Words and art: Jerry Ordway

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Superman: Exile.

Oxygen deprivation is making Superman hallucinate ghosts of his past.

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( Scans under the cut... )

Took an unplanned trip down to the parks for dessert last night. We got down there early enough that we could just go in DCA instead and avoid some of the nighttime event clogs in Disneyland, which was nice. DCA was actaully not very crowded at all (except when we were leaving and everyone else was as well).

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- To Read shelves 1 July 2025 count is 69 (down from 90 on 1 Jan), so hypothetically less than six months of reading.

- Reading: 74 books to 2 July 2025.

72. Fashionable 2025 numerical typo 3, the second from Inventing the Renaissance, which is a good ratio considering the quantity of words and dates in this doorstop, "Marcellus II (1501-5)", nope, but the idea of a Boss Baby Ghost Pope in 1555 is amusing.

00. My third DNF of 2025, on short story 4 of 14.

73. Thirsty Mermaids, by Kat Leyh, 2021, comics (adult), 4.5/5
In search of booze, a found-family pod of three merfolk take their fun and friendship to the human seaside, or rather shoreside, where they discover dreadful human inventions such as "capitalism" and "jobs". They also discover they can't just go back to being mermaids. This story is very much about the diverse friends they make along the way, lol. Warning: yes, Kat Leyh who helped create Lumberjanes but this is a grown-up comic.

- To Read [ALLCAPS in original typography]: y'all will be pleased to know I've acquired a 1959 girls' own comics annual with stories titled "The GAY ADVENTURERS and the Roman Curios" and "Friends of The GAY HIGHWAYMAN", and a 1960 annual featuring "Baffled by Those Two Boy Campers".

Writer: Roger Stern

Pencils: Tom Lyle

Inks: Bob Smith

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Batman guest-stars as Starman takes on the new Blockbuster.

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Writer: Chuck Dixon

Pencils: Tom Lyle

Inks: Scott Hanna

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Detective Comics #648.

When Tim met Stephanie.

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Writer: Bill Mantlo

Pencils and inks: Sal Buscema

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Trapped in Limbo, Rom is reunited with a dear friend.

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So I am, I hope, a big enough person to admit that I was wrong.

As might have been obvious, I have been concerned at seeing Cypher, one of my favourite characters ever, who was defined by the low key nature of his powers, get chosen to be the Heir of Apocalypse.

But if Jed Mackay and Netho Diaz X-Men #19 is any indication of where we're going though, I'm not just interested, I'm invested...

( Yes, but get to the important stuff!! )

1. I had two web interviews today and unlike the guy yesterday, neither of them stood me up. Two more interviews on Thursday so hopefully they come through, too.

2. I got my hair cut today. Cannot stress enough how great it is to have that next appointment already scheduled and not have to deal with having to make the appointment when my hair is starting to bother me. It's already in the calendar! And to go to someone who knows exactly what to do without me telling them every time!

3. The tri-tip Carla grilled on Sunday has indeed made delicious sandwiches. And we still have a ton left so there will be sandwiches all week.

4. Carla was having a high anxiety day so as a mood booster we went down to Disneyland for dessert tonight. Had a very nice trip.

5. Molly's got her eye on you.

Posted by Unknown

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2025/07/squid-game-official-podcast-its-not.html

Play one last time.


Squid Game is back! The third and final season of the worldwide phenomenon has dropped, and I'm pleased to share that I'm back as host of Squid Game: The Official Podcast, from Netflix and Mash-Up Americans. Join me and co-host Kiera Please as we suit up and break down every shocking twist and betrayal, and the choices that will determine who, if anyone, makes it out alive. Alongside creators, cultural critics, and viral internet voices, we'll provide our own theories for how the season ends, and what Squid Game ultimately reveals about power, sacrifice, and the systems that shape us.

Spoiler alert! Make sure you watch Squid Game Season 3 Episode 3 before listening on.

In Season 3, Episode 3, "It's Not Your Fault," we react to one of the season's most devastating twists, the newborn baby's forced induction into the Game and Player 456's newfound purpose. Plus, we break down the backstory of our favorite creepy dolls: Young-hee and Chul-su and their role in Korean education. Then, special guest Philip Wang of Wong Fu Productions joins to talk about the show's evolving definition of family -- and what it means when even the heroes have blood on their hands. Plus, we face off in a morally impossible round of "The Lesser Evil" -- because sometimes, there are no right answers.


Read more »

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2025/07/squid-game-official-podcast-its-not.html

Posted by Rita Aksenfeld

https://retractionwatch.com/2025/07/01/men-women-retractions-gender-retraction-ratio/

https://retractionwatch.com/?p=132237

When you look at retracted papers, you find more men than women among the authors. But more papers are authored by men than women overall. A recent study comparing retraction rates, not just absolute numbers, among first and corresponding authors confirms that men retract disproportionally more papers than women. 

The paper, published May 20 in the Journal of Informetrics, is the first large-scale study using the ratio of men’s and women’s retraction rates, said study coauthor Er-Te Zheng, a data scientist at The University of Sheffield. The researchers also analyzed gender differences in retractions across scientific disciplines and countries.

Zheng and his colleagues examined papers from a database of over 25 million articles published from 2008 to 2023, about 22,000 of which were retracted. They collected the reasons for retraction from the Retraction Watch Database, and used several software tools to infer each author’s gender based on name and affiliated country. 

