Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Chinese Star Wars Comic From 1980

Just learned today of a this interesting, practically unknown, piece of Star Wars history.

http://www.mcgreene.org/?p=296

http://www.nickstember.com/chinese-star-wars-comic-part-1-6/

This is a unlicensed mini-comic done in a style called ' lianhuanhua' which is real popular in China.

It is very much worth checking out.

I love the art, even if most of it looks nothing like anything we see in the actual movie. A lot of odd use of characters (Oddly enough most of them from The Empire Strikes Back) in the wrong places, like the medical droid 2-1B as an imperial captain.

Always interesting to see one of these odd pieces that are out there.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Doctor Does the Time Warp

Now this is a perfect song for someone to parade with a Doctor Who theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WBqHdI5Bdw

I really an impressed with how well done this video is. The make the song fit the storyline of the show with minimal alteration, which is just brilliant.

So watch the video and enjoy and if you don't get it, then go and watch some Doctor Who. The basic set up of the video comes from the David Tennant years.

Even if you not into Doctor Who, it is still a fun video.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Why X-Men? Why?

I am really looking forwards to X-Men: Days of Future Past. Everything seems to point to this be a really incredible X-Men movie. If all goes well the family will get to see it Monday. All the trailers and clips I have seen have helped to reinforce the my confidence in this movie.

So here I am looking forwards to an X-Men movie, feeling that a second is getting on track with doing a Marvel license right, even though they have been going up and down with their movies. If DoFP is as good as I it at seems, that will make 5 of the 7 X-Men movies as being good. It makes me think they are getting back on track and there is hope for the future movies.

Then I had to learn about the casting for Gambit in the next one...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/video-channing-tatum-gambit-role-706443

Channing Tatum? Really?

My personal opinion is that he is one of the most over rated actors out there today. He has no range at all. He is the exact same character in every movie he makes and gives nothing of depth to his performances. I am at a lose as to how he keeps getting movie roles. My wife, who thinks he is hot, agrees that he sucks at actor and his big movie 'Magic Mike', was a really bad movie and the only reason to watch it is the nudity. Basically it was Showgirls but with male strippers instead of females. Yet somehow a male stripper movie earns the guy 'Sexist Man Alive' and gets a sequel.

Right now I feel there are too many hack actors in Hollywood right now who are getting all this praise and landing big roles that they do not deserve. I won't go into a list of them, but Tatum is on the top of that list. And just to point out this is not a jealousy issue, he co-star in 21 (And 22) Jump street, Jonah Hill, who is never going to make it to 'Sexist man Alive', is also at the top of that list.

I am very much hoping that this casting will change. If not then maybe by some miracle they will find a way to make it work. We will have to wait a few years before X-Men: Apocalypse come out to see just how this works out, but that one casting announcement has me greatly worried.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

A Chance to be in Episode 7

I made the mistake of showing the video to promote this to my boys. My say we have to enter. Does anyone have $50000 to give me so I can enter at the Jedi Grand Master of the Order level?

http://www.omaze.com/experiences/starwars-episode-vii

We get to see a set for Episode 7 and a new alien, so the video itself is pretty cool.

Not sure why Abrams felt the need to return to Tatooine. Makes me a little worried about the chance of that there may be a lack of new worlds and ideas in Episode 7. I really hope I am proven wrong. There better be a good reason to be back there that works for the bigger story.  Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Did You Get To Take Advantage of Free Comic Book Day?

I love Free Comic Book Day. How could anyone complain about getting free comic books? While the quality may vary, you can still get some real great comics. Hellboy, Spider-man, Serenity, the Walking Dead, Simpsons, The Tick, The Avengers and so on are just a few of the past free comics I have picked up. I would have no idea who Axe Cop was if it wasn't for getting a free issue of it.

This year Marvel did its normal routine by promoting the Marvel Studio projects. They put out both Guardians of the Galaxy and Rocket Raccoon. The GotG was good and clearly connected to the main title's storyline. Rocket raccoon was cute, but didn't draw me in.

There were a lot of indy comics that caught my attention. The First Daughter was a real interesting idea about the First Family of the US and a conflict that will need the forgotten children of our past presidents to deal with.

There was a steampunked Star Wars titled Steam Wars.

So many others that get a little mixed up in my head. A lot of good stuff and some odd stuff that just didn't work for me.

The big disappointment for me was IDW's G.I.Joe vs Transformers. It was just bad. Real bad. G.I.Joe vs Transformers has been done many times before, and generally has been enjoyable. This time nothing in it worked. I don't know what they were trying for, but there was no story there, no characterization, no point to anything they did. It all felt forced and there was next to no interaction between the G.I.Joe team or Cobra and the Transformers.We had two Transformers fighting it out as background to a truly silly battle between G.I.Joe and Cobra.

Regretfully I have a very limited budget for comics most of the rest of the year, so I can't sample as many titles as I get to for Free Comics Book Day.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Dr. Horrible Sing Along Blog Shadowcast

My youngest boy and I went to Starfest this last weekend.

This was the first Starfest I had made it to in about a decade. There were lots of great costumes as expected. I also got to see my ‘con’ friends, a group that continues to grow with each convention I make it to.

There were a few highlights to the convention, like getting to meet Billy Dee Williams. For me the most enjoyable part and the main reason we ended up going, was participating in the Dr. Horrible Sing-along blog Shadowcast. That was a lot of fun for me and Hayden. I was an extra doing any role that was needed of me, mostly just background characters. Hayden however got to play the role of Capt. Hammer, which he nailed. It was a fun group to work with and most likely we will be involved in future Shadowcasts with them.

If you want to see just what a Dr. Horrible Shadowcast is you can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu2t9g0xnY0&list=PLbjqbbd1QIa8FqDXFc3d6FJplbMtLG9_c

Although it is something you really should see live to get the full experience of it.