Paul's Journal

If you follow comic books at all, you're probably aware that DC Comics, publishers of such famous heroes as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, started a "reboot" of their comics continuity this month. We're three weeks in, and I'm confused.

For those of you not familiar with the crazy world of comics continuity, one of the industry's problems is that people love the iconic versions of the characters so there's a drive to keep them young and healthy enough to fight crime instead of the grey-haired cripples they'd probably be by now. That's why Batman/Bruce Wayne still looks like a thirty-to-fortysomething despite the fact that he's technically been fighting crime for several decades.

This gets compounded by the fact that the creative teams working on a comic book typically only work on a title for a few issues before they shift over to work on another book. I suppose it helps keep things fresh and it gives the creative people variety. The side effect of this, though, is that the plotlines get so twisted into spaghetti-like knots that it makes the outline for a soap opera look linear.

When you combine these two factors you get one great, big mess. DC Comics has traditionally solved this problem every few years by hitting the reset button: some universal crisis causes a reality wave to sweep across space and time that magically unties the spaghetti. All the heroes' and villains' lives get all the wrinkles flattened out on some great cosmic ironing board. The writers get to start over again, ignoring lots of the crazy old continuity problems and telling new, complicated stories. And thus the great cycle repeats again and again: every decade of so when the continuity gets too complex for anyone to handle  the slate gets wiped clean again.

DC's latest reboot is caled "The New 52" because the company is taking 52 of their published books and starting them all over again with issue #1. So in one month we've got 52 new comics supposedly affected by the latest reality wave, and everything's supposed to be simpler. At San Diego Comic-Con, the DC execs billed this as a younger, simpler version of the DC Universe (aka the DCU) which would keep in the important beats from the characters' pasts (like Batman getting his back broken by Bane or Superman's "death") but would put a modern spin on these events. Also, the public emergence of superpowered beings only happened a few years prior to this reboot, so superheroes and supervillains in the public eye would be a recent phenomenon post-reboot.

Things got off to a great start in Justice League #1, a special story line which takes place approximately 5 years before the "current date" in the reboot, which told the story of Batman and Green Lantern meeting for the first time. Green Lantern exclaimed "Batman? You're real?!?" It felt fresh and young. Things were looking good!

The problem, for me, has been that the reboot is getting applied unevenly. It's like the writers aren't consulting with each other, and the editors aren't making much effort to ensure the rules of this reboot are applied to all the titles. I'm super-confused in this brave new super-world and I want DC's editors to draw me a map. In short, some stuff is clearly 100% rebooted, and in other stuff nothing has changed, and these two states don't work well together. For example:

- The Batman titles: It doesn't look like anything has changed. There are still 4 Robins (3 of whom have moved on, 1 currently wearing the red tights), Batman still recently "died" and then came back to form Batman Inc. Clearly this Batman has been on the job for years and years if he's gone through 4 Robins.

- Supergirl: Obviously a reboot. It's a fresh retelling of Supergirl's arrival on Earth and completely changes a lot of the origin story.

- Green Lantern: Absolutely zero change from the previous continuity. Hal Jordan still just got kicked out of the Corp. Sinestro clearly just got a ring and is the Green Lantern for Earth's sector and he doesn't want it, he wants to go back to being a villain. It's so in-line with the previous continuity that I don't know why they even bothered renumbering this one. Worse, there's practically no way that this jives with the Batman/Green Lantern meeting in Justice League #1 I described above.

- Superman: Clearly a reboot. He's younger, less experienced, and less powerful. His marriage to Lois Lane has been undone. He's only been a hero for a few years.

- Static Shock: He's a college intern now so apparently his life is moving along. Not obviously a reboot, merely fast forwarding his life a bit.

- Blue Beetle: A reboot because he gets his powers in the first issue, so they've got to be resetting this character.

The summaries I'm reading of the issues I haven't picked up seem to have this same problem. So which is it DC? Are you rebooting or not? At Comic-Con you promised us you were all in, but it feels like you're only halfway there. Go big or go home. Please.

Due to the fact that I'm currently getting ~1 spam comment per week I've switched this journal's comments to friends-only. Sorry non-friends for the inconvenience. Spammers: die die die.

Short form: I'm going to be a Community Manager for Google's mobile products!

Long form: read on...

