And now a message from the campaign offices of Wallace Rudolph West.

On foreign policy...


...reaching across the isle to get things done...




...Wally West, he's the hero America deserves, the one it needs right now.

"I'm Wally West and I approve this message" 
(paid for by the friend's of Mr. West")

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Announcement Trailer (HD)

RUBIK'S CUBE SOLVED BY SMART PHONE AND LEGO BLOCKS IN RECORD TIME!

First Chess, then Jeopardy, now the Rubik’s Cube. Mike Dobson and David Gilday’s CubeStormer II Rubic’s Cube solving robot successfully beat Australian Feliks Zemdegs’ 5.66 second record by solving a cube in a mere 5.352 seconds. The feat was accomplished using four LEGO Mindstorm NXT kits controlled by a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone.

Skynet is proud of you little guy!

THE AVENGERS official theatrical trailer looks gooooooooood!

I enjoyed the trailer and you get a glimpse at the new CG Hulk but I feel that the studio is holding out with it's big villain reveal.

I know that Loki is involved some how but he's always been the manipulator, a more hands off kind of guy when tackling Thor and the Avengers together and the Skrulls to me are nothing more than foot soldiers that need to be under the command of a greater force.

That's why I'm hoping that someone like THANOS might be the secret main villain in this movie since the Infinity Gauntlet was seen in Odin's trophy room in the THOR movie.

Now that would be awesome!!

Scratch Build 1/72 scale USS Enterprise CNV-65 Carrier is a sight to behold.

Sixteen feet long, five feet wide, and four feet tall, this 1/72 replica of the US Navy’s “Big E” represents nineteen years of builder Gabriel Suryani’s hobby, and has been called “something that is close to the limits a single modeler can achieve.” It was featured on the 15th anniversary cover of Fine Scale Modeler, in 1997, the same year that Mr. Suryani himself was hosted aboard the real Enterprise for 2 days, compliments of the captain, in recognition of his work.

The model, mostly completed in 2003, represents the USS Enterprise and Air-Wing 11 during the ships’ 1989 cruise. Top deck of the carrier is finished in rough grip surface. Over 6000 tie-downs are on the top deck and 5000 in the hangar bay. The tie-downs have been obtained from a British Company named PP Airoparts, unfortunately they discontinued operations in the early 90’s. Many other parts were die cast in New Jersey.

Starboard shows flight operations. Airmen in colored uniforms, tow and fire trucks , catapult operators, flight directors, safety officers, missile launchers, chaff dispensers, refueling lines, hoses and plumbing, various antennas, control surfaces and storage areas.

- Anchors Away.

My favorite Walt Simonson pages # 3

FROG OF THUNDER baby!!! Loki turns Thor into a frog, frog gets his little webs fingers on Mjolnir and the rest is comic history!

From the awesomely amazing The Mighty Thor vol. # 1 (364-366)



-ribbit.

Online comics that Rule! #1 : Terry LaBan's MUKTUK WOLFSBREATH HARDBOILED SHAMAN

I first stumbled upon Terry LaBan's crazy ass medicine man Muktuk back in the late 90's when Vertigo released it as a 3 issue mini series that really didn't catch on. (Note to the youngins' out there, before the turn of the century it was very difficult for most artists and writers to self publish their works via an online comic like most do today, due A noisy beast known as a 56.6K modem, it would have taken too much of our precious time to view most comics from the internet back then, time that most comic readers agree they would have rather earmarked for viewing pictures of naked ladies doing naughty things, but I digress.)

Muktuk had all of the trappings that I enjoyed in a supernatural comic: Demons, Zombies, Spirits hallucinogenic "medicine" with a touch of humor and some nicely fleshed out characters that at the I just wasn't getting out of main stream super hero comics and like all things I enjoy...it was gone.




