April 2011
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Please Let Me Buy Your Toys
Sometime last year, MattyCollector.com announced that they were starting up a service called the Ecto-1 Club. By joining this club, a subscriber would receive all 6 of their 6” Ghostbuster action figures planned for release in 2011, as well as a club exclusive figure which wouldn’t be available to non-subscribers. I signed up as soon as the subscriptions were officially offered and...
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Plush MST3K Robots!
There’s a girl on deviantArt who is making and selling custom plushie versions of all 4 of the robots from MST3K! I want a Tom Servo SO BAD!!! Seriously considering ordering one to go with my plush Fone Bone.
…I am such a fucking geek…
fuckyeahmst3k:
Her email is silent-orchid@hotmail.com
Servo Pricing
Crow Pricing
Cambot Pricing
Gypsy Pricing
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Wednesday Haul: 3/30/11
I’m kind of stealing this idea from a recent blog that Jesse posted, but here’s what I bought at the comic store this week:
Amazing Spiderman #657
Captain America #616 - A cover and one page of art by Travis Charest, as well as short segments by Jason Latour and Paul Azaceta? Sign me up.
Captain America and the Secret Avengers one-shot - I became an instant fan of Greg Tocchini...
March 2011
60 posts
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What I'm Watching: Sucker Punch
What I Liked:
- Some of the action. This film features 4 fantastic (as in “fantasy”, not necessarily “great”) action scenes. To avoid spoilers, I’ll simply say that I didn’t care for the 1st, loved the 2nd, was pretty apathetic about the 3rd, and enjoyed the 4th.
- The ass. There were some sexy babes in some skimpy outfits in this movie, which is something I...
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Joe Kubert, Jean Giraud, & Neal Adams Jam →
That is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen…
jesselmunoz:
Thanks to Gabe Bridwell for finding this amazing video.
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“I have the thumbs, so I make the rules.”
– Joel Lolar to his dog during tonight’s draw night chat
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“I googled my name and it says you talked about my testicles in a podcast many...”
– Logan Ganshirt
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Tales From The Comic Store #1: Apocalypse
A girl trying her hardest to be as cool and apathetic as Juno (wearing a blazer over a t-shirt, chewing on a toothpick, and with her unkempt bangs tucked ever-so-delicately between her glasses and her left eye) approaches the counter...
Girl: Where do you keep your apocalypse comics?
Me: You mean...like the X-Men character?
Girl: ...I mean apocalypse comics like...*pshhhooo* (makes "explosion" noise and waves her arms to mime a nuclear blast)
Me: Oh, you mean "post apocalyptic"? Like sci-fi comics?
Girl: ...
Me: We keep that kind of stuff over here.
(I lead her to our sci-fi section and give her a brief rundown of the layout. She stares vapidly at the shelves of books.)
Me: Did you have any specific books in mind?
Girl: No.
Me: Well, there's Y: The Last Man. That's sort of an apocalypse setting.
Girl: ...like...The Terminator kind of apocalypse?
Me: Uh...
Girl: Or zombies? They're cool.
Me: Oh. Well, over here we've got all of the Walking Dead books and some other zombie stuff like Crossed and Black Gas.
Girl: ...
Me: ...
Girl: ...What about mafia?
Me: I'm sorry?
Girl: Mafia comics?
Me: Um...we've got a crime and war section over here.
(I lead her to the back of the store.)
Me: There's this book called Criminal. It's not really about the mafia, but I mean...it's got criminals in it.
Girl: ...
Me: Then there's 100 Bullets. This is a really good book about gangster-type guys.
Girl: ...
Me: Um...
Girl: Can you publish stuff here?
Me: ...Uh, I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.
Girl: My mom said that you can publish stuff here?
Me: ...Do you mean like...sell stuff?
Girl: I guess so.
Me: If you made your own comic, I guess we could work something out to sell it here.
Girl: ...
