The funny thing is, I didn't even coach her to do this. She just thinks it's really really really funny all on her own. Final proof of nature vs nurture, I guess.

  

Perhaps you heard that The Clone Wars is ending after five seasons. Originally I seem to recall it was slated for three with a slim shot of making it to five, so I guess we can't really complain. Still, a little sad. I'm still working my way through the Season 4 blu-rays, and Pallas and I have lots of watching ahead of us- she loves the feature film (technically it was 3 episodes strung together and released in theatres) and I haven't even really showed her that there are like a hundred other episodes! I've said it many times, The Clone Wars is the best animated show on television, and is the best thing about the whole prequel era.
Here's a really sweet farewell letter from the voice of Obi-wan Kenobi, James Arnold Taylor.

A week ago or so Marvel started teasing this image, which caused quite a bit of speculation as to what it was, exactly. The Marvel Now line has been rolling out for a few months and has been pretty much hugely successful. So what was this #1? A new series? Unlikely given the huge number of creators listed. An omnibus collection of all the Now #1s? Maybe, yeah, but that's not anything new and all us diehard fans would have all that material anyway. And so on.
Yesterday was the big announcement, and it turned out to be a huge, really huge, digital giveaway of 700 Marvel comics, all first issues of series from the original Marvel comic, Fantastic Four right up to quite a few of the Now titles. 700. Anyone with an account with either the Marvel store or the linked Comixology store could get them. Within minutes pretty much everyone jumped on to redeem, causing the servers to crash.
Comixology spent all day working on the situation, and had their Twitter account suspended for too many tweets as they assured fans and customers personally that they would fix the issues. A few people were disgruntled but mostly everyone was like, "Hey, they're trying to give us free comics for no reason other than that they're cool, so we're good." As of now the giveaway has been suspended while they fix it up. Originally it was only supposed to be until tomorrow but sounds like they'll extend it to serve everyone. Glitches happen, but ultimately I think this will be a win for Marvel, for Comixology and comic book readers in general.
One guy definitely lost, though, and I feel bad for him. I don't know any details so I won't speculate, but I do know that Ruwan Jayatilleke, who was the Marvel VP of digital publishing or somesuch, was let go by Marvel last week. As far as I know, this whole thing was his baby. Again, I know no details but I do know Ruwan was an amazing guy on Twitter, interacting with fans as a fan, and not as some corporate suit who had to stay on message. He gave away digital codes for comics all the time and built up a pretty large following. He wiped his Twitter account but didn't delete his account so hopefully he'll pop up sometime with new opportunities for himself. If you're out there, Ruwan, thank you for all you did.

There's this cool exhibit in Edmonton right now. It closes April 1st so I finally got around to taking Pallas to it today. Star Wars Identities. It's an interactive thing where you create your Star Wars identity, persona, alter-ego, what have you. Plus tons of models and concept art and costumes from the movies. So it was pretty sweet. They project your characters on a screen at the end, and then email you the high-res image along with a character bio based on the things you answered and entered. From Pallas' bio:

I remember this one time when I was attacked by a wampa and badly injured. This had a pretty big influence on me, I guess, because after that I founded a support group for victims of wampa attacks.

I remember what I was going to say now! Sometimes you flag something in your head for a blog post and then forget all about it. But I read this:

I love concept art and this was packaged really nicely- kind of a fake leathery tome look. It even has Thorin's map inside complete with glow-in-the-dark moon runes! And the contract Bilbo signs in the back. And lots and lots of pictures of dwarves! Dwarfs. However Tolkien spelled a plurality of dwarven people.
Best part- there's a couple of pages devoted to something called the High Fells, a tomb where men of old had buried the corpses of the Nazgûl when their mortal bodies died. An inaccessible and forbidding place, and Gandalf and Radagast go there in search of, well, answers. Everyone's searching for answers, right? Though if I was Gandalf I would've brought Bilbo and Smaug with me rather than Radagast. Little Sherlock humour there, never mind me.
A little hint at something to look forward to in The Desolation of Smaug, anyway. The High Fells, I mean, not Sherlock humour.