SAMURAI, KNIGHTs + COWBOYs

TIME, Inc.'s Newest iPad App is a Winner

I've spent my fair share of time in the trenches when it comes to magazine design and publishing. I know how hard it is to produce great work on deadline — especially when there are a hundred moving parts and multiple levels of approval needed for everything from editorial content to artwork and photography. The fact that great material gets produced at all is a testament to the work ethic of the people who toil in publishing. You simply have to love the job.

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IMAGE CREDITs: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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Throw into this pressure cooker the need to get finished art to the printers (in time for them to actually print the magazine), the requirement that you repurpose all content online and publish a corresponding iPad version — and you have a recipe for disaster. And yet, with the advent of Entertainment Weekly (EW) for iPad, the folks at TIME, Inc. (EW's parent company) have managed to cobble together a smorgasbord of an app thats worth the cost of subscription.

I know what you're thinking, you've seen PROJECT Magazine and WIRED Magazine with their gee-gaw factor of video clips, interactive-rotating 3D models, embedded sound clips, out-bound hyper-links and real-time commenting. It is true the folks at PROJECT and WIRED do a splendid job but, they are working on a monthly deadline. EW works on a weekly deadline hence their name "Entertainment Weekly".

I'm not privy to the inner workings at EW but, I suspect they knew their publishing cycle would not allow for these types of "gee-gaw" features in every issue. So I assume they did the next best thing and exploited the one advantage they have in their favor — great access, great photography and a publication the reader can consume in a single sitting. With this "assumed advantage" they have provided readers with the best reading experience on an iPad regardless of orientation.

This in itself is not an easy thing to do. Other magazines like Condé Nast's WIRED magazine or Virgin's PROJECT magazine utilize a layout that switches from two columns to three columns when rotated. Readers then scroll up and down to read more content while swiping left to right takes you to the next story. EW does this too but, because of the brevity of their articles they are able to more often instigate a user-interface where the reader taps for more content or swipes within a fixed window. This in itself does not seem to be radically different until you see how EW exploits this feature.

In the end, what is amazing about EW's implementation of the digital magazine is simply that they have been able to preserve the natural reading experience of their printed edition and port it, without compromise, to the iPad. It doesn't hurt that the app is rock-solid in its its stability.* It took me more than 45 minutes of constantly changing the orientation of my iPad to force the application to crash — I have a feeling the app was doing so out of spite.

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A VISUAL OVERVIEW

For Starters

EW Doesn't bother with landscape versions of its cover. It stays fast and true to the portrait orientation for some of its key features like the "BullsEye" a weekly compendium of pop cultures's hits and misses. The app offers a clean and unobtrusive UI (user interface) and a quick one page, mostly visual , tutorial readers are up and running in a flash. Working in both orientations, the primary UI menu fades from view when unneeded. Readers need only tap the bottom of the screen to make it reappear — a standard convention in most magazine apps. 

Advertising

Adverts are kept to a minimum, for a bonafide reading experience. Advertisers are given the option of producing two versions of their ads or the use of a magnification feature in landscape mode. Being a magazine that covers books, music, movies games — I forsee more interactive ads in EW's future. 

Short Stories

Short Stories that require little copy are the bread and butter of EW. These are snippets of information too long to be contained in a sidebar and to short to be a long-form feature story. Photo features also qualify for this category. EW allows readers to view the photography in all its glory before tapping the cues to reveal the copywriting behind the image. In some cases, the image is the story and rotating the story from portrait to landscape gives the user a different perspective on the content. Either the content can be seen in it's entirety or more of the subject is shown for a richer - more contextual experience.

Adaptive Design/Layout

EW's design genius really gets in gear with an adaptive grid that allows sections like "The Year that Was" to shine. It appears that many of the visual elements are isolated, rather than existing as a composite, allowing EW's designers to leverage image size, proportion, different type treatments and custom wraps/containers to provide unique layouts for portrait and landscape.

Special Sections

EW pulls out all the stops for special sections like "The Year in Covers" and "Best and Worst of 2011". In some cases they worked in practical, section-specific sub-navigation that not only becomes part of the design, it is actually useful.

In Conclusion

For most applications, after the wrapper has been taken off and the novelty has worn thin, users rarely come back to use for extended periods of time. For the Entertainment Weekly app, with two issues under it's belt, I'm taking a wait and see attitude. This app is good enough that I want to make it my primary way of consuming entertainment news, Flipboard be damned. Lets hope the writers, editors, designers and publishers keep up the exemplary work. Five out of five stars.

