An update to the Michael Golden Doctor Strange “virtue” sketch
There is an update to a story I blogged about the other day concerning the Doctor Strange fan that commissioned Michael Golden to do a Doctor Strange sketch. Michael Golden responded to criticism he has been receiving in a fairly snarky fashion over at The Comics Journal forum.
My favorite part is where he admits to forging his art agent’s signature on the United States Postal Customs form. My second favorite part is where he says that Doctor Strange is not blowing Gerry Turnbull a raspberry.
In my opinion, Golden is only making a bad thing worse. He screwed up. He accepted $500 in payment for a commissioned piece of artwork and then took ten months to actually do the artwork.
Michael Golden rips off one of his fans for $537 dollars
Doctor Strange fan Gerry Turnbull commissions comic book artist Michael Golden through his art agent Renee Witterstaetter to do a Doctor Strange piece. Instead of the month and a half that was originally promised, it took nine months and Golden even misspelled “virtue”.
Click the image to see a larger version.
I’m assuming that the reference to “Patience is a viru” is referring to the fact that it took nine months for Turnbull to get his artwork. Patience may very well be a virtue, but professionalism is too.
Turnbull contacted Witterstaetter to complain and the art agent claimed she hadn’t seen the artwork even though her signature is on the customs form.
The story has a happy ending. When legendary comic book artist John Byrne learned of this, he instructed Turnbull to email him his mailing address and Byrne would send him something truly worth $500. Kudos to John Byrne.
Chocolate Rain
Once you’ve heard Tay Zonday’s musical masterpiece Chocolate Rain, you cannot get it out of your head. And you don’t want to.
A correction concerning the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
A few weeks ago, I wrote another blog post about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I wanted to calculate the efficiency of what they do with donations. When I was in the Air Force, there was a program called the Combined Federal Campaign. Every year you were “encouraged” to pick a charity out of a booklet so that a portion of your paycheck could be deducted and donated to the charity of your choosing.
There were hundreds of charities listed in the booklet. Along with the name of the charity and a short description of their mission, there was an efficiency rating. I believe it showed how much of the money they received in donations actually went to the very purpose of the charity. It was extremely useful information. I was surprised at how some charities were wasteful with their money.
I wanted to find something similar regarding the CBLDF. I couldn’t find anything. I decided I would try to calculate the numbers myself. I looked at various charity evaluation websites for some guidance. I found formulas that I could use in conjunction with information from the CBLDF’s IRS Form 990’s.
As it turns out, one of the formulas I found and used was in fact wrong. I found it on a charity evaluation website that incorrectly showed how to calculate the fundraising numbers the Better Business Bureau (BBB) recommends. Because of this, the fundraising percentages I posted were in fact too high. I’ve since corrected the formula and the numbers here have been corrected too.
The mistake was not intentional and I apologize for any confusion I may have caused.
Why I do not like cops
Sheri and I were driving to Target before heading over across the Potomic Potomac river and into West Virginia to her brother’s house. Sheri’s nephew was celebrating his fourth birthday and we still had to get him one more gift. He’s into Transformers in a really big way and I remember seeing Transformer helmets with a modulating voice amplifier at Target. Press a button and speak normal and your voice is altered to sound like a Transformer. A pretty cool toy if you ask me.
We were about a mile from Target when I happened to see a Washington County sheriff in my rear view mirror three cars back with his lights blazing. I changed lanes so he could eventually go around me and intercept the evil law breaker he was pursuing. As I changed in the right lane, he did as well. He was then directly behind me and his lights were still flashing. I pulled over and he did too.
I took my driver’s license out and went to the sun visor to get the temporary registration and proof of insurance. I always have that stuff in the sun visor and not in the glove compartment. It’s easier to get to this way. Also, reaching into the glove compartment may cause the cop to think I am going for a weapon.
As the deputy approached the car, I handed him my papers and license before he could even ask for them. He asked me if I knew why he pulled me over. I told him, “No.” He informed me that the expiration date on the temporary tag appears to have washed off.
We purchased a new car, a 2007 Ford Focus, a little over a month ago. We haven’t received the permanent license plates yet. We still have the temporary cardboard tag in place of the rear license plate. The deputy asked me when we purchased the car. That information is located on the temporary registration, but I told him anyway. He then asked me where we purchased the car. Why would he need to know where we purchased the car? What possible reason could he have for knowing this information? I told him we purchased it at Hagerstown Ford.
