional images of Chavez upon his arrival in Caracas, and unanswered questions remain about where he stands in a difficult and prolonged struggle with an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer.

Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October, and his inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 10, was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers in a decision that the Supreme Court upheld despite complaints by the opposition. Some speculated that with Chavez back, he could finally be sworn in.

Villegas said that he hadn't yet seen the president and that the government will provide updates about his condition "whether they're good or they're bad."

The vice president later presided over a televised Cabinet meeting at the presidential palace, though he didn't offer additional details about Chavez. "He will live and he will triumph," Maduro said at the end of the meeting, while on television an image of Chavez's face was superimposed on the"Unfortunately, the cancer he has isn't going to go away, and he's returning to continue his battle. But I think he's conscious that he isn't going to win his fight against cancer, as much as he'd like to win it," Castro told the AP in a telephone interview.

Based on the government's accounts, doctors must have performed a tracheotomy on Chavez, cutting an opening in his windpipe to facilitate breathing, according to Dr. Jose Silva, a pulmonary specialist and president of the Venezuela Pulmonology Society. Silva said he thinks Chavez is breathing with the help of a ventilator through a tube attached to his windpipe.

Patients with breathing problems often require a tracheotomy to avoid damage to the vocal chords when a ventilator is used for an extended period.

The Venezuelan Constitution says that if a president dies or steps down, a new vote must be called and held within 30 days. Chavez raised that possibility before he left for Cuba in December by saying that if necessary, Maduro should run in a new vote to replace him.

Chavez's return could be used to give a boost to his would-be successor and gain time to "consolidate his alternative leader" ahead of a possible new presidential vote this year, said Luis Vicente Leon, a Venezuelan pollster and political analyst.

Hundreds of Chavez supporters celebrated his return in downtown Caracas, chanting his name and holding photos of the president in Bolivar Plaza. A man holding a megaphone boomed: "Our commander has returned!"

Fireworks exploded in some parts of Caracas while the president's followers celebrated.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the hospital, where a sign atop the building is adorned with a photo of Chavez. Holding photos of Chavez and wearing the red T-shirts of his socialist movement, they chanted: "He's back!" As cars passed, drivers honked in support.

"I want to see my president," said Alicia Morroy, a seamstress who stood outside the hospital on the verge of tears. "I've missed him a lot because Chavez is the spirit of the poor."

Six hospital employees who were asked about the president said they hadn't seen him. Yusmeli Teran, a waitress who serves food to patients, told The Associated Press that the area where Chavez was being treated on the 9th floor is a restricted area guarded by police and soldiers. "No one has seen him at all," she said.

Chavez's precise condition and the sort of cancer treatments he is undergoing remain a mystery, and speculation has grown recently that he may not be able to stay on as president.

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer in Bogota, Colombia, said that given the government's accounts that Chavez is undergoing "complex" treatment, he thinks he likely will have to step down.