“The biggest limitation is gender inference,” Zheng said. The researchers couldn’t determine gender of the first authors of 47.1% of the retracted papers and 23.3% of the non-retracted papers. The software tools the authors used draw on historical Western-based name databases, which do not account for nonbinary authors or those from non-Western countries. 

Whether looking at first authors or corresponding authors, men had an overall higher overall rate of retraction than did women, but the researchers found no difference when looking at papers retracted due to mistakes. However, men had higher rates of retraction for misconduct, especially plagiarism and authorship issues.

“The difficulty from all these studies, when we say that men are committing more misconduct than women, is what do we have to do?” said Evelyne Decullier, a methodologist at Hospices Civils de Lyon in France who examined gender differences in retractions within health sciences in a study published in 2021. “We need to understand what is behind that.”

Among the 10 countries with the most retracted articles, among first authors, men had a higher retraction rate than women in Iran, Pakistan, and the United States. Women had higher retraction rates in China and Italy, though the researchers noted that the data from China needs further validation, as over 80% of the authors with unidentified gender were affiliated with Chinese institutions. 

Men had higher retraction rates in biomedical and health sciences, and life and earth sciences. These results align with prior studies, said Ana Catarina Pinho-Gomes, a public health consultant at University College London who conducted a similar 2023 study focusing on retractions within biomedical sciences. In contrast, Zheng and his colleagues found that women retracted papers at a higher rate in mathematics and computer science.

While the study was descriptive and cannot address the reason for this result, the authors have a hypothesis. “There may be some cultural and expectational differences in this field that women are historically underrepresented in,” Zheng said. “This may create some pressure or expectation for female researchers.” 

In addition to pressures at the author level, “perhaps there is a bias in the evaluation process that leads to female authors having their work scrutinized more closely,” said Mariana Ribeiro, a postdoctoral researcher at Brazil’s National Cancer Institute who has examined gender differences in self retractions. (She is also a Sleuth in Residence at the Center for Scientific Integrity, the parent nonprofit of Retraction Watch). Alternatively, “we cannot disregard the possibility that women may be more reluctant to self-correct or to accept corrections to their work, fearing negative repercussions that could also be amplified by existing gender biases.”

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Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.

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https://retractionwatch.com/2025/07/01/men-women-retractions-gender-retraction-ratio/

https://retractionwatch.com/?p=132237

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Pencils: Tom Lyle

Inks: Bob Smith

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Lady Shiva trains Robin for the final battle against King Snake.

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Writer: Dennis O’Neil

Pencils: Ric Estrada

Inks: Wally Wood

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Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva stumble across the lair of modern day pirates.

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Writer: Chris Claremont

Pencils and inks: Bill Sienkiewicz

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Illyana gets another shot at fixing Rahne and Roberto’s powers.

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In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

The UK Government is facing a massive backlash from their own MP's about the, to say the least "controversial" bill on Welfare reform.

Not to be outdone, the US government is lurching ahead with trying to push through the hideously mis-named "One Big Beautiful Bill"

The annual Glastonbury Festival took place in the UK, featuring a lot of people I had never heard of amongst the names I think I was supposed to recognise (but I am old and these young whippersnappers like... errrr.... Pulp... and Robert Plant are mere Johnny Come-latelys). Though Peter Capaldi returned to his musical roots and proved his status as "coolest guy ever", by performing live with Franz Ferdinand.

It's also insanely hot in the UK these past few days at consistently over 30C, though I understand the US is worse! So I'm going to go and get a cold drink and suggest you all do the same!

It has been confirmed that industry giant Jim Shooter has died, at the age of 73, from esophageal cancer.

A comic fan since childhood, he proved this more than most ever could, by becoming a professional writer at age 13, when his first story for the Legion of Super-Heroes was published in 1966, where he actually managed to make teenagers sound rather more like teenagers than previous writers, and created the Fatal Five (as one commenter put it in the past "Two-Face as a cyborg, a 50 foot tall monster, an executioner, a creepy guy with a destructive hand and a woman accompanied by a two foot cosmic eyeball... ONLY a teenager could have come up with that)

Literally entire books have been written about his tenure at Marvel from 1976 to 1987, as he rose to the position of Editor-in-Chief by 1978.

He was dynamic, disciplined and ruthless, a polarizing figure at the best of times, with many staff fiercly loyal to him as he did have his creators backs, but also many chafing under the rules he insisted on as editor, infamously insisting that Phoenix had to die at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga (due to her having killed billions of beings) rather than being reset to an amnesiac Jean Grey as Claremont and Byrne originally planned.

He oversaw the expansion of many titles, a more interlinked Marvel Universe and moved Marvel into new areas including Graphic Novels, and more commercial tie-ins like licensed comics: Star Wars being the best known, as well as many toy-related cross marketed titles some of which transcended their apparent limitations to be genuine classics: Micronauts and ROM being two. An approach culminating in of course, Secret Wars (and Secret Wars II).

A number of professionals have, naturally, spoken of their experiences with him for Bleeding Cool, and it's an interesting read, especially the number of times the word "complex" crops up.

His outright refusal to include any overt LGBTQIA+ characters or representation in comics through the 80's is something which should not be ignored or forgotten, regardless of how clever creators could be with subtext and inference. It would be inexcusable to not note this on this comunity more than most.

His passing will be marked by much discussion from those better versed in such things, so we will mark it by offering our sincerest condolences to his family and friends on their loss.