Entertainment Weekly for iPad can be found on the itunes app store.

*Running on an 32GB iPad2 with iOS5 installed. EW for iPad now in the itunes app store. Bonus! Print subscribers get the digital version for free.

People tend to think of video games as pure entertainment. Some think of them as a waste of time. Yet as the media platform matures, more and more people are recognizing it as art. Specifically because recent high-profile game titles have raised the bar on the emotional ties people form with the stories.

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IMAGE CREDITs: Techland 
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Note: This video is not for the faint of heart. If you're not used to graphic game trailers or horror movies this might prove to be a bit. unsettling. In mid February a firestorm of concern erupted over the Internet in regards to what, to many gamers, was just a simple preview trailer for a video game. What was alarming to parent groups and people outside of the gaming industry/community as a whole, was the emotional impact of the trailer. Specifically, they were outraged that the trailer for 'Dead Island' by Dutch game studio Techland showed the death of a little girl by her own father's hands. 

Good story-tellers know that in order for a story to resonate with audiences one has to get them emotionally invested. Audiences are suckers for children and animals.* The trailer struck a nerve because we are not used to seeing children being physically treated in this manner. Swap out an adult male character for the little girl and the trailer might have passed without any notice. Even veteran gamers were remarking that it was one of the most moving pieces of digital film they had seen in quite some time. Before you go off on a rant, know the source of this raw emotion is the presence of attacking zombies.

"TechLand has just released the official trailer for the upcoming survival horror first-person shooter and it is certainly worth watching. Even if you’re not a gamer. Trust us on this one! It’s better than a lot of movie trailers."

Shown in slow-motion, like a silent super-8 movie played in reverse, the trailer takes the viewer from disbelief to understanding, to the desire to watch it one more time. It is like a car-wreck, you want to look away but, morbid curiosity prevents you from doing so. An Internet meme was even started with fans of the trailer posting it in reverse order on YouTube. Trust me when I say that it loses some of its impact when you can see the action telescoped so you can anticipate the next actions/moves this family in peril will take.

What is odd is that it has taken the general public this long to realize that game designers and developers have been crafting their art for years and realized that story is now as important as game-play. In some cases, like Rock Star games' 'Red Dead Redemption' and Remedy's 'Alan Wake' story drives the game-play.

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In this harried world, the last thing you want to do on vacation is be treated like a number. Which is why I recommend Epernay in the US Virgin Islands. They are a Wine & Champagne Bistro located in Frenchtown in St.Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The food is commendably delicious, service is personable and for the USVI the prices are on par.

The owner/ operator, Tucker, is a former analyst who decided he didn't need the stress or grind of Wall Street any longer and thus he entered head-first into the uncharted perils of eatery & watering-hole ownership. The affect of having some one used to Wall Street levels of stress running a such an establishment yeilds one of the most laid-back and comfortable bars/restaurants on the island and the continental United States.

Epernay ends up being everything your wished for in a 'corner neighborhood' watering hole and restaurant — albeit one that serves 'Ace of Spades' champagne (I opted for bourbon) and the most flavorful of NY strips. Don't let all the trappings fool you, at Epernay the tables are small, closely spaced, cozy.

If you make it to the US Virgin Islands, be sure to drop by and be sure to tell them Monirom sent you.

DINING MENU:

WINE MENU:

FOR MORE INFO VISIT THIER WEBSITE:
http://www.epernaystthomas.com

CONTACT THEM AT:
Epernay, St Thomas
24A Honduras
French Town, St. Thomas, USVI

340 667 5348

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IMAGE CREDITs: c/o The Daily 
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 the GOOD 

Being in the business of designing for mobile applications myself, I've learned to take all the bile spewed by the general public with a grain of salt. Often its only the people with really negative things to say that bother commenting in the itunes app store. People who are happy with your application usually can't be bothered to post comments and the ones that do are subject to ridicule by the masses — who can't believe you don't agree with their point of view.

So if you take this all into perspective, its been a good past week for Rupert Murdoch. Pundits far and wide have been falling all over themselves to compliment 'The Daily App' but, that was before they spent an extended period of time with it. Reviews were mostly based on brief demos versus days of actual use. Twenty-four hours later there were visible chinks in 'The Daily' app's armor. At least to me that's when the real fangs came out.

