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Precision Castparts Corp. Reports Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2013 Earnings

| Source: Precision Castparts Corp.

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2013 Highlights

  • Record sales of $2.44 billion and EPS of $2.82 from continuing operations
  • Consolidated segment operating margin of 25.7%
  • Rapid Timet integration and achievement of synergies
  • Cash generation of $437 million, excluding cash paid for acquisitions, stock repurchases, and debt repayments

PORTLAND, Ore., May 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Precision Castparts Corp. (NYSE:PCP) continued to effectively leverage sales in its major markets in the fourth quarter of 2013, driven by year-over-year growth in commercial OEM aerospace demand, steady improvement in industrial gas turbine (IGT) spares, and accelerating oil and gas downhole casing production, along with a full quarter of strong Timet performance.

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2013 Financial Highlights

Sales totaled $2.44 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, growing 25 percent over sales of $1.95 billion in the same period last year. Consolidated segment operating income improved by approximately 26 percent year over year, rising to $627.3 million, or 25.7 percent of sales in the quarter, versus consolidated segment operating income of $497.5 million, or 25.6 percent of sales a year ago. Net income from continuing operations (attributable to PCC) in the fourth quarter was $415.1 million, an increase of 23 percent over net income of $338.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012. In the quarter, the Company delivered earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations (attributable to PCC) of $2.82 (diluted, based on 147.1 million shares outstanding), compared to $2.31 (diluted, based on 146.2 million shares outstanding) last year.

Including discontinued operations, PCC's net income (attributable to PCC) for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 totaled $414.2 million, or $2.82 per share (diluted).

Business Highlights

Investment Cast Products:

Investment Cast Products grew year-over-year sales by approximately 5 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, increasing to $635.7 million from $602.7 million a year ago. Fourth quarter operating income of $214.3 million, or 33.7 percent of sales, increased by approximately 9 percent over last year's $196.4 million, or 32.6 percent of sales. Contractual material pass-through pricing for Investment Cast Products was relatively flat year over year. The segment's aerospace sales improved approximately 5 percent over the same period last year. OEM shipments remain aligned with current production rates, with further growth opportunities from future build rate increases and accelerated shipments of development parts for narrow-body re-engining programs beginning in the second half of fiscal 2014. In addition, strong demand for industrial gas turbine (IGT) spares drove a year-over-year increase in power sales of approximately 8 percent.  The segment delivered solid operating performance and generated strong incremental margins, continuing to capture opportunities for cost reduction and improved productivity across its manufacturing facilities.

Forged Products:

Sales for Forged Products in the fourth quarter increased by 31 percent to $1,118.1 million, compared to sales of $855.1 million in the same period last year, and operating income improved to $252.8 million, or 22.6 percent of sales in the fourth quarter, compared to operating income of $192.7 million, or 22.5 percent of sales, last year. Contractual material pass-through pricing was relatively flat year over year, and selling prices of metal at the segment's three primary mills were approximately $17 million lower than a year ago. The inclusion of a full quarter of Timet was the largest driver of the sales growth in the fourth quarter. In addition, throughput improved on the 29,000-ton press, which helped boost aerospace sales at the Houston plant by more than 25 percent sequentially.  Downhole casing for the oil and gas market also continued to show a robust shipping profile for the second quarter in row. In terms of segment performance, Timet made a substantial contribution during its first full quarter; the integration is making rapid progress, with significant top- and bottom-line improvements identified for continued, long-term growth. In addition, segment operating results benefitted from continued strong leverage on base production, the restoration of the 29,000-ton press to more normal efficiency levels, and the production of downhole casing moving steadily down the learning curve.

Airframe Products:

Airframe Products' fourth quarter sales grew by 40 percent to $685.1 million, compared to sales of $487.9 million in the same period last year, and the segment's operating income increased by 42 percent in the fourth quarter to $198.0 million, or 28.9 percent of sales, versus $139.5 million, or 28.6 percent of sales last year. In addition to the impact from acquisitions, Airframe Products' commercial aerospace sales showed organic growth of more than 10 percent over last year, reflecting solid market share positions and core fasteners further narrowing the gap with current 787 production rates. The segment demonstrated strong operating leverage, extracting solid drop-through from its base businesses and overcoming significant dilution from six lower-margin acquisitions. This strength is expected to continue as aerospace demand increases, and the recent Airframe Products acquisitions further accelerate and drive even greater improvements throughout their operations.

"In our fourth quarter, we started to realize the solid benefits of a long-term plan for continued profitable growth," said Mark Donegan, chairman and chief executive officer of Precision Castparts. "We have focused on and have been diligent in acquiring the right assets over the last few years, and now those acquisitions have started to deliver on the value we anticipated. Our fourth quarter performance is only an initial data point on a long continuum for improved sales and earnings performance in the future.

"Timet is certainly a significant catalyst in achieving our long-term objectives. We are integrating Timet's businesses at a rapid pace, and we see multiple opportunities for growth and improvement well out into the future. It's a strong first step, but we are really just beginning to scratch the surface of this value-creating opportunity.

"The fourth quarter also showed how well positioned our base businesses are for further upside," said Donegan. "Commercial OEM build rates are solid, with additional acceleration as the 787 program moves from five aircraft per month to 10 by the end of the calendar year, and the 737 rate steps up again in early 2014. We have secured strong positions on the development engines for the new narrow-body platforms and will begin increasing shipments of that hardware starting in the second half of this fiscal year. Our power businesses are improving on several fronts. IGT spares sales have been strong and continue to present upside opportunity, and we are also participating in several upgrade programs, which will drive growth even in a flat OEM market. In addition, shipments of our oil & gas downhole casing continue, with several large contracts currently in the negotiation phase, and the international markets for our interconnect seamless pipe are slowly recovering.

"An unyielding focus on improving performance in all our manufacturing operations will always be what drives this business forward," said Donegan. "Over the past year, we completed 12 acquisitions, the vast majority with margins lower than the Company average, and our overall operating performance increased. Investment Cast Products continues to deliver strong incremental drop-through, and each improvement in operating margins establishes a new data point to beat. The Forged Products segment is benefitting from the fast-paced Timet integration, higher volumes moving across the 29K-ton press, and margin opportunities as future downhole casing production ramps. And, in Airframe Products, double-digit increases in core fastener volumes and aggressive cost management are generating solid incremental margins, and the integration of the new aerostructure acquisitions continues to accelerate. We continue to expect a steady and sustained improvement across our operations for the foreseeable future. The long-term prospects for Precision Castparts are truly exciting."

At the end of the quarter, cash was $280 million, and debt was $3,807 million.

Precision Castparts is hosting a conference call to discuss the above financial results today at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

NOTE: The presentation charts are immediately available on the Company's web site: http://www.precast.com/investors/presentations

Individuals interested in monitoring the webcast should paste the following address into their browser for access to the live conference link:

This link will provide both audio and video through the Internet connection. You may use the following link to check your computer system's compatibility any time prior to the call: http://webcast.premiereglobal.com/clients/premiere/help/help.html

For Webcast assistance, please dial (888) 569-3848 or (719) 785-6626.

Those interested in asking questions following the earnings presentation must dial in for audio access to 888-490-2763, Access Code: 5268536. Dial *0 for technical assistance with dial-in access. In order to assure the conference begins in a timely manner, please dial in 10 to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

You may also gain access to the webcast through Precision Castparts Corp.'s corporate website: http://www.precast.com/investors/presentations/

Following the conference call, you may replay the conference by calling (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820; the replay pass code is 5268536.

Precision Castparts Corp. is a worldwide, diversified manufacturer of complex metal components and products. It serves the aerospace, power, and general industrial markets. PCC is the market leader in manufacturing large, complex structural investment castings, airfoil castings, forged components and highly engineered, critical fasteners for aerospace applications.  The Company is also the leading producer of airfoil castings for the industrial gas turbine market.  In addition, PCC manufactures extruded seamless pipe, fittings, forgings, and clad products for power generation and oil & gas applications; commercial and military airframe aerostructures; and metal alloys and other materials to the casting, forging, and other industries.

Information included within this press release describing the projected growth and future results and events constitutes forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from the forward-looking statements because of a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to fluctuations in the aerospace, power generation, and general industrial cycles; the relative success of our entry into new markets; competitive pricing; the financial viability of our significant customers; the concentration of a substantial portion of our business with a relatively small number of key customers; the impact on the Company of customer or supplier labor disputes; demand, timing and market acceptance of new commercial and military programs, including the Boeing 787; the availability and cost of energy, raw materials, supplies, and insurance; the cost of pension and postretirement medical benefits; equipment failures; product liability claims; relations with our employees; our ability to manage our operating costs and to integrate acquired businesses in an effective manner, including the ability to realize expected synergies; misappropriation of our intellectual property rights; governmental regulations and environmental matters; risks associated with international operations and world economies; the relative stability of certain foreign currencies; the impact of adverse weather conditions or natural disasters; the availability and cost of financing; and implementation of new technologies and process improvements. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of these factors. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of this document.

Precision Castparts Corp.'s press releases are available on the Internet at Globe Newswire's website – http://www.globenewswire.com or PCC's home page at http://www.precast.com. If you wish to be removed from this list, please reply to Unsubscribe@precastcorp.com.

