Return Of The Jedi: Panel Of The Week

The Koreans Tour South Park

Since Jared recently put up a photo of our band on Facebook, I thought I'd put this up here, since why not? I think Jared created this using some character developer module or something on the net, anyway, it turned out pretty good, I think. Hope you like it too.

Comic Review For Release Date 29/6/11

After last weeks disappointing batch of comics, I was beginning to question how much longer I’d continue to buy the monthly floppies, and then this weeks batch was really strong, so I guess I got sucked in again. This is what I read this week, in alphabetical order.

American Vampire #16- Consistently one of the best comics on the “racks”, or shelves, if you prefer. Rafael Albuquerque continues to impress with his expressionist art, and Scott Snyder is giving us a great story. I think what I appreciate more about this run on the series rather than the earlier one is that this story is more linear, not so much jumping around with back story. We’re pretty much with Henry and the squad looking for Vampires, and Rose as she tries to come to Henry’s rescue. And it’s unfolding nicely with twists and turns, just what you want to keep you coming back for more month after month.




Batman Detective Comics #878- Another great Scott Snyder written comic, but this time with great Jock art. So we’ve got Dick Grayson as Batman, trying to solve the mystery of the girl in the killer whale inside the bank, and it opens with Batman about to be eaten by a killer whale. It’s good comics. And the story with James Gordon makes obvious that which was only suggested before, and it’s about as bad as we feared and hoped for (assuming you’re reading this as well, I guess).






Batman Incorporated #7- Written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Chris Burnham, this continues to explore the expanded Batman franchise, this time on a native Indian reservation, with a Father/Son team at odds about their mission. A fairly straightforward story this time round from Grant Morrison, with more obvious references to the big bad which seems to be a global threat. Which means all this international Batman franchise stuff is going to pay off big, I suspect. Anyway, while Chris Burnham is no Frank Quietly, he’s doing a great job, and he’ll only get better, I suspect, so looking forward to following along with him on this title.
Also, this issue has one the laws of comics that holds true, that Batman riding a horse = awesome.



Drums #2 – This is shaping up to be a nifty little read, a good palette cleanser from all the superhero stuff. This comic continues to follow the investigation of an apparent massacre or perhaps ritual suicide, having something to do with voodoo. It’s got some pretty creepy things going on with zombies and dreams and that whole black magic thing, so another good read for the week.







Green Arrow Industries One Shot (Flashpoint tie-in) – While I quite enjoyed this, and almost would have bought it just for the cover, I think I would have got more out of it if I was more familiar with the characters from the regular DC continuity, so I could see how they’re different, and enjoy it at that level. But as it is, I know a little bit about Green Arrow, and nothing much about anyone else, and I’m not really sure where this fits into the Flashpoint continuity/storyline, but I enjoyed it anyway. It was an interesting story with pretty decent art, telling basically a bit of a cat and mouse story set on a jungle island. It was good fun, without really tying into anything else.




Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine #1 – I think this might be my pick of the week, or at least surprise of the week. You don’t really expect too much with a title like Marvel Universe Vs. Wolverine, but this delivered. Seemingly to take a leaf from Garth Ennis’ Crossed series, there seems to be some virus going around turning people into super-carnivores, human feasting death machines, and no one seems to be safe. So you can see where this is going. In this first issue, Wolverine runs into the first signs that something’s not right, and by the end has had to kill a lot of his friends. So it’s got two things happening that I wasn’t really expecting. It’s got a cool story with a bit of heart to it, and it’s well told, both narratively, and the art is pretty good too. Also, the level of the violence is fairly high, with limbs being hacked off and babies being eaten, stuff like that, all with the emotional punch of this happening to people Wolvie knows and cares for, it’s a pretty good read. Looking forward to the rest of the series now. I better mention the names of the guys who wrote and drew it I suppose since I’ve just praised them, but I don’t really know much about them. Jonathon Maberry wrote it, and I think I read online that he wrote the Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe story, which if memory serves, was also pretty good. The artist is Laurence Campbell, who I don’t recognise, but seems to come from that Michael Lark/ Alex Maleev school of art. It’s good stuff.