He then moved over to the front windshield area to look at the VIN number located on the dash. He came back to the window to inform me that the VIN number on the car and the VIN number on the paperwork did not match. Really? You sure about that deputy? I didn’t say anything. If he was convinced the two numbers didn’t match, what could I say that would possibly change his mind? After looking at the two numbers again, he admitted that the VIN numbers indeed matched. Imagine that.
Maybe if he wasn’t wearing those dorky looking wrap around mirrored sunglasses, he could see better.
I know the real reason he was asking stupid questions. He was trying to engage me in conversation. He wanted to see signs that I was under the influence. Never mind it was early afternoon and that I hadn’t so much as had a beer in over two weeks. If he can get me into lengthy conversation, he can claim that my words were slurred. He would then have claim probable cause to have me perform a field sobriety test. Whether I pass or fail the field sobriety test would be solely up to him. The same person that had trouble recognizing that the two VIN numbers were a match.
It’s because of this I try to keep my answers short. One word answers are best. One syllable answers are even better. I speaking to a member of law enforcement, I don’t offer up any information without being asked.
He then told me that he would be right back and he went back to his car. I watched him in my rear view mirror. He was talking on his radio for a while and then proceeded to talk on his cell phone. His cell phone? I got the impression he was making a personal call while we sat in on the side of the road wasting time. Either that or he was calling a fellow deputy to see if they could think of something to write me a ticket for.
After about ten minutes, he got out of his car and returned to my window. He handed everything back to me and told me that I needed to take a marker and write the expiration date back on the temporary tag. He said that he could write me a $60 failure to display proper registration ticket, but he was not going to do that. He thanked me and told me I was free to go.
I didn’t thank him.
I’m not the one that decided Maryland temporary license plates should be made of cardboard and displayed on the back of a vehicle. It rains in Maryland. Cardboard doesn’t react well to water. Making these temporary tags out of simple cardboard and demanding that they be mounted on the rear of the vehicle exposed to the elements is stupid. At the very least they should be mounted on the inside the vehicle on the back window.
Why does it take Maryland so long to issue permanent plates? If they are going to make the temporary tags out of such a flimsy material as cardboard and require them to be mounted to the outside of the vehicle, they ought to be a little quicker with providing the permanent plates.
This is why I don’t like cops. I know that it’s politically incorrect to say something like this, but I’ve never had a good experience with a member of law enforcement. Instead of off fighting crime, this cop wasted time by jacking up someone obviously driving a new car with a water damaged temporary tag. I wasn’t breaking any laws. No one has a reported a stolen black 2007 Ford Focus. He had no legitimate reason for pulling me over and questioning me. He was simply fishing.
Batgirl Showcase outrage
There’s currently a controversy of sorts on the comic book blogosphere concerning the cover of Showcase Presents: Batgirl Volume 1. It’s a collected book of past Batman stories that contain appearances of Batgirl. Showcase books are printed on pulpy paper and are in black and white. This one is over 500 pages in length and priced at $16.99. Not a bad deal if old dopey comic stories are your thing.
The cover in question shows Batgirl fixing her makeup while Batman and Robin kung fu fight the bad guys. The implication it seems is that Batgirl is more worried about her makeup then fighting crime. The cover is based on a splash page from DETECTIVE COMICS #371.
The idea of a superhero, male or female, would be more concerned with his or her appearance then fighting crime seems silly. Then again, superheroes tend to care a great deal about their personal appearance. Otherwise they wouldn’t wear such elaborative and exotic costumes.
Is this cover insulting? On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this at minus 3.
As a man, I don’t look at this cover and infer from it that men in general enjoy wearing funny costumes and fighting crime with prepubescent boys. Just because Batman is shown this way doesn’t mean all men are this way. Why then do some women look at this cover and insist that it is a disparaging statement about women as a whole?
I thought the Mary Jane statue and the Heroes For Hire cover were things worth complaining about. In fact I complained about them too. This cover is not worth complaining about.
Michael Chertoff’s guts are telling him that you should be afraid
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer. Not because he knows of any credible intelligence that points to that. No, because he feels it in his large intestines.
“Summertime seems to be appealing to them,” he said of al-Qaeda. “We do worry that they are rebuilding their activities.”