(Unaudited; in millions, except per share data)
  Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
  March 31,
April 1,
March 31,
April 1,
Net sales  $ 2,438.9  $ 1,945.7  $ 8,377.8  $ 7,201.9
Costs and expenses:
Cost of goods sold  1,652.1  1,329.3  5,680.3  4,939.6
Selling and administrative expenses  159.5  118.9  536.2  446.4
Interest expense  19.9  2.8  38.1  12.8
Interest income  (1.5)  (2.3)  (6.3)  (7.6)
Total costs and expenses  1,830.0  1,448.7  6,248.3  5,391.2
Income before income tax expense and equity in earnings of unconsolidated affiliates  608.9  497.0  2,129.5  1,810.7
Income tax expense  (191.9)  (161.5)  (695.6)  (594.0)
Equity in earnings of unconsolidated affiliates  (0.7)  3.2  0.6  14.6
Net income from continuing operations  416.3  338.7  1,434.5  1,231.3
Net loss from discontinued operations  (0.9)  (2.1)  (5.4)  (5.5)
Net income  415.4  336.6  1,429.1  1,225.8
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests  (1.2)  (0.5)  (2.5)  (1.7)
Net income attributable to Precision Castparts Corp. ("PCC")  $ 414.2  $ 336.1  $ 1,426.6  $ 1,224.1
Net income per common share attributable to PCC shareholders – basic:
Net income per share from continuing operations  $ 2.84  $ 2.33  $ 9.83  $ 8.52
Net loss per share from discontinued operations  (0.01)  (0.01)  (0.04)  (0.04)
Net income per share  $ 2.83  $ 2.32  $ 9.79  $ 8.48
Net income per common share attributable to PCC shareholders – diluted:
Net income per share from continuing operations  $ 2.82  $ 2.31  $ 9.76  $ 8.45
Net loss per share from discontinued operations  —  (0.01)  (0.04)  (0.04)
Net income per share  $ 2.82  $ 2.30  $ 9.72  $ 8.41
Weighted average common shares outstanding:
Basic  146.3  145.1  145.7  144.4
Diluted  147.1  146.2  146.7  145.6
  Three Months Ended Twelve Months Ended
  March 31,
April 1,
March 31,
April 1,
Sales by Segment
Investment Cast Products  $ 635.7  $ 602.7  $ 2,480.4  $ 2,326.9
Forged Products  1,118.1  855.1  3,566.0  3,176.8
Airframe Products  685.1  487.9  2,331.4  1,698.2
Total  $ 2,438.9  $ 1,945.7  $ 8,377.8  $ 7,201.9
Segment Operating Income (Loss)2
Investment Cast Products  $ 214.3  $ 196.4  $ 838.4  $ 766.4
Forged Products  252.8  192.7  777.0  684.9
Airframe Products  198.0  139.5  690.8  488.1
Corporate expense  (37.8)  (31.1)  (144.9)  (123.5)
Consolidated segment operating income  627.3  497.5  2,161.3  1,815.9
Interest expense  19.9  2.8  38.1  12.8
Interest income  (1.5)  (2.3)  (6.3)  (7.6)
Income before income tax expense and equity in earnings of unconsolidated affiliates  $ 608.9  $ 497.0  $ 2,129.5  $ 1,810.7
1 Reported results for the three and twelve months ended April 1, 2012 have been restated for discontinued operations.
2 Operating income represents earnings before interest, income tax expense, and equity in earnings of unconsolidated affiliates.
(Unaudited; in millions)
  March 31,
April 1,
Cash and Debt Balances
Cash  $ 280.2  $ 698.7
Total Debt  $ 3,807.2  $ 208.2
Total Equity  $ 9,804.4  $ 8,364.8
Total Debt, as % of Total Capitalization 28.0 % 2.4 %
Working Capital Items1
Receivables, Net  $ 1,509.3  $ 1,186.4
Inventories  2,981.8  1,815.3
Accounts Payable  941.0  713.7
Total  $ 3,550.1  $ 2,288.0
  Three Months Ended
  March 31,
April 1,
Selected Cash Flow Items1
Depreciation and Amortization  $ 68.8  $ 43.6
Capital Expenditures  $ 118.1  $ 88.5
Acquisitions of Businesses, Net of Cash Acquired  $ 527.5  $ 15.2
1 Reported results exclude discontinued operations.
Jay Khetani, Vice President of Investor Relations
(503) 946-4700
Website: http://www.precast.com


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Touching Stories

Don’t feel sorry for the girl on wheelchair, for what you are about to see is too beautiful to describe!

cancercrossMar 1 2014, 15,658 views

 Sisters Quincy and Gracie share an equal love for dancing. While Quincy has full use of her legs, Gracie has cystic fibrosis and cerebral palsy, leaving her confined to a wheelchair. But that hasn't stopped her one bit.

Absolutely the most beautiful performance I have ever seen.

Press the button

if you liked the video! Thank you!

Editor's Pick

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Category Archives: Dreams

Interpreting dreams, and living them.

The Art of Getting Up Again

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I had a great conversation with Dr. Joan Borysenko this morning on Dream Talk Radio. We talked about dreams and mind-body healing, and at one point discussed the limits of what can be taught in a workshop. I commented that there should be a workshop titled “The Art of Getting Up Again,” since that is the summation of pretty much every piece of advice ever given to anyone, in any context. She laughed and we went on, but the idea has stayed with me all day.

By definition, life hands us tough knocks from which we have to recover, regroup, and press on. Getting up again is what we do after we’ve been knocked down, or have lain down to rest. It is standard business advice that getting up again is what determines whether you will actually achieve your goals. It is equally true for everything else.

Everything we try to do, whether it be meditating in the mornings, remembering our dreams, quitting smoking, eating better, marketing our business, being nice to contentious people—everything comes pre-loaded with about a hundred ways it might not work. The secret to making it work is getting up and trying again that 101st time.

In aikido the art of falling, called ukemi, is very important, because getting thrown is inevitable. Falling allows us to flow with the movement of the incoming energy. It lessens the physical impact of a throw on our bodies, and gives us several strategic options for getting up again, which we decide on as we hit the ground.

How we get up from a fall in aikido is one of the subtleties of the art that most shows a person’s skill level. It can be fluid and graceful, as though it were a seamless weaving of the last fall and the next strike. When you see two people training and they show no energetic separation between one throw and the next, you are watching true aikido in action.

Getting up again in real life does not always demand this level of skill from us, thankfully. But we do need to keep in mind that falling is an art, not a failure. If we relax into it, our bodies can use that energy to find the best way to come back up again.

Metaphorically speaking, we make the fall hurt more by berating ourselves for falling, blaming others for our fall, or denying that we are indeed about to hit the ground. How much more sensible it would be to let the fall help us organize ourselves for rising again—to make getting up as effortless as possible, a seamless part of trying something until we eventually succeed.

Business is Magic

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I am not happy about publishing only one post in June, but while not writing I have been very busy mulling over how to make the best use of this space, and all the other spaces I have on the web. Some of you may have seen Jason’s post about the changes at Serpentine Music this summer, to which I would only add that if you want great deals on great music, the albums are going fast so order now!

Serpentine Music was my first business, a start-up back in the home-based business craze of the 1990s. It has been my do-it-yourself MBA, a crash course in music production, publishing, distribution, planning, niche marketing, sales, web design, direct mail, customer service, database management, and small business ownership. Winding it down has taught me a ton about how to carefully assess which pieces of a business should be tossed out for the useful stuff to thrive. Having an objective eye for something that you’ve poured your heart and soul into, and not being afraid to kill things that don’t work—that is tough, and it is also exactly where transformation happens.

This summer I have also undertaken the birth of a new business, Creative Content Coaching, which combines my experience as an educator and writer with everything I have learned about small business, consulting, and building a public presence. Shifting in such a short time from one business model to a completely new one, while not really shifting the essence of what I do at all, has taught me the biggest diy-MBA lesson yet: business is magic.

Allow me to explain. I have spent years helping people understand the spiritual messages in their dreams, while my dreams were advising me to make all sorts of changes in my professional life (which I followed). Eventually, the spiritual and practical streams in dreams merged for me, and I began doing dream seminars for businesses, while clients came to me looking for career guidance in their own dreams. (It is easy to find once you know how to look.)

Similarly, I started this blog on a whim five years ago, mostly to write on spiritual and personal topics. By hanging in there month after month, I’ve built up a large readership, leveraged it into writing for the Huffington Post, and now know more than most business coaches about the different kinds of web-based writing and how to do it well.

Magic is the art of sensing patterns, following the energy, and doing it all while staying centered and tapped into your creativity. What emerges is total transformation. What can also emerge is a very practical application of all that esoteric stuff, a vehicle through which we can use our whole skill set to bring positive change to the greatest number of people, while living by our core values. In other words, a very cool business. I hope to blog more about magic and commerce in the near future, and meanwhile I welcome your thoughts.

Like Dropping a Stone in a Very Deep Well

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A few days ago I woke with a vivid dream: I am watching someone skim the surface of the pool I swim in, running the big blue net back and forth across the calm water. Suddenly the net picks up something other than leaves and bugs: a big black tar ball appears in the net and is scooped out of the water. But how did it get there in the first place?

