0 The new DC logo

This completely passed me by, until Chainbear artist Stuart asked me about it. I love logos, and the various comic logos are always interesting; however, in a world of advanced technology, things are beginning to get a bit too complicated. Here is the original DC logo, next to the most modern one:

Original 1940 logo

2005 logo

The original logo was designed for efficiency more than style - it could easily be stamped onto anything, yet lacked a definitive identity. It tells you all the information, but it shouldn't have to. The best logos are usually symbols, quickly recognisable and identifiable as a specific brand. The 2005 DC 'Spin' logo (designed by the great Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios) is taking advantage of better printing processes and the strength of the brand. It maintains a single colour, and despite being more complicated than the original it is quicker to identify as a DC Comics logo. The new logo, however...

There is so much wrong with this it hurts my brain to consider it. I'm the first to admit I'm a snob when it comes to logo design, but this... what were they thinking? It isn't even clear that it says DC until you read the text underneath which entirely defeats the point of even having a logo. At least the 2005 logo with its little star and whooshing lines hinted at comic books. This isn't a logo any more, its too complicated. My favourite logo of all the DC logos, has to be the 1976 'bullet' by Milton Glazer - colour, logo, style:

I don't know who is responsible for the travesty of a new logo, but they need to get back in touch with comic illustration; people tend to forget that most comic book titles are also logos, and its a task that usually goes to letterers. You do not need the publisher's logo to illustrate which comic it is attached to. Oh, wait:

These are the recently revealed final designs for some of the logos. The word 'some' worries me, almost as much as the fact that they still consider these to be logos. It's the sort of thing that seems like such a great idea at the time - hey, remember WordArt? How awesome did it make your business presentation look? Didn't your boss love your creativity? Why are you carrying all your stuff in that box?

The logo for the publisher should represent the publisher, not the title, and a logo should be a logo, not a fancy drawing with gradients.

1 The Blue Hand Rule

You know those stupid laws you come up with when you're with friends, and something someone says just becomes legend? Well, I have one of those with my dad, and it's called the Blue Hand Rule. Here's some back-story; we watch a lot of films together, its something we bond over and usually we agree on the quality of a film. Sometimes one of us will choose a film so bad, the other has to watch it just so they can complain about it legitimately. One of these films was I Am Number Four.

My dad chose this one because we both love sci-fi and he loves checking out anything that might be a bit cheesy. The second we saw the Dreamworks logo I knew we were in for a treat.

Personally, I didn't find the film too bad; it was your standard boy meets girl, girl has douchey boyfriend, boy is alien hunted by other aliens, boy saves girl and world film. He had glowing blue hands, which is not the worst superpower I've ever seen, but doesn't exactly rank high. My problem didn't lie with the mechanics of his powers though, but with a rather simple bit of the film that riled me so much we had to pause the film and talk it out.

Towards the end the alien boy (James Pettyfer - not really an alien) is being chased by other aliens who want him dead. He's in love with a girl (Dianna Agron) who loves photography, so he presents her with a reel of film he's filled with photos for and of her. Meanwhile, the douchey boyfriend (Jake Abel and his beautiful eyes) has been kidnapped by the evil aliens and is willingly helping them find their prey, along with his girlfriend.

Now, I don't remember his exact words, but there was definitely an  indication given that since the alien and girl were at the high school, they were close - something like fifteen minutes away. The film then switches back to the runaway duo who are in the high school film lab, hanging up processed pictures from his roll of film.

Hold up.

It takes at least ten minutes just to wash and develop film, then you have to leave it to dry for a good fifteen minutes or so. Then you have to develop the actual photos, which even an expert couldn't do in less than ten minutes. For a full roll of film and multiple photos we're looking at around an hour of development time.

This is where I had to intervene; I can accept that the main character is an alien from another planet with glowing blue hands, but I refuse to accept they developed the photo film so quickly - it breaks canon, and also the laws of time.

Thus, the Blue Hands Rule was born - when one can accept the full situation of the film, but refuses to accept a seemingly innocent yet impossible moment (even if the whole film is ridiculous). I'd love to hear about your Blue Hand Rule moments if you have any, you'll only be backing me up for future arguments.

0 Windows 8: how I plan to get my life back

There's a few things I need to get off my chest; its hard to talk about, and I'm sure you'll all give me with the help and support I need. Here it goes.

Hello, my name's Rebecca, and I'm addicted to Apple.

I know, I know, its shameful. I use iTunes, I lust after the iMac, and thanks to my iPhone I can't remember the last time I made eye contact (or, as I like to call it, iContact) during a social outing.

It is important to point out that this isn't my fault; my dad bought my mum an iPhone for Christmas in 2010. They went out to register it, and my own phone mysteriously stopped working. They came back and handed me the iPhone with the words, "This is yours now". I had no choice! My phone number was transferred without my permission, and I got no say in whether or not I actually wanted it. For the record - I didn't. I didn't like the limitations imposed on iTunes users, the incompatibility with the Windows OS I had been raised on, and the sheer pretentiousness of every person who owned an iPhone.

Suddenly, I was one of them. I went from begrudgingly using this phone as a temporary measure, to the type of idiot who says 'there's an app for that' with no irony. I was hooked, I am hooked, and it's damaging. I can't hold a conversation without simultaneously checking all my social network feeds. I have over 100 apps on my phone, and probably use about ten of them.

This only really struck me as a problem when I considered getting an iPad. My mum has one but rarely uses it, and she's threatened to let me have it a couple of times; so I started thinking - what do I actually want it for? Ideally, I'd like to type stuff up on it, but also use it as a digital portfolio of my work. I want to be able to use Wikipedia, the internet, and maybe listen to music. I considered these points in line with the iPad, and found myself looking at £800 of stuff I didn't really need. I don't want to play games or have loads of pointless little distracting apps. You can't really type on the either. Touch-screen keyboards are a thing of evil, and my chubby little fingers can't deal with them. I don't have an apple computer either, so I wouldn't be able to use the same file formats.

After weeks of research I think I've settled on the Eee Transformer Prime, which despite sounding like its going to save the world from the Decepticons is actually a very clever piece of tech indeed. It's a touch-screen tab, but it comes with Android or Windows 7 a an OS. Oh, it also does this other thing, where it docks into an external keyboard. I could have both! A tablet I can show all my work on, and a fancy little notebook for typing. Wow.

However I also noticed a couple of articles about Windows 8, almost all of which were quick to point out the improvements for the tablet OS. Windows 7 looks and acts almost exactly the same on a tablet as it does on a computer which is a problem if you're working on a 12 inch screen. It doesn't match the fluidity of the iPad's OS, which I think is why people always go for them. You don't want the same system as a desktop, or you might as well just buy a net-book instead. Windows 8 will base its tab OS off Metro, the system currently used for Windows phones. It looks smooth, clever, pretty, and above all, its very much Windows.

I've always used Windows, and I miss it. I like being able to switch out my video card for a better one without having to buy a whole new machine or send it back to the retailer for a few weeks. I'm enticed by the possibility of my tab or even my phone being created by people who embrace home upgrades. Ultimately, I plan to phase out both iTunes and my iPhone, and replace them with Windows products.

My only challenge now, is holding out until the Windows 8 tabs are released; they're slated for Q3 of this year, some time around June, but I think it'll be more likely they release in Q4 with just enough run up time to Christmas.