The Machine of Death is a machine that, using only a sample of a person's blood, can tell how that person is going to die. It all started with Ryan North and his webcomic, Dinosaur Comics; in December of 2005 he wrote a comic that introduced the Machine for the first time. Some time later he and some other internet people decided to get together and actually write the story he came up with. They began accepting submissions from the internet in 2007, and released the first anthology in 2010. It became Amazon's #1 best-selling book for about a day in late October. The submission deadline for the newest anthology just passed, on July 15th. I wrote a story and submitted it and have decided, with the aid of The Poet's encouragement, to post my story on here sometime in the near future, so watch this space (if you are interested). In the meantime, I'd recommend checking out their first anthology online, for free, at their website You can also get it in the form of an audiobook-type podcast on iTunes.

This is a painting of Harley Quinn. I don't really like her redesign, so I re-redesigned her in an effort to minimize the skank factor, maybe give her back a little dignity or, at the very least, cover up some of her lady bits.  

Canada is a country that I live in. It's Canada's 144th birthday today! Happy Canada Day! To celebrate here are some fast facts about Canada:  

-Canada Day is celebrated on July 1st. On July 1st 1867 the British North America Act was passed, uniting the Province of Canada (renamed Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. We were joined by Rupert's Land (which eventually became bits of Ontario and Quebec, as well as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and part of Alberta) and The North-Western Territory (which eventually became the rest of Alberta, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut) in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, all of the islands up to the North Pole (most of which became part of Nunavut)  by 1925, and finally Newfoundland in 1949. 
-Our first Prime Minister was Sir John A MacDonald, who was a little bit drunk but still a totally awesome guy. Our current Prime Minister is Stephen Harper. He has a stupid face. See previous blogs for my thoughts on that guy. 
-We are a constitutional monarchy, so Queen Elizabeth II is our queen, but we're like teenagers just moved out for the first time; we barely call except around holidays and when we need money.  
-Canada is the second largest country in the world (Russia is bigger)  
-There are about 34,500,000 people in Canada, ranking us 36th in the world in terms of population, but 228th in terms of population density (there are about 3.4 people per kilometre squared)
-Our currency is the Canadian Dollar, which is like the American Dollar but less so. It is very colourful.   
-Also our dollar comes in the form of a coin and we call it a "loonie", and we have a two dollar coin called the "toonie". 
-We drive on the right, spell most things the British way, have ostensibly American accents (but we apparently say "about" funny. I don't hear it, myself), and have provinces and territories (not states) 
-When you think Canada you're most likely to think maple leaves, the loon, polar bears, beavers, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, polar bears and beavers in twee little RCMP uniforms, excessive politeness, and maple syrup.

So I don't know how many people out there have been following the Canadian election, but, being a Canadian (fairly) recently imbued with the right to vote, I know I have. I didn't really start out interested, but the Toronto Star has been taking up an increasing amount of space usually dedicated to the things I like to read (mostly crime articles and also the comics [which, incidentally, remain by and large spectacularly unfunny]) and put in their place actual "news" about "important current issues," like the election, and (mostly by accident) I have found myself absorbing this information. Currently I haven't really decided who to vote for, but I know one thing for sure: I'm not voting for Stephen Harper.

So I was doing the required readings for a course when I came across a couple of articles that proved I am taking the best course in the world.  
 
The first is called The Portrayal of Crime and Justice in the Comic Book Superhero Mythos, and it's an in-depth examination of the concepts of crime and justice as they apply to superhero comics, Superman and Batman specifically. It gives a really cool breakdown of the world the heroes inhabit, and the type of justice that each man espouses. Here it is, for your reading pleasure
 
The second is called "The Amazing Spider-Man" and the Evolution of the Comics Code: A Case Study in Cultural Criminology. This one is also really cool, because it talks about the effect of comic books on public perceptions of crime and deviance, and frames it all within a comic context. It also makes for an interesting investigation into the Comics Code and what sociological factors lay behind the enforcement of that idea. You can find it here. 
 