Project Superman #1 – Ok, not quite what I was expecting, but a good story none the less. I was expecting more like on the cover, where Superman’s lifepod crash lands in Metropolis rather than a Kansas cornfield, but that doesn’t happen till the end. What does happen is another one of those government trying to create their own superman type stories. What’s interesting is the story is told from the subjects viewpoint, so we get to see how he kind of proves the old adage true, that power corrupts. As he gets stronger, his grip on his humanity begins to loosen, and it seems to me to be setting things up nicely for a clash of supermen.
And I just realised, this is my third Scott Snyder comic for the week. The guy's a machine.


Ultimate X #5 – I was kind of over this already, without having read it, just because it’s taken so long for this series to finish up. As I flicked through it, it wasn’t really appealing to me, but when I actually got round to reading it, it reminded me that this actually has been a really strong series, well told (by Jeph Loeb) and beautifully drawn by Art Adams. It’s setting up the new status quo for mutants in the Ultimate Universe, and setting up the divide between two groups, and the mission statement which should drive the new series forward. It’s got me interested to catch up with the Ultimate Universe again, so it’s doing a good job.

DVD Review For Week 28/6/11- 4/7/11

So another light week this week, though I did have a couple films on in the background, but stopped watching them because I wanted to pay more attention to them that I was, so maybe next week I’ll tell you about them, but these are the ones I’m discussing this week.

Extract-This is the new film by Mike Judge, probably best known as the creator of Beavis & Buthead or preferably, writer/director of Office Space, as well as doing Idiotcracy and probably other stuff I can’t remember of the top of my head. Starring Jason Bateman, who is most famous for Teen Wolf Too, being Justine Bateman’s brother, and Arrested Development, the film follows him as he struggles with getting some from his wife, trying to sell his extract business and having to deal with an employee involved in an accident at work trying to sue the company under the influence of a con-woman. Hope I didn’t give it all way then, but none of that is really a surprise, I’m pretty sure I knew most of that going in. Anyway, I guess the real question is, was it funny? And yeah, I thought it was pretty good. Maybe not such an instant classic as Office Space seemed to be, but still pretty good. I’d give it a watch, if I was you.

The Visioneers-The appeal here is Zach Galifinakis, but it’s not your typical Zach Galifinakis role, so I guess I should tell you a bit more about it. The film seems to be some future world where some kind of mega-corporation seems to be pretty much running America, selling happiness, I guess. Except people seem to be exploding, for no apparent reason, and Zach’s character is some mid-level paper-pusher who has seems to be more intimate with the voice on the other end of the phone on another level than he is with his wife, and I guess is going through an existential crisis. It seems to be of that kind of film similar to stuff by Kaufman. And I don’t have anything against it, but I just kind of wonder, did they really think what they were saying was anything new? Do we really think that happiness can be achieved through buying the right things and following some corporations instructions? I’d like to think most of us aren’t that shallow, and if we are, we’re off watching Transformers, not hiring out some unheard of movie. It was cool, but didn’t really leave me with much of a sense of anything.

A Serious Man-I got this out because I’m trying to figure out if I think this is the Coen Brothers best film or not, since I enjoyed True Grit so much recently. And as it started I was thinking maybe I had overvalued it, but as the film continues, I think it becomes a really strong contender for best film. I’m not sure I can answer that question, which is appropriate for this film, since it deals with unanswerable questions so much. But one question that was answered, in regards to the opening story, does it have significance for the rest of the film?, and the answer is apparently no. Which make me feel better. In the bonus features, there’s an interview with the Coen Brothers, and they discuss how they just felt it was the right way to open the movie, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the film. So that’s good, because I struggled to make any connections, but it is a great way to open the movie, and does set a tone for he film.
I think this film is really visually strong. I think Roger Deakins is who they worked with as cinematographer on True Grit too, and this guy’s stuff looks beautiful. Plus you’ve got ths really particular niche script, with truly great performances, especially form the lead guy, and it really is a great all round package. I’d say it falls into my personal top five Coen Brothers films, but I need time to ponder a bit more whether I think it is their best film, which is what I’ve previously stated, and probably still think.

Batman/Joker "Knock Knock"

The Dark Knight was on tele tonight, which is as good as reason as any to post this joke.
It makes me smile.


(Original Source Unknown)

Old Green Lantern

I can't remember where I stumbled across this old photo of a kid dressed up as Green Lantern, but I like it. I think it's a comic writer or artist, but I can't be sure. But it's Green Lantern, Old School.