In the Gulf, tar balls appear on the beach sand in advance of the spreading crude. It is a gruesome, sickening sight from a disaster that continues to grow and spread and affect millions of lives both in the water and out. Not even a lap swimming pool on the opposite side of the continent is out of harm’s way.

Three weeks ago I was out enjoying our localÂ Friday happy hour in Bodega Bay, and struck up a conversation with some weekend tourists from inland. One couple was nice and chatty, but another woman kept her sunglasses on and an aloof expression on her face, barely managing an occasional smile as she sipped her wine and looked out over the bay.

After a while the other couple left and she and I sat next to each other in silence. I was racking my brain for something to say to this obviously reserved, conservative person, when all of a sudden she spoke up.Â “I keep imagining what this would look like if the oil spill was here,” she said.

What could I say to that? It sank into the heart of what every person there was thinking, what I myself had been thinking all day and was at the moment trying to forget. She didn’t want to talk about the politics ofÂ offshore drilling bans, she was in shock, and was sitting there trying to grasp the magnitude of what has happened to the ocean.

People come out here from all over the country to recharge. The ocean has a powerful psychic pull, along with the lure of physical beauty, recreation, great food, and fresh air. It exists in the collective imagination as our ancestral home, source of dreams, origin of all life.

This was not the first conversation I’ve had with a total stranger who is soul-stricken about what is happening to the Gulf of Mexico. It is not a laughing matter to anyone. People know how bad this is, and they are taking it very personally.Â This alone gives me hope.

Oil has already reached Barataria Bay, and is just a hurricane’s breath away from destroying New Orleans for good. The mighty Gulf fisheries are gone, as are the beaches, the nesting grounds, and all deep sea life, for the foreseeable future.

The news sinks like a stone to the depths of our psyches. What will we do when the tar balls stir the waters of our dreams as well?

The Call of the Dream Tribe

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Do you listen to your dreams but have no one to talk with about them? Are you looking for a circle of fellow dreamers to help you explore dream messages? The perfect solution may be at hand.

Introducing The Dream Tribe, a members-only online community where you can get instant feedback on your dreams, connect with experts in many different kinds of dreamwork, and find your place in the worldwide clan of dreamers.

The brainchild of interfaith ministerÂ Amy Brucker, The Dream Tribe launched just days ago. At the center of the effort are what Amy calls the “Dream Team”â€”professionals who are experts in different aspects of dream research and interpretation. (Full disclosure: I am part of the Dream Team.)

Each of us make ourselves available to site members by participating in the online forums, offering discounts on classes and private sessions, and distributing exclusive content through the Dream Tribe site. As a members-only site, the only people reading and responding to your posts about dreams are those who are truly interested in the healing potential of dreams.

It is a great value for people who want to learn more about their dreams but don’t have access to a local dream group. Registration is open for a few more days, so I encourage you to check it out, and take advantage of Amy’s no-risk membership offer.

I will blog more about my experience as part of the Dream Teamâ€”this is an experiment for all of us, rememberâ€”but for now I want to welcome the worldwide network/clan/tribe/consortium/consulate of dreamers to our virtual tribe!

Avalon, the Mirror Isle

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Long, long ago, before the legends were made, before the stories of heroes and magic were passed like flagons around a peat fire, Avalon was a green jewel of an island floating in an inland sea. The way to this island was always by boat, each vessel woven by hand, and guided skillfully through thickets of willow and sedge, following the winding, ever-changing paths formed by water and land.

The people of this land learned to find the high spots in the water to build their villages, and stayed away for all but the summer months, when the flood waters receded. This land was called Somerset, â€œland of the summer people.â€ It is among these first people that all our stories of the Sacred Isle begin. Avalon was sacred first simply because she was there: a refuge from the rising tides, a source of food, of fiber, an anchor and place of safety in a land ruled by the fickle gods of the waters and the weather.

Avalon is an island of mirrors, then as well as now. In the beginning, it was surrounded by mirrors: the smooth surface of the lake reflecting the deep blue sky above, or cloaked in mist so thick that it veiled the land and obscured all beyond range of our fingertips. And today, our Avalon, the Avalon of our myriad stories, is a mirror for all our longings, our yearnings for the past and our deepest dreams for the future.

For the stories that have been handed down to us have taken twists and turns of their own on their way through the marshes of time and memory. They sometimes reveal vistas, reward us with nourishment for the soul, only to vanish again or be lost as a new story appears to take anotherâ€™s place. There is no true path anymore among these stories; no way to follow the sure path through the wetlands and step foot finally onto dry land. The levels have long been drained, and people dwell today where none were in the time of legends.

All we have now are our mirrors, and some beautiful ones there are. We dream of a lineage of priestesses, a place of wisdom, a school of mysteries, all the things our hearts yearn for. We can see it, feel it, enter there and journey in, around, and through that landscape clear as day. And then our mirror fogs with mist, and we see instead a steep, sheep-grazed hill crowned with the ruins of an ancient church.

Where do we go when we visit Avalon? Why do we seek it? What do we hope to find? When we come together to invoke Avalon, we create a brilliant mosaic of mirrors, our stories of what might have been. Together we rebuild the waters, re-grow the willow and sedge, weave our own boats and journey to the beat of our own drums, through the mists of time and down the winding path formed by water and land.

We seek the Shining Isle; how could we not? And yet, that is not where this journey leads. In the center of the mirrors is always our own heart, our own Story. And who but ourselves will tell us when we have found dry ground at last?

Two Great Books on Dreams

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I have had the distinct pleasure over the past few months of immersing myself in some wise and erudite books on dreams. Here, rising to the top of the pile, are two books that I consider essential to the serious study of dreams in history and practice.

The first is by Dr. Kelly Bulkeley, former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and author of many worthy books on dreams. Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History (2008, New York University Press) is a book that finally answers the basic question: how did people in ancient cultures view dreams?

I call this a basic question, because anyone who spends a significant amount of time working with their dreams inevitably wonders how it was done in the past. In your religion, in other religions; by your ancestors, by other people’s ancestors. Dreams call us to understand our place in the world, and Kelly’s book answers the call because it addresses the problem with both comprehensive scholarship and also a deep love and appreciation for dreams.

In the book’s first three chapters, Kelly covers Hinduism, the religions of China (mostly Confucianism and Taoism), and Buddhism. He then branches out to the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Judaism), the religions of Greece and Rome, then Christianity, and Islam. In the final three chapters, we learn about the religions of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. A whirlwind tour to be sure, but with Kelly’s flair for laying out a clear overview combined with meticulous attention to detail, one is left after each chapter with the feeling of having had an excellent introduction to a fascinating, and ever-changing subject.

This book is required reading for my class at Cherry Hill Seminary on using dreams in spiritual direction. It gives the student of Pagan religions a valuable sense of perspective, and the student of dreams a glimpse at the rich possibilities for dream interpretation and understanding in the continuing evolution of our dreaming minds. I highly recommend it.

childrens_cover2The second book is not new at all, but is certainly new to us. Children’s Dreams: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936–1940 (Princeton University Press, 2008) is the English translation (finally!) of a seminar conducted by Carl Jung with some of his more advanced pupils, and is the most accessible, understandable presentation of Jung’s dream theories Â that I have ever read.

Here we have the master in action, explaining his theories and then showing in great detail how he applies them, using examples of his patients’ earliest remembered dreams. In the first chapter, Jung lays out all of his methods of dream interpretation, which is invaluable in itself but also helps focus the later chapters, as each dream analysis follows the steps first introduced here.

Each of the later chapters include his students (among them Marie-Louise Von Franz, Aniela Jaffe, and Jolande Jacobi) presenting a dream or dream series, then analyzing them using Jung’s rubric. Jung makes comments, clarifies ideas and answers his students’ questions. The conversational style highlights Jung’s skill as an educator, and reading it one has the sense of witnessing the development, there in that room, of the practice of analytical psychology. It is a fascinating and inspiring ride.

This beautiful English edition of Children’s Dreams was a project of the Philemon Foundation, which is dedicated to bringing into book form Jung’s unpublished works. The Philemon Foundation also facilitated the publication of Jung’s Red Book last year; they do beautiful work. Children’s Dreams will make you realize just how much of your ideas about dreams are from Jung, and at the same time will show you just how little of Jung you really understand. I find the combination exhilarating; I am sure you will too.

2010 New Year’s Dream Resolutions

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Yes, itâ€™s time once again to post my New Yearâ€™s Dream Resolutions. Actually it is well past time to post them, and my handwritten notes from reading through last yearâ€™s dreams have been sitting on my desk for over a month, waiting for me to write them up.

The one waking-life resolution I made for myself this year is to relax more, and the only way I can make this resolution square with having so many projects in motion is to not push forward any project until I feel the energy for it. Everything has to take its own time this year, without me trying to force anything to fruition before its time. So, much to the dismay of my Aries mentality, everything is not getting done instantly. Dream resolutions are being written in mid-February, and thatâ€™s just the way it is.

