June 29, 2008

Cross posted for sheer laziness


So I posted on the comic stop blog about the Atari Label Maker 2600 and made an example of what you could do with it (fun stuff, ripe with potential for pranking, teasing, homages, ect). Here's another example of the goofy ways in which this nifty little program can be used. Enjoy irresponsibly! ;)

Oh and after spending obscene amounts of cash at the my favorite crack distributor (aka-comics), The Comic Stop, I had a random find. If you're not reading, 'Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius' you should be. Calvin and Hobbes style art/storytelling with the FF and company in tow...

June 28, 2008

Shut Yo Mouth!



For any fan of Genndy Tartakovsky (Of Dexters Labratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars) you'll be glad to know, he's taking one of Marvel's baddest mo fo's into a tongue in cheek mini series, due out this year. (Genndy talks about this project in an article last year at WW Chicago in 2007. ) Apparently it's slow to roll out because (the Wizard Universe forum board buzz was anyway...) Marvel wants the entire run completed before they publish the first issue. I personally can NOT wait as Luke Cage is one of my favorite 70's Marvel Heroes! :) And seriously, his outfit was the absolute best..only an ass kicker like Cage can wear a tiara and chain belt and make it work.

June 27, 2008

Friday Night Fights: Superman Brings The Noise!



Supes has finally had enough of Bizarro planet, but little does he know they groove on the rough stuff!

This is my very first, but certainly not my last attempt to knock out the competition in the Friday Night Fights!

Yes, I call this content!


Just when you thought it was safe to watch a 70's horror movie....I give you the academy award winning (*coughs*)

Blackula!!!

Check the review at the bottom, to quote:

"Blackula is the most horrifying film of the decade"

Sho Nuff





June 26, 2008

Emily the Strange


Have you read Emily The Strange? This title has an extremely cool website, an upcoming movie and scads of accessories. Rob Reger created Emily in 1993 and it’s taken off from there. I’m a recent convert to the title, but I have a feeling I’ll be back collecting as much as I can get my hands on. Besides, this is one of the better revenge lists I’ve seen (feel free to suggest any others, never let it be said I didn’t have an open mind!) Yes, Banana in the tailpipe has been done before...(Ah Beverly Hills Cop, thank you for the Eddie Murphy voice over every time I say, 'Don't be puttin' no banana in my tailpipe!') but the addition of the SUV gives it a timely update in a time of great terror for SUV manufacturer...banana in the tailpipe indeed...muha!

June 24, 2008

Superdickery.com

I have to give props to Superdickery.com...they have the most comprehensive listing of simian themed comic covers/panels that I've EVER seen. Well worth the stroll over to their blog if you share the monkeys make the world better philosophy. I know I do!


Edit: Evie, I found this link to the EW article about the Marvel project you mentioned (generously donated by Blag-h! de Wicked Juan). I can see the meeting minutes now, "C'mon, everybody LOVES monkey themes!" *cheering* "So let it be written, so let it be done." I'm unsure how this simian crossover will come across, one can hope it'll be hilarious...



Photoshop kickassery

I'd like to think I'm lawful good, but I'm prolly a more neutral to lawful mix. Saw the link on Blah-g! de Wicked Juan and had to mac it! *grins*

June 23, 2008

The Impossible Man annoys the FF

Yes, Marvel has the new FF cartoon on their website, and yes...this episode stars Marvels most obnoxious character The Impossible Man.

Admittedly, I've enjoyed his escapades in various comic adventures at times (one of my favorite being the issue of the X-men Annual #7 where he and Warlock battled for most talented shape changer, frakking hilarious).


June 22, 2008

The Indefensible (Defenders)

Kevin MacGuire does the Defenders. Not as dirty as it sounds, honestly.

A Defenders five-issue miniseries debuted in July 2005, done by one of the best teams in comics and I miss it?! Currently out in hardcover, I'm gonna have to bug the comic stop crew to order me one! :)

When Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire work together it's funny, wry, well drawn and most of all...worth reading.

June 19, 2008

Prove thy Geek Cred!

if you can tell me the orgins of these comic/sci fi-fantasy swears I will give you much props on Le Blog, in addition to a picture of me dressed as Batgirl! maybe, I mean really who could fill it out as well as the actual Barbara Gordon?

