Please to explain.

Why doesn't Marvel own useyourvoice.org?

Does anyone know how far in advance Jenkins probably turned in his script for Generation M #1? Before September 19, maybe?

Weren't there some URLs used in Powers that ended up pointing to jinxworld.com? If so, why is that reasonable for Bendis to do, but not Marvel? Do they assume anyone reading Gen M visits their site regularly, so it's not worth it to spend the $7/year (or whatever) the domain would cost? Not even to keep someone else from using it to advertise their whatever the hell that is?

I'm so confused.

Also, I've added and removed some links over yonder (imagine that I'm pointing—please ignore my freakishly long fingers). I noticed I wasn't really reading a couple of those sites anymore, and I decided to start reading some others. I should probably bookmark them all so my use of my own blog as a 'portal' thing stops making it show up in those damnable sites-that-link-here lists.

More terrible ideas.

First, I must point out that Tom Lehrer used to have Norman Osborn hair.

Second, I briefly considered making a fake cover for the theoretical Marvel comic, What If... Jesus Was a Lion?

But that would have been hard.

Instead, I present a special holiday message, straight from Danny Rand:


That's right, Danny. From all of me, to both of you, Merry Fistmas.

(Y'all can Google 'Zod bless us, everyone' on your own. I got nothin' to do with that. Oh, and I shamelessly stole that cover from comics.org.)

Remember your drunk relatives this Xmas.

Some dude sent me this:


Be sure to check out the Story of Johnny Surge too.

You're probably all quite familiar with ep.tc already, so I continue to bring nothing to the table.

I finished Two Fisted Science, Dignifying Science, and Night Fisher. I liked them all, of course, because I like everything. Night Fisher is gorgeous, and it'll teach you how to tie a knot. The Birute Galdikas story (in Dignifying Science) with art by Anne Timmons is particularly beautiful and makes me wish comics companies would have more orangutan-based comics. Give Grodd a sidekick. Orville or something.

This isn't funny.

(Sorry, Spencer.)

Little did I realize that my fun-sized mention of Blue World in my last entry would actually end up being relevant. The story Night Calls the Green Falcon (which, I forgot to explain, is about an old serial star putting on his costume one last time to catch a serial killer, told in a serial fashion) contains a number of comic references, in addition to being based on the serials of the '40s. From an interview with McCammon:

Q: We were talking earlier today about comic books. [Your story] "Night Calls the Green Falcon," which blew me away: was that influenced any by the comic series The Watchmen? Did you read The Watchmen?

A: No, I haven't read The Watchmen, but it is influenced by all the comics I used to read as a kid. And it's influenced by all of the serials that I used to go to when I was a kid, the Batman serials, Zorro---those were great.

That question's a bit weird and narrow, since the story doesn't seem to be influenced by Watchmen in any way (I mean, old guys in costumes are hardly unique). I'd like to know whether the character of Davy in the story was called The Watchman because of it, since McCammon could have heard of the book without having read it, but that's different.

Another character has a shaved head, except for a question mark of hair. He's called Ques.

There's also a motel owner who wears a Captain America shirt, and a "dancer" with the wonderful comic book-style name of Amazin' Gracie.

Some of the other stories are a bit disappointing so far, but I give Night Calls the Green Falcon a solid three-and-a-half hideously-colored recommendation units.

UPDATE: Turns out you can read it online. Way to go, internet.

Cromartie High School, meanwhile, is brilliantly, stupidly hilarious. It has everything: a gorilla, a robot, and Freddie. I give it 83 stars. (Stars omitted.)

My baffling library.

I had to bring some books back to the library and pick up another one* today. Before I left, I searched the library's site to see if there was a Neil Gaiman book other than Anansi Boys that I hadn't read yet (I'm still not entirely sure I've read Smoke and Mirrors, but I think I might have). One of the results was Jill Thompson's The Dead Boy Detectives (I think Gaiman's listed as a consultant). What piqued my interest there wasn't that they had the book (good thing, too, since I ended up failing to find it), but rather that there must be a graphic novel section somewhere in the library that I'd never seen.

After trudging across the tundra (mile after mile) to the library, I found this wondrous new graphic novel section, among the young adult/teen books.

It was approximately half of a single shelf.

