HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!

Happy morning after New Years Eve 2010 everyone!

There will be pictures of my New Years Eve festivities coming soon (this weekend?) hopefully, we're having camera difficulties here at "Jeffy's Head" central. I hope you all had a happy, fun and safe get together with family and friends as well.

For now, here's a little Todd Snider ditty called, "Happy New Year". This is traditionally a time when we examine the past year and make resolutions for how to make the coming year better. Todd's reflection here is a little deeper than just pledging to quit smoking or lose a few pounds, he's more examining what we're all doing here and just hoping for understanding. It's one of the flip-phone videos from YouTube, but it's worth hearing, even with the poor quality:




And it's January 1st, that's Jerry Robinson's birthday! Born in 1922 Jerry turns 88 years old today!

Jerry Robinson began working in comics in 1939, working alongside Bill Finger as an assistant to Bob Kane on his new "Batman" feature. Shortly after Batman's success, Bill and Jerry were hired on at DC Comics as staffers, but still worked alongside Kane.

Jerry's contribution to the feature have been challenged by Kane and minimised as Bob Kane continued his own publicity, but Jerry's contributions to the comics industry are undisputed. His work for creators rights especially and most specifically championing Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel gaining royalties and creator recognition for Superman in the 1970's.

Two points of contention between Kane and Robinson, were Robinson's contributions to the creation of both "The Joker" and "Robin, the Boy Wonder". Whoever is correct in the recollection, the iconic status of both these characters is immense.

In 1940, DC Comics was under pressure from parent groups complaining about Batman's dark nature. They wanted the comics to pussify him. The creative team of Kane, Robinson and Finger took the demands and turned it into something better. Adding a boy side-kick "Robin" to the Batman mythos, gave young readers a character their own age that they could identify with. They were able to put themselves right in the stories.

Batman stayed a bad-ass...Robin got to help...DC had their cake and ate it too.

Here's that first ever "Robin" appearance from Detective Comics #38 from 1940.

Lastly today, I want to leave you with a video from "Notebook Babies". These are short animations created by elementary teacher Tony Dusko to help get his students more involved and interested in class.

This one doesn't have much educational value...but it expresses what I hope for this brand new year of 2010 for all of us!

Have an AWESOME year. I'll see you soon!