InÂ 2008, this is how I explained the concept of New Yearâ€™s Dream Resolutions:

This new feature is not like most New Yearâ€™s Resolutions because these are not about how to act during the day, theyâ€™re about what to do in dreams. Doing the right thing in dreams is much different than doing the right thing in waking life. It is hard to know whether a monster in a dream is an evil demon that needs to be vanquished or a gift in disguise that only needs witnessing in order to completely transform. Sometimes of course it is both, in which case you may want to consult a professional. Fortunately, I am a professional.

My dream resolutions tend to come out more like pronouncements than typical New Yearâ€™s resolutions, but that is part of the fun. This is a type of dream re-scripting, so if you try them yourself just let them come out the way they are. And here are mine for this year:

1. If you are held underground in a â€œDNA-resistant container,â€ get out immediately, maybe by turning into a tree and growing yourself out and away.

2. The lucid stream is glittering all the way down to the gravel, so go ahead and dip your fingers in.

3. Do not give your name when caught in someone elseâ€™s libraryâ€”Google will find out and publicize it!

4. If you are pole-vaulting across the grass, donâ€™t assume you will fail. Enjoy sailing through the air and you will make it just fine!

5. If you see a bunch of little kids wandering around backstage after a performance, bring them to the main hall so their parents can find them and bring them home.

6. Joking about how old you are getting probably isnâ€™t the best opener at your high school reunion. On the other hand, youâ€™ll learn a lot from the reactions you get.

7. Donâ€™t just pass by the guy doing uninteresting things in a dreamâ€”he may be about to open the treasure drawer!

8. If a dead relative returns for 25 seconds to tell you your future, and it is everything you want, believe them.

9. Even if the others are hanging back, moving toward ground zero is the only way to get the footage that will really make a difference.

10. Just because you dream of restoring a beautiful theater into a thriving community hub doesnâ€™t mean you should do that in waking life. But who knows? Pay attention, and see what opportunities come your way in waking, and in dreaming.

PantheaCon Calling

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The ramp-up to this yearâ€™s hugeÂ PantheaCon event has been remarkably mellow for me. I have been working hard on it for days now, but blessedly without the usual high-pitched whine of anxiety in the background. I attribute it partly to the unheard-of luxury of having a partner who has my back and is happy to help outâ€”and also to my latest herbal garden experiment.

My friend Gail Julian, who teachesÂ here, was telling me a couple months ago about the wonders of the ubiquitousÂ California poppy as a sleep aid, anxiety reliever, and mildly euphoricÂ nervine. It is gentle enough to use with children too, apparently, and who wouldnâ€™t want that?

I had a patch of poppies growing where I didnâ€™t want them to grow, so I took the next full moon opportunity to harvest the whole plants, and soak them in alcohol for a while.Â The result, decanted just this week, is a marvelous, very strong tasting but energetically not overwhelming California poppy tincture. It is keeping my shoulders from bunching up with stress, yet my head is clear and I am actually enjoying getting everything done. What a marvelous find! And part of the car-full of goods and services I will be selling all this weekend at theÂ  Serpentine Music booth.

There has already been an entertaining stream of Twitter posts about PantheaCon, and if you want the scoop on whatâ€™s happening at San Joseâ€™s long-suffering Doubletree Hotel, follow the hashtagÂ #pcon.

PantheaCon is the largest indoor gathering of Earth religions, eclectic spiritualities, Pagans, Druids, witches andÂ freaksÂ eccentrics that I know about. There is a fascinating mix of practitioners, teachers, researchers, clergy, and seekers in attendance, not to mention those who just love the party.

I will try to post pictures in my idle moments between selling music and herbs, leading and assisting workshops, and socializing. If you are attending, be sure to stop by the booth and say hello. But whether youâ€™re there on site or just enjoying the home game, have a great weekend!

Dreaming Up Success in 2010

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Just like dressing for success puts our best foot forward, dreaming for success can help us achieve our biggest goals this year.

Last year I shared 10 great tips for havingÂ big winter dreams. But more important than having big dreams is knowing how to work with all the dreams we have. Hereâ€™s how to make every dream count, no matter how small.

  1. Remember your dreams and write them down. Even if you only remember a word or name, color or feeling, write it down. Dream recall increases the more we practice it.
  2. Go for what makes you happy in dreams. Some traditions insist that to be happy in waking life you must pursue pleasure in your dreams. Being successful in 2010 means being bold, so start by doing what you want in dreams even if itâ€™s something you would never do in waking life. Itâ€™s just a dreamâ€“go for it!
  3. Donâ€™t run from conflict in your dreams. This may take some practice, but youâ€™ve got all year, right? If thereâ€™s a dragon chasing you at night, coach yourself to turn and face it. Likewise with intruders, thieves, and other scoundrels. You will soon find it easier to overcome obstacles of all kinds during the day. Seriously, it works!
  4. Keep tabs on your health. If you are sick or injured in a dream, donâ€™t freak out, but do heed the warning. Dreams usually work on the symbolic level, but sometimes they have direct, concrete advice for us. Always check out aÂ health concern in a dream, it could be the best move you ever make.
  5. Pay attention when things go bad. Notice what happens just before a good dream starts becoming an anxiety-riddenÂ nightmare. Do you hesitate out of fear? Is there a misunderstanding that sets things off the rails? Are you listening to someone with the wrong information? Figure out what the glitch is, and start overcoming it in waking life.
  6. Look for dream allies and treat them well. Dreams are full of unforeseen turns of fortune, if we know what to look for. Just as in fairy tales, if someone offers you something in a dream be gracious and thank them. It may look strange, but looks can be deceiving, and we never want to turn down what could be a golden opportunity.
  7. Always go for the highest good. If you have a choice of two actions to take in a dream, and one of them benefits you alone whereas the other benefits you and several others, take the second choice. Start now to shift those self-centered patterns in the dream world, and you may find that others are more willing to help you achieve your goals on waking as well.

We all have to sleep and dream, no matter how desperate, ambitious, or energetic we are. The good news is, our dreaming minds are perfectly capable of helping us with our waking goalsâ€“when we act in accordance with our values and stick with it in spite of the setbacks that inevitably occur. In a year where money is scarce and every advantage counts, who can afford to discount their dreams?

This article was originally published in theÂ Huffington Post.

Evolutionary Dreaming

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Back in August I commented in my review ofÂ Robert Mossâ€™s new book that,

People are peopleâ€¦

The dirty little secret of theÂ human potential movement is that even if we all develop to our fullest potential, our society will still not be perfect.â€

Much to my surprise, I did not get a lot of blowback from that statement. Maybe people didnâ€™t read the review that closely, or perhaps the human potential movement has lost some of its lustreâ€”though I find that hard to believe, with our countryâ€™s obsession with self-improvement (and accompanying disregard for the real suffering of others) seemingly as dominant as ever.

InÂ The Secret History of Dreaming, Moss details the way dreams have guided people and shaped history, and the book itself is a tremendously inspiring read. But in promoting a greater engagement with our dreaming minds, he also implies that if we do so everything will be better. Of course, the â€œsecretÂ future of dreamingâ€ is outside the scope of an in-depth book on dream history, but that is what I immediately wanted to hear more about.

At the time, I thought the lack of controversy surrounding my review meant that I could set that subject aside for a while, but instead the opposite has occurred. I am increasingly curious aboutÂ Sandor Ferencziâ€™sÂ idea that â€œdreams are the workshop of evolution.â€ Great advances and cognitive leaps are being dreamed up by people all the time, but isnâ€™t it premature (or at best wishful thinking) to call that process evolution?

Are we really evolving into anything new? Or is it justÂ people, all the way down?


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Green Earth Technologies Introduces Biodegradable Motor Oil

Acknowledged: Getting someone a bottle of motor oil for the holidays is probably the equivalent of giving your ten-year-old nephew a bunch of socks for his birthday. On the other hand, if the motor oil is as amazingly cool as this bottle is... if I had a car, I'd be pleased.

Green Earth Technologies (via Ecotality Life) has created what they say is a completely biodegradable motor oil. Admittedly, I don't know much about the details of car oils (put it this way: I could probably check my oil if I absolutely had to, but I wouldn't know what to do about it, other than maybe call someone). But Green Earth Technologies says that this oil is "guaranteed to protect engines as well as the leading brands, but without the environmental hazards or dependence on foreign oil."

I'll take their word for it--and after all, if you're giving it as a gift, it's not your car you have to worry about...

Turns out, this stuff is made from animal fat. I can't say I mind, particularly, but I'm not speaking for the vegans on your list. There's not much info out there on how to buy it, but keep an eye on the website. There are a variety of interesting, green, mechanical/household type products on there.

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CSBG Archive

Comic Theme Time – Retroactive Changes to Published Comics

Comic Theme Time is a twist on the idea of a “Top Five” list. Instead of me stating a topic and then listing my top five choices in that topic, I’m giving you the topic and letting you go wild with examples that you think fit the theme.

In this week’s Movie Legends Revealed, I discuss how George Lucas went back and added “Episode IV A NEW HOPE” to re-releases of the original Star Wars film years after it was first released.

This is something that happens in comic books a lot, as well, where changes are made after the fact to published comics when they’re reprinted. Like Batman not having purple gloves in most reprints of Detective Comics #27 (as shown in this old Comic Book Legends Revealed)…

Or Spider-Man not being referred to as Superman…

or Peter Palmer (see this Comic Book Legends Revealed for the scoop on those errors)…

What other good examples can you think of?