I'm hoping for their sake that it's because of high circulation of various manga titles (I know I've seen Nausicaa in their online catalog, and it wasn't there), but I doubt it.

Of the few books they had, there were a surprising number I just had to get. Everyone raves about Two Fisted Science, so I got that and Dignifying Science. Chris just wrote about Cromartie High School, which the library had the first three volumes of. I got the first one, and if I don't like it, I shall hold him personally responsible. Spencer read Night Fisher; soon I shall be cool like he is.

Just imagine how fascinating this would be if I'd actually read them! Maybe someday, dearest creepy-internet-friends. Maybe someday.

* I requested an interlibrary loan (ILL) of Robert McCammon's Blue World, which I knew was held by at least three ILL libraries in the state, about a month and a half ago. I got the notification that it had arrived last week. I got it today, and it's from Montgomery, Alabama. Efficient! Once I get my current pile read, I think I'll request Epileptic. Maybe they can borrow it from Guam.

Sorry.

I have to say, fanboy explanations for that pronunciation are total bullshit. It's like that in the cartoon? Nobody cares. 'Ei' is always pronounced like 'eye?' No it fucking isn't, you weird bastards. I'm sure Senator Harry Reid would be surprised to learn that. So would I. Jack Kirby pronounced it that way? Well, that's more like it. Why couldn't you message board freaks be smart like Kevin? Then I wouldn't have misdirected my rage.

The unfortunate link-blogging.

Apparently, some pictures from X-Men 3 (or X3, if you will) are out. The trailer is up now, too. What's up with Juggs', uh, juggs?

I'd like to be the first to point out that, thanks to House of M, certain Marvel comics are now 990 more. What does this mean for us, the consumers? I see big things in store for D-Man.

Finally (sorry, Kurt Busiek), Ted Rall wins.

Guess what I'm reading...

The AFP reports:

TOKYO (AFP) - To the untrained ear monkeys of a certain species may all sound the same, but Japanese researchers have found that, like human beings, they actually have an accent depending on where they live.

Some of us already knew that.

Yes, I know he's actually an ape.

Stupid brain!

This started out as a cute little thing about chocolate and porn and how it's my birthday and no one got me a Black Mercy or Krypton Rose. Then something went horribly wrong. I don't know what to say:


I just don't know.

Edit: Greatest birthday present ever! This apparently spoils some X-Men plotline or something. Thank you, Brian Cronin and Rich Johnston.

Not a rumor. No basis in reality.

Warren Ellis likes Charlie Stross. So do I. When I was reading Iron Sunrise, I says to myself, I says, "This guy should write comics."

Here, get a look at him. That'll come in handy in a minute.

Now, a couple months later, I'm reading The Atrocity Archives. One of the stories in it won a Hugo this year, as seen in this photo.

Well, how about that. He no longer has hair.

And what do people without hair do? They write some goddamn comic books.

Try to understand...

Looks like Grant Morrison wasn't the only one to predict Infinite Crisis:

(from Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories #2, from Nov. '99)

Another bad idea.

I was going to write the lyrics too, but I stupidly checked to see if anyone had already done such a thing. It turns out someone did, and it's not very good (in that it completely falls apart after the first four lines), but I'm unable to come up with a better opening line than he did.

Also, I didn't want to listen to the song 700 times to get the rhythm right.

Feel free to filk up the comments if you want.

Edit: Aw, why the hell not? Even if this is horrible, my opening line's different, at least.

Swimming in a dark trench
Talking to tube worms on a steam vent

Starro didn't decompose
Grew another body; made more foes
Hey Aquaman

Junior is his dead son
Watched as Manta ended all his fun
Hey Aquaman

Namor likes to run amok
Orin doesn't flip out like that schmuck
Oh Aquaman

Fish mind-controlled
Mera's his one and only
Fighting crime
The only way he knows
Hook for a hand
Or sometimes it's made of water
He brings down fishy slaught
-er, no retreat

He's not alone
Tempest, his eyes they glowed
And they made things explode
So easily
Aquaman my friend
Don't you let them say you're cheesy
You talk to scrod, but gee, you rule the sea.

Do you still remember
How you made Züm's brain seize
Basal ganglia
In his Martian brain were
Just like parts piscine
And you never caused Max Lord's death
Or fought demented clowns
Swimming powers zoom like
Flash's running thing

[Followed by lots of repetition. Maybe some flute.]

