#jon babcock

[the-gershomite]

Icons 1 of 4: Nightcrawler #1 -February 2002-

written by Chris Kipiniak

pencil art by Matthew Smith

inked by Mark Morales

lettering by Jon Babcock

colors by HiFi Design

[coverpanelarchive]

Heroes for Hire #8 (1998)

[onedegreeofsoniccomics]

Alien Legion: Jugger Grimrod

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Art: Mike McMahon

Letters*: Dave Sharpe, Phil Felix, & Jon Babcock

[anotherbuskitten]

Heroes For Hire #6 (1997)

[tuttle-did-it]

Murder She Wrote 'Shear Madness,' guest stars

Barbara Babcock (Space Cowboys, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Hill Street Blues, The Law and Harry McGraw, Dallas, etc)

Shirley Jones (The Partridge Family, The Drew Carey Show, Shirley, The Music Man)

Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond, Remington Steele, John Larroquette Show)

On IMDb, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, Poker Face, 500 Days of Summer, Brick, Snowden, The Walk, Looper, Don Jon, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, 10 Things I Hate About You, pretty much everything) is listed as a guest star (Boy #1) but I must have blinked when he was on screen because I didn't see him.

S6, E20 aired Apr 29, 1990

[vertigoartgore]

Jack Russell/Werewolf by Night : "Feel the walls crumbling ?"

1998's Strange Tales Vol.4 #2 page 44. Words by writer Paul Jenkins, art by artist Leonardo Manco, colors by Marianna Manco, lettering by Jon Babcock and edited by Joe Andreani.

[balu8]

Thor #494: Worldengine Part Four

by Warren Ellis; Mike Deodato Jr.; Marie Javins and Jon Babcock

Marvel

[wisco-warrior]

Jon Reynolds

Babcock State Park West Virginia

[mariacallous]

The afternoon Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, eight days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and well into a year of axis-tilting events, @DifficultPatty posted a question on X, thirsty for an answer: “Which wine pairs best with unprecedented times?”

“All of them,” replied one user.

“Apocalypse IPA,” said another. “It’s a real thing.”

Also real are the times we continually find ourselves. All devastation and disquiet. That’s the vibe of late, anyway. New historical benchmarks sprout with wild surprise on what feels like a weekly basis, and a collective mood has developed across social media that we live in a constant state of “unprecedented times.”

The phrase, now a fixture of the zeitgeist, initially shot into pop discourse around 2015 during Trump’s first presidential campaign, a campaign, you’ll remember, that fed on a specific American lust for political agitprop. Not long after, as the spread of Covid-19 reengineered work and home life, the phrase further lodged itself into our shared vocabulary, recast as a convenient descriptor for an increasingly inconvenient future. It has since become shorthand for the continuous spiral of everyday reality.

A study conducted in 2020 by The New York Times and research firm Sentieo found that the phrase saw a 70,830 percent increase in usage in corporate presentations from the previous year (outpacing du jour expressions like “new normal” and “you’re on mute”). In an article published by MIT, titled “Surviving and thriving in unprecedented times,” Christa Babcock, a CEO and alum on the business school, advised entrepreneurs to embrace the difficulty in front of them: “Expect that things will not return to the way they were and be thrilled about it.”

Only, for the rest of us, the constant, uncomfortable change was the problem.

The phrase was gaining traction offline and on. “Only difference between millennials and gen z is how many ‘unprecedented times’ u live thru before climate change swallows ur house,” @bocxtop tweeted in February 2022 when X was still called Twitter. That same year, 19 students were gunned down at an elementary school in rural Texas and California was hit with record unemployment. In grocery stores across the country, food prices steadily climbed as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Today, the phrase has magnified beyond actual meaning, a cheap emblem of our erratic cultural mood. It is uniformly used to describe just about every fresh hell that emerges, from the US election and the conflict in Gaza to the escalating dangers of climate catastrophe. Living through “unprecedented times” is the new normal on social media.

Congestion pricing in New York City? “More unprecedented times is all,” Jared of @TransitTalks said on TikTok. Also unprecedented: giant spiders, a canceled Tenacious D tour, relationship break-ups, and the unraveling social unrest in the UK.

This era of apparent precedent-setting is not only defined by bad news, of course. The phrase has no particular allegiance to disaster or personal woe. It applies wholesale. Lil Jon’s performance at the Democratic National Convention? Simone Biles winning the most Olympic gymnastic gold medals? Green energy growth in Kansas? Astounding and uncommon occurrences but also, that’s right, unprecedented ones.

“I’m ready to go a month without something unprecedented,” @midwestsidegunn said recently on TikTok. “Bring back boring. I’m ready to be bored.”