Update: (source: http://photos.nola.com/tpphotos/2011/06/green-lantern-mardi-gras-1946j.html)

Return Of The Jedi: Panel Of The Week

Marinated Feta On Biscuit

This is one of my favourite snacks at the moment, and it's so delicious and easy to make, you'll probably run out before you know it. Just follow these easy instructions.
1. Get some marinated cheese.
We used to make our own, but you can just as easily buy it. I used the left over oil from the last batch and put n some old feta we had hanging around the house.
2. Cut it into small pieces that fit onto the biscuit.When cutting up your cheese outdoors, make sure a chicken doesn't come along and steal a piece of it.
3.Put feta onto biscuit. I used Chicken in a Biscuit this time round, but you also get great results with Potato in a Biscuit.

DVD Review For The Week 21/6/11-27/6/11

I didn’t watch many movies this week, but these are the ones I did.

True Grit- This might become my favourite Coen Brothers film. It’s really strong, especially the first 40 mins or so, before they hit he trail, but it’s all good. I was wondering if this young girl in the main role is really that good, or if she’s just something like that in real life, but I guess after watching it again, and checking out the special features, she’s just that good. Definitely someone to keep an eye on. The special features were of the kind that are really interesting, but not that in-depth, and far too short. The Coen Brothers don’t make any appearances in them or offer a commentary, which I guess is their choice, but I’d sure like to hear them talk about their work.




Fighting Mad- This is one of the films from my Mill Creek 50 Martial Arts Movies pack that I bought a while ago. Just a disc I picked at random, I didn’t know anything about it, but while watching it, I realised I’d heard about it somewhere, maybe from the Machete Maidens documentary, or some other doco about blaxsploitation. The story is a nice revenge tale, about a guy who is betrayed by a couple of his army buddies on their way back from the Vietnam War, so they don’t have to split their illegal booty three ways, and one of the other guys has the hots for his wife. Anyway, he washes up on the shore of an island, which has two Japanese soldiers on it, still there from WWII. So they nurse him back to health, and train him in the ways of the samurai. Lucky he washed up on that island, or he’d have no hope of getting revenge. Anyway, the two other guys, are busy becoming a big noise back in America, killing a lot of people and generally not being very good, until this dude comes back and brings all their plans falling down around them.
So considering the quality of this print, and where and when it was from, I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed it, though I did have to wonder at his lack of ability to deliver a killing blow a couple of times to the main 2 bad guys. They got heir just deserts in the end, but that must’ve been really annoying for our hero to be so close and to miss them, a couple of times.


Conquest of the Planet of the Apes-I wasn’t really paying attention to this too much, really just had it on while I was working on other things, but I felt like revisiting the series a bit with the upcoming PotA film. I like it, even though it’s in not in any way remotely feasible for monkeys to be so mass trained in roles of servitude. But it’s cool, you got a bunch of chimps and gorillas overthrowing their human masters, it’s good fun. There’s a few lines of dialogue from a newscaster in the movie I really want to sample as well, just for the sheer craziness of what he’s saying. Good fun.

Flossing

It's kind of gross when you floss after not having done it for a while. You never know what you'll find buried in your back teeth. I think I found a bit of brontosaurus flesh back in there just now. And the gums tend to bleed a bit as well.
I've heard from a couple of different people lately that there's no evidence to back up the idea that flossing does any good. Which just seems ridiculous, and I think just an excuse for people to justify their laziness in not flossing. It just makes sense, there's spaces between the teeth where food lodges and brushes can't reach, but flossing can. How is that not obvious? A dentist who shall remain unnamed told me that 80% of cavities can be avoided by flossing once a day. I'll take Jin's word over yours, I guess is what I'm saying.


Update:

Thank You, U.S.A.

I don't need to say anymore, do I?

Batman In My Cupboard

Mr. Miyagi + Yoda=This

(Artist: Fernando DeGrossi, Original Source Unknown)

DVD Review For The Week 14/6/11-20/6/11

So I watched a bunch of films this week, and here’s a quick overview.

The Crazies- Based on an early film by George Romero, I quite enjoyed this. Starring Timothy Olyphant and Rahda Mitchell, I’m a little surprised this didn’t get a theatrical release here. They obviously spent money on it, it had good production values and it was made professionally, but I guess they didn’t think they had a market. Too bad, I would’ve liked to have see Timothy’s duck walk striding across the big screen. He fits the role quite well, fitting into that familiar role of a lawman. I enjoyed this a lot more than the original, I thought there was plenty of tension and some good scares and blood gags. I liked it.