It's a sickness.

Blame Chris.

(After poaching from him for three posts in a row, I'll try to give it a rest now. But what will I do with my life?)

My contribution.

Yes, I went there, Al Hartley.

See Chris's post for the 'splainin'.

Blogcest Take 2!

Chris just had to go and mention Adventures of Superman #549.

In that issue, aside from the Dingbats/Newsboy Legion/Green Team plotline, Boss Moxie has Torcher send a message to Lois Lane by setting fire to her apartment building. Lori Lemaris drops by just as it starts, and as she and Lois (and of course, Electric Blue Superman) lead the evacuation, she checks on another tenant's apartment, saying:


Click on that to see what my brain compelled me to do.

Just when I thought I was out...

I blame my library for carrying 300 in the first place.

Well I didn't know.

George Takei in cooler than Anderson Cooper shocker! (via)

I may have heard rumors at some point, but my memory ain't so good.

Star Trek VI has always (well, since it came out (fnur fnur)) been my favorite of the Star Trek movies, and part of that was seeing Sulu as a Captain.

Mr. Takei, I say to you: Excelsior!

ViGaBlah

I'm getting close to the end of X-Men Legends II, so I should be able to think of clever things again soon. I know I'm near the end because I just unlocked Iron Man, in a sequence that included the following conversation:

Sunfire: Iron Man, how did Apocalypse manage to capture someone like you?
Tony Stark: Let's just say a trap was set up using my only real weakness.
Sunfire: It had something to do with a beautiful woman, didn't it?
Tony Stark: Oh yeah. And you know what - she was almost worth getting caught for.

I'm not too well-versed in Iron Man's history, but I did a double-take at that. I think it should have gone a little more like this (some passages ripped off directly from Augusten Burroughs' Dry):

Sunfire: Iron Man, how did Apocalypse manage to capture someone like you?
Tony: Let's just say a trap was set up using my only real weakness.
Sunfire: He got you drunk?
Tony: No, it was a woman. I honestly have cut way back on the drinking.
Iceman: We found your armor. It smelled like a fucking distillery.
Tony: Is this about being late to that team-up yesterday?
Storm: We feel that it would be in your best interest for you to admit yourself into a treatment center.

Or maybe:

Sunfire: Iron Man, how did Apocalypse manage to capture someone like you?
Tony Stark: Let's just say a trap was set up using my only real weakness.
Sunfire: He punched your liver?
Tony Stark: Twice. Bastard.

Where am I?

Playing X-Men Legends II, mostly. Wolvie says back off:


Haha. Because it's like a finger. Clever.

XML3 should include Kitty Pryde, Pete Wisdom, and an unlockable GTA-like mutant-humping mini-game.

And I've just grossed myself out.

Things like this make me wish I'd started reading postmodernbarney.com much earlier:

Steer him clear of Swamp Thing, for example. He'll have no idea who Alan Moore is and will only remember the terrible, terrible movies. Likewise, don't hand him Sandman. You're gay, not a goth. Don't hand him Preacher because he'll think you're a serial killer.

Though it has little to do with comics (other than maybe Warren Ellis' occasional use of urban legends), every now and then, someone will say something that makes me think of this, my favorite urban legend ever, and I'll start smiling for no reason:

These so called "chickens" are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them.

They're sort of like mutants, right? X-Chickens! Here's where I'd normally find a picture of a chicken and edit it into the above picture, flipping the proverbial bird, but I couldn't find a good one, and I have a game to play.

Back in ages past...

Though I already had some awareness of Ricky Jay, it wasn't until his appearances on Mythbusters and Deadwood that I really got interested in him. I've since read his Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, Jay's Journal of Anomalies, Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck, and (thanks to the internet) Cards As Weapons.

It's the last one that brings me to Peter David's Madrox #3. In this particular issue of that excellent miniseries, Madrox is handcuffed and locked in a supply closet. Because a copy would still have the handcuffs on (thus spawning the Jamie Madrox Handcuff Duplication Corporation), he has to escape by other means. Fortunately:


So he gets out of the handcuffs. Now, Ricky Jay isn't an escape artist, so I thought there must be some reason to mention him. After Madrox manages to spawn a copy on the other side of the door, he gets into an argument with the copy. The thug-guards down the hall, who had been playing cards, overhear them and come to investigate, one of them still holding the deck of cards:


That's where my brain went all, "Oh no he di-int!" The thugs hear Jamie still in the closet, and the one with the cards opens the door. Jamie knocks him down, knocking the cards free:


He catches a card:


And:


Fuck yeah!

