Melissa Benoist as Supergirl

Say what you will about the show, but I really don't think they could have gotten a better Supergirl than Melissa Benoist.
She is pretty much Supergirl come to life. 

Even when she's evil......

Supergirl and The Flash. My favorite CW teamup.

supergirl, supergirl cast, supergirl season 3, supergirl season 2, supergirl cw, Melissa Benoist

Comic Book Kingdom at Pinterest

As some of you might know, I have a board for Comic Book Kingdom on Pinterest.
There really is a lot of comic book related activity there, so if you havent checked it out, you might want to.

But with over 2000 Pins on that board, there's a lot to go through.
So I thought it would be cool to look back and post some of the pictures here that seem to be really popular there on Pinterest.

BTW, the board is
https://www.pinterest.com/sabrebiade/comic-book-kingdom/

This Wonder Woman Barbie was very popular.

As was this Supergirl Barbie

Cosplayers are pretty popular too, like this BloodRayne by Anya Ichios Cosplay

It kinda surprised me that this Gen13 cover was so popular

Another cosplay, this time Callie Cosplay as Wonder Woman

And this great Tigra cosplay by fitness model Alicia Marie

Another one out of left field was this She-Hulk cover

Christmas pic by the late Al Rio, RIP.

George Reeves as Superman

Barbie, BloodRayne, comic books, comics, cosplay, cosplayers, dc, Gen13, Marvel, Pinterest, She-Hulk, supergirl, superheroes, Tigra, wonder woman, 

DC Nation - Super Best Friends Forever - Name Game

Why could DC have not made THIS into a regular series?
"Watch it Bratgirl!"
"How dare you mock the sacred name of the bat?!"

DC Comics Maxima in the Flesh

The DC character Maxima has appeared on TV in the flesh twice.

The first time was on the CW show Smallville where she was played by Charlotte Sullivan.
A very pretty actress to say the least, but she didn't look like someone that could go toe to toe with Superman.

But on Supergirl, we got former WWE Diva and BJJ trainer Eve Torres Gracie, who looked more like she could take on Supes.

Smallville and The Flash

You know with the rumors of getting Tom Welling to play Superman on Supergirl...this shot from Smallville kept popping into my head.
Wouldn't it be cool if the Flash team was paying a little homage there?
And wouldn't it be even cooler if it turned out to be foreshadowing?

Super Best Friends Forever - DC Nation Shorts

THIS is one of the cartoons that Cartoon Network and DC should have turned into a regular series.
The other was of course Batman of Shanghai.
Super Best Friends Forever was part of the DC Nation Shorts.
These short cartoons were aired when Cartoon Network aired Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice, before replacing them with the vastly inferior Beware the Batman and Teen Titans Go!
(No I'm not letting that go!)
Out of all the shorts, SBFF and Batman of Shanghai were the best.

SBFF was created by Lauren Faust, who you may know from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Powerpuff Girls.
It starred Wonder Girl (Grey DeLisle), Batgirl (Tara Strong) and Supergirl (Nicole Sullivan) and was awesome.
Wonder Girl actually looked ethnic and had an accent, Batgirl was hyper and Supergirl was curvy and cocky.
It all fell together perfectly.

There were only five episodes....

1. Invisible Joy Ride
2. Time Waits for No Girl
3. Grounded
4. Name Game
5. Solomon Grundy Don't Fight Girls

The best thing about the cartoons is that they are actually funny!
You don’t have to be a comic book fan to get the jokes, but it helps.

DCNation has them all on YouTube so you can check them out. 
And they are VERY kid friendly.
So children of any age can watch them.

Laura Vandervoort in Supergirl?

I do not have a thing against Melissa Benoist who plays Supergirl on the CBS series.
I think she is great.
But you have to give props to Laura Vandervoort (SyFy’s werewolf drama Bitten), was the original live action Supergirl on CW’s Smallville.
I know there are a few rumors that have floated around about Laura maybe showing up on Supergirl at some point which I think would be great.
But they are really nothing more than rumors.
Though they did cast Helen Slater (the movie Supergirl) and Dean Cain (Lois and Clark) in roles....
So you never know.
Who could she play?
I like the idea of her crossing over from Earth 2 as Powergirl.