Grife!
Frak!
Blorg!
Fraggin Bastich! (yes, frak, frag...eerily similar?)
By the hoary hosts of Haggoth!
Odins Beard!
Crom!
Gorram it!
Zarking fardwarks!
E chu ta!
Feetal's Gizz!
Smeg! (also smeghead, smeg off, ect)
Holy (adjective, noun) ! (so easy, I know)
Great Scott! (not a swear so much, but the guy was squeaky clean for like, ever)
Poozer! (which Elwood gets double points for as he both had it on his latest post, AND I forgot it *blushes*)


Anything you add that's relevant to the list gives bonus points! ;)~

DC's pin up girl (Next to WW of course)

Does being a Kryptonian give you the power to defy ALL gravity?! I think you know what I mean....




June 18, 2008

Smith Magazine


Having been directed to this excellent webcomic on the Smith Magazine website, A.D.: New Orleans after the deluge I found myself surfing their other webcomics (it's more than that of course, stories, blogs, comics all tellling personal stories or using narrative to give a historical/personal perspective). Well worth a look over if you're interested in that sort of material. :) The Author and Illustrator of AD, Josh Neufeld also has his own website which details this and other projects and interests. Also worth a look imho.

Edit: I was reading the latest chapter in the New Orleans webcomic and it was incredible, heartbreaking truth. This quote in the responses to Chapter 12 really struck me, so I had to bring it here.


6.5.08—8:55 pm Mary in the Cemeteries


damn

bad enough my friends have all moved awayor never returned

the grocery store hasn’t reopened

nor the pharmacy

the library is in a tin can and don’t got no internet

post office only opened this week

and my neighbor got shot over his FEMA tin can

now I gotta be reminded how this crap all started?!

keep reminding me, josh keep reminding me don’t let me ever forget


sinn fein


Wow.

June 15, 2008

Booster Gold, Time Traveller





Batman reflected in one gauntlet. Robin in the other. And Booster actually looking badass? Jurgens and Rapmund did FINE work on this pic. Anyone who says an inker doesn't contribute to the quality of the artwork produced hasn't actually looked at every aspect of the piece, nor do they likely appreciate collaborative works in general. Norm Rapmund makes this piece pop with his finishes. This (imho) enhances and enriches Dan Jurgens pencils (much as bad inks can totally sabotage them). It's really too bad Dixon has had his recent woes with DC, with all of their talents together it could've been a longer lasting association that gave the fans something to look forward to in the DCU.


Chuck Dixon writes a two-part "Booster Gold" arc beginning in August's issue #11. Check it out.

June 11, 2008

You Know You Want To Say It Out Loud...Niiiiico Bellic


For those of you who've been sucked into the seedy underworld of Nico Bellic, The game reviewer 'Yahtzee' has given GTA IV his undivided attention and has broken it down in his usual off-color hilarious fashion. He also designs freeware (ostensibly in his spare time, which must be created with loads of speed and instant coffee considering he also writes for PC gamer and maintains a personal website.)
I can't wait till he does the review for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 as that's been one of my game crack favorites for over a month now...

June 9, 2008

Every Girl Vigilante Needs Her...Purse?

Now, as you've probably observed I have very little in my biography. Well, if you follow the link to the the Wikipedia entry for Barbara Gordon it's sure to provide fresh insights into a brief history and motivation for becoming a vigilante/librarian turned computer genuis.

*Attempts to look non-delusional and merely satirical...*
(daily dose of random, remember?!)

June 8, 2008

We named the dog Indiana!


Hi, welcome to xbox 360 crack, Indiana Jones style. This game is simple enough for a kid, but fun and engaging enough for an adult to play. I got my hands on it last night and had a blast. Oh yes, it will be mine...oh yes.