Truth be told it was John Biggs writing for TechCrunch, an AOL property, that said it best, "I believe that the subset of users who read the NY Times and other news sources in Safari on the iPad will welcome a move to a standalone app. Provided the content quality stays high and the news value is there, this could be the first iPad app to beat Angry Birds and, more important, truly bring journalism into the 21st century."

The NYConvergence was prescient when it reported (in December mind you) "Much of the negativity is tribal, says The New York Observer. The project is digital so print people are bothered, it’s an app, walled off from the open Internet, so web people don’t like it, and it comes from Rupert Murdoch, who is always controversial. On the other side is the fact that this is a newspaper specifically built for an Apple device, and anytime Steve Jobs gets involved, there is hope that the news business can return to a model where consumers pay more for news. And News Corp. is hiring journalists again." 

the UGLY

Innovative Interface, Slick Multimedia Features, Fair to Middling Content...Everyone agrees that Rupert Murdoch & Co got it right when it came to the design and UI of a daily newspaper app. However, after the novelty and honeymoon period wears off, there are troubling things that show the chinks in the armor. 

PERFORMANCE:
1. The longer you use it, the more cantankerous the app becomes: it forgets where you left off when you pause and perform an app switch. (multitasking)

CONCLUSION

Yes, I will leave the app on my iPad and check in on Rupert Murdoch & Co. from time to time but, until the content improves I'm unlikely to put down good money for an annual subscription. Before we go — a side note to advertisers: Some early advertisers understood the benefit of the ipad platform and used it to their best advantage, infusing multimedia seamlessly with the swipe experience of reading a 'magazine' thats you Land Rover and the folks behind 'Rango.' Others misunderstood or didn't see the potential and just slapped the usual together, thats you Macy's and Verizon.

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As always, sometimes it is best to make up your own mind
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MORE of 'THE DAILY' APP 

App Store Preview of 'The Daily'
What Are The Odds We’ll See An Android Version Of The Daily?
Who is 'The Daily" for?

Woman Escapes Would-Be Bank Robber and Hostage Situation By Running
 
01.28.2011  9:30 am Takoma Park, MD 

A would-be bank robber, who was using a female bank employee as a human-shield, was shot Friday morning by the police in a dramatic hostage situation outside of the CapitalOne Bank, in Takoma Park, MD on University Boulevard. As shown in the video footage, police surrounded them after a dye pack in the stolen money was activated. During the struggle between the robber and the hostage, the unidentified woman started to run after the robber lost his footing on the recently snow covered curb. The robber appears to slip on the ice or snow and at that moment, is shot by the police.

In what appears to be a a violation of the bank robber's code-of-conduct manual, the suspect actually chases after his hostage unaware that by doing so he would put himself right in the middle of more policemen than he could out-run. As of this writing the scene was still considered active and residents were warned to stay away from the scene because authorities were unsure if they had all robbers or accomplices in custody.

1. the hostage ran from the scene
2. a bomb squad was called to the scene. (no further details)
3. the bank robber (alleged) was taken into custody and then transported to the hospital
4. the bank robber's condition is unknown
5. according to the AP, a bystander was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds
6. per reports ( nbc4 and USA9 ) up to four people were injured
7. Prince George's County police said an officer may have been shot in the leg

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Just another day in the Metropolitan Washington DC Area. At least no one got killed.

Why is it when we are given the opportunity to make eye contact with the homeless, we often look away? Is it shame? Is it pity? Or is it a fear we are unwilling to acknowledge? People have been homeless long before 2010. It is incomprehensible, even during times like these, that a nation such as ours has been unable to eradicate this condition.  

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IMAGE CREDIT: BBoomerinDenial 
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the 350z ROADSTER
I drive a 2004 Nissan 350z Roadster. It's a beauty. Truly sweet, like an artificially-colored maraschino cherry. I had been saving up for this car for so long it had gone out of production. When it came back it had changed body styles — twice, before I could make it mine.

Anytime the temperature breaks the 53 degree threshhold I'm happily shamed into putting down the top by sixty-year old men in their own vintage convertibles. If they could brave the brisk temperatures who was I to cower behind the protection of double-layered canvas? It makes the commute to work that much more bearable and it is a joy to drive.

The car does have one unexpected benefit. It puts me in the front row for the daily pageant of urban humanity — and sometimes lack thereof.

Because of the convertible I am the prime target for questionable charity fundraisers, panhandlers, bearers of floral shop discards and the homeless. The former three are easily dismissed, the latter are hard to ignore. They are even harder to acknowledge. I say this without remorse or pretention. I do not think I must be better than anyone who happens to be homeless, just lucky.