Anyway, here is the beautiful Laura who had to play Supergirl without ever really getting a costume.....

Supergirl Barbie

The Man of Steel’s cousin, Supergirl.
Kara Zor-El was created in 1959, and although she never achieved the fame of Superman, the Maid of Might has her own rabid following, and her own Barbie.
As much as I love the Barbie Wonder Woman figure, I like this one just as much.
Doesn’t she look just a little cocky?
But just why shouldn’t she be?
All the powers of Superman, plus….she's hot!

Supergirl - Laura Vandervoort on Smallville

In 2007, the CW TV show Smallville gave us an incredibly hot version of Supergirl played by the gorgeous Laura Vandervoort.
This Supergirl had Helen Slater's naivety at first, but slowly developed a personality that was sweet...but she knew she could punch you through a wall if she had to.
They played around a LOT with her story, as they did with every storyline on Smallville. But they did work in a few things from the comics like her going to to the 31st century to join the Legion and using glasses and a wig to hide her secret identity. In some of the odder things they did, she could fly and Clark couldn't and she even kind of "became" Supergirl at one point before Clark became Superman.
It was messed up yeah, but it was Smallville. They really didn’t try to reign into the DC mythos until the last couple of seasons.
And it's no secret that I would have loved to see Laura Vandervoort get her own "Supergirl" spin-off show. But that didn’t happen.

Supergirl - DC Comics

The Maid of Might, the Girl of Steel, Supergirl. Kara Zor-El was the cousin of Superman and was sent to Earth by her father and mother Zor-El and Alura to be raised by her cousin. But her capsule malfunctioned and where Kal-El made it here as an infant, Kara aged to her teenage years. Supergirl was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, debuted in 1959 and immediately made a HUGE splash. The fans loved her.

Of course the The New 52 has changed Kara quite a bit and she is no longer the happy go lucky teen she was. Thanks DC. You have a wonderful way of taking all the fun out of characters. You do realize when EVERYONE is as grim and dark as Batman, he won't be special anymore right?

Anyway, Kara as a Kryptonian has the full powers of Superman. But Kara may be even more powerful than her cousin. Superman has spent a lifetime holding back and trying not to hurt people or damage things with his powers. Kara has not had that benefit/holding back. When she cuts loose...she really cuts loose.

If you forget the 1984 film, Supergirl has fared pretty well in the media outside comics. She was good in Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, both times voiced by Nicholle Tom. She also did quite well in Smallville, with Laura Vandervoort playing a live action version of Supergirl. And if you wanna see a really fun Supergirl, check out the Super Best Friends Forever shorts DC made which should have been turned into a series.

Supergirl also appeared in the animated DC films, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and Superman: Unbound and now she is getting her own CBS TV show.

Comic Books Online

Just a few things from around the web....

Have you been to AIBQ?
With over 642 comics online, it looks to be a comic book collectors dream.
I havent tried it yet, but it looks like you click on the catalog link, click on the comic you want and BANG you download it.
If you want to check it out, the link is here.


And talk about comic books going mainstream, MSNBC has an article titled "9 comic book characters to watch in 2009".
It's a cool little slideshow with Wolverine heading up the list followed by Batman, Supergirl and so on.
The link is here


And similar to the above AIBQ, there is ComicBookDB.com, which is kinda like the IMDb, except for comic books.
Very nice page layouts and well worth a look.
You can access it here


So there, I didn't complain about Fox or The Watchmen or the media calling us geeks.
I just gave out free stuff.

Laurel Gand / Andromeda - DC Comics

Laurel Gand, sometimes known as Andromeda, is a character in the future of the DC Comics universe, and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
She was created as a replacement for Supergirl in post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion continuity, because they killed Supergirl.
Andromeda was also inspired by elements of Superman's supposed descendant Laurel Kent, who was revealed to be a Manhunter android in the post-Crisis, pre-Zero Hour continuity.
She was in Superman: The Animated Series, in the episode "New Kids In Town".