Okay, he killed a guy, but he wasn't terribly thrilled about it, so he's not about to turn into The Punisher With Some Cards.

Thank you, Peter David, for your gentle stroking of my (if you will) Jay-Spot.


(The title of this entry was taken from the Crash Test Dummies' Sonnet 2 (And Back in Ages Past) which coincidentally enough also includes the line, "The brutal rampaged on their bloody way." Godspeed, fair Rampage.)

I'd buy three copies.

The last one, for reals.

Chris got to Catman before me, which leaves me with only one thing to do:


Seriously, I don't know. Here's hoping #3 brings us something new and exciting to run into the ground.

I barely get this.

(I should really stop saying that I'd kill for various things. I'd probably only bruise or nick for them. I intended to title my last entry Blogcest, but I forgot that by the time I finished.)

Anyway, I made a thing:


And yes, I know it would make more sense for Batman to be Ortho.

I'd kill for a Volito.

(With apologies to everyone involved.)

Spencer doesn't like the cover to Gotham Central 36.

Yeah, that's lame. Maybe a picture of Batman in some dead end alley with headlights on him, hiding behind his cape, ready to shot a Bat-Grappling Gun up to unknown gothic statue off panel while police look on. Or even better: have some people eating at a cafe, with one person pointing to the sky with their fork where you can see Batman swinging between buildings, saying "Isn't that the Batman?" while the other person replies with "Yes. Isn't he WANTED FOR MURDER?!?!" with that last part in some super actiony intense looking speech balloon. That would have been good.

Would it have? Let's find out!


I guess that's a yes.

The Greatest Burn in Comics

So you've discorporated, and the girl you liked is dead.

You manage to coalesce into a more or less solid form again, and you learn of her death.

You dig up her body and carry her around for a while, until you meet up with the Phoenix.

She gets brought back to life:

She realizes you're the one responsible, but because you're gross, she decides to drop dead rather than go on living:

Oh, and her sisters call you a dorkus.

This is why X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong #5 contains the greatest burn to ever appear in comics.

On my lack of focus.

Typo Lad has stupid comic panels. Scott and the Suspension of Disbelief people know about actual things and apply that knowledge to comics. Dave has a totally Airwolf collection. Kevin has photo-comics, Genius Covers Sundays, the occasional comics remix, and The Thing That Was Once Known As Shit That's Killing Comics. Comics Should Be Good has a sort of Polyphonic Spree thing going for it.

I have a bunch of random crap that's either tedious or trying to be funny.

I enjoyed making my comics premix (which was for a photoshop thing on another site, so it's hardly original), but that sort of thing is an awful lot like Kyle's movie poster reviews, and Kevin's done a couple of premixes as well. Interior page remixes are usually more fun, anyway.

I've also done the occasional insupportable hypothesis (or four) and hardcore geekstatporn, but those are hard to come by, and they kind of make me hate myself.

The name of this page came from my juvenile giggling over Wanda's universe-altering (and comic-narrating) vagina, but that series has stalled out, and I haven't seen anything else like that Donna Troy page since.

So until I think of something better, I remain unfocused, existing solely to amuse myself. And to give me something to stick in the URL space when commenting on others' blogs.

Dream a Little Dream

A couple days ago, I had a dream.

The only thing I remember about it is that at one point I was trying to decide whether to call John Byrne 'John' or 'Mr. Byrne.' I'm pretty sure I decided on 'Mr. Byrne.'

For the sake of my sanity, I choose to believe I was telling him how much I liked Alpha Flight.

What's the deal with...

... Graphic Novel back-cover blurbs?

It seems like they're often written by people who might have heard a few things about the books from a friend who flipped through a copy once. Here are some examples from a couple books I liked (mostly for the art, granted), and an example of the right way to do it.

From Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Mr. Punch:

In his grandfather's failing seaside arcade, a young boy encounters a mysterious Punch and Judy Man with a dark past, and a woman who makes her living playing a mermaid.

