Fringe Science

Fringe follows the exploits of FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) as they investigate aspects of fringe science (telepathy, levitation, invisibility, reanimation, etc).

All over the world, a series of apparent experiments collectively referred to as 'the Pattern' ( e.g., a newborn baby who rapidly ages and dies in one day, a bus full of passengers trapped in a strange substance like mosquitoes in amber) are occurring for reasons unknown. Olivia, Peter, and Walter are in charge of investigating these strange events to determine their source.

Connected to the Pattern is a company called Massive Dynamic, which is a leading global research company that holds the patents for a number of new and important technologies.

This new series by director J.J Abrams of Alias and Lost fame, resembles The X-Files, but with more science, terrorism and Homeland Security involved, and has a lack of (for the moment) the love tension between the male and female lead characters.

Already 6 episodes have aired, and it got better and better. It carries all of J.J Abrams's cliffhanger signatures, however, each episode has moderate character development and it is self-contained with a resolution, albeit a satisfactory one.

So far, 22 episodes have been ordered. We shall see how this season unfolds and if it is worthy of carrying on.

A Short Tribute To Michael Layne Turner

While I was away on vacation, I found out that one of my comic book artist heroes, Michael Turner, tragically passed away on 27 June 2008 at approximately 10:42 pm in Santa Monica, Ca. Turner had been dealing with recent health complications arisen from bone cancer.

In March 2000, Turner was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a form of cancer, in the right pelvis. He was treated at UCLA Medical Center with surgery in which he lost a hip, 40% of his pelvis, and three pounds of bone. The surgery was followed by nine months of radiation therapy. After that, he continued the battle with cancer for 8 long years.

He was and artist - penciller, editor and writer for many comic books series, up to and including Witchblade, Fathom, Soulfire and many, many more titles.

I will always remember picking up the first issue of Witchblade and admiring the art and how Japanese-looking the characters were and how flowing the textures and inking was. When Fathom came along, his art had evolved to take on a greater texture, and one of the most difficult to draw - water! I was amazed at how he managed to make the ocean in those comic pages jump out of the pages and make it look so easy to create.

I'm sure that I won't be the only person to miss all his beautiful and wonderful artwork.

Rest in peace, forever.