Me: Or if you meant you wanted to sell stuff TO us, we do buy comics sometimes depending on what you have.
Girl: ...
Me: But I'm thinking your mom may have meant that we can send out books to be CGC graded here.
Girl: ...
Me: ...
Girl: ...
Me: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Girl: What about...female...heroes?
Me: You mean like "superheroes"?
Girl: ...I guess so.
I lead her to the superhero section.
Me: All of the superhero stuff is over here. Did you have any specific characters in mind?
Girl: No.
Me: Well, there's Zatanna and Wonder Woman on the bottom shelf. Power Girl is over here. These are all in alphabetical order. Supergirl is going to be on the other side of this rack. I guess if you're not looking for anything in particular you could just look around until a cover catches your eye.
Girl: ...
Me: Okay?
Girl: Thanks.
She continues to wander around for about 10 minutes, then brings a copy of 5 Ronin #5 (from the "New This Week" wall) up to the counter. Her father pays for it and they leave. I breathe a sigh of relief and attempt to regain my sanity.
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Hero Worship: German Garcia
Whenever we went on vacation when I was younger, I used to convince my mother to buy me some comics to read in the car on the way to our destination. It just so happened that in 1998 our yearly beach trip coincided with the release of X-Men #75, which featured a story by Joe Kelly and art by German Garcia. I was 13 at the time, and wouldn’t begin collecting X-Men and Uncanny X-Men (the...
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“The true protagonist of [a science fiction] story or novel is an idea and not a...”
– Dr. Willis McNelly (Professor Emeritus in English Literature at California State University Fullerton; 1920 - 2003)
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What I'm Watching: The Adjustment Bureau
What I Liked:
- The cast. I liked everyone in this movie. Some of the more personal/sentimental moments between Damon and Emily Blunt felt a bit false/forced, but otherwise I thought that all of the roles were interesting and cast well.
- Matt Damon’s character. As the main character of the film, I found Damon’s character David Norris to be surprisingly original. He’s got the...
New York City - Spring 2011 →
You’ve read my blogs about my recent trip to NYC with Brian (or have you?). Now you can read his account of the events.
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What I'm Watching: Paul
What I Liked:
- Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I don’t know if it’s possible for me to dislike these two when they star side-by-side. I’ve been less than impressed with some of Simon Pegg’s solo efforts (Big Nothing, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, and Run Fatboy Run come to mind) and haven’t seen any of Nick Frost’s Pegg-less films (though The Boat That...
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“Regret is born when the ordinary is touched by the extraordinary and doesn’t...”
– Brian Azzarello
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WatchWarren Ellis: Capturing Ghosts
Someone is making a feature-length documentary about Warren Ellis. Of course, I can’t wait to see it. This trailer makes it look very artsy-fartsy, but I hope it will contain some interesting information/insight, nonetheless. How about some links?
Visit the film’s official website at warrenellismovie.com.
Join a campain to help fund the film...
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NYC Update 7: A Foodie's Retrospective
Take one look at me and you’ll realize what everyone else already knows: I like to eat. Add to that that one of the integral parts of my friendship with Brian is that we love to go out to eat together, and you can probably guess what this post is about. So, without further ado, here’s what we ate in New York City last weekend:
Ben Ash Cobb Sandwich - Ben Ash Deli (857 7th...
Guy Davis does it again! →
beckycloonan:
And by IT i mean THE MARQUIS~~!! OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS SHIT HES ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! GUY DAVIS!!! I HOPE HE DRAWS FOREVER.
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“The worst part of writing fiction is the fear of wasting your life behind a...”
– Chuck Palahniuk
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This Is Only A Test
I’ll be leaving for work in about an hour, and through a series of intermediaries I will end up in New York for the weekend. In hopes of keeping the blog up and running during this time, I’m testing out the Tumblr app for Android. This is that test. With luck, if you’re reading this, I’ll be able to drop some pics and updates here during my trip. That is all.
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“The true test of the lifespan of any new social technology is in whether or not...”