That’s unlikely, given the domino effect caused by Biden’s departure from the race in July, portrayed just as you might expect. It only spawned more unprecedentedness: the genuine possibility of a Black and South Asian woman president, and a reenergized Democratic Party that just weeks ago was on life support. A callback to a politics of hope from the Obama era, Kamalamania has again ignited the promise of what for so long felt like an impossibility.

“You know, the story of my life and the history of our country is that progress is possible, but not guaranteed,” former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said at the DNC this week. Along with Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren, women who were also well acquainted with overcoming the impossible, Clinton spoke to the urgency of now, and the weight of the moment before America. Democracy is under an extraordinary threat, she said, portions of the country already warped by the unreality of Trumpian politics, but it can be defended, reborn even.

By Thursday night, Harris had solidified the nomination. Millions of people watched from their homes, TV screens aglow with a message of hope, believing that this next turn into unprecedented times, far from their last, would bring a steadiness long dissolved by a power-indulgent MAGA movement.

The future, a friend recently reminded me, is a litany of unprecedented moments: ache and anguish persist, but so do awe and amazement. Rather than bemoan the fact that “the cold reality of the status quo has set in,” as one X user colored the Harris-Walz ticket, Andrew Drummer celebrated. This time, there was reason to rejoice.

“Fucking great! Things as usual would be a welcomed reprieve for a little bit,” Drummer replied. “I’m done with living at the end of times in unprecedented situations. We welcome precedented times!”

[the-gershomite]

Icons 3 of 4: Nightcrawler #3 -April 2002-

written by Chris Kipiniak

pencil art by Matthew Smith

inked by Mark Morales

lettering by Jon Babcock

colors by HiFi Design

[bookoftheironfist]

Iron Fist versus Cat, from Heroes for Hire vol. 1 #19 by John Ostrander, Paschalis Ferry, Jaime Mendoza, Mark Bernardo, Jon Babcock, and Joe Rosas

[coverpanelarchive]

Starman: Secret Files #1 (1998)

[boomgers]

La vida no es tan dulce como parece… “The White Lotus · Temporada 2”

La sátira de esta temporada se desarrolla en un resort siciliano y sigue las hazañas de varios huéspedes y empleados a lo largo de una semana.

· Estreno: 30 de octubre de 2022 en HBO y HBO Max.

F. Murray Abraham es Bert Di Grasso · De visita en Sicilia con su hijo, Dominic, y su nieto, Albie, Bert se está volviendo frágil, pero todavía se ve a sí mismo como viril y capaz.

Jennifer Coolidge es Tanya Mcquoid Hunt · Una mujer rica e inestable que viaja con su esposo, Greg, y su asistente, Portia.

Adam DiMarco es Albie Di Grasso · Hijo de Dominic y nieto de Bert, Albie es un graduado universitario, dulce y observador, que a menudo sirve como pacificador de su familia.

Meghann Fahy es Daphne Babcock · Una ama de casa que visita Italia con su esposo, Cameron, y otra pareja, Ethan y Harper.

Jon Gries es Greg · El marido de Tanya, que no está muy contento de que su asistente haya sido invitada a su escapada romántica.

Beatrice Grannò es Mia · Una local siciliana, Mia es una cantante talentosa en busca de su gran oportunidad.

Tom Hollander es Quentin · Un expatriado inglés que está de vacaciones con sus amigos y su sobrino, Jack.

Sabrina Impacciatore es Valentina · La gerente apasionada y dedicada a cargo del resort White Lotus en Taormina, que espera la perfección de su personal.

Michael Imperioli es Dominic Di Grasso · Un productor de Hollywood que visita Sicilia con su anciano padre, Bert y su hijo posuniversitario, Albie para explorar sus raíces ancestrales.

Theo James es Cameron Babcock · Un exitoso hombre de negocios de una familia adinerada, está de vacaciones con su esposa Daphne.

Aubrey Plaza es Harper Spiller · Harper visita Italia con el compañero de cuarto de Ethan, Cameron y Daphne.

Haley Lu Richardson es Portia · Una chica de pueblo y recién graduada de la universidad, Portia viaja con su jefa, Tanya, con la esperanza de vivir aventuras.

Will Sharpe es Ethan Spiller · Después de un éxito profesional reciente, Ethan y Harper, son invitados a unas vacaciones en Italia por parte de Cameron y Daphne.

Simona Tabasco es Lucia · Una local siciliana que frecuenta el resort White Lotus en busca de trabajo y oportunidades entre la clientela adinerada.

Leo Woodall es Jack · Un invitado magn��tico que se hospeda en The White Lotus con su tío, Quentin.