Still, Chertoff said there are not enough indications of an imminent plot to raise the current threat levels nationwide. And he indicated that his remarks were based on “a gut feeling” formed by past seasonal patterns of terrorist attacks, recent al-Qaeda statements, and intelligence he did not disclose.
Don’t just sit there. Go grab some duct tape and save yourself! It’s summertime and Michael Chertoff’s bowels are talking!
Looking at the CBLDF and where all that money goes
I would encourage anyone that has ever donated money to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) to look into just how efficient they have been at spending your money. Remember, most of the money they spend every year comes to them in the form of tax-free donations from people like you and me. Comic book nerds that don’t want our right to read comic books to be trampled upon by those that want to censor what we read.
A good place to start would be the GuideStar website. GuideStar gathers and publicizes information about tax exempt nonprofit organizations such as the CBLDF.
The CBLDF has 501(c)(3) status. That means the CBLDF is recognized by the Federal Government as being organized for the public benefit. Because of this, the CBLDF has been given tax-exempt status. Though they are exempt from actually paying taxes to the IRS, they are required to submit to a Form 990 detailing their finances. From these yearly IRS Form 990’s you can look into just how efficient the CBLDF is at spending the money.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has attempted to define a set of standards for charitable organizations. This is from the BBB’s Give.org website:
The BBB Wise Giving Alliance Standards for Charity Accountability were developed to assist donors in making sound giving decisions and to foster public confidence in charitable organizations. The standards seek to encourage fair and honest solicitation practices, to promote ethical conduct by charitable organizations and to advance support of philanthropy.
In measuring effectiveness of finances, the BBB recommends that charitable organizations spend at least 65% of total expenses on program activities. To discover what this amount is, take the amount located on Line 13 of the IRS Form 990 and divide it by the amount located on Line 17 of the same form. The result is the percentage of total expenses spent of program activities.
(Line 13 / Line 17) x 100 = the actual % spent on programing
CBLDF Program Activities
- 2007 – 43.31%
- 2006 – 46.29%
- 2005 – 52.4%
- 2004 – 39.7%
- 2003 – 40.6%
- 2002 – 53.5%
- 2001 – 47.3%
By looking at these figures, it appears that the CBLDF has not been very close to achieving this before mentioned 65% benchmark. Not to say that they have a legal requirement to actually spend a certain percentage of their money on what they proclaim to do. In this case, the preservation of First Amendment rights for the comic book community. Unless it’s the First Amendment rights of Gary Groth or comic book publisher Fantagraphics, but I digress.
If the CBLDF isn’t spending the money on defending the First Amendment rights of the comic book community, where is the money going? The BBB suggests that no more than 35% of related contributions be spent on fundraising.
(Line 15 / (Line 1e + Line 3)) x 100 = the actual % of contributions spent on fundraising
CBLDF Fundraising
- 2007 – 36.13%
- 2006 – 40.89%
- 2005 – 27.3%
- 2004 – 32.0%
- 2003 – 44.9%
- 2002 – 20.0%
- 2001 – 17.3%
CBLDF spends a good amount of money on fundraising. Much of this is due to the costs associated with travel and attending comic book conventions. When I have donated my money to the CBLDF in the past it has been at a comic book convention.
So what does all this mean? Take from this what you will. Don’t take my word on any of the numbers presented here. Though I have attempted to be totally accurate in the numbers and figures presented, I am no mathematician. I may have screwed up some of the numbers. I don’t think I have, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I have. I would encourage anyone interested in this to go and look at the information for yourself.
It is after all very easily obtainable. I am not telling anyone not to donate to the CBLDF. I am only advising anyone that has donated to the CBLDF in the past or plans to donate to the CBLDF in the future to educate themselves about the CBLDF and what they really do with the money. Don’t rely on the same old CBLDF generated press release republished on all of the various comic book news websites and magazines to give you the entire picture. Those press releases are written to promote donations, not to convey all the facts.
Get the facts.
Update (24 July 2007) – One of the formulas I used was wrong. I didn’t create the formula. I found it on a charity evaluation website that incorrectly showed how to calculate the fundraising numbers the Better Business Bureau (BBB) recommends. Because of this, the fundraising percentages I originally posted were in fact too high. I’ve since corrected the formula and the numbers here have been corrected too.