Ever wanted to read about the portrayal of drug use in comics? Man, you sure are lucky you stumbled across this blog! Also, you have oddly specific interests. The third article is called "They say it'll kill me... but they won't say when!" Drug Narratives in Comic Books, and is all about the portrayal of drug addicts and drug dealers, and the (mostly) negative portrayal of drugs, specifically the harder drugs like heroin, as they appear in comics. If you'd like to read more, you can read the full article here.
 
Anyways, that's all the articles related to comic books. If you'd like to read through the rest of the (really, really interesting) Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, you can access it here. If you have a couple of minutes to kill, or if you're like me and just love this kind of stuff, I'd definitely recommend giving these articles a read! Enjoy!  

Usually I try to post comics-related stuff, but a friend of mine asked me if I wouldn't mind sharing this new band she likes with all of you in order to win a t-shirt or something. They're called Commissioner Jams Gordon, which is an awesome name, and here are some of their songs. I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I have! 
 
  

If we identify with heroes who are driven by revenge because we want to believe that we could turn our desire for vengeance into something just and pure, we identify with the villains because they satisfy our revenge fantasies. We just can't help but imagine how we would get back at people who did us wrong, and these villains help us realize these fantasies, enacting them for our entertainment. Something about revenge feels so terribly right. It’s like the junk food of emotional catharsis; so bad for us and yet oh so good.   

These kinds of villains, unlike their heroic counterparts, can be driven by myriad different reasons. For every villain who commits crime to get back at the hero, there's one who commits crime to get back at those dudes in high school who made fun of the villain's hair cut because seriously they didn't even know that it was super cool hair cut and maybe if they would have just acknowledged that I wouldn't have to keep them in my basement suspended above a pool of acid. Hypothetically speaking, of course.  

Revenge is a powerful motivator. It can make just about anybody do just about anything with little to no thought as to the consequences of their actions. A villain, infuriated by his inability to defeat the hero is spurred on by his desire to protect his ego and defeat the hero. Every time he is beaten and his ego is bruised, his desire to avenge himself on the hero and reclaim his notoriety is increased tenfold. Revenge is so powerful because it is of personal significance to the villain that they achieve their goals, whether that goal is to finally kill the superhero, or just to defend the super awesomeness of their new hair cut.   

Revenge is, in the end, crazy intense motivation, and a compelling one as well, because it's something that everybody gets, even if it's just a little bit and even if they don't really want to admit it. And more than that, it's kind of fun to see someone fulfilling one of our deepest urges, usually with hilariously over the top plans that make us want to root for the villain just a little bit. Sometimes you just gotta root for the dude with the super awesome hair cut.  

"With great power comes great responsibility" 

We've all heard it. People who've never read comics have heard it. People who've never heard of comics have heard it. It's one of those phrases that have seeped into the public consciousness and become inextricably linked with the idea of superheroism. And to be fair, it really is one of the more common reasons to be a superhero. Why fight crime? Because crime is there, and it needs to be stopped. Someone has to protect our people/city. This is more often the natural domain of the powered hero, who feels obligated to super-punch bad guys in the face because they are capable of super-punching people, and, really, when else can you use a power like super-punch? You just can't. But of course non-powered heroes can get in on this action as well, reacting to the crime-tasticness of their milieu with normal-punching bad guys in the face, which is significantly less super but no less gratifying when it comes to punching crime.    

These sorts of heroes are driven by their supposed duty, yes, but they also seem to have an awful lot of guilt behind what they do, called for or no. Take, for example, the Ur example, Spider-Man. This guy is all about the responsibility inherent in having powers above and beyond that of the average man, sure, but man is he awful guilty. About every goddamn thing, too. Uncle Ben dies, he should have saved him! Gwen Stacy dies, he could have saved her! Some kid dropped his ice cream, oh the humanity! Everything is Spider-Man's fault, and he must superhero to make up for it. 