I like the costume and all, but all these future time lines and alternate reality superheroes are kinda confusing to me.
Oh for the Silver Age days, when all we had to contend with was Earth 2.
I keep thinking that if Marvel and DC keep going, the entire Earth will be populated with super beings and they'll be no one else left to rescue.

Batwoman (Kathy Kane)

Batwoman is a fictional character, a female counterpart to DC Comics' popular superhero Batman.

Batwoman is primarily associated with the Silver Age of comic books. She first appeared in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956). She was a costumed crime-fighter like Batman, his counterpart in many ways. For example, while Batman wears a utility belt, Batwoman carried a utility purse.

Batman co-creator Bob Kane later claimed that he originally drew her to resemble his wife. The fact that he named her "Kathy Kane" supports this statement; however, Kane used "ghost pencillers" such as Sheldon Moldoff and Dick Sprang to draw most Batman comics in the 1950s, and the question of how much input Kane actually had to the Batman stories is disputed.

Batwoman guest-starred occasionally in Batman stories published from 1956 to 1964. Batman wished for Kathy to retire from crimefighting due to the danger. Nevertheless, she remained his ally (even when she temporarily became a new version of Catwoman).

In 1961, Batwoman was joined by her niece Betty Kane, the Bat-Girl, named after Bob Kane's wife. Kathy and Betty were romantically interested in Batman and Robin, respectively. Robin seemed to return Bat-Girl's affection, while Batman remained aloof.

In 1964, DC dropped Batwoman, as well as Bat-Girl, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite from the Batman titles, which were undergoing a revamp under Editor Julius Schwartz that eliminated elements considered too "silly". In stories published during the next few years, Batwoman makes several appearances in the Batman-Superman team-up book World's Finest, which was edited by Mort Weisinger.

In the 1970s, Batwoman only appeared a few times, often fighting crime alongside the second Batgirl Barbara Gordon. During her retirement, she becomes the owner of a circus, which she kept until she died. She is killed by the League of Assassins and the brainwashed Bronze Tiger in Detective Comics #485 (September 1979).

There was also a Batwoman on Earth-Two, who was very much like her deceased Earth-One counterpart. This Kathy Kane retired when the Batman of that world married Catwoman. She married and had children, but her husband was never revealed. She came out of retirement following Batman's death when Gotham City was threatened by the return of Hugo Strange

batwoman

Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)

Barbara Gordon debuted in Detective Comics #359 (1967) as the daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner James Gordon. On her way to a costume ball dressed as a female version of Batman, Barbara intervenes in a kidnapping attempt on Bruce Wayne by the villainous Killer Moth, attracting the Dark Knight's attention and leading to a crime-fighting career.

In her original adventures during the Silver Age, Batgirl is depicted as a librarian by day, and a spirited, if inexperienced, crimefighter by night. After a handful of guest appearances in Batman stories, she was given her own back-up strip in Detective Comics. This allowed the character to be fleshed out considerably, with the shy, mousey, bookworm version of Barbara Gordon quickly giving way to a more modern, confident character. Devoid of her plain-Jane glasses and hair bun, Barbara starts to date what would be a succession of boyfriends, the most popular being Vietnam veteran turned private investigator Jason Bard.

Barbara proved to be more popular than her predecessor (Bette Kane, the Bat-Girl), as readers requested for her to appear in other titles. In addition to her appearances in both Detective Comics and Batman, Batgirl made a guest appearance in World's Finest Comics where she met Superman, Supergirl, Bat-Mite, and Mxyzptlk for the first time. She also fights alongside the Justice League of America against the villainous Queen Bee. She encounters Supergirl again in Adventure Comics #381 when both heroines separately investigate a female criminal gang.

In Batman: The Killing Joke, a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, the Joker, as part of his plan to drive James Gordon into madness, shoots Barbara through the spine, paralyzing her and ending her career as Batgirl forever.

Initially, Barbara's paralysis plunges her into a period of depression. Eventually, she realizes that, in a world increasingly centered on technology and information, she had a tremendous repository of skills which could be potentially useful to fight crime. These qualities include a genius-level intellect, a photographic memory, a vast knowledge of computers and electronics, expert skills as a hacker, and her training as a librarian.