Hot Tub Time Machine-I missed this at the cinema, because it looked kind of stupid, but it’s not too bad. If you don’t see it, you’re not really missing out on that much, but I don’t think you need to go out of your way to avoid it. I do wonder though, and it’s not something I usually do, but I did this time, about the “voice” of the film. It just seemed to be aimed at a male audience, I wondered if a woman would appreciate it as much, then I thought well she probably has had to deal with that all her life, and she’s probably just used to it, and I thought that’s a pity.






The Tournament-Another straight to video release, so maybe expectations are low, but then you’ve got a pretty good cast, like Robert Carlyle and Ving Rhames, so it’s got that going for it. So I have a couple problems with this movie, but nothing that actually got in the way of my enjoyment. The movie tells the story of a high stakes game where every 7 years, assassins from around the globe gather in one town for last man standing competition. This is where I have the first problem, that it’s such a stupid idea. If you’re going to have a competition that wipes out most of the talent in that field, to me that seems pretty stupid. But once you get past that, you end up with a situation where lots of people are trying to kill each other, so there’s action a plenty, and there’s an innocent man stuck in the middle, so you’ve got enough of a story to keep it moving along, so it worked pretty well for me. The other problem was, that supposedly the organisers have hacked into the CCTV systems to keep watch on the game, and yet it seems to me that there are cameras available to them which seems to me cameras wouldn’t be available. And then later in the movie, there’s a church which no cameras are in, yet earlier there was church with cameras in. C’mon, really? Anyway. Blood flies, cars blow up, all that kind of stuff, and it was pretty well done, so I quite enjoyed it. I think it was better than I was expecting.

So I Married An Axe Murderer-The return of a classic with some friends, and their first time. Early work from Mike Myers, but still funny. The treat was to see Alan Arkin again, as the Police Captain. I love Alan Arkin, he just seems to have that dryness to all his roles, that understated quiet manner, it’s gold. Also, “That boy’s got a head as big as sputnik”.








Mama Mia-There was really only a very limited chance I would ever watch this, and this weekend seemed to be the optimum confluence of events to do so. I kind of wanted to see it, because it looks like Meryl Streep is having a such a good time in it, but I didn’t want to because, well, look at it. But it was kind of ok, mainly because of the cast. Pierce Bronsan is an incredibly good looking man, though he really can’t sing. I started to imagine Stellan Skarsgard’s character was the same character from Ronin, and was waiting for him to pull out a gun and shoot people. And at the end when a crack appeared in the ground, I was actually excited because I thought the cliff might actually fall off, causing half the cast to fall into the ocean. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, but it was the most excited I got. Abba is fun, but this actually isn’t Abba. Maybe if I had more to drink, and we played it with the sing-a-long pop-ups, it might’ve been more fun, but I’d rather watch High School Musical again.

Bulgarian Street Art

You've probably already seen this, as it's been seeming to pop up all over the place, but I was planning to post it before the weekend, but didn't have time, so Brad scooped me, but I'm doing it anyway.





Source: The Australian




I found some photos on another site, worth checking out here.
I really like seeing Superman with a gun, looking like a communist version of the American superhero. It's a great dichotomy and really strong image, I think.

Robot Top Hat

It's kind of weird what you see on the internet, sometimes.

The Most Annoying Job In The World

While this topic is certainly open for discussion, and it is unlikely we'll ever arrive at a final answer, I think I have discovered something which is certainly part of the conversation.
Today at work, they were testing the fire alarm system. So what this involved was a pair of guys going around to each and every individual smoke alarm and detector on sight, and sticking something over them which obviously mimicked smoke, and set of every single alarm on the facility. And since they're all tied into each other, whenever one alarm goes off, everybody hears it, no matter what wing you're in. For about 5+ hours, an alarm would go off, then switched off, then the next, repeat ad nauseum. Those guys must love their job.

Comic Twart: The Princess Bride

I'm sure I've mentioned Comic Twart before, a website where a bunch of comic artists pick a weekly theme and each contributes a sketch to the blog based on that. This week's theme is The Princess Bride, so thought some of you might be interested in that. Below is the sketch from Andy Kuhn, but follow the link to see the others.

Star Wars Post: Uncle Owen Action Figure

I Have No Explanation...

...and yet, I'm strangely fascinated.

(Original source: unknown, Source: FunnyorDie.com, 7 Photos of Prom Dates Inexplicably Holding Gums.)