The DC series sold only moderately and unsure what else to do with the character, LaBan shelved him and moved on. Over the years, though, he continued to hear every so often from Muktuk fans, looking for art and asking him if he’d ever write more. The answer was always “no’, but when, one day, when considering his options for a thesis project that would allow him to complete his Masters in Interactive Design, he decided a web comic would fit the bill and that Muktuk Wolfsbreath would be the perfect concept to build it around.


Fast forward Thirteen years to February 2011, DC comics still owned the rights to Muktuk,  LeBan asked DC for the character rights to revert back to him and instead of giving him the run around like you think most major publishers would do, they gave him the rights to his character in a timely manor (thanks to Mumblestein for pointing this out) Terry LeBan then turned Muktuk into a online web comics written and drawn by himself as a thesis project to complete his Masters in Interactive Design course.

And now without  furthur ado, here's MUTUK WOLFBREATH HARD-BOILED SHAMAN

( updates every Monday and Thursday )

DC: All Star Western #1 Review

I normally leave the reviews to the more experienced hands but I felt I had to share how much I enjoyed this comic and if you give just one new book a glance this week, I hope it's this one.

All Star western feels more like a Sherlock Holmes story than anything, a murder is preying on prostitutes in Gotham City circa 1890, Amadeus Arkham and Jonah Hex find themselves working together to solve a case of a serial killer that, without revealing too much of the plot, could be a member of Gotham's social elite.

The writing by Gray and Palmiotti is perfect for this book and it's only complimented by the stylish art of Moritat.

O.K. Now get this book or I'll stop posting scantily clad cosplay women for Halloween this year damn it!

Verdict : Need more ALL STAR WESTERN now!!!





"I'm your huckleberry"
- Doc Holliday

WALKING DEAD SEASON 2 : The Zombies are coming, the zombies are coming!!!

Just a friendly reminder that the greatest television show on earth is back.

DARK SOULS : WHIP IT GOOD!

For those looking to add a little Castlevania to your Dark Souls your in Luck! One of the new weapons in the successor to Demon Souls has added a whip to the arsenal of weapons you can use in your new career as "The slayer O demons"

 ( personally love the Two handed "I'm gonna beat yo ass" whip grip )


DARK SOULS arrives next Tuesday (10/4/11) for the PS3 & 360

enjoy the clip:

 

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Dark Souls - Undead Days: Where There's a Whip There's a Way, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

TREATS & TRICKS : COSPLAY GOODNESS vol. 4

Today we have the pleasure of Featuring this lovely cosplayer that goes by the name of VAMPBEAUTY on deviantart. This bold young lady decided to tackle one of the most scantly clad super heroines of the Modern comic era, Jim Lee's purple little mutie ninja, Elizabeth Braddock aka Psylock.



She fills that up that outfit nicely with A body built for gravity defying latex superhero costumes, amazing.




If she showed up to my door step on Halloween looking like this, I'd give her all my candy and the keys to the apartment.




"psychic powers not included"



- Happy Halloween kids.

My Favorite Walt Simonson pages #2

This one comes to us from THE MIGHTY THOR vol. 1, issue # 339. Odin invites Thor, Lady Sif and Beta Ray Bill into The furnaces of Nedavellir, the great forges of the Dwarves where Eitri the master Weapon-smith of Asgard casts a second hammer out of molten Uru metal.

Odin then pours a portion of the his life force into the molten hammer and casts an enchantment giving the bearer of this new weapon, Stormbreaker, all of the powers and abilities of Thor.

Eitri instructs Bill (Thor's new ally and equal in both strength and virtue who Odin has appointed as protector of Asgard and the realm eternal,) to pull the molten Stormbreaker out of the forge so that the enchantment can hold.

What comes next is one of my favorite comic book pages of all time:



-"By Ymir's frosty beard!"

The many talents of The Batman [Catwoman #1]

During one of my nerd-tastic outings with a couple of buds, one of them (who we'll call Malformed to protect his real identity) brought up the excellent observation that Batman's true power is being prepared for any situation, no matter how crazy things get Batman always manages to come out on top.