After having a dream where Barbara (in her previous Batgirl persona) sees an all-knowing woman (similar to Oracle at Delphi of Greek mythology), she adopts Oracle as her new codename. She now acts as an information broker, gathering and disseminating intelligence to law enforcement organizations and members of the superhero community. She has also trained under the tutelege of Richard Dragon, one of the world's premier martial artists, who has trained some superheroes, to engage in combat (usually escrima) from her wheelchair should the need arise.

Barbara first uses the Oracle identity to assist her father on an extremely difficult murder investigation, and later takes it to the Suicide Squad. For a time, she relocates to Belle Reve prison in Louisiana to work with the team under the alias of "Amy Beddoes". After leaving the Suicide Squad, she returned to Gotham City and begins aiding Batman and his protegés frequently, as well as many other heroes. Just after her debut as Oracle in the pages of the Suicide Squad, Barbara appeared in the 12-issue mini-series The Hacker Files. This was her second appearance as a hacker in the DC Comics universe.

Later she joins the Justice League of America, and was an active member for some time, serving as both an information and communications resource. She is currently on inactive status with the group. In mainstream DC continuity, an alternate-reality Batgirl/Barbara Gordon was granted posthumous honorary membership in the League after she sacrificed herself to defeat Hal Jordan (a.k.a. Parallax). Therefore, two Barbara Gordons are members of the Justice League.

comic books

Supergirl (1984)

Supergirl is a 1984 feature film. It stars Helen Slater in her first motion picture role in the title role of the DC Comics superheroine Supergirl. It was a spin-off from the popular 1978 movie Superman, with Marc McClure reprising his role as Jimmy Olsen.

The movie performed poorly at the box office and failed to impress critics or audiences. Helen Slater, however, was nominated for a Saturn Award for her strong performance by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. The film does contain some expansions on the Superman movie mythology, such as taking the viewer into the Phantom Zone itself (in the first two Superman films, it was merely represented by a spinning black pane of glass). The story uses sorcery (a noted Superman weakness, but less favored over kryptonite) as a counter attack on Supergirl to great effect.

Released on video over the years by different companies, the film's first DVD release was on independent home video company Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2000 under license from StudioCanal. Warner Bros. recently acquired the rights to the film and reissued it on DVD late in 2006 to coincide with the reissues on DVD of the other Superman films. However, even though it is technically part of the same series of films as the ones produced between 1978 and 1987 with Christopher Reeve, it is not included in any of Warners' Superman-related 2006 box set DVD collections.

Superman III (1983)

Superman III is a 1983 movie that was the third of four movies based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero produced between 1978-1987. Christopher Reeve, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, and Margot Kidder are joined by new cast members Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, and Richard Pryor. The film was the last Reeve/Superman film produced by Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind. It was followed by Supergirl in 1984 and the non-Salkind sequel Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in 1987. The film was less successful than the first two Superman movies, both financially and critically. Many fans of the series complained that there was too much emphasis on comedy, the villains were too weak, and that Christopher Reeve essentially played second fiddle to Richard Pryor. However, others enjoyed the movie and it brought Pryor to an even wider audience. Following the release of this movie his status in the movie industry was such that he signed a deal with Columbia Pictures worth US$40,000,000.

The total domestic box office gross for Superman III was $59,950,623. Thus, it was considered a major financial disappointment, since the first two movies each grossed over $100 million domestically. Besides a considerably poor feedback from the audience themselves, what also likely hurt the box office performance was the fact that Superman III was released during the same summer as the Star Wars sequel Return of the Jedi and the James Bond films Octopussy and Never Say Never Again.

Another problem may have been that the trailer seemed to spoil much of the movie itself. In July 1983, ITV showed the Royal Premiere of Superman III. This show included interviews with actors in the film who had flown to London for the United Kingdom and European premiere. Some clips from the film were shown, including where Superman is flying Gus to the coal mine and explaining how he used the acid to destroy the supercomputer, thus revealing the ending of the film.