– Warren Ellis on progress
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Do What I Say: Read Kursk
KURSK is a web-comic which recently began over at KURSKCOMICS.blogspot.com. It’s about a man who has been weaponized to fight an island of monsters. It is masterminded by friend, comic artist, and former JKS teacher Toby Cypress. Most importantly, it’s badass and it looks amazing. Go check it the hell out.
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“Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion.”
– David Cronenberg
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I Clix Your Face!
I’ve only played Heroclix once, and I’m fairly sure we weren’t following the rules correctly. I’d kind of like to learn the game and give it a real go, but I don’t have the money to build a collection of pieces, the time to devote to learning all of the rules, or the like-minded friends required to play. Still, I did get a bit excited when the new “Giant Size...
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What I'm Reading - Eternals
For some reason, whenever Neil Gaiman writes a new comic series, it feels like an event. I thought this was because he hadn’t written a ton of comics, but after taking a look at the list of credits on his ComicBookDB page, I may be wrong about that. Maybe it’s just because he has so many fans that it’s easy for a lot of word-of-mouth and hype to build up regarding his upcoming...
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WatchSimon Pegg & Nick Frost’s Star Wars
Maybe I’m just a snob, but I normally don’t find College Humor videos particularly funny. The odd thing is that within the last few days I’ve seen 2 of their videos which I’ve quite enjoyed. This is one of them, and it’s honestly no real surprise that I found it amusing, considering that it stars Simon Pegg and Nick...
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“Speaking in tongues is intentional Tourette’s Syndrome.”
– Marc Maron
Stock*pile Comics Work Blog →
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Hero Worship: Frank Teran
Frank Teran drew my favorite Aliens comic of all time. It’s a short story (maybe 10 pages long) called “45 Seconds”, written by Darko Macan for Aliens: Special #1. It’s my favorite because it’s the rare Aliens comic with a (dialogue-free) story and art that are faithful to the look and feel of the film. Not to mention, the art is just amazing. Teran’s work...
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“Fantasy involves that which general opinion regards as impossible; science...”
– Philip K. Dick
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WatchThis is an unofficial video for The Arcade Fire’s song “Neighborhood #2”, directed by Jay Cheel. I recently blogged about Jay’s documentary, which I’ll be seeing next Sunday at MoMA in NYC. This video definitely has Jay’s sensibilities, but I think he went for a style I’m not used to seeing from him (no, not just the graininess), which is cool. Of course,...
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What I'm Watching: Battle Los Angeles
What I Liked:
- The action was awesome. It’s done in that realistic, gritty style that Stallone got so right in Rambo, just without all of the blood that ensures an R rating. The action set pieces were staged very well, and the realistic tactics employed by the soldiers, rather than just badass dudes firing wildly, was a breath of fresh air. I was completely enthralled whenever there were...
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“I feel like it’s important to write stuff I can relate to, and I’ve never been...”
– Brandon Graham from this quick interview I just read
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Hero Worship: Brandon Graham
I forget how I first heard about Brandon Graham’s comic King City, but on a trip to New York City a few years ago I bought the lone volume of it’s doomed run at Tokyopop from Jim Hanley’s Universe and read it on the train ride home. I was hooked from the moment I read the “cat periscope” scene, however my true love affair with Graham didn’t begin until I...
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“Everything is possible for an artist from the standpoint that he does it with...”
– Jean Giraud
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Hero Worship: Farel Dalrymple
I first discovered Farel Dalrymple’s work in the 10 issue Omega The Unknown series he drew for Marvel. That book falls into the “it’s so weird that I don’t know why I like it, but I really fucking like it” category. I have the first volume of his creator-owned Pop Gun War series as well, but I haven’t read it yet. Farel is one of those artists whose work has...
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“We are cartoonists, so you don’t have to be a good artist.”
– Irwin Hasen (co-creator/artist of the comic strip Dondi) addressing a classroom full of art students 