Why can’t Cindy Sheehan keep her word?
Cindy Sheehan is back. Her retirement evidently is over after only five short weeks. When she announced her “retirement” from the anti-war movement, she chose to make the announcement on Memorial Day. She chose to announce that she was resuming her duties as self-described Peace Mom on Independence Day. This lady certainly likes to get dramatic on patriotic holidays.
I’m only surprised she was able to keep herself out of the limelight this long. Oh well. Maybe she should have just announced last Memorial Day that she was taking a vacation.
My how things change
“I don’t believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own.”
George W. Bush explaining why he signed death warrants
for 152 inmates while governor of Texas.
Independence Day: the rudest of all holidays
Today is Independence Day. The day we Americans celebrate the supposed birth of our country. It’s the day our ancestors declared their independence from Great Britain.
As though that is something actually worth celebrating. I can think of worse things then being a British citizen.
I sometimes wonder how different my life would be if Maryland was still a colony of Great Britain. How different would my life be if I was a British citizen? Do I as an American enjoy any rights or privileges that I would not enjoy if I was British?
I don’t think so.
I’m not overly convinced that my life would be all that bad if our nation’s forefathers hadn’t declared their independence from England. If they had simply paid their taxes and not caused a ruckus. For guys that supposedly loved freedom so much, they certainly had a funny way of showing it. The phrase, “All men are created equal” was probably written with ink and paper fetched by a slave.
I’ve been to England. It’s a nice place. It’s not the type of place that makes me want to celebrate because I am independent from it. I can think of at least 12 countries off the top of my head that I would be thankful not to be part of. England is not one of those countries. In fact if I had to choose a country to live in other then the United States, my list would start and end with England.
In fact, I would choose to live in England even over many of the states in my own country. Have you ever been to Texas? How about Montana? I’d take England in a heartbeat.
Can you really blame me? Look at what Great Britain has given us. The Beatles and Elton John. Alan Moore and the Rolling Stones. The Who and Harry Potter. The Lord of the Rings and Led Zeppelin. The Clash and Ricky Gervase. Doctor Who and William Shakespeare. Monty Python and James Bond. Rich Johnson and Mary Poppins. David Bowie and Neil Gaiman. The list is really quite endless.
Have you ever eaten a scone? They are really very delicious. Have you tried putting malt vinegar on your fries? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
In London, you are allowed to openly drink a beer while riding in the underground subway system. A beer that actually tastes good I might add. In nearby Washington D.C., you can be arrested for simply chewing a piece of candy.
Don’t get me wrong. There are many things I love about this country. For all of the things wrong with it, there are many good things too. I just don’t see why we have to make such a big deal celebrating our independence from England. To actually set off fireworks and throw festive get-togethers with friends and family. To eat potato salad, watermelon, and burnt hot dogs like there is no tomorrow. If I was from the England I think I would be a little offended at our level of jubilation. It strikes me as being more then just a little rude, Then again, maybe the English are just thankful that so many of our fellow Americans are not longer contaminating their gene pool.
If I was Martha Stewart I would be pissed
Martha Stewart lied when being questioned about insider stock trading. Scooter Libby lied when being questioned about leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent.
Martha Stewart is famous for baking cookies and making the perfect table arraignment. Scooter Libby is famous for being both the Chief-of-Staff and national security adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Martha Stewart ended up serving a five-month prison term. Scooter Libby ended up serving no time in prison.
Why is Scooter Libby exempt from serving even a day in prison when Martha Stewart did the same exact thing yet had to spend 5 months in prison?
Bush commutes Libby prison sentence
President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term that Bush said was excessive.Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case.
That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Bush said in a statement. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.”
Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, and Bush said his action still “leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby.”
I’m almost speechless. Does this mean Bush will now be reviewing every convicted felon’s sentence to ascertain if it’s too excessive or is this something he will reserve only for his buddies? A pardon would have looked better. By commuting the sentence, he’s admitting there was a crime committed, but that Libby should for some reason be exempt from actually really being punished for it.
If he did this because he truly thought the 2 1/2-year prison sentence was excessive, why didn’t he just shorten it down to something smaller? Because it wasn’t that he felt 30 months in prison was excessive, but that he was to go to prison at all is what Bush thought was excessive.



