I hope everyone’s holidays are going well so far, and while I mentioned in my last post that I was stepping out of the Spotlight for a bit, I thought I would pop in just to say hello and to talk about a few things.

The original intent of The Threshold was for it to be an official blog for OpenDoor Comics, serving as something akin to the old “publishorials” that DC used to publish, or the later “Meanwhile…” columns by the late Dick Giordano, or a combination of Marvel’s “Bullpen Bulletins” and “Stan’s Soapbox.”

That is, it would be a place for news about happenings here at ODC and commentary about the comics industry in general.

Somewhere along the line I got a bit sidetracked, with the majority of the content here consisting of the Spotlight Sunday posts and little else.

The Spotlight isn’t going away, but I do hope to start mixing things up a bit with additional content in the new year. Stay tuned. (Or, more accurately, become tuned.)

In the meantime, I want to just throw a few things out there that are not necessarily related to ODC but may be of interest to some of you.

I mentioned “Stan’s Soapbox” earlier, and in all of their comics this month, in celebration of the life of “The Man” – who would have been 96 today – Marvel has reprinted this classic:

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If you haven’t seen Into the Spider-Verse yet, do so. It’s fantastic.

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If you haven’t seen Aquaman yet, consider it. It’s no masterpiece, but it’s fun, and making things that are fun is something that DC should definitely be encouraged to do.

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Did you know that Comicsgate is a hate group, one that is, like most of the “-gate” movements that have preceded it, being used as a recruitment tool by nationalist, white supremacist, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic organizations? Well, it is. It’s also profoundly stupid.

And finally, I did something nerdy and, I think, anyway, kind of cool.

Anyone who’s read the Spotlight is likely familiar with my fondness for a certain fictional Ace reporter for a fictional major metropolitan newspaper. I remain annoyed that DC didn’t see fit to recognize that this year marked the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of Lois Lane just as it did that of her husband.

At a minimum, there should have been a month of line-wide Lois Lane variant covers.

At a minimum.

In any case, while thinking about Lois – which is a thing I often do – I stumbled upon an idea. I’m sure others have done something similar – and probably did a better job of it – but here’s the result of that idea: a composite image comprised of nine woman who have portrayed Lois on TV and in the movies, as well as the woman who modelled for Lois Lane’s co-creator Joe Schuster (and who married the other co-creator), Joanne Siegel.

I thought it might be fun to share the results here. I was probably wrong about that, but here they are anyway.

In this photo we have Joanne Siegel, Noel Neil, Phyllis Coates, Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Dana Delany, Erica Durance, Kate Bosworth, Amy Adams, and Elizabeth Tulloch (the most recent Lois).

I left out quite a few others, mostly because I wanted to keep it manageable and limit myself to some of the most notable portrayers. (Some were left out just because I couldn’t find a suitable photograph.)

There are undoubtedly other methods and tools that would yield better results, but this is what I was able to do quickly and relatively easily in Photoshop. (It’s very difficult to find pictures of so many different women that are suitable for being aligned with each other in this fashion – many actresses concern themselves with capturing their “good side” – so that presented the biggest challenge. Dana Delany was especially difficult to fit in, as I discovered that she’s usually smiling broadly in photographs and sort of leaning back.)

I tried to align the images centered on the eyes, though that wasn’t always possible.

Using that image, I went on to draw my own interpretation, kind of averaging out some of the features, and also, I think, with a bit of an unconscious bias for one Lois in particular:

Here are some more of the combinations I played around with.

This one is made up of the women who had portrayed her by 1978 (with Joanne Siegel included): Margot Kidder, Phyllis Coates, and Noel Neil. I find it interesting, as it does look rather a lot like Lois did in the comics of the era.

Movie Lois is Noel Neil, Margot Kidder, Kate Bosworth, and Amy Adams.

This one didn’t line up very well. I probably should have, technically, included Dana Delany, but…I didn’t. Noel Neil (again; she played Lois in the movie serials before reprising the role years later on TV), Teri Hatcher, Erica Durance, Elizabeth Tulloch.

I personally think that the best blending – some of the alignment issues aside – is of two of the TV Lois Lanes, Teri Hatcher and Erica Durance.

There were several other permutations I played around with, but these were the most interesting. I may revisit this in the future, bringing in some more Loises from some of the other animated offerings, or even do something similar with images of Lois by different artists.

That does it for this random year-end post of randomness. I’ll see you in the new year, with new Spotlight posts and other posts besides (but probably not posts like this one).

Happy New Year!

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