I believe nowhere is this point best illustrated than in the latest DC relaunch, CATWOMAN #1, where Selina puts the moves on Mr. Batman and he counters with something right out of his own porn parody.

Behold....


The Bat-Hickey




And mighty boner-rang!





Welcome to the new DC!


"oh my"
- George Takei

My Favorite Walt Simonson pages #1

After having just enjoyed THOR on blu-ray with my family and since I recently received my WALT SIMONSON'S THOR ARTIST EDITION from IDW (which is a thing of beauty and a steal at $99 bucks) I thought I'd share some of my favorite pages from his now legendary Marvel comics THOR run.

Today's page comes from THE MIGHTY THOR vol. 337, a forsaken Donald Blake (Thor's alter ego) is left stranded on the wreckage of a shield helicarrier without his enchanted hammer screaming against a tempest for his father aide.



Damn that's sweet.

-Grandaiza out.

The sad state of Marvel comics part 1: The many faces of Wolverine.

Marvel comics has managed to put Wolverine in almost every single line of funny books that they make with a "Gotta Have more cowbell" zeal in an effort to whore out a "popular" character with the fanboys. This "milk the cow until it's dead" disregard for storytelling makes me wonder if anyone at Marvel is even trying anymore.

Allow me to give you a whiff of the monthly dung heap that they call continuity over at Marvel right now.

(yes all of this takes place in the same publishing month, if not week)

In the X-men books their having an event called Schism where Wolverine and Cyclops solve their philosophical differences by beating the crap out of each other and wind up splintering their little mutie cabal into Two separate factions.

Fine, but while this is going on we have Wolverine in this months X-Force traveling to an alternate universe and getting fried....

.....like chicken and in no condition to fight for the next issue of that book.

A nice Harvey Dent, but wait! he ain't licked yet!!

Mr. Logan is now a member of the Two Avengers teams now let's see whats doin' with this
fine character over in those teams...

Oh, it looks like they're having their own crossover called Fear itself where the Avengers are duking it out with evil Asgardians armed with enhanced weapons provided by Odin and here we have The Wolverine with his new prickly look courtesy of the allfather.

And in between all that he has a little downtime for a sparring lesson with the immortal Iron-Fist in The New Avengers.

The Wolverine even manages to find time to make a cameo in the Spider-man event Spider-Island where (I kid you not) Radioactive bed-bugs are giving people in NYC spider powers.

I know They're just comic books but if publishers want people to keep reading their books, there has to be at least an attempt to have the story make some kind of plausible sense.

Here's a little example of what I'm blathering about:

When Dick Grayson became Nightwing in the New Teen Titans, Chuck Dixon over at Detective Comics had Grayson confront Batman about his decision, they argued, Dick handed in his resignation and left the Bat books for a long while.

If DC took today's Marvel approach to editing, Richard Grayson would be Robin, Nightwing, The Red Hood and Batman in 3 separate books.


I don't have all the answers and if you read my blog with any frequency you know that I am no wordsmith, but when you deal in the hyper fantasy world of superhero storytelling, it's important that in between the impossible abilities and epic battles there should be some semblance of an editorial plausibility that the gives a character...well character.

Otherwise Just write it into the story, make Wolverine immortal, give him the ability to clone himself, teleportaion, put him on every Marvel book and call if a day.

Bionic fingers for a 15 year old school girl

Amazing.

This is the most articulated artificial hand that I've ever seen, it's incredible how it allows her to grab onto smaller

objects like a piece of fruit with her thumb, index and pointer fingers while the ring and pinkie curl up into a "natural" position.

It still needs a little work before I decide to replace one of my real hands with one of these, but it
reassuring to know that someone out there is working towards a "skywalker" quality hand.

Now if only I can get someone to work on that hover conversion system for cars I saw in back to the future....