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How about Chris Claremont using Classic X-Men reprints to fill in old continuity holes. Like adding the scene where Warhawk is hired by the Hellfire Club to bug the X-Men’s computer; it explained what the heck Warhawk was doing there, which was kind of a mystery for about a decade.

Cool stuff!

I noticed, I think in Amazing Spider-Man 18, Ms. Watson was called something different.

In the “Lonely Place of Dying” Batman/New Teen Titans arc that introduced Tim Drake, Dick called Tim “Jeff” in one panel.

How about Jim Lee’s Savage Dragon #13 being completely disregarded and being re-done by Erik Larsen? Erik apparently did not like the fact that Jim killed off a central character, so he went and re-did the whole issue himeself and told fans to completely diregard the Jim Lee version.

Given that the GA/SA Two Face was sometimes given the name “Harvey Kent,” I would assume you find that “corrected” in all sorts of reprints over the years.

As I recall, there were various things like this early in the nu52, such as deleting a reference to an earlier group of Teen Titans.

In Infinite Crisis #7, Power Girl was able to awaken Wildcat’s memory of the Superman of Earth-2. In the TPB collection this got deleted, such that going forward Power Girl was the only JSA member with her pre-Crisis memories.

Tenzil Kem, Esq.

June 19, 2014 at 10:12 am

In several reprints of Adventure #247, DC “added” Brainiac 5 to the final panel of the story by recoloring one of the characters green.

Action Comics 232 featured a story entitled “The Story of Superman Junior.’ Superman adopts the son of a dying friend. Within the course of the story, the boy is named Tommy, Johnny and Jimmy Kirk.

You are right Jacob, DCNu changed blurbs referencing former teams, and in some cases (The one I’m thinking off was in Batman) changing dialogue. I know it happened in Batman, Teen Titans, and I believe there were differences in the dialogue and captions for Suicide Squad as well.

When the first Gaiman/Bachalo Death mini-series was collected in trade and hardcover, they fixed the issue of two pages in #3 being originally printed back-to-back instead of side-by-side, which is how they’re meant to be read.

Were any of these examples actually corrected? I distinctly remember Spider-Man being called Peter Palmer several times in the Omnibus edition of Ditko’s books, along with being called Super-Man. Not sure about Batman’s gloves though.

As mentioned in a previous “Comic Book Legends Revealed” column (column #466, to be precise), the editors of Marvel’s reprint anthology Crypt of Shadows altered the dialogue from a reprinted 1950s story to incorporate a reference to later Marvel continuity, changing a spy’s dialogue from “my government will buy your information” to “my organization, HYDRA, will buy information.”

Similarly, another “Comic Book Legends Revealed” column (#26) recounts how Marvel’s reprint comic Tomb of Darkness #22 reprinted a story from Strange Tales #75, but relettered it to change the name of the scientist charcter to Pym, as if this was an untold adventure of Hank Pym.

There’s another ’70s Marvel reprint of a ’50s story that I suspect has altered/relettered dialogue, but I can’t be certain because I haven’t seen the original story. Giant-Size Werewolf #3 reprints a story from Adventures Into Terror #13 called “The Hands of Death” (with early art by Don Perlin). A quick rundown of the story: A small town is terrorized by a mad strangler. A female reporter comes to town to cover the story, but her car breaks down and she takes refuge in the home of an “old lady” whom she quickly realizes is a man in disguise. Fearing that she’s stumbled upon the strangler, she screams for help and a passerby rushes in…but it turns out that the “rescuer” is the strangler. The “old lady” turns the tables and strangles the killer…then drops the disguise and explains to the reporter that he had dressed up as a little old lady to act as bait. He’s actually the husband of the killer’s first victim.

The alteration I suspect comes in the dialogue after the “old lady” chokes out the strangler…he says “That’ll hold the murdering dog till the police get here,” suggesting that the killer has only been choked into unconsciousness, not killed outright. That bit of dialogue just seemed so at odds with the story that it makes me think the dialogue was modified (possibly for Comics Code approval?), so that the story wouldn’t have a “good guy” killing somebody for revenge. But, as I said, I haven’t seen the original story, so for all I know that dialogue WAS as it originally appeared.

Marvel Tales used to update cultural references, like taking a joke from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 about a “Vote for Dewey” button and turning into a joke about a “Vote for Ford” button. On a more minor note, they also tended to alter footnotes so that they referred to previous issues of Marvel Tales rather than to the original comics.

In a smaller example, the 1970s reprints of the old “Dr. Droom” stories updated the name to “Dr. Druid,” the name used today.

When Steve Engelhart sort-of created the 1950s Captain America with input from Roy Thomas, they reprinted some pages from Cap’s first 1950s “revival” appearance unchanged…except that they added scare quotes when Cap says “Time for us to do this ‘again'” to indicate that it wasn’t the “real” Cap and Bucky. A reader called them out on this in the letters column.

When Infinite Crisis was released in hardcover, the notoriously unfinished issue #7 not only got finished coloring and pencilling, but also some extra pages that tied up some story points and changed dialogue int he existing issue.

More infamously, there’s the epilogue that was tacked onto the Korvac Saga back in the 1980s, which has been dropped from later editions of the collected story.

One that no one but me cares about has to do with the Marvel Handbook Deluxe edition, where entries were rewritten, redrawn, or dropped entirely in the TPB version from the late 1980s to reflect changes that had happened since the original issues were published. The most blatant example is the entry for the android version of Zodiac, which is entirely redone in the TPB.

There’s an old Mystery in Space where the reprint in From Beyond the Unknown replaced Eisenhower with Nixon.
And I have a reprint of a Showcase Metal Men in which the original dialogue (discussing whether they’d get their own book) is replaced by promises they’ll continue fighting crime and injustice.

I think the current fashion for reprints of old, considered “classic” material is to preserve the original no matter what. Certainly, Marvel Masterworks retains many if not all errors from the source material.

Here’s a weird, minor one that for some reason stuck with me: Norman Osborn’s haircut in New Ways to Die. John Romita Jr. was doing his usual super loose pencils and didn’t draw anything on the sides of Osborn’s head, assuming the colorist would handle that part. Not comprehending Romita’s intention, the colorist let it be, so that Norman appeared with only a rectangular strip of hair covering his pate. A quick pop over to Marvel Unlimited shows the mistake to have been corrected, at least for their digital library. However, you can still see the gaff on the digital cover of Amazing 569, if you’re curious. And maybe you should be, because literally it’s the only thing I remember from the story; it’s that weird and stands out that much.

DC felt the need to tone down some of the more egregious racial stereotypes in some of the early Chronicles reprints of 1940s material, but they seemed to rethink that later on and just go ahead and show them as they actually appeared. I posted an example from The Wonder Woman Chronicles vol. 1 showing how the depiction of an African-American train porter was toned way down in reprints (about 4/5 of the way down the page).

And of course that same kind of thing’s going on right now with Marvel obscuring racial epithets in its Miracleman reprints.

The rolling retcon of comic timelines seems the biggest single instance, since it applies to everyone. Ten years ago, Bruce Wayne because Batman. 20 years ago, he had been Batman for ten years as well. Ten years from now, he’ll have been Batman for ten years. This is what soap operas would be like if the actors never aged.

One neat example that’s far more benign is Strange Tales #141. It’s the end of the year long Eternity epic and it ends with Strange finally resting at home and leaning on a large brazier. But we see a cut-away of the inside of the brazier, and it has …a bomb inside!

For the Classic Doctor Strange baxter-paper reprints of the saga in the 80s, they didn’t want to end on a cliffhanger, so they just eliminated the cut-away. It doesn’t really change the scene, since the bomb may well still be there, but it just puts us in his shoes, celebrating and unaware of the danger. I think it was a smart change that makes the reprints more satisfying.

” It doesn’t really change the scene, since the bomb may well still be there”

That would be true if that was the only alteration. However, a full nine panels referring to the bomb were also cut from those reprints, eliminating it entirely. That said, I think it was a good idea as it does make for a more satisfying ending. Also, the painterly coloring on those is much better than in the garishly printed Masterworks.

Something similar was done in Giant Size X-Men #2 — which reprinted Uncanny X-Men #57-59. On the original last page of #59, the bottom half features a “Dr. Claw” introduction of Karl Lykos as a lead-in to next issue’s Sauron story. In the Giant Size reprint issue, the bottom half of this page was removed and a “The End” blurb was stuck of the panel showing the X-men’s hands digging Alex Summers out of the cave-in.

How about the tendency of DC to change the colouring of one of the random unnamed members in the first Legion appearance in Superboy to suggest that It’s Brainiac 5.

This actually happens in manga sometimes. The original serialized version will have less detailed art, then the collection will have more shading and more activity in the background. I know I’ve seen comparison pics of Yotsuba&!, but I don’t know where to find them. Although I did remember that Kiyohiko Azuma redrew some panels of Azumanga Daioh when it was reissued some years back.

I’ve also seen some instances of webcomic artists tweaking pages to remove errors, like in this page from Gunnerkrigg Court, where Jones (the blond lady) originally had six fingers in panel 8: http://gunnerkrigg.com/?p=726. And Homestuck’s archive was altered for plot reasons–a character sticks his hand in a time warp, and it appears in a number of previous scenes where it hadn’t appeared before. People checked the original pages and found, lo and behold, they’d been altered, so now they all show his hand sticking out of the time warp!