For the last several years, my job in Google's Consumer Operations department has been a sort of user-focused product specialist. Basically I sat at the point midway between Google's users and the people who develop and maintain Google's products. I gathered feedback from the public and digested that into insights the developers could use. And when users needed to understand what the developers were up to -- because the product had a new feature or there was a bug that needed explaining -- I translated that back out to the world.

The skills to do this required a generalist. Over the years I've answered email, written and edited help center content, blueprinted help centers, designed contact flows, built troubleshooters, posted in forums, scoured third-party websites for customer insights, coordinated with the Public Relations and Marketing departments, analyzed products for potential abuse vectors, consulted with lawyers, implemented surveys, policed for content that violates the Terms of Service, written reports, given input into product design, and a gazillion other tasks. When I sat in product meetings, I'd be the guy the room would turn to ask, "What would our users think of this?"

During my several years with the company, I've done this for enough products that I'm starting to loose track. My first and longest love was Google Web Search, but I've also worked on a lot of others including Orkut, Google Finance, Google Reader, Google Video, iGoogle, the Nexus One launch, Chrome OS, and most recently some things that haven't been announced yet.

Our team is building out some new specializations, and I'm taking advantage of this to totally change things up. My process of arriving at that decision wasn't easy. As this specialization process started unfolding my manager asked me which roles I was interested in, and I of course mentioned the Product Specialist gig that I'm already doing. But I also mentioned that I'm interested in the new Community Manager role. My manager passed this on to the rest of our managerial team, and immediately got some very interested pings back. It's nice to be wanted!

When I came into work a couple of Mondays ago, it immediately became apparent that our timeline for rolling out these specializations had been accelerated and I basically needed to make a decision immediately. Further, our managers really thought I'd be great in the Community Manager role and were advising me to switch. This had me scrambling for a couple of days learning what the new job would entail, what my career path would be over the short, medium, and long term, what my place would be in the teams that were interested in me, and basically soul-searching about what I wanted to do with myself.

What would I be getting myself into? After all, Google's been participating in conversations with the community for years and years, and my own department has been a big part of that for a long time now. What I would get to do is a lot more of that than's currently possible. Spend hours each day in our own forums as well as out in the great fan sites, possibly blogging and tweeting, maybe running live events, etc. Talking to people, listening to people, evangelizing, communicating.

Ordinarily I'd take weeks to agonize over a major decision like this as I became familiar with all of the facts and had time to let it all sink in. I didn't have weeks, only days, but I did get all the facts. Once I recognized that, and had weighed all the pros and cons of staying on the path I was on vs. switching, I realized that I could make the decision immediately and then let it all sink in later. Ultimately it's why I took this job in the first place years ago: because I love communicating with people about technology. So I took the plunge.

And what a plunge it is! I'll be a Community Manager for Google's mobile product suite. I'm diving into the universe of Google's mobile products, and I'm going to put myself out there in the world to participate in the global conversation about the massive effect mobile computing is having on lives. The Android operating system is obviously a big part of that conversation, but so are other great products like the iPhone and iPad, as well as the services that run on mobile devices like mapping, email, SMS, and entertainment. I can't wait to get started!

Why am I joining the mobile team? Well I stood in line on launch day for the first iPhone, and quickly realized what a game-changer smartphones are. I stood in line on launch day again for the iPhone 3G. When the Nexus One came out I fully switched over to Android as my phone OS of choice. As much as I've lusted after a tablet I haven't picked up an iPad yet because I knew Android-based tablets were on the horizon, and I'm absolutely salivating at integrating the Motorola Xoom into my life when it comes out in a few weeks.

So mobile world, I look forward to joining the conversation soon!

PS - We're hiring! All departments at Google, including my own, are expanding. If you're interested check out our jobs page. If you're reading this and you're a friend of mine, DON'T submit your resume on your own. Go through me or another Googler you're friends with and we'll be happy to help -- it makes a difference.

Happy birthday to my dear capricious_k !

I've certainly enjoyed having you around for the last year  -- and I'm looking forward to the next one! ;-)

I know it's been forever since I've posted on LJ, I've fallen victim to the demon microblogging. But deirdremoon was bugging me about my lack of LJing a couple of weeks ago and I realized I hadn't posted my photos from Italy here yet. There's a little more than 300 of 'em, and they should provide a good narrative of our trip. We had such a good time, I'd love to go back again!