It's ALMOST as full of teh awesome as: Lego Batman

Sorry, but any game I can play Harley Quinn in...comes in first. ;)~

June 6, 2008

Justice League: New Frontier


So I watched a movie tonight on instant Netflix. Justice League: New Frontier

And it was AMAZING. I was so impressed by the story, the animation, the character shaping and the creation of the League that I had to blog about it. In fact I'll have to hit one of my absolute favorite comic stores to buy the graphic novel. One thing that really grabbed my attention was the speech by John F. Kennedy at the 1960 Democratic convention that they use at the end of the movie. Totally inspiring, and an awesome movie. High recommends here.

June 5, 2008

G.I. Joe tells it like it is


Ever been to Chris's Invincible Super-Blog? I found this sweet poster set there, an homage to GI Joe with an ever so slight twist. Gotta say, nicely done. :) However I do feel a need to post my favorite...

June 4, 2008

Sad Panda tonight....

2008 Stanley Cup Champions

And it's sadly not my boys, the Pens (despite the fact that Juan beats me badly in NHL Hockey with those selfsame boys).

*sighs*

June 2, 2008

I'd like to present, for approval the choices of my rap name

Jenny Diva a.k.a Sista Jewel
Jenny J Trixx (one more x and it'd be my porn name *lol*)
Jenny J Cheeks (What?!)
Delicious Jenny T Chili
DJ Jenny Ice Style
JJ Mix
Love Jenny T
J Jenny Cheeks
Slo JT

Give the gift of rampant disease!

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/orderform.php

I'm going to say it, Ebola has NEVER been this cute and cuddly before! And look for the Chicken Pox, it's awwww cute! *grins*

June 1, 2008

Frank Miller brings Will Eisner's Spirit to the Big Screen!

It does have Eva Mendes as SanD Serif, one can only hope that he can make this as gritty and compelling as his other work thus far...


Frank Miller on Will Eisner (Myspace Interview)

For the complete interview follow this link : http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=387641412

HE WASN'T ALWAYS A RAY OF SUNSHINE, FOLKS

Since his death a couple of years ago, Will Eisner, creator of many things, including THE SPIRIT, has been the subject of many a well-deserved, well-intentioned eulogy. None of these eulogies, however, paint a completely accurate portrait of my mentor, the man I loved. Allow me to throw in my own two cents.

Will was a suave man, no doubt, and when he chose to be, a disarmingly charming fellow. Most who met him discovered this quickly. The rest saw only a grandfatherly figure on stage, exuding a Burl Ives level of grace and goodwill that turned the crowd into butter as he handed out the comic-book awards that bear his name. There's no doubt he cultivated that image as successfully as he achieved everything else he set his mind to. And he was, to back that up, a very good, generous man.

He also happened to be one tough son of a bitch.

If he hadn't been one tough son of a bitch, the comic-book industry would've swallowed him whole. And we'd all be much the poorer for it. There'd be no SPIRIT movie, just as a for instance—at least not one so bold.

It was behind closed doors that Will Eisner revealed the side of himself that made THE SPIRIT possible. That tenacious, scrappy street kid, that brass-balled Bronx Jew—that's the kind of man who could not only face a blank sheet of Bristol board with a sable brush and revolutionize an art form, but also, and almost as astonishingly, defy comic-book culture and maintain total ownership of his work.

That the same man would, some three decades later, reappear with A CONTRACT WITH GOD is only further testimony to Will's ruthless, unforgiving vision.

I maintain that A CONTRACT WITH GOD will prove Will's most influential moment in comic-book history. Out of nowhere, the master reappeared on the scene, stabbing his sword in the sand, declaring with format, content, and its self-description as a "graphic novel" (a term I don't like, but more on our disagreements later), that comic books need not be ephemeral things with a shelf life measured in weeks, but, if worthy of it, capable of literary permanence. It changed the way artists, then publishers, viewed comics. Back then, in the dog years of the early seventies, Will charted a map for the future that may have saved comic books from self-induced extinction.

A CONTRACT WITH GOD was not the work of a humble man. To say the least. Nor were any of his works to follow.

Nor was THE SPIRIT.

It sure as hell wasn't a humble man I first met, back in the late seventies. That was at a party held at the legendary Continuity Studios of the equally legendary comics artist Neal Adams. He introduced me to my idol with a typically gruff "this kid might make it, after all". (This, after Neal had spent several years telling me how much my work stunk, how I should give up—and teaching me, step by generous step, this very difficult craft. But there's no need to eulogize Neal, here. He's relatively young, still very much alive, and still knocking everybody's socks off with his own comics and enterprises. Leave us say mentors tend to be gruff.)

