So far, I've managed to resist falling prey to the dunny collecting passion. Dunnys, for the uninitiated, are a fiendishly cute series of artist-created collectible toys. They're sold in blind boxes, so you don't know which one you're getting when you buy them. And they're produced in varying numbers, so some are rare while others are more common. They're also immensely popular collectibles here in L.A.

I first witnessed the madness dunnys can inspire in one of my co-workers, whose rapidly growing collection of dunnys slowly took over his workspace. One day, I watched over his shoulder as he browsed auctions for some of the more hard-to-find dunnys on eBay. He confessed to having participated in several bidding wars over the toys, and that's when a steady voice inside my head first cautioned me: "Don't go there, don't go there."

That voice has stayed with me, despite the release of the right-up-my-alley Los Angeles series of dunnys, the terribly adorable Batman-inspired dunny, the unconscionably precious blue-meenie-style dunny. But with the release of the Azteca series, designed by 12 Mexican artists and designers, I give up. Just watch this sweet fan-made film featuring several Azteca dunnys hitting a dunny-blind-box-shaped pinata and then you try to resist.

On Neatorama, I discovered a link to the coloring book "The Color of Dissent," which "celebrates revolutionaries and political visionaries in American history." I would totally buy this if I had kids. "Mom, I'm bored!" they would complain. And I'd say, "Oh, go color Wilma Mankiller, woud you? Mamma T's surfing the Internets."

Amanda and Michelle of The Girls Productions! offered a peek at what they've been up to lately on their blog. Turns out they've been laboring on a lot of fine art and schwag to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disneyland. I've put up a sample of the art that they'll be showing at the gallery above the ride on March 18. This print is called "Showem your larboard side" and depicts the famous auction sequence from the attraction, in which the pirates are all shouting "We want the Redhead! We want the Redhead!" You can check out the rest of their Pirates work here.

I've got a piece up at The Horror Blog that I hope my readers will go take a look at. I was asked to participate in a Halloween celebration featuring contributions from non-Horror bloggers about a "favorite scare." I wrote about an album from the punk era called "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die." For graphic art fans, you might want to look at the original punk flyers I scanned to go with the article. Also, there's a picture of me as a little kid dressed in a Halloween costume that I think is at least worth a click.

The latest newsletter from Aeclectic Tarot contained several interesting decks, including an homage to video game art called 8-bit Tarot. I've shown a sample here of the "Wheel of Fortune" card. This is an unfinished deck, part of a work-in-progress scheduled to be exhibited in November 2007.

I also liked the Manga Deck, although I don't feel I'm enough of a fan of mainstream manga to be able to render an intelligent opinion on the translation of manga from comics to cards. However, Aeclectic Tarot does have several reviews of the deck on the site which shed light on different aspects of the deck's interpretation of Tarot. I thought it was particularly intriguing that the deck reversed traditionally gendered roles on the cards, so that female figures become males ones and vice versa.

The Cute Little Red-Haired Girlfriend and I went to Laguna Beach for a few days. Not the Virtual Laguna Beach, which seems to quite hot with the young'uns, but the actual Laguna Beach. It's startlingly gorgeous, and remains so, despite being a tourist attraction.

We stayed at a secluded inn, and on our first night there, went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by several travel websites. I didn't know when I chose it that, in addition to being a very fine restaurant, it also happened to be a very friendly gay bar. We found this out while the girlfriend and I were driving by, looking for a place to park. Seeing two men standing in front of the building, the girlfriend leaned out the car window to ask, "Where should we park?" Before the words were out of her mouth, one of the men walked towards her crying out, "You're gorgeous!" and embraced her in a boozy hug. Seconds later, the other man ran out into the street screaming, "LESBIANS!" and began nuzzling the girlfriend like a puppy. I've decided this is how I would prefer to be greeted in public from now on.

While we were in Laguna, we attended an exhibit of work by Tim Biskup and Gary Baseman called "Pervasions" at the Laguna Beach Museum. I like both artists, and was pleased to be able to see their work away from the hubub fo L.A. I took a picture of my favorite piece from the show, a work by Biskup called The Demon Painter.

I have a soft spot for some of the paper and other crafts of Mexico, handiwork that I often associate with holidays. Awhile ago I read about an artist named Dylan Graham on We Make Money Not Art who has adapted traditional Mexican paper cut outs to modern themes. Here, I've chosen to show a detail from his work Armada which highlights its delicacy. To see it in context, take a look at Graham's web site.

While reading Dr. Menlo, I ran across a link to a wonderful website about political street posters, called Visual Resistance. It's the hub for various artistic efforts, including a gallery of street art, a network of activist artists and fundraisers for various causes.

I wrote previously about the twin Batman art exhibits that are going on in Palm Springs this month, but a visit to the girls's site prompted me to revisit the m gallery, and they now have a nice preview of their Gotham show up. There's a really a lot of nice work, although I especially liked this painting by Brad Vancata of Batman looking rather louche while smoking a cig. I wonder what brand Bats smokes?

There's also an article in the L.A. Times that discusses Adam West's solo show, Beyond Batman, and his relationship to the Batman character. I mentioned in my earlier post that West was going to be at the show opening, but according to the m gallery blog, Julie Newmar is now expected to drop in as well.