A frequent criticism of Superman III is the inclusion of comedian Richard Pryor, who wound up getting the second biggest role in the movie behind Christopher Reeve. Many suspected that Pryor (who was riding off of the heels of smash hits like Stir Crazy and The Toy) helped himself into getting into Superman III after appearing on The Tonight Show and telling Johnny Carson about how much he enjoyed watching Superman II.Audiences also saw Robert Vaughn's villainous Ross Webster as an uninspired fill-in for the Lex Luthor of Gene Hackman, who sat out Superman III due to his problems with the Salkinds. Hackman along with Margot Kidder, (Lois Lane) was upset with the way the Salkinds treated Superman director Richard Donner, and Hackman retaliated by refusing to reprise the role of Lex Luthor entirely (though he would later be persuaded to come back for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace in 1987 with which the Salkinds had no connection). The Salkinds retaliated against Kidder by severely reducing her role in Superman III.

In his commentary for the 2006 DVD release of Superman III, Ilya Salkind denied any ill will between Margot Kidder and his production team, and refutes the claim her part was cut for retailiation. Instead, he says, the creative team decided to pursue a different direction for a love interest for Superman, believing the Lois & Clark relationship had played out in the first two films (but could be revisited in the future). With the choice to give a more prominent role to Lana Lang, Lois' part was reduced for story reasons. Salkind also denied the reports about Gene Hackman being upset with him, stating he didn't return due to prior commitments.

Fans also placed most of the blame on director Richard Lester, Richard Lester made a number of popular comedies in the 1960s - including The Beatles' classic A Hard Day's Night (1964) and other hits such as The Knack (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Petulia (1968). His grounding is in comedy and this is an approach that dooms Superman III . Lester broke tradition by having Superman III opening up with a prolonged slapstick sequence (often compared with silent comedy) with difficult-to-read titles over it (the first two movies opened up in outerspace with big and bold credits). Fans believed that Lester, unlike Donner, had virtually little, if any, knowledge or, more importantly, respect for the Superman legacy and legend. In fact, Richard Donner was supposedly fired because he wouldn't follow the Salkinds' vision of Superman being campy (a la the Batman television series starring Adam West). Superman III is commonly seen as more or less a goofy farce than a grandiose adventure picture like the first two movies. Another problem is the screenplay, written by David and Leslie Newman. When Richard Donner was hired to direct the first two films he found the Newman scripts so distasteful that he hired Tom Mankiewicz for heavy rewrites. Since Donner and Mankiewicz were no longer attached to the franchise, the Salkinds were finally able to bring their "vision" of Superman to the screen and once again hired the Newmans for writing duties.

Film critic Leonard Maltin said of Superman III that it was an "appalling sequel that trashed everything that Superman was about for the sake of cheap laughs and a co-starring role for Richard Pryor." Fans generally agree though that the only redeeming and sincere moments in Superman III were the scenes involving Clark Kent and his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), who for all intents and purposes, replaced Lois Lane as the love interest in this movie, and the climactic junkyard fight between Clark Kent and the "Evil Superman." Despite Christopher Reeve's best efforts to portray an intense and violently unstable Man of Steel, "Evil Superman's" acts of assorted mischief (staying near Lana in a suggestive manner and arriving late at a rescue, straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa, blowing out the Olympic torch, getting drunk and flicking peanuts) gave the movie an even more camp touch though it has failed to become better received in the same way the Adam West Batman film is looked on favorably.

Superman III is sometimes praised for the performance of Reeve, playing a corrupted version of the Man of Steel, and a spectacular junkyard battle between this newly darkened Superman and Clark Kent.

Superman II (1980)

Superman II is the 1980 sequel to the 1978 feature film Superman. It was the only Superman film to be helmed by two directors. For this reason the film is surrounded with controversy since original director Richard Donner had completed, by his estimation, roughly 75% of the movie in 1977 before being taken off the project. Many of the scenes shot by second director Richard Lester (who had been an uncredited producer on the first film) in 1979 are refilmed Donner sequences. It was released in Europe and Australia in late 1980 but not distributed in the United States until June 1981, which is unusual for such a major production.