You can find larger versions of the photos in my album.

I'm about to head out to the Big Apple with capricious_kand fresne. This trip will definitely be full of awesome!

It'll only be my second time ever visiting New York City. The last time we went was in 2006, and I had an absolutely magical time. Perhaps the thing that struck me the most was that I'd been seeing that city in so many movies, comic books, and TV shows for so long that to actually walk around in it gave it an almost Disney-like feeling. I can't wait to recapture that sensation. And as a bonus, fresne's never been before so I'll get to watch her head go all 'splody the same way mine did.

We'll be gone for a whole week this time too, which will give us more time to explore more nooks and crannies. Our plan is to do lots of touristy things, take a ton of photos, drink a lot of cocktails and eat at a ton of great restaurants.

What'll be different about this visit from the last time I was there? This time I'll have an iPhone. :-)

Comic-Con was once again a blast this year. We took the whole week off, spending two days on a leisurly drive down replete with nice wine tasting in Paso Robles. Then we  spent a couple of days bumbing around San Diego. We hung out on the beach, I visited my sweet 3-year-old nephew, and I even re-connected with a college girlfriend whom I hadn't seen for probably a decade. Oh, and instead of a normal hotel room, this year we slept on a yacht. :-)

The con itself was overwhelming as always. We started out on preview night, where they open the doors to early attendees before the con truly begins. This year fresne , capricious_k  and I were joined by one of our co-workers who's been a closet geek for some time, and took the plunge into the grandaddy of all pools. :-) She was immediately shocked at the size and density of the dealer's room, and fell in love with some tribbles she found at one of the booths.

The next four days were a whirlwind of panels and shopping. One of the great highlights for me was the iGoogle Comics Themes launch, which I've already blogged about. Shortly after I posted that blog entry, I met up with several other members of the Comics Launch Team at the Marvel booth and we handed out free posters to the crowd. It was amazing being on the other side of the great schwag frenzy and was definitely one of the highlights of the con for me this year. You can find a photo of it here.

Other con highlights included Edward James Olmos at the Battlestar Galactica/Caprica panel (he's a really intense and funny guy!), seeing Alice on a horror panel, laughing at the gaggle of teenage girls trying to catch a glimps of the Twilight stars, and hearing Kevin Conroy moan in a highly suggestive manner to Andrea Romano. And of course, the amazing costumes and energy you get just from wandering the enormous dealer's room floor.

Needless to say, we've already purchased our tickets for next year.

Actually we're doing the beyond part first, then proceeding to the con. But no matter what the order of operations is, capricious_k , fresne , and I are about to depart on our annual pilgrimage to San Diego Comic-Con, the largest geek convention in the world.

We're going to take a couple of days to drive down this time, so hopefully we'll get a little wine tasting along the way. We're actually staying on a yacht in the marina which I'm very much looking forward to checking out even if it is a little far from the convention center. We'll spend the first couple of days bumming around San Diego seeing the sights, visiting with friends and family, and generally having a lazy time of it.

Then the 4 day geekfest begins. For those of you not familiar with it, SDCC is far more than just a comic book convention. It's also where Hollywood comes to showcase all their movies that have big special effects budgets coming out in the next year, upcoming scifi/fantasy/horror TV shows, cool cartoons, etc. Lots of stars come out to play. Fan groups like the California Browncoats have a great presence, tons of people dress up in amazing costumes, video game producers show off their latest wares, and so on. And then there's the shopping... oh the shopping! The entire main convention floor is turned into a gigantic nerd mall for all your geeky needs -- action figures, tomes on the philosophical relevance of comics as a medium, pirate costumes, imported anime... you name it, it's probably out there somewhere.

Also, this year capricious_k  and I have an extra treat because one of our coworkers, who I think of as a budding geek, is coming to join us for the con and I'm really looking forward to watching her head go splody as soon as SDCC starts to overwhelm her. Trust me, if you've never been to SDCC before your head will go splody.

For those of you I'm expecting to bump into in San Diego, I look forward to seeing you there!

I'll try to post an blog update or two from San Diego, but I expect more timely and relevant (if shorter) updates to be on my Twitter feed @wintergr3y.

Ooo, this looks interesting! When Vampires rule the Earth...