While we're on the subject of superheroes, I thought I'd announce that I did indeed go see , and I thought it was excellent. I don't know why so many critics are finding fault with it. I only have one minor criticism (NO SPOILERS). In one of the ship scenes with Lex Luthor, the duet from the opera Lakme is playing in the background. I would have expected the Superman Returns director to know that ever since the Sarandon-Deneuve Motion Picture Film Act was unanimously passed by Congress in 1983, the Lakme duet is not be used as background music in any movie unless two women are making it on screen. And to think some people said this was a gay film.

Over the past two weeks, I've occasionally heard the sound of firecrackers and amateur fireworks going off nearby. The crackling and popping sounds reminded me that July 4 was on its way. Never mind that Los Angeles is experiencing an "extreme heat advisory" and that fireworks are illegal in L.A., it is an established fact that there is no better way to show national pride than to light a fuse.

I don't mean to suggest that I dislike fireworks, I just haven't gone near them since the sister and I had an accident with some firecrackers. I was a teen, she was a child, and we both lost our hearing for several minutes when she mistakenly picked up a firecracker we'd lit, thinking it had exploded, only to find out, as she went to drop it into the bucket I was holding, that it was not so. As it turned out, the sister's hearing only partially recovered.

Still, I have many happy memories of fireworks. My first love--and the first fireworks I can recall actually lighting myself--were snakes, as seen here in this colorful packaging photo. I don't know the details of how they work or what they're made of, but they are sold as pellets in a matchbox-size box. When you hold a match to the pellet they quickly grow to long snaky lengths while giving off a noxious cloud of smoke that tends to attract attention. This can be a problem, because snakes also leave a long sooty stain behind them, guaranteed to anger the adult whose driveway or patio the snake was lit on.

I was also fond of ground flowers, spinning fireworks that use persistence of vision to create the illusion of a flower image. However, I was usually attracted to a certain type of fireworks first by its packaging, and only later by its display. These paintings inspired by firecracker labels show some of what I found appealing about fireworks packaging. But it was not just the graphics I was attracted to, it was also the inventive product names, like "Inferno" or "Delerium Fountain."

While perusing this online gallery of fireworks packaging, I was taken aback at how indiscriminately racist some of the older packaging was. No group was safe, apparently, as the advertising for the "Geo'gia Cracker" attests. Of course, stupidity seems to go hand in hand with fireworks. One past July 4, while visiting relatives in a rural area, I insisted on "staying with the truck" while an older male relative traipsed off into the dry brush with a squadron of kids and several handfuls of bottle rockets.

"Oh no," I protested, hanging out of the cab, "I'm comfortable right here."

If you're part of a particular fandom, you've probably encountered the frustration of trying to talk with a non-fan about your fan interests. You may have also had the positive experience of having your partner or spouse try, in a touching and sweet kind of way, to become part of your fan world.

Recently, I downloaded one of Lou Romano's fabulous series of Star Wars character drawings and made it my desktop wallpaper. The Cute Little Red-Headed Girlfriend peered at my monitor and cried in joyful recognition, "Oh look! It's OB2CP-Pah!" I appreciated the gesture for the outreach that it was, but was left wondering what she thought R2-D2's name might be.

Speaking of geeky fandom, you should also take a look at Lou Romano's drawings based on Dungeons and Dragons Monsters. The Black Dragon and the Purple Worm are especially good.

Lots of folks on my blogroll have mentioned this contest (although I think Boing-Boing was the first), but if you haven't seen it you should check out the Superhero ModRen contest over at Worth1000.com. The rules of the contest were to incorporate a superhero in a piece of fine art. There are many fine, fine entries, but my favorites include the several renditions of Nude A Descending Staircase and, of course, Mona Xena's smile.

(Edit: I just received written permission from worth1000.com to use this image from their site, which I asked to use in accordance with their terms of service. Thanks guys!)

I was browsing the girls website and ran across this painting they're contributing to a Batman tribute show scheduled for June. I love the image of Alfred diligently holding a tray in the background.

I visited the m gallery web site for more information, and it seems there's actually two Batman-related shows coming up in June. One, "Beyond Batman," is a solo show of works by Adam West, who is scheduled to attend the opening. The second, "Gotham," is a tribute show with contributions from what the gallery calls its "most popular artists." I can't tell who the gallery represents from their website, but if it includes any of the artists they sell prints for, then it should be a really happening show.

The end of the year has come, which means it's time for reflecting back and imagining what's to come. I feel comfortable making this bold prediction: 2005 will go down in history as The Year That Sucked. I won't rehearse my reasons, as it's still a little early here in Pacific Standard Time to be breaking out the traditional New year's Eve alcohol. Instead I shall pass on to you this hopeful sign of the future. While perusing my favorite Judy Garland fan site, The Judy Room, I saw in the latest news section that the U.S. post office is issuing a Judy Garland stamp for 2006. Indeed, we can expect a bumper crop of excellent commemoratives from the U.S. post office in 2006, with Favorite Children's Book Animals and DC Comic Super Heroes scheduled for issue in the year ahead.

While stumbling around on the Internet last night I happened across an exhibit called, The Pony Project. The exhibit is sponsored by Hasbro, maker of My Little Pony. For the show, Hasbro gave blanks of the My Little Pony statuette to female artists from "the fields of fashion, fine arts, illustration, photography and grafitti" and asked them to customize the figures.

Among the participating artists there are several that have been discussed here at In Sequence, including Dame Darcy and Isabel Samaras. As I look at the Pony Project's online gallery I am reminded of the famous question posed by Sigmund Freud, "What do women want?" At long last it can be answered: they want My Little Pony, in as many styles and color options as possible.