[marvelman901]

Over The Edge vol 1 2 (1995)

The Seventh Dagger

Written by Mark Gruenwald

Penciled by Robert Brown

Inked by Mike Witherby

Colors by Glynis Oliver

Lettered by Jon Babcock

Edited by James Felder

Silver Dagger had sent out Seven Daggers to kill magic-wielders, including Jennifer Kale, Devil-Slayer, Moonglow, Shaman and Doctor Strange...

[bluestar99]

whenever I listen to norman at the piano from the paranorman soundtrack (by jon brion) I just think about the fact that the song title confirms norman plays piano which itself is a good concept but then I make it sad thinking him playing that song to drown out the sound of his parents fighting because of him. also his grandma was definitely his piano teacher

[jamesvanriemsdyk]

Best GMs and coaches in the league ACC to you?

we can start with gms because coaching is a bit more complicated. best gms in the league is easy to look at because like, who has a good team? who has had a consistently good team? whose locker room is the most cohesive, whose coaching staff is the best? who is the best at acquiring and keeping the best players, coaches, staff, etc? and you can see that in the way teams play. 

(putting this under the cut because it got long. and i mean Long.)

so, in no particular order: kyle dubas (leafs), steve yzerman (red wings, i will explain this later), don waddell (canes), julien brisebois (lightning), joe sakic (avs), and kelly mccrimmon/george mcphee (golden knights) (god i still hate that name and also will explain this later too) are the best in the league in my opinion. honorable mention to marc bergevin, who has held onto his job much longer than he arguably should have, but still has a decent team on the ice and a decent coaching staff, although the french rule does severely handicap them (i understand why it exists but it does, it just does). 

david poile (preds) is the longest tenured gm in the league (has been the preds gm since fucking 1997, thats insane, thats legit before i was born, what the fuck), and i do genuinely think he is very good at his job, and that he is very hockey smart, but oh boy have his recent decisions been suspect as hell, and that reflects in the state of his team. doug wilson (sharks), who is the second longest tenured gm in the nhl, is in the exact same boat (the karlsson deal is a nightmare, and also did he just forget that his star core was gonna get old and retire or ??).

with dubas, waddell, brisebois, sakic, and mccrimmon/mcphee all have the same basic strengths: they draft well, they have a fundamental understanding of their team structure and how to manage public perception of the team and everything that implies, and they have two fingers on the pulse of their locker room at all times. im not going to pretend to know as much about sakic and mccrimmon/mcphee as i do the eastern gms, but it doesnt take much to figure it out. look at the avs, and their locker room, the success theyve found after being dead fucking last in the league. look at the knights and their incredible success that theyve found after literally not existing before 2017. ive talked about dubas a lot on my blog, but its incredibly easy to see that waddell and brisebois do the same shit he does, and i can do a deep dive on them if asked. bergevin has moments of brilliance, like the suzuki trade and acquiring caufield and anderson, but things like kotkaniemi’s development and their entire blue line give me a massive pause, which is why he’s not in the main list. he’s a good gm. he’s just not the best.

in regards to steve yzerman: you have to understand that this is the man that built the tampa bay lightning as we know them. this man was gm of the bolts until fucking 2018. tampa bay has been a monster in the eastern conference for years, BECAUSE of the work steve yzerman put in. his team set the franchise record for wins, and he was the first and is the only lightning gm to have won gm of the year. look up the 17-18 roster. it is, essentially, the roster that won them the cup last year. make no mistake, i think brisebois is great, and hes on the list for a reason, but the biggest part of brisebois’ success was steve yzerman’s incredible hockey mind. brisebois essentially had to sell off a fourth of his roster, and the lightning are still a top team in their division and in the league, and thats why he’s there (it is so incredibly easy to fuck shit up post cup win), but the brisebois lightning would not exist without steve yzerman, plain and simple.

what steve yzerman is doing in detroit should be watched very, very closely by every single person in the hockey world. youre fucking nuts if youre not paying attention to them, not gonna lie. the mantha trade was excellent, if really sad if you know even a bit about the wings, but the amount of draft picks steve yzerman has amassed and the way he’s using the prospects and players he already has is really fucking admirable. mike babcock left the red wings organization absolutely in tatters, and i think, honestly, it was always steve yzerman’s plan to go home to detroit and rebuild. if there is anyone who is going to strike absolute gold this draft year, it is steve yzerman. watch the red wings, i am telling you, keep a beat on detroit. they are going to be good. its not an if, its a when.