All this guilt is probably supposed to humanize him, and characters like him, and maybe to give us a plausible reason for why these heroes continue to fight crime despite suffering tragedy after tragedy. It really just creates an endless cycle of fighting with the villainous character type I'll be discussing in the next blog; the hero fights the villain because it is his responsibility to do so. The villain commits terrible crimes because of vengeance/ he wants pretty things. The superhero fights the villain because of guilt over not stopping the crimes committed by the villain. Lather, rinse, repeat.   

Now, I don't know about you, but if a loved one of mine was stuffed into a fridge, I'd be pretty ticked off. Ditto if they were shot by a mugger, or dropped off of a bridge or irradiated or any number of other violent deaths that seem to be inflicted on C-list characters and super girlfriends every time I turn around. How would I react? Badly, I imagine. It would probably involve a lot of weeping openly in public places and perhaps the occasional cursing of whatever greater power might be responsible. For characters in comic books, though, it frequently results in a desire to fight crime. This is the revenge-driven hero, a hero whose motivations centre around the desire to avenge a person or group of people, and who extends this quest for vengeance until it covers villains ranging from "that douche who stole some lady's purse" to "that douche who stole some lady's purse and is now going to explode the universe".   One of the most famous revenge-driven heroes is, of course, Batman, who subsumes his dual desires to avenge his parent's deaths and protect the city they loved into punching costumed villains in the face.  And of course there are characters like the Punisher, who react to the violent deaths of loved ones by saying "Screw it, I'm gonna go shoot things in the face until it stops being funny". And then there're characters like Kyle Rayner, who had his girlfriend stuffed into a fridge, then his mother stuffed into an oven (sort of) mid-superhero career. These sorts characters are most often driven by grief as well as revenge, as they're already well into fighting crime.  
 
What is it about  heroes like this that we as readers find so easy to relate to? It probably comes down to the fact that the desire for revenge is something that we've all probably felt at least a little twinge of. Say you're out driving and some guy totally cuts you off.  What a douche! He must be made to pay. I mean, sure, we all know that you're not really going to avenge yourself on this guy, but you really want to, and that's what matters. It's kind of awesome to read about a superhero who is just like us, who has been driven to serve a greater good because of some tragic past. We can pretend that, if circumstances were a little different and if we were driven to it, we could totally be that guy.  
 
And then of course there's the fact that revenge is pretty much "instant characterization, just add tragedy!" Say you're writing about a superhero, and he's pretty cool. He kicks bad guys in the face and he has some pretty funny quips for when he does it. But he's still just like every other face-kickin', quip-sayin' superhero out there. He needs a little something more... and that something is a dead little sister, or dead parents, or a dead great aunt, or a dead puppy. Bam! You've got yourself an instant backstory, and you've sufficiently humanized your character, now they can go off and kick some more people in the face, and all you have to do is throw in a line now and then like "I wish my sister/parents/great aunt/puppy hadn't been murdered by the villain/eaten by zombies/hit by that car that cut me off" and your audience knows that your character is serious and deep and cares about proper driving etiquette.  
 
I'm not saying that revenge is bad motivation for a superhero, I actually think it's pretty great. I mean, some of my favourite superheroes are revenge-driven, so you know I'm not prejudiced. I just find the trend of murdering B-, C- and even E-list characters in the name of creating a motivation is a little disturbing. 

A hero is a delicate and fascinating creature, and a comic book hero even more so. What exactly can drive a man or woman to dress up in tight pants and kick people in the face? There are probably myriad reasons, and they are explored exhaustively through the origin comics that we are inundated with at the slightest provocation. Nobody is saying that, for example, Batman's motivations aren't pretty much as clear as crystal ("Punching bad people in the face is like punching the guy who killed my parents in the face!") but it is still something that we hear about all the time, something that is always central to a character, because it informs their actions and interactions with the heroes, sidekicks and villains that people their worlds.  
 
What makes a hero do what they do? Aside from a spandex fetish, there are two major motivations that I feel are worth discussing (or, at least, I came up with clever titles for them), and I am going to write about in the near future. Stay tuned!