Travis Pelkie

June 19, 2014 at 5:32 pm

Since you used Spidey up top, I immediately thought of the panel where he discovers the burglar in AF15 and you can see his pupils through the “spider-eyes”.

One I can think of that got changed for the trade is a sequence in 1602 where one page had been…8 panels (2×4) changed to 2 pages of 4 panel pages, iirc.

It’s too bad that some newer comics don’t do this and change errors. My personal suspicion is that because reading and writing on a computer screen is different from physically lettering a comic, more typos slip by than in the past. The Image series Black Science had an issue where, still in the trade, the main character’s last name is misspelled. The main character!

And thinking of misspellings/computer lettering I’m reminded of that Wolverine issue where “the killer named Sabretooth” was inadvertently changed to…something different.

One instance I can think about is Cap battling an android in Tales of Suspense, saying “Only one of us is walking away from this… and it won’t be ME!”

They later reprinted that in Marvel Double Feature and changed the “ME” to “YOU”.

All the Marvel reprint books of the 1970s had to cut pages, since the page count had dropped from 22 to 17. To cover this, you got a lot of dialogue changes or added captions to get around the cuts.

In a few cases, these changes were made to the archived proofs of the comics in question, so later reprints that restore the missing pages are stuck with the “skip explanation” captions. Avengers #55 is a good example; the version in the Greatest Battles of the Avengers trade from the mid-1990s has both the excised pages and the captions on the surrounding pages that try to cover the omission.

Additionally, all reprints of Amazing Spider-Man #29 have altered editorial notes, because that issue was not reprinted until the early 1980s. As the letters page during its first reprinting explained, it was the only issue of ASM that Marvel did not have an archive copy or proofs for for many years, which is why its first reprint date was the very latest of the Ditko/Lee run.

However, these aren’t really retcons-by-reprint that stuck or even topical updates.

Giant Size Spider-Man # 2 reprints Amazing Spider-Man 16 with Daredevil’s original costume colored red instead of yellow.. It’s still the Everett design, it’s just red – looks very strange.

Some reprints of the death of Gwen Stacy eliminate the snap.
One bizarre example is the Marvel Tales reprints of Amazing Spider-Man where they noticed that Peter’s bike changed color from issue to issue but missed a scene where Peter painted it, changed the color of the bike a couple of issues early to correct the “error” and had to apologize for it in the letter column.
As this website points out, in one reprint of Spectacular Spider-Man 81, they edited scenes of Peter looking at drug paraphernalia on the floor, so it looks like Peter is looking at his shoes right after stopping a mugging:
The same site also shows how the Hobgoblin TPB cut out the Secret Wars subplots:
and blew up a tiny panel of Harry and Liz discovering a break-in so that it looks awful:

I sent one to you a while back about the planet Rann.

When the Green Arrow/ Manhunter From Mars team-up from The Brave & The Bold #50 was reprinted in issue 114, they eliminated a page where J’onn returns to Mars which meant they had to change one panel on the page prior and change the fate of what they did with the Martian villains at the end of the story.

When Skiis Of Death from Teen Titans #24 was reprinted in DC Super Stars #1 they added words to Dick’s dialogue on Page 4, Panel 3 which made a lot more sense then the original.

Also the book the medicine man was holding at the end had it’s title changed.

The Legion story in Adventure Comics #305 has a different person re-elected president than the reprint in issue 403.

Of course there are numerous stories where a year gets updated to whatever year the reprint is done in. (Because heaven forbid the readers think this is a reprint.)

The original run of “Elfquest” had oddly proportioned pages, no colors and not the standard page count for most comics, so when Marvel reprinted them in color under the Epic imprint, new art was created to bridge the old issue gaps and create new start and end pages for the color comic. I don’t have the original run, but I’d think that some reprints use the Epic versions with the extra pages.

The Angry Internet

June 20, 2014 at 12:48 am

When Infinite Crisis was released in hardcover, the notoriously unfinished issue #7 not only got finished coloring and pencilling, but also some extra pages that tied up some story points and changed dialogue int he existing issue.

Ditto Final Crisis, which has changes throughout in some of the collected editions, including the most recent TPB. A lot of these are just corrections—letters with umlauts weren’t shown correctly in the original versions, some speech balloon tails pointed to the wrong characters, the explanation of “God’s number” in reference to Rubik’s cubes was incomplete, the dialogue misnumbered the universe Captain Carrot originally came from, and Shiloh Norman suddenly turned white about halfway through the series (though the “corrected” editions have one panel where Sonny Sumo suddenly turns black, which didn’t happen in the original). But a ton of dialogue balloons were added and reworded to clarify certain things (or just to sound better), panels and even entire pages were re-drawn (notably the appearance of the main villain near the end), and a few pages were added to the last issue so it doesn’t seem quite so compressed. One change introduced a new error: a lot of the “@#%!”-type stuff was replaced by uncensored, non-profane dialogue, which results in Captain Marvel admonishing Renee Montoya for swearing she doesn’t actually do in the new version.

@The Angry Internet – The ‘God’s Number’ conundrum made absolutely no sense as originally written, so I would be interested to see how they made it work. As someone who grew up in Australia and the UK, we used to get retconned dialogue all the time in Marvel UK/Federal Comics reprints of US material. I can think of dozens of cases where it was done to issues of Transformers.

There’re also some Spirit stories late in the 1940s that are either altered versions of Eisner’s less successful “John Law” series or are partially redrawn reprints. The famous “blind spirit vs. the Octopus” sequence, for instance, was reprinted in a later Spirit section with alterations so that it no longer read as the final part of an ongoing arc.

Mick Anglo redrew and relettered a number of Miracleman stories to create a very similar new hero, Captain Miracle, whose super word was “El Karim.” The series ran for nine issues in 1960-1.

also in the vein of changing racist material, Tintin in the Congo was redrawn and rewritten to remove some its more offensive aspects in later publications. A sequence in which Tintin blows up a rhinoceros by shoving a stick of dynamite into a wound was removed entirely, and many of the Congolese characters are redrawn in less racially caricatured ways.

When I was a kid and the Grey Mr. Fixit Hulk was around I remember explaining it to a friend that when the Hulk originally appeared he was grey and he didn’t believe me because he had a collection of the old Hulk comics and they had recolored Hulk green.

The Angry Internet

June 20, 2014 at 11:36 am

@Drancon – “God’s number” is a real thing, but it only applies to a “maximally scrambled” Rubik’s cube, a detail Morrison neglected to include in the original issue. The revised version adds the word “scrambled” before “Rubik’s cube,” which still isn’t completely accurate but makes more sense than the original, which effectively stated that you can work on a Rubik’s cube forever and never be less than 18 steps from solving it.

I remember as a kid I had the book “Curious George Goes to the Hospital” with a scene where George takes an ether mask off the wall and takes a few hits, which was removed from later versions. Not a comic, but pretty close.

Here’s an obscure one:

In issue 1 of Aliens: Genocide from Dark Horse, the Alien blood is colored “human” red. Editors corrected it for all reprint versions to it’s normal yellow-green.

on the subject of Dark Horse’s Aliens – the first 3 miniseries (written by Mark Verheiden) were sequels to Aliens following Newt, Hicks and Ripley following their safe return to Earth.
Then Aliens 3 was made showing what actually happened to them.
in Newt’s Story Dark Horse apparently “Abandoned and Forsaked” the miniseries by suggesting they were dreams.
Later, novelisations and reprints changed the names of the characters so the stories were returned to continuity but with original characters..

Marvel UK made a lot of changes to the American stories reprinted
The biggest change was reinventing KillRaven as ApeSlayer for Planet of the Apes

the oddest may have been adding a page from a Steranko’s Captain America story showing an amusement arcade full of people just as Iron Fist was entering a supposedly deserted arcade (as Marvel UK split stories into 2 halves they had a one-page intro to the second half -usually a cover or reworking of a panel).

A number of Marvel UK reprints modified the art so female characters showed less skin (done in a much better way than 1 volume of the mercenary in which it seemed someone censored the painted artwork with a felt-tip pen).
scripts were altered sometimes to remove American references (changing GI Joe to Action Force,and removing the reference to an American toyshop from a Spiderman Tinkerer story) though on some occasions the dialogue just seemed to be changed to make it harder to understand.

That Death mini-series printing wasn’t a retroactive change, it was a misprint caused by improper ad placement. A two-page spread was turned into a back-to-back page, which messed up the dialogue.

It was also corrected before the trade/collections. A second run of issue #3 was printed and sent to comic shops. I believe the idea was that customers could trade in the misprinted issue for the properly printed issue, but my comic shop just gave them to people without asking for the original back.

when Classic XMen 10 and 11 reworked Uncanny XMen 102 & 103 they reworked Storm’s background removing the dates and references to specific historic events (Storm was originally born in 1951 and her parents died in the 1956 Suez war…so now she would be in her 60s) and removed the references to Nightcrawler’s invisibility in shadows (1 page removed and at least 1 panel reworked) though they left in the Leprechauns.