(real quick on the knights situation: mcphee was the first gm of the knights, and was also president of hockey ops at the same time, and then in 2019 mcphee said he was just gonna focus on his job as president, but we all know hes still an integral part of the way the knights are run, and he and mccrimmon have kinda been building the knight together since the beginning anyway bc mccrimmon was originally mcphee’s agm. so. thats why theyre together)

as for coaches, it’s very simple. rod brind’amour (canes), sheldon keefe (leafs, yes im biased, we’ll get into it), jared bednar (avs), joel quenneville (panthers), jon cooper (lightning), barry trotz (isles), and mike sullivan (pens).

(disclaimer: obviously coaching is done as a team, and assistants and specialist coaches and staff are all very important, but the head coaches set the tone and organize the entire machine, if you will, so im going to be talking about head coaches as if theyre the entire coaching staff. its just easier this way im sorry)

im gonna just start with the easy ones: barry trotz, mike sullivan, and jon cooper have been in the league for years. cooper is the longest tenured coach in the nhl for a reason (again, just look at the tampa bay lightning. its the gm’s job to make the coach’s life easier and the coach’s job to make the gm’s life easier, and this is one of the prime examples of it in the league. its dope as hell tbh), trotz is one of the most respected coaches in the hockey world for a reason (the caps lost something when he walked. they just did. and now the isles are absolute hell to play against and that is largely the coaching of barry trotz, you legit cannot tell me im wrong), and while mike sullivan does have his faults, i think hes found a way to please both management and the crosby-and-malkin unit, which has been really really fucking hard to do. he also led the pens to back to back cups, which you can never really uh. ignore. lmao. so theres those three.

i know less about bednar, but again, another example of the coach and gm working together to make each others’ lives easier. sakic gets bednar the players and staff he needs to make the avs better, and bednar takes those players and staff and makes them into the absolute giant they are. it wouldve been really, really easy to fuck up makar’s development, or bowen byram’s, or sam girard’s, or ryan graves’s, or jost or mackinnon or rantanen’s, but he hasn’t, and he hasn’t just given up on players like burakovsky or kadri, he’s given them new life as players and made them more successful.

joel quenneville is the reason the bl/ckh/wks were a legacy team point blank period. sure they had the talent, sure the gm drafted well, but you do not get the legacy of the chicago bl/ckh/wks without joel quenneville. they fired him on a whim and it absolutely was a mistake, and the moment the cats hired him i literally out loud said ‘oh no’ because i knew exactly what that meant for the leafs and their position in the standings. the panthers are underrated generally, yes, but they would not be the powerhouse they are this season without quenneville. just look at q’s wiki stats. he’s absolutely unbeilevable. he won the jack adams in fucking 2000, before he’d even won any of the cups with the h/wks. i cant tell you what kind of a locker room coach this guy is, but i can tell you his teams win and win convincingly, and that firing him was the biggest mistake the h/wks have made in years.

whenever i talk about coaching, i talk about rod brindamour and sheldon keefe in the same breath every single time because there is no match, and i mean none, for the love inside those locker rooms. the avs, maybe, but my point stands. keefe and brindamour fucking BLEED team spirit, it is at the center of their coaching styles and their teams are good because of it specifically. marner and matthews are good, yes, and they always have been, but they have surpassed all expectation and then some with keefe. aho, teravainen, and svechnikov are good, yes, and they always have been, but they have surpassed all expectation with brindamour. brindamour and keefe have both hashtag played the game, so they Get It, and more than that, theyve grown and changed their understanding of the game as the game itself has changed, and so they can command the authority of their teams while also connecting to them on a really deep level. i should make a note here that keefe and brindamour are incredibly, deeply hockey smart, and that they are also just technically good coaches, skimming their wiki or nhl dot com articles will tell you that, but what makes them stand out to me is that their players would fucking die for them. the leafs would go through the end boards for keefe, the canes would do the same for brindamour. travis dermott said it best when keefe got promoted: boys wanna play for him. beyond that, the management skills both brindamour and keefe have are just frankly amazing (the amount of ego keefe specifically has to manage in the leafs locker room is astounding and he does it so incredibly brilliantly). the leafs and the canes are talented, yes, and would have been talented regardless of who was coaching them. but brindamour and keefe bring both of those teams from talented to exceptional, and the true mark of an amazing coach is not only how many games their team wins, but how they win them, and the leafs and canes have been winning games this year for and because of each other, and that starts with their coaches. what makes a great coach, to me, is not the talent on the team (though that certainly helps), but how the coach manages his players no matter who they are, and how he helps those players grow not just as players as people, because no matter how much pure stats people and twitter hockey dudebros wanna deny it, that shit does affect on ice play, and it does make good players better.

so theres my analysis of the best coaches and gms of the nhl, im so sorry this is so long, oh my god. also, shoutout to @bishops--knifetrick for sending me an ask about this literally a month ago that i just never answered, sorry for that, but here i hope this is good. :)