Well, he does encounter those people, though I don't know how mysterious the Punch and Judy Man was, nor whether he had a dark past (maybe I slept through those pages).

As their lives intertwine and their stories unfold, the boy is forced to confront family secrets, strange puppets and a nightmarish world of violence and betrayal, in a fable of childhood innocence and adult pain.

Do their lives really intertwine? The boy observes their lives and their stories, and he's certainly affected by them, but did he really have that much involvement with or effect on any of the other characters? I'd say my life is more intertwined with my local reference librarian than the boy's was with them. And does he even confront family secrets, let alone be forced to do so? At least there are actually strange puppets, violence, and betrayal.

Then there's Jon J Muth's Swamp Thing: Roots:

One tree, whose twisted roots snare a cold evil that coils itself around a small town...

Snare a cold evil? Check. Coils itself around a small town? Not in the book I read, unless the town was so small it only had a population of 12-15.

One woman who's fleeing with her children from an abusive husband...

Or more accurately, a woman who has fled with her children from an abusive husband. '[Is] fleeing' implies pursuit.

And one man, seeking salvation, moves beyond flesh and blood and emerges from the murky depths of the Wabash River as...the Swamp Thing?

This compelling story of small-town terror and one Earth elementals quest for deliverance is written and painted by Eisner Award-winner Jon J Muth.

Okay, that part is true. The guy (with the initials A.H.) turns into Swamp Thing in the book called Swamp Thing. He damn well better.

Finally, look at the blurb from Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby:

Art and story combine powerfully in this lyrical tale of a young man caught in the maelstrom of the civil rights movement and the entrenched homophobia of small-town America. Toland Polk, the son of an uneducated white carpenter, has grown up in the Southern town of Clayfield. It is the 1960s, a time of passionate beliefs and violent emotions, and Clayfield's citizens are divided in the fight over segregation. As Toland fights on the side of the civil rights activists, he slowly begins to realize that he also has a more personal battle—to accept that he is gay.

That whole thing accurately describes the book. It's almost like the person who wrote that actually read it.

But looking at the description on Amazon, I saw this line:

As Toland fights on the side of the civil rights activists, he slowly begins to realize and try to deny that he is gay.

Well, no. That's not what happens. He already realized he was gay, and he was trying not to be. The other description is the right one.

Is it really that hard to describe the plot—not the story or theme, just the plot—of a book accurately? Hundreds of bloggers manage it every week, somehow. It doesn't really seem to be open to that much interpretation in most cases.

I wish I could say this is the last one.

(Yeah, the panel at the bottom of that page might have been better, but the words didn't fit in the balloons as well.)

The Latest Thing

Kevin started it.

International Read Like a Pirate Day

Or, "Who Link-blogs the Link-bloggers?"

Ampersand discusses the pirate comic in Watchmen:

[...] Veidt explains that he's been dreaming of "swimming towards a hideous…." This is a reference to the only other image of swimming in Watchmen; the protagonist of the pirate comic swimming towards the hideous pirate ship after murdering his own family and townsfolk. Veidt, like the main character in the pirate comic, is the destruction he fears.

Scurvy Dogs is a humorous take on a group of pirates living in the modern world. I thought the first two issues were much stronger than the later three, mostly because I'm a sucker for a good Monkees joke. It's currently on hiatus.

Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer, and Salgood Sam's Sea of Red is one of those vampire pirate stories that are all the rage now. Issue 5 is scheduled to ship on the 28th.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Black Sails, another vampire pirate story, exists in some sort of comics limbo. I don't know whether to continue looking forward to it.

For older pirate comics, see J. Larry Voyer's pirate-themed comics pages.

Scott has a good list of comic pirates over at Polite Dissent.

If pirates really are the new monkeys, where are all the vampire monkey comics we should have seen a few years ago?

In which I talk about comics before reading them.

JUL050211 ACTION COMICS #831 $2.50

Peter Dinklage would be a great Dr. Psycho. I hope the ever-changing face of Black Adam (whom I adore) isn't too distracting in this issue.

JUL050282 DESOLATION JONES #3 (MR) $2.99
JUL050300 FABLES #41 (MR) $2.75

Wow, that was the best ever! What an amazing issue of [whichever]! I love [insert title here] more with every new installment.

JUL050238 JSA #77 $2.50

Well, a couple members of the JSA seem to be in it.