The first printing of the Alan Davis/Paul Neary 3-page “the Origin of the Crusader” originally ended with the caption “DEAD?…CAN THIS BE? Were those who said “You can’t become a superhero with a name like Perseus Ablemarle” right? OR …are those newspapers darting and drifting to the passage of something other than a common breeze? WHO KNOWS? ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!”. As nothing followed this, the caption was not included in a later reprint.

In Issue #4 of the Dark X-Men miniseries, Norman Osborn is referred to as a “Neocon”. In the Harcover and tpb collections, it’s switched to wrong. It was politically motivated.

In Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #2 there are heads mounted on the walls of Doctor Faustus’s hideout. Two of them are labeled Nayland Smith and Ruth Bat-Serpah, but in the TPB the labels are obscured.

There are probably few examples of hidiing nudity in collected editions (I heard about Avengers #12.1 and X-Treme X-Men somewhere in the #30s).

Does something like rearrangement of double-page spreads in New X-Men Annual for the trades count?

[quote]How about Chris Claremont using Classic X-Men reprints to fill in old continuity holes. Like adding the scene where Warhawk is hired by the Hellfire Club to bug the X-Men’s computer; it explained what the heck Warhawk was doing there, which was kind of a mystery for about a decade.[/quote]

I’m pretty sure that during the introduction of Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle in Uncanny X-Men #129 and the revelation that they had the Xavier’s mansion bugged, there was an editor’s note explaining that it was Warhawk who did it. Or maybe they even said so on-panel.

Andy E. Nystrom

June 26, 2014 at 10:58 am

One issue of Marvel Tales changed what Aunt May was watching on TV to the Dukes of Hazzard.

Most if not all trade collections of Crisis on Infinite Earths change the Golden Age Green Arrow destroying a Shaggy Man in #10 to Speedy (by way of recolouring).

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May 15, 2010

Android Stats

Less than a week before Google I/O, the conference where Google is expected to unveil Android 2.2 (FroYo), it's clear that Google's mobile operating system is no longer an experiment. Android is now a popular software that runs on millions of devices and it's part of a growing ecosystem.

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, said that "65,000 mobile phones powered by Google's Android operating system are being shipped every day" and that "Android is now being used on 34 mobile devices in 49 countries".

According to a NPD research, Android is the second most popular smartphone operating system in the US in terms of units sold in the first quarter of 2010 (28%), after Blackberry OS (36%). Apple's iPhone OS dropped to the third position (21%).

Cédric Beust, a former Google engineer who worked on the Android team, says that Android's growth is surprising:

"I don't know what's the most surprising: how ambitious that goal was four years ago or how far Android has come today. It's hard to believe that Android shipped its first device about a year and a half ago and at that time, Apple had already sold more than ten million iPhones. Who would have guessed that it would only take Android eighteen months to catch up and pass the iPhone in market share? In this short period of time, we've gone through four major releases (and many, many minor ones, some of which you probably never even heard of), and each new version has been a major milestone that got everyone on the team incredibly excited. FroYo is no exception, prepare to be blown away by what you will see very soon."

It's interesting to see that carrier distribution and promotion continues to be very important. The most popular Android phone, Motorola Droid, has been aggressively promoted by Verizon. Nexus One has been sold online by Google, but the results are underwhelming and Google plans to close the online store.

  1. well congrats to google then.I will try to buy an android later then. :-0

  2. Alex, you misunderstood the stats.
    NPD report does NOT state that Android is now 2nd most popular platform.
    NPD report talks about sales trends, not market share.
    It just talks about how fast different platforms are selling.
    Yes, right now Android is selling faster than iPhone, however that does not make its market share larger than iPhone's.
    Please correct your article to report accurate information.

  3. @mxx:

    Quote from the report:

    "The Android operating system (OS) continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2010, moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. NPD's wireless market research reveals that based on unit sales to consumers last quarter the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM's OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple's OS (21 percent)."

    I don't see what's inaccurate.

  4. "prepare to be blown away by what you will see very soon."

    Ohhh..., I want an Android

  5. Is HTC Hero support? Is Arabic support?
    I really hope that Google! =/

  6. Lol ... good one @Alex_Chitu. Your "quote" of the Quote from the report was pretty self explanatory to me. :-)

  7. I just got an HTC Desire today - loving it! More power to Android!

  8. Google's commitment towards Android is really very encouraging!


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Tuesday, September 01, 2015
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A mountain stroll with Dad

Stars peeked out of an alpine afterglow and a chill made us zip our jackets as we trudged down a hill from my brother and sister-in-law’s Colorado home.

After Thanksgiving turkey and four sides of everything else, we needed a walk.

Other family members charged ahead, talking and laughing, while I hung back with my dad.

We walked in comfortable silence even though I was shivering.

And thinking.

About how Dad’s hair had thinned. And how he’d relinquished some of his driving to my mother.

Even on this trip, I had steered the Buick through Denver and up, over and down twisting Berthoud Pass.

Memories surfaced of how Dad, on family ski trips, used to maneuver those snowy hairpin curves in a rear-wheel drive Bonneville.

These days, my 83-year-old dad admits to being a bit unsteady on his feet at times. But he laughed when he told of my brother hovering behind and in front of his house guest every time Dad climbed or descended stairs.

I told my dad I was proud of the way he still showed up at a gym to work out three times a week—a Jack LaLanne minus ballet shoes and jump suit—and how he still laced up his tennis shoes to stroll through the neighborhood.

The longer we walked that night, the more grateful I felt to be with this man to whom I didn’t feel connected for many of my teenage and college years.

He was busy with his life and I with mine.

When our paths did cross, he often laid down the law and I rebelled.

Later, Dad got into state and national politics and I was absorbed in building my career as a journalist.

Then came marriage and a baby and I realized that the world didn’t revolve around me anymore. And now, I’ve started to live my life rather than run from it.

Author Anne Lamont writes about humans wanting and needing exactly the same thing: “To belong, to feel safe and respected.”

On this night, with an orange-slice moon pasted above the Rockies, I felt all of these things plus a heavy dose of awe. I think Dad did too.

Together, we passed towering pines shrouded in darkness and climbed the final hill to the warm lights of home.

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March 30, 2009

Beauty and the Beast

Can feet be beautiful?    I guess that all depends on the eye of the beholder.    Here in the south we’re getting ready for sandal weather and that means pretty feet!    Call me weird, but I always notice how feet look in those pretty little sandals.

For a while now, my kids and hubby have called my heels “crusty” .   I just call them “the beast”.     But recently I’ve discovered some amazing products that are taking my heels from crusty to smooth and pretty.

Here are two of the most wonderful products for cracked, crusty or otherwise unsightly heels.     I use the smoothing foot scrub in my bath at night and then follow up with the “heel of approval” cream at bedtime.    To insure the best results, I wear cotton socks.    Over the years, I’ve tried every product on the market, including a $40 Rx from my doctor, that didn’t do a thing!     Now these little wonder items can be bought at Bath and Body Works – two for $20!   I just started using them last Friday and there is a world of difference in my feet and heels already.    (By the way, Bath and Body Works did not pay me to endorse these products).

I’m off for a pedicure using my favorite color -  Cajun Shrimp.  (follow this link to read a hilarious story about Cajun Shrimp)!snoothing foot scrubheel of approval

March 29, 2009

Two Cute!

No, I didn’t make a typo….I mean two cute little munchkins!    Here are some random shots I took recently of the twins.   I’m also using the Windows Live Writer to post.     I think I’m going to enjoy this program!

jackson and taylor 011

Here’s my little angel in one of her new outfits for church.     She LOVES to dress up and pose…..check out the next picture!

jackson and taylor 008

Here’s Ms. Taylor in her softball uniform, and should I also mention she slept in it every night since she got it last week!    Shannon has to pry it off her in the morning and wash it when they get home.    And no, I didn’t tell her to pose like this, she just did it herself!   Shannon calls her “Erkle” cause she pulls her shorts and socks up real high!

jackson and taylor 009  In this pose we were told to “pretend” she was holding her bat cause that’s how they posed her for the team picture.     (It’s real life here….doesn’t everyone have Wal Mart bags in full view with overflowing trash?)

jackson and taylor 005

Jackson is just like his daddy…..he strips down to his “big boy” underwear as soon as he gets home.   (I hope SIL doesn’t read that!)

 jackson and taylor 006

Taylor always has to love on her Pop!   (He’s so wrapped!)

   I used a different photo effect on the next picture….I’m having fun playing around with Live Writer!jackson and taylor 003

Here is the little man himself….it takes all of us to entertain him when he gets a “cut-cut”…..he hates to get his hair cut but they had school pictures the next day and Shannon didn’t want him looking like a shaggy dog.

The same night we were at Shannon’s, Taylor wanted to entertain us by saying the Pledge of Allegiance.     Here’s her version:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Snakes of America…….”     Of course, when we told her States, not Snakes, she got all mad and ran off to her room pouting!     Such a drama queen……..

I’m going to attempt to make my office curtains this week.     Also, I’ve got some news on my dining room drapes so stay tuned…….

March 26, 2009

Foodie Friday

This is my first time participating in Foodie Friday hosted by Ms. Gollum. While my receipe is not creative or took lots of time to make, it's quick and best of all, GOOD!

Check out her blog for other Foodie Friday entries.