Favourite Interpretations of TMNT 3

I had mentioned previously the work of Michael Zulli, but the example I gave wasn't the one I originally thought of, but one I discovered more recently. If you remember, it was much closer to the original design of the turtles. But if you look below, to the first work of Zulli's that I saw on the TMNT, you'll see a much different interpretation, one that keeps a more realistic (as realistic as you can be with a concept like mutant ninja turtles). It was great 2 issue series, definitely playing with the concepts of the title of the comic as more than window dressing, with much japanese ninja black magic kind of stuff going on. It was good.

DC Women Rock

From artist Cliff Chaing's blog.
I'm not really familiar with this guys work, but I hear his name around the place, and I liked this picture, especially as I had just see Runaways the night previously, so it resonated.

Exciting News From DC Comics

So I chose the above picture for a couple of reasons. One, I like it. And two, because I want to tell you about some exciting news that has come out from DC Comics over the last week or so. Now I don’t particularly care about Green Lantern, but that may be about to change, and not because of the movie. Comics have had a problem lately, numbers are dwindling, readership is down. Now there a lot of reasons why this is happening, mostly stemming from the way the comic book market works, this thing we call the direct market. Comics aren’t finding a new audience. It used to be that there was a 5 year cycle where old readers would be replaced with new readers, but somewhere along the way, that changed. The old readers stuck around, and the market changed to reflect that. Comics became insular and you ended up having to go to specialty stores to buy them, because they were no longer available on the racks of the newsagent or grocer. Things are a bit different here in Australia, you can still find comics at a newsagency, but the market in U.S. still affects what the content is and that effects what comics are produced.
So for years now we’ve been seeing this continually shrinking market, and we all seem to know what the problem is, but no one has had the balls to fix it. Well now DC does. Or at least they’re going to give it a go. So if we break down the problem, it’s that new readers find it difficult to access comics at the moment because they are no easily accessible physically and not accessible content wise, being mired down in 50+ year continuity. So DC is have a line wide re-launch. In the last week of August, they will print one comic, the final comic in a company crossover event, which will set the stage for the future. In September then, they are releasing 52 new number 1 issues, re-launching their entire universe with idea to make it more accessible t o those who are not currently reading comics. The characters will mostly be the same, but they’ll be new, slightly re-jigged or majorly re-jigged, to update them for a new modern audience.
Well, that’s all well and good, you may say, but that still doesn’t solve the problem of getting these comics into peoples hands. And you’re right, but this is where I think the most exciting part of the story comes in. DC Comics have also announced that they will now releasing all their comics digitally on the same day they release the print comic. This is big news. No one has done anything this bold yet. Yes, there has been the occasional digital day and date release, but that has just been a single issue, kind of a toe in the water. DC Comics are going all in in this. They see the writing on the wall, and they know that digital is the future. So now, if their marketing department can do their job, everybody with access to a phone or a computer connected to the net should be able to get a DC Comic if they want one. The problem they’re going to face is the price point of those digital downloads, and also the “ownership” of them, but that can be a discussion for another time. I will say this about the pricing though, at the moment, the model they’ve set up is that the digital comics will cost the same as the print comics when they’re first released, then will go down to a lower price point after a month, so $2.99 for a regular issue on the day of release, then down to $1.99 a month later. Many people seem to think the price point needs to drop down to .99 range for it to truly be successful, based on experience from song downloads and the psychology of a buck, and I tend to agree, but this is a first exciting step, and I wonder how long it will be before I crack and get some kind of tablet to read my digital comics on.

I Like Comics When They're Cheap

I got all these for $4 each. Yeah, boy!

Dr. Who Animae (Amateur, But Real Good)

BIg thanks to Matty C. for pointing this one out to me. It's just some guy who pretty much did it himself, so some of it looks a bit off, but overall, it's really good. Enjoy.



My favourite moment is when the Cybermen first appear. I really liked the design of them, really captured that manga/animae feel. The whole thing is so well done in terms of referencing animae, it feels pretty genuine. I was constantly smiling through it as I'd recognise familiar elements, like the over the top female companion, how she reacted, what she wore; the guy obviously knew what he was doing.

Jesus Riding A Dinosaur = Awesome

I wish I knew where this was from.


Original Source Unknown

Photoshop, The Old School Method

Original Source Unknown

Youtube Clip Of The Day: Batman and Bruce Wayne Have A Phone Conversation

Are You Prepared?