I read somewhere that one of the most painful things for the homeless to deal with was the fact that they seemed to disappear from the center of people's vision. They instead thrived only in the general periphery. The same spectrum of vision reserved for blind spots and the brief period of night when it gets darkest before the dawn. We only notice when they make a fuss and even then, we discount them as crazy, schizophrenic or sufferers of tourettes. Yet often that is the furthest from the truth. Whenever I can, I do make eye-contact and I try to give them a look of understanding rather than pity. When prompted I engage in conversation. I fight the urge to think that the person is a scam artist or faking it so that they can beg for a living — because I'm sure no one dreams of growing up to become a panhandler. After money has changed hands and I've driven miles from that intersection I'm still affected.

There was a man of confused and sad nature
Thought no one loved him that was not true
He said he was a lost soul didn't fit in anywhere
Didn't know where to turn or who to turn to

Just how much pride would one have to swallow to beg at an intersection? To hold up a sign that broadcast to the world that they've reached the end. To exclaim that perhaps this was the only way they could generate enough cash to feed themselves or their children for just one more day. The more I think about it the harder it is for me to justify how we could live in a country where this is allowed to happen. No matter how much I donate to SOME (so others might eat), no matter how much change I give out, no matter how much I volunteer (or wished that I could), I know it will not solve the problem until the collective "we" view homelessness the same way we do cancer.

The summer before last, after seven months of unemployment, I was almost financially tapped. I had gone through my savings, borrowed from my mother and cut into the 401K. I was where many Americans were — between a rock and a hard place. I didn't have the income needed to sustain the mortgage any longer yet, if I sold the condo I'd be in debt and I wouldnt have a home of my own. I'd be homeless — though not exactly destitute. With good friends and family, some of whom served both functions, I made it through the roughest of times. What happens to people whose friends or family are uninvolved, gone or lacking?

The real reason we avoid eye contact with the homeless hit very close to home, no pun intended. We do it because we're afraid when we look up, we will see ourselves in the eyes that stare back.

the NATIONAL COALITION  ON HOMELESSNESS FACTSHEETS

• Why Are People Homeless?
• How many People Experience Homelessness?
• Who is Homeless?
• Want to Help?

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More than ever this holiday season its a time to give thanks for what we have — often its more than most can even hope for...

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It is important to remember that good works come in many forms and some leave a very good taste in your mouth. This diversion from our usual serious posts come from my cousin's wife who also boosts my ego by reminding me that I'm her favorite in-law. Either that, or she hates having to deal with leftovers and knows I like to eat.

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IMAGE CREDITs (SIMULATED) OK Full Disclosure the ribs shown above are not pictures of the actual Judge George Chew's Justifiably Famous Ribs. They were so good we forgot to take pictures and by the time we remembered the remaining pile of bones were less than picturesque. So just imagine.
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Recipe Originally posted by the Washington Post. November 3, 2010*

 Judge George Chew came up with this simple recipe when he was in law school and was helping to raise money for an Asian American student group. He now sits on the immigration bench in New York City, and cooking, he says, is a way to balance the chaos and heartbreak he witnesses. "As my cooking evolved, I started to riff on the recipe, adding other ingredients. It is still changing depending on the availability of ingredients, but the essentials remain the bean and hoisin sauces and making people happy that they showed up to eat."

MAKE AHEAD:

• The marinade mixture needs to sit for 1 hour before the ribs are added.
• The ribs need to marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days.
• 6 to 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 tablespoons hoisin sauce 
• 3 tablespoons ketchup  
• 2 tablespoons maple sugar or syrup (see below)*
  
• 2 tablespoons mirin 2 tablespoons Chinese black bean sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Asian chili sauce, such as Sriracha 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1-inch piece peeled ginger root, minced or grated (1 teaspoon)
  
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
• Four or five 2 to 2-1/2 pound racks pork spareribs, trimmed

*Maple sugar is available at some Balducci's stores and through online gourmet purveyors.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the hoisin sauce, ketchup, maple sugar or syrup, mirin, black bean sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, chili sauce, garlic, ginger and black pepper in a large liquid-measuring cup; mix well and let rest (at room temperature) for 1 hour.

2. Use a sharp knife to lightly score the meat side of the ribs.


3. Place the ribs in a large nonreactive dish or in a few large resealable plastic food storage bags and use all of the marinade mixture to coat them.

4. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 days, turning and massaging the ribs every 8 hours.

5. Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees.

6. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil. Arrange the ribs in a single layer on the baking sheets; place one sheet on each of the oven racks. Discard any leftover marinade.

7. Roast for 25 minutes, then turn the ribs over and switch the positions of the baking sheets so the one that was on the bottom rack is now on the top rack. Roast for 25 minutes, then turn the ribs over and change the positions of the baking sheets again. Roast for 20 minutes. Switch the positions of the baking sheets one more time (no need to flip the ribs again); roast for 20 to 30 minutes or until the meat pulls away from the bone.

8. Transfer the ribs to a carving board, cut into individual ribs and serve.

NUTRITION FACTS:

Serving size: Per serving (based on 8) Calories: 490 % Daily Values* Total Fat: 37g 57 Saturated Fat: 13g 65 Cholesterol: 110mg 37 Sodium: 830mg 35 Total Carbohydrates: 13g 4 Dietary Fiber: n/a 0 Sugar: 9g Protein: 25g *Percent Daily Value based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. Total Fat: Less than 65g Saturated Fat: Less than 20g Cholesterol: Less than 300mg Sodium: Less than 2,400mg Total Carbohydrates: 300g Dietary Fiber: 25g

*Recipe Source: Adapted from "One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking," by Molly O'Neill (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

Congratulations, you got through my four-post diatribe on the Vietnam War. Sorry to put you through the wringer. In exchange for taking up so much of your reading time, today we're going to be addressing something a bit less taxing. Marvel Comics.  

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IMAGE CREDITs: Captain America by Joe Quesada
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STOP READING, TURN OFF THE LIGHT AND GO TO BED!

One thing my parents never had to worry about when I was growing up was getting me to read. I was absorbing the English language faster than they could provide me with stimulus. I read everything I could get my hands on. Part of it was my natural curiosity about this life, this perspective and this country I was not privy to. Sure I went to the American School in Vientianne but, I really didn't fit in — I was the perpetual "new" kid.

The American kids talked about TV shows that never showed up on my television and they ate processed foods my mom never brought home. The closest I ever got to processed foods was Coca-Cola, Cornflakes, hot dogs and tuna fish. These treats were verboten unless I was having a birthday party or some other event which required the attendance of other kids who would not eat Lao, Thai or Vietnamese food.

Let me put things into perspective for you — I did not discover cheese until I was ten years old.

I remember once coming home and regaling my mother about this new food called "potato chips." I just had to have some in my lunch. Never-mind that my mother made my lunch from scratch with fresh ingredients that were wholesome, delicious and good for me. I had to have those potato chips. So while I was fast asleep my poor mother peeled and deep-fried the type of gourmet potato chips one now finds at food emporiums such as Whole Foods or Balducci's. Needless to say, the next morning I regaled her with all the reasons I could not take these homemade and inferior chips to school for fear of losing face. (In actuality I didn't use the word inferior— I used one of those "get your mouth washed out with soap" words that ryhmes with "shmitty") All I can say is thank god my mother is a patient woman — otherwise I might have been smacked so hard I'd be the only kid in grade school wearing dentures. I have other processed food stories but, lets get back to Marvel Comics.

For me Marvel Comics gave me social currency, it addressed all the father-son dynamics that existed in my relationship with my father and — they were just fun to read.  Remember being a kid in the 70s meant you rode bikes and you went swimming and played with toys that required a heck of a lot of imagination. There was no one sitting around at Kenner or Hasbro at that time insisting that kids needed an action figure with poses and outfits for every occasion. You had GI Joe and that was it. He had a million accessories but, only one kung-fu grip. There were no extended hours in front of the TV. Video games as we know them today had not even been invented yet.

Between the library books, the translated Tintin books and Marvel Comics I was never without reading material. I came to know characters like Captain America, the Submariner, Thor, Spiderman and the Silver Surfer. Over time I was able to distinguish between drawing styles and writing styles. I gravitated towards the work of Jack Kirby and eventually John Byrne.

Without a steady stream of material (my father used to bring them back with him in sporadic intervals after "business" trips) I eventually began to imitate the illustrators and over time — design my own comics. That planted the seed, that somewhere out in the undiscovered country known as America, people were getting paid to draw pictures in little boxes with word balloons. Thats what I wanted to do for a living. In the end I didn't end up at Marvel or DC, I ended up in design, advertising, PR and now mobile/app design for iphone, ipad, android, blackberry etc. But, there are days when I would drop everything for a gig at Marvel Comics — should they come knocking.