According to statements by Donner, roughly 25% of the theatrical cut of Superman II contains footage he shot, including all of Gene Hackman's scenes. In 1984, when Superman II premiered on television, 24 minutes were re-inserted into the film (17 mins in US ABC TV). Much of the extra footage was directed by Richard Donner. A brand new re-cut of the film, restoring as much as Donner's original conception as possible, entitled Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, was released in November 2006.

Off-screen problems hampered production of this movie: like other Salkind productions such as The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), this was filmed at the same time as the first Superman movie to be a direct sequel. However, Marlon Brando filed suit over his percentage of the first film's profits, so as a response, the Salkind brothers excised his scenes from the second film. Director Richard Donner argued with the producers over their attempts to make the film "more campy," in his opinion, which led to his removal and replacement on the project by Richard Lester. Following that, Gene Hackman declined to return for any reshoots by Lester, which cut down the number of scenes in which he appears in the final cut (or with a few scenes where a body double was obviously being used).


Another reason behind Richard Donner's removal may have been that the Salkinds were upset that Donner went over their originally planned budget for the movie. Warner Brothers ended up getting more and more involved in the race to complete the film, allowing the studio to receive more profits from the film's box office take than the Salkinds had originally agreed to. With their power slipping away, Donner was unfortunately made the scapegoat.

Despite all the difficulties, and with only a few noticeable shifts in tone between the two directors' scenes (Lester's scenes tend to be more campy and humorous), it was noted by critics to be a remarkable and coherent film, highlighted by the movie's battle sequence between Superman and the three Phantom Zone prisoners on the streets of Metropolis. Scenes filmed by Donner include all the Gene Hackman footage, the moon sequences, the White House shots, Clark and the bully, and a lot of the footage of Zod, Ursa and Non arriving at the Daily Planet. Since the Lester footage was shot almost two years later, both Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve's appearances look different between the Lester and Donner footage. Reeve appears less bulked up in Donner's sequences (filmed in 1977), as he was still gaining muscle for the part. Kidder also has dramatic changes throughout; in the montage of Lester/Donner material, shot inside the Daily Planet and the Fortress of Solitude near the movie's conclusion, her hairstyle, hair color, and even make-up are all inconsistent. Indeed, Kidder's physical appearance in the Lester footage is noticeably different; during the scenes shot for Donner she appears slender, whereas in the Lester footage she looks frail and gaunt.

In the years since the film's release, the controversy continues to be fueled, while the film itself has achieved cult status. In 1983, Alexander Salkind's production company pieced together an "Expanded International Cut" of the film for television using approximately 24 minutes of footage not shown in the theatrical release, some of which was original Richard Donner footage shot before Richard Lester became director. The "new" footage expanded on the film's many subplots, including a further explanation of the villains' task on Earth, Superman and Lois' romance, and an alternate ending involving Lex Luthor, the three Kryptonian villains, and the final fate of the Fortress of Solitude. This 146-minute expanded version was released throughout Europe and Australia in the 1980s (the initial expanded U.S. ABC and Canadian CBC telecasts, though edited differently, were derived from the European/Australian TV edit).

In 2005, several Superman movie fans attempted to bring the film closer to Donner's original vision by creating their own professionally-made video restoration of the "International Cut" and offered free DVDs of it on one of the many Superman fan sites, but their efforts were thwarted by Warner Bros., who reportedly threatened legal action.

All four Superman films received Special or Deluxe Edition releases in 2006 coinciding with the release of Superman Returns. It was confirmed that Ilya Salkind has released Donner's footage for a separate Superman II disc and that Donner was involved in the project. According to an interview conducted by website supermanhomepage.com, Ilya confirmed that Time Warner now owns all of the footage shot for 1978's Superman, 1980's Superman II, 1983's Superman III, 1984's Supergirl, and 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace including distribution rights. SE restorationist Michael Thau worked on the project alongside Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, who supervised the Superman II reconstruction. Despite some initial confusion, Thau confirmed that all the footage shot by Donner in 1977 was recovered and transferred from England. The new edition was released on November 28, 2006 and called Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. It was also confirmed that the new cut will feature less than 20% footage filmed by replacement director Richard Lester.