At his first glance at my comics, Will offered up gentle enough bromides and set about dazzling the room. I figured that was it, my first encounter with my idol was going to be a wash.

Then along came Jim Shooter to jump-start the whole conversation.

Jim Shooter was, back then, Marvel Comics' Editor In Chief, and had fomented an arresting change in the whole Marvel line. Jim's chief issue was visual storytelling itself: a primary passion of any comics (or movie) artist. I was one of his favorites.

Jim just wouldn't let up on Eisner, showing him page after page of my latest issue of Marvel's DAREDEVIL, proud as punch, until Eisner finally broke down and read the first page. Then he glared, first at the page, then at me.

"That caption down there is utterly redundant," I recall him growling, "You've already shown everybody where the hero is. Why beat them over the head with it?"

I offered some vague defense about the necessity of underscoring the blind hero's conclusion, but Will Eisner would have none of it. He excoriated me, and did it with a voice that, at will, could use a single word as a stiletto blade or a blunt lead pipe. Suddenly it was a street fight, one for whom this twenty-something was ill prepared.

His eyes showed a glint of interest. I pursued him, in the weeks and months to come, with a mix of vigor and existential fear. We talked a fair amount, in coffee shops and at his studio, as I produced each new comic and laid the poor baby bare to the scrutiny of a master. He was not kind to any of them.

Will Eisner was not a nice man, not when it came to comic book storytelling. He forgave no laziness, to traditional "outs", to easy solutions. His love of the art form was absolute, greater than politeness could allow. When it was a page of comic art in front of him, he had no charm—and showed not a stitch of mercy.

Will and I would argue about the function of gutters (those white spaces between panels) until both of us were reduced to exhaustion and not-occasional vulgarity.

He was tough. He was rude. When it came to telling a good comic-book story, his "Burl Ives" persona went south and one nasty taskmaster took over. I lived with that, and learned from that, and took my bruised artistic ego back to my drawing board where it belonged.

Then, while I was finishing my first original comic-book series, RONIN, he gave me the acid test—tour, or, more precisely, one mean twist of that stiletto of his: Will invited me to guest-teach his comic-book class at The Art Students League in New York. He was, of course, in attendance himself. How else to make his point? His sharp, sharp, serrated point…

At that class, which was filled with fans of mine, he interrupted a round of cheering for me to first praise a particularly bold two-page, mostly-black image I'd used. "This is the atom bomb," he said. He then went on to show how genre-driven—indeed, how borrowed from current popular culture—my dear RONIN was, to his eyes.

(I still disagree with him about that. Here his Humanism collided with my Romanticism, to unpleasant effect. What I saw as rumination on heroic fantasy-making, he saw as beside the point. I had similar complaints about his later works, most markedly INVISIBLE PEOPLE. But then, Will and I wore no gloves when we boxed.)

After that class, once he'd torn my RONIN a new asshole, Will and I sat down. He advised me to move to France, get my heart broken, and inform my work with real human experience. I didn't mention to him that I'd been married for several years. That didn't make him wrong.

Years later, after much life experience, I produced my SIN CITY series, and I honestly believe I gained his grudging respect. But we still had so very much to debate…

…the debate lasted many years ("Graphic novel? Sequential Art? What IS this pompous shit, Will?"), until a few weeks before we lost Will Eisner. He won most of the arguments: I'm proud to say, he won not each and every of them, but most.

What I must add here is that in his unguarded moments, when the crowd wasn't watching, I got to know a very angry man. Angry, because past publishers had screwed him financially, and most angry that the practitioners of his beloved art form seemed so lacking in creative ambition. But, like every soul I've ever cherished, Will Eisner would never express self-pity, nor countenance its presence. This remains my marker for a true mensch.

And a better word for Will Eisner than mensch, I will never find.

I miss our fights. God rest you, my dear friend.

More on the movie next time.

FM


Yes, another blog full of the awesome has been created. You will read it and like it! ;)