A headboard fit for the Satellite of Love courtesy of Gizmotics Institute

No description necessary, either you get it or you don't.

 

REMEMBERING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER.

This is for the city that I call home...


Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

HERZOG ZWEI IS BACK BABY!

AIRMECH is a little RTS strategy game that appears to be the spiritual successor to one of my favorite SEGA Genesis games from the 90's called HERZOG ZWEI, a little known game that was the very first Real Time Strategy game and birthed an entire video game genre.

Build units, acquire bases and vanquish your enemies in a veritech fighter. Sweet!





(Here's the original in action.)



No release date for AIRMECH but if it stays true to the original, it should be a blast.

THE VERY BEST IN SUPER SPY LUXURY SPORT VEHICLES

If your going to save the world, do it in Style.

Here's a few of Mr. Bonds favorite vehicles for you enjoyment:


Source: CarBuzz.com

THE BEST OF EVO 2011 : MARVEL vs CAPCOM 3 SEMIFINALS JUSTIN WONG'S AKUMA

New York City's very own Justin Wong, the king of the now defunct Chinatown fair arcade in Mott St. pulls off Two amazing comebacks in a row in this Semifinal vs Richard Nguyen.

Justin playing Wolverine, She-Hulk and Akuma on your left, the first win is nice in it's own right but the second come from behind win with AKUMA is just sick.

enjoy:

ULTIMATE MARVEL VS CAPCOM 3 : DOCTOR STRANGE VIDEO

So many game announcements that it's hard for me to keep up or even care, but by Vishanti, the Sorcerer Supreme's debut in a fighting game can not go unmentioned.

Although I could never imagine Stephen Strange as someone who would go fist a cuffs with the likes of Ryu, his spells, teleportation and enchantments look spot on, even his creepy "I'm starting an all females defenders" pre-fight comment to CHUN LI, fits him perfectly to a tee.
 (editors note : see Strange's relationship with his one time apprentice Clea.)

Kudos to Capcom for taking a risk with the good Doctor now I can't wait to see some Iron Fist clips.



Note: They also released a clip of another addition to the game on the CAPCOM side of the game
Nemesis from RESIDENT EVIL 3, I really don't have any feelings either way but I'll add it for those who care:

Scott McCloud's Comic Lettering Tutorial ( ILLUSTRATOR CS4 )

Hand letting a comic page has always seemed to me as a daunting task that I'm honestly
not good at and now thanks to the miracles of modern computing, it doesn't seem so intimidating.

Creator of the indie comic ZOT! and author of super insightful Understanding Comics, Making Comics,
Reinventing Comics The always insightful Scott McCloud has posted a great video tutorial on how
to create a template in Illustrator ( any CS version ) that will make any lettering assignment a breeze.

The tutorial is broken up into Two , 10 minute clips, I hope you find them as interesting as I did.

Enjoy:

Part 1

Part 2

11 minute unaired Plastic-Man pilot.

Here's an cool animated clip by artist Andy Suriano as a pitch for a new cartoon series for where else....The Cartoon Network. Tom Kenny, best known as the narrator of The PowerPuff Girls and Sponge Bob lent his voice to the title character PasticMan.

I'm enjoyed the light hearted direction they went with that owes a lot to Kyle Baker's nifty PlasticMan limited DC series from a few years ago with a hint Jack Cole's humor from the original comic.

It's a shame that this didn't get picked up since it seemed like a fun idea for a show.

Here's the Clip, enjoy:

Henry Cavill is Superman?

Warner Bros. has bravely released a first look at  Zach Snyder's Superman, Henry Cavill, in costume and so far it looks serviceable.

Mr. Cavill's hair looks like something out of the Sopranos and the colors are once again the muted variety now favored by studio execs but over all not bad.

(Click here for HD image courtesy of Project rooftop)

STAR WARS GAME DEMO - SAN DIEGO COMIC CON

more from comic con



SC reporting

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON: SC reporting