JUL050247 RANN THANAGAR WAR #5 (OF 6) $2.50

Wow, baffling. Remember how good the Adam Strange series was? Me too.

JUL050276 WILDCATS NEMESIS #1 (OF 9) $2.99

Oh, Robbie... Why?

JUL051872 MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #22 $2.99

Straczynski? Fuck that shit. Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa!

JUL051851 MUTOPIA X #3 (OF 5) $2.99

I suppose if Ismael were a mutant, Wanda would have made him less of a massive screw-up. Poor guy.

JUL051863 TOXIN #6 (OF 6) $2.99

This is, hands down (or off), the best symbiote story ever. That I've read.

JUL051859 ULTIMATE X-MEN #63 $2.50

That Brian K Vaughan sure writes a good team book or two.

Seven Soldiers: Guardian #4

[Insert inappropriate sexual analogy regarding how much this series pleases me here.]

Having read the translations (via) of the Sheeda dialogue in Shining Knight #4, I decided to try my hand at the single line in this issue.

Using one Ogham alphabet, I ended up with Muin Muin Muin, Luis Eadhadh Ailm Fern Beith. Mmm, leafb? Well, I figured the last one could maybe be an Uilleann, which, as long as I'm making things up, might be a Y. Leafy is a word.

Then I looked on Barbelith and saw that I was way off. Once I finally Googled 'ogham roman alphabet' and found a page with Ogham's Roman equivalents, I was able to work back from the new transliteration, and I noticed that I'd been looking at the original alphabet page the wrong way. I thought the characters had been rotated counter-clockwise from the vertical, when they were actually rotated clockwise, meaning the Luis was actually a Dair, the Fern was a Tinne, and the Beith was really an Uath, or Huath.

If I had paid closer attention to the original translation while looking at the alphabet, I would have caught my mistake much sooner. But that would have deprived me of wondering what, exactly, was 'leafy' about what was happening.

Fuck Canada

There, I said it.

I want to get stoned, marry a dude, and get comics on the Wednesday after an American holiday.

Now that's freedom.

Meanwhile, I'm finally getting into Powers. The dialogue was a bit infuriating at the beginning, but it's getting much easier to deal with as I get further in. The Warren Ellis issue and the Coloring/Activity book are definite highlights so far.

Here, read some Lulu Eightball.

Comics Pre-mix

It's like a remix, except the comic's not out yet.

Blood of the Demon #9:


Demon-style word balloons are no fun to draw in manually.

One for the Rampagers

This appeared in Impulse #16:


"save one, read one, and give some poor unlucky soul a copy."

Huh. So close.

(And I see that switching to HaloScan has erased or hidden all three of the previous comments I've received (that's total, of course). Sorry, Spencer.)

I'm no Suspension of Disbelief.

But I love this.

From The Flash #135 (by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar):



Indeed.

(Edited to add: I could understand something like that as a fictional, alternate 22nd or higher amendment, if for some reason it wouldn't be covered by the Fourth. But using the Twelfth is just odd, even if it does have a certain mad, made-up charm to it.)

Musical references in 2099 Unlimited #4

2099 Unlimited #9, in addition to containing some of Warren Ellis's earliest Marvel work, also includes a story called Hulk Hammer's Echo. I believe* the sound effects in this story contain many musical references.

Choom is similar to "choon," the British pronunciation of "tune."





Toom, while also similar to "tune," is one letter away from Tool.



Slamm is an obvious reference to the Onyx hit, Slam.





Skrashh, of course, refers to the "scratching" DJs do when mixing records.



The "si-gurd si-gurd si-gurd" effect appears a few times...

... but one time, it runs together. If we take part of that, noting the D's similarity to an O, it clearly shows the name of the band Sigur Ros.

Shak shak shak, along with kra takka takka takka tam!, is obviously an imitation of the Ramayana Monkey Chant.

Sha-blam, naturally, is a tragic tale of Sha Na Na, trapped in an explosion.



Bwoom, an infantilization of "broom," could be a reference to the They Might Be Giants song, I Am Not Your Broom. Flang!, of course, refers to TMBG founder John Flansburgh.





Wok, I'm sure, is a subtle jab at David Bowie's China Girl.




Then there's Wham!

* for the purposes of this entry