Until then here's what I promised you in the headline, the arcane and sometimes intriguing facts about Marvel Comics (the Company):

• Michael Jackson once came close to owning Marvel. According to Stan Lee's former business partner, Peter Paul - who was jailed in 2005 for stock fraud - Jackson agreed to buy Marvel on Lee's behalf. Paul had met Lee in 1989 and had brought him onboard the American Spirit Foundation, a charitable organisation he ran with the actor James Stewart. Spotting the worth of Marvel's superhero properties, Paul hatched a plan to bring in investors to buy Marvel and install Lee as company's head.
  In 1991-92, he put together a Japanese/American investment group and approached Marvel's owner, Ron Perelman. with an offer to buy the company for about $28 million. Perelman decided instead to take Marvel public. Paul tried again several years later, this time lining up Jackson as an investor. Jim Salicrup, a former Marvel editor who was present at the meetings Jackson had with Lee and Paul, remembers Jackson saying to Lee: "If I buy Marvel, you'll help me run it, won't you?" Paul said that Marvel's owner at the time, Ike Perlmutter, was unwilling to take less than $1 billion for the company and Jackson eventually lost interest.
  Stan Lee has a different take on Jackson's interest in Marvel. "I had been to his place in Neverland ... and he wanted to do Spider-Man," he told MTV News in July. "I'm not sure whether he just wanted to produce it or wanted to play the role, you know? Our conversation never got that far along." Lee said that the singer had hoped to buy the rights to Spider-man. "He thought I'd be the one who could get him the rights and I told him I couldn't, he would have to go to the Marvel company."

• Casablanca Records helped to create the X-Men hero Dazzler. The record label, which produced hits for Cher, Donna Summer and the Village People, had approached Marvel with the idea of a Disco superhero that they could cross promote. According to Marvel editor Louise Simonson, Casablanca said, "Hey, you make a singer and we'll create someone to take on the persona." However, the collaboration proved fraught and ended with both parties walking away from the deal.

• The Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant once worked for Marvel. Between 1975 and 1977, Tennant was an editor at Marvel's UK division, a job that required him to anglicise American spellings and indicate when the more scantily dressed superheroines needed to be redrawn decently.

• Jack Kirby, the artist who co-created the Fantastic Four with Stan Lee, was removed from the cover of the Fantastic Four's 20th anniversary issue. The issue's artist, John Byrne, had originally included both Kirby and Lee among the cast of characters squeezed onto the cover but at the behest of Marvel executives Kirby was erased from the final artwork. This may have had something to do with arguments Kirby was having with Marvel at the time over the ownership of his artwork.

• The Hulk that appeared in the classic TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno was almost red in colour. In an interview with film website IGN, the show's executive producer, Kenneth Johnson, said: "I asked Stan Lee, 'Man, what's the logic of green? Is he the envious Hulk? Is he green with envy or jealousy?' The colour of rage is red, which I was pushing for because it's a real human colour - you know, when people get flushed with anger." Lee told him that the Hulk had in fact started out grey but due to problems with colour separation, the colour printed differently each time it was used. "Our printer came to us and said we can do a pretty consistent green, so we decided to go with green," Lee said. Thus the Hulk was coloured green from issue two of the Incredible Hulk onwards, although without any explanation. On hearing this, Johnson remembers telling Lee: "That's not really very organic! But that was a battle I could not win. I couldn't make the Hulk red because he was just too iconic already in the comic books."

• FOR THE BALANCE OF THE FACTOIDS:
  Enjoy the work of the Designers at the Online school who have illustrated some of the 70 Facts You didn't Know About Marvel Comics (below) and if you can put down the processed food long enough to click the mouse a second time read the full list at the Sunday Times.
  
  

  

PREVIOUSLY ON THE SKC BLOG:
We explained why the United States became involved in Vietnam. Why did the U.S. think that Vietnam was worth so much killing and dying for? The most frequently-offered explanation, among American historians - is that the United States was in Vietnam in an attempt to stop communist expansion into South East Asia.

PREVIOUSLY ON THE SKC BLOG:
Vietnam existed for aeons before Americans suddenly started thinking about it in the 1960s as this far-away and nightmarish place. Jungles, rice paddies, war, etc. The Vietnamese are an ancient people, with their own culture and their own identity. Even in ancient times, they had to struggle against foreign domination. Within the context of the Vietnam War we now know of the timeline, the events and the players — but what of the motives?