T-shirt #358 - Mage shirt (old)

TODAY'S COUNT: 07 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!
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T-shirt #358 - Mage shirt (old)

I am writing about "today" tomorrow. As in I posted an incomplete message originally for today's blog, which is Friday. I was engaged in a long day of running errands today, and then had to speed off for dinner with my parents and a show I had to review, a very unusual and wonderful production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which will be the subject of tomorrow's blog.

This is the original MAGE shirt (and hat). I have posted about the comic book Mage three times before. I have a newer and better (clean and unaged) Mage T-shirt left to share, which I will do in the blog's future, the blog's extended run. This was my first MAGE shirt, and when it began to show its age, and I decided to wear it out playing Ultimate, I retired it from the "dressy" shirt service and upgraded to a newer, nicer "mint" version of the MAGE shirt.

HERE'S MY PREVIOUS MAGE CONTENT:

T-SHIRT #206 - MAGE - WHAT COLOR IS MAGIC

T-SHIRT #140 - JOE PHAT - the nice one

T-SHIRT #229 - JOE PHAT - the work shirt

Here's some of that previous content:

 T-shirt #206: Mage: What Color is Magic?

Today's shirt is one of the oldest in my closet. I believe that Matt Wagner released this shirt far in advance ofMage: The Hero Defined, for which we Mage fans waited A VERY LONG TIME.

I submit for consideration that Kevin Matchstick is one of the coolest names for a hero and main character ever created.

As for the shirt's subject matter, I first wrote about the Mage series in T-shirt #140, and intrigued some comic fans that a Joe Phat shirt existed. As I warned then, I own two Joe Phat shirts plus two of the Mage lightning bolt shirts (unless I purged the old one), and so I have plenty more chances to write about Mage, which is an important disclaimer as today I am restricting myself to four short topics, none of which are directly Mage-related.

Though the second Mage series was finally released in 1997, I suspect that this shirt was released sometime between 1988 and 1992, hence my claim of its elderly status among the shirts in my closet. In fact, given its age and how worn it has been, I have all but retired it, allowing it languish in the depths of the extended closet.
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OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013. I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks. After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT. I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02
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MORE CONTENT

The previous label can be read two ways. One way refers to the content I am delivering. The other way refers to a feeling and having more of it: feeling more content.

MAGE and his magic, glowing baseball bat reminds me of people who need that magic baseball bat upside the head.

We have a problem with people not paying attention and thinking they are the center of the universe.
Yesterday, I was at the bank, exiting the parking lot, some lady in an SUV was entering, driving through a narrow lane that only allows one car, each way, to pass. She stops and is futzing with her phone, she looked like she was writing a text. Meanwhile, two cars have to stop behind her. Was her text or whatever she was doing so important that she had to make those two other drivers wait? I see a lot of this behavior, which seems to have only become worse with technological devices that people regard as more important than basic decency and considerate actions.

For the next bit, I am not sure who needs the baseball bat upside the head, the president or Mark Zuckerberg.

Then later, I am reading the BOING BOING feed, and I find this news item:

ZUCKERBERG CALLS PRESIDENT OBAMA.

You can read the whole content there, but I am going to steal some of it.

The internet works because most people and companies do the same. We work together to create this secure environment and make our shared space even better for the world.

This is why I've been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're protecting you against criminals, not our own government.

The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they're doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.

I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.

So it's up to us -- all of us -- to build the internet we want. Together, we can build a space that is greater and a more important part of the world than anything we have today, but is also safe and secure. I'm committed to seeing this happen, and you can count on Facebook to do our part.

By the way, Mr. Zuckerberg, the Internet is a proper name, and thus it is capitalized.

I am not sure that Mark Zuckerberg's intentions here are entirely altruistic, but I do like the cause he's chosen to champion.

The article is worth looking at, the accusations against the NSA are kind of frightening.

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WEEKLY COMICS LIST

 I am a sucker for a good cover. See that alluring David Lopez Captain Marvel cover? NICE.

I have not ever taken a picture of the Weekly Comics Stack. I think this is very good thing to do.

As you can see Fantastic Four hit the top of the stack followed by Black Widow and The Walking Dead as you can read in the list below. The Captain Marvel issue, despite its awesome cover, is somewhere in the middle. Nearer the bottom, though I am kind of excited about the issues, there's STRAY BULLETS, which is an excellent comic book. Lapham finally finished his previous run, and so that's the last issue (#41) of the previous run, and then the first of the new issues. Though obviously inspired by the film, Pulp Fiction, have been a fan for some time now. And you may also see a T-shirt, one of the last ones I ordered before I cut myself off (and back when I was worried that I would run out of shirts).

Here's the list. Those Stray Bullets issues may move up. Sometimes my mood shifts and other things become priorities.

COMICS FOR 1403.12

Fantastic Four #002
Black Widow#004
The Walking Dead #123
All New X-Men #024
The Superior Spider-Man #029
Batman #29
Mighty Avengers #008
Secret Avengers #001
Uber #10
Hawkeye #017
Captain Marvel  #001
Batgirl #29
Justice League of America #13
Superman/ Wonder Woman #6
Nightwing #29
Avengers Undercover #1
Stray Bullets #41
Stray Bullets: Killers #1
X-Force #2

BACK LOG

Astro City #10

SPECIAL PURCHASE

Inhumans T-shirt

I am sure I will be reviewing many of these comics in future blog posts.

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COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 08 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1403.14 - 19:10
final publication - 1403.15 - 19:15