I’ve seen the Avengers and become Loki-obsessed, which has led me to read up on Tom Hiddleston, the actor who portrays him in Thor and The Avengers (…sorry, I meant MARVEL’S The Avengers).

I found this incredible article he wrote. It’s a passionate defense of superhero movies with a shout-out to Heath Ledger: “Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight quite simply changed the game. He raised the bar not just for actors in superhero films, but young actors everywhere; for me. His performance was dark, anarchic, dizzying, free, and totally, thrillingly, dangerous.”

And, apropos of nothing, here’s a cute photo.

Watch out for an upcoming post about this past weekend’s Ottawa Comiccon, which we attended!

Scroll down to the bottom for our ultimate Harley choice.

Kaley Cuoco

Current gig:
The Big Bang Theory (televison)
Past roles that show Harley potential:
Perhaps her short stint on Charmed, but nothing in particular.
Negatives: 
Possibly too cute. Might not be able to muster enough of The Crazy.
Notes:
She might be a good choice, but we’re not completely convinced.

Sarah Brown

Current gig:
Days of our Lives
Past roles that show Harley potential:
Roles as Carly Benson Quartermaine Corinthos and Claudia Zacchara, both on General Hospital
Negatives:
Haven’t seen her in much outside of soaps (except a small role on Birds of Prey)
Notes: 
Looks great in a suit for Dr. Quinzell scenes. If you caught her as Claudia Zacchara on GH, you know what we’re talking about. Besides, one of the greatest heroines of all time started in soaps — Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy fame got her break as Susan Lucci’s daughter on All My Children.

Cameron Diaz

Current gig:
…We don’t actually know.
Past roles that show Harley potential:
Combine her roles in Charlie’s Angels (remember the scene where she dances to Sir Mix-A-Lot?) and Vanilla Sky and you have Harley
Negatives:
We’d rather they pick someone a little more “out-of-the-box.” Plus, we haven’t quite forgiven her for The Mask.
Notes: 
If it has to be someone really established, this would be an acceptable choice.

Amanda Seyfried

Current gig:
Movies and stuff. A lot of romantic comedies that we don’t watch.
Past roles that show Harley potential: 
Mean Girls, Jennifer’s Body, Red Riding Hood
Negatives:
She’s Amanda Seyfriend. Plus, she’s usually the good girl. But we think it could work.
Notes:
Look at those Manson lamps! Seyfried definitely has the elastic face and expressive eyes.

Fairuza Balk

Current gig: 
Still acting in movies, but best known for her 90s work
Past roles that show Harley potential:
Wayward witch Nancy Downs in The Craft.
Negatives:
Can’t see any.
Notes:
Her raspy voice and facial expressions lend themselves to The Crazy.

Emma Stone

Current gig: 
In a new movie every ten minutes or so.
Past roles that show Harley potential: 
Hosting two episodes of SNL plus a tiny but hilarious role in Friends with Benefits  (“JOHNFUCKINGMAYER”)
Negatives:
Already signed on to the new Spiderman franchise.
Notes: 
Great comedic timing and definitely not afraid to look insane if it works for the role. Distinctive speaking voice.

BUT OUR FAVOURITE IS….

Pauley Perette

Current gig: 
NCIS  (plus stints as director, producer, published writer, poet, photographer, spoken-word artist and singer/songwriter, as well as being a civil rights advocate)
Past roles that show Harley potential:
Life in general.
Negatives:
None!
Notes: 
Just load YouTube and watch two seconds of her as Abby Sciuto on NCIS and you’ll be sold. In fact, watch this:

And now look at these photos:

We tend to get busy and neglect the blog, but we have been watching a whole lot of Netflix. Some of the things we’ve watched that we will review include:

Being Human UK (TV Series)
Breakout Kings (TV Series -re-watched)
Dexter (TV Series)
Farscape (TV Series)
Jekyll (TV Series)
Jericho (TV Series)
Jeremiah (TV Series)
Lie To Me (TV Series)
The United States of Tara (TV Series – S1)

I’ve been a longtime follower of Kate’s genius historical, literary, geeky and utterly Canadian comics, and I’ve never been happier to see someone succeed.

I had the pleasure of briefly meeting her at TCAF one year (I had planned to get my stuff signed earlier at an event outside the Beguiling, but aborted when I realized that less than two hours of sleep made me likely to blurt out “Walrus Milk” and run away pulling on my lower eyelids like Homer Simpson).

Kudos, Kate, and here’s to many more. Listen to the interview here.

Lately I have been fishing around for new ideas but not much have come to mind. Then I decided to think backwards and reflect on many of the old characters and ideas from my past. I started sketching things I haven’t sketched in well over a decade. Some of these characters date back to when I first became interested in drawing in the first place. These two in particular really stood out for me in those sketches. Drawing them again and redesigning them was quite fun.

I used to watch a cartoon on TV called “2 Stupid Dogs” back when I was 11 or 12. I was always more of a cat person so I started drawing 2 Stupid Cats. They usually got into stupid situations or got themselves hurt in all sorts of ways. But as I grew older I started to get into comic books like Batman and lost interest in these characters. I am usually embarrassed about a lot of things I drew at that time but these guys always get a laugh out of me.

I may use them in the future, maybe for an upcoming Comic Sins.  For now I just need to keep sketching them and try to come up with good ideas.

I also need to give it a proper name… It won’t be 2 Stupid Cats.

You can find The Savage Bandito’s page via our Facebook page (which you should “Like” if you already haven’t!)

I didn’t know about this event before now, but I’ll be sure to celebrate it each year from now on.

You can also hook up with IRCIPD via their main website or Facebook.

I’ve now watched Witchblade, Darker Than Black, Soul Eater and Claymore, and will eventually review them all. But in the meantime, I’ll post a short list of the patterns that I see forming in the genre.

1. There will almost surely be a recent/imminent apocalyptic event.
Witchblade had The Great Quake, Darker Than Black had Hell’s Gate/Heaven’s Gate, Soul Eater had the awakening of the kishin. Hell Girl had something that I don’t want to mention as it’s late in the show and will ruin it for you. Claymore has Yoma and I’m sure they repeated the details of that about sixty-seven times but I nodded off. Anime writers like their mini-apocalypses.

2. There will be a powerful organization and usually, acronyms.
Witchblade: National Scientific Welfare Foundation aka NSWF
Darker Than Black: The Syndicate, Evening Primrose aka EPR, Physical Alteration Natural Deconstruction Organized Research Agency aka PANDORA
Soul Eater: Death Weapon Meister Academy aka DWMA, Arachnophobia
Hell Girl: Hell
Claymore: The Organization (…zzzzzzzzz). Claymore fails at most things, including acronyms

3. If Jamie Marchi voices any of the characters — and chances are, she will — that character will use their outdoor voice constantly.
She was Masane in Witchblade, Liz in Soul Eater, one of the Claymores in Claymore (damned if I could tell them apart) and Brita in Darker Than Black. Brita was the only one who doesn’t scream constantly and I’m going to call that the exception that proves the rule. Jamie also voiced something in Hell Girl, but I’ll have to admit I don’t remember it and people yelled a whole lot in that entire franchise since they were being dragged to hell… so let’s just say yes.