Hubby and I both love desserts with lots of fruit - we kid ourselves into thinking they're not very fattening! I found this Berry Cobbler at the commissary one day while shopping with my mom. Unfortunately, I have not found it in any local grocery stores but maybe you can. So, whenever I go to the commissary, I stock up on several of these - they go quick!

It couldn't be easier. Spray your casserole dish with Pam then put in the fruit filling.

Then take the cobbler mix and one egg. Mix that together until it's lumpy.

While you are mixing your cobbler mix and egg, microwave 3/4 stick butter (or oleo).

Top the berries with the cobbler mixture. You have to work at spreading it around a little bit cause it's so lumpy! Then pour the melted butter on top of that.

Bake the cobbler at 350 degrees for 30-45 min. (depending on your oven).

We always top ours off with either non-fat Cool Whip or vanilla ice cream. Either way, it's delish! (wish I had some now......)

March 24, 2009

For The Love of Toile!

Have you heard about the toile party going on over at the Pretty Organized Palace? I found out about this wonderful party (and blog) this morning and I couldn't wait to get home and post a few pictures from around my home where I've used this wonderful print. Head on over after you check out my pics and enjoy all the ways toile is being used in blogland!

First up is my guest room where I've used toile drapes, plates and pillows. You can't tell here, but the walls are a pretty gold color. This room was inspired by an episode of "Devine Design" where the devine Ms. Olson did a nursery by painting the walls gold and using lots of toile. I figured if it's good enough for Candice, it's good enough for me!

Now let's go to the nursery-turned-office. Here we have a little chair hubby rescued from the curb. Beautiful shape to it, just needed a little TLC, so that's exactly what I gave her. After cleaning it up, I painted it black (natch) then sanded it back and applied a gel stain. Then I recovered the seat in a cream and black toile fabric.

And here's the baby bed turned day bed where I made a little toile skirt and threw on some extra pillows I was using in the guest room. I have enough toile fabric left over that I'm going to try my hand at mistreating the window with some creme and black toile, solid black fabric and a little trim. I'll let you know how it turns out!

March 22, 2009

It's Time For Another Met Monday!

It's time for another Metamorphosis Monday and I've decided to join in the fun! Please go to Susan's blog and click on my name (I'm #10 on the list) to take a look at my dining room I just completed. Also, don't forget to look at all the other fabulous Met Monday blogs. Enjoy!

March 19, 2009

Say What?!?!?!?

Hubby's work vehicle is experiencing "mechanical problems" so last night after we ate with daughter and her family, we had to stop at an Auto Zone to pick up some parts. He called before we went by there to be sure they had the much needed part and they assured him they did. Got to Auto Zone, he was in there forever, came out WITHOUT the part and said we had 20 minutes to get across town to another Auto Zone that was holding the correct part!

I really needed to potty (I still say this like I'm talking to my kids) and was VERY WORRIED that I might not be able to "hold" it long enough to get across town. After arriving at the Auto Zone (and I might add this was in a not-too-safe part of town) I saw a McDonald's and figured I could go there after Auto Zone. Hubby runs in, then sticks his head out the door a few minutes later, and hollers "they've got a potty in here if you need to go!" OMG, I thought I would die! Everyone in the parking lot, plus all the people in the store, just laughed as I walked in but I couldn't help it....I had to go that bad!

Good grief!

March 17, 2009

Dining Room Revealed!

I thought I'd never get pictures of my dining room posted! I had jury duty ALL last week....can't believe I got picked, knew all the attorneys, knew the judge, been a legal secretary 20+ years, but I still got picked!

Enough of that...

I don't know if it's my monitor or what but I finally got some pictures that didn't look either (1) washed out or (2) too yellow-ish). The dining room is awash in soothing neutrals but for whatever reason, it doesn't translate too well in these pictures.

I painted the lower half of the wall, under the chair rail, Pearl White. Bought the pre-made picture molding at Lowe's cause I just didn't have enough confidence (not to mention time) to try and attempt to make them myself, so I guess you could say I cheated a little! The color above the chair rail is Antique White. There's just enough contrast between the two to see a little difference.

I had two mahogany ledges I got at Ross that I was going to put on the wall adjacent to my sideboard but when hubby saw what I wanted to do, he said he'd hit his head and knock stuff off them if I put them on that wall, plus I really don't think I had enough room. The ledges are 36" long and the wall I wanted to use really could not have worked with two ledges that, next to the sideboard they went. Previously I had a couple of sconces on either side of my mirror and since they went so well with my furniture, I hung them under the ledges and put a little cup and saucer on them. Use what you got, right?

Okay, now, without further ado, here's the dining room! I have not put up drapes yet, just a roman shade. There are two chairs waiting for slipcovers, and we are installing crown molding, but other than that, I think I'm done. I just go in there and sit and look around, I'm so pleased with it. When my daughter came by the other day, she said she could not believe I had painted a room "white"! She knows how I love color, and maybe it's my "old age" but I have been gravitating toward more calming colors lately.

I'm still loving these Ballard slipcovers and seagrass rug we ordered last year

A closer look at the picture molding

I love how delicate this cup looks

With the exception of a few pieces of cremeware, all other pieces came from flea markets or Goodwill! The most expensive piece in here is the tureen you see on the dining room table, and I paid $40 for it.....more than I normally would consider but I believe it really sets the tone and is such a statement piece.

I have had some great suggestions on drapes, the best one coming from Joni at Cote de Texas, who suggested I use creme colored silk, 2-3 times the width of the window, heavily lined. However, I have not found anything like that thus far, and I really do not want to have them custom made. If any of you know where I might find some really pretty, ready-made drapes for this room, please let me know.

I think the laundry room is next on my list to get a little face-lift! Stay tuned.....

March 5, 2009

Gone With The Wind.......

Last Friday my mama and I took a little day trip to Lowndes County, Alabama where my grandparents settled after their retirement in the 1940's. Two of their sons were in the military in Montgomery so they moved a little further south to Lowndes County, Alabama.

Lowndes County is smack dab in the middle of the Black Belt. The most prominent community in Lowndes County is Lowndesboro, where I grew up and went to school for many years. There were some beautiful antebellum homes built in Lowndesboro back in its "hey day" and while many of the homes and churches still survive, sadly many of them have fallen into disrepair over the years.

The first home you see as you come around the bend in Lowndesboro is this stately home. Built in the Greek Revival style, it is what many people consider a true antebellum home. It underwent a significant restoration in the 1960's but now it appears the owners have not kept it in the style to which it had become accustomed.

You can almost picture Scarlett O'Hara running down the driveway holding up her hoopskirts

This is the Methodist parsonage

The local cemetery. Some of the earliest settlers in Lowndesboro are buried here

We counted more than 6 churches built along a less than 3 mile drive!

The dome on the church below once sat atop the first capital of Alabama located at Cahawba, Alabama. Cahawba is found near Selma, Alabama. Due to Cahawba being situated on the Alabama River, it was subject to flooding so eventually the capital was relocated to Montgomery. I wish I knew how this church acquired the original dome.

Marengo is a home that has been beautifully restored and maintained. It is now used to host special events but when I was in school, the children of the family that lived there went to school with me. As a matter of fact, I had a crush on one of the sons and remember being invited to Marengo!

Looking down the driveway leading to Marengo

The original home was dismantled and brought over on the Alabama River to its current location

This is a new home built to look old

This aging beauty belonged to a doctor and his decendants still live there. It appears that it, too, has seen better days

Front entrance to the above home

Now we'll leave Lowndesboro and head down the road a piece (as we say here in the south) to where my grandparents lived.

As you can see from the sign on the church, the original structure was built in 1840 and burned on March 18, 1967. This was at the height of the civil rights movement. During that time, many churches were burned. I distinctly remember the night this church burned. It seemed our whole community stood by helplessly as it was completely destroyed.

Here is the church as it appears today

Just a stone's throw from the Presbyterian church was the home of my grandparents. My grandmother passed away in 1969 but my grandfather and bachelor uncle stayed on at the homeplace until approximately 1971 when they moved back to North Carolina. When the place was sold, the new owners changed many things about the home, both inside and out. My grandmother spent many hours, and many years, making the grounds a showplace. Sadly, all of her hard work is no longer evident. This roofline is basically the only thing left of the time my grandparents lived here. I spent many hours on the front porch, rocking, shelling peas, and taking naps on the metal glider that was outfitted with soft cushions!

The home as it appears today. My grandmother had a beautiful pathway lined with "thrift", and the grounds were wonderfully landscaped. There was a large tree in the yard where my uncle hung a wooden swing. All the grandchildren loved to swing on that old wooden swing!

This white fence was not part of the original yard but has been installed by the present owners

My uncle planted this tree over 50 years ago.

I had an encounter with a rattlesnake right at the base of this old tree! Luckily for me, my dog saw it and started growling and barking and when I saw that snake, I ran for my life!!!

My mama and daddy got married standing right here in front of the fireplace in the formal dining room on January 11, 1946. Walls have been torn down to combine two rooms so it really looks nothing like it did when my grandparents lived here. Here's mama posing at the same spot she stood in all those years ago (no big screen tv's then either).

I hope you enjoyed this little trip with me and enjoyed seeing My South!

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